pierogies

"The Lord walks among the pots and pans."

-St. Teresa of Ávila

The joy of having time in abundance is that recipes that require many hours of potato peeling, dough kneading, boiling and baking become fun challenges. And seeing as how the mention of pierogies evokes confused and baffled expressions from Southerners, it was enjoyable to tackle the making of some Pittsburgh-esqe pierogies.










I've been reflecting a lot lately on what it means to live in a contemplative stance, one of being present to God, neighbor and self. Cooking and baking root me in the reality of the present; of mixing, stirring, creating- yet these acts take time and patience and make space for reflection and renewal.

To pray as I fold pierogies, to sing as I stir cookie dough, to ponder as I chop and dice and mix. To be present to the reality in front of me. To be present to God.

Waiting is an action. Being present is an action. An action of stillness, of peace, of quiet reflection. And yet it is an act, a choice, a decision to engage in such presence.

"It [the retreat house] is a place of action, because we believe spiritual action is the hardest of all- to praise and worship God, to thank Him, to petition Him for our brothers, to repent our sins and those of others. This is action, just as the taking of cities is action, as revolution is action, as the Corporal Works of Mercy are action. And just to lie in the sun and let God work on you is to be sitting in the light of the Sun of Justice, and the growth will be there, and joy will grow and spread from us to others."
-Pg. 104, from Dorothy Day: Selected Writings

At times my spirit is anxious to do; anxious for work, for tasks, for all of those things that I seem to lump together as "having purpose."

And yet the Lord has been reminding me through the words of Scripture, Teresa of Ávila, and Dorothy Day that He dwells in the sacraments of daily life- of dishes and laundry and reading and cups of tea and the simple, tiny things- if only we have the eyes to see and the wisdom to experience his presence.

His presence in these acts of life is humbling, a reminder of Christ's humanity, a reminder of my sin, a way of revealing to me the truth that he works through the weakest, in the abandoned places of the empire, that when we grasp for grandeur we lose sight of the power of the Spirit upon the ordinary, that we might see Him, the Divine, in each and every piece of his creation.

Oh that I might not think so highly of myself as to fail to see the interwoven nature of the Body- that the Kingdom brings new meaning to words of equality and justice.

To feed our souls upon the Truth and to find within its doors the reality of life as an act of worship- each moment, each breath, each activity- a movement for Him.

I am grateful for this time to be still, to be slow, to be intentional, to be responsive, to be contemplative.

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God."
-Romans 5:1-2