Take This Bread: A Radical ConversionRandom House Publishing Group, 19. nov 2008 - 320 pages “Mine is a personal story of an unexpected and terribly inconvenient Christian conversion, told by a very unlikely convert.” –Sara Miles Raised as an atheist, Sara Miles lived an enthusiastically secular life as a restaurant cook and a writer. Then early one winter morning, for no earthly reason, she wandered into a church. “I was certainly not interested in becoming a Christian,” she writes, “or, as I thought of it rather less politely, a religious nut.” But she ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine, and found herself radically transformed. The mysterious sacrament of communion has sustained Miles ever since, in a faith she’d scorned, in work she’d never imagined. In this astonishing story, she tells how the seeds of her conversion were sown, and what her life has been like since she took that bread. A lesbian left-wing journalist who covered revolutions around the world, Miles was not the woman her friends expected to see suddenly praising Jesus. She was certainly not the kind of person the government had in mind to run a “faith-based charity.” Religion for her was not about angels or good behavior or piety; it was about real hunger, real food, and real bodies. Before long, she turned the bread she ate at communion into tons of groceries, piled on the church’s altar to be given away. The first food pantry she established provided hundreds of poor, elderly, sick, deranged, and marginalized people with lifesaving food and a sense of belonging. Within a few years, the loaves had multiplied, and she and the people she served had started nearly a dozen more pantries. Take This Bread is rich with real-life Dickensian characters–church ladies, child abusers, millionaires, schizophrenics, bishops, and thieves–all blown into Miles’s life by the relentless force of her newfound calling. She recounts stories about trudging through the rain in housing projects, wiping the runny nose of a psychotic man, storing a battered woman’s .375 Magnum in a cookie tin. She writes about the economy of hunger and the ugly politics of food; the meaning of prayer and the physicality of faith. Here, in this achingly beautiful, passionate book, is the living communion of Christ. “The most amazing book.” – Anne Lamott |
From inside the book
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Page xiii
... , and often unconscious journey . When I left the home of my atheist parents , I had no reason to think I was looking for God : I just knew I wanted to experience meaning ex- poor and connection . The material world was my Prologue xiii.
... , and often unconscious journey . When I left the home of my atheist parents , I had no reason to think I was looking for God : I just knew I wanted to experience meaning ex- poor and connection . The material world was my Prologue xiii.
Page 9
... knew how to grill a fish and bake a crunchy baguette . We all soaked up expe- rience : sex , travel , drugs , food , hard physical work — anything that would take us further into the sensual , immediate world that my parents insisted ...
... knew how to grill a fish and bake a crunchy baguette . We all soaked up expe- rience : sex , travel , drugs , food , hard physical work — anything that would take us further into the sensual , immediate world that my parents insisted ...
Page 10
... knew about Quakers was that they were mostly old and had bravely opposed the Viet- nam War ; I thought basically the same about communists . Like most of my friends , my passionate left - wing sentiments about civil rights or the ...
... knew about Quakers was that they were mostly old and had bravely opposed the Viet- nam War ; I thought basically the same about communists . Like most of my friends , my passionate left - wing sentiments about civil rights or the ...
Page 11
... knew nothing about , apprenticed ourselves to peo- ple we hadn't heard of , found places to live , got work , kept jour- nals . It wasn't exactly an education , in the classical sense . It was , in the classical sense , nuts . But it ...
... knew nothing about , apprenticed ourselves to peo- ple we hadn't heard of , found places to live , got work , kept jour- nals . It wasn't exactly an education , in the classical sense . It was , in the classical sense , nuts . But it ...
Page 21
... knew most of Escoffier until noon each day , when OTB opened , and , fortified by long slugs of the cooking brandy , he'd head out to place his bets . Patrick left me eccentric handwritten notes when I worked the late shift . " Dear ...
... knew most of Escoffier until noon each day , when OTB opened , and , fortified by long slugs of the cooking brandy , he'd head out to place his bets . Patrick left me eccentric handwritten notes when I worked the late shift . " Dear ...
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Common terms and phrases
altar American Anglican Communion asked baptism believe Bible blessing body bread and wine called Central America Christ Christian church communion congregation cook Corpus Christi massacre crazy David deacons Derek Donald door El Salvador Episcopal Episcopalians Eucharist faith feed felt Food Bank food pantry Friday friends Fromberg God's going Gregory of Nyssa Gregory's groceries hands happened healing holy huge hunger hungry Ignacio Martín-Baró Jeff Jesus Katie kids kitchen knew learned listening liturgy lived looked lunch Lynn Martha meal meant Michael mother Nicaragua Nirmala Okay once ory's panettone Paul politics poor Potrero Hill pray prayer priest pupusas religion religious restaurant Rick San Francisco Sandinista sang Sasha share singing smiled someone started Steve strangers Sunday Susan Kellerman talk tell thing thought told took trying volunteers waiting walked wanted week who'd woman words
Popular passages
Page 6 - Waft, waft, ye winds, his story, And you, ye waters, roll, Till, like a sea of glory, It spreads from pole to pole; Till...
Page 3 - From Greenland's icy mountains ; From India's coral strand ; Where Afric's sunny fountains Roll down their golden sand ; From many an ancient river ; From many a palmy plain ; They call us to deliver Their land from error's chain.
Page 79 - And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Page 224 - O Lord our God, King of the Universe] who brings forth bread from the earth.
Page 235 - Make their life together a sign of Christ's love to this sinful and broken world, that unity may overcome estrangement, forgiveness heal guilt, and joy conquer despair.
Page 86 - defined in these surveys as people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.
Page 86 - Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it...
Page 83 - James, and then to all the apostles; -and last of all he appeared to me too; it was as though I was born when no one expected it...
Page 86 - Christ that is still important in [his or her] life today," and agree that "when I die, I will go to Heaven because I have confessed my sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as my savior.