Chapter 35: Weekly servers in the kitchen and at table (paragraphs 1-2)
Everyone in the community should take turns serving in the kitchen and at table. None should be exonerated from kitchen duty except in the 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.)
Rank or role does not exempt me from taking my turn in handling the small acts of charity, that knits together my heart, with the hearts in my family and in community and in creation.
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.
ReplyDeleteThe kitchen is a place of service to all. It is there that I can be called out of complacency, fatigue, or desire for comfort to serve others. Feed the five thousand or turn them away without nourishment? Happiness comes to a table where others are nourished with love. The meal is where I find Christ sitting, eating with others and with the members of my own family. Let me always see You there, O Lord, at our table and give me energy and inspiration in love to serve You in my family and beyond this particular table and grateful to those who serve me.
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