As we gathered, there was an excitement in everyone, a bit of trepidation too! We began our creative prayer day by weighing out, mixing and kneading bread dough until soft and pliable.
Once we had left it to 'prove' we settled ourselves to reflect on John 6 where Jesus speaks to the crowd and tells them.
'I am the bread of life'
We entered into a led time of imaginative prayer, placing ourselves with those who sat on the hillside and listened to Jesus. The crowd came for physical bread, which Jesus gave them in the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand but it was later on that Jesus says to them that he is bringing them spiritual food as well.
We paused as we considered various questions that we might like to respond to such as:
Q: When was a time that you looked to something that you truly thought would satisfy and yet left you still wanting more?
We then returned to the kitchen to 'knock back' our bread dough (what was it in our lives that had 'knocked' us back?) We then shaped our loaves and left them to prove once again as a we enjoyed coffee over some chat.
In our second reflection we thought about God's provision of Manna in the desert, which wasted after a day and contemplated on how Jesus asks us to fully believe and not to grasp or strive in our lives but to trust that Jesus gives us enough everyday. For Jesus meets both our need for love and our need to be nourished. He is perfect love and he is the bread of life.
Quote: I am God's wheat, and I shall be ground and shaped, so that I may become the pure bread of Christ. Ignatius of Antioch
Some of those who came on our creative prayer day..........
