Norris, Gunilla, Becoming Bread: Embracing the Spiritual in the Everyday. Hidden Spring, Paulist Press, Mahwah, NJ, 2003. 83pp.

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In the first book, Becoming Bread, Gunilla Norris presents bread-making and bread-sharing as metaphors for all of human relationships and experiences, particularly those connected with love and self-giving. In meditations, now in prose, now in a kind of prose-poetry, she examines all the ingredients which are brought to the task of bread-making, - seed, grain, flour, yeast, - the place where they are acted upon, - the kitchen, the oven, and the place where the bread is shared. Her descriptions demand of the reader a total awareness of the entire activity; we are implored to pay attention and employ all our senses in our involvement with the process. (As a baker of bread most of my life, I can attest to the immense tactile satisfaction there is in kneading dough.)

This mindfulness the author requires of us continues not only through the moving and changing which occurs but also through a kind of longing, searching, and finally, meeting at the end. Kitchen appurtenances are regarded almost as sacramentals, and the kitchen itself as a holy place. There is no doubt that Eucharist is at the heart of this reflection. In the chapter entitled “Sharing,” she begins,

We are united through sharing… our lives made meaningful…made new. “Take. Eat. This is my body,” said Jesus when He broke the bread at the Last Supper. Then He gave his life for us. Behind all communion is the knowledge that we must give our lives to each other, for each other.

I urge the reader not to simply “dip in,” to sample her thoughts, The process she describes is carefully crafted, and should you miss any bit of it, you may miss her warning to be careful with the crumbs, “the little chances to love.” This is a new edition, containing the graceful drawings of John Giuliani.

Nouwen, Henri J. M., With Burning Hearts: a Meditation on the Eucharistic Life. Orbis Books, Maryknll, NY, 2003. 128pp.

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The second title is also a reissue, this time of a work originally published in 1994. The artwork provided as an accompaniment to the text is by Duccio di Buoninsegna from his altarpiece, the Maesta’, in the Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo in Siena. This feature alone might suggest the book as a welcome gift, although Henri Nouwen’s meditations in With Burning Hearts easily stand on their own.

The author uses the Emmaus story, from the 24th chapter of the gospel of St. Luke as the frame, so to speak, within which he places his reflections on each part of the Eucharistic celebration. He leaves no doubt that each step of that story has its counterpart in our lives as well as in his own. The couple on the road who allow the stranger to accompany them move from dejection, to curiosity, to increasing attentiveness, to sharing hospitality, and finally to joyous faith and gratitude which they cannot contain and are eager to share. All of these stages “match” the Eucharistic celebration with which we are familiar, but they also are intended to encompass what Nouwen refers to as a “Eucharistic life.” And just as Jesus “broke open” the words of Scripture for the two travelers so that they might have some understanding of his role in the redeeming presence of God, so also must that word become the underpinning of our lives as Eucharistic people. In his “conclusion,” Nouwen reminds the reader,

The word “Eucharist” means literally “thanksgiving.” A Eucharistic life is one lived in gratitude. The story, which is also our story, of the two friends walking to Emmaus has shown that gratitude is not an obvious attitude toward life. Gratitude needs to be discovered and lived with greater inner attentiveness…. Jesus gave us the Eucharist to enable us to choose gratitude. It is a choice we ourselves have to make….as often as we make that choice, everything, even the most trivial things, become new. Our little lives become great – part of the mysterious work of God’s salvation.