Sister Therese of Avila, in her kitchen prayer, states: "The Lord walks among the pots and pans."
Sister Mark Livingston of the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate did indeed find God there. Because of Him, she happily spent many years serving her community with domestic work in such places as Guardian Angel Home in Joliet and St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Joliet.
Sister Livingston knew and could quote the many Bible readings about food and serving others. She identified with the biblical Martha in her desire to be hospitable to others. Like Jesus, she could "multiply" the food to feed a multitude and supplied parish festivals with her pies and other baked specialties and enjoyed trying new recipes.
"She said she served the church indirectly so the sisters who did teaching and other work for the church did not have to get meals, wash and do other duties, said Sister Juanita Ujcik, who lived with Sister Livingston for many years.
"She believed this work serves to intensify the life and holiness of God’s people on Earth. She recognized the dignity and sacredness of food service apostolate and believed that it led to the eternal banquet of love in heaven."
Sister Livingston was 91 when she died May 31.
In addition to her food preparations, Sister Livingston’s brand of Christian ministry exemplified the value of teamwork. She often performed her kitchen work side by side with her twin sibling, Sister Luke. Neither one of them, Sister Ujcik said, ever took the spotlight in anything.
4 comments
When you wrote “Sister Therese of Avila” is that the same Saint Therese of Avila? I love the idea of the Lord walking among the pots and pans.
As a holy card collector, I’d love to have a holy card of such a vision. I think every kitchen would have this picture hanging there to remind us of HIM.
It sure sounds like something St. Teresa of Avila would say. Probably right after somebody complained about having to do KP. 🙂
Sor Juana de la Cruz said that if Aristotle and the other Greek philosophers had ever had to do their own cooking, they would have learned a lot more about science. 🙂
“She said she served the church indirectly”.
Aw, I don’t think so, except in the eyes of the world. I think her work was as direct as you can get!
This reminds me of a poem, which I copied below:
“St. Alphonsus Rodriguez”
Laybrother of the Society of Jesus
By Gerard Manley Hopkins
HONOUR is flashed off exploit, so we say;
And those strokes once that gashed flesh or galled shield
Should tongue that time now, trumpet now that field,
And, on the fighter, forge his glorious day.
On Christ they do and on the martyr may; 5
But be the war within, the brand we wield
Unseen, the heroic breast not outward-steeled,
Earth hears no hurtle then from fiercest fray.
Yet God (that hews mountain and continent,
Earth, all, out; who, with trickling increment, 10
Veins violets and tall trees makes more and more)
Could crowd career with conquest while there went
Those years and years by of world without event
That in Majorca Alfonso watched the door.