Being in the kitchen is a big part of a homemaker’s day. Cooking meals, washing dishes, washing down surfaces, this is something we do several times as day. And it’s hard work. It’s hard to prepare meals for a family–everyone has likes and dislikes, some have dietary restrictions, and cooking and preparing food can be a time consuming task, one that requires attention. Even if your household isn’t full of busy kids or your kids are a little older and can occupy themselves for a bit, cooking still requires focus and time.
Being in the kitchen can be exhausting, the work becomes repetitive, and sometimes it feels like a thankless task.
But there are some things I do as a Catholic to make my time in the kitchen less trying and to go about the tasks graciously.
Invite the Blessed Mother into Your Kitchen
We don’t often think of Mother Mary in the kitchen. We think of Our Lady at the foot of the cross, or appearing to the little children of Fatima. We picture her holding Jesus as a baby in the manager, but I think it’s easy for us to forget that Mary would have prepared the meals Jesus ate as a child. She would have cooked meals for the family and friends. She might even have felt some of the same frustrations that we feel in our kitchens as she washed plates and cups clean.
But I imagine the Blessed Mother saw the work she did in the kitchen as acts of love–she cooked because she loved her family, she washed dishes because she loved the person who would next eat from those plates. She welcomed others to share meals she prepared out of love. And I think that we sometimes forget that the meals we prepare we prepare out of love. I also think that we shift our thinking a little to remind us of this, that being the kitchen is less exhausting and instead the work we do there begins to bring us a sense of peace.
Suggested for You: Serving Your Home with Joy
At least that was my experience once I shifted my mindset.
One of the things I did to invite Mother Mary into my kitchen was place a little statue of Our Lady of Lourdes on my kitchen windowsill. Whenever I begin to feel at my wits end, I look over at Mary and I ask her to help me do the tasks with love.
I have to tell you, this has made all the difference.
Pray Before You Begin
Another thing we can do before we tackle all the kitchen tasks, is pray. I don’t do this myself, but I do think that I ought start. Ask the Lord to bless the work of your hands. Find a patron saint of cooking or motherhood and pray for intercession as you begin to cook a new meal or start a new family habit at meal time. St. Martha comes to mind and so does St. Monica, though there are likely others.
Prayer is so powerful and I have to wonder why it never really occurred to pray before I begin to put a messy kitchen back together. My habit has been to silently grumble, which fosters resentment though I am getting better at shifting my heart posture–which has brought me far more peace. But I do think that prayer would be the way to start cleaning and cooking in the kitchen. I plan to put this into practice now that it has occurred to me.
Final Thoughts
It is not easy doing the same day to day tasks over and over again. Many mothers are often burned out by the meal prep and cooking, and there are many ways modern mothers lighten the load of providing meals to their families. Perhaps they have one night where they order in, or they subscribe to a service like Hello Fresh to make the planning and prepping easier. There is nothing wrong with this as families have to be fed and mothers need to keep their sanity and health. We cannot be slaves to the work of the kitchen after all.
But one of the ways to lighten the load of the work of the kitchen–the cooking and washing up–is to bring the burden some of this brings us to the Lord.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
We forget that Jesus wants to walk side by side with us and share the heaviest parts of the load. When we turn to the Blessed Mother, when we pray for intercession, when we pray to the Lord, He will surely hear us and help us.
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