Introduction Part One: The Garden ACTS OF FAITH Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi The Blossom Gives Way to the Fruit Meister Eckhart The Seed of God Sister Miriam Therese MacGillis Food as Sacrament The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows Lemon Love Alison Luterman Every Piece of Fruit Kahlil Gibran Speak to Us of Eating and Drinking Part Two: Fish, Fowl, Flesh ACKNOWLEDGING RESPONSIBILITY A Native American Blessing Sacrifice From the Taittiriya Upanishad Cycle Nancy Willard A Wreath to the Fish Betty Fussell On Murdering Eels and Laundering Swine Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi Are They Kosher? Barbara Kingsolver Free Breakfast Jane Goodall Tale of the Giveaway Buffalo Matthew 26:26 Blessing Michael Benedikt The Beef Epitaph Barbara Tanner Angell Deer Season Part Three: Cooking TAKING ACTION Edward Espe Brown How Could I Have Ever Known It Would Be Like This? Julius Lester Braiding Challah Mary Beth Crain Food and God: Cooking as a Spiritual Calling Lama Surya Das Keep Cooking Bernard Glassman and Rick Fields Flour, Water, and Determination Part Four: Serving NURTURING Buddhist Meal Gatha Martin Buber His Table an Altar Brother Lawrence Love Is Everything Guru Gobind Singh To Feed a Hungry Mouth Is to Feed the Guru Diane Ackerman Accepting Zen Master Eihei Dogen How to Share All Offerings Jacqueline Kramer Warm Sweet Milk Amanda Cook Sugar-Frosted Memories>/p> Part Five: Eating BEING PRESENT Karyn D. Kedar There Is Nothing More Profound Julia S. Kasdorf Onion, Fruit of Grace Wendell Berry The Pleasures of Eating Marc David How We Eat Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei Just Enough Bich Minh Nguyen The Plum's Eye Part Six: Fasts LETTING GO Omid Safi Ramadan, Date Omelets, and Global Compassion Rabbi Irwin Kula and Vanessa L. Ochs A Meditation on Fasting Ram Dass Stuffing Our Egos Helen Nearing Casting Off His Body Rabi’a al-'Adawiyya Miracle Onion Jessica Swift I Can Eat Chocolate for Breakfast Part Seven: Feasts REAPING Rabbi Rami Shapiro Heaven and Hell Diana Abu-Jaber I’ve Heard Angels at Dinner Lynne Meredith Schreiber Inheriting the Earth Mary Rose O’Reilley Key Lime Pie Joan Chittister, OSB Table Fellowship Part Eight: Compost NO BEGINNING AND NO END The Qur’an 6:141 He Does Not Love the Wasters Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki A Worm in the Rice Taittiriya Upanishad Part III Food Is God Kristen Wolf The Parable of the Squash Haven Kimmel Diner Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon One Beautiful Meal Part Nine: Grace COMMUNION Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji The Path Laurie Colwin Feeding the Multitudes Lawrence Raab Since You Asked Elias Canetti Potlatch Lynn L. Caruso Communion Sara Miles Crossing II Grace Paley Peacemeal Mary Oliver Rice Ways to Share Your Meal Acknowledgments Credits About the Contributors