Category: Food

Our daily bread

8/18/2017

     Give us this day our daily bread. This prayer that Jesus taught us to pray can be interpreted in many ways. Here are a few of my thoughts before I start supper and put our daily bread on the table.
     Bread can mean food: enough to eat, enough to sustain us, enough for every day, not just when we become hungry. It can mean life force: our meaning and purpose in life. It can represent the bread that Jesus gave his disciples in the evening before he died and that we receive in communion. It can mean the Christ presence in our life.
     Although there are times when I am alone saying this prayer, the words aren’t only for me. Whether alone or with others, give US rolls off my tongue. Jesus must have been thinking of community. His message isn’t just for individuals; he wants us to think collectively. I love working on my own personal salvation, but that’s not point.

Maundy Thursday: come as you are~

3/24/2016

Holy week: Palm Sunday and then three quiet days before Maundy Thursday.
Potluck at my church tonight means just that. Bring what you want if you can. I figure that if it is mainly brownies and cookies, most people will be thrilled. If all we get is salads, then we’ll depart healthy. Potluck also means bring if you can. Older folk don’t cook; some come right from work; some need a break from it all. The main thing is that we are together to eat and break bread: to realize that Jesus gave that bread to one who would betray him and one who would deny him: to believe that he forgives us; and to remember that is he we try to follow. We come as we are.

God's kingdom on earth~

9/18/2014

Woke up without much energy this morning. After lying in bed for an extra fifteen minutes, something I hardly ever do, I got up and started packing for our trip to visit our daughter in Pennsylvania.

     I got dressed: “So, God, what is all this about? Why am I feeling enervated on a day with such a positive plan?”

      I poured a cup of coffee: “Your job is to express my kingdom on earth. You have plenty of opportunities to do that today.”

      I made the sandwiches: “Very grateful, God.”

Defining ministry~

9/9/2014

What did I expect? Of course, I got more out of helping with the youth group than what I put into it. Life is like that when we do something for someone else.

      Sunday evening we prepared a simple tuna/noodle casserole, enough for six ample meal for people in our church. Comfort food, they all agreed, as I delivered the freezer ready containers to their homes yesterday.

      We even made enough for all of us to enjoy a meal together. As we sat around eating and talking, Sandra, the youth leader, asked me about my ministry to the elderly in the church. Yes, it is my ministry, I realized as I explained what I do and how rewarding it is to me, and to the people I visit. That was the more that I got out of helping! A more articulated awareness of ministry, which isn’t just for pastors, but for everyone.

     How satisfying to think that the young people are thinking about what their ministry might be, both now and throughout their lives. The story isn’t over. God is still speaking~.

Feeding the poor~

9/7/2014

This afternoon I’ve agreed to assist the youth group at church in making meals for some of our older members who can use a little help. This goes along with my commitment to visit those in the church who can’t get out and about.

I also want the young people to get a sense of what it’s like for someone who has given up driving, who is now cut off from easy visits to the supermarket. Of course, it’s not just a question of transportation. If someone gives them a ride to the store, it takes a great deal of energy to purchase the ingredients for even a simple tuna casserole: they have to make a list, remember to take it with them, make the purchases, bring them into the house, and put them away before the cooking even begins. This can be a big ordeal as people get older. And what about the men, who, into their eighties all at once have to start cooking and being the person in the kitchen?

Leading a simple life is complex. What might be a simple task for some of us, is incredibly complex for others. Jesus tells us to feed the poor, but he’s not just talking about those with no money. There are people right in our midst who are poor in energy and capabilities.

July 26th, 2014

7/26/2014

Yesterday while wandering around Boston, I came The Boston Irish Famine Memorial. The plaque, which succinctly claimed who and why these people immigrated, and, most importantly, that they are now citizens of Boston, is surrounded by two statues and a few benches. A lovely spot amongst old Boston and near the site of the killing of five colonists by British regulars on March 5, 1770--known to us today as the Boston Massacre.

     I wonder when we will feel called create a permanent remembrance of the children from Latin America who are fleeing here from their own famine? Maybe it will be in Boston.

     I continue to 'pray the news'.

Prayer walks~

5/4/2014

Sometimes it's all about food.

My days living in Florence are coming to an end, at least for now; Tuesday I fly home. I have prayed in churches, prayed in parks, prayed on the streets and while crossing bridges. I have prayed for people I know and for strangers. I have prayed for peace, for me and for the world. I have lit candles for friends who are struggling. I have prayed words and prayed through my heart.

Please, I don’t mean to sound pious. For sure, I am not; and for sure, I don’t pray all the time. Often my mind wanders randomly. Sometimes I’m engaged in the art and architecture, and the beauty and particularities of Florence. Sometimes, um often, all my thoughts are on food.

That’s one way to summarize what my life of prayer looks like at this moment in my life. It will look a little different when I am home, but in truth, it’s more or less the same wherever I live.

Gratitudes behind a simple gratitude~

11/3/2013

Most mornings, on those mornings when we remember, my husband and I start the day sharing something for which are grateful. As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, these gratitudes range from the simple to the complex, the mundane to the profound. Often they center around what on our minds when we first wake up—like coffee.

Today when he offered gratitude for the cup of coffee that I would be bringing to him, I chuckled at his way of letting me know that he was ready for his first cup of the morning. But then we started talking about all the gratitude behind that simple thought: I was grateful that I had the physical ability to get the coffee, that I wanted to get it, that we could afford it, that we could enjoy it in a warm house. All those many gratitudes behind a single, simple one.

Taking our turn being poor~

10/11/2013

Care for the poor, a phrase out there in the ethos these days, from the lips of Pope Francis, scattered among political rhetoric, and expressed from the pulpit and pews of my church. It’s easy to think of the poor as ‘other’, you know, those who are homeless and needing our welfare, certainly not me! But that is not so. Depending on a given circumstance, we are all poor.

The blessing is that when we are poor, we need help. And when we need help, we give others the opportunity do just that. Good thing, because tomorrow the roles may be reversed. It is said that it is more blessed to give than to receive, but that just won’t work if there are no receivers. We all have to take a turn at each of the roles.

A friend recently reached out for help as she prepares for serious surgery in a few weeks. She will be poor in strength and in her ability to care for herself. She can’t play the I can do it all myself card that we all like to put out on the table. Humility is the new game. She’ll have to admit that she is poor, which is without a doubt one of the hardest things that any of us has to do. In asking for help she has already done so; her poverty is making her rich indeed, rich in faith and hope.

Praying with out ceasing--again~

8/23/2013

I’ve returned, once again, to praying without ceasing. It still seems to be a habit that gets forgotten and then renewed. Such a mystery this ebb and flow or prayer. But here it was again as I started a day of cooking for friends who are having a tough time medically. I wanted to take them a meal, a nice meal, which I knew would take added effort and time on my part. But I didn’t want this to feel like a burden or a chore. I wanted all the preparations, including the brownie baking, to be part of the gift.

And the Jesus Prayer, Jesus Christ have mercy on me, made it so. I didn’t say the words out loud; they were in my consciousness. Along with the meal, the prayer produced a calmness and delight in the preparation.

Um, I wonder what drew me back to this praying without ceasing. God, of course, but that’s still hard for me to believe. What’s that marvelous scripture? “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).