St. Patrick Enlightener of Ireland

As a teenager he was kidnapped, taken from Briton (Scotland) to Ireland and forced into service as a shepherd. His response was a life of prayer. He prayed day and night. Let us strive to emulate Patrick who in the face of difficulties turned his thoughts toward God instead of ourselves. Let us be an example to our children by praying with them frequently and praying for them often.
Listen to the life of St. Patrick on the saint of the day podcast

You can read more at orthodoxwiki too.


Troparion - Tone 3

Holy Bishop Patrick,
Faithful shepherd of Christ's royal flock,
You filled Ireland with the radiance of the Gospel:
The mighty strength of the Trinity!
Now that you stand before the Savior,
Pray that He may preserve us in faith and love!

Kontakion - Tone 4

From slavery you escaped to freedom in Christ's service:
He sent you to deliver Ireland from the devil's bondage.
You planted the Word of the Gospel in pagan hearts.
In your journeys and hardships you rivaled the Apostle Paul!
Having received the reward for your labors in heaven,
Never cease to pray for the flock you have gathered on earth,
Holy bishop Patrick!

Prayer of Saint Patrick

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, and in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

To celebrate This day with your kids during lent you could eat like he probably did and have porridge and fish and flatbread. see web page re 5th century Irish diet.

OAT FLATBREAD
Ingredients

1 cup large-flake rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup margerine softened
2 tbsp malt syrup or honey

Preparation:
In food processor, process oats until finely ground, about 2 minutes. In large bowl, whisk together oats, whole wheat flour, salt and baking soda. Stir in margerine and malt syrup to form soft, crumbly dough. With fork, stir in 1/2 cup (125 mL) water to make soft ragged dough.

With lightly floured hands, press dough into ball; cover with tea towel and let stand for 10 minutes. Divide in half.

On lightly floured surface; roll out each half into 16- x 12-inch (40 x 30 cm) paper-thin rectangle; prick all over with fork. Transfer to greased or parchment paper–lined baking sheet.

Lightly brush with water; bake in 400°F (200°C) oven, rotating halfway through, until golden and crisp, about 10 minutes. Let cool on pan on rack. Break into pieces. (Make-ahead: Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.)

Lenten Recipe Swap

Please share your recipes in the comments section!

Chickpea Apple Curry

1 small onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 apple, finely chopped
1 cup veggie broth
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 cans chickpeas, drained
salt, to taste
Curry Powder to taste (I used 2 Tablespoons)
1/4 tsp ginger powder

Saute onion in a tsp veggie oil until soft. Add garlic and apple. Saute till garlic is fragrant. Add broth, coconut milk and chickpeas. Bring to a simmer and add salt, curry and ginger to taste.

Serve over rice. Fun toppings include raisins, shredded coconut and chopped cashews/peanuts.

Very quick and easy (I made this whole meal in less than 30 minutes). Tastes even better the next day after the flavors have sunk in.

The Virtue of Love

I really appreciated this lovely post on Lent by a catholic mother of 7.  A great reminder that what really teaches our children about Christ is the virtue of love, not arts and crafts and activities.  Those are all good, but those are 'extras' to do and not essentials.

A couple of Lenten ideas

This year, my 4-year-old is very excited about Pascha--already! It's hard for him to grasp how far it is away still. I saw this great magnetic door craft, but since we have a tiny fridge I decided to just do a paper chain this lent.

My son and I used a calendar to count down the days of "of preparing" left until Pascha. Weekdays and Saturdays are purple, Sundays are white with their name printed on them (ie. Orthodoxy Sunday, St. Mary of Egypt Sunday etc.), the Annunciation is in blue and Holy week is black.We are already enjoying the count down...hopefully our enthusiasm can last all of Lent!

I'm also doing a Lenten diary with my son. I cut printer paper in half, put a half sheet of purple on the outside, folded and stapled it in the middle. So far entries are: "What was your favorite part of Forgiveness Vespers?" and a tiny 4-year-old reflection on the story of St. Kevin and the bird's nest. The next question I'll try is asking him "Why do we clean things and ourselves?"

 I'm making up questions everyday because I'm not the most organized person, but next year I'll have it down! So far, I'm liking the result because it is also making me think about the things I do with him. Often I forget that I don't have to be reading my Bible or the Fathers to benefit spiritually...I just need to take even a little bit of time to reflect.

 May you all have a blessed Lent!

Simplicity: the lenten resolution

I am having a rough 4th pregnancy, and so this year, Lent is going to be simple.  Very simple.  So simple that I am afraid our home might not feel very 'lenten', but, alas, that is what life is calling for right now. So although this resolution will not be fast-free and will probably not save us money to give to charity, it will hopefully help us to have the time and energy to establish a prayer routine again (something that was lost during my rough first trimester).

Much of this simplification will be in terms of expectations (as in, allowing my house to be a little less perfect).  My other plan is to readjust my meal planning/cooking to reflect this.  Basically, instead of worrying about making everything from scratch (like yogurt and bread), I am going to suck it up and purchase ready-made items so that I don't over-fatigue myself and, hopefully, will not have to rely on my husband quite so much (a very dear man who is not only sacrificing a lot of time and effort to help out around the house and with kids, but is also trying to write a dissertation).

The one thing that we must do because my daughters requested it, it is an awesome idea, and I promised over a month ago is that we're going to bake cookies and give them to the homeless at some point.  I know it about the most unpractical thing to give to homeless people but I want to nourish the spirit of charity within my children.

While you establish your lenten routines, don't forget our list of activities that have been compiled over the last few years (that is, if you have the energy to do them)!

St Valentine

So, although the Eastern Church commemorates this saint on July 6th, Western culture celebrates this day on February 14th, the anniversary of his death.  Why?  Read here. (hint: his death coincided with a pagan feast). 

Activities:
If it ain't broke, why fix it?  I have always thought that the way children celebrate Valentine's Day is sweet and don't see any problem with continuing with those same traditions with the addition, of course, of talking about St. Valentine's life.

Here's what we've done and are going to to do:

• We made valentines last week to hand out at Wednesday school. 
•  Today I have heart candies to give out during school lessons.  
• We decorated our living room window with hearts hanging on string. 
•  We're going to bake heart cookies to have with a Valentine's tea this afternoon (which is when I'll tell them about who St. Valentine is).
• This evening, we're going to a family candlelight dinner.  Pa will present the girls with chocolate hearts and I will give one to the boy.

Any other activities that you recommend? (and my apologies for not posting this BEFORE Valentine's Day!!!).  Blame it on my pregnant, mothering brain.

Presentation of the Lord in the Temple

Tomorrow we celebrate how Joseph and  Mary fulfilled the law by taking Jesus to the temple with an offering. This blog has two wonderful posts (Thank you, Ma!) on this feast which talk about it in depth as well as offer fun ideas for enjoying this special day with our little ones. Since I'm not one to reinvent the wheel, I'm just going to talk about a couple things (born out of those ideas) I'm doing with my little ones (4 &1) this year.

This year my four-year-old is participating in a wonderful program at our Church called the Catechisis of the Good Shepherd. He has already been reintroduced to the story and has been allowed to "act it out" with models. The thing he focused on was the gift of two turtledoves given by Mary and Joseph. He was told that the gift would actually go to the priests for food. As we were talking about the Feast on the way home from Church he decided we should bring a gift to our priests just like Mary and Joseph did. He also wants to bring a gift to his Catechists (teachers), because "they work at the church too."

I thought it was a wonderful idea to bring a gift that the priests could eat/use, not only does it show them our appreciation, but it allows us to offer something back to God in a very tangible way.
My son wants to get a clock for the church (I wonder if he thinks it will help the priest keep his homily short? j/k). My idea- dove shaped cookies.

Another thing we will do is to take candles to church for the service to celebrate the Light "to enlighten the gentiles!" We have the battery operated ones, but in the next few years we will graduate to real candles. At our church the priests bless the candles during the service. And just like Ma's posts suggest, we will decorate them! :)

I wish you all a blessed feast!

Epiphany

In the West we celebrate the coming of the wise men at Epiphany. My girls are very excited about giving gifts to baby Jesus tomorrow. Tonight is the 5th of January. We took the ornaments off the tree but left the lights on. We sat around the wreath with it's 5 white candles glowing and sang many Christmas hymns for the last time this season. Claire decided she wanted to give baby Jesus an star shaped ornament with the three wise men embroidered on it and Emily will bring a gold bell. We will add the three wise men to our crèche.

A delayed St Nichola craft and SANTA LUCIA!

A bit delayed, but while browsing the Craft Crow for ornament ideas, I came across this lovely St Nicholas Day craft.  Definitely putting it on the shelf for next year!!!

And, now, for one of my FAVORITE Advent days of the year (and, yes, I am biased because I have a very beautiful Lucy Light of my own): St. Lucy's Day (or Santa Lucia!).

You can read about various ways that different cultures celebrate this day over at the Catholic Culture website (a great resource, imho).  We do our own rendition of the Swedish tradition.

After the sun sets in the evening, we have Lucy dress up in a white dress with a red sash and her lovely crown of battery operated candles that her godparents gave her.  She then processes, carrying a plate full of buns shaped in a ring like a crown and gingersnaps, (usually with the help of her siblings) to where we and our guests are sitting and singing Santa Lucia.

This year, we are giving Lucy and her siblings Santa Lucia paper dolls for a gift and will, per usual, tie a red ribbon around a white candle and give one each to our guests in honor of Santa Lucia.

Santa Lucia!  Santa LUCIA!

Happy St. Nicholas Day

I had a sudden thought last night to include a note of encouragement in the girl's St. Nicholas stockings. I hope to remember to do this each year. This time it reads, "Be kind to one another."

We also listened to this podcast of St. Nicholas http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/saintoftheday