Nate is a core member at Anawim, where Paul was an assistant and resident L’Arche poet from 2017-2020

Many of you are familiar with Nate’s prayers for pizzas.  This picture is from a little pizza outing that Nate and I took to the waterfront over the summer to share our friendship and love of pizzas.  I have often wondered at the meaning behind his prayer for pizzas.  For sure he enjoys the pizza for what it is, but what about all the things it brings and makes possible?  This is a little poem that I wrote, inspired by Nate, that I hope speaks to the many things he loves about pizzas and the people he shares life with.

“Hey Nate, what do you want to pray for?”

PIZZA!

A pizza is a prayer
In its cheesy, bready goodness

A pizza is a prayer
In its wholeness and welcoming of all toppings
Even strange ones, side by side

A pizza is a prayer
In how each piece, though unique
Stretches out cheesy tendrils as it is pulled away
Not wanting to forget those who stood with it
     in the scorching flames

A pizza is a prayer
In its bulging bubbles and blackened burns
Showing that the unexpected and pain can be
     part of a whole

A pizza is a prayer
In being broken to draw together friends