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.


without-saying-a-word-this-6-minute-short-film-will-make-you-speechless/


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

.

"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.

A follow up

Sorry, I wouldn't usually dare to sully a blog with memes, but this was just too perfect not to follow my previous post:

Every blessing from Hilfield.

Brodo: Three Knots to Rule Them All - Young People Wanted to Save the World

One of the odd things about growing up is that at every stage in your development you meet people who don't think you are ready to contribute to the world because you just aren't old enough yet.  This, I guess, keeps happening pretty much until the age at which they say you are too old to contribute.

I was lucky enough to go to a meeting of the tertiary franciscans (lay people who take vows to live a franciscan life and be a franciscan presence in their families and communities) from our local area, and... yes... I was the youngest person in the room.  But, unlike lots of events at church/school/uni/work/wherever, people actually seemed quite enthusiastic that I was there.  And actually, I had to work quite hard to get people to share their own experiences, so interested were they in learning about mine at Hilfield.

The prophet Joel wrote: 'I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.'

The most venerable and complex role (interpreting dreams - think of Joseph interpreting Pharaoh's dreams about skinny and fat cows!) is left to the elderly, the most experienced in society.  But the most vibrant gift of the Holy Spirit, that of prophecy, the act of MAKING GOD'S MESSAGE SPEAK TO ORDINARY PEOPLE, is left to the young.

 The first Christian martyr, St Stephen (cf. Acts 7), stoned to death for preaching that 

Jesus was the Son of God, probably in his late twenties.

St Luke puts Joel's words into St Peter's mouth in Acts 2:17 when Peter is trying to convince a crowd of Jerusalemites (hardy city-folk who are convinced the disciples must be pissed when they start preaching the Gospel!) of just how exciting the Church can be when it is open to God.

How exciting life can be, when we are ALL open to the Spirit acting through ALL of us.

Brother Douglas (or Brodo for short) was a co-founder of the Anglican Franciscans.  Here's what he had to say on the subject in 1942:

Some of our wisest thinkers are wondering today how democracy will work in the post-war world - unless a new spirit of unselfishness is born in every individual and every class, unless in our economic life the motive of private profit is somehow transformed into the motive of public service... and we ask is there any hope of eradicating the selfishness ingrained in the very structure of our social order?  Can we exorcize this acquisitive instinct that is so rampant, and awaken that higher instinct of joy in loving service which we might have seen predominant if only Christ had been accepted as the Lord of our life?

It may be that the fate of our civilization will depend on whether there are enough Christian leaders among the younger generation who will give up at least part of their life to win people for Our Lord in this way.

When I first started talking to people about my vocation to be a priest, the first response was usually along the lines of, "Yes, that's all well and good, but you're far too young to be able to offer any real help to anyone."

Bollocks to that.

My prayer tonight is for more young people to have the courage to come forward, to answer God's call, whatever people around them say.  We need them more than we realise.

Father,

pour out your Spirit on all your children,

young and old.

Give us the courage to listen to you

and not to those who try to put us down;

so that we may do what you want

and not what they want.

Tis bloody good, Lord, to be here

If I had a penny for every person who said to me, 'Gosh, you're so lucky to be at the friary at this time of year.'   Perhaps I had better share some summer moments with you!

Wildflowers in the top field

A spectacular common spotted orchid near the barn

The Wysteria survived Sam's 'pruning' of last year

The Swallow chicks are out of the nest

Chantal's amazing flowers in front of Francis House

Phil's carving has made the move from the shed to the Canticle Garden

 Olive still being haughty

Wild Crane-bill Geranium outside my front door

Home with a few wild orchids for decoration

 

 

Yes, I think I am lucky to be here at the moment.


Peace and goodwill from Hilfield!

FINALLY! - A Cup of Rice a Day for CA's India Floods Appeal: Day Five

Well, what can I say?  It is over!  People have been so very generous, and we've raised over £360 for Christian Aid.  That translates into a month's food for more than FIFTY families!  So thankyou.

The justgiving link will be active for a few more weeks.

 

https://www.justgiving.com/tomsharp

My final day was pretty weird.  To be honest, I was feeling rather ill, and finding it pretty hard to think about anything positively, apart from the impending breaking of the fast!

And so it has taken me quite a while to digest that final day.

One of the things that struck me was just how lucky I am that this...

... as if by magic, three times a day turns itself into this:

It is something so many of us take completely for granted, the idea that at regular intervals we will have somewhere safe where we will eat food and be satisfied.

And yet, the Church of England has this year opened a record number of food banks... IN THE UK!  Stories are emerging of parents going without food for days so that their children can eat.

Over the past days this is how I have been praying: for those I brush shoulders with in the street, who may even come and share at my table here at the friary, who don't know where their next meal is coming from.

Father,

Thankyou for the riches of our society.

Open our eyes to the poverty that exists within it.

To the people who subsist within it,

And show me how I can share my riches with them.

I don't even know where to start.

 

 

Yeah, it has taken a while to work out how to say that.

Very Bored Now - A Cup of Rice for CA's India Floods Appeal: Day Four

It's day four of my attempt to live on the diet of some of the world's poorest people and I am STILL very, very hungry.  On the plus side, people have now donated OVER TWO HUNDRED POUNDS to go towards Christian Aid's India Floods Appeal.

 

https://www.justgiving.com/tomsharp 

 

Day four's attempt at a positive prayer focus has completely failed.  I'm very very hungry now, and quite frankly bored of feeling hungry.

Perhaps my prayer tonight should be for people who are completely deflated, dehumanised and dejected becaused of their situation.

 

 

Still hanging in though!

 

 

Father,

Thankyou for the fact that every human life

is so full of possibility.

Help me throughout my life to bring out the possibilities

that really are there

in other people's lives,

even if no one else can see it.