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TASTE & SEE
We pray this week for the following saints:
Sunday: Alphonsus Liguori (1787), bishop, doctor of the Church, founder of the Redemptorists; patron of moral theologians and confessors.
Monday: Eusebius of Vercelli (371),. bishop and Peter Julian Eymard (1868), priest. Eusebius, an opponent of Arianism, chose to be sent into exile, rather than condemn St. Athanasius. Eymard founded several communities dedicated to the Eucharist as the center of life.
Wednesday: John Mary Vianney (1859), priest. The Curé of Ars, noted confessor, patron of parish priests, spent some eleven hours every day in the confessional in the winter; sixteen in the summer.
Thursday: The Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. Following the declaration of Mary as Theotokos (God-bearer) by the Council of Ephesus in 431, Pope Sixtus III erected this oldest basilica in the West dedicated to the Mother of God.
Friday: The Transfiguration of the Lord. Feast inserted into the General Calendar in 1457. Also, today and August 9 are anniversaries of the atomic explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Saturday: Sixtus II (258), pope, martyr, and his four deacons, (258), martyrs, were seized while celebrating the Eucharist in a catacomb and beheaded. Cajetan (1547)., priest, co-founder with the future Pope Paul IV of what is today the Congregation of Clerks Regular.
TASTE & SEE also notes that the Feast of St. Dominic (1221), priest, founder of the Order of Preachers, is normally transferred to the first free day in August after Thursday’s celebrations. The Dominican Preface of his Mass emphasizes that God called “Our Father Dominic to proclaim Your truth. He drew that truth from the deep springs of the Savior, water for a thirsty world.”
Folks who meet over TASTE & SEE potluck suppers discuss this one topic: What does my family do with food to celebrate feast days and holidays? More discussion questions: Why did Gramma always mark the calendar on the day before St. Nicholas’s memorial? What was that lady at St. Ambrose Church talking about when she said, “We serve Sfinge Di San Giuseppe crème puffs to honor one cream puff of a saint”?
This week we can be nice to people named after:
Tuesday, Apollinaris (1st c.) bishop, martyr, ordained by St. Peter and sent as missionary;
Wednesday, Lawrence of Brindisi (1619), priest, doctor, minister general, preacher, writer;
Thursday, Mary Magdalene (1st c.), first to witness to the risen Lord, mistaken as sinful woman;
Friday, Bridget of Sweden (1373), religious; mother of eight; mystic prophet; patroness of Europe;
Saturday, Sharbel Makhluf (1898), priest, monk, devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary
All of us know somebody named Larry or Mary or Bridget. However, two new names have been newly included in the Universal Calendar: Appolinaris and Sharbel. Now what kind of a dish can we cook up for these two?
Honored Tuesday is Henry II (1024). As head of the vast empire of Charlemagne, he named bishops and supported monasteries as centers of prayer and focal points for the civilization of the people. With his wife, St. Cunegunda (3 March), he assisted the poor.
Wednesday: Kateri (Catherine) Tekakwitha (1680) is the first native American to be declared Blessed . Only Kateri survived when her parents and her brother died in a smallpox epidemic when she was four years old.
With a disfigured face and impaired eyesight, she was raised by an uncle whose house guests, Jesuit missionaries, instructed Kateri and baptized her when she was 20. The other Indians were so opposed to this that the Jesuits helped her flee to Montreal where she led a life of great austerity and charity. This Lily of the Mohawks was declared Venerable by Pope Pius XII in 1943 and Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980.
Thursday: Bonaventure (1274), bishop, “Seraphic” doctor of the Church. Minister General of the Franciscans 1257-1274, he eventually accepted the assignment as bishop. He helped with preparations for the Second Council of Lyons which worked for reunion with the Greeks.
Friday: Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This is the patronal feast of the Carmelite Order. Legend states that Our Lady gave the brown Carmelite scapular to St. Simon Stock in England in 1251. The Opening Prayer asks that, through the maternal intercession of the Blessed Virgin, God will assist us along the pathway of life so that we may arrive safely at the holy mountain, Jesus Christ.
Finally, we can sit back and relax. All the big feasts and holidays are over—Easter, Ascension, Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, even First Communion and Confirmation, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, Graduation!
It’s Ordinary Time! It’s vacation time! It’s time to soak up some sun—some Son! It’s— Just look at the liturgies this week:
Sunday: Elijah, Elisha, Paul and Jesus: Do not linger or look back; seek good and not evil.
Monday: Irenaeus (c. 202), bishop, martyr: Better to be simple and close to God than to appear wise.
Tuesday: Peter (c. 64) & Paul (c. 67), Apostles: Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
Wednesday: First Holy Martyrs of Rome (64): May we find strength from their courage & rejoice in their triumph.
Thursday: Blessed Junipera Serra (1784), priest: He brought the gospel of Christ to 6000 in Mexico & California.
Saturday: Thomas (1st c.), Apostle: My Lord and my God!
In honor of St. Peter, a fisherman turned fisher of men, it has been customary to eat fish on his feast days. TASTE & SEE (at gticha@sbcglobal.net) will e-mail recipes to anybody requesting to hear more about such dishes as Sicilian St. Peter’s Fish in Marsala, Spicy Fried Fish, Gilled Saint Peter’s Fish or A Tuscan Cake for St. Peter’s Day. It is also customary for fishermen and fishmongers to give fish to the poor in this saint’s honor.
Father’s Day
For Father’s Day, on this Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we might add to our table blessing this prayer: “May God, who gives life on earth and in heaven, lead you, our father, to walk by the light of faith and so help your children attain the good things Christ has promised us. God our Father, in your wisdom and love you made all things. Bless our father. Let the example of his faith and love shine forth. Grant that we, his family, may honor him always with a spirit of profound respect. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”—Catholic Household Blessings & Prayers.
Intentions this week are Monday, for Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1591), religious, patron of youth and students. TASTE & SEE’s symbols for his cake are a lily and a crucifix.
Tuesday, Paulinus of Nola (353-431), bishop, renowned for his love of poverty. He wrote “With all my wealth I pay for the hope of heaven…of much more value than all the riches of the world.” Also honored are John Fisher (1469-1535), bishop, martyr and Thomas More (1477-1535), martyr. Both men were beheaded after refusing to recognize the spiritual supremacy of King Henry VIII.
Thursday, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. From earliest times the Church has celebrated the birthday of St. John, herald of the Son of God and the greatest of prophets. After Elizabeth gave birth to John, his father, Zachary, spoke prophetic words about him in the Benedictus.
TASTE & SEE people follow tradition in favoring a lamb cake for the nameday treat for all Christians named John. Also appropriate would be a crown cake inscribed with the words Ecce Agnus Dei (Behold the Lamb of God). In ancient days, a bonfire would mark the vigil of John’s day. St. Augustine and some other theologians saw something symbolic in the fact that St. John was born in the summer, when the days are beginning to shorten, and Christ was born in the winter, when the days are gradually getting longer.
ST. ANTHONY’S BREAD
On this Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Luke tells us in the Gospel of the woman who washed Christ’s feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, and then anointed them with perfumed oil.
TASTE & SEE folks, desiring to honor God, observe June 13 as the Memorial of Anthony of Padua (1231 at age 36), priest, doctor of the Church. While with the Augustinians in Portugal, he witnessed the burial of several Franciscan missionary priests who had been martyred in Morocco. He obtained permission to become an O.F.M. and headed for Morocco. When his boat was driven off course he landed in Sicily.
In Italy it was discovered that he was both an expert on Scripture and an outstanding preacher. He was the first Franciscan to teach theology and was named a lector by St. Francis himself. Tradition has it that Anthony had experienced a vision of the Child Jesus. That is why many statues of Anthony show him holding a bible with the Child Jesus standing on it.
TASTE & SEE cooks recognize that “St. Anthony’s Bread” is the name of all types of alms distributed to the needy by Franciscan friars throughout the world.
Saturday, we memorialize Romuald (1027), abbot, teacher of monks and hermits. His mission was to renew the life of solitude and prayer in hermitages in addition to liturgical prayer and manual labor. In his Preface we pray, “By the silence of his tongue and the eloquence of his life, he led many souls along the way of salvation.”
In preparation for > Corpus Christi, Sunday,
> Ephrem (373), deacon, doctor of the Church, Wednesday,
> the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Friday, and
> the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Saturday, TASTE & SEE offers this “food for thought” from Angel Food, a cookbook from the Sacred Heart Program:
“Food seems so significant in the life of Jesus! Often we find Him concerned with feeding others, or having something to eat Himself. When Mary washed His feet, He was eating. He taught forgiveness at a supper in Simon the Pharisee’s house. His first miracle was at a wedding feast. After He cured Peter’s mother-in-law, she got up to serve food to the Lord and His disciples. He fed the multitudes…the miracle of the loaves and fishes. After He raised the little girl from the dead His first instruction was to get her something to eat.
“He taught Martha and Mary while dining. He brought Zacchaeus to repentance after inviting Himself to the tax collector’s table. He described the kingdom of heaven in terms of a banquet. The disciples at Emmaus recognized Him in the breading of the bread. He appeared after the Resurrection cooking fish on the shore.
“After all this, and more, it is not surprising that Jesus said farewell to His closest followers at a meal that is remembered as the LAST supper but was the FIRST Mass.
Jesus would have us mindful that it is not by bread alone that we live. May we hunger and thirst for holiness in order to enjoy the banquet prepared for us in the kingdom of God.” —Bishop A. James Quinn, J.C.D., J.D., Cleveland, Ohio.
ONE GOD IN THREE PERSONS
When did we first hear about the Most Holy Trinity? Probably at our Baptism. The term Trinity is not from Scripture, but we do find Our Lord’s words: “Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”—Mt 28:19.
We sing “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church (253) teaches us that we do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons. In ancient Italy and Greece, actors put a mask on their faces to help characterize the person they were representing. This mask was called persona, from which our word person is derived. In ancient times a head was pictured with three faces to represent the Trinity.
Symbols we are familiar with are the Sign of the Cross, the number three, the triangle, three interlaced circles, the fleur-de-lis, and St. Patrick’s shamrock. Legend has it that St. Patrick said: “God is like this shamrock. Three petals form it. So God consists of three Persons, and yet is one God.”
This week is marked by Monday, the Visitation of the Virgin Mary; Tuesday, Justin (165), martyr; Wednesday, Marcellinus and Peter, (303), martyrs; Thursday, Charles Lwanga and 21 Ugandan companions (1885-1887), martyrs, and Saturday, Boniface (754), bishop, martyr.
On Monday, Memorial Day prayers for visiting a cemetery can be taken from the Book of Blessings, nos. 1734-1754, or from Household Blessings, 174. A member of TASTE & SEE reports: BOY SCOUT TROOP 646 WILL BE PLACING FLAGS ON EVERY GRAVE AT JEFFERSON BARRACKS ALONG WITH CUB SCOUT TROOP 328 FROM VALLEY PARK. THIS IS SUCH A REWARDING ACTION TO TEACH OUR YOUNG WHAT THE PRICE OF PEACE COSTS. I CONSIDER IT A PRIVILEGE AND AN HONOR TO WALK THRU THE ROWS OF HEROES THAT GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR OUR FREEDOMS. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A
COME, HOLY SPIRIT, COME
After fifty days of rejoicing in Christ’s Resurrection we come face to face today with Pentecost, the birthday of the Church—one, holy, Catholic and apostolic!
While Christian holy days are usually observed in church, their real celebration is in the home. Father Edward Hays urges us to start our own holy day and holiday traditions of special foods, decorations and symbols for the home. Do not abandon your personal and family traditions, he teaches. Keep ageless traditions as well as personal rituals. Do not lose touch with spiritual roots which can be vehicles to direct communion with the Divine Mystery.— A Pilgrim’s Almanac,
That’s easy to say. For example, today we encounter this prayer from the Sequence: Come, Holy Spirit, come, and from your celestial home shed a ray of light divine! Right! Then we realize that this violent wind filling our house is evident in the light reflected to us by the lives of others. St. Paul comes to our aid as he spells out the gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit. As Ordinary Time resumes, this week is marked by optional memorials of:
TUESDAY: Bede the Venerable, (dying 735), priest, doctor, known as “The Father of English History”; Gregory VII, (dying 1085), pope, champion of reform of the clergy; Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, (dying 1607), virgin, mystic, involved in the reform of the Carmelites;
WEDNESDAY: Philip Neri, (dying 1595), priest, founder, Congregation of Priests of the Oratory;
THURSDAY: Augustine of Canterbury, (dying 604(5?), bishop, primate of England.
TASTE & SEE cooks involve their children and grandchildren by encouraging them to research each feast day and find fun in making a party of it. For today’s birthday of the Church they might decorate the house with cut-outs of doves, tongues of fire, windsocks in fiery colors, or clippings of different nationalities. Special foods could include a twelve-fruit salad, dove-shaped cookies, or a cake topped with seven strawberries as a reminder of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Repeat this ritual year after year and a family tradition will have been born. TASTE & SEE
Sunday finds us reliving with the Eleven the day when Our Lord was taken up to heaven. The historical Jesus disappears into the clouds of eternity, taking our necessities to the Father, writes Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. Soon, next week, the exalted and glorified Christ will send us His Spirit, giving divine life to His Church and forming us into His Mystical Body.
Like Mary and the Apostles, we should be filled with joy. Christ still walks the earth in each one of us. We should constantly be speaking the praises of God. For one more week the paschal candle, a symbol of the presence of the risen Christ, remains in the sanctuary.
The apostles were the nucleus of this new Mystical Body. This week it is optional that we remember these other fellow-Christians:
Tuesday, John I, (dying 526), pope, martyr; called a “victim for Christ” for his conflict with the Arians.
Thursday, Bernardine of Siena, (dying 1444), O.F.M. priest; known for use of the monogram, IHS (abbreviation for Greek name of Jesus).
Friday, Christopher Magallanes, priest, martyr and his 21 companions, martyrs (dying 1915-1937). These were shot or hanged for their association with an uprising against the anti-Catholic Mexican government in the 1920s.
Saturday, Rita of Cascia, (dying 1457), religious. After the murder of her husband, Rita spent some 40 years as an Augustinian nun, in prayer, contemplation, and service to the sick and poor. Toward the end of her life, she received a wound from a thorn from the crown of thorns. She is the patron saint of desperate situations. — Paulist Press Ordo
MOTHER’S WEEK
Sunday, Mother’s Day, Catholic Household Blessings & Prayers suggests for a table blessings, that all may stretch out their hands over the mother in a gesture of blessing and say: “May God, the source of life, give you joy in the love, growth, and holiness of your children. Amen. Loving God, as a mother gives life and nourishment to her children, so You watch over your Church. Bless our mother. Let the example of her faith and love shine forth. Grant that we, her family, may honor her always with a spirit of profound respect. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”.
Monday we honor Damien Joseph de Veuster of Molokai, priest, who died in 1889 at age 49, saying “I make myself a leper with the lepers, to gain all for Jesus Christ.”
Wednesday’s memorials are for Nereus & Achilleus, soldiers martyred at the end of the 1st century, and Pancras, 14-year-old orphan convert, beheaded in 304.
Our Lady of Fatima is venerated Thursday. TASTE & SEE adds these thoughts handed down: “At the first stirrings of our souls, our Heavenly Mother sets her gaze upon us. She renews her solicitude for her children when they stray in despair and do not return her gaze. Like a Mother who is unwelcome in her own child’s home, she leaves a sign, a message, a remembrance, and a maternal promise: ‘I will never forsake you.’ ‘In the end,’ she promised at Fatima, ‘my Immaculate Heart will triumph.’” —America Needs Fatima Campaign.
The feast of Matthias, 1st century apostle and martyr, chosen to replace Judas because of his witness to Christ’s ministry and resurrection, is observed Friday. Saturday is the memorial day of Isidore, a farm laborer whose wife, Maria, was a saint. Patron of Madrid, farmers and rural communities, he died in 1130. Often this day is used for imploring God’s blessings on this year’s harvest. The Order of Blessing of Seeds at Planting Time may be used: BB 086-1006 or HB 142-145 & 309-311.
Five Models of Faith
This fourth week of Easter, we honor: = Peter Chanel, 1841, priest, martyr; = Louis Mary de Montfort, 1716, priest; = Catherine of Siena, 1380, virgin, doctor of the Church; = Pius V, 1572, pope; and = Joseph the Worker.
Sent to the missions in Oceania, Peter met with success until the king’s son asked to be baptized; the king had him killed. As he was dying, he said, “My death is a great blessing for me.” Within a short time the entire population embraced the Catholic faith, a proof that the blood of martyrs is truly the seed of the church. (E. Lodi, Saints)
Louis, from Brittany, was an apostolic missionary whose preaching led to a spiritual revival in his native land. He founded the Missionaries of the Company of Mary.
Catherine, the youngest of 25 children, was drawn to a life of prayer from her earliest years. She had her first vision of Christ at the age of six. At the age of 15 she became a lay Dominican but was soon drawn into spiritual and political activities involving reform of the clergy and the return of the pope from France to Rome. In the Preface of her Mass, we pray, “Father…you revealed to St. Catherine the unsearchable mysteries of your own life and gave her a special love for your Church… Obedient and humble, she challenged the Church of Christ to be mindful of its mission and be a faithful spouse of Christ, holy and spotless until the end of time.”
Pius, with a background as a professor, provincial, and ultimately bishop, cardinal, and pope, promulgated the Roman Catechism, the Roman Missal, and the Roman Breviary used until Vatican II. His Mass highlights two of his activities: the defense of the faith and the reform of the liturgy.
For Joseph the Worker, TASTE & SEE follows the recommendation of the Paulist Press Ordo that we “bless tools or even larger implements or equipment that people use in work. See BB, nos. 919-941 and HB, 325.”
Name-Day Desserts
Monday we mark the anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI (2005) with the Mass for the Pope. [ A book cake or a beehive honey cake is appropriate for any Benedict or Ben. ]
Wednesday is the memorial of Anselm, died 1109, bishop, doctor. A Benedictine monk who became an abbot, a bishop, and then the archbishop of Canterbury, he was declared a Doctor of the Church and called the “Father of Scholasticism.” His was the definition that “theology is faith seeking understanding.” [ TASTE & SEE children will cut out cakes in the shape of ships on this day. Parents may opt for lamb-cakes, the common dessert for bishop-saints. ]
Friday, two saints are remembered: George, decapitated about 303, martyr, and Adalbert, died 997, bishop, martyr. Portrayed as a knight and dragon-slayer in iconography, George, since the Crusades, was proclaimed patron of England and Constantinople. Adalbert, the bishop of Prague, was forced to leave his See twice before he was murdered. He is patron of Bohemia, the Czech Republic, Prussia, and a patron of Poland.
[ TASTE & SEE kids named George can help Mom bake a cake cut into the shape of a cross and decorate it with a coat of armor, a white banner with a red cross, or a sword. Kids named Adalbert may help with a lamb cake or a crown cake and listen as their parents read from 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 and Matthew 16:24. ]
Fidelis of Sigmaringen, died 1622, priest, is memorialized Saturday. Known as the “lawyer of the poor” before becoming a Capuchin, he was appointed to a preaching ministry among the Protestants, and especially the Calvinists. Pope Benedict XIV said “His zeal for defending the Catholic faith was unsurpassed and he preached it tirelessly.” [ A star-shaped chiffon pie made of unflavored gelatin, eggs, coconut, and milk, and garnished with chocolate stars, is the treat for Saturday’s memorial. ]
EASTER DOOR-EASTER TABLE
For the blessing of homes during Eastertime, Catholic Household Bless¬ings (153¬156) calls for all who live in the house to be present along with friends and neighbors. The leader may be a min¬ister from the parish or a member of the household.
Features of the blessing include the reading of the Emmaus epic from Luke 24:28¬32, intercessions, sprinkling of the house and rooms and family with holy water, the Lord’s Prayer, and the prayers of blessing.
One prayer at the front door is: “O God, make the door of this house wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship, narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride, and strife. Make its threshold smooth enough to be no stumbling¬block to children, nor to straying feet, but rugged and strong enough to turn back the tempter’s power. God, make the door of this house the gateway to your eternal kingdom. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
TASTE & SEE members would supplement the gathering with treats or dinner to celebrate this Eastertime day with joy. Gertrud Mueller Nelson, To Dance With God, recommends an Easter table set with cakes and breads and meats and eggs. This festive table is left set and is constantly replenished for all the guests who will visit over the next few days.
Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, promoted by St. Faustina Kowalska, can¬onized by Pope John Paul II in 2000. Members of SCL’s group will be praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy today and most Fridays. Tuesday is the memorial of Martin I, Pope, Martyr, who died in 656 of starvation and ill treatment in exile over his belief in Christ’s humanity. He was the last pope to be martyred.
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