Prayer of Stewardship
Teach Me Gratitude
Holy Spirit,
open my heart to understand how precious I am to you,
how loved I am by you.
Open the eyes of my soul, to see the gifts you have put before me this day.
Give me the grace to recognize each encounter with you.
Teach me to respond in gratitude, to grow in gratitude.
Teach me to be generous, as you are generous with me, and to collaborate with you in serving my sister and my brother for your greater glory.
Written by Rebecca Ruiz
Knowledge
In this edition of our Lenten YLBG series on how our food choices affect our health and the planet's health, we will focus on animal consumption and our health.
It is not only the health of our planet we should look at when we think of reducing our intake of animal protein. It’s our own health too! Most of us know, in general, that getting more fruit and veg is important for our health. Somehow though, that doesn’t always translate to eating fewer animal products. At least, it doesn’t for me, especially not when it comes to cheese!
Thankfully, even the Mayo Clinic tells us that eliminating meat from just two meals a week can benefit our health. They suggest focusing meatless meals on fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, peas, lentils, seeds, and nuts. These meals are rich in fiber, protein, vitamins, and other nutrients.
Reducing protein from animal sources is not only heart healthy, diets high in animal protein have been linked in studies to cancer and dementia disorders. There are many reasons to reduce our consumption of meat, both for the planet and ourselves.
Action
I hope you will reflect on the good you are doing on these Fridays of Lent if you are able to go meat free! Remember, you are reducing your risk of several debilitating disease each time you choose a non-meat option. A companion guideline to this is to “eat the rainbow.”
Having a variety of colorful foods means you are getting different nutrients.
One of the easiest meals to make meat free is Tex-Mex! Just sub in refried beans. But look
for the ‘vegetarian’ kind with vegetable shortening instead of animal lard. Who knew Taco Tuesday could support your health? You can find some options for your meatless meals on vegetarian websites like Rainbow Plant Life and The Plant Based School.