This week, barraged with family and work challenges and a full plate schedule weighing heavy, I felt like I was in a pressure cooker.
Last night as I sauteed sweet potatoes and kale on the stove, I whispered a repetitive prayer in cadence with the stirring of my wooden spoon, “God help me, I’m overwhelmed!”
For a few moments, my stove become my altar, my kitchen, a sanctuary.
Brother Lawrence said, “the time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen…I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”
Kitchen praying is prayer in action. Even as we go about our mundane kitchen duties, prayer makes our work meaningful. While we chop and stir, wash dishes and clean counters, prayers become portals to the great mystery, hymns bringing heaven to earth, shepherding us to the comfort of God’s love.
Amidst my bigger concerns of my husband’s ongoing work challenges and tough schedule, my teenager’s struggles growing up and facing the wider world, my own anxieties juggling my family’s needs with unexpected and monumental emerging needs as I begin to face the empty nest transition ahead, and the mounting full plate schedule for the weeks ahead, life just suddenly felt too much. Other annoyances piled up: my son spilt coffee all over the tan rug this weekend I’m still trying to clean up. After my husband asked him to take my Starbucks coffee inside from the car, even though it had a lid, coffee squirted out the hole as he ran into the house, his arms full with jackets and school books, a long string of coffee droplets splattering all over his trail. As I walked out the door Monday morning a dead baby rat greeted me at the door way, guts and bowels and squirts of blood spread on the concrete before me. I ran back into the house to get a dust pan and plastic bag, on the way back I concocted an ingenious method of wrapping the bag around the dust pan, then went out the door successfully pushing rat parts with a stick onto the pan, then removed the bag so the dismembered pieces fell conveniently into the bag’s sack. I still need to clean up the blood and a few spare, tiny body parts.
Too much information, I know, but isn’t life just messy sometimes? All the reason we need kitchen praying.
The other night the cops tore through our neighborhood, red lights flashing, sirens screaming, neighbors on front lawns. It’s the only time neighbors talked to one another since summertime, which seams like the season when neighborliness blooms. The next day The Patch reported a woman was raped and beaten by her ex-boyfriend just down the street, her young daughter witnessed the ending scene and called the police.
Saint Paul says, pray without ceasing. Yes, we must.
Kitchen praying is an exquisite and simple act right in the comfort of home, a gift we can give ourselves each day. In this beautiful and troubled life, a life where faith comes and goes, a life that sometimes becomes just too hard, kitchen prayers both feed and empty us. They bring us into the invisible heart of grace, where we give thanks for being lifted higher, for releasing what is not ours to hold, for returning to our maker, garlic scents rising.
Yes, my kitchen, now my daily church, is a time to pause in space and time while moving from cabinet, to refrigerator, from sink to stove to table, communing with God, receiving the bread of heaven.
My kitchen prayer reminded me, even while I cook, I stand on holy ground.
As lovely Saint Teresa of Avila says, “Know that even when you are in the kitchen, Our Lord is moving among the pots and pans.”
We love your comments!
“Kitchen Praying”…I love it! So sweet and so true. The room we spend the most time is where we need to be meeting with God continually through the day. Great post!
thanks so much Michelle! Appreciate your visit! I didn’t realize just how much time I spend in the kitchen until I wrote about kitchen praying!
Thanks for visiting Michelle, and for your encouragement! Happy Kitchen Praying!
Yes, life is messy! And we are cleaning up remnants of past spills. I know I often feel most peaceful when doing the daily activities like cooking and even just driving. God is everything and everywhere. Acknowledging that in prayer in the kitchen while cooking healthy dish of sweet potato and kale is indeed honoring to Him!
I, too, feel peaceful often doing simple chores. In reflecting, I’m often in silent prayer or thinking about something meaningful or nothing at all (which is good for me). So thankful for your visit today Lynn!
Yes to all of this. So often I go through my crazy days without leaving quiet time for prayer, and this was a relief to read and a reminder that prayer done in the midst of banging of pots and pans is just as valid. Thank you! The rat, though. OY!
Hi Julie, so glad you visited and found some relief and reminders that prayer can happen right in our kitchens! Sorry about the rat story! I just realized we face small and large horrors in this world, and prayer is one mighty saving grace! So glad you visited today!
So well said! I agree! Sometimes we can be so rigid about how, where, and when we pray and I think there are many times and activities throughout the day where we can have pray and conversation with Him about what we are experiencing and needing. Amen, sister! Happy to be visiting you again as your neighbor at the Linkup at A Field of Wild Flowers.
So true Pam how we can get rigid about where we pray..but I do sense St. Paul’s instruction to pray without ceasing means anywhere, anytime we can! Thanks for visiting today!
It seems as if your stove is the “Hearth of your Home”. Your writing reminds me of Rachel Naomi Remen’s book entitled: Kitchen Table Wisdom. The kitchen is where much wisdom is passed along through the generations as most often, the mothers, prepare nourishment for the family. In Kitchen Table Wisdom, each story revolves around a person who is dealing with a chronic or terminal medical illness. Each person finds the true beauty of their lives as a result of dealing with a pending loss of life or chronic disability. When the types of challenges that you are now facing seem overwhelming, I find stories found in Kitchen Table Wisdom help put my life in better perspective as well as prayers of gratitude for the beauty in my life. Always remember: “This too shall pass”.
Yes, the stove Theresa is the “Hearth of my Home”..(lots of kitchen themes in our life these days friend!)..I
forgot about “Kitchen Table Wisdom”, never read it but will look at it, it sounds beautiful! And yes, always gratitude! Some weeks are more full plate (no pun intended) than others..this was a doozie..but all good, we are blessed!
Oh my. I thought a can of tomato sauce exploding on me was bad last week. ha. I’ll take that anyway over a baby rat! I love the tender heart of Brother Lawrence to be aware of God’s presence in all that he did. It’s how I want to live too. Thanks for the reminder to meet God anywhere and everywhere.
Oh my gosh Lisa, tomato sauce all over you! Brother Lawrence is my go to contemplative
wise guide! Thanks for visiting today!
Great quote from Mother Teresa. I love the activeness of intentionally making all of that time spent in the kitchen a holy, prayer time. I am going to be entertaining over Easter, and can often find myself begrudgingly preparing food and cleaning up while my family members hang out with each other. I want to actively choose to pray instead of grouse. Lovely reminder.
I hope you had some time to pray in the kitchen during your Easter entertaining!! Thanks for visiting Ashley, I hope it was a lovely Easter Sunday for you!
Oh Kathy… Kitchen praying!! LOVE. IT.
You always get my attention with your words, and your message. I spend much of my time in the kitchen, or folding laundry, or driving… etc etc etc. These really are the best times to pray. I all them “Empty spaces”- it’s the perfect way to fill that mundane chore time. (Unless you love to cold laundry or cook- none of which I adore.)
Reading that place you were in – overwhelmed… Oh sister, you KNOW I get it. I whisper that same prayer over and over again. Often.
And that RAT? Ewww. Mess mess mess. I can’t tell you how many messes I’ve had to deal with… They really are everywhere, aren’t they? And hey, while you’re still scrubbing that coffee out of the carpet, there’s another opportunity to pray, right? lol (Pray for protection for your son-!)
“Saint Paul says, pray without ceasing. Yes, we must.”
Yes. So much to be praying for these days, especially.
I’m shocked and so incredibly upset at the crime that occurred on your street. Praying for that woman and her precious child.
I love Brother Lawrence’s quote…
Thank you for that reminder. I needed it.
I love how you call these spaces ’empty spaces’ in our lives..I will look for more of them (driving, working out at gym)..I’m chuckling at the messes you must have everyday with your younger children and friends..how I remember the lemonade and sugar all over the floor in the kitchen as they squeezed lemons for their lemondade stand..how I’d go back to those days though!! — yes, pray for protection for my son, there’s so many bad influences these days, a kid needs lots of protection and prayer always!! ..thank you for your very thoughtful comment. You always bless me..
I love kitchen praying and I love how you have shared with us how you do it. And yes we spend so much of our time and life in our kitchen with friends and family. A great prayer room.
Debbie, I love your encouragement and helping me realize just how much time we do spend in the kitchen!!
thx for sharing this article