Doing Lent Abroad: Grace Mediated Through Waffles and Prayer

Until about three days ago, I was under the gravely mistaken impression that there is nothing quite like an Eggo waffle drizzled in Log Cabin syrup and smeared with a healthy dose of Jif peanut butter. I treasure fond grade school memories of before-school breakfasts with my brothers gobbling down messy Eggo waffles, and no other waffle experience could quite live up to the sugary family time from those memories…until this weekend, when I had Belgian waffles. In Belgium.

My weekend in Bruges, Belgium was largely spent satisfying every food craving I could possibly imagine. Whether we were enjoying powdered sugar and chocolate-drizzled waffles, frites (French fries) dunked in curry ketchup, samples from chocolate shops lining quaint cobblestone alleyways, or freshly brewed world-famous Belgian beer, my five fellow travelers and I did not cut corners on entering into Belgian food culture. We dined on traditional Flemish stew, learned about how beer is made on a tour of the last working brewery in Bruges, and brought home enough chocolate to feed our friends in London for days. 

At first, I struggled to reconcile this splurgy foodie weekend with the liturgical season we are in. As people of faith we are called to practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving during Lent, and filling up on sugary Belgian goods does not seem consistent with any of these practices. However, I have realized that God is teaching me alternative ways to enter into Lenten practices during my time abroad, which has shown me even more clearly how essential it is to choose highly personalized Lenten practices each year.

It is very important to me to ‘live into’ the culture of each place I visit during my time abroad, and a primary element of any culture is food and drink. Thus, with the exception of the traditional Friday fast, I am not giving up something food-related this Lent. Instead, I am fasting from dwelling in negativity: any time I find myself in a negative mindset, I intentionally affirm either someone around me or myself. In addition, I have committed to saying the Angelus, a traditional Catholic prayer commemorating the Incarnation, each day at noon. The third component of my Lenten practices, almsgiving, comes in the form of corporate works of mercy, such as volunteering at Open House and visiting a local prison in London (stay tuned for a future post about this!).
  
While my indulgent weekend in Belgium was certainly not conducive to fasting in the material sense, I had the privilege of entering into Belgian food culture while still maintaining my chosen Lenten practices this weekend.

And while my stomach was full of delectable goodness and my heart was full of the happiness induced by adventuring in Europe with dear friends, God still reminded me of the key lesson behind our practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving: it is not things of this world that will make us truly happy. 

The Bruges Crew with the steeple of the Church of Our Lady in the background

On Saturday, my friends and I visited the Church of Our Lady in Bruges. This stunning gothic cathedral is home to Michelangelo’s sculpture Madonna and Child. I was astonished at how incredibly lifelike Mary looked in the sculpture: I felt as if the marble Madonna would at any moment raise her gaze and step down from the archway on which she is displayed. While contemplating this masterpiece, I felt the urge to pray the Hail Mary over and over again, and gradually found myself transitioning my prayer into the Angelus. As soon as I completed my prayer, I realized it was a few minutes past twelve: I had begun praying exactly at noon, the traditional time Catholics pray the Angelus.

Michelangelo's Madonna and Child

On Sunday, my travel group arrived in Ghent, Belgium for the afternoon before we continued on to Brussels. We had the opportunity to stroll along quaint canals and explore several medieval churches, but learned there was a major political rally happening that afternoon on the streets of this small town. They had brought in armed national riot police and several helicopters appeared overhead throughout our time there; we decided we needed to cut our time in Ghent short and move on to Brussels as soon as possible. As we hastened towards the train stop that would remove us from the building tension in the area, I again found myself repeatedly reciting the Hail Mary. This time, I prayed not in awe but in fear: I asked for Our Lady’s intercession to keep my friends and I safe. Again, my prayer seemingly spontaneously transitioned into the Angelus. And just as I began the first words of the prayer – “The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary…” – a nearby clock tower chimed noon. I had been called to my Lenten prayer practice during an extreme emotional experience for the second time during our Belgian adventure.

This weekend, I was given the gift of entering into community on many levels. I traveled with a new group of wonderful friends, which resulted in enriched relationships. We completely indulged in Belgian food and drink culture, which allowed us to experience much of what makes Belgium so special and connected us to centuries of people who have enjoyed similar foods in that country. Finally, my experiences of prayer, particularly related to my Lenten practice of saying the Angelus, connected me to the worldwide Catholic community saying the same prayer at the same time. And God reminded me that looking beyond the things of this world, beautiful and delicious as they might be, is more spiritually filling than even the best Belgian waffle.

This is how I feel about Belgian waffles and the grace mediated through them and prayer.
Photo credit to Laura Gruszka.