October 26, 2023
We drove deep into the countryside to visit the village of Favaios, the home of Muscatel wine. The small, remote village has a wine cooperative where everyone’s grapes are accepted and paid by the percentage of sugar.
After following the wine making process we made our way to the tasting room where our guide had small glasses of Muscatel covered with white cloth. He reverently gave the wine, and as we sipped I heard the words of eucharist I often use: “This is the cup of blessing, for the forgiveness of your sins.
But that wasn’t the end. We walked a few blocks to a bakery that has been in use for at least 300 years. Two older women were placing dozens of loafs of four-corner bread into the oven, with rhythmic precession. The scents of rising dough and warm bread filled the room. We were invited to gather around a table where our guide spoke of the four ingredients, flour from Portugal and Ukraine (until the recent war), yeast, water and salt. She then picked up the first loaf, broke it into pieces and gave it to us. I repeated the words I say with the eucharist in my head, “the bread of life, broken for you.”
Around the world, from Ukraine to Gaza to Woodstock to Manila, ordinary people share food around the table, gifts from God, earth, and human hands. What glorious, precious, gracious taking, blessing, breaking, and giving.
Obrigada “thank you” for our daily bread. ~ Anne
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