O Night Divine

Advent Quote of the Day - Week One

I've been putting together an "Advent Quote of the Day" each day over on the Love2learn Blog. I'll be posting them in batches here once a week, but if you'd like to follow them daily, you can find them at this link: Love2learn Blog. Happy St. Nicholas Day! :)

Day One:

When we reflect on such things, we shall simply no longer be able to divide history into ages of salvation and of iniquity. If we then extend our vision and look at what Christians (that is, those people we call 'redeemed') achieved in the world by way of iniquity and devastation, in our own century and the previous centuries, then we will be equally incapable of dividing the peoples of the world into those who are saved and those who are not. If we are honest, we will no longer be able to paint things black and white, dividing up both history and maps into zones of salvation and iniquity. History as a whole, and mankind as a whole, will appear to us rather as a mass of gray, in which time and again there appear flickers of that goodness which can never quite be extinguished, in which, time and again, men set out toward something better, but in which also, time and again, collapses occur into all the horrors of evil.

Yet when we reflect like this, it becomes plain that Advent is not (as might perhaps have been said in earlier ages) a sacred game of the liturgy, in which, so to speak, it leads us once more along the paths of the past, gives us once more a vivid picture of the way things once were, so that we may all the more joyfully and happily enjoy today's salvation. We should have to admit, rather, that Advent is not just a matter of remembrance and playing at what is past - Advent is our present, our reality: the Church is not just playing at something here; rather, she is referring us to something that also represents the reality of our Christian life. It is through the meaning of the season of Advent in the Church's year that she revives our awareness of this. She should make us face these facts, and make us admit the extend of being unredeemed, which is not something that lay over the world at one time, and perhaps somewhere still does, but is a fact in our own lives and in the midst of the Church.

Cardinal Ratzinger, What it Means to be a Christian (a book of Advent sermons)

 

Day Two:

Man's creaturely condition sets the standard for his activity in the world. However, creation sets in motion a story of love and freedom. This entails a risk: "As the arena of love [the world] is also the playground of freedom and also incurs the risk of evil." Man is created with freedom, which implies that he is capable of sinning. At the very heart of sin is the refusal to accept one's creatureliness, and the standards and limitations implicit in it...

[Those] who consider dependence on the highest love as slavery and who try to deny the truth about themselves, which is their creatureliness, do not free themselves; they destroy truth and love. They do not make themselves gods, which in fact they cannot do, but rather caricatures, pseudo-gods, slaves of their own abilities, which then drag them down...

Jesus' obedience, which is the standard for creatureliness, is the context for our freedom. Dependence on God, which creatureliness implies, is not an imposition, but the condition for true freedom and true joy.

- Msgr. Joseph Murphy, Christ Our Joy: The Theological Vision of Pope Benedict XVI

Day Three:

It is commonly in a somewhat cynical sense that men have said, "Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed." It was in a wholly happy and enthusiastic sense that Saint Francis said, "Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall enjoy everything." It was by this deliberate idea of starting from zero, from the dark nothingness of his own deserts, that he did come to enjoy them.

- G.K. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi as quoted in Advent and Christmas Wisdom from G.K. Chesterton

Day Four:

Many women, if they were expecting a child, would refuse to hurry over the hills on a visit of pure kindness. They would say they had a duty to themselves and to their unborn child which came before anything or anyone else.

The Mother of God considered no such thing. Elizabeth was going to have a child, too, and although Mary's own child was God, she could not forget Elizabeth's need - almost incredible to us, but characteristic of her.

She greeted her cousin Elizabeth, and at the sound of her voice, John quickened in his mother's womb and leapt for joy.

"I am come," said Christ, "that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly." Even before He was born His presence gave life.

With what piercing shoots of joy does this story of Christ unfold! First, the conception of a child in a child's heart, and then this first salutation, an infant leaping for joy in his mother's womb, knowing the hidden Christ and leaping into life.

How did Elizabeth herself know what had happened to Our Lady? What made her realise that this little cousin who was so familiar to her was the mother of her God?

She knew it by the child within herself, by the quickening into life which was a leap of joy.

If we practice this contemplation taught and shown to us by Our Lady, we will find that our experience is like hers.

If Christ is growing in us, if we are at peace, recollected, because we know that however insignificant our life seems to be, from it He is forming Himself; if we go with eager wills, "in haste," to wherever our circumstances compel us, because we believe that He desires to be in that place, we shall find that we are driven more and more to act on the impulse of His love.

-Caryll Houselander, The Reed of God

Day Five:

The Christian faith brings us exactly that consolation, that God is so great that he can become small. And that is actually for me the unexpected and previously inconceivable greatness of God, that he is able to bow down so low. That he himself really enters into a man, no longer merely disguises himself in him so that he can later put him aside and put on another garment, but that he becomes this man. It is just in this that we actually see the truly infinite nature of God, for this is more powerful, more inconceivable than anything else, and at the same time more saving.

- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald

Day Six:

This text from the Letter to the Philippians introduces us into the mystery of Christ's kenosis. To express this mystery the apostle uses first of all the words "emptied himself," which refers especially to the reality of the Incarnation. "The Word became flesh" (Jn 1:14). God the Son assumed human nature, humanity, and became true man, while remaining God! The truth about Christ as man must always be considered in relation to God the Son. This permanent reference itself is indicated by St. Paul's text. "He emptied himself" does not in any way mean that he ceased to be God; that would be absurd! It means rather, as the apostle perceptively expressed it, that "he did not deem equality with God something to be grasped," but "though he was in the form of God" (in forma Dei), as the true Son of God, he assumed a human nature deprived of glory, subject to suffering and death, in which he could live in obedience to the Father, even to the ultimate sacrifice.

Pope John Paul II, "Jesus Christ Emptied Himself", General Audience, Feb 17, 1988

Day Seven:

A mass of legend and literature, which increases and will never end, has repeated and rung the changes on that single paradox; that the hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle. Upon this paradox, we might almost say upon this jest, all the literature of our faith is founded...

I mean that all the eyes of wonder and worship which had been turned outwards to the largest thing were now turned inward to the smallest...

It is true that the spiritual spiral henceforward works inwards instead of outwards, and in that sense is centripical and not centrifugal. The faith becomes, in more ways than one, a religion of little things.

- G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

Our Advent Focus: "He Is Here and Comes to Visit Us"

I do find I do so much focus on Advent for my boys that sometimes the needs for my adult spiritual life sometimes gets neglected. I have to make sure I make time for my spiritual reading, which includes from the wonderful In Conversation with God, Vol. 1 by Father Francis Fernandez. But I also like to have guidance from Our Holy Father. In Lent the Pope gives the Church a Message for Lent, and I like to focus my Lent on that theme. There is no "Message for Advent", but Pope Benedict XVI opened up Advent on November 28 with First Vespers, and Zenit has finally provided an English translation. I try to make this the focus or "theme" of my Advent:

On God's Presence and Coming

"He Is Here and Comes to Visit Us"

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 30, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave Saturday at First Vespers for the First Sunday of Advent.

* * *
 
Dear brothers and sisters,
 
With this evening celebration we enter the liturgical time of Advent. In the biblical reading we just heard, taken from the First Letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul invites us to prepare for the "coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (5:23), keeping ourselves irreproachable, with the grace of God. Paul uses, in fact, the word "coming," in Latin adventus, from whence comes the term Advent.
 
Let us reflect briefly on the meaning of this word, which can be translated as "presence," "arrival," "coming." In the language of the ancient world it was a technical term used to indicate the arrival of a functionary or the visit of a king or emperor to a province. But it could also indicate the coming of the divinity, which goes out of concealment to manifest itself with power, or which is celebrated as present in worship. Christians adopted the word "advent" to express their relationship with Jesus Christ: Jesus is King, who has entered into this poor "province" called earth to visit everyone; he brings to participate in his advent those who believe in him, all those who believe in his presence in the liturgical assembly. With the word adventus an attempt was made essentially to say: God is here, he has not withdrawn from the world, he has not left us alone. Although we cannot see or touch him, as is the case with tangible realities, he is here and comes to visit us in multiple ways.
 
The meaning of the expression "advent" includes therefore also that of visitatio, which means simply and properly "visit"; in this case it is a visit of God: He enters my life and wants to address me. We all experience in daily life having little time for the Lord and little time for ourselves. We end up by being absorbed in "doing." Is it not true that often activity possesses us, that society with its many interests monopolizes our attention? Is it not true that we dedicate much time to amusements and leisure of different kinds? Sometimes things "trap" us.

Advent, this intense liturgical time that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to grasp a presence. It is an invitation to understand that every event of the day is a gesture that God directs to us, sign of the care he has for each one of us. How many times God makes us perceive something of his love! To have, so to speak, an "interior diary" of this love would be a beautiful and salutary task for our life! Advent invites and stimulates us to contemplate the Lord who is present. Should not the certainty of his presence help us to see the world with different eyes? Should it not help us to see our whole existence as a "visit," as a way in which he can come to us and be close to us, in each situation?
 
Another essential element of Advent is expectation, expectation that at the same time is hope. Advent drives us to understand the meaning of time and history as "kairos," as a favorable occasion for our salvation. Jesus illustrated this mysterious reality in many parables: in the account of the servants invited to await the return of their master; in the parable of the virgins who await the bridegroom; or in those of the sowing and harvesting. Man, in his life, is in constant waiting: When he is a child he wants to grow, as an adult he tends to his realization and success, growing in age, he aspires to his deserved rest. However the time comes in which he discovers that he has waited too little if, beyond his profession or social position, he has no choice but to wait. Hope marks the path of humanity, but for Christians it is animated by a certainty: The Lord is present in the course of our life, he accompanies us and one day he will also dry our tears. In a not too distant day, everything will find its fulfillment in the Kingdom of God, Kingdom of justice and peace.
 
However, there are very different ways of waiting. If time is not filled by a present gifted with meaning, the waiting runs the risk of becoming unbearable; if something is expected, but at this moment there is nothing, namely, if the present is empty, every instant that passes seems exaggeratedly long, and the waiting is transformed into a weight that is too heavy because the future is totally uncertain. When, instead, time is gifted with meaning and we perceive in every instant something specific and valuable, then the joy of waiting makes the present more precious.
 
Dear brothers and sisters, let us live the present intensely, when we already have the gifts of the Lord, let us live it projected to the future, a future full of hope. The Christian Advent thus becomes an occasion to reawaken in ourselves the true meaning of waiting, returning to the heart of our faith which is the mystery of Christ, the Messiah awaited for long centuries and born in the poverty of Bethlehem. Coming among us, he has brought us and continues to offer us the gift of his love and of his salvation. Present among us, he speaks to us in many ways: in sacred Scripture, in the liturgical year, in the saints, in the events of daily life, in the whole of creation, which changes in aspect if he is behind it or if it is obfuscated by the mist of an uncertain origin and an uncertain future. In turn, we can speak to him, present to him the sufferings that afflict us, impatience, the questions that spring from the heart. We are certain that he always hears us! And if Jesus is present, there is no time deprived of meaning and void. If he is present, we can continue to wait also when others can no longer give us their support, even when the present is exhausting.
 
Dear friends, Advent is the time of the presence and the expectation of the eternal. Precisely for this reason it is, in a particular way, the time of joy, of an internalized joy, that no suffering can erase. Joy because of the fact that God became a child. This joy, invisibly present in us, encourages us to walk with confidence. Model and support of this profound joy is the Virgin Mary, through whom the Child Jesus has been given to us. May she, faithful disciple of her Son, obtain for us the grace to live this liturgical time vigilant and diligent in waiting. Amen.
 
[Translation by ZENIT]

 Father Zuhlsdorf provided some commentary before the translation was released.

Happy New Year!

(This is a slightly updated version of my article at Catholic Culture, written several years ago.)

While a month yet remains in the civil year, the Church is celebrating the beginning of a new Liturgical year with today being the First Sunday of Advent. Advent — from the Latin ad venio, “to come” — is the liturgical season anticipating the Adventus Domini, the "coming of the Lord.” While the days grow shorter and colder, we prepare for the “Sun of Justice” who comes to kindle our hearts with his light and his love.

The Eternal Word, who is outside of time, became Incarnate in time, thereby making all time sacred. In the season of Advent, we await the coming of Christ on all the levels which we experience time: in the past — as a babe in the stable of Bethlehem; in the present — as grace in our souls; and in the future — as the Judge at the end of time.

The liturgy of Advent reflects these comings:

When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the precursor's birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: "He must increase, but I must decrease." (CCC, 524)

The Advent season is filled with preparation and expectation. Everyone is getting ready for Christmas — shopping and decorating, baking and cleaning. Too often, however, we are so busy with the material preparations that we lose sight of the real reason for our activity: the Word made flesh coming to dwell among us. Christians are urged to preserve the spiritual focus of Christmas amidst the prevailingly secular and consumer-driven society.

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the season, let us strive to keep Advent a season of waiting and longing, of conversion and hope, meditating often on the incredible love and humility of our God in taking on flesh of the Virgin Mary. In our shopping and baking, let us remember to purchase and prepare something for the poor. When we clean our homes, let us distribute some of our possessions to those who lack many necessities. While we are decking the halls of our homes, let us not forget to prepare a peaceful place in our hearts wherein our Savior may come to dwell.

Some Notes on the Liturgy

There are always four Sundays in Advent, though not necessarily four full weeks. The liturgical color of the season is violet or purple, except on the Third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete or Rejoice Sunday, when there is the option of wearing rose-colored vestments. The Gloria is not recited during Advent liturgies, but the Alleluia is retained.

The prophecies of Isaiah are read throughout the Advent season, but all of the readings of Advent focus on the key figures of the New Testament who were prepared and chosen by God to make the Incarnation possible: the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, Sts. Elizabeth and Zechariah. The expectancy heightens from December 17 to December 24 when the Liturgy resounds with the seven magnificent Messianic titles of the O Antiphons.

The Advent season also has a Marian and pro-life focus. We meditate on this wonderful mystery of the Word Made Flesh with as much eagerness as his Mother, Mary prepared and awaited the birth of her son. In the USA we celebrate the special feasts of the Immaculate Conception (a solemnity and holyday of obligation), the patroness of the United States of America, on December 8, and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, on December 12. Other saints’ days traditionally associated in with our preparation for Christmas include St. Nicholas, patron saint of children whose feast falls on December 6, and the saint of light, St. Lucy on December 13.

This year, 2009, we enter the third cycle of readings, Year C, with Gospel readings mainly taken from the Gospel of St. Luke. The feasts of St. Nicholas and St. Lucy are not celebrated in the Church this year because they fall on Sundays, and so the Sunday liturgy takes precedence. There are 26 days this Advent.

Come, Lord Jesus! Do not delay!

I'm Dreaming of Beautiful Advent Music...

Yesterday I roused myself to run an errand to a few craft stores. Our household is trying to recover from the swine flu but it's been slow-going. I thought I had a bit of energy and wanted to use the opportunity of going solo, since dh was home. I emerged from our Quarantined Retreat and trudged out. I was seeking only a few items – a few birthday gifts for ds2 that were on sale and some materials for some Advent projects. I got the first item, but struck out on the rest.

It was my in these stores that I remembered how much I dislike piped-in Christmas carols when I’m shopping. Take note – it was only November 18 and the carols were playing. And I shouldn’t even use “carols” because most are not. Because we’re reduced to just “Happy Holidays” the songs in stores can’t mention the real meaning of “Christ-Mass”. It is just twaddly songs about Santa, Rudolf, being jolly, decking halls, getting everything I want. Yes, that last one is something I heard. Some male rock band was singing some song about making out a list, wanting everything, going to get everything.

If dragging myself out wasn’t going to cause a relapse, that song pushed me over the edge. Ugh.

And most of what I heard could be barely called “music”. I can’t even sing along to these pop artist renditions.

So, while I’m not opposed to Christmas carols in general before Christmas, I am opposed to being onslaught by what is I shall call “P.C. Holiday Listening” (P.C. standing for “Politically Correct”, for my non-American readers).

So, here are some of my thoughts. I want to choose music that is good, true and beautiful. I’ll phrase it this way – to counteract the PC Holiday Listening I am going to be EXTREMELY selective and picky about the music we shall listen to in Advent and Christmas. The places I do have control (which I do in my home and car) on what we hear, I can choose good music for us. I find my choices run pretty traditional, but also most of my choices are calm and peaceful. I think I unconsciously wield a counterattack on the PC Holiday Listening and the Holiday Panic that ensues outside. Plus, I want to continue my strategy of contrasting the liturgical seasons. It is not Christmas until December 25.

Here’s my plan in a nutshell.

1. Emphasize more Advent chants and hymns to sing and to hear during the Advent season so my domestic church will reflect the Church's Advent Liturgy.
2. Hold off on Christmas carols until Christmas, or closer to Christmas. (We generally start the Christmas carols around the 3rd Sunday of Advent.)
3. The carols and Christmas music will be deliberate, beautiful choices.

I’ve always hoped for a cd totally dedicated to Advent the hymns, and I think this year I finally found some. I’m still working with the old-fashioned stereo, with physical cds and records. One of these days I’ll graduate to an .mp3 player, but I only want one if I can play it through my car speakers and have some decent speakers to play for the whole family to hear – which all costs more. So, I work with what I have. But I will say, with the .mp3 technology it is so easy to come up with an Advent playlist for the family. There is very little excuse to NOT have Advent music playing in the home.

I first want to start with the Sunday introits. I loved Jeffrey Tucker’s 2006 post Ad Te Levavi, making the point of having these so familiar. That is my aim -- hearing the different chants will bring them into the spirit of the liturgy with the corresponding liturgical season. We might not be singing it this year, but we will become familiar by hearing them.

The Introits are the Entrance Antiphon of the Mass, part of the propers of the Mass. These are found both in the Ordinary and Extraordinary Form of the Mass. Traditionally the Sunday Mass was called by the first words of the Introit. While there are other propers, I thought just playing at least the Sunday Introits throughout the week would help gain the familiarity of the liturgy, and also keeping Sundays the focal point. I've included the text and translation of the four introits below.

1. First Sunday of Advent: Missa Ad Te Levavi

   Introit: To you, my God, I lift my soul, I trust in you; let me never come to shame. Do not let my enemies laugh at me. No one who waits for you is ever put to shame. Psalm 25:1-3 (Roman Missal)

   Ad te levavi animam meam: Deus meus in te confido, non erubescam: necque irrideant me inimici mei: etenim universi qui te exspectant, non confundentur.

   Ps. Vias tuas, Domine, demonstra mihi: et semitas tuas edoce me.(Graduale Romanum).

2. Second Sunday of Advent: Missa Populus Sion

   Introit: People of Zion, the Lord will come to save all nations, and your hearts will exult to hear his majestic voice.(Based on Isaiah 30:19,30, Roman Missal)

   Populus Sion, ecce Dominus veniet ad salvandas gentes: et auditam faciet Dominus gloriam vocis suae, in laetitia cordis vestri.

   Ps. Qui regis Israel, intende: qui deducis velut ovem Ioseph.(Graduale Romanum)

3. Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday): Missa Guadete

   Introit: I exult for joy in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God; for he has clothed me in the garment of salvation and robed me in the cloak of justice, like a bride adorned with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10 (Roman Missal)

   Gaudens gaudebo in Domino et exsultabit anima mea in Deo meo: quia induit me vestimentis salutis, et indumento iustitiæ circumdedit me, quasi sponsam ornatam monilibus suis.

   Ps. Exaltabo te, Domine, quoniam suscepisti me: nec delecasti inimicos meos super me.(Graduale Romanum)

4. Fourth Sunday of Advent: Missa Rorate Coeli

   Introit: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near. Philippians 4:4-5 (Roman Missal)

   Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete: modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione petitiones vestrae innotescant apud Deum.

   Ps. Benedixisti, Domine, terram tuam: avertisti captivitatem Iacob.(Graduale Romanum)

With some recommendations from members at Musica Sacra, I tracked down a few recordings that contain only Advent chants. There are multiple recordings, but these cover most of the introits and the few Advent chants I’d like to play. I'm offering a variety of choices, and I'm sure there are more out there:

• Gregorian Adventby CantArte Regensburg & Hubert Velten. This is my least favorite recording merely because the interpretation of the chant is different than I prefer, but it still is a good cd.
• Gregorian Chant: The Lord Is Near - Chants of Advent (Der Herr Ist Nahe)by Schola of the Benedictine Abbey, Gerleve, Musical Direction: P. Gottfried Meier OSB.
• Chant Grégorien et Polyphonie à l'Abbaye du Bec-Hellouin. This one contains only the first Sunday of Advent, Alma redemptoris Mater, plus other selections from the entire Liturgical Year.
• Gregorian Chant for the Church Year: Advent / Veni Domineby Schola of the Hofburgkapelle of Vienna, directed by Fr. Hubert Dopf, S.J. This is my favorite, but it seems to have become quite rare. It contains all four Advent Sunday Masses, just three O Antiphons and hymn Conditor alme siderum. Former Vienna Choirboys, now men. Perhaps you can find it on iTunes.
• Meinrad Abbey's Advent and Christmas. Contains the first three Sundays of Advent, but does have all the O Antiphons.

Following the example from this post on Ad Te Levavi, there are many different YouTube recordings of the various introits, including the 2nd Sunday’s Populus Sion. Plus, there are loads of various recordings to find online of the chant.

For Advent hymns, here is my short list of favorites.

• Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel)

• Rorate Coeli
• Creator alme siderum (Creator of the Stars at Night)
• Alma Redemptoris Mater
• People Look East
• On Jordan’s Bank
• Lo, How a Rose ‘Er Blooming
• Saviour of the Nations, Come
• O Come Divine Messiah

Last year we sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel at the lighting of the Advent Wreath. I’d like the boys to learn “People Look East” and “Creator alme Siderum” this year. I’m not aiming for perfection with words, but familiarity with the tunes.

Two free downloadable books that can help learning the Advent tunes are available from Musica Sacra

• Story of the Redemption for Children
• Ward Hymnal for Children

I have talked about these resources before. I also reviewed a beautiful old picture book that gives a message of why we choose Gregorian chant.

Since the Christmas season extends until January 10, we’re not at a loss for time to hear our favorite records and cds. We do compromise and play some Christmas carols before Christmas, but I try to wait until Gaudete Sunday, when liturgically we are given a glimpse that Christmas is near. Everyone’s taste is individual in music. I know mine runs a little more old-fashioned and traditional. Some of our favorite cds are by the Cambridge Singers, Deller Consort, the Chieftains, the Trapp Family Singers, Notre Dame Glee Club, and a bit of Bing Crosby. I also play versions of the Nutcracker Suite and The Messiah and lots of Christmas chant, too.

If you were to ask me my ultimate favorite cd it would be by the Deller Consort, “Hark Ye Shepherds”. Unfortunately the individual cd is not available, but the fabulous collection Complete Vanguard Classics: Music For The Christmas Season Alfred Deller has been reissued. Ask any of my 6 siblings – we LOVE the version of People Look East. None surpasses this.

Some other of our favorite recordings that we listen to over and over:

• Christmas With the Trapp Family Singers
• The Sound of Christmas with the Trapp Family Singers
• Cambridge Singers Christmas Album
• Christmas Star, Cambridge Singers
• Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity, Cambridge Singers

So that's my music plan.

1. Emphasize more Advent chants and hymns to sing and to hear during the Advent season, to more closely unite our domestic church with the Church's Advent Liturgy.
2. Hold off on Christmas carols until Christmas, or closer to Christmas.
3. The carols and Christmas music will be deliberate, beautiful choices.

May your Advent and Christmas season be filled with beautiful music to help raise your hearts to God.

Majestic Imperial Regal Yuletide Plum Pudding

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Kari. Kari shared this Christmas pudding recipe with our homeschool group and I have yet to try it but have always wanted to. It's not going to happen this year since my house is under construction and we are in a state of chaos. I do hope some of you will give it a go and let us know how it works out.

Some history

Christmas pudding is the traditional end to a British Christmas dinner. It began, not as a sweet but as a fasting meal made of leftover meats, raisins, currents, wine and spices.  It was a soup like consistency and was eaten during Advent.  In the Elizabethan era prunes were added and were so popular that the dish became known as plum pottage. The sauce was thickened and in the eighteenth century the savory aspects of the dish diminished and the sweets became dominant. It is thought that Mrs. Beeton's Cookbook was the first to refer to it as Christmas pudding.

In the Anglican tradition the pudding was steamed on stir-up Sunday which is a reference to the text in the Book of Common Prayer;

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Stir-up Sunday is what we Catholics refer to as The Solemnity of Christ the King.  While this started as an Anglican tradition many Catholics have adopted it as their own in keeping with the enjoyment of the anticipation of Christmas Day and some of the symbolism associated with Christ in the making and ultimate display of the pudding.

It is said that originally the pudding had only thirteen ingredients to represent the twelve apostles and Jesus. Silver coins were distributed among the pudding to represent the betrayal of Christ (sounds more Easter than Christmas). Often the finished pudding would be displayed with a sprig of holly stuck in the top to represent the crown of thorns. And finally when set upon the table the pudding would be doused in brandy and lit on fire to represent the power and love of Jesus.

So even though it is Protestant in origin I thought it would be fun to post the recipe and see if anyone is interested. I'm posting early because it may take some time to assemble the ingredients.

Kari tells me that she fiddled with  this recipe from a book called Beat This by Ann Hodgman .

Majestic Imperial Regal Yuletide Plum Pudding

1 pound finely chopped beef suet
1 pound dark brown sugar, packed
1 pound regular raisins
1 pound golden raisins
1 pound chopped mixed peel (highly recommend some that is homemade or from Williams-Sonoma or somewhere – just not that grocery shelf stuff that tastes like “sugared asphalt shingles” as Ann Hodgman says)
1 pound whole-wheat bread crumbs (crumbs should be homemade; bread doesn’t have to be)
8 ounces dried currants
8 ounces dried cherries
4 ounces (1 cup) all-purpose flour
4 ounces chopped almonds
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons allspice
2 teaspoons cloves
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
12 ounces Guinness Stout
1 ½ cups brandy
½ cup milk
8 jumbo eggs
Juice and grated rind from 2 large lemons

In a large bowl, mix the suet, brown sugar, raisins, peel, bread crumbs, currants, cherries, flour, almonds and spices thoroughly by hand. Add all the liquids – the eggs should be added one at a time – and continue to hand-mix until the mix becomes a true blend. (This all really does need to be done by hand as the pudding batter is very heavy and will probably overheat your mixer easily.)

There will be about 2 gallons of batter, which you can distribute among pudding bowls as you choose. I use greased Pyrex 12oz. bowls – about 10 of them – to steam our pudding.

Grease your bowls/molds and spoon the batter into them. Cover the tops of the bowls tightly with a double layer of old sheet or dampened parchment paper, or muslin (I use this). Fasten the cloth or paper with a rubber band, and then cover the puddings tightly with a layer of aluminum foil.

Take out a couple of large, lidded cooking vessels into which you can fit the pudding bowls as well as a rack to steam them on. A canning pot or a big steamer or even a roasting pan if it can go on the stove will work. Place the racks inside the vessels, pour in enough water to provide steam without slopping up through the rack and then arrange the puddings on the racks. (I even have to sort of stack them in a staggered way). Bring the water to a boil, and steam the puddings over low heat, checking the water levels frequently. The 12oz size will take about 5 hours to steam; smaller puddings will take a shorter time.

If you can’t steam all the puddings at once, it’s okay to do a second batch. In her Christmas book, Martha
Stewart also suggests steaming large quantities of plum puddings in the oven. She puts her pudding bowls into large roasting pans, pours boiling water into the pans, covers the bowls and roasting pans with foil, and cooks everything in preheated 300-degree-F oven for 5 hours, being sure to add boiling water as needed.

When the puddings are done remove them from the steamer and place them upside down on a wax-paper-covered surface. They will slide free of the bowls as they cool.

 When the puddings are thoroughly cool, remove the foil and paper and place each inside a plastic bag along with 1 oz of brandy. (1 for the bag and 1 for mom! J ) Seal the bag tightly, turn it over a couple of times to make sure it’s not leaking, and store in the refrigerator until Christmas. Every 3 weeks moisten the pudding with more brandy. When it’s actually time to give the pudding away, place it in a new plastic bag, seal the bag tightly, and wrap it in foil.

The puddings should be brought to room temperature, unwrapped and steamed for another hour before serving. Serve them with hard sauce or much better:

Mozart’s Rum Sauce as follows:

MOZART’S RUM SAUCE

1 ½ cups heavy cream
1 large egg
1 shake of salt
1 cup superfine sugar
¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter unsalted
2 tablespoons good rum
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
few gratings of nutmeg

Whip the cream until it holds soft peaks.

In another bowl, beat the egg with the salt until thick and light in color. Gradually add the sugar, beating until the mixture is thick, light and grit-free.

Melt the butter over very low heat. Cool it slightly while you beat the egg mixture some more.

With a rubber spatula, thoroughly fold the melted butter, rum and vanilla into the beaten egg. Then fold in the whipped cream. Pour the sauce into a serving bowl, decorate it with a few gratings of nutmeg and chill it for at least 1 hour.

 This recipe makes 1 scant quart. The traditional way to serve this is to heap a plate with a big scoop of sauce, then drop a few tiny crumbles of plum pudding on top. For second helpings, it is traditional to just have the sauce. Truly divine. This must be tried!

Prayer Chains and the Pope

We started our prayer chain on the first Sunday of Advent.  We cut several strips out of construction paper and each of the children wrote the names of people they wanted to pray for.  We left a few of them blank and every now and then, when we say a special prayer for a mom in labor or someone in trouble, we write the name on the link and add it to our chain which is the gift we give the Savior on His birthday.

  We've prayed for the pope and added his name during the course of this Advent season.  I'm sure we all agree he is always in need of our prayers and support.  I especially like to ask the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary to remind him of our love for him. 

Then yesterday I saw this letter  from a Catholic Exchange reader.  It's a long letter in which the author responds to a very thoughtful article (there's a link in the letter) about the United States' mission and our patroness, the Virgin conceived without sin, titled the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.  The writer (of the letter to the editor) is an American living in Europe.  From her vantage point she made several observations about the state of post-Christian Europe and it's effects on the papacy. In the middle of the letter she quotes from an Italian news magazine:

I would like to speak to you about a person whom I care very much about.  I am writing this in the pages of Tempi because I know you, the reader, will understand me better than most [Tempi is conservative and Catholic].  I am afraid that they will try to eliminate this person.

And I think not just morally but also physically.  No one has ever dared to say the things that he has said.  And not only are the wicked against him but now even [...] those who are considered good and decent are against him.

This man's name is Joseph Ratzinger.  [...] I invite you to consider him for a moment devoid of his white vestment, of his pontifical authority and of the solemn air of the Vatican.  Today he is defenseless and abandoned by everyone.  They are counting his bones. He is truly the 'Alter Christus', the [poor] servant about whom the Gospel speaks, the one prophesized by Isaiah.

Even if you don't have time to read her letter and the accompanying article, this excerpt is a powerful reminder of how crucial our prayers and support of the Holy Father are and how he suffers in the place of our Savior, even as we await the Holy Infant's birth.

So I'm encouraging you to start a prayer chain.  If you already keep this devotion, just add extra links.  Do you have any spare wrapping paper (yes, I'm only kidding) you can pull out today?  Or construction paper?  Gather your family and talk in terms of the ages and temperaments of your family members and then begin to pray for Pope Benedict XVI.  Add your links hour by hour, day by day and when Christmas comes keep going.  John Paul II would be an excellent intercessor for our dear pope.  By the end of the Christmas season you will have a beautiful gift for the Savior indeed and one for his Vicar as well.

Happy New Year!!

Last night we had a little New Year's Eve party.  It is usually my style to forget to plan ahead, yet I keep a lot of little tidbits rolling around the edges of my thoughts and if an opportunity presents itself, I sometimes manage to work it into real life successfully. 

Dear thoughtful Mary offered to bring me the Liturgical Wheel calendar she ordered for me so we could have in time for the First Sunday of Advent (aka: 1st day of the New Year).  I suggested she bring the whole family for dessert and they decided to make the drive.  Before I hung up my memory kicked into gear:  "Hey, we can have a New Year's eve party!" I remarked.

What to eat for a Catholic New Years?  Why something round of course.  So in between errands I slid a Lemon Pound cake into the oven (the Cake Mix Doctor is one of my most oft used health-care professionals) and our friends arrived toting our fave pro-life wine (Thank you!) along with plenty of sparkling cider.

Alas, although I may be able to throw things together at the last moment adequately, it did occur to me that the round cake should have had purple & pink, green, white & gold and red embellishments in the form of sugars or icing (note to self: pluck this thought from receeding memory next year write this idea down today!). 

It was a delightful end to the day, the week, the year.  We rose this morning to our purple accents and the wonderful sense of anticipation that accompanies us into the Advent pilgrimage.  To all the friends I know who are reading this and to all I haven't met, have a blessed and happy New Year
beginning with this holy season of Advent!

First Sunday of Advent

Jesus said to his disciples:
“As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
In those days before the flood,
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage,
up to the day that Noah entered the ark.
They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.
So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.
Two men will be out in the field;
one will be taken, and one will be left.
Two women will be grinding at the mill;
one will be taken, and one will be left.
Therefore, stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”
-Matthew 24:37-44