In progress… xoxo, Erika+
What is Eating Liturgically? The short answer? It’s mindful meal planning around the Episcopal Liturgical Calendar, which the Rev. Erika began as a spiritual practice in 2016, long before she began discernment for ordination in the Episcopal Church. It has grown to a social media presence, and is an ongoing source of spiritual contemplation, prayer, and reminder to eat delicious food. It involves noticing feast and fast days, and intentionally *not* feasting or fasting on “fierce” days. The long answer? Read more HERE.
What is the Episcopal Liturgical Calendar? It is the calendar of the church seasons, feast days, and special events laid out starting from Jesus’ birth (Advent) to the time after Pentecost (Ordinary Time). The church calendar is laid out in The Book of Common Prayer, and the big picture is entirely dependent on Easter – the liturgical seasons like Lent and Pentecost/Ordinary Time are oriented to that date. The weekly rhythm is oriented around Sunday, the weekly feast remembering Christ’s resurrection (so, also Easter). For the Daily Office (and also, Eating Liturgically), you orient yourself to the larger liturgical season and what weekday it is after which Sunday within that season.
Do all Episcopalians eat this way? Oh, heavens no. This is very much something I, Erika the individual person, decided to do…although the Book of Common Prayer which all Episcopalians are to orient themselves to in worship and prayer *does* include Feast Days and Special Days of Devotion for fasting and prayer. There is a very wide latitude as to how to incorporate such things into your personal spiritual life, and there is no Episcopal “rulebook” on how to eat. This is not like the Roman Catholic tradition of fasting from meat on Fridays, for example – this is not a mandate from on high, but a practice from within…if it speaks to you…
Do I have to be Episcopalian to try out Eating Liturgically? Nope. I am 100% Episcopalian and the calendar and theological understandings referenced in my contemplations are 100% Anglican…but even within that umbrella, there’s a wide range of interpretation of things. I am in an interfaith family, and I have a masters in inter-religious studies, and think other perspectives could be really fruitful in this kind of spiritual practice. If you love God, or love Food, or love Calendars, or long for some Order To Your Week…please, you are very very welcome.
What is a Feast Day? A Feast Day is a day when you rejoice and be glad in remembrance of…something! Every Sunday is a Feast Day, when we remember the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. There are also special Feast Days for saints, or events in Jesus’ life (like his Baptism.) There are whole seasons of Feasting too: the 12 Days of Christmas are 12 Feast Days. Eastertide has 50 straight days of Feasting (it’s a big deal, that resurrection thing!).
There are also “personal” feasts – Birthdays, Baptism Anniversaries, Celebrations…anytime you are rejoicing and being glad in remembrance of something, giving thanks to God with and through it – have a Feast! Or at least a Feast Meal.
In my Eating Liturgically practice, I do two things on Feast Days. 1. I try to plan a special meal or dessert around that specific Feast Day. (There are a lot of recipes and food traditions over the centuries for these Christian feast days to play with!) 2. I try to notice when delightful tastes and treats come my way during the day, and I enjoy with vim!
What is a Fast Day? A Fast Day is a day when you create space through abstaining from some form of food or drink or behavior. There are specific Fast Days on the liturgical calendar. Every Friday is a day set aside for fasting and spiritual devotion. The Lenten season and Holy Week are specific Fasting seasons, where you fast, pray, and give. Sometimes the Presiding Bishop will call for a day of fasting and prayer.
In my Eating Liturgically practice, my Fast Days shift in practice quite a bit. I’ve gone from eating vegan, to skipping lunch, to “no cheese day,” to smoothies & salads day…as someone who has flirted with disordered eating, I try not to label foods as bad/good, or fast/not-fast, and I try to mix up the literal practice so it doesn’t get too codified in my brain. The point is that I notice, that it creates a pause in my thinking and space in my day.
What is a Fierce Day? A Fierce Day is a day that is neither a Feast nor a Fast Day. This is more important than it sounds. Feast Days aren’t special if you Feast on non-Feast Days – so a Fierce Day is a day you’re intentionally not Feasting. Fast Days aren’t meaningful if you Fast on non-Fast Days, so a Fierce Day is a day you’re intentionally not restricting.
I went with Fierce because: 1. I love alliteration and 2. the dismissal to “go in peace to love and serve the Lord” at the end of Sunday worship always sounds so…Fierce!…to me. Go out! Do! Love! Serve! And to do all that…you need energy! You need fuel. So, on Fierce Days, I focus on protein and fiber, on fruits and veg, on drinking my water. If cake comes my way, I say no thank you. If I’m tempted to skip a meal, I don’t let myself.
What is a Fragile Day? Some days you’re just not feelin’ Fierce. Some days, even though it’s a Feast, you need to rest and heal and not eat cake. Some days, even though it’s a Fast, you need to eat and feel full to comfort your spirit.
I have depression, and though it’s in a manageable state these days, I know very well how, even with the best of intentions, some days you’re just…Fragile. I give myself, and I give everyone, honestly, the grace to have a day of warm soups and comfort foods to feed your soul when it’s feeling frayed and blue.
How is this not a diet/disordered eating? Honestly? It can be. You can take this framework and make it very strict indeed. You can take this spiritual practice and use it to punish yourself, to try to lose weight, to try to eat as “clean” as possible. This, like any spiritual practice, any good deed, can be contorted and twisted to be something other than love of self and love of God.
I’ve been Eating Liturgically for a decade now. Sometimes it’s been freeing and prayerful. Sometimes it’s been less healthy. I learn and grow.
All I can say is that the intention is not to be a weight loss plan. The intention is not to say what it’s okay to eat or not eat. The point of my Eating Liturgically spiritual practice is to orient my days, orient my very physical self, to a God who sat at a table and said “take, eat.” A God who, from the earliest times of people singing and praying to Them, was described as something you “taste and see.” I have to eat every day. Beginning with the liturgical calendar, beginning in prayer, and intention – it grounds me.