Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Bread

Here is our Brother Patrick making bread as he does many mornings each week in the quiet of the Abbey kitchen- whole wheat, plain white, sweet Portuguese-style or studded with plump raisins. After Mass the wonderful smell of baking bread fills the cloisters.

We still use some of the ancient Trappist sign language. The sign for God is the thumbs of both hands touching each other with the index fingers touching and pointing upward- a triangle for the Blessed Trinity. The sign for bread is the same joining of the hands making this triangular shape but pointing outward and parallel to a table top- the shape of a wedge of fresh bread. It is delightful to notice the similarity. God is our Life, our true Bread, our Nourishment on the way.