Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?
He only said this to test them.
We lie awake worrying where we will find metaphorical bread, our life’s meat.
But should we not have more confidence in Him.
It’s strange how so much can come from the most delicate films of lace.
Just as five barley loaves and two fish could feed so many.
What great worry or disappointment cannot break against the smallest of rocks with grace?
And were the cakes not brought by a small insignificant boy, one out of so many?
Do we follow him by the signs He gave?
When thirst and hunger come do we doubt?
Do we wail, where can we feed our thousand doubting thoughts to which we slave?
But He knows exactly what he is going to do to send our doubts to bloody rout.
If only we can believe, indeed hamper full of scraps will be left over.
We just need in that great dark forest of doubt to find his one small fragment of loving clover.

Note: These sonnets are inspired by the readings of the day. For me it is a sort of lectio divina: To read the Gospel and think what it means. Putting these thoughts into poetry, however inadequate, forces one to slow down, rest, and consider the sense, rather than quickly reading and getting on with the day. Using the Sonnet formulation is a kind of discipline and slows down the writing even more! I hope they may help a few others on their journey. — EL