MORE ON BREAD

Poem for Today - Tuesday - November 18, 2014

POEM OF BREAD

Bread,

the most simple language

the most fraternal food

Whether it is called bread,

rice, manna or millet,

it is everywhere in all ages

Bread,

which fundamentally unites men 

and for which they wage war

Bread,

what is most familiar to me

and what is most necessary for me

To give a morsel of bread

to one whom I want to love

is already to give myself

To receive my daily bread

from heaven

is to lift up my gaze beyond myself

Bread made of a thousand grains of wheat:

one single grain that falls into the earth

yields one-hundredfold

Bread,

the universal symbol

of that which can be shared

Bread,

silent word

of a gesture of friendship

Bread:

a morsel of which

betrayed the Beloved

Bread,

to which God Himself

wanted to be identified

Bread,

by which God saved humanity

when He took it into his hands

Bread,

from thousands of crushed grains,

made and kneaded by our wounds

Bread:

in which we all recognize ourselves

in our broken bodies

Bread,

without which 

we could not survive.

All of us,

we are hungry for bread,

but also for more than just bread

The world 

runs wild

earning its bread

Men 

will do just about anything

for a crust of bread

In certain camps,

a single crumb of bread

is worth its weight in gold

Sometimes thrown into garbage cans,

it scandalizes the enormous eyes

of starving children

Bread,

which is useless to hoard in the attic,

for tomorrow it will go stale or another will take it

Bread,

which God made rain down from heaven,

but which could not be preserved from one day to the next

Bread,

braided by the hands of so many women

throughout the centuries

Bread,

which in the world,

shaped humanity like an invisible chain

© A Monastic Sister

of the Monastic Family

Of Bethlehem of

The Assumption of the Virgin

and Saint Bruno,

The House of Bread

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