You are what you eat, souls as well

Facebook is sometimes absolutely fantastic.  Some mornings you end up flicking through your news feed and something really significant leaps out at you.  And that certainly happened today.


It was a video about food.


One of the things I have learnt over the course of the last year is that what we eat matters.  Our food purchases are the cornerstone of our consumer footprint.  And so, at Hilfield, we try to eat according to the LOAF principle.  Local, organic, animal friendly and fairtrade.


But more than that, we believe that our eating should be an expression of love.  When we eat, we should be loving the people we are eating with, the people who cooked the food, the people who transported the food, the people who grew, harvested and slaughtered the food, and yes, the people who aren't eating the food.


But also, we should be loving God himself in our eating.  We should be expressing the beauty of His creation when we eat, the intricacy of a vegetable, the beauty and personality of an animal.


If we eat God's creation without appreciating the wonder of the things we are eating, we are turning our backs on the miracle of creation.  I only slightly hesitate to say that we are turning our backs on God.

 Veal calves at a farm just down the road from us

Jesus said, "They will say, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' Then the King will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did not do it to me.'  Matthew 25:44-45

One of our community members, who isn't a christian by the way, only eats meat which he knows has been reared in a particular way.  At the moment, this means he pretty much only eats meat reared here at Hilfield.  For him, knowing how the animal lived and died is just as important as knowing how much it costs and how it tastes, even to the extent of having to go veggy a lot of the time.


Watch the film below, and see if you think you ever turn your back on God when you eat.


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Life-giving God,
Creator of wonders,
forgive me when I turn my back on those wonders,
and forgive me when I turn my back on your wonder.
Help me to see your glory in what I eat,
and help me to give thanks for it,
and rejoice in it,
every day.
Amen.

Happy St Clare's Day!

A Happy Feast of St Clare to everyone!  Just a short post today as we have restricted internet at the friary and I am signal chasing with a laptop!  Holy poverty for the 21st Century, indeed.

 

Clare was a young woman who felt called to follow Francis' life of poverty, but was prevented from doing so because the Church felt such a life was too strenuous for a woman to lead.  She lived a cloistered life of contemplation and prayer with her sisters, whose numbers continued to grow, and resisted attempts by the Church to force possessions and hierarchical power structures on her community.

Even though she was not able to go out to preach, her fame spread and it is largely due to her and her sisters that the Franciscan message survived the death of Francis and the first generation of friars.

 

St Clare was received by St Francis into a life of humility, poverty and simplicity only after she escaped her family through a back door of her house.  Shortly after, they came to get her back.  Having beaten her and one of her sisters, they tried to drag her forcibly from the church.  They failed

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"Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!  Your soul in the brilliance of glory! ... Transform your entire being into the image of the Godhead itself! ... May you totally love God whose self-giving was totally for your love, at whose beauty the sun and the moon marvel, whose rewards and their uniqueness and grandeur have no limits."  St Clare of Asissi

 

Father, thankyou for the witness of the many women who have carried the gospel in their lives far better than I ever could... and bless all women who feel constrained by the fact they live in a church run by men.  Bless us all with the strength and love of our sister Clare.  Amen.