Vocation and the Big Guns

Mary in the Kitchen by Sarah Reinhard – CF109: Lent. It’s What’s For Dinner

I’ve had a couple of big projects of late that have required nothing less than the Big Guns.

By Big Guns I mean, of course, my mother-in-law’s kitchen.

Maybe you have a kitchen like this in your life.

From it, my mother-in-law, who raised six kids, runs a veritable operation. She bakes pies. She makes soups and sandwiches. She gets snacks. She counsels the anxious and prays for anyone she can think of. She cleans in a cycle that never seems to stop.

And that’s just what she did for me the other day when I was there.

Her kitchen is an oasis for me. There’s no shortage of hot tea, never a lack of laughter, and always plenty of, well, whatever I need.

I imagine Mary’s kitchen was like this too.

My goal in life, if I’m honest, is to have my kids view MY kitchen this way someday.

The way to that, though, is one that Mary shows me is not easy. It’s not a list of things easily done, crossed off, over.

Instead, it’s a mindset and a philosophy, a way of embracing what God is asking me to do and who God is asking me to be.

In this season of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, as we journey to the Cross through Lent, let’s pause in our kitchens, join hands with Mary, and offer a decade of the rosary for our vocations.

Image courtesy of Taras Kalapun on Flickr.com.