Food for Thought

Last night, Mikayla and I wrapped up our first week on cooking duty. I've found that one aspect of community life that I particularly enjoy is preparing food for each other, and getting to enjoy the food that others have made. For me personally, enjoying food offered by others is a way for me to learn to accept more graciously and humbly what others offer me in general. I also find preparing food for someone else to be another avenue of service to others.

Given our schedule, each cooking team prepares four meals -- dinner on Monday and Wednesday night, lunch on Saturday, and brunch on Sunday. Breakfasts are generally on one's own, as are weekday lunches and dinners on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Dinners on Tuesdays and Thursdays are brought to us by parishioners at St. Michael's.

Every meal we've had so far has been delicious.

There's nothing like a home-cooked meal, and there's nothing like cooking, in order to make a place feel like a home. At least for me, that's been a huge part of becoming more and more comfortable in the old rectory, here at St. Michael's. James and Michelle prepared roast chicken and pasta, homemade pizza, and scrambled eggs and toast. Mikayla and I made wet burritos, grilled chicken and pasta, and eggs and biscuits and gravy. (Saturday's lunch typically includes sandwiches, since we take those with us to the homes we fix up.)

James and Michelle are up for round two this week -- and they say there's no chicken on the menu, since we've had a lot of it so far. We're also excited for Tuesday, when we plan to visit a community of Franciscan friars just north of Flint, who grow all of their own food and have offered to serve us dinner.

The fact that James and Michelle are up for their second week of cooking duty means we start our third week of missionary work with Catholic Urban Project. It still seems like there's an entire summer ahead of us, but we've already finished a little more than a quarter of it.

I think everyone here is excited to see what remains in store.