Chapter 35: Weekly servers in the kitchen and at table (paragraphs 1-2)
None should be exonerated from kitchen duty except in case of sickness or the call of some important business for the monastery, because serving each other in this way has the great merit of fostering charity. (From para. 1 of Ch. 35 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997).
I think it's not just the act of kitchen help, but the illuminating desire to be of selfless service that makes small jobs opportunities for great love.
I think it's not just the act of kitchen help, but the illuminating desire to be of selfless service that makes small jobs opportunities for great love.
What better place to practice John Main’s “simple acts of kindness” than in the kitchen. Rinsing a plate or wiping a counter or cleaning the stove top or sweeping the floor and doing it as a cheerful, generous giver: all “best preparations” for my meditation.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a reversal for me. Because of injuries to both hands, I am in the position of having to be helped, of being served. Being treated with the utmost kindness and love by others, I am brought to humility. Sacrifice by others on my behalf allows me to witness the service of love by others. To receive love gratefully and cheerfully like a child is a practice for me, in meditation and in life. It consists of allowing the love of God to touch my life through others .
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