Prayer and work: A monk’s secrets for prized bread

[gilliam]

CULLMAN, Ala. (AP) — Catholicism is sensual. It’s a religion that engages the senses to bring mankind closer to the Divine.

Taste is, of course, one of the senses — one of the ways people have been equipped to experience and apprehend creation. And if tasting offers any pathway to faith, the bread baked on the grounds of St. Bernard Abbey by Brother Pachomius Alvarado, O.S.B. just might make a believer out of you.

Alvarado is a man who takes his kitchen time at St. Bernard seriously — so seriously, in fact, that he prays over every batch of bread he makes. A monk’s prayer, he jokes, is the “secret ingredient” in a recipe that, no matter how many times it’s duplicated, can never be fully imitated.

The classic cinnamon raisin Monk’s bread that Alvarado bakes has been around at St. Bernard much longer than he has. The 38-year-old Cuban émigré never knew baking, or monasticism, or even English, before he ended up at St. Bernard.

cruxnow.com/ap/2016/04/17/prayer-and-work-a-monks-secrets-for-prized-bread/

 

[queenofheartscv]

Will this work for home cooking as well? Lovely story.

 

[mary_bobo]

If you ever have the opportunity, go visit. It is an inspiring and peaceful place.

 

[Bonnie]

Will this work for home cooking as well? Lovely story.

What - prayer & work? Of course! When my husband was a child his mother baked almost daily for her large family. She blessed each loaf by making the sign of the cross & pressing her thumb into the center. A lovely memory.

 

[AFerri48]

Was I the only one who read that as pretzel bread?

 

[aclausen]

CULLMAN, Ala. (AP) — Catholicism is sensual. It’s a religion that engages the senses to bring mankind closer to the Divine.

Taste is, of course, one of the senses — one of the ways people have been equipped to experience and apprehend creation. And if tasting offers any pathway to faith, the bread baked on the grounds of St. Bernard Abbey by Brother Pachomius Alvarado, O.S.B. just might make a believer out of you.

Alvarado is a man who takes his kitchen time at St. Bernard seriously — so seriously, in fact, that he prays over every batch of bread he makes. A monk’s prayer, he jokes, is the “secret ingredient” in a recipe that, no matter how many times it’s duplicated, can never be fully imitated.

The classic cinnamon raisin Monk’s bread that Alvarado bakes has been around at St. Bernard much longer than he has. The 38-year-old Cuban émigré never knew baking, or monasticism, or even English, before he ended up at St. Bernard.

cruxnow.com/ap/2016/04/17/prayer-and-work-a-monks-secrets-for-prized-bread/

So let me get this straight. God intervenes to make good bread.

 

[Bonnie]

So let me get this straight. God intervenes to make good bread.

I think you missed something:

A monk’s prayer, he jokes, is the “secret ingredient” in a recipe that, no matter how many times it’s duplicated, can never be fully imitated.