Denver Catholic

15 DENVER CATHOLIC | MARCH 21-27, 2015 T his Lent I've had a sense that my abstinence from red meat hasn't been sacrifi cial enough because there are so many other delicious foods to choose from. Fruits and vegetables of every color, fresh fi sh or shellfi sh, eggs, yogurt, the list goes on. Now, don't get me wrong, I do miss my bacon on Friday mornings, but really we have so many other non-meat options to choose from. I realize that the American experi- ence with food is quite uncommon. In this country, this extraordinarily wealthy country, our supermarkets are overfl owing with God's gifts from around the globe. Two summers ago, my husband and I decided to try the Paleo diet. In a nut- shell, the Paleo diet includes vegetables, fruits, meats, nuts and seeds, and the oil that comes from nuts and seeds. What it doesn't include is processed foods, grain, dairy and sugar. We had never felt healthier or more energetic in our whole lives, so after two months, though we did re-introduce occasional dairy and select grains back into our diet, we kept many of our Paleo habits. Spiritually, this way of eating gave me a deep sense of gratitude for the gifts that God gives us every day in the form of food. The rich colors. The vibrant fl avors. The vitamins and minerals that keep our bodies alive. It's really quite amazing if you stop to think about it. Yet most people around the globe don't have the endless food choices that we do. Most couldn't even try the Paleo diet if they wanted to. That got me thinking: while the Church encourages us to abstain from red meat on Fridays, abstinence is simply the minimum requirement. What if we give up more? What if on Fridays we pretend that we don't live in America? What if we prepare a meal that a person living in third-world poverty might eat? What if we use this as an opportunity to teach our children what that person's plate looks like? Or rather, what their piece of wood or leaf or scrap-paper looks like? We may be shocked to see how dif- ferent it looks from our own, and over dinner, we can share our feelings and thoughts about how we can help those living in poverty. In this way, families can connect through prayer, fasting and almsgiving using God's gift of food as a teacher. Laura Cramer works in Denver, and in her free time enjoys leading an Endow study group and discovering the majesty of the West with her husband, Kenn. Follow her at www. patchworkpapist.com. Guest Column LAURA CRAMER Why I'm pretending I don't live in America next Friday Give up radio? In addition to EWTN, the Station of the Cross out of northern New York should be noted as a good option in Lent and year round. Catholic radio programs are available for free listening anytime, anywhere in the world over the Internet. One of my favorite programs, available in podcast form, is an hour-long radio show "Calling All Catholics." This call-in radio show features a di' erent Cath- olic priest each weekday answering questions about our faith. They also accept questions via email. Find out more at www.thestatio nofthecross.com. They o' er a free app for your phone called iCatholic Radio that makes listening to the shows quite easy. MATT HAYES Greenwood Village We're enjoying the new Denver Catholic newspa- per's clean, uncluttered format and streamlined content. But the "Give up radio?" article missed a great opportunity! Word is still getting out that the local Catholic radio group recently acquired a new station, KRCN AM 1060, with greater coverage and a much stronger signal than its predecessor, KPIO AM 1570. The authors did suggest some excellent Lenten alternatives to the usual car radio fare. But in much of the diocese we now have excellent Catho- lic content broadcast to us 24 hours a day. I propose another Lenten option— tune your car radio to AM 1060 for the next few weeks and discover what KRCN has to o' er! URSULA ROST Erie Making our garden grow THANK YOU for the article on Chandra Starr ("Harvest from the Heart," Jan. 31-Feb. 6 Denver Catholic). We are new residents of Evergreen and new parishioners of Christ the King in Evergreen. We appreciate the time you take to research and write such informative and heartening articles. We live in a '52 and better' community and hope to start a community garden on the property solely to donate and is maintained by our neighbors here. We hope to get a proposal written and directed to my board soon so we can get started on the how-to's of a community garden here. The article inspired us. Now we must act on it. Keep the good news coming. TOM AND MARY KAY BARNES Evergreen Have you told others about God lately? I have played the piano and organ for church services of all kinds for 45 years, and being asked to play for a funeral is, for me, the best way to tell others about God. For some, a funeral is the only time they step into a church. If my music has touched just one person, I feel I have done what God has asked me to do. Music is very powerful, sometimes more so than the spoken word. STACIE MAY Our Lady of the Plains, Byers We want to hear from you! How have you told others about God lately? Email us at DenverCatholic@archden. org and your response might be published in a future issue. LETTERS Send letters to DenverCatholic@archden. org, via www.DenverCatholic. org, or mail to Denver Catholic Letters, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210. Please include full name, city and phone number. Letters may be edited. Opinions are those of the author and not the Archdiocese of Denver. LETTERS CORRECTION: A state legislator's vote on House Bill 1135 was incorrectly reported in the Feb. 14-20 Denver Catholic ("Lawmakers kill assisted-suicide proposal"). Rep. Dominick Moreno voted "yes" to support the Colorado Death with Dignity Act. Eating with the fullest pleasure—pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance—is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend." FARMER AND AUTHOR WENDELL BERRY " PHOTO BY AFRICA STUDIO/DPC Luke 6:20-21 | Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who hunger now, you will be satisfi ed.

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