Bread, Body, Spirit

Alice Peck is an innovative editor and writer. She serves as a consultant to many published authors and produced screenwriters. She spent years writing, developing and acquiring material for broadcast and cable television as well as feature films before devoting herself to writing and editing books.

Introduction



Part One: The Garden
ACTS OF FAITH
Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi
The Blossom Gives Way to the Fruit
Meister Eckhart
The Seed of God
Sister Miriam Therese MacGillis
Food as Sacrament
The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows
Lemon Love
Alison Luterman
Every Piece of Fruit
Kahlil Gibran
Speak to Us of Eating and Drinking

Part Two: Fish, Fowl, Flesh
ACKNOWLEDGING RESPONSIBILITY
A Native American Blessing
Sacrifice
From the Taittiriya Upanishad
Cycle
Nancy Willard
A Wreath to the Fish
Betty Fussell
On Murdering Eels and Laundering Swine
Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi
Are They Kosher?
Barbara Kingsolver
Free Breakfast
Jane Goodall
Tale of the Giveaway Buffalo
Matthew 26:26
Blessing
Michael Benedikt
The Beef Epitaph
Barbara Tanner Angell
Deer Season

Part Three: Cooking
TAKING ACTION
Edward Espe Brown
How Could I Have Ever Known It Would Be Like This?
Julius Lester
Braiding Challah
Mary Beth Crain
Food and God: Cooking as a Spiritual Calling
Lama Surya Das
Keep Cooking
Bernard Glassman and Rick Fields
Flour, Water, and Determination

Part Four: Serving
NURTURING
Buddhist Meal Gatha
Martin Buber
His Table an Altar
Brother Lawrence
Love Is Everything
Guru Gobind Singh
To Feed a Hungry Mouth Is to Feed the Guru
Diane Ackerman
Accepting
Zen Master Eihei Dogen
How to Share All Offerings
Jacqueline Kramer
Warm Sweet Milk
Amanda Cook
Sugar-Frosted Memories>/p>

Part Five: Eating
BEING PRESENT
Karyn D. Kedar
There Is Nothing More Profound
Julia S. Kasdorf
Onion, Fruit of Grace
Wendell Berry
The Pleasures of Eating
Marc David
How We Eat
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei
Just Enough
Bich Minh Nguyen
The Plum's Eye

Part Six: Fasts
LETTING GO
Omid Safi
Ramadan, Date Omelets, and Global Compassion
Rabbi Irwin Kula and Vanessa L. Ochs
A Meditation on Fasting
Ram Dass
Stuffing Our Egos
Helen Nearing
Casting Off His Body
Rabi’a al-'Adawiyya
Miracle Onion
Jessica Swift
I Can Eat Chocolate for Breakfast

Part Seven: Feasts
REAPING
Rabbi Rami Shapiro
Heaven and Hell
Diana Abu-Jaber
I’ve Heard Angels at Dinner
Lynne Meredith Schreiber
Inheriting the Earth
Mary Rose O’Reilley
Key Lime Pie
Joan Chittister, OSB
Table Fellowship

Part Eight: Compost
NO BEGINNING AND NO END
The Qur’an 6:141
He Does Not Love the Wasters
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki
A Worm in the Rice
Taittiriya Upanishad Part III
Food Is God
Kristen Wolf
The Parable of the Squash
Haven Kimmel
Diner
Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon
One Beautiful Meal

Part Nine: Grace
COMMUNION
Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji
The Path
Laurie Colwin
Feeding the Multitudes
Lawrence Raab
Since You Asked
Elias Canetti
Potlatch
Lynn L. Caruso
Communion
Sara Miles
Crossing II
Grace Paley
Peacemeal
Mary Oliver
Rice



Ways to Share Your Meal
Acknowledgments
Credits
About the Contributors