Take This Bread Quotes

“Looking into Christ's eyes outside of church, through the cheery atheist yuppie with the sports car and the veiled Muslim clerk at Walgreens. Listening to Christ's voice in other churches, through the middle aged woman with the annoying nasal whine, and the self-righteous homophobic radio evangelist, and the conservative African bishop. I was not going to get to sit by myself and think loftily about how much Jesus loved me in particular. I was not going to get to have dinner, eternally, with people just like me”
― Sara Miles

“All of [the gospel stories] pointed to a force stronger than the anxious formulas of religion: a radically inclusive love that accompanied people in the most ordinary of actions-eating, drinking, walking- and stayed with them, through fear, even past death. That love means giving yourself away, embracing outsiders as family, emptying yourself to feed and live for others.”
― Sara Miles

“You said prayer was like having this intense, profound longing that you just had to be with. That you put the longing in the hands of God, in a certain way. That it was important to be receptive to the unfulfilled, and not fill it or deny it." Sara Miles' friend Jose recounting what she had said earlier about prayer, in Take This Bread”
― Sara Miles

“Now I understand that questions are at the heart of faith, and that certainties about God can flicker on and off, no matter what you think you know. But back then, I thought 'believers' were people who knew exactly what they believed and had nailed all the answers.”
― Sara Miles

“I didn't believe in dragging souls into some special club of the saved. 'I mean,' i' d told Steve once, exasperated after listening to Donald talk about institutional growth and how to attract new members with our innovative liturgy, 'the point of church isn't getting people to come to church. '
'No?' Said Steve cocking an eyebrow. 'What is it?'
It seemed obvious to me."To feed them, so they can go out and, you know, be Jesus.”
― Sara Miles