Day 2 of ‘Do the Math’
What was the biggest challenge from day one? One had a great liturgy last night to celebrate All Souls. It was followed by a wonderful reception hosted by Windsor Chapel Funeral Home. It was awesome and we offer our thanks to WCFH for their generosity, most especially to Julia Kelly Dion for all of her hard work to plan for the event. So how did this affect my challenge? You should have seen the spread they brought. Sweets, a cake, cookies, food to be proud of for sure…I had none. There was no worry about me cheating either, there were about 80 sets of parishioner’s eyes watching me very closely. Several of them asked me if I was behaving. Many thanks for the awareness and support from everyone at the church.
Now I am on day two! Diet so far today: 2 cups of tea, one Tuna Sandwich (white bread), 1 can of ABC Soup, 1 can of kippers
Jesus once uttered the words, “I am thirsty!” Today I utter these words…man I am thirsty. I have noticed that I am very thirsty. The amount of sodium in this food that we are eating is alarming. As one who is addicted to diet Pepsi, I have struggled with thirst. I do not like drinking water – I am my father’s child that way he did not like water either. But I have had little choice but drink water. I have been quite enjoying me tea. I have been trying to reflect on how this thirst might lead to thirsting for justice. The hope is that this small sacrifice this week can in some way teach me that self-control is good. Bishop Richard Holloway said that “God is waiting eagerly to respond with new strength to each little act of self-control, small disciplines of prayer, feeble searching after him. And his children shall be filled if they will only hunger and thirst after what God offers.” God offers justice, love, and hope for all. We need to be seeking after that love and justice and hope for all of God’s children. So we pray for the courage to find ways to identify with those who are in need. Can we sacrifice and search after God in those who are crying out in hunger? If we respond to the needs of the hungry and thirsty we are responding to Jesus who cries – “I am thirsty.” We remind ourselves that inasmuch as we do justice for the least of these we do this for Jesus. We are called to love. At Washington’s National Prayer Breakfast in 1994 Mother Teresa of Calcutta said,
“When He was dying on the Cross, Jesus said, “I thirst.” Jesus is thirsting for our love, and this is the thirst of everyone, poor and rich alike. We all thirst for the love of others, that they go out of their way to avoid harming us and to do good to us. This is the meaning of true love, to give until it hurts.”
Sometimes giving till it hurts, means getting together good foods for a food bank, at other times giving till it hurts may mean speaking up and advocating for the poor, the lonely, the rejected or those pushed aside. I am thirsting today, not just for a drink, but also thirsting to do better for those who need to rely on us to speak up and act to respond to need with love.
And now it is back to my bag of food. I will now prepare for dinner. I have decided to make a casserole. Ingredients; Kraft Dinner, one can of tuna, one can of cream of mushroom soup and one can of mixed vegetables. The hope is that this will give me dinner for tonight and Thursday night. Tomorrow night I will have the spaghetti with tomato sauce and throw on the can of chicken.
So it’s off to the kitchen — I’ll post again after dinner to let you know how the casserole turned out.
It's Just Kevin's Corner 
Well done so far, your immagination in mixing the ingedients is very good. Like you I don’t like drinking water but try it hot, it doesn’t seem so bad or do what I’m sure many who are on a strict budget do……reuse the tea bag over and over. Keep up the good work, we are proud of what you are doing and hopefully we can get the attention of officials to see what damage high sodium, low fresh vegetables/fruit does.
Thanks for the words of encouragement Carolynne. Love having the support!