Being a prophet is merely being in touch with the heart of God, to be able to discern His voice. To be able to see what is there that so many others miss.
A priestly, prophetic, and royal people
783 Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and
established as priest, prophet, and king.
The whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears
the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them.208
(Catechism of the Catholic Church)
We will now step into loving God with our whole strength, our bodies. He has created us intelligently and wonderfully to be able to serve Him to best of our ability and we owe it to Him to take good care of it. So working for the inside out, this week I’d like for us to take a closer look at our Lymphatic System and how we can support it. Everyone is very familiar with the circulatory system, how the blood nourishes the body and how the heart pumps it through. The Lymphatic system runs through our body in a similar network, extending all the way up and down our bodies and holds an immensely critical role…various actually. It has a part in building up our immune system for one, but what I want to focus on for now is its role in detoxifying the body.
Just like tiny blood vessels get blood into every cell of the body, the lymphatic systems has similar network to remove the waste that is created there by removing used up fluids. These waste products then get carried into the main lymphatic vessels to be cleaned up on route back to other main organs of the body, either to the circulatory system to be used again, or kidneys to be eliminated. The specific areas that ‘cleans things up’ are our lymph nodes. We have several throughout the body, you’ve probably felt the ones on your neck swell up when you had some sort of infection. That’s your body doing its job.
The thing with the lymphatic system is that it doesn’t get moved around with a pump like the blood does, so it can get sluggish and we need to be proactive in maintaining it. Many things can contribute to this sluggishness and we’ll be discussing ways we can support the lymphatic system as we progress with this program. Another thing to remember is how acidity in the body can effect it as well. Acids can be very corrosive, and this is no less true within our body (the stomach is the only place that requires acids to do its job). When this happens the body’s healing system kicks in. What you may know as ‘inflammation’, is actually part of the body’s defense team…you may experience this as excess phlegm after eating certain foods or coming into contact with a foreign substance as in an allergic reaction. This is normal and healthy, unless it becomes chronic. Our bodies were meant to deal with an occasional acid overload…not a constant way of life.
One small step that we can take to support our lymphatic system is to stay well hydrated. This is simple, just drink more. Lymph like blood consists mostly of water. The thing to keep in mind though is that we want to help it and not hurt it. So we need to stay away from highly acidic drinks… sugary drinks, caffeine, carbonated beverages, alcohol, are all very acidic. Animal products are also very acidic, so that makes milk not as good for your body as the the milk industry wants you to believe. Milk is great for baby cows, not so much for humans. So the most perfect drink is simply water.
What I’m trying to do here is not assign you a set of rules on what to do or even what products to buy. My goal is to get people to start thinking about their bodies as Divinely created with a purpose, to maintain a strong relationship with their Creator, and look to Him for answers. That our prayers should be more than simply asking God to get us out of a jam, but to look deeper at what keeps getting us in that jam, to pray and obey. To be aware that our small steps have consequences. We often are so eager to do great things for God, get out the sack cloth and ashes, but often a life of Holiness and wellness simply means doing the little things for love of Him. The beauty of it is how He honors that, our little ‘sacrifices’ mean so much…they open up such incredible graces for ourselves and for others.