Candlemas-Feb 2nd

The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple

We can often grow impatient in this "ordinary time." We miss the anticipation of advent and excitement of Christmas. But the Gospels record for us important details of Jesus early life that we should not hurry past. The Presentation of Jesus records not only Mary and Joseph's fulfillment of Old Testament law, but in Jesus first public appearance the promise of the Cross and salvation of the Gentiles is given.

For contemplation today:

The Song of Simeon Nunc Dimittis Luke 2:29-32
Lord, you now have set your servant free *

to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *

whom you have prepared for all the world to see: A Light to enlighten the nations, *

and the glory of your people Israel.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Readings: Malachi 3:1-4 Hebrews 2:14-18 Luke 2:22-40 Psalm 84:1-6
History: First Celebrated in the Fourth Century
Liturgical Color: Green
Traditional Food: Crepes!

For many people worldwide, Candlemas, February 2, has a particular smell: not
just the scent of lighted candles but also the fragrance of pancakes being
cooked for family and friends.

"A Light to enlighten the nations"

The blessing and lighting of candles, thus candlemas!

Lord Jesus Christ, pour forth your blessing on these candles and sanctify
them by the light of your grace. May our hearts be illuminated by your light,
may our actions be guided by your light, so that when our lives here are
finished, we may come into the eternal presence of your redeeming light. We pray
this is the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

After lighting our candle and talking about the "light of the world," I think the kids will enjoy re-enacting the story as well. They're always pretending to be Mary and Joseph on their journey to Bethlehem so this will add another dimension to their playing and understanding.

Further ideas:

The VonTrapp's Family Tradition
A Carnival of Ideas and Reflections
Coloring Page of Simeon and Anna
A family's shadow-box dramatization
Wiki background

If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Winter has another flight.

If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,

Winter will not come again.

The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Well, after a week of bad colds and a snowstorm keeping us inside, it's easy for me to spend some time this afternoon anticipating a much needed Sabbath rest. I'm not sure I can hold out until the weekend!

I hope to keep the menu simple with a roasted pork, sauteed zucchini, and baked sweet potatoes. The kids and I already made the cake! Tomorrow I'll make up a big batch of Simple Crusty Bread and bake a loaf on Saturday afternoon.

Have you tried this recipe? Last week I posted about how fresh crusty bread was a must for our feasts! Bread baking in the oven...certainly, splendor in the ordinary. But it wouldn't be if it wasn't for this recipe . It's so quick and easy; you just dump in the ingredients and keep it in the fridge until you're ready to bake a loaf. Here is a video of the authors making the bread for those of you who need to see it to believe it!

Here is the lectionary scripture we'll be reading:
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm 111
I Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28



Our focus will be to help the children understand God's sovereign love for them. How He rules over heaven and earth, including our lives. This is beautifully demonstrated by the lectionary's combination of the Old Testament Promise in the Deuteronomy passage with the fulfillment in the Book of Mark. Moses fortells of God's plan: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet...And then we see Christ fulfilling that promise in the Book of Mark as he taught them as one having authority.

We will use the coloring pages below to help demonstrate this as well. The first is Jesus teaching and the second puts the old and the new testament together to show how Jesus is the fulfillment of the old testament law.


You may want to check out Cyberfaith for further reflection, discussion question and activities for the lectionary readings.

How wonderful to be on this journey from Advent where we waited for the coming of the Lord in the birth of a baby to now be contemplating His Epiphany or manifestation as the very Lord and Authority promised so long ago.



Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Sabbath Reflection

It was good to feast together. Since the birth of our little one in September, there have been too many Sabbaths where we weren't able to celebrate as usual. I was reminded once again of its importance, not only as family time but as occasions for us to talk about Jesus!



So often just slowing down a bit and spending time to focus on a passage allows the children to ask questions, related or otherwise. This week, "What color is Jesus?" from G.

For us to get a chance to see where their hearts are: "I want to follow Jesus!" from M.

And to laugh together such as when M. was coloring a picture of a bearded Jesus and exclaimed in awe: "God has a beard just like my dad."



I ended up trying a new recipe for the roaster chicken. I was a little nervous to be adding sugar and cinammon to meat but it was delicious! I also made a chimichurri sauce for the first time; I'm sure it would be even tastier with fresh parsley which makes me long for our spring garden. Sadly, the aspargus was rotten so we went for glazed carrots and mashed potatoes instead. Luckily, I made things a little easier by picking up a half cheesecake from our local bakery!! But no fresh bread this week :-(



My goals for next week are to double check ingredient lists on Thursday and to do more prep work on Friday. I also need to have the dishwasher empty to make cleaning up a quicker process!!!!! We'll see!!

Conversion of St. Paul

Monday is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. We will spend a few moments at the breakfast table to read the story of his conversion. We will look at Caravaggio's wonderful painting to bring the story to life.

Symbols for St. Paul:

a book or scroll (for his letters) and a sword (for his martyrdom)

Suggested Readings:

Acts 26:9-21 Galatians 1:11-24 Matthew 10:16-22 Psalm 67

Collect:

O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul you have caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we pray, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show ourselves thankful to you by following his holy teaching; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Check out Catholic Cuisine for fun food ideas!

Sabbath Living

Time flys by. The Rat Race. Busy, Busy, busy. One day and then a week and then a year quickly blurs into another. We are left feeling tired and anxious. But is this what God has intended? Yes, He wants us to live lives of purpose; he has given us a weighty commission. But yet Jesus tells us that His yoke is easy and his burden is light (Mt. 11:30).

Living a life of Sabbath rest has been a way for our family to stop the fast pace of a world swirling around us. A culture that tells us we must always be working, striving, accomplishing. This is a day set aside to delight. To seek beauty. To quiet ourselves.

"...God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done." (Gn 2:2).

As a mom of little ones, the repitition of my work can be overwhelming. Always more dishes, more laundry, another toy to pick up. Diapers to change and another feeding. Even on the Sabbath these things must happen. But as darkness falls and the Christ candle is light to usher in the Sabbath, I become aware again of holiness. As we hold hands around the table, I am knit again to children I may have spent the day correcting and nagging. Hearing His word, I learn who He is and who I am to become. And there is peace.

If the God of the universe can rest, surely I can and must allow myself to do so. A rest which is restorative. I love the chance to escape the rush of life for a holiday, a day at the spa, a stop at a coffee shop. These are good things but I've found they have the tendency to turn my focus only further into myself. This type of leisure provides an escape but when I return to normal life, all is the same again and in contrast perhaps even more crazy.

Sabbath turns us to a God of peace, who restores our souls and opens our eyes to the goodness of his creation.

O God, in the course of this busy life, give us times of refreshment and peace; and grant that we may so use our leisure to rebuild our bodies and renew our minds, that our spirits may be opened to the goodness of your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, p. 825)

How we feast!

Saturday Night Sabbath Feasts have become a special time for our family. Though we have missed at times due to illness, travel, new babies, moves, dinner invites and just plain old exhaustion, the feast has become a family tradition that creates a rhythm of our week, training for our children, and family fun.

We follow the seasons of the church year and usually begin the dinner by reading the collect and lighting our Christ Candle, a reminder that Christ is with us and we are now ushering in a new Lord's Day.

I try to prepare a feast of a meal, set and arrange the table with care, and have as good of bread food, and wine our budget will allow. We splurge for this meal even if it means having simpler fare during the week.

We intersperse Scripture and discussion throughout the meal. If the children finish eating before us, they are then given a coloring page based on the lesson to keep them occupied and reinforce the readings. I also try to have a fun activity or visual aid to help our little ones understand the lesson. Then it it time for dessert, followed by a time of singing and prayer. It seems for the children dessert is a must and so we've had very simple meals that to them still were a feast because we finished with a yummy dessert! I believe my hubby would say the wine and bread create the foreshadow of the heavenly banquet for him.

We try to fill this time with a sense of joy and fun (it is a celebration and a feast after all!), but also a time of holiness and prayer. We are still finding the balance for our children ages 4, 2, and 4 months. Having special family time, good food, and fun activities is usually enough to bring about interest and good behavior!

After the children are in bed, hubby usually does dishes, while I prep everything for Sunday-breakfast, lunch (it takes us about 20 minutes to get home from church and we are hungry!), Bibles, baby bags, coats and shoes ready by the door. This eases the sometimes chaos of our Sunday morning rush to church. It also helps it feel like more of a day of rest for me if meals are already prepped and things tidied.

Does your family do something similar? What ideas do you have for making the time fun but devotional? Any hints for making Sunday a day of rest?

Third Sunday after Epiphany-Following Jesus

Our Prayer for this week:

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.



For this week's Sabbath Feast, our focus will be about Jesus' call to his disciples to follow Him from the Book of Mark. We will discuss how we too can "proclaim the good news of God" in our home, neighborhood, and church with our family, friends, and strangers.

This call fits so well in the season of Epiphany. He has made Himself Manifest and as we follow Him, we can reflect His light to others.

For our feast, we will begin 3 courses: a simple green salad, Roasted Chicken with mash potatoes and asparagus and finish with brownies. I hope to use the leftover chicken for chicken salad sandwiches on Sunday, Chicken Tetrazzini to go in the deep freeze, and a Chicken Soup for Monday.

I've printed these coloring pages for the kids: http://new.catholicmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/01_25_09.pdf

And we will play a fishing puzzle we have too!

I'll let you know how it goes! Love to hear how your family time went and what the Third Sunday after Epiphany means to you.



Readings and collect can be found at http://www.io.com/~kellywp/YearB_RCL/Epiphany/BEpi3_RCL.html



Jonah 3:1-5, 10Psalm 62: 6-141 Corinthians 7: 29-31Mark 1:14-20

Third Sunday in Epiphany Resources

Here are few great, free resources for leading your children through the church year for the Third Sunday in Epiphany.

Many of these links are specific to this week's lessons. Some update automatically to the current day if you visit at another time, but others you will need to navigate back to their homepage to find other dates.

http://www.sermons4kids.com/
Sermons 4 kids gives just that! A sermon based on the RCL readings, usually with some sort of visual aid. This week they suggest watching a clip from Peter Pan to teach the concept of following the leader.

http://ecusa.anglican.org/documents/Epiphany_3_B_2009_Young_Children.doc
A wonderful resource that gives an overview of the current season and the lectionary reading. Followed by lesson, art and snack ideas. A Sunday School lesson from start to finish. The site also has lessons for Older Children and Adults.

http://new.catholicmom.com/category/sundays-gospel/
This site provides activities, coloring pages, and more for each Sunday's lectionary reading.


http://www.sundayschoollessons.com/epiphany.htm

Sunday School Lessons provides a short lesson with an image and follow-up questions.


http://www.cyberfaith.com/proclaiming_faith.cfm?reading_id=274&language=eng&book=0

This site has the week's Scripture Reference with a reflections, points for discussion, and activities. One of my favorite!


http://www.textweek.com/yearb/epiphb3.htm
Contains sermons, suggested hymns, liturgies, children's activities and more!