Lenten Cooking: A Reflection

If you have spent any amount of time perusing our blog, or if you have seen any of our social media posts (which you should definitely follow), then you know that we love good food. Our favorite memories as a couple almost always involve sitting down and eating a delicious meal, and its why we’ve spent the time to put together Our Catholic Kitchen for you, to spread our love of cooking and delicious food. However, with the season of Lent now in full swing, we have entered a season of fasting and, yes, a season where the food should not be nearly as delicious. This post will hopefully show why that is a great thing.

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Supper_%28Leonardo%29

Before starting, I know that it is all too easy to give up only trivial things until Easter. When we were kids and knew little of our faith, we would give up things like chocolate or sweets, or if we were being particularly mischievous, we would try to give up school to see if we could actually get away from it. If this describes you, we challenge you to use this Lent as an opportunity to give up something more meaningful, more challenging. Many of our friends and family engage in severe fasting during this liturgical season, eating once a day or eating nothing at all for days at a time. While this is a great thing to do, if you are younger in your faith, a great (and more manageable) thing to do may be to give up meat on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Okay, with a Lenten challenge issued and the stage set, let’s get into this.

Looking at any Catholic cookbook, you will see countless recipes for lentils, beans, and legumes. Most of these meals end up being some form of soup or stew, clearly designed to try and satiate the person as much as possible with less filling ingredients. Many other recipes are seafood heavy, shellfish, fish, and various crustaceans are Lent staples for many people. Although, while the all-too-common practice of Lenten fish fries can be a great opportunity for community, a lot of times it can turn into gluttony and really defeats the purpose of the Lenten season. Generally though, seafood dishes are either going to be much simpler and less filling than meat dishes or will be so technical that most home cooks won’t be able to execute them well without great effort and time. Regardless, the cuisine for a Catholic during Lent is less full of flavor and satiety than the rest of the year. This is a great thing.

When we give things up for Lent, we affirm our love for God. We train ourselves and our wills to consider Him before the things that we are foregoing. Moreover, if you are anything like us, Lent is also the season that fills us with the greatest sense of humility, as we often realize just how much we desire the things that we give up and realize that our attachments to these things may be greater than they should. This liturgical season reminds us how well God sustains us and gives us grace. Despite our many sins and offenses towards Him, He continues to give us the grace of the sacraments and, furthermore, provides the grace that we need to sacrifice for Him. This is a humbling experience, especially today, when almost every part of our daily lives can be augmented with comfort and excess. Empty space can be filled with music or podcasts, and if we ever have a craving, we can fulfill that craving within minutes from an app without ever having to leave the bed or the couch.

In this humility comes the beauty of Lent and, by extension, the beauty of Lenten food. We are too comfortable always being comfortable. And while we say that we love God, we are often unwilling to forego even the most simple of pleasures for His sake. Our modern comforts can be a great thing, and they take away much of the struggle that our parents and our parents’ parents endured, but they also easily become a crutch. The simple truth is that not every whim needs to be immediately satisfied. Boredom or silence does not always need to be filled, and not every meal needs to be the most delicious thing we’ve ever eaten. In fact, it’s more proper to say that not every silence should be filled and not every meal should be overly enjoyed, and that’s okay.

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraculous_catch_of_fish#/media/File:Raphael_-_The_Miraculous_Draft_of_Fishes_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

In the relative silence and simpleness of Lent we come appreciate the things that we have. What we’ve given up for God is good, but we realize that He is more good. When our bellies are grumbling or our minds can’t stop thinking about meat, sweets, or whatever else we may have given up, it is an opportunity for us to thank God for allowing us to have these things in the first place. It’s a chance to prove our love to Him. And, most importantly, our fasting points our souls toward what will inevitably come at the end of Lent, Christ’s resurrection from the dead at Easter. When we have gone without these good things during the Lenten season, we appreciate them more whenever we have them after Easter has come, and we should appreciate the one who gives us these things even more.

And so during this Lent, we want to encourage you all in your journey into the desert with Christ. Whether you are giving up social media, fasting entirely, or doing some other penance, please know that we will pray for you. We may still post a delicious recipe or two before Easter, but we hope that you enjoy it when the time is right, whether on a Sunday during this Lenten season or after Easter has come. As always, we appreciate your support and hope that your Lent is as fruitful as it can be.