• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe

Easy as pie—or prayer

June 8, 2020
By Rita Buettner
Filed Under: Blog, Commentary, Open Window

My mind spins these days with the issues that compete for my attention. I read and think and discuss and pray and ask myself what more I can do.

Much seems unsolvable, and yet I know we each have a part to play. But it’s often hard to see what might be within my abilities in my own little corner of the world.

When I feel helpless, I try to pick one thing and do it well. Sometimes that’s trying to find the words to process things. Sometimes it’s reaching out to check in with a friend. Sometimes it means making a decent dinner.

The other night I set everything aside to make a pie.

Just as I started peeling my Granny Smith apples, my brother sent an invitation to pray a video-call rosary together. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do anything that social—video calls have long since lost their luster—but you can’t do much else while slicing apples. I might as well join them in a Rosary.

Soon enough, we were praying, four households in two states, three generations, wriggly toddlers and focused tweens, united in purpose.

I sat and sliced apples, letting the rhythm of the words rush over and around me, losing myself in the blend of voices, sitting with each mystery for a bit, and presenting Mary with our intentions.

It’s easy to forget that there’s something we can almost always do. Even at our most helpless, we can pray. Prayer might not seem like action, but it can be so, so powerful. There’s something beautiful and uplifting and hopeful about turning everything over to God—or to our Blessed Mother or one of the saints to ask them to carry it to Jesus on our behalf.

By the end of the Rosary, we were still in the midst of a pandemic, and I wasn’t sure there was any greater justice in the world. But I felt a sense of peace and purpose. I felt just a bit restored. I had done one small thing in the great cosmic chaos we are living through. God asks more of me than one Rosary I say while baking a pie, I know. But that Rosary was time better spent than sitting and stewing and worrying.

We finished praying, said goodbye, and I looked at the pile of sliced apples in front of me. They were all sliced and ready to bake. I added sugar and cinnamon. I stirred together the dough, rolled it out on the counter, and pieced together my pie.

As I crimped the crust around the edges and poked holes in the top, I marveled at how the pie seemed to have come together almost magically during our rosary.

My hands had done that work, flying through the peeling and coring and slicing as we moved our way through the Our Fathers and Hail Marys and Glory Bes. And the house was filling with the delectable scent of pie.

Maybe you can’t solve all the problems on your mind today. Maybe you can solve one. Or maybe you just need to take a break from the big questions of the world and focus on one small thing that you can do. I hope that one thing you do will help you feel stronger, less alone, and more at peace.

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Rita Buettner

Rita Buettner is a wife, working mother and author of the Catholic Review's Open Window blog. She and her husband adopted their two sons from China, and Rita often writes about topics concerning adoption, family and faith.

Rita also writes The Domestic Church, a featured column in the Catholic Review. Her writing has been honored by the Catholic Press Association, the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association and the Associated Church Press.

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

An invitation from God

‘Annunciation’: Salvation and the words of the air

Fully entering into the Triduum

Question Corner: Jesus became man so I could become God?

The mental health crisis crosses all boundaries and ages

| Recent Local News |

Catholic Charities’ William J. McCarthy Jr. named Loyola’s Business Leader of the Year

Sister Joan Cooper, O.S.F., dies at 94

Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history

Sister Elizabeth Ellen Kane, O.S.F., dies at 81

RADIO INTERVIEW: Dining with the Saints

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Memorial to modern Christian martyrs opens in Rome
  • Human composting, alkaline hydrolysis not acceptable for burial, say U.S. bishops
  • Pope advances sainthood causes of six candidates
  • Retired Milwaukee priest barred from hearing confessions over support of Delaware ‘repeal of seal’ law
  • Suspect pleads not guilty in murder of LA Auxiliary Bishop O’Connell
  • Avoid polarizing debate, promote healthy scientific discussion, pope says
  • CRS, USAID help Ethiopia ‘at a time of great need’ amid devastating drought
  • A ‘nation of immigrants’ should identify with migrants’ plight and human dignity, says Boston cardinal
  • An invitation from God

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED