Mary DeTurris Poust Quotes

#1. Taken slowly, or mindfully, even eating an orange or a bowl of soup, or a small piece of dark chocolate for that matter, can take on the flavor or prayer.

Mary DeTurris Poust

#2. Only by emptying ourselves out before God will we find fullness within ourselves.

Mary DeTurris Poust

#3. We are always hungry and never satisfied because we don't trust and won't risk. Can we reach a place where we are satisfied with just enough? You are enough. You have enough. Do not worry about tomorrow. God will provide in our lives just as God provides in the Eucharist.

Mary DeTurris Poust

#4. How we prepare our food, how we consume our food really makes a difference in how our food satisfies us and shapes the role we give food in our lives. Is it something we stuff in to satisfy an urge or something we savor to feed us physically and sustain us spiritually?

Mary DeTurris Poust

#5. Yelling while eating was like swallowing anger. It's simply not good for us. It leaves us unhappy and unsatisfied, as if the meal didn't count or wasn't good, and an hour later we're back looking for something to make us feel better.

Mary DeTurris Poust

#6. Even if you can't be totally mindful at every meal, if you can say a blessing, silently if necessary, or offer up a prayer for someone, something beyond yourself and your food, the prayer helps to transform eating into something that affects not only our hunger at that moment but the greater world.

Mary DeTurris Poust

#7. We're hungry for acceptance - from ourselves even more than from others - for love, for fulfillment, for peace. We're hungry for a life we think we don't deserve or can't have, for the person we know we can be if only we'd give ourselves the chance.

Mary DeTurris Poust

#8. Our culture tries to convince us on just about every front that more is better. More is a sign of wealth, luxury, power. Gone are the days when meals were moments of connection and conversation; now it's all about consumption and calories.

Mary DeTurris Poust

#9. Prepare your food in keeping with monastic traditions - simple, basic, healthy, balanced.

Mary DeTurris Poust

#10. Not every breakfast needs to be something worthy of posting to a food blog. Sometimes food is simply fuel, something we eat to live. But with TV ads and billboards and in-store displays saying otherwise - in colorful and provocative ways - that can be a hard case to make.

Mary DeTurris Poust

#11. We cling to the comfortable rather than step out into the possible.

Mary DeTurris Poust

#12. When we link our eating and our prayer and begin to see food as part of a much bigger picture, rather than the focal point of our entire lives, we reshape the way we think, the way we act, and the way we interact.

Mary DeTurris Poust

#13. Just as the Eucharist fuels our soul and our spirit, good healthful meals fuel our bodies for the work God calls each of us to do in his kingdom. Praying before we consume a meal or when we are feeling exhausted and stressed helps to bring this "body and soul" connection into the light

Mary DeTurris Poust