Finding hope in all the ambiguities...

People of the Spirit need bread for the journey.  As a mystic, I know that I must feed the inner fire of my soul as well the outward flesh of my body regularly for to starve either is a form of death.  In an overly busy life both types of malnourishment are all too common place.  Murphy Davis put it like this:

So long as the word remains in any way theoretical and is not incarnated by actions and translated into deeds, then it is not faith. It might be theology - not very good theology - but it is not faith. Faith is a combination of conviction and deeds, and it cannot be one without the other. Faith divorced from deeds is as lifeless as a corpse.

This applies to the spiritual life, too and not just the realm of servanthood, yes?  Like Jung taught:  we can ignore the stranger who is hungry, naked, alone and imprisoned within just as easily as we can refuse to see Christ in the least of embodied sisters and brothers. But incarnating the word to feed the soul and the flesh for a life of faith, hope and love takes practice. There is always so much pain and fear within and among us. 

So, it seems I need to replenish body and soul in unique ways.  Feasting, for example, cooking a meal with love and beauty for those I cherish, feeds both body and soul for me.  Baking bread and playing music also nourishes me in physical, spiritual and emotional ways. Sitting quietly with others before Eucharist - and then sharing prayer and song and bread and wine - brings blessings and renewal, too.  And it all takes time...

Joy Mead (isn't that a grand name?) wrote in her book about the spirituality of bread: "O God of small beginnings and rising hopes, may we see eternity in each wheat grain: ours for today's bread and tomorrow's planting; food of life; gift to the future and seed of hope." Fred Kahn wrote something equally satisfying in a hymn text:  "Pray that at the end of living, of philosophies and creeds, God will find the people busy planting trees and sowing seeds."

Tonight my wee family will feast in our Berkshire home as my daughters come back for an evening together. And our simple meal will be a banquet that will sustain me in ways too deep for human words - and I am grateful.