Compost and Mother's Day

I get interesting gifts for Mother's Day - but they are what I ask for! There's been many years that I ask for compost bins. We've finally learned how to get great compost, so this year Monte made me a supper-nice 3-compartment compost bin. I've asked for rototillers and other gardening stuff.

I came down Mother's Day morning to a wrapped gift for me from Dawson. He's a gift giver and a creative wrapper. Lately his gifts have been wrapped in the many pages we helped edit for his college classes. He gave me a rock water-fountain. So now I can sit here in my recliner, surrounded by my many house plants and have the soothing sound of tumbling water.

When the rest of the world is waiting to be seated at restaurants, I prefer not to join the masses. But I get taken out quite a bit, so eating out on Mother's Day isn't so special. Just like when the rest of the world is vacationing, I'd rather stay home. But then we often go on mini vacations, so there isn't that need.

So is it that we enjoy treats, like dates, on a regular basis so there isn't this huge need for needing a holiday to make things happen ... or is it that we don't like crowds ... or are we just rebellious? (I do have a rebellious streak in me.)

Actually yesterday, after church, we went with friends to eat at Pannera Bread and sat talking quite awhile before Monte and me went to the REI outdoor store to get a new GPS he needs for his geology field trip he's going on next week. But like gardening paraphernalia, I like looking at all the camping, backpacking, and outdoor activity paraphernalia too. So maybe it wasn't a thing most would do for Mother's Day, but I enjoyed what I did with Monte. 

Can you believe it? - today, late this afternoon, the weather instantly changed from sunny upper 60's to freezing wind and rain. Denver is supposed to get 3" of snow overnight, so we'll get more! I finished planting my summer flower pots, but of course they'll stay inside awhile more. I filled all the bird feeders. I trimmed the grapevine in the greenhouse (so many grapes coming this year!) and emptied all the garden and kitchen scrap buckets in the compost bin.

Athanasius

This is the post I really started out wanting to post, but got sidetracked and did the last few posts! Today is the Feast Day of Athanasius. He is a father of the church. Born of Christian parents in Alexandria, Egypt around 295, he was around when Christianity was becoming the religion of the Empire.

He spent several years with the Desert Father Anthony and wrote his life story, which became very famous and is still in print today. The majority of his life was spent fighting Arianism, which he thought would be easy. But he was exiled five times for his defense of Christ's divinity.

He could probably write as did Paul in II Corinthians 11:26-28, "In hard traveling I've had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I've been at risk in the city and in the country, betrayed by those I thought were my brothers... And that's not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches."

The Council of Nicaea of 325 condemned Arianism and had to expand and affirm it further in 381 at the Council of Constantinople.

May Day

April showers

Bring May flowers.

A friend who used to live here always left little nursery flower starts in my mailbox for May Day. Tradition is to leave flowers at people's front door. Some years I think ahead and do that. 

I did mail some pots with herb seeds to Monte's Mom and my daughter Heather. And planting the herb seed pots for my Mom and my daughter-in-love (now you won't be surprised Sarah). 

Beautiful last day of April yesterday. Monte and Dawson went twice to have a horse ranch load both the back of the truck and trailer with well composted horse manure. Now we'll get some buffalo manure from our friend nearby who has buffalo, then we'll be ready to get our gardens ready for another year of growing.

But alas, not yet. It's been snowing since we awoke.

I'm posting some needlefelted flower pictures from some of my students.

Pius V, Council of Trent, & Elizabeth I

Church History and the Calendar again. Pope Pius V is one of the persons on the Church calendar for today. He excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1570.

The Council of Trent straddled 18 years and several Popes. It was finalized in 1563. Pius V had the job of instituting it. It's main purpose was what to do with Protestantism (which was 'no Protestantism). It's beginnings were to deal with what Martin Luther (and many others) wanted the Church to reform. It became a Counter-Reformation.

Queen Elizabeth I was determined to complete the separation of the Church of Rome begun by her father Henry VIII (with Bloody Mary between them). I've written before that Protestantism and Catholicism took over a hundred years to be able to co-exist. For a long while, the religion of the monarchy became the religion of the country. And unfortunately Elizabeth forbade Catholics to practice their faith. They were fined or imprisoned and heavily persecuted and many were killed. (Read about Protestantism in Scotland with John Knox, and then France and other countries had horrible massacres too.)(Read my blog on Edmund Campion.)

We don't imagine the possibility of living with only one religious option; can't imagine what's so hard about letting other religious viewpoints exist. We so take advantage of having scriptures in our own language and can read anytime for ourselves!

Catherine of Siena

This is the day I remember aspects of Catherine of Siena's story. With many of my posts being Saint Days, you'd think I'm Catholic. I'm not, and didn't grow up knowing anything of church history, and to tell you the truth, I never read the Bible for myself till I was 19, though I grew up in a 'Christian home'.

At a desert place in my life, I wanted to strengthen my knowledge of the past. I began with Jewish history, realizing their history is retold rhythmically each calendar year. As my reading took me into early Christian history I started reading stories of people who had days on the calendar that the church had set up. I see it as a carrying on of the first and second Testament stories into the Third Testament.

Why not carry on the many verses in Old Testament scriptures telling us to "tell the children". It's a great way of knowing myself, that my identity is in this larger drama than me, myself, and I.

Several years ago, when other people were filling out a questionnaire, that asked who your hero/heroine is, with people like Dr Phil and Oprah ... I filled the blank in with Catherine of Siena.

When you read saint hagiography there's so much we, looking back on, think is ridiculous and weird. It sometimes takes a lot of wading through before you find the real person.

Catherine was the 23rd child born in her family and was very religious from a young age. At 16 she rebelliously cut off her hair and cloistered herself in a room of her home. When 18 her family let her join the Dominican order where she spent another 3 years in seclusion.

It was an era when people desired visions and the stigmata and many women betrothed themselves to Christ. Many too lived with harsh asceticism.

The part of her story that really spoke to me was when after the three years of seclusion Jesus said, "Enough. The only way you can serve me is in the service of your neighbor"! I could easily be a hermit or contemplative and just read and putter around my home.

Catherine, along with Teresa of Avila are the only women Doctors of the Church. She died in 1380 at the age of 33. She lived through Europe's Famine and the Plague of 1374 nursing people. People called her "Mama". She also wrote many letters to kings and popes (unheard of by women of her time). She lived during the Church's Great Schism when there were two popes and then three - divided between France and Italy. She worked tirelessly to help heal the Church.

Her spiritual testament is found in her book The Dialogue. The last two years of her life she spent praying for church unity.

In one of my books I wrote (but don't know where it's from) -

"Athletes of the Spirit usually start out in physical inactivity and mystical exercise."

St George

April 23 is the Feast of Saint George. I missed telling you that, and with company, I didn't put out my felt dragon like I usually do.

Because of the Revelation 12 scripture I've told you that I put a dragon in my Christmas Nativity. I pull this same dragon out for Michaelmas Day and again for the St George story.

George was a Palestinian soldier who suffered martyrdom in 303 in the persecutions of Diocletian. It's believed stories of George were brought home to England by the Crusaders. Though many variations, it's a basic tale of good and evil - of a young knight who rescues a maiden from a flying reptile with bad breath. One tale has him leashing the dragon with the princess's garter, leading it through town and converting pagans to Christianity. Or maybe he just cuts off its head.

Cutting off a dragon's head is what is often celebrated in English homes. A dragon is often made from bread dough and the children cut off its head.

What intrigues me most about St George is there's a shrine for him in the Middle East. Jews think the site is the burial place of Elias. Christians are remembering a soldier championing against the power of evil. Moslems celebrate George as a demigod who endured a series of tortures and call him "Khidir", the Green Man.

It is said that this shrine has almost more activity than Jerusalem's Holy Sepulchre. And too, there's Christians and Moslems praying side-by-side.

Picasso's Painting

It was on this day in 1937 Hitler was practicing bombing and wiped out a whole Spain town- the first time in history a town was destroyed from the air.

Pablo Picasso was so torn by the news he painted a picture, calling it 'Guernica', after the town in Spain.

People complain his lack of realism can have no impact. But it is characteristic of Picasso's work that symbols can hold varying meanings from differing eyes, and change according to the state of mind.

Passover and Omer

This evening is the beginning of Passover. Because Passover fell on the Sabbath this year, Jews had to make their Sedar meal preparations yesterday since no work is done on the Sabbath.

I've already posted about this year being the calendar catch-up year for the Jewish lunar based calendar. Every nineteen years they add an extra Adar month. Eastern Orthodox churches follow the lunar base for festivals so will be celebrating Easter, Pesach, tomorrow - so two Easters! And like I said before too, Jews celebrated Purim two times this year. The real Purim ended up on our Good Friday.

A friend sent out an email about celebrating Ascension Day on May first and I emailed her what I'm going to write here. But after my long history/theology soliloquy, I ended with telling her if she wants to celebrate Ascension Day twice, she can. And because of what's being written and talked about in Christian circles about Pentecost, I guess I'm kinda celebrating it twice this year too, or stretching Omer longer.

Why do I make a big deal out of this? I like the larger story, the bigger picture that brings more depth to our Christian celebrations and traditions.

Jews had three harvest festivals that they went to Jerusalem for (found in Leviticus 23, Deuteronomy 16, and more). The first two are known as First Fruit Festivals. Barley is the first cereal grain to be harvested and brought to the temple for blessing.

The Sunday following Passover, begins this First Fruit Festival period of counting seven-sevens between the barley and then the wheat harvest festival, called Shavuot. This period of 49 days is called 'Counting the Omer', an 'in-between-time'.

I took a picture of a past year's Counting Omer chart I made. Every Spring this rectangle of rectangles sits on a kitchen counter. Since I strive for more meaning to my ordinary linear calendar days, I like visuals or anything that reminds my heart and brings anticipation of God's presence. Glueing pieces of grain, or marking off the days, helps bring meaning - a God-consciousness activity - to these days. I try and create space in my days for God to show up - anticipating surprises from God - God 'winks'.

The Jewish Festival of First Fruits became our Easter. Jesus rose from the dead on the Jewish festival day that many Jews had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and then their first harvest fruit of barley. I Corinthians 15:20 says, "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruit of those who are asleep." How exciting is that?! Do you think that was part of a plan? a cool detail in the large drama of life?!

I will start counting the 49 days tomorrow. If you started with the Easter day we celebrated this year, you'll end up with the 50th day being Mother's Day. To me that's all wrong! The 49-50th day really falls on June 8-9 this year.

See the little red box in my picture? That's the 40th day in the counting - that's Ascension Day. You can talk about this event, but it's more fun to take a picnic lunch and blanket and eat somewhere outside and look up into the sky and talk about the story at the end of Luke and Acts 1 when Jesus left this earth. Imagine being a disciple - you've lived with Jesus for 3 years dreaming of setting up an earthly kingdom and then watch Jesus leave, "Hey, but wait a minute, where are you going? This is not what I had in mind!" The physical presence of Jesus left them. What now?

At this time Jesus told them to return to Jerusalem and wait the ten days until the next Jewish Harvest Festival. I'm sure the disciples were reliving all the memories and words of those three years with Jesus, wondering what the heck he really meant! while waiting for the Shavuot Festival. Remembering and praying and waiting.

Every year at this time the Jews read the 10 Commandments, remembering Moses and the commandments inscribed by God on stone on Mt Sinai in the desert. But the Jews are missing the bigger picture. To Jeremiah (31:33) God said, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it" who's message carried further in II Corinthians 3:3 says, "You are a letter of Christ written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts."

Jesus died and then resurrected on Easter becoming the first fruit at the early first fruit festival. In our Christian year, 50 days later, Shavuot became Pentecost, and as Christians we have the Holy Spirit living within us, and are first fruits too. So from the letter of the law, to the Spirit; from stone to human hearts.

I hang seven descending doves over our kitchen table for Pentecost as another visual reminder for my heart. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. Does your church celebrate Pentecost? I've never been in a church that celebrated it. We remember God the Father and Son in the Incarnation and Death and Resurrection, but do we celebrate the Holy Spirit and what it all means to our Christianity? A remembrance of letters in stone to the Spirit in our hearts; remembering that the letter of the law brings death, but the Spirit brings life. Remembering the gifts and fruits of the Spirit.

This year our church is finally going to celebrate Pentecost Day. I've been asked to help 'preach' that weekend. I guess my years of talking about the Calendar depth, including Pentecost, is bearing fruit. We're going to tell everyone to come wearing red. We're going to have balloons and birthday cake.

Instead of calling this season Eastertide, I see it as a Season of Redemption. On Passover, the Jews eat history, remembering freedom from slavery. But freedom for what? What is physical freedom without an identity of who you are? Mt Sinai with God and the 10 Commandments gave them a spiritual freedom, a knowing they were part of a larger story. But the 'story of redemption' is even larger for us who believe in the Incarnation, Resurrection, and Pentecost.

There is a great drama that God asks us to be a part of. God still takes on human flesh today, expanding the Incarnation to us followers of Jesus. The God above became the God alongside, and then the God within. Is this not Wild?!!!!!!!!!!!

Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was born yesterday, the 15th, in 1452. Lots of journals of his drawings and figurings exist, but his completed works are few in comparison.

Because I've been framing pictures (I learned how to cut mattes - how cool - oh, the possibilities ...!) I've got all the frames I've collected all in one room. On the windowsill I sat a funky little picture I have of the Mona Lisa. That picture has fascinated viewers for centuries. From his sketch journals it's believed he used himself as the model for that picture.

From a library book, I saw the building that is home to his The Lord's Supper. It is totally a miracle that it's the one wall left standing pretty in tact from bombing in the war.

Some people have taken his sketches and completed some of his projects. One of those I connect with is, it is he who first imagined the spinning wheel's fly-wheel that holds the bobbin with the feed-hole for the animal wool twisting into a yarn. I could probably say that better if I looked at one of my books, but I think you get the idea.

1sts of Spring Chart

When my kids were young I always put up a Firsts of Spring chart, making a new one every year. It's become so much a part of all of us, that even now, without the chart, someone will tell me "I saw a crocus" or "I saw a bluebird... or robin ..." or "I smelled a stink bug".

I'd mark the chart with the dates - like when we see the Aspens with the catkins that come before the leaves. I always mark my calendar when I see (actually hear!) the first hummingbird. We've already mentioned amongst ourselves that we heard the flickers and their mating calls, which seems to first begin on our metal stove pipe! We saw the first grass snake when Trav's friends were here last weekend.

I tend to mark my calendar too when we see a bear (like my posts last August!) and when the hummingbirds, bluebirds and robins leave in the fall ... when we get the first frost and snow. One year we had the oddest event of a tornado touch down in the garden and totally take away all my floating row covers and some black plastic and some plants! We never did find evidence, even though I looked as we drove places.

It's made us more aware. I used to love the smell of the rain when we lived in the desert - it's very unique. Here in the mountains there's an obvious smell of Spring with the early rains and the sun angle in the sky. We see lots of rainbows, many of them double.

I see these as God Winks. Oh how many winks I bet we miss!

Redeeming Oppression?

Today is the birth date of Booker T Washington in 1856. Yesterday was remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination 40 years ago.

I've read Booker's autobiography Up From Slavery. It was a good read. He was so much a part of reconstruction of the rubble of the South and the repercussion of slavery. His legacy is not just what he accomplished himself, but what he helped thousands of others accomplish--both black and white.

I'm old enough to have vivid memories of the day John F Kennedy was assassinated. School was a very quiet place other than all the teachers crying. And I remember all Saturday morning cartoons and regular programming on the few networks were dominated by his funeral and the constant replay of the open convertible car scene.

Kennedy and King were both at the beginnings of every home having a TV. Though slavery was abolished in the 1860s, blacks were not free. We saw that on TV. Though Martin Luther King Jr learned from Gandhi, OT Daniel and his three friends, and early Christians, that nonviolent resistance is the way to bring change, we did see violence. I hold these images still in my memory too. 

King clung to nonviolence because he profoundly believed that only a movement based on love could keep the oppressed from becoming a mirror image of their oppressors ... Nonviolence, he believed, "will save the Negro from seeking to substitute one tyranny for another." 

King accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Philip Yancey in his Soul Survivor has a chapter on Martin Luther King Jr and says, "Because he stayed faithful, in the short view by offering his body as a target but never as a weapon, and in the long view by holding before us his dream of a new kingdom of peace and justice and love, he became a prophet for me, the unlikeliest of followers."

Above Picture by Jacob Lawrence

April's Fool?

No real facts on this day's history exist. Even Snopes.com mentions it (more than mentions it, it's rather long). I actually just wanted to post this picture I found.

There is a story of a day when a king would change places with a fool for the day. And I like this so-often-true thought:

"Fools were really wise men.
It was the role of Jesters
to put things in perspective
with humor."

The changing to the Gregorian calendar in the late 1500s is what you find the most out there in legend-land - which changed New Year, end of March, to January 1. But it doesn't really work as an explanation since the UK celebrated April Fools long before they adopted the Gregorian calendar in the 1700s.

I'll share a story from one of my British children's calendar book called All Year Round. It's of a baby Olaf sleeping in a cradle slung from the branch of a tree, while his mother mended fishing nets nearby. A large wave came upon the beach and took the baby leaving a fish in the cradle. She shrieked to her husband that the baby was gone. While her back was turned, a second wave miraculously returned her baby to the cradle and retrieved the fish. The husband came, looked, saw the baby, and berated his wife as a fool.

There has to be some fish connection, because in many countries they make fish shaped confections for this day and people slyly tape paper fish on people's backs. Maybe it has something to do with the zodiac sign of the fish around this time of year.

Some people hang a little cradle carrying a fish (like a half walnut shell with a cracker or carboard fish glued inside) around their neck or at their front door, as protection. Most practical jokers respect this code. But I don't think any of this exists in the USA.

Another thing I've read is that April's weather can be so fickle that it'll fool you into planting too early!

Fool phrases -
April Fool; Fool's Cap; Act the Fool; Fool's Errand; Fool's Gold; Fool's Paradise; Fool's Parsley; Playing the Fool; Tomfoolery; Trompe-l'oeil (A still-life painting, designed to give an illusion of reality. Literally 'deceives the eye'); Foolery; Foolhardy.

Annunciation

Today is the Calendar day for the Annunciation, when Gabriel came to Mary. (There is exactly nine months until Christmas.)

Isaiah 7:14 spoke of this event, "Behold a virgin ..." This is the day back in time God chose to enter our history. Mary in her "Yes" became the link between Heaven and Earth. We call this 'taking on flesh' the Incarnation.

I selected some works of art. There are probably over 100 done of this event. The first piece is done by El Greco - of the 1500's. The next "Annunciation" is from 1528 by Andrea del Sarto.
I think the third and forth are by Caravaggio, 1608-1609, and then Dante Gabriel Rosseti, 1849-50 (I could have them mixed around).
Then I think it's Arthur Hacker, 1892.

























































The last two pictures are more modern. HeQi did the sixth in 2001. The last, by Jim Hasse is called The Incarnation - World Annunciation, and a poem ends with:

"The girl says "yes"
"And the Angel left her"
Our World is changed

Joseph-Reputation vs Identity

Today the Church Calendar remembers Joseph. I like to remember him as the provider of shelter for Jesus and Mary. Joseph was in the stable when Jesus was born. He took Mary and Jesus to the Jerusalem Temple to present Jesus to God. He shared Mary's anxieties when Jesus was presumed lost. After this, no more is heard of him in Scripture, but I imagine him educating Jesus and training him in the carpentry business.

(This painting is by Raphael.)

Putting myself in Joseph's sandals helps me see that identity (who I really am) is more important than reputation (what others think of me). Joseph was not just a secular Jew, but was one who observed the Torah faithfully and completely, and his reputation was challenged with gossip of Mary's pregnancy. So what was going through his head? He poured over the Torah, consulting legal matters.

What to do with Mary? She says she wasn't seduced or raped, but instead "it was a miracle of God". If he marries Mary he'd lose his reputation. But what if Mary is right? Will he love God by obeying the Torah or will he love Mary? He's about to choose a private divorce when an Angel tells him not to fear (not to fear losing his reputation). I respect him for his attentiveness and listening to angels.

He married Mary, the supposed adulteress. He gave Jesus a name, becoming the legal father of this 'illegitimate' child. He loved God and others - he surrendered his heart, soul, mind, strength and reputation to God. Joseph became 'less' in the eyes of the religious Jews to provide room for a baby boy who one day would give the 'lesser' (the outsiders) a better reputation than the religious establishment.

When we surrender ourselves to God - lose ourselves - we find ourselves - our real self - we discover our true identity.

Calendar

So, what day is today? Everyone knows it's St Patrick's Day. What do we wake up thinking? or maybe even plan ahead for? Wearing something green ("so I won't be pinched!"). Oh, that's really important! I'll say something about him later.

The 15th of March is The Feast of Saint Longinus. Do you know him? I wonder who even remembered his name, or did they just give him a name. I took a picture of a picture from one of my Saint books - and who do you see? John Wayne! not his typical western look. What movie is this?

Tradition merges the soldier whose spear pierced the side of the crucified Jesus with the centurion who later acknowledged him to be the Son of God. According to legend, Longinus was baptized by the Apostles and eventually died, a martyred bishop, in Cappadocia.

Why not take a day each year to think about the crucifixion scene and all those witnesses. How might it have touched so many people's lives. We don't know all the stories ... but just imagine!

Another person remembered from that whole story is the man who offered his tomb for Jesus to be buried. March 17 is the Feast of Saint Joseph of Arimathea. According to a legend, Joseph was Jesus' wealthy uncle, and after his nephew's (did you ever think of Jesus as a nephew?) Resurrection and Ascension, Joseph accompanied Mary Magdalene to France. Then, alone, he made his way to Britain, bringing with him the chalice drunk from at the Last Supper, which became an ornament of the church he established at Glastonbury, Somerset. And that is how the Holy Grail ended up in England and why King Arthur was so concerned with it!

So from this legend we have so much literature - from the tales of King Arthur (and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" movie - I'm grinning) and on to the more current The Da Vinci Code (I read that Novel and the book that followed. Good writer of a good story, but remind yourself - it's a novel). I think Dan Brown knew of this legend and extrapolated! All I'll say is, "He's an angry-at-the-church man, and doesn't know his history."

Everyone knows bits of the St Patrick story so I don't want to say much. Of all that's written, my favorites are How the Irish Saved Civilization and The Celtic Way of Evangelism. I came away from having read those books realizing my faith is more Celtic than Roman based. Celtic writings are much like the Hebrew Psalms and very inclusive of the Trinity. (My favorite book for exposure to this is The Celtic Way of Prayer.) What must have overflowed from Patrick (born Succat) was the Celtic based monasteries that were very inclusive of the surrounding community, focusing on relationship and embracing the common people. They loved people into The Kingdom. The Europe they evangelized to life, kinda died again, returning to the Roman cold, exclusive (exclusion) monasteries and nitty-gritty detail focus and rules.

A Palladius or Pallagious was actually the first missionary to Ireland. His name was mentioned in the newest King Arthur movie, and because I know something of him, I made the connection in the movie. He preached that people can take the 1st step to salvation without the grace of God. Augustine took steps against his followers.

St Patrick, with a satchel full of books, including Augustine's writings, like City of God and his Confessions, returned to Ireland with its un-invaded tranquility by the barbarians who were ransacking Rome and all of Europe. Thus literature was preserved until Europe was ready to take them back.

Hasn't Patrick's Breastplate prayer been put to music?
Make Irish Soda Bread!

Palm Sunday

Our Supper Group friends just left - our brave friends. It's snowed a few inches, but the heaviest is supposed to start around midnight. I'm anxious to hear how their drive home went! It was raining in Denver when they left to come to our house. I'll let you know how much snow we get. It's not supposed to move on till tomorrow late afternoon. The meal turned out great, even though I was grilling the chickens in the snow! We had a great time and conversation.

I came home from church with lots of palm fronds (I do that every year) to decorate the kitchen table and set out my wool sheep and Jesus on a donkey. Everyone thought it so cool that I had to take a picture to post.

I found one tradition in all my readings for Palm Sunday that I've been doing several years now. My ancestors on my dad's side in the Netherlands carry on this tradition: baking bread chicks on a stick with colored streamers and parading them about homes and church. I bake a large bread shaped chicken with baby chicks sticking out around her. Where does this come from, and why Palm Sunday?

As Jesus overlooked Jerusalem, He wept. Jesus knows us and loves us, even with all our ordinariness. Jesus wished He could "gather them under My wings like a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings". (Matthew 23:37, Luke 13:34)

Here's my recipe for a hen and chicks bread-

1 cup hot water in a blender with- 1 small unpeeled, cut up and seeded orange (cut off some skin to use as chick beaks)
1/2 cup raisins
Let soak a bit and then blend well. Pour into a bread-making bowl and add-
1 pkg (2 tsp) yeast
1/8 cup oil or melted butter
1/8 cup honey or sugar
1-2 Tb molasses
2 tsp-1Tb cinnamon
1 cup flour

Mix these ingredients just until the dry ingredients are moistened, and with a cover on to keep warm, let sit to sponge for 10 minutes. Then add- 2 tsp salt & more flour till dough begins to clean the bowl and form a ball. Knead for about 10 minutes.

Shape the dough into loaves or the chickens (one large or 2 small). Let rise on a greased baking sheet, covered with a towel. Bake about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. (I haven't done this this year yet. If I do, I'll take a picture and add it here.)

I do a large ball for the hen body, then lots of small balls around her body for the chicks and one small ball on top of her body for her head. Take a toothpick to make indents and add currents or cut up raisins for eyes and slivers of orange peel for beaks.

I pulled out art work that I set on an easel for this week. I have Leonardo da Vinci's "Lord's Supper" as well as a modern painting of the scene. I have Rembrandt's "The Raising of the Cross" where he paints himself in the picture. And then Michelangelo's "Pieta". I saw these scenes frozen in Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of Christ" and it caught my breath - a work of art!

Passion Week is before us. One day the people cry "Hosannas" that soon changed to "Crucify Him"!

3.14...

Today is Pi day. I have it on my calendar for the fun of it. Our news radio station mentioned it this morning because one of the station daughter's class was to bring round things in. And the daughter was going to bring in a square pie. I thought that was fun!

We had done the same kind of exercise when our kids were young - had them look at anything round and have them measure around the circle (circumference) and divide by the diameter of the circle. No matter the circle size, they'd come up with this same 3.14... number. This magic number is called 'pi'. They had fun!

The joke this morning about the square pie was: a farmer sent his son to college and asked him when he was done to tell him a math fact. (I don't know any hidden keystrokes on this computer to type a pi symbol or a raised 2. Or maybe use a 'n'?) He told his dad "A circle area=pixr2". The farmer was upset, "I spent all that money for schooling when any fool can tell you pies aren't square!" (you've gotta say it with an accent).

Grilled Chicken etc

This morning was MOPS. I woke at 3:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep. My mind often kicks into gear and there's no stopping it, so I'm tired. I spoke - telling a piece of my story, and why I'm often called "The Calendar Girl" (not that I've posed naked for a calendar - cute movie by the way).

It hit me about the timing of MOPS and next week starting Holy Week. What would Christianity be without the cross and resurrection?! and yet we 'celebrate' other holidays moreso and especially Christmas. It's so easy to embrace a baby and shepherds and sheep and kings and presents! Who wants to embrace a cross?!

I'll talk more on this later. If you buy the dozen egg thing (like advent) at a Christian store, today would be the first day for opening a plastic egg and seeing what miniature is inside and reading about it - often from a Gospel story.

Last night I did a dry run on grilling a chicken, before doing a large amount for our supper group Sunday evening (why is it called a 'dry run'?). Travis had done it for us awhile back and I had posted a picture of the 'Dancing Chickens'? So yesterday he instant messaged me the how-to along with the 'whys' (the science). It's so good, and easy, and I'm going to be doing it a lot.

He marinated/brined the chickens for about three hours. Since I did one chicken I cut his recipe in thirds. Here's his recipe:

1 gallon water (1 qt hot in the beginning to dilute the salt and sugar, then add cold, including ice)

3/4 c salt

2/3 c brown sugar

1/2 c soy sauce

herbs (thyme, rosemary, bay, pepper, onion, garlic)

olive oil (I think I forgot this)

Submerge with a weighted plate in a bucket (I did the one bird in a ziplock bag) for three hours.

Rinse well.

Have the grill preheated hot.

Have hickory chips (mesquite is too powerful for this) presoaked and ready to add to grill with the chicken.

Have a beer can for each chicken - emptied of half its beer - and punch more holes in its top. Put the chicken over the can, which will hold it up for the entire cooking time on the grill.

Squeeze a lemon half over the chicken and put the other half in the neck cavity.

Sprinkle with some herb mixture (I used our no-salt mixture).

Travis has a grill with 2 burners and kept one turned off with the wood chips on the 'high' side. I have 3 burners, so kept one on high where the chips stayed, the middle on low, and the third burner off, where I put the chicken (and a winter squash). We'd check the temperature, trying to keep it around 300-350 degrees, and periodically turned the birds. You can't have a burner on under the birds or you'll have flare-up flames!

One bird is done in an hour. Travis cooked the three birds in a little over two hours. I'm going to be cooking four birds Sunday (and it looks like it might be snowing!) so I'm going to allow for at least 2 1/2 hours.

I did the winter squash along with it. You could roast sweet potatoes with it, which are really good done on the grill (skin on of course!) And oh, leave the skin on the chicken too!

Brining initially pulls water out of the meat while pushing salt in. The salt denatures the proteins, which means that they can't coil up as tightly when they cook, so then the proteins don't squeeze as much liquid out of the meat, leaving you with a moister bird. So, although brined meat starts out with less moisture, it actually has more at the end of cooking because it hasn't been wrung out like a sponge.

Katharine Drexel

March 3, 1955, Katharine Drexel died. In 2000 she became the second American-born woman to be canonized. She was born into a very wealthy Philadelphia family. Katharine had an excellent education and traveled extensively with her family. (This photo I took with my camera is out of my book of saints. All other photos are her as a nun.)

She started over 60 schools throughout the United States including Xavier University in 1925 in New Orleans, the first university for blacks. The first school she started was in Sante Fe, New Mexico, for Indian kids. I googled her and usually wikipedia and a catholic site about her would be on the first page, but four pages are full of schools and libraries and foundations named after her.

So what occurred in her life that seems to have influenced so much good? First, her mother opened their home three days a week to the poor. And too, her father spent a half hour in prayer every evening. She visited Pope Leo XIII in Rome and asked for missionaries to the US West's Indians. He looked at her and asked, "Why don't you become a missionary?"

In 1891 Katharine founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored. Attuned to the Holy Spirit she joyously facilitated advances for social justice. Traveling and speaking, United State churches became aware of the grave domestic need among Native Americans and Afro-Americans. She hoped to change racial attitudes in the United States.

At the age of 77 she had a heart attack. Her activity shifted, spending the last almost 20 years of her life in intensive prayer.

Spiritual Birthdays and Tacos

Yesterday was Dawson's Spiritual Birthday and next Wednesday is Travis's. When our kids were little there'd be God-talk-times, but there seems to be a definite time when children ask deeper questions and want to commit their life to God. Monte said he did it when he was eight, soon after realizing that his dad wasn't 'God' and in control of everything. He simply transferred that trust in his dad to trust in God.

I wrote these times on the calendar for each of our kids, calling them their 'spiritual birthday'. Then each year we'd celebrate that birthday with a special treasure hunt meal. The meal needs to have a lot of condiments that we can hide around the house. Since curry (which makes a great treasure hunt meal) isn't a favorite of my kids, we tended to do a taco meal. We'd make up riddles as clues to be left with each food item, guiding them to the next. Eventually everything is at the table and we can eat. There's a final note at their plate reminding them of their treasure in Heaven.

I quick fry corn tortillas so they're soft. Then there's bowls of cooked ground meat, grated cheese, chopped tomatoes, lettuce, green onions, and sour cream, and sometimes guacamole, chips and salsa, and maybe beans. It's one of my favorite childhood meals I grew up with, and my family loves it too. I prefer the soft cooked shells to the traditional crisp shells because the first bite tends to crack the shell down the middle and everything falls out! If you travel to Mexico soft corn tacos is traditional.

I still remember the first time we did this - and we usually retell the story. Heather was just learning to read. Monte was out of town and my sister Kelli was living with us (and that's another story!) so I wrote out very simple clues. Travis, not able to read yet, was practically hanging on to Heather's shirt tails waiting for her to sound out the clues so they could run and find the food. Like she'd be saying, "Look in the re-frig g g g ..." with a hard 'g' sound, as she was slowly walking upstairs. Finally I said, "The refrigerator is not upstairs!" And they'd take off running and laughing.

When Deuteronomy says several times, "teach the children diligently", "tell the children" - this is kinda like another commemoration as is the Lord's Supper and Passover. I'll tell you, our kids never grew up wondering if they were a Christian or not. And what great memories we have celebrating (partying) together around God's Truth and Presence in our lives!

Dancing Trio

We were just up at Travis and Sarah's. Travis brined three chickens then put beer cans, about 1/2 full, in each cavity and stood them on one side of the grill, with the burner off. He tried this with cans of coke but prefers this, saying it tastes better. The other side of the grill was kept on high and had soaked wood chips for smoking the birds. With three of them, it took a little over 2 hours till done. They were DELISH!!

So, on the calendar we've passed President's Day, in between Lincoln's and Washington's Birthdays. When the kids were young I used to take some Lincoln Logs and make a little log cabin to sit on a red, white, and blue woven cloth in the center of the table during this time.

The 18th is set aside in remembrance of Martin Luther. If you've not seen the movie "Luther", you should. It's a good representation of his life and home life and his wonderful wife Katherine. I read a biography of her and really enjoyed it. From her you get more of the perspective of the largeness of their home, and family, and the many guests they had. She really "looked well to the ways of her household", very much as Proverbs 31 depicts. Even to buying apple orchards to be able the keep the family in their 'home brew' which they drank at every meal, and finding sources for good food, and how she created her much needed well-stocked large kitchen. They were good parents too, enjoying life. We don't often know much about the "helpmates" of well known influential people. "The hand that rocks the cradle ..." is so powerful!

From family and food, to presidents, and then to the Luther family and food ... Hmmmmm, seeing the three together in a sentence my thoughts have run to where the power is and influence ... but no more. I leave it to you to run with the rest of the story.

Fat Tuesday-Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras

Lent begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday. I didn't grow up with Lent, but I like these 40 day periods, like Advent too, to have a spiritual focus that can bring more meaning with anticipation to ordinary days. The word Lent comes from 'Lenten' meaning a 'lengthen'ing of days into Spring (yeah!).

Baptisms used to be done on Resurrection day in the early church and they'd have a 40 hour fast in readiness for the event. In 330 AD it was stretched from new converts to all Christians and for 40 days - believing it commemorated Jesus' 40 day desert fast. So the Tuesday before became a time for confession and repentance, and called Shrove Tuesday ('shiriving' means confession).

Prohibitions seem a thing for Lent, with giving up rich foods as the focus, which has turned Shrove Tuesday into Fat Tuesday. Since people were wanting to rid their homes of some ingredients, they started having meals of pancakes, becoming tradition. Meat is sometimes given up too. Mardi Gras has become a revelry, a 'carnival', which means 'farewell to meat (flesh)'. It seems the given up items are being worshiped, and the time of self-reflection has turned into a self-indulgence!

In the movie "Chocolate" we see what some people do in giving up things for Lent. In the book Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner (a good book), she gives up reading for Lent. Ugh, that would be a hard one. A couple years ago friends of mine wanted to wear a tasseled bracelet (Numbers 15)(which I made for everyone) for a reminder of something - for me it was to exercise everyday, Sunday's excluded (which I think I'll do again this year - without the bracelet).

Some people will use tonight as a carnival celebration of looking inside ones self. People need to haul up aspects of personality they choose to bury and tend to remask a persona. I have friends who one year came to such a party with masks representing their hidden self, and maybe ridiculing egos. When Adam and Eve lost innocence what did they do? they sought to cover themselves. Paul asked us to "put on the new self" to "put on Christ".

Because meat, cheese, cream, butter, milk and eggs were typically avoided, small breads began to be made. Germans named theirs "pretzels" - "little arms". They were visual reminders for the heart, since formed in the shape of arms crossed over the chest - like praying.

God looks at the intentions of the heart, the spirit in which we do things. It's not just a matter of ritual but a matter of the heart!