This lovely young couple...asks for your prayers as the date of their wedding approaches. Sts. Joachim and Anne, St. Patrick, pray for us! St. Michael, defend us!

A poem for Easter Sunday

Sonnet 68

Most glorious Lord of lyfe, that on this day,

Didst make thy triumph over death and sin:

And having harrowd hell, didst bring away

Captivity thence captive us to win:

This joyous day, deare Lord, with joy begin,

And grant that we for whom thou diddest dye

Being with thy deare blood clene washt from sin,

May live for ever in felicity.

And that thy love we weighing worthily,

May likewise love thee for the same againe:

And for thy sake that all lyke deare didst buy,

With love may one another entertayne.

So let us love, deare love, lyke as we ought,

Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

Edmund Spenser

A poem for Holy Saturday

Limbo by Sister Mary Ada, OSJ

The ancient grayness shifted

Suddenly and thinned

Like mist upon the moors

Before a wind.

An old, old prophet lifted

A shining face and said:

“He will be coming soon.

The Son of God is dead;

He died this afternoon.”

A murmurous excitement stirred

All souls.

They wondered if they dreamed –

Save one old man who seemed

Not even to have heard.

And Moses, standing,

Hushed them all to ask

If any had a welcome song prepared.

If not, would David take the task?

And if they cared

Could not the three young children sing

The Benedicite, the canticle of praise

They made when God kept them from perishing

In the fiery blaze?

A breath of spring surprised them,

Stilling Moses’ words.

No one could speak, remembering

The first fresh flowers,

The little singing birds.

Still others thought of fields new ploughed

Or apple trees

All blossom-boughed.

Or some, the way a dried bed fills

With water

Laughing down green hills.

The fisherfolk dreamed of the foam

On bright blue seas.

The one old man who had not stirred

Remembered home.

And there He was

Splendid as the morning sun and fair

As only God is fair.

And they, confused with joy,

Knelt to adore

Seeing that He wore

Five crimson stars

He never had before.

No canticle at all was sung

None toned a psalm, or raised a greeting song,

A silent man alone

Of all that throng

Found tongue –

Not any other.

Close to His heart

When the embrace was done,

Old Joseph said,

“How is Your Mother,

How is Your Mother, Son?”

A poem for Good Friday

The Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot

East Coker, IV

The wounded surgeon plies the steel

That questions the distempered part;

Beneath the bleeding hands we fell

The sharp compassion of the healer’s art

Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Our only health is the disease

If we obey the dying nurse

Whose constant care is not to please

But to remind of our, and Adam’s, curse,

And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.

The whole earth is our hospital

Endowed by the ruined millionaire,

Wherein, if we do well, we shall

Die of the absolute paternal care

That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

The chill ascends from feet to knees,

The fever sings in mental wires.

If to be warmed, then I must freeze

And quake in frigid purgatorial fires

Of which the flame is roses and the smoke is briars.

The dripping blood our only drink,

The bloody flesh our only food;

In spite of which we like to think

That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood–

Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.

EXCERPTED FROM THE FOUR QUARTETS, HARVEST BOOKS, 1971

Holy Thursday: three videos

3 videos on what we're celebrating today:



The Eucharist as Meal, Sacrifice, and Real Presence | Word on Fire



The Eucharist as Meal, Sacrifice, and Real Presence | Word on Fire

Feast of the Presentation

It has been almost a year since I wrote anything here. But today was a good day, and I want to remember it. It was mostly an ordinary day. But in the time since we have been back from Japan, we have really been struggling just to get back to ordinary, and today, finally, I feel it. Ordinary.

It's a little funny that this day has fallen on a Feast Day in Ordinary Time.  A time to fall back, regroup from the high feast days of Christmas and breathe before the somber days of Lent arrive (in just over 2 weeks!).

An ordinary day. I took John to the train station at 6:30 as usual and met my friend Mary, who I walk with three times a week, at Magruder Park at 6:50. We actually arrived at the park at the same time today. Neither one of us had to wait. Nice. Not that we mind waiting, but it was nice to start our walk immediately.

I got home with a few minutes to spare for a drink of water and to get the kids moving for Mass. Everyone found their shoes, coats, mittens, etc. We walked to Dan and Taryn's to pick up Benedict (only a little late--pretty good for a Monday), and arrived at Mass before the Gospel. Okay, we do need to do better at that. But we got there. And we got home. And we remembered to pray the Morning Offering on the way and the Rosary for our parish priests on the way home.

School time. Matthew was tired and struggled a bit, but he overcame it and finished his work and piano practice before a quick lunch. He went to co-op and choir. Choir finished early and he got a bonus playtime with his friend, Elias, which he would not have had if his work hadn't been done.

Meghan worked independently today. She didn't give up or cling to me or whine when I had to finish working with Matthew so he could leave for co-op. She kept going and did other things.

Benedict had a happy day. He was energetic and excited about playing with the kids. Happy to have Meghan as his "snack friend."

I had remembered to defrost the chicken for tonight's dinner last night, so it was ready to go in the marinade at lunch time, and I remembered to put it there.

Joseph worked independently this morning and reviewed for an exam with me in the kitchen while I baked a lemon pound cake (from this blog) for our Presentation Day feast.

Katie wrote papers and printed out papers for me to grade.

I had a few minutes to clean out the birdbath. Matthew happily refilled the bird feeder when he got home. No drama.

Dinner was ready on time.

John got home from the train just as I was lighting the candles.

We had a nice conversation at dinner and remembered to pray Evening Prayer for the Feast of the Presentation.

And Joseph played Carol of the Bells, a last splash of Christmas at the end of the day. Tomorrow, we will put away the Nativity scene and take down the outdoor lights, the last vestiges of our Christmas celebration, saved to tonight's feast of light for the One who is the Light of the world.

An Ordinary day. And yet, not. It was the first time in many days that so many things have gone right, gone peacefully.

I am feeling so grateful for this day. This happy, healthy, ordinary day. Thank you, dearest Lord, for the gift of this day.

Papal lapbook

I thought I was so original in planning to do a lapbook of our study on the Papal transition.  Then I went here and was humbled. Oh, well, it is Lent after all.

Palm Sunday

Six days before the Passover,

when the Lord came into the city of Jerusalem,

the children ran to meet him;

in their hands they carried palm branches

and with a loud voice cried out:

Hosanna in the highest!

Blessed are you, who have come in your abundant mercy!

O gates, lift high your heads;

grow higher, ancient doors,

Let him enter, the king of glory!

Who is this king of glory?

He, the lord of hosts, he is the king of glory.

Hosanna in the highest!

Blessed are you, who have come in your abundant mercy!

-Entrance Antiphon (Cf. John 12:1, 12-13; Psalm 24 (23):9-10)

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

After I was outvoted 5-1 against corned beef, it was lamb stew and Irish brown (soda) bread for dinner:

And, for those who partake during Lent, we served the traditional (in this family) mint ice cream pie for dessert.

 The lamb stew took longer than I anticipated, so the younger ones ended up in pj's for dinner. Oh, well. It was still fun, and they loved the opportunity to watch the CCC video, Patrick: Brave Shepherd of the Emerald Isle, while they waited. I think their favorite part of dinner was the green (food coloring) milk.

We finished the meal by praying the Lorica (Breastplate) of St. Patrick.

 We miss you, Patrick. Happy Name Day!!

Christmas Day in the Morning

The children' excitement on Christmas morning--over new discoveries and the generosity of relatives--is contagious. May we all seek to re-discover the ultimate Gift every day of the year!

St. Lucy's Day - December 13

Detail, St. Lucy Altarpiece, Veneziano

"This holy woman fought to the death for the law of her God, never cowed by the threats of the wicked; her house was built on solid rock."
--Entrance Antiphon, Mass for St. Lucy's Day, December 13

We haven't made a whole lot of St. Lucy's Day before, but this year, after reading Lucia, Saint of Light, by Katherine Bolger Hyde, the kids and I thought it would be fun to celebrate.


Last night, I baked some Lussekatter: cross-shaped, saffron buns. I had to adjust the recipe for my instant yeast and fresh-ground flour, and I used brown sugar instead of white. Then they didn't rise. Oops! I forgot that I should have dissolved half the sugar with the warm milk and butter. Baked the buns anyway, since I had all the dough. And they were tasty, if a little heavy.


The swirly cross shape fills the plate in a pleasing way.


Surprisingly, we had to wake the kids at 7:00. I was sure they would be up by then! We wanted to eat together before John went to work. He scrambled some eggs to compliment the Lussekatter. We had a little fruit salad left from yesterday's brunch, which made our breakfast complete. And yummy!

As the kids came downstairs, I lit the candles on their rolls.

‎

We don't have a St. Lucy crown, and Katie was not awake enough to wear a white gown with red sash at 7 a.m. She observed that in Sweden it is dark most of the day at this time of year, so if they get up in the dark, it doesn't necessarily mean it was early; it might be 10:30 in the morning. We'll work on her for next year. ; )

We prayed Morning Prayer for the feast of St. Lucy from my Magnificat. The readings and antiphons are all about eyes, sight, and light, like this antiphon before the Canticle of Mary.

"I shall deliver you from this people to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God."
(cf Acts 26:17-18)

Later in the morning, Matthew cut out a St. Lucy paper doll for Meghan,


and some of us colored in a line drawing of St. Lucy by Matthew Alderman that I found online and printed. Alderman is an architect in Chicago (an alumnus of Notre Dame) and also an artist and blogger.


The older children were only disappointed that she wasn't holding her eyeballs on a plate. It appears that our attempts to instill a Catholic artistic sensibility in them haven't been completely unsuccessful.

Or something.

Meghan's St. Lucy art (line drawing by Matthew Alderman)

Tonight, we are hoping the clouds will have cleared so that we can watch the Geminid meteor shower. Our day will have begun with candlelight and ended with starlight.

"May the eyes of our hearts be enlightened, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to God's call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones. Amen. (cf Eph 1:18)"
--Magnificat, Evening Prayer for December 13

St. Lucy, pray for us.

Solemnity of the Annunciation

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named
Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the Angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus....
And Mary said to the angel, "How can this be since I have no husband?"
And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God....For with God nothing will be impossible."
And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

-Luke 1:26-38

~~~

"The more we honor the Blessed Virgin, the more we honor Jesus Christ, because we honor Mary only that we may the more perfectly honor Jesus, since we go to her only as the way by which we are to find the end we are seeking, which is Jesus."

-St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary

~~~

Father, Most High, the favor you have shown us makes us tremble with gratitude and awe. We beg you, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to make us worthy to receive you with hearts like Mary's.

-Magnificat Lenten Companion March 25, 2010

Angelfood cake for dessert tonight! :)

Solemnity of St. Joseph

Oh, glorious St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God. I place in you all my interests and desires. Oh, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

Oh, St. Joseph, I never weary of contemplating you, and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me and ask him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls - Pray for us.

Dear Grandma,

Thank you for our birthday and St. Valentine's Day presents. We thought you would like to see how we spent them.



Mom helped us find the best price and order some block sets online. There were a lot of choices, and we both carefully considered which one to order. It was tough, but we finally decided. They arrived today.


Joseph couldn't wait to start building the Japanese house. Matthew took his upstairs and, with a little help, built the pyramid on the bedroom floor.

These blocks are lots of fun! Thank you.

We can't wait to see you this summer.

Love,

Joseph and Matthew

St. Patrick's Day

Are you wearing green today? We are!



We didn't make it to Mass this morning, but we did make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament chapel at lunchtime.



The corned beef is in the crock pot. (Hooray! The commissary had this in time for St. Patrick's Day for the first time in 4 years! Thank you to whoever did the ordering this year.)


We'll also make boiled potatoes, a green salad, and maybe some Irish brown bread. Then there is the mint chocolate chip ice cream pie for Patrick's name day dessert. He chooses it every year.

Meghan made a card for Daddy, who shares this name day with Patrick.


Katie baked shamrock shortbread.


It is delicious with my tea this afternoon.


And Meghan enjoyed it with her milk.


We are reading lots of Irish books this week. All those fairy stories are a part of our heritage, and we have a healthy selection of the Irish Saints (Patrick, Kevin, Brigid, Colum), as well.



At dinner, Patrick will receive a name day blessing from his father, and we will pray the Breastplate of St. Patrick together.

After dinner, the kids get to watch the CCC St. Patrick movie.

Christ with us, Christ before us,
Christ behind us, Christ in us,
Christ beneath us, Christ above us,
Christ on our right, Christ on our left,
Christ in breadth, Christ in length, Christ in height,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of us,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of us,
Christ in every eye that sees us,
Christ in every ear that hears us.

We arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
through belief in the Threeness,
through confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation.
Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of Christ.
May thy Salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.

-adapted from The Breastplate of St. Patrick

Medals

During Lent, I try not to shop much. It's part of my plan to simplify my life and to give myself more quiet time for prayer and reflection, and maybe in some sense to give up a pleasure. Although I don't particularly enjoy online shopping, shopping with friends is a pleasure for me. Sometimes Katie and I shop online together, which is a lot of fun. (As long as it doesn't get out of hand, shopping is an allowable pleasure--one I can "take back" after Lent.)

But I do allow myself a little shopping time for Easter gifts. So that was why I was over at the Catholic Child website this morning. A couple of weeks ago, I realized that Meghan doesn't have a patron Saint medal. This is strange to me. I'm not sure how it happened because all of our other children received medals as infants and wore them pinned to the backs of their shoulders to Mass and at other times. So how I missed this with Meghan and didn't even notice for 20 months is a mystery to me. One reason may be that we don't have a Catholic gift shop or bookstore here, so I don't have occasion to see this type of item unless I go looking for it on the internet. Another may be that my focus has been spread a bit thinly among the needs of our oldest two children, Matthew struggling with asthma, that little thing we call home school, and baby Meghan for awhile now. I have been putting out fires, as they say, but not much else.

No matter the reason, I resolved to rectify the situation and find a St. Margaret Mary or St. Therese medal for Easter. And I was very excited to see the Saints Alive sterling silver medals. These look like they are good quality medals. Even better, they offer more than 120 Saint names. I was delighted to see some hard-to-find ones like St. Thomas More and Old Testament Saints like Benjamin and Daniel. I do wish the St. Margaret medal said "St. Margaret Mary" instead, but I suppose not every Margaret, Meghan, or Maggie is a Margaret Mary. :)

If you are looking for a medal for an Easter or First Communion gift, you might like to take a look. They also have around 50 different patron Saint statues and rosaries (the rosaries are more expensive). Nice to find so many in one place.

Ash Wednesday

Lent begins today with Joseph serving Ash Wednesday Mass. Because Japanese class followed Mass, we had an opportunity to witness to our teacher, who had never heard of Ash Wednesday before. I think she thought it was a little strange, but who knows. We're just planting seeds.

Black beans and rice for dinner, in a recipe from Lent and Easter in the Christian Kitchen, a small, but very useful Catholic cookbook by Laurie N. Gill and Teresa Zepeda.

Our home altar is almost bare, with only a purple cloth, a bottle of holy water, and a picture of Jesus at the last supper with the words Lent 2010 on it. The seasonal table in the front hall has Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son and 14 candles, one for each station of the cross, which we will light when we do family stations on Wednesday evenings.

After the littlest ones are in bed, we will gather for family prayer. John is going to introduce us to lectio divina. If we learn to meditate on scripture as a family, it will help all of us grow closer to God, to hear God speaking to us through our family life. I am looking forward to learning this truly Catholic method of meditation and to .

*working on photos

If you have a minute, please say a little prayer that our Lent calendars arrive soon. I ordered them a bit too late, I guess, as they are not here yet. The kids use them to put stickers on for each day's sacrifice or act of love. It helps them so much. Especially Matthew who still thinks that a sacrifice is not eating what you didn't really want to eat today anyway.

Pancake day

Pancakes for dinner?



Oh, yes!


According to my research here, here, and here, the celebration comes from the time when all the fats, meats, and sweets had to be out of the house before Lent. Roman Catholics don't fast as austerely anymore, but our family has embraced the tradition of an especially sweet dinner just before Lent.



We usually give up after-dinner desserts during Lent, which gives us more time after dinner for family prayer. Tonight, in addition to the pancakes, sausage, and fruit salad, we needed to finish some cheesecake left from St. Valentine's Day, so we added it to the celebration. I think my mother would call that "guilding the lily."

chocolate mustache--we think he looks a bit like Clark Gable here

We sacrifice something that isn't necessarily bad in order to help us keep our focus more directly on Christ during Lent. I give up chocolate; John gives up beer. The children choose their own sacrifices according to their age and understanding. Matthew does something different each day. These are small things, but when united with the sacrifice of Christ, they become something much larger. "Little things for love of Jesus," we say with St. Therese.

Back in Yakima, John sometimes went out for a beer with a friend on Shrove Tuesday; tonight he had to settle for one last beer with his dinner. I had one, too. There were two cans of Guiness left in the garage (our winter cold storage), so I thought I would be gracious and help him out. ;)

Daddy's last beer before Lent.

More in the coming days on the things we do besides giving something up for Lent.

Happy Pancake Day!