Bakerwoman God
by Rev. Dr. Alla Bozard Campbell
(Episcopal Church of America)
Bakerwoman God, I am your living bread.
Strong, brown, Bakerwoman God,
I am your low, soft and being-shaped loaf.
I am your rising bread,
Well-kneaded by some divine and knotty pair of knuckles,
By your warm earth-hands.
I am bread well-kneaded.
Put me in fire, Bakerwoman God,
Put me in your own bright fire.
I am warm, warm as you.
From fire, I am white and gold,
Soft and hard, brown and round.
I am so warm from fire.
Break me, Bakerwoman God.
I am broken under your caring Word.
Drop me in your special juice in pieces.
Drop me into blood.
Drunken me in the great red flood.
Self-giving chalice, swallow me.
My skin shines in the divine wine.
My face is cup-covered and I drown.
I fall up in a red pool in a gold world.
Where your warm sunskin hand is there to catch and hold me.
Bakerwoman God, remake me.
AMEN
- Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
- Sit five to fifteen minutes in silent meditation, paying attention to the breath.
- What word or phrase captures you?
- Stay with this word or phrase.
- Enter the reading again, reading aloud this time.
- What needs to be remade in you today?
- Is there something you need to let go so that this can be remade in you?
- Spend time with your breath making space for the remaking.
- Allow Bakerwoman God to remake you.
- Where do you feel the kneading?
- Where do you feel the rising?
- Is the heat from the baking warm or hot?
- Read the words one more time listening for a call to action.
- Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
- Share as you feel led in the reply box below.
Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, November 13, 2011, the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
Judges 4:1-7
Psalm 123
I Thessalonians: 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author.
Permission to use in not-for-profit settings The Rev. Lil Smith, M.Div., DASD