Eating Biblically

Some meals are fabulous, some meals are bland — my breakfast this morning was absolutely biblical! In fact, I ate a verse right from the prophets — Ezekiel 4:9.

“Take also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it …”

I found this bread — actually this particular product is pita, or as the package says, “Prophet’s Pocket Bread” — in my local grocery store and figured it’d be great to have a religious experience during a meal. “Prophet’s Ezekiel 4:9″ is made by Food for Life Baking Co., Inc. which has many other natural foods from bread to pasta and tortillas.

This could be the new meal for monastics and non-monastics alike who don’t always have time to sit quietly for a meal while listening to spiritual reading.

Side Note: Sometimes in monasteries or at retreat houses, there is some kind of “spiritual reading” that accompanies a meal. The tradition comes from the Rule of Saint Benedict, a rule of life for monks and nuns living in community. In Chapter 38, the rule says the following (adapted for a women’s community):

The meals of the sisters should not be without reading.
Nor should the reader be
anyone who happens to take up the book;
but there should be a reader for the whole week,
entering that office on Sunday.
Let this incoming reader,
after Mass and Communion,
ask all to pray for her
that God may keep her from the spirit of pride
And let her intone the following verse,
which shall be said three times by all in the oratory:
“O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall declare Your praise.”
Then, having received a blessing,
let her enter on the reading. (Source: OSB.org)

Now you can have your spiritual reading and eat it too! Although the downside is that you’d be stuck with the same “reading” each week, unless you can find a few other recipes in the bible (FYI you might want to stay away from anything with locust).

I am now fortified with wheat, lentils, spelt and carrots — what??? Ezekiel didn’t say anything about carrots — and ready to tackle my day. What tasty biblical nugget is fortifying you this day?