Catholic Readings Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

So, I have been back at my house after the trip to Armenia for about 28 hours.  In the first 18 hours after my return I had made two yeast-based dough recipes (two pizzas--of which three of us ate 1 1/4 for dinner and then the rest for lunch the next day) and some rolls/baguettes that we ended up using for dinner that included some steak sandwich meat, some pepper from the CSA, some tomatoes from the CSA, some garlic grown by my son, and some cheese from Hawthorne Valley.  That was an awesome way to begin my time back in the US.  

At exactly 18 hours after my return to my house, I was st church practicing with the worship band at St. Pius X.  That is another thing that I really enjoy and even though I don't play very much during the week, I'd been working on a melody before I left and I missed playing anything at all during the week I was in Armenia.  Heard lots of music and brought home a zurna for my 16 year old (who has already begun to figure it out), but I digress.  The main thing is to comment on how the baking of 2 yeast breads (and buying 5 packets of yeast when I went to the grocery store this morning) relates to my spiritual well-being.

Well, it relates in a couple of ways.  The very first is that I decided not to run this morning.  There are a lot of reasons that I didn't run this morning.  But one was to make sure that I baked my first non-pizza bread on day one back in the US.  Baking bread is central to my life.

Then, when I heard the first reading from 2 Kings, I honestly don't recall ever hearing it before.  It is about a man bringing 20 loaves of barley bread to Elisha to feed a group of 100.  The symbolism of feeding a crowd that is perceived to be too large with a relatively small amount of resources made me immediately think of a number of New Testament stories.  And, sure enough John 6:1-15 is the story of Jesus feeding thousands with the five loaves and too fishes.

I think I'll spend a number of days commenting on it as I noted lots of points about the readings when we were done at church.

But let me begin with one thing--God always seems to find a way to communicate with me just when I need it.  I was away from easy access to my spirituality for a week (although I did blog a little, speak with my colleague Byron at length about religion, and made a strong impression about my interest in religion on at least some of the students I taught).  But then I get home and am hungry for a message. Yes, it is just coincidence in some ways that the day after my return happened to be the seventeenth Sunday in ordinary time in which all Catholic churches around the world read these two readings (along with a piece of the letter from Paul to the Ephesians which is also interesting).  The messages I'll talk about later.  But the chance to play and hear a homily built around a story that is linked to a topic that is so central to my day to day existence when I am home (and I enjoyed multiple types of bread while in Armenia including an olive roll, lavash, numerous pastries, and others), made it easy for me for the messages to come today.

Praise be to God.