Tips for the Lenten Journey: Week 1
 

Christians believe that human beings are comprised of body, mind, and soul. More importantly we believe that body, mind, and soul form one interconnected and interdependent system. Yet, we live largely oblivious of this fact. We do notice when we suffer headaches, backaches, digestive distress, or skin conditions. We worry when we develop heart problems. Yet, we seldom make the connection between mind and body as the cause. The mind's job is to process emotion. Anxiety or stress is a form of emotion. When the mind experiences anxiety overload, the overflow of unprocessed emotional anxiety lodges in the tissues and organs of the body as psychosomatic distress. When we make the psychosomatic connection, and take steps to address our high levels of stress, our physical symptoms often clear up.

Today we are more aware of the interconnections between mind and body. However, we have forgotten something our ancestors knew better - the way the soul relates within the whole human system. Soul is the imprint of our God-nature; remember we are made in the image of God. This image is not physical, or emotional. Our God-image (imago-dei) is a spiritual likeness. In this life, the soul registers a sense of separation from its source in God. The difficulty lies in the unconscious nature of much of our soul-pain. As unconscious emotional pain can lead to physical illness, unconscious soul-pain powerfully drives our addictions of all kinds. Addiction, even if it's only to shopping is the symptoms of our attempts to fill the emptiness left by our physical separation from our divine origin.

Spiritual practices seek to address disruptions in our psycho-somatic-spiritual balance. This week I want to talk about fasting. Fasting is unfashionable in religious circles these days, which is ironic in a society obsessed with food and dieting. Fasting causes us to feel hungry. Feeling hungry is not pleasant although many of us endure it in the service of our body-image. Fasting is a way of enduring the somatic experience of hunger in the service of our God or soul-image. Fasting is not extreme privation or starvation. Fasting is simply mindfully altering the pattern of our consumption of food while taking care to maintain good hydration. Abstention from alcohol is a form of fasting. In both cases, we experience a somatic sense of loss that offers us a way to consciously register our profound, if largely unconscious longing for God - the source of our soul-distress.

Fasting alters our pattern of food consumption. It might mean after a light breakfast not eating, though continuing to hydrate for the remaining 7-8 hours of a day such as Wednesday or Friday, before enjoying a light meal in the evening. We return the next day to a normal pattern of eating, but having fasted the day before we are more aware of our way of using food to assuage spiritual hunger. Fasting hunger becomes the symptom for our spiritual hunger. Fasting brings into conscious, physical awareness the unconscious, spiritual hunger that drives much addictive, obsessive, highly anxious, and other generally unhelpful behaviors. Fasting might also result in taking something like meat or alcohol out of our normal pattern of consumption and translating our experience of loss into concern for the world through financial or practical support for a worthy project or good cause.

Don't take unnecessary risks and keep safe in the cold and snow! See those of you who can make it, in Church, this Sunday.

Mark+

Ukranian Easter Egg Painting Classes: Saturday afternoons during Lent: February 28, March 7,14,21 from 1-4pm at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 81 Warren Avenue, E. Prov. RI  02914 Adults $10, children $5. All supplies provided. Call 434-7456 for more information.
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