consumption – Madison Catholic Herald Archive (2001-2025)

To the editor:

In reference to the recent column on the Parable of the Prodigal Son by the Bishop of the Diocese of Madison, His Excellency finds a spirit of entitlement to be pervasive in current-day American culture.

Granted, many if not most of us have the standard of living of the wealthiest of persons, both by historical standards and by standards of much of the world today. This, of course, needs to be qualified that there remain many, in our midst, who “fall through the cracks” and are in dire need, but again, this is fortunately not the case with most of us.

Guest column

On February 24, 2011

Tom Nelson

Food, eating, and Lent

Eating is a sacred act, for it represents the natural inclination for sustenance which powers all living bodies and therefore is the life-sustaining force of the Creator.

The Psalmist wrote: “(O Lord) You raise grass for the cattle, and vegetation for men’s use, Producing bread from the earth and wine to gladden men’s hearts, So that their faces gleam with oil, and bread fortifies the hearts of men” (Psalm 104: 14, 15).

In the same passage he continues, “They all look to you to give them food in due time. When you give it to them, they gather it; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.”

Tending the earth

In the earliest section of the Genesis narrative, God the Creator blows life into a shaped lump of earthen clay and from this act of His spirit the human family was born.