�Our body is a cenacle, a monstrance; through its crystal the world should see God.�
~Saint Gianna Molla
Kate Wicker posted this on her blog the other day and it’s been sitting in my heart ever since. It came to mind yesterday afternoon when I went to confession and again as I pondered today’s beautiful feast of Corpus Christi. I really wanted to go to the holy hour at our parish this afternoon but circumstances conspired against me. Especially Anthony wanting to nurse non-stop all afternoon.
Then I’ve been pondering this beautiful little video that Pat Gohn posted on her site:
It gives me chills. That moment when I see the priest reaching into his bag and pulling out the monstrance. The rapt look as he holds it up and adores. The expressions of the people who stop to wonder and worship. It’s beautiful.
That video in turn reminded me of this video that I first saw a few years ago:
Powerful. It fills my heart with yearning. Longing.
And both the videos bring me back to Saint Gianna. To be a monstrance, to carry Christ to the world. To show him in my every action and word. The words themselves are piercing; but when I combine them with the image of hat Franciscan priest holding the monstrance up as people drop to their knees on a busy city street…. How can I bring Christ to everyone I meet so that they truly feel they are in His presence? What a challenge! I suppose the first step is to be in His presence myself, to draw closer and closer to Him.
I wish I knew the source of the St Gianna quote. I’ve read two biographies of her (Saint Gianna Molla: Wife, Mother, Doctor and Blessed Gianna Beretta Molla: A Woman’s Life but would like to go deeper to know her better. She calls to me in my vocation as a mother but also in the way she lived her vocation as a physician, healing and ministering to all her patients. I’d love to read more of her actual writings and not just books about her. What does she say on prayer and on vocation? Any suggestions for additional reading?
Can you stand to make soup when it’s hot outside? Soup (or more often, chili) is a common emergency meal around here, but I can’t bear to make it in the summer.
Fried rice works okay as a catchall dish, though, because you don’t heat the house up so much.
You know it didn’t even occur to me not to make soup just because it’s summer. Though I must say it wasn’t particularly hot yesterday.
I think on the whole it depends on how desperate I am about dinner. I love to cook but getting a meal on the table every day can be one of my big stress points. I’ll sometimes make soup if I know I can and I’m at my wits end about dinner. Sometimes just having a plan makes me willing to put up with the heat. And then it doesn’t heat up the house as much as making pizza, which I always crave so much more in the summer than in the winter when it would be so much more sensible. Perhaps finally having a house with central AC after several years where we had window units in the bedrooms and living room but not in the kitchen makes it also seem not quit so hot. It gets warm but I know it will cool down by bedtime.
Your soup actually sounds wonderful! I need to get on it with some soups (of course I’m in south eastern NC where it’s been close to 100 degrees every day for the past month or so—hot soup somehow seems less appetizing right now than it will in a few months!).