Onions from the Archives

A women's prayer group that I'm a part of is currently reading the book These Beautiful Bones: An Everyday Theology of the Body, by Emily Stimpson.   The chapter we read this week was on the Theology of the Body and the gift of food.  It was jam packed with good stuff and parts of it reminded me of a Mother Angelica talk I once heard on how being with Jesus and the disciples must have been like living with an Italian grandma - everything always revolved around food.  "Eat!  Eat!"  Fish, bread, figs, water, wine!

Perhaps eventually I'll get around to writing more about all the thoughts I had as I read this chapter, but for today, I'm using some words from Miss Stimpson and another "taste" of a little something from the archives.  (did you get what I just did there??  pretty clever...)

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God always knew food would be the means by which He would impart His love and life to us.  He knew He would become bread, just as He knew He would become man.

And so He blessed food.  He gave it the power to bring joy and comfort, health and strength.  He also gave it the power to bring people together, to spark laughter and story-telling...  

In its own way, He made food a sacramental, a vehicle of grace for families and communities.  And in an altogether different way, He made food a sacrament, the flesh of God given to us in Holy Communion.  

(Emily Stimpson, from These Beautiful Bones, chpt. 7)

Chopping Onions for Moms Because Our Lady Did it For St. Elizabeth