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!

Feast of Christ the King

Today is the beginning of the last week of the Liturgical Year for Catholics. Today is the Feast of Christ the King -- when the Church acknowledges and celebrates that Jesus Christ is the King of ALL ... that He has beat death ... that He has beat the Devil ... that His Kingdom WILL come!

This is a big deal for Catholics. This feast is an important one to celebrate and remember. As Father mentioned at Mass today, it is EXTREMELY important for all of us to decide -- in whose Kingdom do we want to live .... who is our King .... in whose Will will we follow?

Next Sunday, we will start the four weeks of anticipating Jesus' birth ... the 4 weeks of Advent. My prayer for all this week is that we end this year with the renewed desire to follow Jesus to His Kingdom!

Recipe: Our Lady's Pie

Yesterday was the feast of the Queenship of Mary. Because it's been SO DARN HOT here in the Big Square State (and of course, we don't have air-conditioning), I KNEW I could NOT fire up the oven to bake something .... so, what's a mom to do who is trying to incorporate cooking math with living the liturgical year?

Invent her own dessert -- and BOY was it well received! For those of you who might be in a similar situation, here's the recipe ...

* +++++ * +++++ *

OUR LADY's PIE

(prep time -- 20 min; chilling time -- 1 hr + at least 1 more hour)

Ingredients:

(1) 9-inch chocolate cookie pie crust (such as Keebler or Oreo)

(1) 8oz. tub frozen whipped topping (such as Cool Whip)

(1) box blueberry flavored gelatin (such as "BlueBerry Blast" from Jello)

(1) cup fresh or frozen blueberries

(12) round chocolate sandwich cookies (such as Oreos)

First-layer of gelatin:

• Open gelatin packet and measure out slightly less than 1/4 cup of powder (this is half the package).
• Pour 3/4 cup boiling water on the 1/4 cup of gelatin and stir until gelatin is dissolved.
• Mix in 1/3 of the FROZEN whipped topping; stir until the topping is mixed in completely. Place the remainder of the whipped topping in the 'fridge to thaw till dinner.
• Pour into the 9-inch pie crust and chill for at least an hour.

While the first layer is chilling, you can start the next layer:

• Pour 1/2 cup of boiling water over the remainder of the gelatin package. Stir until the gelatin is dissolved.
• Add frozen blueberries or fresh into the gelatin; if using fresh blueberries, add 1/4 cup of cold water.
• Place in 'fridge for an hour or just until the gelatin begins to set.

After an hour or so, spoon the blueberry-filled gelatin over the top of the whipped-topping gelatin, being careful not to mix the layers. Continue to chill the pie at least one more hour or until ready to serve.

When ready to serve:

• Spoon remaining whipped topping over the pie.
• Place 12 round chocolate sandwich cookies on-end round the rim of the pie.

ENJOY!

Here's the meaning we developed for this pie:

• Cookie crust -- dark like the devil, crushed under Our Lady's foot
• 1st Layer -- Our Lady's pale blue veil
• 2nd Layer -- Our Lady's rich blue gown
• Whipped topping -- the white covering of her purity
• 12 cookies -- the stars, as related in Revelations 12, the surrounded her head symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel as well as Mary's part in conquering death for once and for all.

Living the liturgical year is not hard -- just combine it with meal-planning (and throw in some cooking math) and you've got a celebration that will be remembered!

Saints and Cooking

I love my mother -- not only does she live with us (which is a blessing in itself) but every so often she buys me little treats that just make my day. WELL, for Easter this year in lieu of chocolate, she did one better (and even gave it to me early). She got me a copy of the book I've been drooling over since I first saw it a couple of years back: Cooking with the Saints by Ernst Schuegraf.

This is an absolutely perfect gift for me! Schuegraf includes write-ups of saints that have fascinating facts (some "cocktail tidbits" that you can throw out at your next Catholic dinner club meeting) about each of the saints -- some 73 in number! A gorgeous picture accompanies each of these saints. But the really great thing (after all, we do have lots of Saint biographies around this house) is that there are authentic recipes for each of these saints -- ethnic specialties for the feast days as well as classic dishes that have been linked to the saint for some reason. There are main dishes, desserts, breads and other goodies scattered throughout the hard-cover volume.

Last night, for St. Joseph's Day, we made two of the dishes -- Pasta di San Guiseppe (pasta with sugared nuts and olive oil) and Pane di San Guiseppe which made the best bread (and tons of it!) based on a recipe from Sicily. What a feast!

This book is THE book for living the liturgical year! I'm so thankful that mom got it for me. A Continual Feast by Evelyn Vitz is a close second (but I already own that one!) for living the liturgical year ...

Ain't it great to be Catholic?

Living the Liturgical Year -- the month of March

March is a fabulous month for celebrating our Catholic faith. Not only does the month surround our Lenten journey, but we've also have wonderful saints to help on celebrate the joy and gratitude from God's many gifts to his pilgrim people.


From Catholic Culture, we find the following list of celebrations:

3. Katharine Drexel (USA),

7. Perpetua and Felicity

8. John of God,

9. Frances of Rome; Bl. John Ogilvie (Scotland)

17. Patrick

19. Joseph, husband of Mary

23. Turibius de Mogrovejo

26. Annunciation of the Lord (normally on the 25th but moved as the 25th this year is a Sunday)


Now these saints are all really cool -- all had different "jobs" from God; all fulfilled their missions as God wanted; all (we Catholics believe) are now in their Glorified Bodies and hanging out with God. How cool is that? Praying to these guys is like asking your mom to get permission or help from your dad -- they're right there with the big guy!


And my family is fortunate because a few of these March saints are family patrons -- St. Joseph for my son, St. John for another son, St. Katherine Drexel for a daughter and the Annuciation (which is not only a Marian feast -- so I claim all those -- but also dh and my anniversary).


And of course there is the ubiquitous St. Patrick, Patron of Ireland and all folks Irish -- and every year there seem to be more who claim the heritage in order to run around in green losing sight of why this Saint is so revered and honored.

So we will find out about these Saints of March and live the liturgical year through celebrating their lives and faith in God and His Word. We will pray to them, honor them and ask for their intercessory powers with the Lord. We will try to emulate their faith and belief in God's many wonders, trying to incorporate their good works into our own. And maybe, just maybe, we'll all be able to live with them in Heaven through Eternity.

As these tapers burn with visible fire and dispel the darkness ...

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright,

Winter will have another flight

If on Candlemas Day it be shower and rain,

Winter is gone and will not come again.
If Candlemas Day be damp and black,

It will carry cold winter away on its back.

If Candlemas Day is bright and clear,

There’ll be two winters in the year.

Hmm, I guess this means we're in for another winter as it's bright and clear and -1(!) this morning here in the Big Square State! But, that's ok as it's Candlemas Day which means we get to spend the day, cozy inside, making candles to be blessed tonight at dinner (and we'll use them all year for our various celebrations and feasts). Here's the blessing we'll use:

O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God,

you have created all things from nothing;

you have commanded the bees to produce this liquid of wax which has been made into a perfect candle;

you have on this day fulfilled the petitions of the just Simeon:

We humbly implore you through the invocation of your holy name and through the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, whose feast we devoutly celebrate today, also through the prayers of all your saints:

Deign to bless and sanctify these candles for human use, for the welfare of body and soul both on land and on water.

These your servants desire to carry them in their hands while they praise you with their hymns:

Hear their voices graciously from your holy Heaven and from the throne of your majesty;

be merciful to all who cry to you,

whom you have redeemed by the precious blood of your Son, who lives and reigns with you, God for ever and ever.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, true light that enlightens every man who comes into this world, bestow your blessing upon these candles, and sanctify them with the light of your grace. As these tapers burn with visible fire and dispel the darkness of night, so may our hearts with the help of your grace be enlightened by the invisible fire of the splendor of the Holy Ghost, and may be free from all blindness of sin. Clarify the eyes of our minds that we may see what is pleasing to you and conducive to our salvation. After the dark perils of this life let us be worthy to reach the eternal light. Through you, Jesus Christ, Savior of the world, who in perfect Trinity livest and reignest, God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

We will also spend the day, while letting candles cool, snuggled on the couch with a stack of read-alouds I've been meaning to get to and just haven't yet. We'll start one and either finish it or move on.....more later!