Episcopal Relief & Development’s 2025 LENTEN Meditation Journey . . . A COMMONPLACE Lent

The members should serve one another. Consequently, no members will be excused from kitchen service unless they are sick. —Rule of Saint Benedict
Everyone does a turn in the kitchen. —Procter Community Practices

When stay-home orders went into effect at the beginning of the pandemic, our household, like many, had to adopt new routines and practices. One change we made was how we cooked dinner. Since everyone in our household was old enough to cook and clean, we made a dinner schedule. My husband and I each cooked two nights each week, and our kids cooked one each. The seventh night was for leftovers or sandwiches.

This system served us well all through the pandemic, with only one modification. After a few weeks, it became clear that we needed to add the caveat “if
you cook, you clean” to our practice. It turned out that some members of our household needed a lesson in mindfulness regarding the messes they made—messes they were happy to leave for someone else to clean.

“If you cook, you clean” helped us all develop a greater awareness of cause and effect regarding our choices and actions, and not just in the kitchen. Inspired by this lesson and the Rule of Saint Benedict, our diocesan camp counselors serve at least one week in the kitchen. All campers take turns serving on “KP” (kitchen patrol) duty: wiping down and sanitizing the tables after meals, sweeping the dining hall floor and taking the compost and slop up to the farm after supper. We do this because it’s important to our camp’s culture for everyone to see themselves as part of a greater whole—to understand that their choices and actions affect the entire camp community.

Camps, like our homes and churches, exist for the flourishing of the whole. And it is only when the whole works with great intentionality to lovingly seek and serve Christ in each other,
each willing to do the most thankless tasks, that flourishing will happen.

For REFLECTION:

What thankless or inconvenient tasks or roles might you take on for a season to contribute to the flourishing of your household or faith community?

Click here to read the introduction to the 2025 Lenten Meditation “A Commonplace Lent.”

The Lenten Meditations prepared by Episcopal Relief & Development invite readers to deepen their spiritual practice during the season of Lent, the time of preparation leading to Easter. Our 2025 meditations explore the idea of “A Commonplace Lent.” This concept reflects Episcopal Relief & Development’s tagline: “Working Together for Lasting Change.” We share in common the work of advancing lasting change in communities impacted by injustice, poverty, disaster and climate change.

We also share in common spiritual practices that strengthen our faith—prayer, worship, love, grace, service and so much more. The author explores another meaning of common in the  meditations: finding God in the common and ordinary as well as in the extraordinary mountain-top moments. Each day begins with wisdom from desert mothers and fathers, monastics and other spiritual leaders who offer insight into our common path of faithful discipleship and service. Each meditation concludes with a question for deeper reflection.

Episcopal Relief & Development is the compassionate response of The Episcopal Church to human suffering in the world. Hearing God’s call to seek and serve Christ in all persons and to respect the dignity of every human being, Episcopal Relief & Development serves to bring together the generosity of Episcopalians and others with the needs of the world.

This Lenten Meditation Journey is provided courtesy of Episcopal Relief & Development and was authored by Jerusalem Jackson Greer, co-executive director and agrarian minister for the Procter Center, an Episcopal farm, camp and retreat center in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. As former manager of evangelism and discipleship for The Episcopal Church under Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, she co-founded the Good News Garden movement and oversaw Way of Love and Evangelism initiatives for the wider church.