O Sacred Banquet 011512

The choir at St. Martin in the Fields sang these words during Holy Communion:
www.smitf.org

O sacrum convivium!

in quo Christus sumitur:

recolitur memoria passionis eius:

mens impletur gratia:

et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.

Alleluia.

Translation of original Latin

O sacred banquet!

in which Christ is received,

the memory of his Passion is renewed,

the mind is filled with grace,

and a pledge of future glory to us is given.

Alleluia.
I'm here in my apartment in London. After spending a week (from Epiphany - January 6 through Friday the 13th at Plum Village) I got settled in my "home" for three months.
Plum Village was exactly what I needed. I had spent a week there in 2011 visiting our son, Noah who was spending three months there. For me it was a time to get "offline" and get "online" with prayer and meditation. I'll have a more thorough update on my time there in a few days.
I told people at Plum Village that I was there to "de-compress." In the daily course of my life I feel that I "compress" various thoughts and emotions into files, like mp3 files. I then put these files into other files with the intention of some day dealing with those files. Files upon files upon files. So, I was intentionally taking time to access some of the files.

One of the practices at Plum Village is to sit and eat in "Noble Silence." This can be a challenge for a person like myself. Additionally, the monks encourage one to chew eat bite of food 20-30 times.
Yes, that's right, 20-30 times. The meals are totally vegan. So, you can imagine for a person like me, a carnivore, extroverted and addicted to eating quickly this means it takes mindfulness and intentionality to slooooooooooow down. By the end of the week I like to think that I had the hang of it. And then I found myself standing in the Bordeaux trains station lusting after all those French pastries. Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Lilian Cheung have written a book titled, Savor-Mindful Eating, Mindful Life.

http://www.savorthebook.com/
I'm going to give it a try during my time on sabbatical. I promise to keep you posted on how it is going. I also request that you pray for me as I attempt to be mindful about intake and increasing physical activity.

One of the wonderful aspects of having this particular flat is that I can do my own cooking.
I'm currently making some stir-fry. As you can see it's colorful and I hope it will be tasty as well.

One of the many reasons I'm drawn to the life and ministry of St. Martin in the Fields is because of their passionate commitment to help all people have enough food to eat. As you know quite well food in many areas is abundant. It's the "distribution" system that each one of us needs to work on in daily living.

The Eucharist is quite intentionally the grandest example of "mindful eating." Psalm 34 so eloquently invites us and reminds us, "Taste and see that the Lord is good."
The words of today's collect might provide you and me with inspiration and joy:

	Almighty God, in Christ you make all things new: transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. blessings, rtg

Each day at Plum Village we spent time following The Five Contemplations. I find them very helpful. I post them for your consideration.

The Five Contemplations

1. This food is the gift of the whole universe: the earth, the sky, numerous living beings, and much hard, loving work.
2. May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude so as to be worthy to receive it.
3. May we recognize and transform our unwholesome mental formations, especially our greed, and learn to eat with moderation.
4. May we keep our compassion alive by eating in such a way that we reduce the suffering of living beings, preserve our planet, and reverse the process of global warming.
5. We accept this food so that we may nurture our sister- hood and brotherhood, strengthen our community, and nourish our ideal of serving all living beings.