Find, Eat, and Delight

Tuesday in Holy Week:
AM Psalm 6, 12 • PM Psalm 94
Jer. 15:10-21 • Phil. 3:15-21 • John 12:20-26

“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.” As I meditated on this text from Jeremiah in anticipation of Holy Week, I thought of the words and the meal we as liturgical Christians say and eat most often, the Lord’s Prayer, taught in the early days of Jesus’ ministry, and the Eucharist served in his last days and commemorated on Maundy Thursday. Though instituted years apart, they pair so well, this 71-word* prayer and bite of bread and sip of wine.

I find words offer me many different meals. You must enjoy Marcel Proust like a 7-course meal—French, of course; but a trashy novel bought at the airport is more salt, sugar, and air than sustenance—craveable though rarely edifying. Where is the Our Father on a menu? Fleeting, but fulfilling by its constant consumption, a joy and delight. With my deepest respects to the St. Elizabeth Bread Guild, I must admit I love a classic host. It may be bland as paper, but the words said over them are digested in the heart.

* Or 55 words if it occurs immediately after the Kyrie in The Book of Common Prayer.

Written by Kathryn Haydon

Kathryn holds a doctorate in Plant Science from the University of Arkansas and currently lives in St. Louis where she works as a food and plant scientist, sings in the St. Peter’s Ladue choir, shares a book-filled home with Nathan and Ollie, and wishes her St. Paul’s family a blessed Holy Week and Happy Easter from afar.