"Give Us This Day:" Unexpected Inspiration

Free. That's my favorite price.

That's why I headed straight to the back of the church after Mass when Father Joseph Domfeh Boateng announced at the end of 10:30 a.m. Sunday Mass at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Bedford, New York that there were free prayer books.

Liturgical Press, an apostolate of  Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota is giving free samples of its August issue of "Give Us This Day" a daily prayer  book. Already I have found some wonderful words inside its pages. My prayer life ebbs and flows and this booklet is proving a great midsummer boost.


I  never imagined that in the back of this seemingly staid parish we visit I would find words to electrify my faith.

The booklet begins with luminous, deeply human meditations. The first is by essayist Brian Doyle, editor of Portland magazine. Titled "We Are Starving For What You Say," it reads like an incantation as it describes how Christ's words truly offer bread for our journeys. In the past week, two families in our neighborhood have suffered the death of grandparents so these words grab at some place deep in my heart and help me to see life amid loss.


"...how many times are your words shocking brilliant shimmering bread for me, and I eat of them and I rise again snarling against the darkness, bringing laughter and stories and defiant joy to bear, the only tools I know, the only tools I can wield;  I starve for what you say of love against rage, the song of life against the shriek of death; I see my daily bread before me in the voices of children and in the smiles of silent saints and the whirl and blur of the lives you startled into motion."

Amen is what I can say to that. And include the website for this magnificent publication. www.giveusthisday.org