Eucharistic People

I have been reading Ian Morgan Cron's book "Chasing Francis" (NavPress, 2006). It is a novel in which the main character loses faith and goes off to rediscover it in a a very different context. He leaves the large American church he has founded to go and spend time with his Roman Catholic priest uncle in Italy - and Uncle Kenny takes him in search of Saint Francis of Assisi. It's a great story, but also a story with a message. At one point the central character, Chase Falson, is writing in his journal, addressing St. Francis. He comments on a book he is reading about the Eucharist: "The guy who wrote it says we're not just Homo sapiens (knowing people) but Homo eucharistica (Eucharistic people) as well. In other words, we need more than reason or information to nourish our faith; we're built for firsthand experiences of God through things like the Eucharist as well." Another comment in that particular journal entry that I like is: "Some time back I heard someone say that the Bible is less a book that tells us what to do than a story that tells us who we are." (p. 96) That's a thought that's well worth pondering.