Sleeping with Bread: Monday, October 6th

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Monday, October 6th

We are in the last three months of 2008! And from here, it is all turbo-charged with holidays, gift giving and receiving, costumes, trees... it just won't stop until New Year's Day.

Crazy, isn't it?

I hope the next few months of Sleeping with Bread provide a space to reflect, breathe, and rest from our schedules and obligations.

The usual:

Although the examen is a Christian practice and I am a Christian, I would hope that anyone who has something to share would feel welcome here.

Also, if you don't have your own blog and would like to participate, share your bread in the comments.

To holding on to what gives life,

Mary-LUE

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: It occurred to me over the weekend that I could no longer stave off my children's requests for pumpkins and gourds by saying, "It's not even October yet!"

I don't much feel like decorating, but I am ready to start a Christmas shopping list in hopes that I won't get too stressed trying to find the "perfect" gift. It really sucks the spirit right out of me, the commercialism and greed.; October 06, 2008 6:06 AM
Unknown said...: Finally got my post done today. Monday's are killers! I really need to write my post on Sundays and publish it on Mondays!; October 06, 2008 10:14 PM
Tara Lamont said...: I'm late with bread too - hope it is worth the wait.
Tara; October 07, 2008 10:27 PM

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What is Sleeping with Bread?

During the bombing raids of WWII, thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But many of these children who had lost so much could not sleep at night. They feared waking up to find themselves once again homeless and without food. Nothing seemed to reassure them. Finally, someone hit upon the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime. Holding their bread, these children could finally sleep in peace. All through the night the bread reminded them, "Today I ate and I will eat again tomorrow." (Linn, Dennis et al, Sleeping With Bread, p.l)

These are the beginning words of a book that introduced me to a practice called the examen. The orphans held on to what nourished them and were thus able to sleep peacefully at night. The examen, based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, helps a person hold onto what spiritually nourishes him by looking at what is giving him consolation in his life or causing him desolation. It allows someone to express his gratitude to God for the good stuff and turn to him for solace for the bad stuff. It is quite simple. You simply ask yourself, in the last day/week/month what gave me consolation and what caused me desolation.

How do you do it?

Sleeping with Bread is a Monday meme. You can participate in one of two ways: 1) Pick one of the above examen question sets and answer it in the comments section of my SWB post; or, 2) Create your own Sleeping with Bread post. You are welcome to right click on the Sleeping with Bread button and save it to your own computer before uploading into your post. Then, make sure you come back and put the link to your post in the automated Mr. Linky form at the end of the current SWB post. I hope you will join me and my fellow bakers as we Sleep with Bread on Mondays!