Family in Feast and Feria

Today is the feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist.

For some information, see Catholic Culture
Patron Saints Index
Women for Faith And Family for the prayers and readings of the day

As my husband is a CPA, this is one of his patron saints. It's also the nameday of one of my nephews.

Reading: Catholic Mosaic by Cay Gibson suggested the book The Twelve Apostles by Marianna Mayer for the Solemnity of Pentecost, but it's the perfect book for all the feasts of the Apostles. I haven't found a reasonably priced copy yet, but I was just THRILLED to see it in my local library. The text is a little much for my 3 yos, so it was mostly introducing the Apostles, their images and a brief story about each, with the main focus on St. Matthew and to pray for Daddy on his feast day.

I always wonder what went through Matthew's mind to immediately leave his table and money behind and follow Jesus. All He had to say was "Follow Me" and Matthew did. And he didn't leave Jesus. He gave up his money, his comforts, his habits, his lifestyle and followed Jesus. Could I have done the same? What am I doing today to relinquish my creature comforts and follow Jesus?

The Calling of Saint Matthew is quite a moving image. St. Matthew in black points to himself increduously "Who, Me?" This painting is so realistic, that you can imagine the astonished faces of his assistants when he just leaves them behind, probably without a word of explanation.

Food: We're keeping it simple today...I'll make sure dh has some of his favorite food and definitely some ice cream for dessert.

A perfect little symbol and treat would be a bags of gold foil chocolate coins. I just saw some this week when shopping for a certain person's birthday. I passed them by, because they contain milk. If ANYONE has a source of dark chocolate without milk products gold chocolate coins, please let me know! Could there be such a thing? Has anyone attempted making their own "coins" of chocolate?

If you have the time, Apostle Cookies, as suggested by Mary Reed Newland would be so much fun. For nameday dessert, a cake in the shape of a book is perfect, as he was the evangelist.

Activities: This feast would seem to be the perfect catapault in discussing budgeting, taxes, accounting, money, financial stewardship.... For the littles, just learning the values of money, both face value, like recognizing coins, adding up or a little deeper about saving and spending. Lots of math and economics lessons today!

But also Matthew was a writer, so journaling and calligraphy would also fit the bill today.

St. Matthew, pray for us.