Spiritual Breakfast

Forty places were set for breakfast in the seventh-floor dining room of Washington's big white Federal Trade Commission Building. Just before 8 a.m., the guests arrived.

Most of them were men in their fifties --the 14 women averaged 20 years younger. When the last two chairs were filled, sandy-mustached FTC Commissioner Lowell Blake Mason rose and said "Good morning"; FTC Attorney John Wilson said a simple grace, and breakfast got under way in contemplative silence. For the benefit of the conversationally inclined, slips of paper were placed at intervals along the table, bearing the typewritten admonition:

If the persons next to you insist upon talking to you during breakfast--Be kindly toward them. It may be they think you have no inner resources on which to rely, and so they chatter to put you at ease.

So began last week the eighth of Lowell Mason's monthly "Inspirational Breakfasts." His purpose: to let Government workers escape at intervals from the daily routine of bureaucracy and join together "in a visual expression of the spiritual side of life."

Unitarian Mason got the idea in Chicago, where he was one of a group of lawyers who met regularly at luncheon. Mason feels, however, that breakfast is a much better time, because people are quieter in the early morning, hence more inclined to meditation than to small talk. All FTC workers, from head commissioner to janitor, are welcome; some make reservations two months in advance, rouse themselves an hour earlier than usual to attend.

After finishing last week's breakfast of tomato juice, scrambled eggs, hot biscuits and coffee, guests listened to bespectacled Rev. John J. Queally (at head of table, see cut) of Washington's Transfiguration Episcopal Church. He rose without introduction, to pour out "thoughts from my heart which I hope will aid my hearers." When he finished, there was a moment or two of silence, then a benediction. His topic: "Unfairness." Some of his thoughts: "Quiet thinking and meditation are necessary so that our minds can meet and get strength to meet the tasks ahead. . . . People must seek peace and courage in God. . . . n the words 'Love God and love your neighbor,' we have the power of peace, tranquillity, courage and inspiration."

"It starts the day off nice," said Commissioner Mason, "and the next 30 days as well."

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