Around the kitchen table...

So many amazing things happen around the kitchen table, don't they? It's a place to gather as a family for nourishment of our bodies. However, it is truly a place to nourish our hearts and souls too. Yes, sometimes the atmosphere may be rather chaotic and we're spending more time as a parent trying to settle the little ones and be sure they are sitting on their chairs and not running around the house than we are carrying on any sort of understandable conversation or managing to eat much ourselves! No one said it would be Norman Rockwell picture perfect! But, we survive, don't we? And we look back and we can laugh. This is not to say that every meal is marked with turbulence and discord, but we know that they very well can be. Perhaps, we can drop the level of our expectations a bit and lighten up too so we can teach our children well and then eat without getting indigestion!

But, what about those soul enriching times too? They also happen as we gather as a family, united in love and as Christians. It's a wonderful time to regroup after some family members being away during the day at work or school. For home-schooling families, it's a time when Dad comes home to reconnect and all can sit down for that blessed event of breaking bread together. Let's be extra cognizant of what truly happens at our kitchen tables. God is present - amazing! He joins us in our domestic churches. Let's utilize our gathering as a time for prayer - Grace before and after meals and an Our Father or Hail Mary prayed together. We can voice a few prayer intentions for those in need as well. We then have created an occasion of family prayer along with our meal.

What else happens as we gather? We get to share about our days, recounting events, looking to tomorrow, too. Families are a blessed group of people that God has joined together to help each other work out our salvation! Isn't that great? So, next time you sit down to a meal with your family, whether it be at the table or on a blanket out in a park, or at a restaurant or diner someplace, let's be mindful of the amazing connection going on between all of us and the available graces for the asking. Let's think about our responses to all gathered. Do we act in love? Always?

I speak about these family gatherings in my books, particularly: The Heart of Motherhood: Finding Holiness in the Catholic Home, Grace Cafe: Serving up Recipes for Faithful Mothering, The Domestic Church: Room by Room: A Mother's Study Guide, and Catholic Prayer Book for Mothers. They are all available through my website: http://www.donnacooperoboyle.com .

I'd like to feature this topic, "Around the Kitchen Table" here at "View from the Domestic Church." I'd like to ask you all to share your stories here. What happens around your kitchen table? What sweet thing did your child voice out loud recently? What special connection did you see happening in your family today? What had you in stitches? What challenge did you experience but now have a way to overcome it? What became a teachable moment? Oh, I'm just full of questions, aren't I? Well, here are a couple of more! Can you share your experiences with us? Will you? Please do!

God bless all of our domestic churches, please God!