Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

To Be Bread for Others

The sight of my grandmother hanging clothes to dry on the line was our calling to run across the field to join her. Yes, we helped her to wash and hang the rest of the clothes, but our real reason for going was to enjoy a treat. She always had freshly baked bread and freshly churned butter. Add a little homemade dewberry jelly and we were in heaven! Grandpa would join us at the table. We loved that time together. They gave us generous, undivided attention in conversation, in tears and in laughter. They fed us with food—the food that was love, compassion, joy, and wisdom. We fed them with companionship, stories about school and home, a lot of naiveté and countless opportunities to teach us something about life!

During this pandemic, many of you talked about how you had time to start baking bread again. And many of you have also been talking about how you became bread for each other in the same way my grandparents did for us. To “feed off each other” isn’t just an expression we use. It is real. Jesus continues to give us opportunities to be bread for each other.

Listen to Crystal Catalan here: