Seeds of Truth
There are three bird feeders in front of our house. They are tucked among shrubbery and trees in front of our family room window. From inside we observe an ever-changing parade of birds: cardinals, nuthatches, sparrows, chickadees, woodpeckers, finches and an occasional squirrel. If the feeders run out of seed, our winged friends sit amidst branches in front of our family room window – staring in at us! When it snows, we shovel a pathway to the feeders. When the shrubs are overgrown, we cut back the brush. During harsh New England winters, that food means survival to our birds; in spring’s abundance, it’s an added blessing.
Recently, we had a transplant to birds’ milieu. It was our outdoor statue of Mary, the Blessed Mother. Her formal title is Our Lady of Grace; her nickname is Our Lady of Forest Street. She was the center of our backyard garden but was moved temporarily because of an on-going yard project. I enjoyed her overseeing this ornithological café. As I’d gaze out the window at our feeders, I’d wonder if Mary ever threw crumbs outside for the birds. I’d muse about her being the mother and cook in her home, making meals for Joseph and Jesus around her table – making sure they ate right!
At our house, feeding others, and making sure they eat right, is largely my job as a mother. It’s also my joy to remember the birds. Many mornings, after preparing lunch boxes –another feeding ritual-- I’d often ask a bus-stop-bound child to refill the feeders.
These feasting and sometimes fasting (oops!) birds remind me of how important it is to stay close to a food source. I have other reminders of this truth: two teenagers and a wannabe. The pressing question each afternoon after a mountain of snack food is consumed is, “What’s for dinner?”
Sitting down to our family’s evening meal takes many forms. Sometimes it’s a resting-place from the day’s labors--nourishment, pure and simple. Sometimes it’s a stop-off “en route.” Sometimes it’s intelligence gathering and analysis. Mostly, it is checking in, catching up. The dinner hour is a lifeline to knowing each other better.
As a Catholic family, we need to stay close to the food source for our spiritual lives too. Our family attends Sunday Mass to be fed by the Holy Eucharist. We make retreats. We pray and read the Scriptures. We go to the Source – our Father who feeds us… much like the birds Jesus describes: They neither sow nor reap, yet their Father in heaven feeds them. (Mt. 6:26)
Jesus wants us to be well fed by His Word and Body. The food miracles and the celebrations with food in the New Testament prove it. Only Jesus turned water to wine, fed 5000 with a few loaves and fish, turned ordinary bread and wine into his Body and Blood. The same Jesus who cooked breakfast on the beach for his friends after his resurrection is the same Jesus who prepares a meal for us whenever we attend a Mass. It will be Jesus who welcomes us at the banquet feast one day in Heaven.
I believe it was Mary, by her statue’s humble proximity to our bird feeders, who inspired me to look carefully at what is nourishing us during this Year of the Eucharist, as proclaimed by Pope John Paul II. In his encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharista, he states: “Mary is present, with the Church and as the Mother of the Church, at each of our celebrations of the Eucharist. If the Church and the Eucharist are inseparably united, the same ought to be said of Mary and the Eucharist.”[1] Mary knows what it takes to stay close to Jesus, and offers us a holy model so we can do the same.
Like the birds needing that daily intake of seeds in a hungry world, so it is with my family and Jesus. We have to come to Him often – several times a day even! – like the birds to our feeders. When faith is scarce, this is survival. When faith is abundant, this is an added blessing.
Just like we maintain the path to the feeders, we have to make a path to Christ. We have to eliminate the obstacles between us: to be fed, to know each other better, and to have life.
And finally, where we find Jesus, we will also find Mary, close by like the Mother she is, making sure we are eating right.
Copyright 2005 Patricia W. Gohn
[1] Ecclesia de Eucharista, Chapter 6, paragraph 57.
This article appeared previously in CatholicMom.com.
Recently, we had a transplant to birds’ milieu. It was our outdoor statue of Mary, the Blessed Mother. Her formal title is Our Lady of Grace; her nickname is Our Lady of Forest Street. She was the center of our backyard garden but was moved temporarily because of an on-going yard project. I enjoyed her overseeing this ornithological café. As I’d gaze out the window at our feeders, I’d wonder if Mary ever threw crumbs outside for the birds. I’d muse about her being the mother and cook in her home, making meals for Joseph and Jesus around her table – making sure they ate right!
At our house, feeding others, and making sure they eat right, is largely my job as a mother. It’s also my joy to remember the birds. Many mornings, after preparing lunch boxes –another feeding ritual-- I’d often ask a bus-stop-bound child to refill the feeders.
These feasting and sometimes fasting (oops!) birds remind me of how important it is to stay close to a food source. I have other reminders of this truth: two teenagers and a wannabe. The pressing question each afternoon after a mountain of snack food is consumed is, “What’s for dinner?”
Sitting down to our family’s evening meal takes many forms. Sometimes it’s a resting-place from the day’s labors--nourishment, pure and simple. Sometimes it’s a stop-off “en route.” Sometimes it’s intelligence gathering and analysis. Mostly, it is checking in, catching up. The dinner hour is a lifeline to knowing each other better.
As a Catholic family, we need to stay close to the food source for our spiritual lives too. Our family attends Sunday Mass to be fed by the Holy Eucharist. We make retreats. We pray and read the Scriptures. We go to the Source – our Father who feeds us… much like the birds Jesus describes: They neither sow nor reap, yet their Father in heaven feeds them. (Mt. 6:26)
Jesus wants us to be well fed by His Word and Body. The food miracles and the celebrations with food in the New Testament prove it. Only Jesus turned water to wine, fed 5000 with a few loaves and fish, turned ordinary bread and wine into his Body and Blood. The same Jesus who cooked breakfast on the beach for his friends after his resurrection is the same Jesus who prepares a meal for us whenever we attend a Mass. It will be Jesus who welcomes us at the banquet feast one day in Heaven.
I believe it was Mary, by her statue’s humble proximity to our bird feeders, who inspired me to look carefully at what is nourishing us during this Year of the Eucharist, as proclaimed by Pope John Paul II. In his encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharista, he states: “Mary is present, with the Church and as the Mother of the Church, at each of our celebrations of the Eucharist. If the Church and the Eucharist are inseparably united, the same ought to be said of Mary and the Eucharist.”[1] Mary knows what it takes to stay close to Jesus, and offers us a holy model so we can do the same.
Like the birds needing that daily intake of seeds in a hungry world, so it is with my family and Jesus. We have to come to Him often – several times a day even! – like the birds to our feeders. When faith is scarce, this is survival. When faith is abundant, this is an added blessing.
Just like we maintain the path to the feeders, we have to make a path to Christ. We have to eliminate the obstacles between us: to be fed, to know each other better, and to have life.
And finally, where we find Jesus, we will also find Mary, close by like the Mother she is, making sure we are eating right.
Copyright 2005 Patricia W. Gohn
[1] Ecclesia de Eucharista, Chapter 6, paragraph 57.
This article appeared previously in CatholicMom.com.
posted by Pat Gohn at
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