> Communion on the Moon > I >love this. How many of you knew? Too bad this type >news doesn't travel as fast as bad. > > Communion >on the Moon: July 20th, 1969 > > (This is an article by Eric > Metaxas) > > Forty >years ago two human beings changed history by walking on the >surface > of the moon. But what happened before Buzz Aldrin and Neil > Armstrong exited the Lunar Module is perhaps even more amazing, >if only because so few people know about it. I'm talking about >the fact that Buzz Aldrin took communion on the surface of >the moon. Some months after his return, he wrote about >it in Guideposts magazine. > > And a few years ago I had the privilege of meeting > him myself. I asked him about it and he confirmed the > story to me, and I wrote about in my book - Everything You Always Wanted > to Know About God (But Were Afraid to Ask). > > The background to the story is that Aldrin was an elder > at his Presbyterian > Church in Texas during this period in his life, and knowing that >he would soon be doing something unprecedented in human history, >he felt he should mark the occasion somehow, and he asked >his minister to help him. And so the minister >consecrated a communion wafer and a small vial of communion > wine. And Buzz Aldrin took them with him out > of the Earth's orbit and on to the surface of the > moon. > > He and Armstrong had only been on the lunar > surface for a few minutes when Aldrin made the following >public statement: > "This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this > opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever > and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and > contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give > thanks in his or her own way." He then ended > radio communication and there, on the silent surface of >the moon, 250,000 miles from home, he read a verse from the >Gospel > of John, and he took communion. Here is his own account of what >happened: > > "In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic > packages which contained the bread and the wine. I > poured the wine into the chalice our church had given > me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the > wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then >I read the Scripture, 'I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever > abides in me will bring forth much fruit.... Apart from me > you can do nothing (John 15:5). > > I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, > but at the last minute [they] had requested that I not do > this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn > Murray O'Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the > Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon > at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly. > > I >ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for >the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to >the Sea of Tranquility . It was interesting for me >to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, >and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements. > > And >of course, it's interesting to think that some of the first words >spoken on the moon were the words of Jesus Christ, who >made the Earth > and the moon - and Who, in the immortal words of Dante, is Himself >the "Love that moves the Sun and >other stars." > > WOW!!!!
