Take This Bread

We briefly interrupt this hiatus, because I just had to tell all a y'all about this book:

Take This Bread, by Sara Miles.

I got the book Monday evening and finished reading it on Tuesday, because it was so good. Miles is a journalist, a left-wing political activist and a lesbian. She was raised by militant atheists and remained a contented atheist until age 46. Then one day she walked by St. Gregory of Nyssa Church in San Francisco, got intrigued by the artwork, and went inside. She took communion and had a mystical experience. From there she dived into Christianity, and then started a big food pantry in the church, serving a nearby poor neighborhood.

Along the way she talks about becoming a professional cook and getting caught up in guerrilla wars in some of the world's most impoverished places. She spent time with Ignacio Martin-Baro, one of the Jesuits who was later murdered in El Salvador.

She does an amazing job of describing the hurting world, the church, humanity, the grief and terror and joy of life. There are a lot of wonderful moments when some acquaintance or random person unexpectedly says something profound. And in a sense the whole book is a beautiful meditation on the Eucharist, which she comes at from a number of illuminating angles.

I find outsiders (ie, non-churchy people) to be the best at showing me what Christianity is and can be. Miles originally had very little background knowledge of religion, and she's unabashedly human: someone who makes mistakes, cusses a lot, doubts herself, and gets furious at people. But I can think of few stories where I've seen the Holy Spirit more clearly than in Take This Bread.

PS: A heads-up to my conservative readers: Miles becomes a Christian and throws herself into doing Christ's work, but she also remains a leftie and a lesbian (in a long-term, committed relationship.)

We now return to the hiatus.