St. Nicholas Day 2016

Happy St. Nicholas Day!!!!

(You can check out this post if you want to know a little more about St. Nicholas).

Stir Up Sunday

Stir Up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent, takes it's name from a prayer, which reads:

"Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the will of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen."

It is also the traditional time to stir up the annual pudding.  We, however, do not make Christmas pudding so we take this opportunity to stir up our own traditional Christmas goodies.

It is our tradition to mix up our hot chocolate mix that we will need to stock our hot chocolate bar and to get us through the winter.

Oftentimes we stir up a handful of other goodies - this year four batches of cookie dough and a batch of spiced tea mix.

(By the way, the boys really do look forward to this and they really did enjoy it despite the hidden faces and "bored" looks; that was just a guise for the camera.)

The spiced tea really brought back memories.  My mom used to make it in large quantities and package it up to be gifted to school teachers, bus drivers, piano teachers, so on and so forth.  My mom was great like that - loved it then, love it now!

And, of course, after stirring everything up we have to sample our goodies - hot chocolate for the boys, spiced tea for me and cookies all the way around!

Our Lord Has Risen Indeed - Happy Easter!!!

A simple mostly homemade Easter celebration!

Happy Easter, Y'all!!!

Our Epiphany

Let me begin by wishing my youngest son, Bishop, a very happy birthday!

I love you and look forward to celebrating your birthday tomorrow when Daddy gets home!

So, today we celebrated Epiphany.

The table is set in the liturgical colors of dark blue and purple, the spiced breads and apples are ready for serving,

and the magi are prepared for the final leg of their journey.

After reading Matthew 2:1-12, the boys placed the wise men in the nativity.

"From the East came the Magi to Bethlehem to adore the Lord; and opening their treasures, they offered costly gifts: gold to the Great King, incense to the true God, and myrrh in symbol of his burial, alleluia!"

"O God, who by the guidance of a star did this day reveal your Only Begotten Son to the Gentiles, grant that we who know You by faith may be brought to the contemplation of the heavenly majesty, through the same Christ, Our Lord. Amen."

"O Lord, Almighty God, bless this house that it may become a shelter of health, chastity, self-conquest, humility, goodness, mildness, obedience to the commandments, and thanksgiving to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Upon this house and those who dwell herein may Your blessing remain forever, through Christ our Lord. Amen."

"May Christ bless our dwelling, and remain with us throughout the new year, and grant that our comings and goings will be in search of truth."

And so, we celebrated Epiphany and bring to an end the days of Christmas.

And as it ends I am reminded just how much I am in need of God's grace and mercy.

You see, the pictures and notes of my blog capture just a brief snapshot of our family and do not reveal the complexities of our relationships and a life lived together.

Certainly there was beauty in our celebration this evening but there were also relational irritations that make the above blessings even more poignant.

'O Lord, may our home please become a shelter of kindness and edification, of goodness, mildness, humility and self-conquest. And, O Lord, thank you so very much for your forgiveness and your gifts of grace and mercy; likewise, may we extend forgiveness, grace and mercy to those around us.'

A Simple St. Lucy's Day

I like to present my children with the lives of saints, men and women who have sought to honor and glorify God by being faithful and obedient even. I look for opportunities to share with them stories of the Saints, missionaries or others, such as Corrie Ten Boom, who persevered in their faith regardless of their circumstances. Although I am not Catholic, I find that the Saints Feast Days provide a natural opportunity for me to do just that; there are predetermined days for recognizing them and many have traditions that are simultaneously easy to incorporate into our lives while being memorable.
For years we have recognized Saint Nicholas' Day and this year we opted to recognize Saint Lucy's Feast Day, as well. Our recognition of the day was largely a history lesson sweetened with cinnamon rolls. Unable to make the traditional braided bread, I had hoped to braid these purchased cinnamon rolls. I was unsuccessful but the boys really didn't mind. They munched on these sweet treats while we read about Saint Lucy.

Legend has it that, in the fourth century, Lucy, a Christian, was betrothed to a pagan. She refused to marry him and gave her dowry away to the poor. The rejected bridegroom then denounced her as a Christian to the Roman government. Lucy was initially ordered to burn a sacrifice to the emperor. She refused. She was then to be sold into slavery and taken to a brothel. "The Christian tradition states that when the guards came to take her away they found her so filled with the Holy Spirit that she was as stiff and as heavy as a mountain; they could not move her even when they hitched her to a team of oxen. Even after implanting a dagger through her throat she prophesied against her persecutor." (Wikipedia) Some narratives include the story of Lucy being tortured by eye-gouging.

One of the things that we found most interesting as we were learning about St. Lucy was the time period in which she lived. The last history lesson we read prior to taking our holiday break had to do with Diocletian, a Roman emperor in the early fourth century. Diocletian was determined to obliterate Christianity. His wave of persecution was the last of ten that existed from the time of Nero until about 311. Diocletian gave himself the title of Dominus Noster (Latin for "Our Lord") and demanded to be worshiped as Jupiter. Many Christians were tortured and put to death because of their refusal to worship Diocletian. As revenge on the Christians who wouldn't bow down to Diocletian, he attempted to destroy all copies of the scriptures. He also forbade Christians to meet and assemble and had churches destroyed. "It is recorded that in Phyrgia, an entire Christian village and its inhabitants were burned. Not one man, woman, or child spoke against Christ to save their life, but each painfully endured the fire. And supposedly, under Diocletian, there were so many Christians thrown to the wild animals in the sporting arenas that the animals became full and quit eating! It was a horrific time to be a Christian in Rome." (The Mystery of History Vol.II)

It was during this time, under Diocletian's rule and oppressive edicts, that St. Nicholas was imprisoned and St. Lucy was martyred.

Although there are many around the world who are being martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ and, it can be argued, Christianity may be under attack in our own nation, our family risks very little in professing our faith yet the Bible does tell us that we will face persecution and trials related to our faith. Even though these trials may be more subtle than facing the jaws of a lion or being engulfed by flames I pray that our family would stand firm in our faith.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Two Sundays of Advent have passed, thus two candles of the advent wreath have been lit.
The advent calendar accompanied by evening readings have begun.
The Christmas tree is decorated and Maceo has had his Christmas choir performance.

Today we woke to our first snow and we ventured forth in the snow to view a performance of 'A Christmas Story' at our community theatre. It was well done and verrrry funny!
And now, we celebrate St. Nicholas Day!

Nicholas was born toward the end of the third century and died in Myra in the year 342.
He was born to wealthy parents who raised him to be a devout Christian. His parents died in an epidemic while he was young. "Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering." He devoted his life to serving God and was known for his generosity to those in need and for his love of children.
There are many legends surrounding St. Nicholas. "One story tells of a poor man with three daughters. In those days a young woman's father had to offer prospective husbands something of value - a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance that the woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home - providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols of Saint Nicholas. And so St. Nicholas is a gift-giver." (stnicholascenter.org).

We celebrated this day with a little pizza (always a favorite around here). I added a 'miter' to the pizza to tie it in to the St. Nicholas 'theme'. In order to have a more balanced meal, I also served raw vegetables.

For dessert we had St. Nicholas sugar cookies and almond speculatius.

As gifts for the boys, I made chocolate Santas into St. Nicks by adding a miter and a crozier.
They make me smile!

I also provided a basket of traditional goodies - candy canes, oranges, and bags of chocolate coins.

It was delightful!
And we pray that, as St. Nicholas did, we will be mindful of the needs of those around us and will seek to meet those needs with a generous spirit!

Martinmas Celebration

Martinmas is the feast day for St. Martin of Tours. St. Martin was born a Roman citizen in 316 A.D. He was raised in a pagan household yet began to attend a Christian church at the age of 10 and was baptized at the age of 18. At the age of 15, as the son of a veteran officer, he was required to join the cavalry. Yet, even as a Roman soldier he was committed to living out his Christian faith. Legend has it that "on a cold day, Martin met a poor man, almost naked, trembling, and begging from passersby. Martin had nothing but weapons and clothes. He drew his sword, cut his cloak into two pieces, and gave one to the beggar. That night in his sleep Martin saw Christ dressed in the half of the garment he had given away, and heard Him say: "Martin, still a catechumen, has covered me with his garment." (Excerpt from Picture Book of Saints). I present St. Martin to my children as an illustration of charity and being God's light in a dark world. Interestingly, traditional activities related to Martinmas include making lanterns and going on a lantern walk, which, particularly during this time of year with its shortened days, seems to symbolize taking God's light out into a world that is increasing in darkness, and planning and participating in a charitable activity. It, also, is a good opportunity to begin preparing our hearts for Christmas, the celebration of the true light entering this world.

St Martin's feast day is on November 11, we chose to celebrate Martinmas a little early.

The evening before, I set out our lanterns, those made this year and those made in years past, the picture book of Saints, a coloring sheet

and the elements needed for our charitable project so that we could get right to work in the morning.

By the light of the lanterns we read the biographical information regarding St. Martin and colored the sheet to add to the history notebooks.

We then assembled festive packages of hot chocolate and cake or cookie mix with a tag saying, "From Our Home to Yours. Merry Christmas!"

We serve at a community food pantry and will give these to each family that comes to the pantry just before Christmas.

In the evening, we roasted hot dogs and sausages over a campfire,

went on a lantern walk,

and then came home to hot apple cider (or hot chocolate for the one who doesn't drink cider) and a sweet treat,

all enjoyed by lantern light!

Happy Martinmas!

And don't forget to let your light shine!