Paczkis

Shrove Tuesday

Psalm 34:8 – O taste and see that the Lord is good; Happy are those who take refuge in God.

On Shrove Tuesday our whole town becomes Polish. We all enjoy then eating delicious paczkis (pronounced poonchkeys). Even my neighbourhood Italian bakery was taking orders for paczki for weeks before Lent.

As I bit into my tasty apple-filled Polish donut, I compared it with the ordinary hole-in-the-middle type. It seemed to speak to me of life. The life of many people is like your usual donut. Things just go round and round, centred on nothing at all, except emptiness.

For others, life is rich and enjoyable, just like my paczki. It has shape, solidity, and sweetness at the centre. In donuts, the difference is what is at the centre.

So in life. If there is nothing, we get by. If God is at the centre, our lives hang together, are sweet and satisfying. Perhaps next Shrove Tuesday you will join me in a paczki. No paczki? Try a jellied donut. It too has a sweet centre.

Between now and then, be sure to live fully in the presence of God who gives life its centre and its sweetness.

Prayer: Our God, we are tempted to centre our lives on puffs of smoke, nothingness, vanity of vanities. Help us to always centre our lives on you and your love. We know then that our lives will have shape and sweetness. This we pray through Jesus Christ who came bringing us life in all its abundance. Amen.