Feast of the Week: St. Agnes, January 21

This week’s feast is the feast of St. Agnes, Virgin Martyr, on Thursday. St. Agnes was born in the 3rd century to a wealthy Catholic family, and when young, made a vow of chastity. However, because of her beauty and wealth, she attracted the attention of many young men, to whom she would always respond, “Jesus Christ is my only Spouse.” 

Angered at her refusal, her suitors informed the government that she was a Catholic. At the time, the Roman Empire was under the rule of Diocletian and Catholicism was illegal, and she was tortured by various means to renounce her faith, and finally put to death when she was 12 or 13. Her symbol is the lamb, representing her innocence, youth, and virginity. For more details, this is a great source.

St. Agnes' story is one that should be shared with every young girl, as an example of her great courage in the face of danger, an example of the importance of purity, and finally as an example of the gloriousness of being a bride of Christ. We have such a great need for not only good nuns, but good mothers to raise their children to honor the religious life, whether they are called to that vocation or not.

You can celebrate with a little jello dessert, posted later on this week. With the crown mold, almost any saint’s feast can be commemorated.

Feast of St. Martha

Yesterday was the feast of St. Martha, the patron saint of housewives. We celebrated by grilling out (it was one of the first mild days we've had this week), and I made a special dessert that was easy to throw together.

Menu: Steak, asparagus, potatoes, and 10 minute fruit tart by Rachael Ray.

She's growing bigger every day

Steak

All I did was let the steak marinate in some olive oil and lemon pepper seasoning. I used to make the mistake of adding salt and garlic powder when I used the lemon pepper seasoning, but then read the label (I'm trying to get better at that!). That's when I discovered that onion powder, garlic powder, and salt are also present.

Asparagus

My husband taught me the correct way to trim asparagus ends. You have to hold the bottom and break them off individually, instead of cutting them with a knife. This might seem a little wasteful, but just put those ends into some compost and enjoy the tender asparagus! We make a foil pack with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper sprinkled over the fresh asparagus, and steam it on the grill for about 20 minutes.

Potatoes

I took some ideas and made up a recipe for the potatoes that turned out ok. I'll have to tweak it a little more. I made a foil packet of sliced potatoes, chunks of cream cheese and butter, and some fresh parmesan. The parmesan melted to the bottom (or was it the top? We had to flip the potatoes so that they would cook faster), the butter melted through, but the chunks of cream cheese didn't melt all the way. Maybe the chunks need to be smaller and more spread out?

The fruit tart got a little slid around

10 Minute Fruit Tart

I admit, I took some liberties with this recipe. The base is a store-bought graham cracker crust, topped with some seedless strawberry and blackberry jelly. On top of that I put instant vanilla pudding mixed with orange and lime zest, and then around the top I put a can of mixed tropical fruit cocktail and strawberries in the middle. Next time, I'm going to make the pie version of the pudding (less milk), and slice up some fresh fruits, instead of putting down a layer of jam. But it turned out great! Here's the link to the original recipe.

Raising Catholic Children in a Modern World

I have insomnia. Lately it's been getting better, I've been going to bed before 1 am, sometimes before midnight. Maybe tonight, maybe not. Maybe once I get this particular anxiety off my chest, I will become calmed.

Insomnia for me happens when I am worried. Some nights, it's because I don't have a meal plan 3 days before I need to go shopping. Some nights, it's because of upcoming events or major and minor decisions. Tonight, it's because I defended my faith, and in doing so my day was interrupted with meditations on the problems of the world.

People divorce and remarry because they do not know the true definition of love. They decide to take the easy way out, and suicide is commended, praised, and funded. They decide to kill their children and pervert God's nature, because they were too irresponsible to listen to their will, and instead allowed themselves to be guided by their passions. They use God's own natural world against Him, to justify so called "sex change" and other abominations. And then, they expect Christians to believe in something wrong, and not only believe it, but cater to it. The world tells everybody that the sky is green and that water is poison, and when some decide to stand up and call them liars, those few are called cowards. Isn't the truly cowardly thing to just agree in public, and then go on drinking water? Why wouldn't we want to educate the world that water is in fact, good for you? But we are labeled cowards.

In a country where my rights are more important than yours, my rights to a cake are more important than your right to practice your faith, the Catholics are fighting this battle in the wrong way. Didn't Christ warn us that we would be persecuted for our beliefs? The early centuries of the Church were centuries of martyrdom, that recommenced during the Protestant Revolution, although those martyrdoms are largely forgotten and ignored. Those centuries taught the world something: once you start killing people, you make martyrs out of them. Instead, you have to persecute people in ways that not only are deniable, but seem ridiculous. It seems ridiculous that people wouldn't just bake a cake for someone, it's just a cake. It seems ridiculous to talk of religious persecution, when there are so many "Christians" in the world. A person says: "I believe that love and tolerance are above all other things. Therefore, because you don't believe this way, you are evil". A Catholic says "This is what the Church teaches. We do not interpret the Bible for ourselves, we leave that to the professionals. We do not believe that everything is in the Bible, because even St. John said that there was much more taught that couldn't be written down. And we adhere to the ultimate truths that have been passed down directly from God Himself. We will pray for the non-believers, we will pray that those who are misguided find the truth, we will pray for those who misguide others, for they will be held to judgment. And we will not pass judgements on others, but live our faith even in the face of ridicule and hatred."

Instead of making the battle for morality about us, we need to make it about God. God has a right to be worshipped the way He demanded, and if you can believe this basic truth, you will have all the strength you need to fight the battles demanded of you. If this means that you are fined, hated, ridiculed, remember that the early Catholics wouldn't even offer a token of incense to a false god, instead choosing death. I need to instill in my children the love of God, the will to cling to Him above all else, even forsaking family and friends when necessary to defend our truly beautiful Faith.

Catching Up

The Visitation of Our Lady to St. Elizabeth

I apologize for the lack of posts. Let me catch you up on what's been happening since I last posted.

This cake was seriously delicious. Must eat with frown.

My daughter had her first birthday on June 30, and her birthday party was on the Saturday before that. Although I was under a lot of self-made stress in getting things "just right", everything turned out well, the sun decided to shine (rain was forecasted up until a few days before), and above all, my daughter was happy, no meltdowns or temper tantrums!

Ice cream: can't go wrong with cookie dough!

There were storms about every other day before her party, so a lot of things (online) didn't get done. Because we can't afford internet (but pay our taxes every year), we get internet from our public library/police station, conveniently located across the street. When a storm hits, the internet goes down, and it takes a few clear days to get up and running again. So today was the first day I could get to anything, Pinterest, Facebook, or my blog. I'm not complaining, because it's nice sometimes to take a break and just enjoy living life. I was able to get to so many more things since I wasn't procrastinating, even just reading books that I needed to catch up on, and detoxing from the level of news that those with internet get every moment of the day. I tend to get riled up about politics, the state of the Church, and other problems in the world, but when you are only watching the night time news, there isn't all the distraction at your fingertips. I realized that I was focusing on finding out as much information as possible, instead of just knowing what I needed to know in my state of life, praying for those who are misguided and those who are deliberately doing the misguiding, and then getting on with my day to day life. There isn't much I can do or say as a housewife that hasn't already been done or said, and instead of adding fuel to the fire, I can just pray that decisions that were made this past week will eventually be reversed, and that the whole world will come to acknowledge the True Faith. And then return to being excited about the 5 steps my daughter is now taking!

We got to chill right next to the polar bears!

Feast days that have passed: on the 29th of June, we celebrated the feasts of Sts. Peter and Paul. I spent the day with my daughter, enjoying the sunshine and breeze, getting ready for our big outing on Tuesday, and trying very hard to figure out a napping schedule for the almost-toddler. Tuesday was her birthday, and the commemoration of the original feast of St. Paul (they didn't used to have to share a day). We spent the morning at home, and left for the zoo, where we spent our whole afternoon. By the end of the day, both parents were pretty sore (I was still recovering from it today!), and Eleanor was exhausted. Thankfully we had done cake and candles on Saturday, or I'm not sure we would have done them this year! Wednesday was the feast of the Precious Blood. July is also dedicated to the Precious Blood, so more on that doctrine and history later. And finally, today is the feast of the Visitation, which reminds us of the blessing of expectant mothers. Today, let us especially pray that the abominations of contraception and abortions be eradicated. God, through His message from the Angel Gabriel, and Mary have shown us how blessed it is to be able to bear children, and a privilege that no men and not all women can share in.

June 9: Bl. Amy, Diana, & Cecilia, Dominicans

 Today is the feast of the three nuns who were some of St. Dominic's earliest nuns, honored as foundresses just as St. Scholastica may be considered a foundress of the Benedictine nuns, and as Mother Mary Gabriel is the foundress of the Sisters of the Society of St. Pius X. There isn't much (actually, anything) known about Bl. Amata except that St. Dominic gave her the religious name meaning "beloved", and because of that, the modern order has dropped her from official recognition on her feast day, which is sad for Amy's, Aimee's, and girls with all of the other spellings, all over the world.

The reason name days came to be celebrated is an interesting one. The early Church wanted something to celebrate in place of the pagan birthday celebrations, and because people had been encouraged to take the names of saints as Baptismal names, the encouragement to start celebrating one's patron saint became a custom and endured for centuries. I remember reading a book, called My Heart Lies South by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño, where she falls in love with, and marries, an amazing Mexican man and chronicles how different everything is to her, a new convert. At that point in time, the adults did not celebrate birthdays. There was a token gift and acknowledgement, but the big party came for one's name day, the feast day of your patron saint. The book takes place in the 1930's; I am no authority on Mexico at all, so I don't know if they still continue this custom. But at least less then a century ago, that was the custom.

Today was, needless to say, not celebrated as a birthday. I did celebrate personally, but Eleanor is too young to understand and Hubby was at work all day. It started out with my daily weigh-in. I'm doing really well on my diet, and that weigh in helped me to not binge eat or "celebrate" (full of regrets later). I also for the first time in 3 weeks measured my waist, and lost 2 inches! That's also encouraging. I had bought some diet desserts, and enjoyed those within reason. Eleanor also rewarded me by standing by herself for an extended period of time without any explicit encouragement from me, although once I caught her at it, I definitely praised her! She is getting to be so much more independent every day. Two weeks ago, she didn't want to stand up by herself at all, and only did it if we distracted her. Maybe in the next month, she'll take a few steps solo.

If you want to draw a parallel between today and my patron saint, I'm sure she would approve. The day was filled with small victories, quiet celebrations, living our lives like Bl. Amy lived hers.

May 31, 2015

I can't think of a good title for this post. So many topics today! So, what better than the simple date?

Today is the Feast of the Holy Trinity, and the end of the official Easter season of the church. Technically, it is also the first Sunday after Pentecost, and the beginning of the Time after Pentecost, this year consisting of 26 Sundays, ending on November 29. Today, we celebrate one of the great mysteries of our Faith, the fact that although there is only one God, there are also three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We have celebrated each of these Persons individually, and now we celebrate all of them together, reinforcing our belief.

Today is also the Feast of the Queenship of Our Lady. Because she gave herself so faithfully to God, and because she is the Mother of God, she was crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth. When we accept her Son as King, we will also accept her as our Queen and Mother.

"Adeamus cum fiducia ad thronum gratiae,ut mesericordiam consequamur, et gratiam inveniamus in auxilio opportuno" (Introit).

Pentecost and St. Dominic

Come Holy Ghost!

Happy feast of Pentecost! The feast of Pentecost, like the feast of Easter, is tied to the Jewish Feast of  Harvests, which happened 50 days (Pentecost in Greek) after the feast of First-fruits, which was celebrated around the same time as Passover. The feast day was one of the many that Jews from around the world had to visit Jerusalem, and was therefore a perfect occasion for Christ's word to be spread and the preaching of the Apostles to start.

"Suddenly, there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting"(Epistle). Tradition tells us that the Apostles and Our Lady had been sitting in prayer in the same room that Our Lord had hired for the Last Supper. Before the Holy Ghost came, the apostles were timid, scared to preach the Gospel, and waiting for an earthly leader. After He came, they were filled with courage, given the power of tongues to preach to everyone, and realized that the Kingdom of God was truly not of this earth, but existed in Heaven. This is truly a miracle, but it's the same miracle we get as Catholics when we receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, which gives us the sacramental grace to stand up for our faith, in the face of every hardship.

Let us pray for the courage to stand up for our faith. Today's gift of the Holy Ghost is Wisdom; "The gift of Wisdom is an illumination of the Holy Ghost, thanks to which our intellect is able to look at revealed truths in their more sublime light, to the greater joy of our souls" (St. Andrew's Missal).

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St. Dominic, by Fra Angelico

Today is also the feast of the Translation of St. Dominic's relics: the day that they were re-interred for the public to be able to pray at. This is the feast day of my alma mater, St. Dominic School in Post Falls, and so it holds a special place in my heart. Happy feast day to all my fellow alumni!

Feast of St. Helen: August 18

About a month ago was Eleanor’s first feast day. We didn’t do anything much, except read a short version  of St. Helen’s life, because, well, I was tired with a 7 week old. But at least Eleanor was able to hear about her illustrious patron saint. As a child, I was always attracted to the saints who were queens; firstly St. Elizabeth of Hungary, but after that, St. Helen, who was an empress. My favorite author, Evelyn Waugh, wrote what he termed his masterpiece (and I must agree) on her life, and this “fairy story” is what drew me closer to her. When we had to decide on names for our child, I was drawn to Eleanor, for 3 reasons: it was a unique name, its origins are Old French, (its first use was that of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was queen of England and who inspired the 100 Years’ War), and it is a derivative of Helen.

From my missal excerpt:

Saint Helena, a native of Britain, espoused to the Emperor Constantius, was the mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome. Favored by her son, Saint Helena succeeded in discovering at Jerusalem the true Cross, to enshrine which she built a magnificent Basilica. She was renowned for her alsmsdeeds, and (say the ancient chroniclers) “incomparable in her faith and zeal”. Saint Helena received her heavenly crown in the month of August, in the twentieth year of the reign of her son, that is A.D. 326.

And the Collect of her Mass:

O Lord Jesus Christ, who to blessed Helena wast pleased to reveal the place where The Cross was hidden, in order, though her, to enrich Thy Church with this inestimable treasure: give ear to her prayers, and accept this tree of life as the price of our attaining to eternal happiness.

February 3: St. Blaise

St. Blaise Candles

There aren't a lot of saints that get an "extra" ceremony, but St. Blaise is one of the few. His feast day is celebrated the day after Candlemas, or February 3. St. Blaise is the patron saint of throats, and his name is invoked not only for serious diseases like throat cancer, but also the little things like a sore throat. He is also my godson's patron saint (middle name), so I always especially remember him today.

On the feast of St. Blaise, two candles are blessed, tied with a red ribbon to remember his martyrdom, and these candles are held against the throats of the faithful with a blessing said to protect them against any throat disease.

The Story of the Presentation

Presentation of Our Lord by Fra Angelico

Candlemas is my favorite Christmastide feast day. I love the procession, the music, the prayers, the end of one season and the beginning of the next. The story is equally edifying.