FOOD AND HEALTH

A LENTEN JOURNEY | WEEK 2 | February 28, 2021

Welcome to our second week of the Laudato Si’ Circle Lenten Journey! Each week we will share a new theme that will encourage us to grow deeper in our love, knowledge, and concern for creation. Follow our mediation and reflection prompt, research and reading resources, and suggested action steps.

Meditation: This week our theme is food and health. Spend at least fifteen to twenty minutes reflecting on this. Use our quotations as inspiration. We’ve provided some initial questions to help you explore this week's theme on a personal level, but feel free to follow your thoughts wherever they take you. It's not too late to start a journal to help you record and process those thoughts. If you’re so inspired, start a conversation about your meditation with a family member or friend.

Research/Reading: Spend some time this week learning about environmental issues in our local community and in the world. We'll be looking at an urban farm right here in Syracuse and how what we eat and grow not only impacts our bodies but also our environment.

Action: Follow our steps that you can take individually or as a family that will help you grow deeper this Lent spiritually while having a positive impact on the environment around you.

Now that you know the different components of our weekly journey, we hope you will join us each day or throughout the week to use this information as a guide.

Meditation:

Take some time to consider the following quotations:

“Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.” (Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin)
“Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul.” (Dorothy Day)
“For three weeks, I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips…” (Daniel 10: 2-3)
“When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so that their fasting may be seen by others… When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret…” (Matthew 6:16-18)

Take a moment to reflect on these questions.

Where does my food come from?
Who produced it and how was it produced?
How was it transported?
What sort of nutrition does it provide?
What impact does it have on my health?
What impact does its production have on our environment?

Check out these videos:

Research/Reading:

Brady Farm, on Syracuse’s South Side, is a Community Supported Agriculture project of the Brady Faith Center. Its mission is to provide affordable access to fresh, locally grown food, youth and adult education, employment, and environmental and economic sustainability. Learn about Brady Farm and its mission: www.bradyfarm.org
Change Your Diet; Change Our Destiny? “Our personal choices of what we eat not only affect our personal health, but also, indirectly, the health of the environment.” bit.ly/yourdietourdestiny
How Does Agriculture Change Our Climate? “We’re trading enormous greenhouse gas emissions for food to feed the planet.” bit.ly/agriclimatechange

Action:

Cut back on meat consumption. Pick a day (in addition to Friday) on which you don’t eat meat (e.g., meatless Mondays and Fridays). If you are feeling extra ambitious, try to go the entire week without eating any meat.
Observe the traditional Lenten fast (one full meal, plus two smaller meals that together do not equal the full meal) on Lenten weekdays, not just on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Try to eat mainly foods that are locally produced-perhaps join a CSA to support a local farm.
Plan on starting or expanding a vegetable garden.
Compost organic waste instead of putting it in garbage.
Donate to the Brady Farm. If you are feeling extra ambitious, plan to volunteer there weekly or occasionally—planting, tending, maintaining, harvesting.

Laudato Si’ Lenten Journey

Laudato Si’Circle Lenten Journey

Week Two