Yesterday, I was searching on Pinterest for creative ways to honor the Feast of St. Brigid, which is today–February 1st. Because it is also the Imbolc, and half way between Winter and Spring, many traditions have to do with things to prepare for Spring.
Another tradition I found was it being a time to clean the hearth. We do have a wood fireplace, but we have not used it much this year, so cleaning it did not really thrill me. (You can look up St. Brigid and the eternal flame, which I will not go into here.)
It was not until I started thinking about what the hearth in the home was originally used for that it occurred to me that we too have some other hearths. The hearth was where food was cooked, so our oven in the kitchen could actually be considered our hearth. For that matter, so could the microwave and toaster.
One of the things on my list of things to do this week was to wipe down our kitchen cupboards, so cleaning the oven fit right in. (Do I dare say that I had to Google “aquaclean” to figure out how to do it? Once I saw the instructions I realized that – phew – I had done it before.)
The microwave is done and I am waiting for the oven. I suspect that the self- cleaning function will require a bit of intervention.
So, how can cleaning the oven be a prayer practice? My answer might be intention. There is a song I know that I might sing that I learned as a child. I will use that. It goes, “Cleaning the oven, Lord, cleaning the oven. Living for your glory, cleaning the oven…”. (You can put in what ever you are doing.) I will look up the name and add it to this post later.
Blessings!
Christine
