BEIRON'S WAY: THE WAIT WATCHER

In the old covenant, under Mosiac Law, the dietary laws ( kashrut ) are well chronicled. Thus Professor Menachem Marc Kellner has referred to Judaism as “a religion of pots and pans in the eyes of those who derogate its concern with actions”. It is in Leviticus (chapter 11) and Deuteronomy (chapter 14) that the Israelites are instructed by Yahweh what they can consume. Oddly, despite the centrality of the paschal meal as the Eucharistic offering by Jesus in the catholic Christian faith, the spirituality of diet is simply “missing”. Faced with the growing health challenges brought about by illness, disease and human technology, interest groups have developed trends that borrow from the mysticism of the Orient to offer organic, biotic diets. The naturalness of these diets are safe and sound, without any extreme. But when cancer is as great a threat to life, then what does the spirituality of a Christian diet suggest? Too much protein, fat, diary, eggs are just as mucous-causing as does t...

Feast of St. Francis Xavier Saturday, 3 December 2005 Is there a better day to contemplate on the truth of Christian spirituality regarding “struggle”? By this word I mean how we are confronted by the realisation of our own inadequacy in dealing with all sorts of problems, challenges, trials, misfortunes, difficulties and all their synonyms that might beset us in daily life. The story of St. Francis, the missionary to the Far East, who did not succeed conventionally in his lifetime, is one of a struggle to persevere. The Far East is not to be won over without great struggle, as ancient roots lie deep. It is an old problem, but each day, and each moment as we experience it, all the wisdom of the sages and collective human knowledge seems forgotten as we are plighted by this great wall that blocks all our senses. To the secular minded, it is a war of the senses, where faculties of intellect and genius is summoned to besiege the problem and over come it. It was St. Francis de Sales of Ann...