Feast Day: Divine Mercy Sunday

Today, Easter Sunday is done for this year. For Catholics, Easter Sunday is such an important day in the liturgical calendar that it actually breaks the world's schedule and extends for an eight-day period! Honestly! (Also, the "Easter Season" goes on thru Acension and on to Pentecost -- 50 days AFTER Easter Sunday -- so we've got quite a few "partying" days left).

I thought this was an appropriate day to post a bit about our Lenten practices this year and our Easter Sunday (that lasted 8 days!):

Here is the calendar I posted so the family could focus on different events, readings and schedule of Lent. I marked all the feast days (that interrupt the fasting of Lent) -- such as St. Patrick's or St. Joseph's days -- and the fasting times. On each day, I put the appropriate liturgical readings and any other pertinent information. There is a little picture of two boys walking that we moved each day to mark our Lenten journey. This seemed to help the kids remember that although Lent is LONG, it is not endless and that there is a "happy" ending -- the happiest ending for all mankind!
Here is our Lenten table. The alms box (for Catholic Relief Services) was center-stage the whole Lent -- we all added to the box when we could (in secret) and dad would take the offerings to school each week. The red hexagonal box holds the kids' rosaries for evening prayer. The flowers remind us that Easter (and Spring) are coming ... we tried to keep fresh ones there throughout Lent. The purple cloth is for the penitence and sorrow of what lies ahead for Jesus during Holy Week.

Here is a close-up of the knitted "nest" I designed. Based on a smaller design from Hannah Fettig's Closely Knit (a great book with sensational ideas), I knit from the center out and made a family-sized version so we could ...use it on Easter Sunday for our family basket. Here it's filled with goodies -- peeps (for the annual peep wars!), jelly-beans, chocolate eggs, DVDs, games and even a drawing book, and of course "custom-designed" hardboiled eggs surrounding the whole. The cloth is one I embroidered back in 2001 for a special Easter Basket that was blessed at Church the year we did the Byzantine "Great Lent". (BTW, for my knitted nest directions, check out my knitting blog, By Hand, With Heart for a free Easter gift to you ....)

0-dark-30 Easter Monday (or 3:45 a.m.!) we headed out to visit relatives down in South Carolina -- and the 8.5 hour drive was so worth it as we so LOVE these folks down there. The kids have fun, dh and I are surrounded by those who love and respect us, and it is just a wonderful time. BamBam finally ventured out on his 2-wheeler (without training wheels) and felt the sense of freedom only learning to ride a bike can give! A few days of R&R was just what we need ... and we hit the road back here on Thursday, just in time to check out potential houses (God willing, the house in Colorado closes on May 11th!) on Friday.

We finished up the week with a spectacular Easter Saturday: a day of fun-in-the-sun with our favorite Chaplain at the Nationals game against the Marlins. Unfortunately, they lost (9-6 in the 11th inning) but the day (and company) were so fabulous, we didn't mind too much ...

Here are some photos of the big day (the first time for us at the Nationals Stadium):Sipping on cokes ...munching on hotdogs and chips ....and stuffing our faces with cotton candy (and yes, those two ate the whole bucket -- while the rest of us ate ice cream!)A great time was definitely had by all!Divine Mercy Sunday (today) found us down at St. Patrick's in Spotsylvania for Divine Mercy Sunday Mass ... and a wonderful reminder from the parochial vicar there to NEVER forget that God's mercy is bigger than ANY sin (or sins) we can commit. All we need do is ask for His forgiveness and follow the right path ... and we will live with Him and the Saints for eternity!

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday to you and yours ... and enjoy the next 42 days of the Easter Season!

Lent: Holy Thursday

Today is Holy Thursday ... tonight starts the Triduum (the three holiest days of the year) when Jesus fulfills his mission here on earth. Here's an impression of the Last Supper -- when Jesus instituted the Eucharist, something Catholics remember EVERYTIME Mass is celebrated; this is when the bread and wine truly become the body and blood of Jesus Christ! How cool is that????LegoManiac served the Holy Thursday Mass tonight -- the washing of the feet, the commemoration of the Last Supper and the transfer of the Holy Eucharist with reposition of the Blessed Sacrmant in the tabernacle.

An interesting thing we learned this year is the idea of Grundonnerstag from the Germanic countries. Translated loosely, this means "green Thursday"; this is actually a slippage from the original which used the German word "gruen" for grieving or mourning. But, we followed Jennifer's advice from Catholic Cuisine and made only green things for dinner: coleslaw with lots of raisins and toasted walnuts (and homemade dressing) and spinach pie! Wow, that was a hit!

Here's the recipe we used (with our changes in parentheses -- I NEVER can follow directions!)
Spinach Pie

crust for 9" pie (2 shells; we used the Pillsbury shells in the refrig section
(1) 16oz. pkg frozen spinach - thawed
(1) 16oz. container ricotta cheese (we used cottage cheese)
1 cup fresh grated parmesan (we used 1 cup "pizza" shredded cheese)
1 large onion - chopped and sauteed in olive oil
1-2 tsp italian herbs (mix of oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, marjoram)
3 eggs (we skipped the eggs because I didn't even see them in this recipe; boy, am I getting old!)

Press one pie shell into the bottom and sides of pie dish. Saute chopped onion in oil olive. Add thawed spinach to warm the spinach and mix in the onions. Cool. Add ricotta (cottage cheese) and ricotta into spinach mixture. Spoon into pie pan. Cover with remaining shell. Trim edges and slit top for venting -- we made a cross for the vent. Bake at 400 for 45 minutes -- cover with foil for the last 15 minutes if crust is getting too brown. Without the eggs, this actually tasted very reminiscent of spanakopita! YUMMY!

Lent Ends ... Holy Week 2008 Begins!

Yesterday, the Catholic Church celebrates two feasts -- Palm Sunday with Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem ... and Passion Sunday with the reading of one of the Passion stories that covers Jesus's betrayal by Judas, his arrest and torture and his walk on Calvary.

This begins what we call "Holy Week" ... the path to Easter Sunday, the highest holy day of the year!

BTW, the icon above was first linked on Leonie's Living Without School blog ... it comes from a Maronite heritage site of icons. Isn't it lovely?

Lent: Ash Wednesday begins the journey ...

... the journey (hopefully) to a better me, a better home and a better world over the next 40 days. Sounds like a lot doesn't it? But a wonderful thing about the Catholic Church is her giving me special time to make reparation for the things I need to fix in my life. The things that will rebuild my relationship with a loving God who wants me, and you, and all of us to simply know, love and serve Him.

Ash Wednesday, which is VERY early this year, is the first day of this 40-day spiritual journey to new birth. In the Magnificat, which I love to read and will TRY to read everyday this Lent, there is a wonderful essay this month by Father William M. Joensen, seminary spiritual director and professor of philosophy at Loras College and chaplain at Clarke College both in Dubuque, Iowa.

Here are some quotes that really struck me as I read his essay, titled "Lent and the Soil of Ourselves":

• A gritty cross is placed upon our forehead; when mingled with the purple of penance, black becomes us.
• We are ashen-faced as we realize how much God has bestowed upon us, how readily God waits for us, appeals to us, longing to share the joy of salvation, offering us his Son!
• ... as we glimpse the specks of dust blessed and applied to our foreheads, we marvel as we realize that God knows each one of the grains of ash, every molecule of which the universe, including ourselves, is made. How much more, then, does God know our situation, the secrets held in the inner recesses of our being.
• Each of us is entrusted during Lent with the sacred task of going into the soil of ourselves, inviting the Spirit to help us venture into the inmost recesses of our being ...
• These (lenten) practices are not cosmetic devices meant to attract attention and yet distract us from the work of grace in the space of our souls. They are to help liberate us to look beyond our limits ...

and finally,

• We heed the appeal to go within our own hearts and allow God to unearth the love lying hidden beneath the detritus of sin. If we do so, our faces, our lives will assume a Christ-like cast. Our way of being will proclaim that the day of salvation has arrived: He is risen indeed!

This essay really "spoke" to me ... I get so caught up in the unimportant and forget to take time to stop, listen and love God fully. This Lent, my 46th Lent, will be more than bellyaching about what I'm missing -- this Lent will be my chance to, as Fr. Joensen puts it:

be more present, patient, prayerful, and positive in our dealings with others ...

My prayer for you, and me, and all I know and love this Lent 2008 is a renewed sense of God in our lives -- a renewed sense that He is always there to welcome us back into the sheepfold.

Blessings,

HE is RISEN -- indeed, HE is RISEN!

The weeping, mourning and gnashing of teeth is over -- Christ is risen and the Gates of Hell SHALL NEVER PREVAIL!

Good Friday

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,

our sufferings that he endured,

while we thought of him as stricken,

as one smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our offenses,

crushed for our sins;

upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,

by his stripes we were healed.

We had all gone astray like sheep,

each following his own way;

but the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.

Though he was harshly treated, he submitted

and opened not his mouth;

like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers,

he was silent and opened not his mouth.

Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away,

and who would have thought any more of his destiny?

When he was cut off from the land of the living,

and smitten for the sin of his people,

a grave was assigned him among the wicked

and a burial place with evildoers,

though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood.

Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12

So this is a very pivotal day for the Church. Jesus is condemned and put to death today -- so from 12-3 on Good Friday, we pray and meditate and read and just think about all that Jesus did and does for us. It is a day of fasting and abstinence.

Today, hot cross buns are made. The tradition is that a monk in England (when merrie olde England was still Catholic) distributed these buns to the poor on Good Friday and that they didn't go stale and sustained the people until the end of the fast.

Last night, we mixed up a batch of hot cross buns; this morning I got up before the house and popped them in the oven. All declared the buns a sensation .

Here's the recipe (note that this is a "high altitude" bread recipe):

1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 cup scalded milk
2 tbls butter
2 tbls sugar

1 cup lukewarm water
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
3 cups whole-wheat flour
3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup candied fruit

1/2 cup raisins (either golden or seedless)

NIGHT BEFORE:

Stir yeast into the 1/4 cup lukewarm water to disolve. Scald milk. Stir in butter, sugar, salt and 1 cup lukewarm water. Cool to lukewarm. Add to yeast.

Sift the flours and spices together. Place 2 cups flour in the yeast mixture, and using a wooden spoon, stir/beat until smooth. Add remaining flour.

Stir/knead until dough is smooth and elastic.

Grease bowl. Place dough in bowl and cover with damp cloth. Set to rise till double.

Punch down dough and work the edges to center, turn dough bottom side up and knead very lightly. Re-cover and set to rise till double.

Punch dough down. Knead candied fruit and raisins into dough. Once well-distributed, make rolls by pinching dough and making about 18 rolls and one small loaf (or you can make bigger rolls and not make a loaf).

Place rolls (with space to rise) in a pyrex baking dish and cover and put in the 'frig.

NEXT MORNING:

Take rolls/loaf out of 'frig and let come up to room temp (about 30-60 minutes depending on house temp). Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425.

Once rolls are at room temp, cut a cross in the top of each, place in preheated over for 15 minutes, then turn oven down to 350 and bake till done (about another 25-30 minutes).

Allow to cool then frost with icing (powdered sugar, 2 tbls butter, bit of vanilla and some milk till "squirtable consistency") by placing icing in ziploc, cut corner tip off and "squirt" icing onto cross.

ENJOY!

OOOPS - Forgot Spy Wednesday!

Earlier this week, in regaling you dear reader with the highlights of Holy Week, I had forgotten today: Spy Wednesday. This is the day that Judas sells out Jesus and his ministry for 30 pieces of silver.

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What will you give me if I deliver him to you?" And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him (Mt 26:14-16).

Can you imagine, selling out the Lord for 50 pieces of silver? Or 100 pieces of silver? Or even 1000 pieces of silver?

Thanks to a suggestion from Jenn at Family in Feast and Feria, we'll be adding silver-dollar-sized wheat pancakes to our dinner tonight (which should improve dinner substantially as we're just having left-overs in order to clean out the 'frig before Triduum!). We'll use yogurt and raspberry jam to signify Jesus purity and the silver "blood money" and omit the blueberries and sunflower seeds!

UPDATED to add this meditation from the Holy Week issue of Magnificat:

Judas is neither a master of evil nor the figure of a demoniacal power of
darkeness, but rather a sycophant who bows down before the anonymous power of changing moods and current fashion. But it is precisely this anonymous
power that crucified Jesus, for it was anonymous voices that cried, 'Away with
him! Crucify him!"

Pope Benedict XVI

This is so ME! It's often so much easier to bow to what others want or are doing rather than say, "no, this is against my religion or my morals" -- I'm getting better but it's a long, slow rise up from the desert of the secular world!

Holy Week Begins!

Today is Palm Sunday -- when the Roman Catholic Church celebrates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This is also the day we remember how quickly the crowd turned on Jesus and shouted for him to be crucified. An interesting juxtaposition of Jesus as King and Martyr. Palm Sunday heralds the beginning of Holy Week, the holiest of weeks. This is our chance to really focus on the last days of the Lord's life. We start with his Triumphal entry -- with crowds shouting and cheering for their new king!

Holy Thursday we see Jesus instituting the Last Supper with his apostles. And yes, Judas was present -- even with Jesus hand-chosen there was a bad-apple, a man who chose the "dark side" and sold out. Something we need to remember in light of all the Clerical Scandals -- one bad man (or even hundreds of bad men) does not mean that the others at table are also bad; 11 stayed with Jesus and later founded the Church! Good Friday, we see Jesus at his most humble. At ANY TIME, he could have stopped it all and shown his divinity; but even Jesus (God himself) freely chose as a man to follow God's plan and suffer indescribable agony for US! Something I REALLY need to remember when the small injustices in life crop up...
Holy Saturday and his family and friends lay him in the tomb, roll the stone before the cave and weep because their beloved is dead. How hopeless and despairing they must have felt -- and yet they stayed near the tomb, praying and hoping when it seemed hopeless, ready to do whatever the Lord directed.

And then, Easter morning, when the women come to the tomb and find just the burial clothes. I particularly like this painting by Fra Angelico -- Mary looks so confused and the angel sits calmly and explains that Jesus is not there anymore. The Resurrected Lord rising above the weeping and bemused women sums up the Catholic Church -- Jesus is ALWAYS present and when we don't understand, God sends us messengers who help us understand. And on this Rock, Jesus built his Church!

Sundays during Lent ...

... are not considered part of Lent, around here anyway. Whatever we've sacrificed during the week, we can have a bit of on Sundays. For instance, our family gave up sweets and desserts, so here are the littles on Sunday evening (craning to see the TV from the dining room -- we gave up TV too!)

Second Sunday of Lent: The Transfiguration

This week the Gospel is taken from that of St. Luke (Chap9:28-36) which is known as the Transfiguration. Jesus takes Peter, John and James to pray on the mountain. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appear and Jesus is changed into "dazzling white" garments. The apostles are shaken, but Peter, coming out of his stupor is ready with a plan. Peter always has a plan. His plan, not always God's plan. So God interrupts Peter and says "LISTEN -- Listen to my son".

This is what I need to do more of -- listening! Being quiet (this is the hard part) and letting God tell me what he wants of me....being quiet and "hearing" God's plan ... this is hard, but I'm really trying this Lent to shut up and listen more.....

We got the nicest gift yesterday ....

... in the mail. The envelope was pretty inocuous -- just a 4"x5" envelope with the family name and address across the front. But inside ....

It seems that some dear friends of ours in Raleigh, NC are reading Pope John Paul 2's letter on families for Lent. The mom writes that:

when we read, "...families that trust in God and have opened themselves to the
gift of life in their children; homes where you sense an atmosphere of joy,
enthusiasm, initiatives, simple faith and intense unity" we thought of your
family as an example.

WOW! What a gift to know that we are such a light to these dear friends.

BUT, on top of that gift of compliment, she writes further:

Our family will prays 200 rosaries for your family and intentions this
Lent.

Double WOW! What a gift these folks are to us -- and we hope they never forget just how much we love and miss them, too!

Stations of the Cross

An ancient tradition in the Catholic Church is for the faithful to "pray" the Stations of the Cross on Fridays during Lent. This is to remind us of Jesus' sacrifice: we walk in his footsteps to Golgotha, we feel Mary's sorrow when she meets her beloved son, we weep with the women of Jerusalem, we help put Jesus in the tomb and roll the stone not knowing if we will ever see our cherished Brother again ...

For children (and adults), it can be very hard to remember the 14 different stations. A few years ago, I saw this suggestion for symbols of the various stations, and have since incorporated the practice of using these symbols to help my children "pray" the Stations of the Cross.

Station 1 -- Jesus is condemned to die -- string to bind his hands

Station 2 -- Jesus takes up his Cross -- a small wooden cross

Station 3 -- Jesus falls the first time -- a band-aid

Station 4 -- Jesus meets his Mother -- a rosary

Station 5 -- Simon helps Jesus carry the cross -- a heart for charity

Station 6 -- Veronica wipes the face of Jesus -- cloth with Holy Face on it

Station 7 -- Jesus falls a second time -- a band-aid

Station 8 -- Jesus comforts the weeping women of Jerusalem -- tissues

Station 9 -- Jesus falls a third time -- a band-aid

Station 10 -- Jesus is stripped of his garments -- a piece of purple cloak

Station 11 -- Jesus is nailed to the Cross -- a large nail

Station 12 -- Jesus dies on the Cross -- a crucifix

Station 13 -- Jesus is taken down from the Cross -- a picture of the Pieta

Station 14 -- Jesus is laid in the tomb -- a rock or stone

First Full Week of Lent

Sunday's Gospel reading (Luke 4:1-13) talks about Jesus' time in the desert - 40 days of fasting and prayer, 40 days of mostly being tempted by Satan to alter God's plan, 40 days of being very human. Why? For us; to save us from our sins...

How cool is that?

And what does God ask in return? For us to spend 40 days fasting and praying and sacrificing; 40 days of ignoring the lure of the secular world; 40 days of trying to die to ourselves.

Don't get me wrong -- it's hard to fast, it's hard to sacrifice, it's hard to give up the things I WANT. But, in the long run, it makes me a better person, a better mom and wife, and it brings me a step closer to living the life God wants me to live. And we GET TO DO THIS every year. We get a "new lease on life" each Lenten season.

How cool is that?

Music to Enrich the Lenten Season

My dh is a BIG fan of classical music. He streams WCPE into his classroom at school and listens all day to beautiful, classical music. He also has requested that we buy St. Matthew's Passion by Bach for our home to enrich the kids' understanding and love of Lent and classical music. So, of course I obliged. In addition, I've found this wonderful site, ArchivMusic(see their little banner in the sidebar?) where you can search on composer, conductor, performers, etc.

Give it a try and enrich your home today!

LENT Starts Today!

Today, February 21st 2007, begins the amazing liturgical season of Lent. In the shadow of the Cross, we Catholics are asked to spend the next 40 days sacrificing, praying and contemplating just exactly what Jesus did for us all when he willingly gave up his life for us on the Cross.

Some folks look on Lent as a time of "sack cloth and ashes" where we mope around, denying ourselves of all pleasures and bemoaning our fate and that of the whole World.

This is aboslutely ridiculous -- Lent is a wonderful time for ME to reflect on my life and to spend the next 40 days preparing for the Lord's resurrection. Yes, I will deny myself things that I want to do -- but not for the denial itself, but for the chance for God to get to work and help me to do what He wants me to be busy with.

Some of the books I'll be reading over the next 40 days include:

• The Faith Explained by Fr. Leo J. Trese -- a wonderful, readable explanation of all things Catholic
• True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis Marie de Montfort -- a classic text about the Catholic devotion to Mary -- what is owed her and how best to show her our love
• Magnificat's Lenten Companion -- daily readings for Lent

For the kids, we'll be spending our after-dinner time doing family read-alouds rather than watching movies or dispersing. Lent is a wonderful time to spend with family, encouraging the values and togetherness so important in today's world.

Some of the read-alouds in the basket:

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Mitchells: Five for Victory , Canadian Summer, or Friendly Gables -- all by Hilda vanStockum
• The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
• Mossflower by Brian Jacques (2nd in the Redwall series)

All of these books have good family values, are wonderful adventure stories and teach lessons without being too didactic. They also have the benefit of being such good stories most will want to listen!

So, please dear reader remember that Lent, although a time of penance and sacrifice, can also be a time of joy and getting rid of baggage that keeps us from being the people of Faith that God would have us be!