Month: December 2019

St. Hildegard of Bingen

Feast Day: December 17

St. Hildegard was a 12th century Benedictine abbess, mystic, poet, composer, physician, Doctor of the Church– in short, a remarkable woman. I don’t know much about her and I’m only just now beginning to seek her out, having caught interest from a convert-friend of mine who loves her.

Pope Benedict XVI said this of St. Hildegard, “Let us always invoke the Holy Spirit, so that he may inspire in the Church holy and courageous women like Saint Hildegard of Bingen who, developing the gifts they have received from God, make their own special and valuable contribution to the spiritual development of our communities and of the Church in our time.”

Though her original feast day is September 17, it has been moved to December 17, which is convenient since much of her poetry and song is fitting for the contemplative period before Christmas when we are accompanied by the O Antiphons. Below is a beautiful choice for the season, though there are many others worth seeking out.

Ave, Generosa

Hail, girl of a noble house,
shimmering and unpolluted,
you pupil in the eye of chastity,
you essence of sanctity,
which was pleasing to God.

For the Heavenly potion was poured into you,
in that the Heavenly word
received a raiment of flesh in you.

You are the lily that dazzles,
whom God knew
before all others.

O most beautiful and delectable one;
how greatly God delighted in you!
In the clasp of His fire
He implanted in you so that
His son might be suckled by you.

Thus your womb held joy,
when the harmony of all Heaven chimed out from you,
because, Virgin, you carried the son of God
whence your chastity blazed in God.

Your flesh has known delight,
like the grassland touched by dew
and immersed in its freshness:
so it was with you, O mother of all joy.

Now let the sunrise of joy be over all Ecclesia,
and let it resound in music
for the sweetest Virgin,
Mary compelling all praise,
mother of God. Amen.

St. John of the Cross

Feast Day: December 14

As the beloved 16th century Carmelite poet Juan de la Cruz’s feast day happens right after Guadalupe and St. Lucia, his is celebrated simply in our home: just a reading of one of his poems at evening prayer. All of his poems are fitting for Advent, but a few in particular are especially thought-provoking for the season. Below is a favorite.

Ballad VII: Of the Incarnation

Now as the season approached

(the date love specified)

for the ransom paid in full,

the shackles struck from the bride

who was forfeit under the law

law-giver Moses made,

the father with melting heart

after this fashion said:

My son, I have found you a bride

of your very sort, you’ll find.

You will have good cause to know

You are two of a noble kind,

differing only in flesh

(what are you but a child of sky?).

But the course of true love hints

here is a law will apply:

Lovers long to become

as identical as they may;

for the more the two are one,

gayer the gala day.

Delight and love in the bride

speedily would increase

(no question here, my son)

if she saw you a man of flesh.

I have no will but yours,

the son to the father replied.

My glory is all in this:

I do, and you decide.

It couldn’t be other than just

I follow as you provide.

How better let all men see

Your charity far and wide?

How better blazon your might,

sweet reason and deep mind?

I’ll carry word to the world,

news of a novel kind:

news of beauty and peace,

of sovereignty unconfined.

I go to be close to the bride

and to take on my back (for it’s strong)

the weight of the wearisome toil

that bent the poor back for so long.

To make certain-sure of her life

I’ll manfully die in her place,

and drawing her safe from the pit

present her alive to your face.

St. Lucia

Feast Day: December 13

I’d love to know the history of how a Roman martyr of the early Church became the beloved saint of Scandinavia (I think it’s something like distract the medieval locals’ winter solstice pagan celebration with a surprisingly fitting Catholic feast). But it was meant to be: the feast day of a saint whose name means “light” happens to fall on one of the shortest days of the year, with a 3:00 pm sunset after about six hours of sunlight. It’s no surprise the Swedes developed a unique celebration around her feast. I would be needing a little cheering up by then, too. Even in the PNW (with only a couple hours longer of daylight than Scandinavia), I get up the Christmas lights as fast as I can after Thanksgiving.

Though I am a little Swedish (8% to be exact), I didn’t start celebrating the feast of St. Lucia until I had children. It was something my older girls initiated after reading the Kirsten American Girl books, in which the Swedish immigrant Kirsten has the honor of donning the traditional white dress with red sash and candled-wreath for the feast. I think my girls were most interested in the dangerous, but beautiful costume. But we were also really missing Oma and Opa, my grandparents who at the time were 3,000 miles away. None of the German and Swedish traditions which their families may have known about in Europe successfully made it to America. In other parts of the States, European communities kept more of these traditions alive, but often when immigrants came to the PNW, they were loner homesteaders with little to no connections. The only Swedish piece of my family’s history that I retained was the name. The December after my Opa passed away, it somehow became more important to celebrate this feast, even though I never celebrated it with him. But I knew he was proud of his Swedish heritage; his Lindgren crest hung in the entryway of their house. So I was pleased that my children had taken an interest, and over the next few years, we formed our own little St. Lucia celebration.

When I was little, my mom made Swedish bread for breakfast on Christmas morning. It was just a recipe she got from a generic cookbook: a sweet, braided bread with different fillings. My kids and I now make this for St. Lucia’s day, along with an easy (but it IS Swedish!) dinner menu of Svenska Köttbullar (meatballs, creamy potatoes, and lingonberry; also known as IKEA’s dinner of choice).

On the morning of St. Lucia Day, traditionally a daughter wakes up the house with coffee, sweet bread, and songs. This job has rotated among our girls (and so far, once our girls become teenagers, they frown on waking up early). Our St. Lucia costume is a converted Princess Leia costume. We’re not quite sure how to manage the candled-wreath (or whether that’s to code?), but we have a gold and red ribboned wreath to wear instead. She can have attendants, other girls who wear white with tinsel around their waists and heads, or boy-attendants (called “starboys”) who wear white, have cone-hats, and carry stars. Our boys haven’t been too keen on this yet.

Even without the delicious sweet bread and Svenska Köttbullar (which is really fun to say), the story of St. Lucia and the significance of this young woman who was a “light in the darkness” as we are all called to be, is certainly worth at least a prayer or meal-time mention. This little light of St. Lucia reminds us of the Light we await during the Advent season. It’s another step in preparing our hearts to house Our Lord.

Swedish bread

(my part-Swedish mom’s recipe… so it’s legit, people… no, not really, she got it out of a cookbook, but it’s GOOD)

  • 2 cups sour cream
  • 2 packages active dry yeast
  • ½ cup warm water
  • ¼ cup butter or margarine
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 2 eggs (or 3, if you use gluten-free flour)
  • about 6 cups flour (this also works with gluten free 1-to-1 substitute flour)
  • Heat sour cream over low heat just until lukewarm.  Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Stir in sour cream (make sure not too warm).  Stir in ¼ cup butter (softened), sugar, salt, eggs, and 2 cups flour.  Beat until smooth.  Mix in remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. 
  • Turn dough onto well-floured board.  Knead until smooth (about 10 minutes).  Place in greased bowl greased-side up.  Cover.  Let rise in warm place until double (about an hour).  Heat oven to 375.  Punch dough down.  Divide into three equal parts.  Roll each part into a rectangle 15 x 6 inches.  Placed on a greased baking sheet (unless non-stick).  With scissors make 2-inch cut at ½ inch intervals.  Fill it.  Criss-cross strips over filling.
  • Bake 15-20 minutes  or until golden brown.  While warm brush with butter or drizzle canes with thin icing. 

This is a great book to have around for St. Lucia Day. It explains the traditions of the day, along with the true story of the saint.

St. Nicholas

feast day: December 6

I, like most kids, grew up with the Santa Claus myth. It’s a rite of passage in my family to have a photo with Santa while screaming in terror. I never really believed that Santa Claus came down the chimney and put presents under the tree, but I sure wanted to. My mom put “from Santa” on our presents for a long time, but I knew it was a gag. I loved fairytales, though, and to me Santa was a fairytale. Not real? No problem, neither are flying dragons or life-giving first kisses, so I could deal with the Santa myth and not feel like my childhood was falling out from beneath me. But my husband and I knew we didn’t want to push the Santa thing when we had kids. Especially once we knew the real story. I’m not saying it’s bad to do the Santa-thing, I think it’s totally a parental choice, but even if you do the Santa-thing, introducing kids to the real St. Nicholas is magical and {bonus} true.

Well, most of it’s true. Like a lot of saint stories, pieces of it have become myth and legend. But miracles can easily begin to sound mythical, so who’s to say St. Nicholas didn’t bring back to life three boys who had been boiled for stew by an evil cannibal? Or bi-located and saved sailors from shipwreck? It could happen.

We know for sure that St. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra in the 3rd/4th centuries, and because of the many miracles attributed to him even during his lifetime, is often called St. Nicholas the Wonder-worker. He was (effectively) Greek and claims a large number of devotees in the eastern church. I didn’t hear about him until I was Catholic, and though I don’t remember specific families or conversations, somehow I gradually learned about the various traditions surrounding his feast day. The first year we celebrated St. Nick day, our two oldest daughters who were then younger than three, left their shoes outside their door and we put little chocolates in them. The next year, I bought them shoes and put gifts in those, then eventually we arrived at an official Family Tradition: we open stockings in the morning of St. Nick’s day, then have a Greek dinner.

These are stockings I made just for St. Nick’s Day out of red ticking and linen, and– this is important– they are small so they look happily full without my having to break the bank on gifts. But you could easily buy simple, cheap red fake-velvet stockings and accomplish the same thing.

What goes in the stockings?

  • Chocolate coins and/or real coins BECAUSE St. Nicholas is said to have saved three village girls from bad marriages by providing dowries for them (thereby making them more eligible for better men), and as he did not want to be found out, snuck into their homes (possibly through the chimney?) and dropped the coins into their stockings which were hanging by the hearth to dry. I’m aware there might be some artistic license in the details of this story, but we do know that this act of generosity did happen (how it all happened, well…)
  • a candy-cane BECAUSE candy-canes are bishop staffs, or a shepherd’s staff, and the red and white colors are very symbolic in Church tradition (and they’re delicious)
  • Clementines BECAUSE these used to be a traditional gift at Christmas since exotic fruits were a delicacy in northern Europe for, well, most of time
  • a toothbrush BECAUSE just because
  • sometimes a small trinkety gift if I can fit it in, like chapstick or bookmarks…

For the feasting, which is very important since Advent is technically a time of penance and feasts are a nice breather, I make Greek roast, Greek potatoes (which is basically olive oil, salt, and lemon), and some kind of vegetable. For dessert, The Best Part, we vary it up. Some years we make Russian tea cakes, or Chocolate-Peppermint cake, and I think this year I’ll try iced Gingerbread.

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children, which I’m sure is one way the whole Santa Claus myth began. Ultimately, the story of Santa Claus giving out gifts to over-toyed children came from the story of a real person whose love for Jesus Christ led him to love, serve, protect and heal the poor and helpless. Some year I’d like to make that a part of our feast, too.

postscript

PThese two books about St. Nicholas are absolute treasures:

  • The Miracle of St. Nicholas by Gloria Whelan and Judith Brown
  • The Legend of St. Nicholas by Demi

Greek seasoning

Greek seasoning from Greece is the best, but this is a worthy substitute (and has been tested on real life Greeks).

  • 2 tsp. garlic powder
  • 2 tsp. dried basil
  • 2 tsp. dried Greek oregano
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp. dried parsley
  • 1 tsp. dried rosemary, minced
  • 1 tsp. dried dill weed (I usually omit this)
  • 1 tsp. dried marjoram
  • 1 tsp. cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp. ground thyme
  • 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

Advent & Christmas Children’s Book List

The Donkey’s Dream by Barbara Helen Berger

From the viewpoint of the donkey, we learn about the symbols of Mary as he imagines carrying each on his back: the city, the ship, the fountain, the rose. It’s a good conversation-starter with older children, and good for younger children to let the imagery sink into their minds and hearts.

St. Nicolas by Demi

Demi has written and illustrated several beautiful books, a few about saints, but this was the first one we purchased. Her style is reminiscent of Byzantine iconography, which fits the story of St. Nicholas perfectly. She includes all the stories of the real St. Nicholas, even when the boys get boiled and brought back to life, so it might need to be read under supervision. But one thing I appreciate is at the end she has a page of illustrated Santas, which puts the whole St. Nicholas/Santa Claus thing into perspective for kids.

The Miracle of St. Nicholas by Gloria Whelan, illustrated by Judith Brown

So this book makes me cry. Every time I read it. It’s about a small village in Russia that is in spiritual hiding. That’s all I can tell you. It’s not really about St. Nicholas, but he’s important to the story.

Lucia: Saint of Light by Katherine Bolger Hyde, illustrated by Daria Fisher

This story takes place in the Nordic countries where the feast of St. Lucia is uniquely celebrated. It begins with a family preparing for the feast, but later explains the real story of the martyr St. Lucy. I love that the reader learns both about the traditions established up north, and about the saint.

We Three Kings by Gennady Spirin

We have many books illustrated by Gennady Spirin. Her art is a visual feast of detail and color. The text of this book is simply the traditional song, We Three Kings, but each verse has its own elaborate illustration.

Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie de Paola

Anything by Tomie de Paolo is worth reading until the binding wears thin. Several of his books I’ve had to buy two copies of as they’ve been beat up over the years. He has a few Christmas books, but Legend of the Poinsettia is a lovely, sweet story that takes place in Mexico. Another one of de Paola’s Christmas books that our younger kids love is The Friendly Beasts.

The Huron Carol by Ian Wallace

St. Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit missionary who lived and died among the Huron tribe in eastern North America, told the Christmas story to these first peoples in a culturally appropriate way. It has a beautiful tune when sung, and the sheet music is included in the back of the book.

The First Christmas (National Gallery London)

Taken from the Gospels, the text is simply the Christmas narrative, but with classic paintings by Gossaert, Reni, Boticelli, and many more.

The Three Snowbears by Jan Brett

Jan Brett is a favorite in our house; we love the detailed, but folky style. There are so many great wintry Brett books, but this one has always been a favorite: a retelling of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears.

The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers

This book is a solid re-telling of Tchaikovsky’s ballet with pretty illustrations.

The First Noel: A Christmas Carousel by Jan Pienkowski

And last, but not least, this book is a beautiful pop-up sort of book. It’s not for little hands, but it’s still worth having. It tells the Christmas story. We just tie ours permanently open and it sits visible on a shelf in a star-shape for the kids to look at.