Bread Meeting ~ Holy Experience

We meet Him with ancient words.

Words I learned as a long ago child, but much older than that; words we pray now, daily, throughout the day, with our children, not as flat, empty rote, but as the very prayer very God Incarnate gave to His children.

Young eyelashes close and towheads bow and voices braid slowly, ours with His.

"Give us this day our daily bread ..."

We bow and pray and rise again and I take bread out of oven. I take up loaves that came down from sky, from His Voice and water that rained down upon earth.

I take loaves out of pans, water from the heavens that softened furrows, like His voice breaking down roaring waves. I cut bread, once embryonic food unfurling, still green, in depths of soil black.

We, all of us, butter long slices of bread, churned milk melting into a land of warm grain. Our hands are crowned with His bounty. I help a child spread gold on slice of humble brown, earthy majesty.

We've prayed for bread, and the thundering Voice that stills the tumult, that rides the clouds, that calms the sea, answers.

The power of God, the power of the heights and depths and all that surges within them, is the power that causes the grain to grow, the power that gives us this day our daily bread.

So again we bow our heads and pray our gratitude. "Give us this day, our daily bread."

We eat. Why so often irreverently?

Because Omnipotent God meets us in bread.

The Powerful Beauty of Bread

as told in Ps. 65: 5-13:

"By awesome deeds you answer us...
O God of our Salvation
the hope of all the ends of the earth...

who stills the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples...

You visit the earth and water it;
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide their grain,
for so you have prepared it.

You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.

You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy...

the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.

Related: Our bread recipe: "Foolproof Bread" by Phyllis & Shirley

Preheat oven to 375
Place in Bosch mixer:

5 cups of warm water (95-110 degrees)
1/2 cup oil (you can use as liitle as 2 tbsp. or replace completely with applesauce)
3/4 cup honey, maple syrup or other sweetener
1 heaping Tbsp salt
1 heaping Tbsp dough enhancer (we don't use this -- 1-2 cups ground flax instead)
1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
10 cups of ground wheat flour
3 Tbsp. SAF instant yeast (yeast should always be added after the flour)
a couple cups of additional flour

Turn on Bosch, knead on speed 1. Quickly add as much additional flour as you need for dough to pull away from side of bowl, turning off Bosch each time you add flour. It should only pull initially half way up the side of the bowl, and during the 5 minutes, it will completely pull away. Add back in 2-4 tbsp. of water (more if needed) to keep your dough soft. Oil your hands and counter well. Divide dough into 5 loaves and let rise in loaf pans, sprayed with a non-stick spray. Let rise for approximately 30 minutes in well- oiled pans, until they have doubled in size. Turn oven down to 350.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, depending on your oven.