Before supper in the upper room, breakfast in the barn. Before the Passion Feast, a feeding trough. And here, the altar of Earth, fair linens of hay and seed. Before His cry, her cry. Before His sweat of blood, her bleeding and tears. Before His offering, hers. Before the breaking of bread and death, the breaking of her body in birth. Before the offering of the cup, the offering of her breast. Before His blood, her blood. And, by her body and blood, alone, his body and blood and whole human being. The wise ones knelt to hear the woman's word in wonder. Holding up her sacred child, her God in the form of a babe, she said "Receive and let your hearts be healed, and your lives fulfilled with love, for this is my body, this is my blood."
