Family in Feast and Feria

Today marks the closing of Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year, celebrated with the solemnity of Christ the King. Next week is the beginning of Advent.

Mary Ellen has a wonderful summary about this feast, with ideas to celebrate at O Night Divine blog.

I'm in minimalist mode in preparing for the baby. But while straightening up some things in the basement I came across a simple Christ the King image/activity I scanned and we're using today. Enjoy.

I'm sharing the talks and handouts from my speech at the Real Learning Conference, like many of the other speakers have done.

I shared them on my other blog (I will make the permanent switch someday!). I also have it in .pdf files.

Here is Dawn's speech and handouts.

And Meredith shared her Montessori and More talk.

1994 summer Spanish class taught be Senorita Capote left quite an impression. She introduced the feast of St. James, or Santiago, and explained the pilgrimage and the Basilica of Santiago de Compostela. Since then, I just love this feast day.

I have some posts from last year with all sorts of information: Feast of St. James the Great

Food Ideas

This Botafumerio. You can also see it here, fast forward to 3:55.

St. James the Apostle, pray for us.

I actually saw it with my own eyes, and held a copy in my hot little hands. Sophia Institute Press has reprinted Mary Reed Newland's book, The Year and Our Children. It's a paperback book, price is $19.95. That price is so much better than the $50 plus dollars it costs to find an out-of-print copy.

UPDATE: The Year and Our Children can now be ordered online from Sophia!

The book is also available at Amazon and you can search inside. It would be great to give the money directly to the publisher, instead of Amazon.

This truly is one of my favorite living the Liturgical Year in the home books. Mrs. Newland uses real-life examples from raising her own family. She gives suggestions, but shows her own family's messes, flaws, and failures in trying to implement traditions.

So now her trilogy of her best books are back in print: How To Raise Good Catholic Children (originally entitled "We and Our Children"), The Saints and Our Children and now The Year and Our Children.

July 6 is the Optional Memorial of St. Maria Goretti.

I chose Maria Goretti for my confirmation saint 32 years ago. My parents decided they didn't want to wait until my late teen years for the sacrament of Confirmation. So my siblings and I were confirmed in the Byzantine rite. I was in 6th grade. I chose St. Maria because I felt I needed her patronage to fight the battles of purity during my upcoming years into teen and adulthood.

I don't regret the choice of the saint. It's so inspiring to think of her choice of death rather than sin. We are surrounded by temptations to impurity and sins against chastity. I pray that in my state of life I can always accept the grace to choose chastity, rather than sin. And I ask St. Maria Goretti to safeguard my son as he grows up in a culture that has forgotten the virtues of purity and chastity.

I highly recommend the book In Garments All Red for your pre-teens and teenagers. It's a moving book, but not explicit.

Anne has a lovely post on this feast, related to the month of the Precious Blood.

St. Maria Goretti, pray for us.

The month of July is traditionally dedicated to the Precious Blood. There is an interesting thread on 4Real asking for ideas. I pulled out an old book I found at a book sale entitled The Story of the Precious Blood by Rev. Joseph F. Stedman, copyright 1932, printed by Arlington, Press, Inc., NYC. Father Stedman was the former director of the Confraternity of the Precious Blood.

The book uses the paintings, sculptures, mosaics, and other items of art from the Monastery Chapel of the Contemplative Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood, in Brooklyn, NY. They do not have much of a web presence, but another monastery in Watertown, NY does.

I went to bed last night wanting to find out more about this chapel. Is it still standing (built around 1910)? Was it wreckovated, or is it still as beautiful? I'd love to see color pictures of some of the paintings and stained glass. I didn't have much luck in finding out anything.

But I found it so wonderful that in my initial search on the Internet I found out that one of my favorite Catholic liturgical artists, Ade Bethune, designed the stained glass windows:

In 1938, Father Joseph F. Stedman asked Ade Bethune to design stained glass windows for the chapel at the Precious Blood Monastery in Brooklyn, New York, where he was chaplain. In 7 lancets, she designed stained glass versions of her Catholic Worker saints practicing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

Early sketches for these windows show both male and female saints, but the final version depicted only women. Unfortunately, Ms. Bethune did not have the joy of executing them herself; instead they were done by Per Bergeton of Rambusch Studios in New York.

What a wonderful connection! I know this isn't directly related to the Precious Blood--see how easy it is to go off onto rabbit trails? I am very drawn to her art. She uses thick line drawings, and most is in black and white. Her use of symbolism reminds me of the role of catechetical work the early stained glass and paintings. Both intellectual and Illiterate people of all ages, wealthy and poor, religious and laity could learn the lessons depicted in those images, and could easily recognize the saints by the symbols used. And in this modern era, she recaptures that spirit.

I've had an ongoing love of her work. For years I'd see her images, but had no idea of the artist's name. When I made the connection a few years back, I was excited to find I already had a few books illustrated by her (see Amazon's list.

One I highly recommend is Eye Contact with God Through Pictures: A Clip Book of Pictures from the Ade Bethune Collection . This is a great collection of clip art that follows the Liturgical Year, including some saints. It is a slim volume, and rather expensive. I've mentioned this work before in my post about Christian symbols.

Some other links of her works and information:

About Ade Bethune

Ade Bethune Collection Iconography Digital Collection. This is a goldmine, containing all her iconography.

Stained Glass images

St. Nicholas, The Children's Friend: A Belgian Tradition for December 6 and St. Nicholas Poem and St. Nicholas clip art by Ade Bethune.

Blue Cloud Abbey sells holy cards illustrated by her.

Mary, Seat of Wisdom

Women--Liturgical and Religious Art

Images of Corporal Works of Mercy

I don't know how career women who are also mothers do it. I'm running ragged and it's only day 3. It's so hard to leave the house in the morning, not be home all day, and return to have to do everything (cook, laundry, clean) squeezed at night. I pray that my husband can always support us so I can be at home. I need the sanity!

Anyway, I gasped to realize that today is the feast of St. Anthony of Padua. How could I miss it! This is patronal feast in our family, as my mother's maiden name was Anthony, besides the great devotion on all sides of the family to this favorite saint.

But last year was no different-- I was late for the feast!

I know I will have no time for special foods or preparation, but just a quick thank you and a visit to the Blessed Sacrament today.

St. Anthony, pray for us!

Why was I thinking that tomorrow was the feast of the Visitation? I know -- because I can't remember what day it is. May is already over!

But TODAY is the feast of the Visitation, the second Joyful Mystery of the Rosary.

I've uploaded a coloring page on my other blog-in-progress. Don't ask me when I'll ever get that up and running. I'm still trying to find a theme that doesn't put the page titles across the bannerhead.

The coloring page is from an old coloring book I bought years ago. It's crumbling, and I need to scan the rest of the pages before it isn't usable. The illustrations are so lovely.

Today we are going to color this page, pray the rosary, and talk about this feast. Mary left such an example of charity, and practicing the Corporal Works of Mercy. Ds and I drove out to visit my mom today, a little in keeping of today's theme.

First of all, thank you so much for all the sweet comments and prayers for our baby. We really, really appreciate it.

Today is the optional memorial of St. Isidore the Farmer. While I'm by no means a farmer, I have particularly love for this saint. It all started with reading the cookbook on my mother's shelf, Cooking for Christ by Florence Berger. It was published in 1949 by the National Catholic Rural Life Conference that was founded in the 1920s, whose patrons are St. Isidore and his wife Maria. I delved into NCRLC's publications and was fascinated by the connection of the Faith, family, and the land. So fascinated that I did my undergrad thesis on the subject.

Right now my vegetable and flower garden is awaiting the planting. I am having a late start this year, but baby comes first. Meanwhile, I'll keep praying to St. Isidore for rain and to help our garden flourish this year.

Prayer to St. Isidore the Farmer

(St. Isidore, patron saint o farmers, was himself a farm born in the city of Madrid, Spain, about the year 1110; His chief appeal is to those who, as he did, work the land. But his good qualities-whole-hearted trust in God, his enthusiasm and vigor in doing his job, his spirit of prayer and devotion to religious practice--these can profitably be admired and imitated by all laboring men, just as his wife Maria, can serve as a model for working men's wives. His feast day is celebrated through out the United States on May 15.)

Good Saint, we are told that your devotion to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was so great that you would rise before it was light in order to be able to attend Mass before beginning your work in the fields. Obtain for us, we pray you, some of that loving devotion to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. There it is that the fruits of our farm labor, bread and wine, are brought and offered to God by the priest. Then, in the consecration, Christ Himself, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, becomes present on our altars under the appearances of this same bread and wine. And in what was the altar bread, He comes to us to be the very food of our souls. If we deeply realize the value and beauty of Holy Mass, we will be very happy to attend as often as we possibly can.

Help us to understand that in the Mass we offer ourselves to God with Christ by the hands of the priest. There we can bring to God all that we do, and offer it to Him in union with His Holy Sacrifice. The oftener we do this now, the happier we shall be hereafter. Good Saint Isidore, bless us and our labors, that we may some day reap the reward of good works with you in heaven. Amen.

-- unrevised from The Rural Life Prayerbook, 1956, National Catholic Rural Life Conference.

I know, I said I was on a blog break, but I had these thoughts on my mind and just had to write.

I was running errands this week, and I found myself looking at employee name tags. When I would see names like "Michael" and "Matthew" and "Mark" I had to restrain myself from complimenting the man on their strong male name. I love seeing the saints' names being used for children and adults. Saints were real people with faults and struggles, but cooperated with God's grace to work and pray daily to gain their heavenly reward. It wasn't easy. They are heroes of the best kind. So seeing saints' names reminds me of the saints' life and how powerful an intercessor they can be for those that invoke their patrons.

So in comes St. Mark, Evangelist, whose feast is today. Another great saint, who knew Jesus Christ in person. And we have the treasure of his Gospel to read everyday. What a blessing!

His Gospel is the shortest of the four. I have always loved his vivid descriptions, with adjectives like "immediately" used frequently. It is said that this Gospel was written for Western Civilization, the "Roman Gospel". It also referred to as St. Peter's Gospel, as many believe that St. Peter related the eyewitness accounts of Christ's life to Mark. In the agony in the garden, Mark mentions a young man in a linen cloth which was removed when he tried to run away. Most scripture scholars believe that was Mark, relating that story about himself.

Mark's main symbol is a lion, or a winged lion, because Mark illustrates Our Lord's royal dignity and the lion as the king of beasts is an appropriate symbol. Also he begins his Gospel in the wilderness, `The voice of one crying in the desert: Make ready the way of the Lord,' which the lion is a type. St. Mark also dwells on the resurrection, and in the early church the lion was a figure of the resurrection.

For more reading, see:
Catholic Encyclopedia
Golden Legend of St. Mark
Women for Faith and Family

Mark founded the Christian Church in Alexandria, and later his remains were brought to Venice, Italy. He is the patron of Venice, lawyers, and glaziers. A typical Venetian dish for today is Risi e Bisi (rice and peas?). I found a cheesy version from Rachel Ray. There is a similar recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Festa: Recipes and Recollections of Italian Holidays by Helen Barolini.

From this blog comes a quote from Gourmet cookbook, edited by Ruth Reichl, that has a little explanation of this dish:

"The inspiration for this risotto is the soupy dish called 'risi e bisi' (rice and peas), which is Venetian in origin and is traditionally eaten on St. Mark's Day, April 25, when the first local peas appear in the Rialto market. We call for frozen baby peas (unless fresh peas are REALLY fresh, they can be too starchy), and we eat this year-round. We stir in some prosciutto for depth (pancetta will work well too) and a bit of lemon zest to perk things up."

Last year I cooked Pasta San Marco and posted some thoughts on my food blog about the feast of St. Mark. Cooking with the Saints was the source for the Pasta recipe, but there are other recipes listed, too. And of course don't forget to check out Catholic Culture's recipes.

St. Mark, pray for us.