faithful food
Our Table as Refuge There also you and your households shall eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you. Deuteronomy 12:7 Gathering for weekly family dinners was not standard practice in my childhood. We ate together at my grandmother’s home for the “high holy” days of Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday and at my Mamaw’s for lesser noted days. The food, the atmosphere, the menu were vastly different, one formal, the other cloaked in its own sense of value. Throughout my children’s childhood years, I tried to establish a strong tradition of eating at the table. As my three part-time jobs substituted for a full time one, time became even more precious, still I hated the idea of eating in front of the television, so I kept at it.There were no conversational taboos at the dinner table; no forced 20
CATHOLIC CONNECTION
polite talking points. I wanted my children to know that we could discuss anything and the table seemed a good place for this exercise in trust. We have discussed everything from recess in elementary school, to politics, to who gets the last biscuit. I know it sounds comical. I think in those days I was aiming somewhere between the relationship dynamics of the Waltons and Roseanne. Fast forward to another place and time, dateline Shreveport 2022. Our family composition has changed, we have added daughters in law and grandchildren. The table, however, remains. On Sundays, in the late afternoon/ evening the table is laid with the requisite utensils and flowers and heartfelt laughter are added in memory of my two grandmothers, passionate discussions bring my mother into the mix. Another change in our dinners is today I don’t have to do all the cooking. Each one present offers a special dish, either a childhood favorite, a new dish tested by their
