Ice and Snow: the Beauty of Winter

Many of my friends are 'snow birds'.  They have flown south for the winter.  I wonder - do they take little snowman figures along to remind them of the fun of winter?

Do they have hot chocolate stations in their kitchens for a treat on a cozy winter afternoon?

Do they set up little vignettes here and there as reminders of what they are missing?

Do they celebrate winter?  Or, do they just forget about it?  I don' think I could, because I am really a four seasons gal.  I love the beauty of each one, and winter can be very beautiful here in Indiana.  Even on the days it's not, we still celebrate it at our house.

We haven't had a whole lot of snow here so far.  Not like last year - that was glorious :

And, as the Canticle from Sunday Morning prayer in my breviary says:

 Cold and chill, bless the Lord.

Dew and rain, bless the Lord. 

Frost and chill, bless the Lord.

Ice and snow, bless the Lord.

Nights and days, bless the Lord.

Light and darkness, bless the Lord.

Lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord.

Let the earth bless the Lord.

Praise and exalt him above all forever.

What is truly important?

Because of the presence of huge TV screens at home, it is easy to get swept up into events happening thousands of miles away and over which none of us has any control. This intrusion into our homes of these events, via TV,  can cause us to forget what is truly important.

What is truly important?  The family is, because it is the basic unit of society. What goes on there on a daily basis is the most important thing in the world.   The family home is our place of security, love, and caring. It is a haven in time of trouble and it is a place of rest for both adults and children.

The heart of the family home is the kitchen.  This is where wonderful childhood memories are made and where everyone in the family draws sustenance, both physically and emotionally.  A sweet poem by Lillian Burns Hudson  makes the point:

              Childhood's Day

How I remember Saturday's

In the days long gone by,

When Mother in the kitchen 

Was baking bread and pie.

How anxiously I waited

For the bread and pie to bake,

Then Mother took a mixing bowl

And began the chocolate cake.

She beat the eggs and sugar well

And added other things,

Then with a big spoon stirred it

Till the batter stood in rings.

The batter looked delicious

As she placed it in the pan,

Then set the bowl on the table....

That's when our fun began.

I remember as though 'twere yesterday

How my mother, gentle soul,

Would smile and look at me and say,

"Now you can lick the bowl."

How can such ordinary things as making a home or baking a special cake, be the most important things in the world?  

First, I will take myself as an example. I was born in 1942 - probably the worst year in history.  Living through the last half of the twentieth century there were wars, more wars, civil unrest and cultural revolution.  But what affected me most was the kindliness of grandmothers, aunts, and great-aunts and the home that my parents made.  I remember the 'auras' of their homes, and all of their kitchens in great detail.  I remember all the special treats made just for me;  all the special ways they took to show their love.  What are wars and revolution in the face of love?

Second, think about places where love is not shown, where no one cares, no one ever takes the time to do anything special for anyone.  It is a very sad situation - and no resolution of border wars or the cooling down of world 'hotspots' will do anything to make the people in these situations feel better or more secure.

Third, making a home and providing meals are like threads in a tapestry - the very fabric of our civilization.  And when it is done with love, the recipients are likely to carry the work of love  into their own lives.

Tradition!

Tradition in our family boils down these days to soup. Many of the old traditions have gone by the wayside and new ones are being formed among the extended family. But one of the oldest still survives - the Christmas Mushroom Soup.
For over 100 years in this country, and who knows how long in Slovakia, this recipe has been served at Christmastime. Originally it was served only on Christmas Eve, but now it’s served on whatever day the Slovak clan gets together for the holidays.
Years ago, I followed my mother-in-law around the kitchen as she prepared the soup and wrote down everything she did. So, here it is: THE RECIPE for THE SOUP.

8 quarts water

3 cups sliced carrots
1 ½ cups sliced celery
2 small cans sauerkraut juice (7.5 ounces) or same amount of juice drained from kraut
3 Tbsp salt,
½ tsp pepper
1 tsp thyme
2 med potatoes, cubed
1 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, diced
1 ½ sticks butter (¾ cup)
½ cup flour
1 box barley cooked separately according to package directions.

Put water, carrots, celery, kraut juice, salt, pepper, and thyme into a large kettle. Cook until vegetables are almost done. Add potatoes and continue cooking. Sautee onion and mushrooms in butter until tender. Using a slotted spoon, remove onions and mushrooms from butter and put in soup. Add flour to butter and stir constantly until flour browns. Quickly add 2 cups soup to thin the flour mixture. Stir until smooth. Add this mixture to soup pot and cook until soup thickens slightly.

To serve, we put a spoonful of barley into the soup bowl and ladle the soup on top.

Our Family Tradition of a St. Nicholas Tea

(This is a re-post from Dec 4, 2007)

When you use the word 'Tea' today it conjures up elegant parties. Well, in our case, it was mostly cocoa and cookies and conversation. We started in 1966 or 1967 and sometimes through the years we did get spiffy now and then.

You might ask "Why a 'St. Nicholas Day' Tea?" I'm glad you asked! Why, to combat heresy, secularism, and commercialism and have fun at the same time. That's why!

St. Nicolas was a real man - a Bishop who lived in the 300's. He was a wealthy man who came to love Jesus and wanted to follow him closely. So he took Jesus' advice to the rich young ruler: "go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." He also took to his heart Jesus' teaching about how to give : "But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." Many people benefited from his secret giving and because they were curious about who was being so kind, they found him out!

He went to be part of the council of Nicea and helped formulate the beautiful Nicean Creed and died shortly after. That's the basic story. He made such an impression on people and was loved so greatly and for so long, that many legends have been added and it's hard to sort all that out. It's also hard to sort out how that good man has been morphed by America into Santa Claus! Secularists have such glee in the fact that Santa has eclipsed the real reason for the season. But if you look deeply you can still see a glimmer of 'Santa's' roots - giving in secret without expecting to get anything in return. Which of course is a teaching of Jesus. It's really all quite amusing.


Back to the tea party. The centerpiece was always our angel chimes. With the lights off, the spinning angels made beautiful twirling patterns on the ceiling. Very atmospheric! We would talk about Christmas things and use this as an opportunity to correct any misconceptions.


As some of the children became older, we expanded our horizons. Sometimes we would invite cousins for a more formal tea, and they would put on a hilarious puppet show for the younger ones. The puppets were mostly handmade and so was the scenery and even the script. We only had one play - Little Red Riding Hood. It became funnier with every performance.


The photos here are all from the 1980's. The little girls pictured grew up and did the show for the children of the original puppeteers!

We always ended the party with choosing names for 'Kris Kringle'. It was sort of a game we played for the rest of Advent. More on that in the next post.

Manly Sentiments from Generations Past

Do men still think this way?

Happiness by Carl Sandburg

I asked the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell
    me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of
    thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though
    I was trying to fool with them.
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along
    the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with
    their women and children and a keg of beer and an
    accordion.

Slovak Day, June 9, 2013

Woman at Prayer - 8, Wisdom

Eighth in a series from the booklet "A Woman at Prayer" by the Rev. Conleth Overman.

WHO MAKES THE RULES? 

There is great wisdom in knowing how a thing works best. 

One might say that God's rules for us are the "Directions" that come with the human appliance. Wise housewives are scrupulous in observing the set of directions which come with the new washing machine. They know from past experience that wrong use of a deli­cate machine results in repair bills and inconvenience.  Now, since God has been good enough to set down the directions we must observe for the use of the human machine, is it not wise to observe them?

The manufacturer is trying to help the purchaser with the directions he includes in the package with the appliance.  And God is being kind to us when He makes the rules for us.  The human being is so complicated, so delicately adjusted, so intricately related to other beings, that only the wisdom of God Himself is adequate to make rules for us.   It is sheer madness to make our own.

There is nothing that gets us into more trouble than our attempt to make our own rules.  Eve attempted to make rules for her­self and look what happened to her.  God had made the rule she was to observe in regard to the fruit of the Tree of Life.  But she knew better and thus opened the Pandora Box of Original Sin.

What motivates women to make their own rules is their unwillingness to face reality.  It takes humility and great good will to say:  "This is what God wants, and this I will do."   There is in each of us a fatal attraction to do our own will.  Was it not Queen Elizabeth, the illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, who said:  "Rather to rule in hell than to serve in heaven"?

And trouble, trouble, trouble is the result of making our own rules.  The ideas we have in our own heads do not change what is outside us.  A person may decide to abolish the law of gravity.  But the law of gravity does not thereby cease to exist, even for that individual.  Behold her climbing out on the ledge of a 20-story window; behold her muttering with determination,  "I refuse to be bound by the law of gravity;" and now behold her smashed to jelly on the pavement below.  And what happens in the physical order from making our own rules in defiance of God's rules, hap­pens as well in the moral order.

Why is it that we grow hostile to God for giving us the rules we must follow?  We ought to be eternally grateful that He thought enough of us to set the pattern for us.  It is easy to lead a useful, contented, happy life on earth if we tailor ourselves to God's ideas for us.  God is our Heavenly Father; God knows what will hurt us, and what is best for us both in time and in eternity.  Fortun­ately  for us God has revealed His Will for us and continues to guide us safely in the vital teaching of His word and of the Church.  How foolish to resist the restraining Hand of God and to jump off the deep end!

Much of our success in being women lies in accepting God's Will for us.  Humility to dis­trust our own will  and obedience to do what God wants of us are the two great feminine needs.  With all our heart the question in our title must be answered: "God makes the rules!"