Bishop's Bread

National Catholic Reporter, May 14, 1999 by Margery Frisbie

   Her mother's recipe
   for Bishop's Bread
   called for black walnuts
   and more sugar
   than she was used to
   putting into any treat.

   But the need
   had grown ever since she heard
   her daughter's amazement
   at the transformation of hands
   over her mixing bowl.
   "Mom, my hands turned into your hands.
   It was unreal."

   After sixty year of fast,
   the Bishop's Bread was feast.
   Jesus had it right
   about the sacramentality of memory.

   And the sacramentality of bread.

   Every cell of her body
   remembered,
   tasted the joy of reunion,
   brought her mother
   as close as hands.

--Margery Frisbie Arlington Heights, Ill.3