When we eat, our saliva which contains digestive enzymes is mixed with the food if we chew it well. But in today’s frenetic world, it is chomp chomp swallow, Big Mac gone in 60 seconds. So the properly chewed food passes to the stomach where more digestive enzymes and proper amounts of stomach acid mix with the food in order to break down all sugars, and snip up proteins into utilizable chunks and emulsify fat. Then the food properly broken down passes to the duodenum where the stomach acid is neutralized by bile from the liver. This neutral acid mix is then passed down to where we can absorb the nutrients. However, many times we eat snacks out of boredom or eat when we are not hungry. So the elemental food nutrients arrive and there are no hungry cells to take them up. If we are in a bad mood, the cells in our bodies actually lock up, being threatened by our emotional state, and cannot absorb nutrients. So the food is rerouted to fat storage. A lot of it gets eaten by gut bacteria which causes gas and bloating because we were not able to assimilate it at the time.
So also is the spiritual food we seek. We need to be ready to assimilate it or it falls on deaf ears, is misunderstood, or worse yet makes us feel guilty which turns us away. Christ always tries to bless us first except in rare circumstances. He knows when we feel His Spirit, feel loved, feel at home, feel His peace, then we are more likely to understand His teachings and absorb His spiritual food. If we are sick physically or emotionally, or starving, He knows to take care of those first, so we can feel His spirit later when our distractions are taken care of. So he feeds the 5000, the 4000, the Lord’s Supper, and to the little girl who he raised from the dead, Talitha, he told her parents to give her something to eat. When He appeared to his disciples in His resurrected state, He calmed them down by asking for something to eat and was given fish and honey.
So in the Lord’s Supper, we partake of the bread and water in remembrance of His body and blood. It is symbolic of His personality, gifts of His Spirit, grace, forgiveness, peace entering into every part of our spiritual bodies as the physical food is assimilated into our physical bodies. To prepare our spirits for receiving food, we pray, sing several hymns to get our spiritual cells to open up and be ready to receive nourishment. We eat and are filled and no longer are hungry or thirst. In John 6:35 “Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
Meditation and prayer can be done anytime, anywhere. We can have a prayer in our hearts continually. We can do the same things we do in the Sacrament meeting by listening to good music, praying and meditating in a grateful way on the blessings of God in our lives. In The Book of Mormon we read:
Alma 31:10
continue in prayer and supplication to God daily
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Moroni 8:3
I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end.
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Alma 34:27
Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.