The Sacred Meal: The Ancient Practices Series [Hardcover]

Nora Gallagher (Author), Phyllis Tickle (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: The Ancient Practices Series | Publication Date: November 3, 2009

The sacred meal that is part of our faith does more than connect us to the holy.  It connects us to each other.

"I think Jesus wanted his disciples and everyone who came after him to remember what they had together. What they made together. What it meant to be together. How the things he wanted them to do could not be done alone. How the things he did could not have been done without them."

In her inimitable style of memoir and personal reflection, Nora Gallagher explores the beauty and mystery of this most fascinating of topics.  Whether exploring the history of Christian Communion, taking us inside the workings of a soup kitchen or sharing times of joy and sadness with friends, the author reminds us what it means to partake of and be part of the body of Christ.

The Ancient Practices is an eight-book series with staggered releases through February 2010.  Though various books have covered some of these spiritual disciplines, there has never been an attempt at a definitive series until now.  Immensely compelling and readable, each classic book features a foreword by Phyllis Tickle, the general editor.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nora Gallagher's novel, Changing Light, received outstanding reviews in the New York Times Book Review, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times. Her memoir Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith was a bestseller. Her second memoir Practicing Resurrection was a finalist for Beliefnet Book of the Year. She is licensed to preach by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, a preacher-in-residence at Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, and is on the Board of Advisors of the Yale Divinity School. She is married to novelist and poet, Vincent Stanley. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (November 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0849900921
• ISBN-13: 978-0849900921
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (176 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #725,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nora Gallagher's novel Changing Light has received outstanding reviews in the New York Times Book Review, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times. It is one of three novels chosen by Borders for its March-April Original Voices program. Her memoir Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith received outstanding reviews from the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times among many others and was a bestseller. Annie Dillard called it ' a wonderful book' and said, 'Nora Gallagher...describes church life and spiritual life with absolute accuracy." Her second memoir, Practicing Resurrection, received outstanding reviews and was a finalist for Beliefnet Book of the Year.

She was born in New Mexico, and spent her childhood in its high deserts. After college she worked as a free-lance magazine journalist in the United States, Nicaragua, and Czechoslovakia. Ms. Gallagher is particularly interested in what happens to ordinary people in the shadow of larger events.

Her essays, book reviews, op-eds and journalism have appeared in many publications including The New York Times Magazine, DoubleTake, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Utne Reader, The Village Voice, Mother Jones, and The Los Angeles Times.

Ms. Gallagher has received fellowships from the Wesleyan Writers Conference, Blue Mountain Center,the MacDowell Colony; and Mesa Refuge.

A sermon is collected in Sermons that Work (Morehouse Publishing March 2003) and a poem in the anthology, September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond.


She is licensed to preach by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, is preacher-in-residence at Trinity Episcopal Church, Santa Barbara and serves on the advisory board of the Yale Divinity School. She lives in California and New York City with her husband, the novelist and poet, Vincent Stanley. They are the godparents of five children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Sacred Meal...Interesting, November 23, 2009

By 

S. Galvan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sacred Meal: The Ancient Practices Series (Hardcover)

As a review for Thomas Nelson, we are able to choose our next book to read...and I will be honest that it was the cover art that first caught my eye. Simple and yet with so much meaning, the cup and the bread made me stop...and when I read the cover info on the book, I was hooked as I am ever trying to understand more about Christ and the gifts He provided for us as we try to get closer to Him.

While I would have to say that there are a few areas in which Mrs. Gallagher and I would differ (in regard to spiritual practices and beliefs), I can honestly say that this book is one that was well-written and can be very gripping for any heart that loves God and knows the purpose of Holy Communion. There were areas in the book in which I wrinkled my forehead in question to her thoughts, such as when she said that communion was "devised cleverly by and for human beings, to help us get in touch with the Holy". Communion was established by Christ Himself as a reminder of Him, His love and His sacrifice.

There were many areas, tho, in which I found myself pausing to pray, worship and even cry as I tried to wrap my mind around all that God is and designed this practice to be. Two things she said in this book made me mark them, as they really made me stop and ponder the simple truth found in them.
The first is a quote by Heda Kovaly regarding life after being liberated from Concentration Camps:

"Two months after liberation, people had stopped cheering and embracing. They had stopped giving away food and had started selling it on the black market. Those who had compromised their integrity during the Occupation, now began to calculate and plan, to watch and spy on each other, to cover their tracks... It was becoming evident to many that while evil grows all by itself, good can be achieved only through hard struggle and maintained only thru tireless effort."

The second was a line written by the author:

"I remember thinking as I worked in the soup kitchen that I didn't want to know what I was learning. Because then my life couldn't go in the same way... What we learn, we cannot unlearn. What we see, we cannot unsee. (But) Jesus doesn't call us to live in soft cocoon, distracted and undisturbed, allowing others to pay the cost of our comfort."

I would like to thank Thomas Nelson for the chance to read this book, as it provided me many things to ponder, question and reason within my own heart before my Creator. I would warn that this should only be read by those confident in what they believe, as there are many areas in which you could find yourself confused, but I did find that I enjoyed it overall.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rediscovering An Ancient Practice., November 19, 2009

By 

Micah Hasty "@micahhasty" (Lynchburg, Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sacred Meal: The Ancient Practices Series (Hardcover)

As I began reading The Sacred Meal I have to be honest I felt a sense of uncomfortableness. Nora Gallagher is an Episcopalian Priest her views of clergy and communion and faith in many ways are different than mine. They are however also in many ways similar. I put aside my preconceived notions and began to read freely wanting to understand her perspective of Communion. What I found was a beautiful messy honest account of Nora's own personal stories and encounters with Communion. Nora immediately inspires a sense of wonder for the practice of Communion with the reader. She speaks of the practice saying that "every time it is the same and every time it is different". (pg. xvii) There is something truly remarkable in those words.

Nora describes serving communion with such passion and intimacy. "It is always its own thing, serving the wine. Once when I served the win, I saw the mark of the lips on the cup just before I wiped it off, and I thought how the trace of our lips on the cup are the traces of human on the infinite, a fragile moment recorded, and then time moves on." (pg. 6) She also describes it with a lovely humor that captures the readers heart and draws them in to her personality. "A guy tried to dip his own bread and got his finger in the wine, and I wanted to smack him. Here we were: the rough material." (pg. 7)

One of the greatest things I gathered from this book is that I feel I don't participate in communion enough. Every church and denomination in the Christian faith has a different model of how they take part in this remembering of our Lord and I feel as though it is not remembered enough in Baptist circles. I would be careful not to have communion so frequently as to cause it to lose it's mystery and wonder but, currently it's done so infrequently, and cheaply... it feels as though the same thing is taking place.

There were some disagreeable thoughts in the book. I understand with the idea and agree with it, that all of Christ's followers are connected through communion. However I would be clear to state that it's not the bread and the wine that connect us in symbolism but the true connection is the the life given by and experienced in Jesus Christ. Nora does make a clear point in stating that "More than any other practice, taking Communion forces us to e with others, to stand with them in a circle or kneel at the altar tail or pass a tray of grape juice and cubes of bread. We are forced to be with strangers and people we don't like, persons of different colors and those with bad breath or breathing cheap alcohol. (I once served the cup to the last guy in line, who was dressed in rags, and he drained it dry.) It forces "them" to be with "us" and us to be with them. Communion is , more than any other practice, a humbling experience. We are stuck with each other, at the altar, for at least a few minutes." (pg.12)

My favorite quote from the book would be this beautiful line about Jesus: "Jesus doesn't call us to live in a soft cocoon, distracted and undisturbed, allowing others to pay the costs of our comfort. When it comes right down to it, Jesus followed where compassion led him, and he bore the cost of what he found. Jesus asks us to follow where compassion leads, and bear the cost of what we find."

While The Sacred Meal should be read with caution there is more good that harm here in these pages. Come with an open heart and mind ready to rediscover your wonder with this ancient practice.

Includes foreword by Phyllis Tickle, general editor of The Ancient Practices Series.



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16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a trustworthy guide, a fine book, November 23, 2009

By 

Anne Sutherland Howard "Anne" (The Beatitudes Society) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sacred Meal: The Ancient Practices Series (Hardcover)

As ever, Nora Gallagher gives us a fresh take on church, one that invites us to the banquet table without demanding that we dress for dinner.
In the manner of a true wisdom teacher, Gallagher SHOWS us communion rather than TELLING us about it, (just as Jesus showed that young lawyer the meaning of the command to love his neighbor).
She writes with true authority, the authority of one who practices her Christian faith in the world with keen attention to both ancient roots and current needs. This is not just another author quoting scripture or explaning doctrine, but rather a trustworthy guide who has tasted the presence of God in the bread and wine and shows us a way to delve more deeply into the mystery incarnate in the sacrament. With Gallagher as our guide, we too, can taste and see.