Dinner Discussion Topic:  Our New Menu!

The Grace Before Meals movement continues to grow, and we want to do all we can to reach out to as many people as possible. For that reason our “menu” has changed.  In the past, our monthly subscribers received a weekly e-mail that had three sections:  “Food for Thought,” “Food for the Body,” and “Food for the Soul.”  Our recent survey showed that people enjoy a variety of aspects of both the weekly e-mail blasts and the website, and we want to keep that service going.  But in order to help out with our busy schedules – yours and mine – I’ve decided to do some menu changes in order to provide some “portion control” of our content.  In other words, we will focus each week on a different topic.

As a subscriber, here’s what you’ll receive each week:

Week 1:  Dinner Discussion: This article combines some culinary and theological insight.  It’s a great way to get some discussion going for your family.

Week 2:  Menu Inspiration: An e-mail that will also provide you and your family with a delicious menu or some culinary tips.

Week 3:  Faithful Foodie Adventure: An article that shares a “grace-filled” food adventure or a restaurant critique.

Week 4:  From the Feedbag: I will share my responses to subscriber’s questions, filling us up with some pastoral advice based on my Catholic culinary perspective.

If there is a 5th week, our Grace Before Meals team will send you some updates about upcoming events, news, or other inspiring tidbits.

There you have it.  You now have a better idea of our “menu change.”

You can clearly see that my intent is to provide weekly messages, but serve it with a better sense of portion control – in other words, not too little, but also not too much at one time.  I’ve also been “inspired” to offer more regular blog posts on our website, which means you’ll now be able to find new, and interactive, thoughts more frequently each week.  Subscribers get regular messages sent directly to your inbox.  But you can also stay even more in touch by visiting our blog a few times each week!
For example, this week I posted a review of the thrilling new movie, The Rite.

In this blog post, I help families better understand the fight between good and evil.  The post provides great opportunity for conversation with your loved ones.  So be sure to check it out.

This week, I invite you to consider an important topic that helps achieve overall health and is particularly relevant for this week’s blast:  Portion Control.  The discipline of portion control, connected to the theological virtue of temperance, or more simply “moderation,” requires a person to take inventory of when they eat, what they eat, how much they eat, with whom they eat, and why they eat.  We don’t eat a Thanksgiving meal every day for obvious reasons.  But we can celebrate the sentiment of the thanksgiving meal more frequently and with a lot less food.

Portion control reminds us not to replace or skimp out on the different food groups – especially the healthy foods.  Portion control leads to a healthier culinary lifestyle, and even helps us lose weight!  I suggest taking a cue from a friend who recently lost 30 pounds in just a few weeks.  The method is simply eating smaller, healthier meals more regularly throughout the day.

My Filipino culture practices that type of portion control to a certain degree in something called “merienda.“  My mother, for example, eats about five to six times each day:  breakfast, a mid- morning snack, lunch, a midday snack, dinner, and then a later snack before bed.  This is what my friend actually does now.  He eats more regular smaller meals, while controlling the portion of fatty foods.  He tells me he lost all this weight while hardly getting hungry, all based on the method of portion control.  He even says he has more energy throughout the day!

This can obviously apply to our spiritual lives.  We sometimes think that one day a week is all the religion we need.  When Lent, Holy Week, Easter Week, Advent, or the Christmas Season arrives, we think we’re experiencing “too much church!”  We feel stuffed with religion because our souls are not used to that much praying.  The remedy is to pray regularly throughout the day to help stretch our spiritual muscles. Portion control in prayer means that we don’t pray to God once a week, or even once a day.  Talking to God more regularly helps us lose the spiritual flab and gives us the more regulated inspiration and strength to make it through the difficult days!

Family dinners provide the perfect environment to talk about the portion control of our physical food and spiritual food.  If you’re struggling with weight, it may be a problem of portion control and better balance can help.  As the research suggests, regular family meals that regulary include healthy foods and regulate the intake of less healthy foods leads to true health in body, mind, and soul.

Stay tuned for next week’s e-mail blast, where I’ll feature some delicious cooking tips and a recipe that will help bring excitement to the regular boring potato.

Finally:  Congratulations to our 10 winners, randomly selected from the hundreds of people who responded to our survey.

Each will receive a signed book.

How many times do you eat in a given day?  Have you lost weight using this portion control method?  Post your response to this Dinner Discussion and help others with your insights and comments.

Posted in Dinner Discussion, Grace Before Meals, Past Emails | 10 Comments »

Please love to be scared!  Perhaps our appreciation and enjoyment of horror films and roller coasters result from our broken human nature.  Maybe, our fear stems from the desire of the “evil one” who also enjoys it when we live in fear!  Jesus however gives us a remedy when He declares, “Be Not Afraid!”

Courage!  Isn’t that what people of faith are supposed to have, especially the Church’s ministers?  Then why did my recent view of the movie, “The Rite” starring Anthony Hopkins and Colin O’Donoghue give me some chills?  In a nutshell, it’s because I know the devil is real and is someone that I should be so scared of that I run to God (in prayer) whenever I sense that something is wrong.  But the movie “scared” me in another way because it got some messages and symbols very wrong!

Let’s say a few things about what movie did get right.  First, this movie affirmed two truths: (1) That the devil is real!  and (2) Hollywood doesn’t really understand the Catholic Faith and the interior workings of the Church!

Both of these “frighten” me in a way, because the devil sometimes uses Hollywood’s arrogance, ignorance, and even atheistic agendas to “hide” and go unseen.  The influence of Hollywood is sometimes greater than the Gospel, especially for younger generations who will watch this movie and think it’s either all true or either all false.  Both extremes are the devil’s temptations!

That’s why I’m blogging about this movie.  From a pastoral perspective I offer these thought for our Grace Before Meals families.

Ultimately I have to say (from a personal opinion) that I liked the movie enough because of the genuine message that highlighted the struggle and championship of good over evil.  It highlights the reality that even priests, and other people of faith can be “tempted” by the devil.  Yes, people of faith can even experience doubt.  It realistically showed some of the inherent properties concerning the ancient Rite of Exorcism, such as the devil’s knowledge of hidden things, the ability to manifest supernatural powers, and the craftiness and lies that devil incarnates in people who are possessed.  It rightly describes some of the prayers of the Rite, as well as authentic “confusion” that people have regarding the spiritual life. There were  some redeeming qualities in the movie.  For me, the best image of the exorcist’s power  came in the final scene when the young priest exercised his real authority of evil  in the Sacrament of Confession.

However, there were some other things that annoyed me when watching this film.  For example: the fact that the movie shows a “seminarian” dressed like a deacon and offering absolution and a final blessing (something reserved for a priest); the fact that this same “seminarian” – despite his doubts – is the “golden child” sent to Rome to study the ritual after one “5 minute” conversation with his superior; the fact that this “seminarian” performed an exorcism without any authority given to him by his Bishop.  All of that is hogwash and not how things happens!

On a stylistic level, I didn’t like the fact that the seminarian put on a priest’s stole; how they made the nuns and other priests look kinda’ scary, strict, and somehow distant from reality.  Fact is, I know plenty of religious men and women who smile joyfully and are very much in touch with the “real world” .  I was also perturbed how the movie suggests that people of pious faith can be possessed, while not making distinctions between being possessed and being tempted.

I’m being picky.  But as you can see the one ongoing criticism I had dealt with the movie’s exercise of the “Rite” by someone who did not receive official hierarchical authority.  Granted, the Exorcism Rite is NOT a sacrament. Technically anyone can pray it. But to remove the factor of the Church’s approval to exercise of this Rite makes quite a stretch and could suggest to viewers that they have the “authority” and “power” to fight the devil ‘mano a mano‘.

DON’T BELIEVE THAT FOR A MINUTE!!!!

Do not provoke the devil with doubt. But, do not provoke the devil with  an emboldened courage that you exercise alone.  In other words, if you EVER experience any supernatural problems (and yes, these things do happen), contact your parish priest immediately and don’t have an arrogant attitude that would somehow provoke the spirits.  A foolish interpretation of this movie would be, “Come on devil, I ain’t scared of you – bring it!”

Admittedly, I’m rather critical when Hollywood produces any film that deals with the Catholic Faith.  But in this case I offer my critique to suggest a topic for a family to discuss at dinner.

What!  Am I serious?  Fr. Leo wants our family to talk about devils, possessions and exorcisms at the dinner table?

YOU BETCHA! (I just returned from North Dakota, so hopefully you can still hear my accent when I said that)

If we do not voice our fears to the right people – namely our guardians, our pastors, and to God in prayer – we may be “limiting” the grace to help us overcome our fears.  Parents ought to realize that young people are the biggest targets for the devil.  But unlike this movie, the temptations and possessions are much more “attractive” and less frightening.  A dinner discussion about the different ways evil manifests itself in the world can help a young person make distinctions and good life decisions;  having a conversation about good versus evil can give young people courage through a “healthy” and “humble” fear of the supernatural.

Ultimately, your dinner discussion should end with messages of hope, as it did in this movie:  Good will always conquer evil! Faith is needed at all times!  The Sacrament of Confession is one of the greatest forms of “exorcism” as it releases the penitent from the burden of the sins provoked by the temptation of the devil!

Would I recommend this movie?  I suggest you do a google search and hear what others say about the movie before you watch it. Instead, I would suggest that if you do watch this movie that you also read a little about what the Church teaches about exorcism so that you go in realizing that a Hollywood film – as scary or creepy as it is – cannot capture the true essence of the Ritual.

This movie reminded this priest about the overwhelming reality of evil. It also made me extra thankful for the Church’s ability to discern and effectively respond to evil through this prayer graced with God’s power and love.

I don’t want to give away too many points, because I don’t want to ruin it for you, but there was an ironic statement that slowly bled throughout this movie.  It was a statement of faith, “You will never be alone.”  That is true!  God said it about His ongoing Presence in the life of the Believer.  And in the movie, the devil said it too.

This one line in the movie gave me both fear (when applied to the devil) and hope (when applied to God!)

What did you think of this movie?  Do you talk with your family about these “frightening things” on days other than Halloween? Please post your comments below.

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