A spiritual feast for your home

Dec 13, 2024

What is your family’s favourite meal? Is it a holiday recipe, a simple weeknight dinner, or a gourmet dessert treat?

The Second Vatican Council teaches that “the treasures of the Bible are to be opened more lavishly, so that richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God’s Word”. Is the Bible a special table around which your family gathers, as it does for a favourite meal?

As we consider ways to share the Old Testament in the family, we discover that the Bible, whether prominently displayed or gathering dust on a shelf, offers rich spiritual nourishment for children, teenagers and adults in your home.

It is the key that opens the treasury of God. It is said that we live in the Age of Information. The information superhighway moves us through the highspeed traffic of news conveyed through television, the Internet, blogs, and instant messaging. We may have instant and high-speed access to information at our fingertips. But the search for human happiness and daily wisdom remains. What is the place of the Bible in this Information Age?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that the books of the Old Testament “are a storehouse of sublime teaching on God and of sound wisdom on human life, as well as a wonderful treasury of prayers; in them, too, the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden way.”

Much of the Old Testament takes the form of stories. The way God teaches resounds with human doubt, apathy and infidelity. In the drama of the biblical stories is reflected our own journeys of faith with our daily joys, works, struggles, and hopes which can become our prayer. Daily prayer can bless you, your family, and those you pray for. It can also invite more peace into your life, help you learn more about God’s plan for you.

Old Testament stories are especially compelling for young children who, with their natural capacity for awe and wonder, marvel at the unfolding of God’s saving action and living presence in the world. Biblical stories that reveal weakness and sin are opportunities to discuss, at age appropriate levels, our humanness in light of God’s love and mercy. Through the biblical range of human experiences, we learn God’s ways and our response of faith. As in human communication, our communication with God can be expressed in a variety of ways. We communicate with God using words and songs, in imagination and silence, and ritually or spontaneously. We can pray in church, our gardens, our cars, or in the workplace too. We can also pray lying in bed, as the first thing we do when we awake, and as the last thing we do as we drift off to sleep.

To bring the Old Testament to life, assign family members to gather artistic images that depict biblical stories and themes. Let the painting, sculpture, stained glass, or piece of sacred music serve as a discussion starter for the family reflection on God’s Word expressed in artistic forms.

The Psalms are a rich storehouse of prayers. In spite of overloaded family schedules, taking brief moments to pray together the Liturgy of the Hours, whether Morning or Evening Prayer, connects your home to the Church’s rhythm of praise, thanksgiving and intercession. There are many handy Catholic resources now available that makes daily praying of Morning and Evening prayers simple and sustainable.

Finally, Lectio Divina is another practical way to feast on the Old Testament in your home. It is a flexible and easy way to pray. This ancient Christian practice is very essential in our time and strongly encourages the Word of God. One first listens, notes what is given and responds in a way one is directed by the Holy Spirit. Tradition, as understood by the Church, is more than a collection of customs or time-honoured habits. It encompasses the Church’s teaching, life and worship. The Lectio Divina can also be an effective form of group prayer within the family. This kind of reflective listening allows the Holy Spirit to deepen awareness of God’s taking the initiative to speak to us. Prayer should always be our normal way of life – a sustained connection with God. Being persistent, constant, and untiring in prayer is crucial. God is untiring in trying to reach us, untiring in trying to come into our hearts. And, so must we too.

God’s ways are found in the Bible. The Bible is the world’s best bestseller. The Bible reveals that God fulfilled His saving plan of love to free us from sin, both in an explicit and implicit way. Some beliefs are more hidden. Love loves to hide secrets, so that when we find them, we are enraptured even more by their beauty. Not only is it God’s inspired Word, it is a great work of literature. It is a collection of books composed over many centuries, with many literary forms, including history, historical novels, parables, allegories, and poems.

It tells a tale that stretches back to the creation of the world and forward to the end of time. It speaks of faith, hope, love and forgiveness, describes every human emotion, depicts the heights and depths of human courage and depravity, and above all God’s unconditional love for humanity and His salvific plan. Such attitudinal changes bode well for Catholics, especially when reading and praying with the Word of God leads to lessons learned, hearts inspired and lives profoundly moved for good.

Through the steps of Lectio Divina – reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation – the wisdom of the Old Testament can bear rich fruit in your home and may even become your family’s favourite spiritual food.

(Kristen Priya Krishnan is an educationist by profession, a trained chef by passion, and an inspirationalist at heart. She actively serves in her parish within the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, contributing to the Formation Ministry as well as the Lectors and Commentators Ministry)