Pondered In My Heart

Easter 2016

Catching up here with photos from our Easter weekend - The Easter Bunny showed up on cue on Holy Saturday! We spotted this critter across the yard stationed right under one of my bush cherries, charmingly sitting up on its hind legs to break off the flowered branches to munch. It was so cute we didn't chase it away, and besides, eating the bush seemed better than eating all of my tulips like the rabbits usually do.

We always spend Holy Saturday doing our baking together and preparing our various traditional Easter treats with which to break the fast.

We've been making these candy nests for years - they mostly seem like a good excuse to eat Cadbury mini eggs. ;-)

Eliza just had to get up and dance when she heard her brother practicing the organ. It's his tradition to play the exuberant, triumphant Widor Toccata for his postlude after the Easter Vigil - nothing says Easter's almost here in our house like hearing the Widor on Holy Saturday afternoon.

Lydia made the kifli (Hungarian filled cookies) at one end of the counter while I made the kalacs (our Hungarian Easter bread), nut and poppy rolls at the other.

Like mother, like daughter we were with our dueling rolling pins at both ends of the island,

while Mary Rose and Anna were the chocolate egg team. We've been making these for years, in lieu of buying Easter candy (recipes here). Coconut, peanut butter, and maple pecan.

While we ladies toil away in the kitchen Jonathan just gets to wander around looking handsome, practicing the organ and chant. 

Filled cookies, rugalug, and sugar cookies awaiting their fancy frosting.

Nut and poppy rolls rising in the sun.

The finished kalacs (recipe here).

And then finally our kitchen work is done and the real excitement begins as we prepare for the Easter Vigil. We shed our dark colors and put on our Easter finery, and we know that the church will do the same.

The Eater Vigil begins with the Easter fire outside the church,

then the light of the risen Christ is carried in and spread throughout to all. As the missal explains, The Solemn Easter Vigil service is intended to show liturgically how life and grace flow to us from the death of our Lord. It is the beginning of the most beautiful liturgy and the most joyful day of the whole year.

Of course we return in the morning for Easter Sunday Mass as well. The altar is beautifully decorated with flowers and the scent of incense, beeswax and lilies combine to enhance our joy even more.

This year the children's chorus sang for the first time at Mass on Easter morning as well. My three choristers were excited and happy to be assisting at Mass in this way on such a joyful day!

When we get home after the Vigil in the wee hours of the morning we break the fast with our first tastes of our Easter treats, and Eliza delights in removing all the purple coverings from our statues throughout our house.

After Easter Sunday Mass and our traditional photo shoot on the couch we headed outside for a little Easter parade. Despite the chilly weather, our joy could not be contained and we strolled through the neighborhood with musical accompaniment. The little ones fairly danced along, skipping and prancing to the music.

We may have started yet another new tradition. :-)

I love what Divine Intimacy says about the unique all-consuming, overarching, rock-solid joy that is Easter:

"This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us be glad and rejoice therein." This is the most excellent day, the happiest day in the whole year, because it is the day when "Christ, our Pasch, has been sacrificed." Christmas, too, is a joyous feast, but whereas Christmas vibrates with a characteristic note of sweetness, the Paschal solemnity resounds with an unmistakable note of triumph; it is joy for the triumph of Christ, for His victory.  ~

In this world there are many ephemeral joys, based on fragile, insecure foundations; but the Paschal joy is solidly grounded on the knowledge that we are in the truth, the truth which Christ brought to the world and which He confirmed by His Resurrection. The Resurrection tells us that our faith is not in vain, that our hope is not founded on a dead man, but on a living one, the Living One par excellence, whose life is so strong that it vivifies, in time as in eternity, all those who believe in Him.

Once again, Happy Easter! Resurréxit Sicut Díxit!

Easter Monday! (from Eliza)

 Regina Cæli

Regina Caeli from Cynecam on Vimeo.

Regina cæli, laetáre, allelúia.
Quia quem meruísti portare, allelúia.
Resurréxit, sicut dixit, allelúia.
Ora pro nóbis Déum, allelúia.

O Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
For He whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia.
Has risen, as He said, alleluia.
Pray for us to God, alleluia.

 

O Filii et Filiae

O Filii from Cynecam on Vimeo.

 Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

O filii et filiae,
Rex caelestis, Rex gloriae
morte surrexit hodie, Alleluia

Ex mane prima Sabbati
ad ostium monumenti
accesserunt discipuli, Alleluia

Et Maria Magdalene,
et Iacobi, et Salome
Venerunt corpus ungere, Alleluia

In albis sedens angelus
praedixit mulieribus:
In Galilaea est Dominus, Alleluia

Et Ioannes apostolus
cucurrit Petro citius,
monumento venit prius, Alleluia

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

Ye sons and daughters of the Lord,
the King of glory, King adored,
this day Himself from death restored, Alleluia

All in the early morning gray
went holy women on their way,
to see the tomb where Jesus lay, Alleluia

Of spices pure a precious store
in their pure hands these women bore,
to anoint the sacred Body o'er, Alleluia

The straightaway one in white they see,
who saith, "seek the Lord: but He
is risen and gone to Galilee," Alleluia

This told they Peter, told John;
who forthwith to the tomb are gone,
but Peter is by John outrun, Alleluia

from the Liber Usualis, hymn by by Jean Tisserand, O.F.M. (d. 1494)

Resurréxit Sicut Díxit!

O God, who, on this day, through Thine only-begotten Son, hast conquered death, and thrown open to us the gate of everlasting life, give effect by Thine aid to our desires, which Thou dost anticipate and inspire. Through the same Christ our Lord.  - Collect, Easter Sunday

Thrown open the gate of everlasting life! To us! Alleluia!

A most blessed, Happy Easter to all of you from all of us!

Alleluia!

A Treat for the Feast: Laetare Sunday

Today is Laetare Sunday, the Fourth Sunday in Lent. Laetare, the first word of the Introit, means Rejoice, offering us a respite in the midst of our Lenten penances. We take a break from the penitential purple and use rose vestments at Holy Mass, the organ is played, and we rejoice thinking ahead to the glory of Easter that is to come. A little fortification before the final weeks of Lent, so to speak.

For our treat today the girls decided to make a Simnel Cake. Not being British, I admit we had never heard of this cake before Mary Rose read of it in her Vintage Cakes cookbook by Jane Brocket (a fabulous collection of cake recipes, by the way). Apparently it is an old tradition to make this cake on Laetare Sunday, whereas nowadays folks are more likely to partake of it for Easter. The cake is a sort of fruitcake, baked with a layer of marzipan in the center and later topped off with more marzipan. It is decorated with eleven marzipan balls to symbolize the apostles, minus the betrayer. You pop the completed cake under the broiler for a minute or two to gently brown the marzipan.

Mary Rose took quite a bit of liberty with the recipe in the book: she skipped the candied peel and cherries although they were hardly missed with all of the raisins, golden raisins, dried currants, and fresh citrus peels she did include. We didn't actually plan too much ahead for this cake which only added to the fun (the girls even had to go borrowing eggs from the neighbors, ahem).  Lydia made the fresh marzipan using this recipe, or perhaps we should call it rustic marzipan as the only almonds we had in the house were not blanched, thus the brownish color. It still tasted fantastic, especially with the lovely touch of rose water. She made one and a half recipes of the marzipan, and used it all up in the cake. Lacking the called for apricot jam, we stuck the balls on with raspberry.

The cake turned out delicious - moist and rich with spicy fruit, sweet but not overly so. A tasty, flavorful sweetness - just the thing to brighten up the day in the middle of Lent.

Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation. I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord. Isaiah 66:10,11, Psalm 121:1 Introit, Fourth Sunday in Lent

A Treat for the Feast: Chair of St. Peter

 

Cathedra Petri (St. Peter's Chair) in the Vatican, Photo by Dnalor-01 from Wikimedia Commons, used under license CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Tomorrow, February 22nd, is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter: we celebrate the primacy of St. Peter as the first Pope. The feast is of even greater significance to us personally as our church is an apostolate of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, rendering it one of our patronal feasts.

You can read more about this feast day here at Catholic Culture, here at the Catholic Encyclopedia, and here at EWTN. Fr. Longenecker also has some humorous thoughts about it in this old post here.

We like to celebrate the day with a special treat, namely this Lemon Cheese Braid, as it features the papal colors of yellow and white.

We use this recipe from King Arthur, and it has become one of Lydia's specialties. As written, one recipe makes two large braids, but she makes a recipe and a half so that there are some smaller braids to share as well. She follows the recipe, noting that sour cream can be used if you don't have any yogurt on hand. One eight once package of cream cheese makes a nice generous amount of cheese filling for one recipe. Lydia uses Ina Garten's lemon curd recipe found here.This recipe makes a lot of lemon curd, plenty for the breads with a lot leftover. This is not a problem, as we don't think it's possible to ever have too much lemon curd. ;-) We plan to save the extra and make Lemon Curd Thumb Prints next Sunday (just use the curd instead of jam).

Enjoy a blessed feast day tomorrow!

O God, who by delivering to Thy blessed Apostle Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, didst confer upon him the pontifical power of binding and of loosing, grant that, by the help of his intercession, we may be freed from the bonds of sin. -Collect, Feast of St. Peter's Chair

Lent Calendar 2016

 

As per tradition, Lydia has once again illustrated a new calendar for Lent. The Sacrificial Lamb is a lovely addition this year and the border of thorns is quite fine.

Young ones like to color a space a day to keep track of our progress through Lent. We use purple for most days, and the matching liturgical color for feast days, Palm Sunday etc. Colored pencils work nicely for coloring the pictures. The calendar serves as an encouraging visual for young and old as we journey through the season.

Download Lent 2016 LGTK 2016-02-02

Blessings to you and yours as you prepare to begin the season of Lent in your homes.

Puer Natus Est Nobis!

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you and yours!

On Keeping Advent: Rorate Mass

Rorate, cœli, désuper, et nubes pluant justum, aperiátur terra, et gérminet Salvatórem. Benedixísti, Dómine, terram tuam: avertísti captivitátem Jacob.- Isaiah 12:8, Psalm 84:2, Introit, Mass: Rorate Cœli of the Blessed Virgin

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened and bud forth a Saviour. Lord, Thou hast blessed Thy land: Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob.

Thus the beautiful words of Isaiah begin the Mass: Rorate Cœli. This is a votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrated on a Saturday during Advent, and traditionally taking place before dawn. The Mass begins while it is still dark outside and the church is lit exclusively by candlelight. The darkness represents the world in the darkness of sin awaiting the birth of Our Savior, the Light of the world. It also calls to mind that cold, dark, bleak midwinter night in Bethlehem when Our Lady brought forth her Newborn Son.

O God, who wast pleased that at the message of an Angel, Thy Word should take flesh in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, grant to us Thy suppliants, that we, who believe her to be truly the Mother of God, may be helped by her intercession with Thee, through the same Jesus Christ... - Collect, Mass: Rorate Cœli of the Blessed Virgin

We had the great joy of assisting at the Rorate Mass at our church this past Saturday. We excitedly arrived at the chapel in the dark, and the beauty of the candlelight as we entered the darkened church was stunning. The altar was lit with a multitude of candles, and more lights burned at the feet of Our Blessed Lady and St. Joseph. Even the schola sang by candlelight, gathered around the silent organ.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. - Luke 1:28, 42, Offertory, Mass: Rorate Cœli of the Blessed Virgin

The penitential purple of Advent was set aside for festal white vestments, while white flowers adorned the usually bare altar. As the sun began to rise during the course of the Mass the faint blue light shone through the windows, fittingly first becoming noticeable right at the time of the Consecration.

Behold a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel. - Isaiah 7: 14, Communion, Mass: Rorate Cœli of the Blessed Virgin

The prayers of the Mass recall the prophecies concerning Our Lady and her role in our salvation, and honoring her brings us hope and joy as we continue to await the celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord.

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts: that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of the Resurrection, through the same Jesus Christ... - Postcommunion, Mass: Rorate Cœli of the Blessed Virgin

On Keeping Advent

To Thee have I lifted up my soul: in Thee, O my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed: neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on Thee shall be confounded. Show, O Lord, Thy ways to me: and teach me Thy paths. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. - Introit, First Sunday of Advent, Psalm 24

Thus begins the first Mass of the first Sunday of the new Liturgical Year. We turn way back to the beginning of our missals and begin again most fittingly with preparing and longing as we wait for the coming of our Messiah, that pivotal moment in the history of mankind when the Word was made Flesh and our hope for redemption was born.

 I love how, as always, Holy Mother Church leads and guides us in how we are to go about this season of Advent. As the world goes crazy around us with baubles and glitz and noise and the constant imploring to buybuybuy the alternative of calm and peace and patience and joy offered by the Faith is palpable.

All they that wait on Thee shall not be confounded, O Lord...-Gradual, First Sunday of Advent, Psalm 24

Things are so clearly presented to us at Mass on this First Sunday of Advent. The altar is stark and without flowers. The organ is silent, lending an even greater solemnity to the music of the liturgy. The violet vestments visually remind us this season is not entirely unlike Lent, a time of penance as well as preparation. The readings call us to wake up from our ever present temptation to slumber.

Imagine if you would have gone to church this morning and seen poinsettias covering the altar next to the lighted Nativity scene with Baby Jesus in the manger, and heard the choir belting out Joy to the World. It's an absurd thought. But it should be an equally absurd thought that we would do these things in our homes before the proper time just because that's how the world around us does it.

Instead we willingly, trustingly, joyfully follow the Church's lead and embrace this time of waiting and restraint. Our homes become quieter. Our thoughts turn inward as we contemplate how we can best prepare our own hearts for His coming. We take time to find out within ourselves what needs to be done to make room in our own inns. We help our little ones to learn just a little bit more about love and sacrifice and self-denial and patience and hope as we live this season each year.

The world does not understand this at all.

But frankly, the world does not seem to understand much of anything anymore.

The world doesn't understand that sacrifice and patience and longing do not make us glum but in the long run cannot help but increase our joy. Self-denial leads to strength. Just as an earthly bride and groom increase their joy by waiting for each other the Church, the bride of Christ, embraces this time of waiting with joy. Yearning amplifies the satisfaction of the eventual fulfillment.

But when the fullness of time was come, God sent His Son... (Galatians 4:4)

Thus we wait for the fullness of time in the Christmas season to celebrate His coming.

As such, we live this season of Advent differently than the rest of the world. For our family, our traditions in our Domestic Church are well established and we follow them each year with gladness. There is comfort and peacefulness in keeping things simple and familiar in our homes. We gather each evening to light our Advent wreath and read the Jesse Tree readings for the day, the Old Testament stories telling of salvation history through the ages. After our prayers we sing the beautiful Vespers hymn for Advent, Creator Alme Síderum and the Marian antiphon of the season, Alma Redemptóris Mater. We abandon our usual loud and jolly musical selections and listen only to Advent music, the Benedictine Sisters' Advent at Ephesus being our favorite. We make personal sacrifices and mortifications, placing straws in the manger as a tangible sign of our efforts and progress, as well as our goal: preparing a fitting place for Him. We choose Christkindls and secretly do good works for each other in a spirit of love and service (and fun). We wait until Gaudete Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent, to put up our Christmas lights outside as a sign that the arrival of the Light of the World is drawing nearer. And we put up our tree on the 21st for Eliza's birthday, waiting until Christmas Day itself to add the decorations. We wait in joyful hope.

This year I also gifted each of my adult children with their own copies of Divine Intimacy, Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day of the Liturgical Year. I found one of the beautiful Baronius editions and several of the out of print but fairly prevalent hardcover TAN editions. (I recommend you avoid the softcover version as you will want a sturdy book to use year after year.) This much loved classic contains a short meditation for each day, comprehensively covering many aspects of the spiritual life in a very doable three pages a day of reading, with richness and depth that can be mined for years. Advent is the perfect time to begin this book, or perhaps to find it on the shelf and dust it off and dig back into it once again.

So that is our simple plan for once again keeping Advent in our home. It's different from the world's ideas, and the world might even laugh at such a thought.

But today's Mass told us yet a third time-

To thee have I lifted up my soul: in Thee, O my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed: neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait for Thee shall be confounded. - Offertory, First Sunday of Advent, Psalm 24

We shall wait on Him and we shall not be confounded.

A few more links:

Leila has some thoughts on Advent, presented as always with her lovely combination of truth and charity.

Celeste has a printable holy card for the St. Andrew Novena prayer which we will start praying tomorrow.

As it is the New Liturgical Year, Mary has a handy printable for recording our spiritual New Year Resolutions.

Here is the text and an audio for Creator Alme Síderum  and for Alma Redemptóris Mater. These are beautiful chants that are not difficult to learn and would be well worth your time. Children naturally love to sing and we should provide them with the beautiful riches the Church has to offer in this season. Though we sing each night without accompaniment, Jonathan has also arranged an easy piano version for Creator, found here.  (I believe I've also heard Kateri playing it on the harp.)

A most Blessed Advent to you and yours!

"I Don't Like Lent"

"You must remember, professor," Father Hall continued, "that one of the sweetest ways in which we can show our love for a person is with gifts. We always say, 'It isn't the value of the gift; it's the spirit of the giver that matters.' That's why trifles wrapped round with love are much more precious than tiaras or mink coats given lovelessly.

"The giving of a gift to God is all we mean by sacrifice. In the Old Law the Jews gave Him cattle and bread and wine. We Catholics give Him His divine Son in the Mass. But we want to give Him something that we would personally like for ourselves. So we sacrifice cigars or wine or candy or the movies. We say, '0 God, I'll give them up just to show that I do love You.'  And the harder we find it to give them up, the more precious they will be to our Father.

''It's perfectly true that God is made no happier by our giving Him a chocolate malted milk or a stick of chewing gum or a highball. God isn't likely to find use for any of those things. But it means a lot that we, His children, want to give Him the things we fain would hug to our own selfish hearts. We give Him what we somehow very much want."

And

"Tell her, Father," said Bradley, taking a penultimate sip of his brandy.

"Only this, Mrs. Harrison: that during Lent we imitate the saints just a little. We train ourselves to give up the good things of the world just to prove that we can. Good things have a way of mastering us. Good living and good food and good drink, riches and comfort and amusements, have a way of making men slaves. God meant us to enjoy them. He never meant them to be a substitute for Himself. Nor did He mean them to make us so weakly greedy that we would do anything, even commit sin, rather than be without them.

"Lent comes, and we give up some of our good food, some of our good times, some of our leisure and recreation, just to prove that we can be trusted. We master them for a few brief weeks so that they may not master us for life. We give up voluntarily so that we may not be held slaves. We lay aside deliberately so that we may resume those lovely gifts of God, not as slaves of habit, but of our own free will. We give up our glass of brandy so that drink may never hold us captive. We give up the theatre so that we may not be slaves of a good time. We abstain from food, not merely because we want to prove that we are masters even of what we eat and drink, but because we want to test our wills.

"If we can't give up a beefsteak, are we sure we could give up some powerful temptation? If we can't conquer our appetite for a big luncheon, could we be trusted to conquer our appetite for some forbidden person? If we can't get along without an egg for breakfast, are we sure we could hold back our hand from a jewel which we could take with no one's be the wiser? Lent is a time when we prove ourselves trustworthy. More than that: if Lent is well carried through, it is a time when we make ourselves trustworthy."

-from "I Don't Like Lent" by Fr. Daniel A. Lord, S.J. Imprimatur 1937 (A small pamphlet in story form telling of a group of people gathered around a fireplace discussing Lent with a priest. Very entertaining in a charmingly vintage way, informative and explanatory in a timeless solidly Catholic way.)