Lent: Spy Wednesday

This is the day we remember that Judas sold-out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, sold Him out with a kiss! It's easy for me to always think "oh, I'd never have done that" ... but I probably would have denied Jesus as Peter did -- out of fear -- and is that really any better?

Judas is steeped in mystery ... he was one of the closest to Jesus and yet he turned his back on the Son of God after having been given the ability to evangelize, to forgive and to help build Jesus' church! I guess Judas is proof that it is very easy to lose sight of the good, when trying to grasp at what I want rather than how God wants things done!

Today, after we went to Mass at the high school we came home and made Lenten Pretzels in honor of the hands clasped in prayer this Holy Week, as well as the ropes which tied Jesus' hands at the trial before Pilate, and the rope with which Judas hung himself. When I've tried to make pretzels before, they've usually come out a mess ... but these look pretty good. One thing I'm doing differently -- when I've been making bread this Lent, I've been using the kneading time as prayer time!

Here's the recipe that Jennifer at Catholic Cuisine posted: Holy Week Pretzels!

Traditionally, the pretzel was only eaten during Lent. It is available all year round now, but before it became a popular snack food it was available from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday. There are records of Lenten pretzels in a 5th century manuscript in the Vatican Library. Early Christians ate no dairy products during Lent, so pretzels were made from the simplest of ingredients - flour, salt, and water.It is made in the shape of two arms crossed in prayer. The origin of the name comes from the word "bracellae" (little arms). In German it became "Bretzel" which then changed to "Pretzel".

Pretzels
1 tablespoon honey or sugar
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 tbls active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups flour (half white, half whole wheat)
Coarse or kosher salt
1 egg, beaten

Add the honey to the water; sprinkle in the yeast and stir until dissolved. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Blend in flour, and knead the dough until smooth. Cut the dough into pieces. Roll them into ropes and twist into pretzel shapes. Place pretzels on lightly greased cookie sheet. Brush them with beaten egg. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake at 425 for 12 - 15 minutes - or until the pretzels are golden brown.

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?

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!