Soul's Gotta Eat

I'm not sure where this saying comes from. I asked my husband about it because he says it quite frequently and he was at a loss for its origin as well, but I love it.  Because not only does it imply we need to sustain ourselves with actual food, but we need to feed our souls as well!

What does it mean to feed our souls?  Well, of course we can say we need God and need to experience Him in prayer and in church. But think about the phrase… a soul needs to eat.  It's not said when you think you might be hungry, or when you only have time for a quick snack, so those moments when you steal a prayer are fine for a quick snack for your soul.  But if you think about it, what are the times we remember our bodies eating?  Special times like family get togethers, Thanksgiving, Christmas dinners, dinner at grandma's house.  Those are very  special moments that we get together with loved ones and eat and enjoy the meal, not in a rush or hurry, but we make special foods that take time,  that have special ingredients and we share with those we love.  Then while eating this special meal we take the time to talk, listen to each other, share our lives.

So when we say and actually mean, "a soul needs to eat" we should do all those same things.  We should take the time to prepare for our encounter with the Almighty.  This may not happen every day or even every week even when we are attending daily or weekly Mass, but these may be times when we decide to go on retreat, or have a heart-to-heart talk with our spiritual counselor or reflect more deeply on Christ in our life.

Our souls need to eat. They cannot be sustained with the quick and easy meals.  We need to stop and think what makes our souls happy. What is it's favorite 'meal' and make sure we give it that special nourishment on a regular basis. 

We eat every day because we know our bodies need food. But we don't always make a big meal or even nutritious food all the time.  But we know we need our vegetables and fruits and try to get those in.  Our souls work the same the way. It can make do on our daily dose of prayer and Mass, but if we don't stop and really prepare to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament every time we go to Communion, it's like giving our souls junk food. It's great we are receiving Jesus, but are we really thinking, "wow, I am taking in the Body and Blood of Jesus who died on the cross for me?"  I need to pay attention to this.

In my mind's eye I picture an older gentleman, slightly stooped, with aging gnarled hands holding onto a wooden kitchen chair. He pulls it out to sit down and takes a warm slice of homemade bread from a plate and picks up a knife and slices off a bit of butter and begins to slowly cover the bread with it and hands it to you.  "Soul's gotta eat. Tell me about your day…"

 

Silence is Golden

 

Many years ago while teaching high school Confirmation on Sunday afternoons for six weeks out of the year. I looked at what I thought my teenagers needed to learn out of all the theology and spiritualness of Confirmation preparation.    And I know this was totally the Holy Spirit speaking to me and maybe a little of my own selfishness.  See while we were teaching lots of good things about the sacrament of Confirmation, I noticed that these kids inside class and out were either always listening to me talk, watching a video or  talking or looking at their smart phones. And I thought (totally Holy Spirit inspired) these guys could really use some quiet time, time in front of the Blessed Sacrament to just listen to God.

I am blessed to work in our parish office and so I get frequent opportunities to pop in and out of church and say hello to our Lord.  Sometimes I sit down and talk to Him about a special problem or a bad day other times I just say hi. But I thought, wouldn't it be nice if these teens could get a little Jesus time, sitting in the quiet, dark, and cool church.

So I put fifteen minutes of quiet time in church in front of the blessed sacrament in our confirmation class schedule.  At first I worried, I was just using it a filler.  I love teaching teens but sometimes I at at a loss for what to do during down time or when lessons aren't getting across to them as they should .  Having this scheduled quiet time helped me with lesson plans and gave a natural break during our sessions. Little did I know they would grow to be very important.

After a year or two of beginning this habit, I began to hear from students that they actually enjoyed this time.  They never fought turning off their phones, separating from friends and spreading out in the dark cool church to just sit and pray.  Most of them knelt even.

So imagine my surprise when I came across an article recently about "The importance of Teaching Silence to Our Youth" in a copy of OCP's Today's Liturgy magazine.   Hmm… other adults are noticing this need as well. 

I was so happy the Holy Spirit had popped that thought into my head years ago.  But now I have noticed  that even our really young kids need silence in their lives at home and at school.  Even babies are constantly bombarded by music and sound in our homes.  We need to have some silent time at all ages. 

So whether you are a mom to really little ones, or teens, I'd like to offer this bit of Holy Spirit inspired thought:  look at how much sound they are hearing every day and encourage them to put down their music, phones, etc and just listen to God.  Whether it's in their rooms, in the car, walking, playing outside or inside church.  Silence is when God gets to talk to us and we need to give Him the time to do it.  If we constantly fill our world with sound we cannot hear Him.  And we wonder why we are anxious and fearful so much in our lives.  The gift of silence is golden.  It helps wash away the anxiety of life by giving us breathing space and calm.  It will help your child find peace in their lives.