Tomorrow is St. Brigid's Day, so I wanted to share a post I wrote for our neglected real food liturgical year blog. Included is a simple recipe for a seasonal soup to be paired with bread and honey butter. It's quick, easy, and as St. Brigid's Day falls on a Friday this year, vegetarian. Enjoy! February 1st celebrates the Feast of St. Brigid (c. 451-525), a nun, abbess, and friend of St. … [Read more...]
The Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas: Recipe for Grilled Pork Chops Lazio Style
January 28th is the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. This is a post Daniel wrote for our woefully neglected real food liturgical year blog a couple of years ago. This meal was amazing. Reading the writing of St. Thomas had a huge impact on our conversion, so he holds a special place in my heart. Happy Feast! Thomas was a 13th century Dominican priest and scholar from Aquino, Italy who made gigantic … [Read more...]
Holy Time: The Joy of the Incarnation and the Pietà
The Incarnation of Christ, celebrated in the liturgical season of Christmastide, takes on a richer significance for me with each passing year. The story of the Nativity is fuller, but undeniably more strange. It loses the saccharine quality of greeting cards and becomes complicated. Christmas becomes more intricately connected to Holy Week and I’m reminded that the miracle of the Incarnation … [Read more...]
First Advent
Something from the archives today. I wrote this little reflection soon after Benjamin was born. I was huge. Not just big—gigantic. Even before I entered my third trimester, well-intentioned old ladies would pat my shoulder and say, “Any day now!” encouragingly as I waddled my way through the grocery store. Considering the raging pregnancy hormones running through my system, I’m impressed that … [Read more...]
Sleepers, Wake! An Advent Music Guide and Playlist
After explaining how we fast from Christmas music during Advent (and then turn up the jams during the Twelve Days of Christmas until Epiphany!), I get a variety of reactions including “Are you insane?” Well, probably. And “so, what DO you listen to during Advent?” To be honest I am just now discovering “Advent music” instead of just abstaining from Christmas music and I have completely fallen in … [Read more...]
Little HolyDays: The Feast of St. Nicholas
Welcome to our first Little HolyDays link up and Happy New Year! No, I haven’t gotten the months confused, it’s the beginning of a new liturgical year. Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. Let’s hope you were more organized than I and didn’t spend part of your Sunday scrambling around looking for your Advent wreath (don’t worry! I found it!). Anyhow, for our very first Little HolyDays … [Read more...]
The Feast of St. Andrew, Nov. 30th
Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Andrew. Daniel whipped up this fabulous meal of Tahini Tilapia for our celebration of St. Andrew (a fisherman) a couple of years ago and it's still a staple at our house. And since November 30th is on a Friday this year, how handy that it's fish for us Catholics, right? The following is drawn from a post on Feast!, our woefully neglected Christian Year blog, that … [Read more...]
How We Celebrate Advent
After writing about observing Advent instead of fighting Santa, I promised to tell you a little bit about what our family does to celebrate Advent. It's actually very simple and I think the difficulty lies in having to say no to a lot of festivities in order to spend Advent waiting, reflecting, and anticipating. What We Do: We bring out our Nativity Scene. My sweet mother-in-law gave us this … [Read more...]
Little Holydays: A New Link Up!
As you noticed from my recent posts on The Gift of the Liturgical Year and the season of Advent, I've been doing a lot of thinking about holy days. Partly because I'm so excited about our new link up: Little HolyDays: Redeeming Time with Feasts, Fasts, Holidays, and Everyday! It’s being hosted by over here at Carrots for Michaelmas and with Tammy and Hannah of Dualing Moms and Molly of Molly Makes … [Read more...]
Holy Time: Observing Advent Instead of Fighting Santa
Every year I hear folks bemoaning the secularization of Christmas and how commercialism has overtaken what used to be a Christian holiday. I read news stories about which retail stores are promoting “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” and which groups and organizations are boycotting those stores for choosing to greet their customers in one way or another. People label it the “war on … [Read more...]
