liturgicalliving

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That should be “1/2 lb butter” in the Cheese Pascha recipe. And of course, now I notice all the typos.  BTW, I’ve read that Greeks too used to have baskets, until the Turks put a stop to it. Take back your heritage, Greek brothers and sisters! Think of how delicious a Greek-based basket could be...

Be prepared y’all. I have a theory that the Pascha basket is a descendent from the ancient Passover back before we and modern Jews split from one another. Just today I was reading that the first ‘seder plates’ were baskets. If you’re thinking of trying to do any type of “Christian seder,” this is what you should be doing, not the modern seder which is removed from our tradition and developed separately. 

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Christian Christmas Yule Log Traditions In England and Serbia, Oak is traditional; in Scotland, it is Birch; while in France, it's Cherry. Also, in France, the log is sprinkled with wine, before it is burnt, so that it smells nice when it is lit. In Devon and Somerset in the UK, some people have a very large bunch of Ash twigs instead of the log. This comes from a local legend that Joseph, Mary and Jesus were very cold when the shepherds found them on Christmas Night. So the shepherds got some bunches of twigs to burn to keep them warm 

In the French tradition the log is paraded around the house three times by the oldest male, then anointed with wine. Carols or the Troparion would be good to sing during the procession. Some Serbian families anoint it with honey, and it is decorated with ribbons and greenery. Then is said: 

"O Lord Jesus Christ, our God, who did plant the Tree of Life in paradise so that it might bestow upon us eternal blessedness, bless also now this tree which is a symbol of Thy cross and the Tree of Life in paradise, and which reminds us of Thy holy birth and of the logs which the shepherds of Bethlehem kindled to warm themselves when they came to worship Thee, the divine infant, and thereby prefigured Thy salvation-bearing cross." The log is lit, and the family sings “Deck the Halls,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” or “The Christmas Song.” Toasting Marshmallows, telling ghost stories, and mulled cider or wine go well with the Yule Log. 

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Prayer Over A Christmas Tree

The tree should be decorated fully but the lights not lit until after the prayer. O Lord Jesus Christ, our God, Thou didst plant the Tree of Life in paradise so that it might bestow upon us eternal blessedness; but because of sin was lost to us. Thou, on the tree of the cross, didst raise us up again, who had fallen, and didst lead us to salvation. By the hand of Thy servant Boniface Thou didst strike down the oak of the pagans and direct our thoughts to the fir tree as a symbol of Thy love and salvation. Do thou, the same Lord, now also bless this tree which is a symbol of Thy cross, and of the tree of life in paradise; which directs our thoughts heavenward by its uplifted branches, and which is a sign of endless life, for its leaves are ever green. Oh Thou the everlasting Light of the world in remembrance of your holy transfiguration and the light of Thy salvation these branches have been adorned with lights, recalling it was Thou Who established the lights of day and night, the sun and stars in the firmament of the heavens. By the lights of candles woven into the wreath upon her crown Thy handmaiden St. Lucia brought light and comfort to thy servants in the catacombs, by the lights of the Northern Sky Thy servant St. Herman brought Thy holy cross and the gift of Thy Church to the snow-covered banks of Alaska and thenceforth to all of North America. O Lord, Jesus Christ our God, as Thou prepares us for Thy most holy, immaculate, and life giving birth from a virgin in a cave, send down upon us and this wood of the forest Thy Spirit of peace, Thy spirit of reconciliation, Thy Spirit of truth. Let this be for us the tree of the Christ-child, that it will shelter no deeds of sin and idolatry but the light of its warmth and glow may inspire act of generosity and kindness in Thy name. Bless also our homes with Thy Divine Blessing and cleanse and uplift us who come now to venerate Thy life-giving Nativity. Protect Thy Holy Church, and unite the faithful with Thy cross, for Thou art a good and manbefriending God, and unto Thee do we send up glory, thanksgiving and worship, to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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Theophany Dinner

Fair warning, it’s a copycat Zuppa Toscana from Olive Garden, lol. We just use this recipe, but it’s tasty, and makes a nice wind-down from all the good food we eat at Christmas. Pour a little (like a teaspoon or so) of the new Holy Water into each person’s bowl at the table after the prayer.  https://www.food.com/recipe/olive-garden-copycat-zuppa-toscana-38298 And then, to properly finish off the Feast of Lights: Every candle which can be spared, including all of the Advent Wreath, should be lit for the Feast of Lights. Every window, if possible, should have a light flickering in it through the night (electric candles work well!). 

Light the candles, and begin the blessing by singing “O Gladsome Light.” Then the Father prays: Lord Jesus Christ, true light that enlightens every man who comes into the world, As these tapers burn with visible fire and dispel the darkness of night, So may our hearts with the help of thy grace be enlightened by the invisible fire of the splendor of the Holy Spirit, and may be free from all blindness of sin. Clarify the eyes of our minds that we may see what is pleasing to thee and conducive to our salvation. For it was by Thy holy Baptism that the world itself was set alight, made to see, and brought to illumination. After the dark perils of this life, let us be worthy to reach the eternal light of Thy Glory, through Thee, Jesus Christ, Light of the world, Who lives and reigns with The Father of Lights, and with the Holy Spirit Who Illuminates, unto ages of ages. Amen. 

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Washing the House with Theophany Water

Before going out of the house it is good to wash your face with the last of last year’s Theophany Water, and to drink some, then greet your family with “Christ is baptized!” and respond “In the Jordan!” The family’s Holy Water container should be emptied to receive new Holy Water, but saved for ‘washing’ the house after Liturgy. 

After Liturgy, or that night before dinner if one is unable to attend Liturgy, the family should gather around the house, with a pot, bowl, bucket, or other container full of water for each window or door. The last of last year’s Holy Water should be poured, a little into each bucket, and set ready. The Father starts, by standing at the door with a bucket of water, with the mother who is holding a lit candle. As she begins reciting the following, she walks around the house carrying the candle, and as she nears each door or window the family member by it with a bucket splashes the window or door with the water, to prepare the house for the priest’s blessing later. : 

Christ is baptized, hear ye all?  Now be cleansed our home and hall! Send away all who do ill In obedience to the Holy Will!  Wash away the old year’s sins Now we all begin again Washed afresh we bless the world Every boy and every girl, Cast out is every demon’s plan By the power of Almighty’s Hand Get ye gone you wicked band, For Christ is Born and that’s the end! Any remaining water is probably best dribbled on children’s heads. 

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Again, it has been a while...

But as we are in Great Lent, I am going to try to post some of our favorite Lenten recipes. First up, Cuban Black Beans:  Ingredients: 1 pound dried black beans 2 green bell peppers, halved and seeded 8 cups water 1 medium onion, quartered 2 cloves garlic 1 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp ground cumin 1 bay leaf salt to taste 1/4 cup dry white wine or veggie broth 1 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 tbsp sugar 1/4 cup olive oilInstructions: Instructions:  Soak the beans with one of the green peppers in the water for 8 hours or overnight. After soaking, bring the beans, pepper, bay leaf, and water to a boil, then immediately turn the heat to a simmer and cook, covered for 1 1/2 hours, or until the beans are almost tender. Prepare a sauce, called sofrito, by combining the other green bell pepper, the onion, garlic, oregano, cumin, and a little of the cooking water in a blender. Blend on low until the mixture is smooth. Add the sofrito to the beans. Bring to a boil again, then immediately reduce the heat to a simmer. Add salt and the wine, vinegar, and sugar. Continue to simmer, uncovered, until the bean mixture becomes thick, about 2 more hours. Add olive oil immediately before serving. Serve over steamed rice.

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Advent is Coming...

If you prepare now, you’ll be set up for a spiritually profitable Advent! 

First, especially if you have children, I highly recommend the Jesse Tree tradition, as provided for in this series: 

It will lead you through the Old Testament, providing the background for Christmas.  If you want something purely Bible-based, or more DIY, the Antiochians have this list of Bible readings to accompany a Jesse Tree, without ornaments or anything. The Preacher’s Institute does not appear to have done their New Testament Challenge in a while, but the archives still show how it was done. 

One of our favorite traditions is the Advent Wreath, and you still have time to get together some thing for it. We went to a craft store and bought everything we needed for ours - six little wood candle holders, one large one, and a wooden plate or charger to form the base. Here’s the prayer booklet we use with it. The end result was: 

I have some things I hope to share about Thanksgiving, and St. Nicholas Day and St. Lucia, as well as a Christmas Tree blessing and more, but we’ll leave at just preparing for Advent for now. 

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For those who are or know someone who is pregnant, Ancient Faith Publishing just put out a book about growing closer to God during pregnancy. I have not read it, but I trust Ancient Faith publishing. 

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Feasts of the Cross

Yes, sorry, I do still exist I’ve just been busy and not online as much anyway.  But some of the richest times of the liturgical year are coming up, and I’d love for families to really engage with them and bring the church into their home. To start, let’s talk the Feast of the Cross. 

Another apology first, I’m on the Old Calendar, so I don’t start thinking about the feasts until they’re close, which means “passed” for most of you all. That’s one of the things that’s been keeping me from posting. I’ll think “Oh I should do a post on that feast...but most people have celebrated it already.” Well I’ve decided to not let perfection be the enemy of the good and I’ll be posting what I can, not what I can’t. So here’s some things about bringing this feast into your home.  First of all, the highest icon in an icon corner should be either the Hospitality of Abraham, or the cross. For most people that will be the cross. Bring that cross down during dinner and let it be the centerpiece on Friday, on the feast. Even better to arrange some basil around it.  Why basil? Not all Orthodox know this, but it’s a pious legend which has been passed down, that as she looked for the True Cross, St. Helen was told by the local Christians that their spiritual ancestors had buried the cross and marked the spot with a sweet smelling plant. That plant was basil, and it was given the name to reflect it’s relationship to the King of Kings (Basil means “King”)  A great way to recognize this, basil or no as decoration, is to have a meal which features basil. In our house that usually means pesto. In a busy house with four boys (yes, four) under age six, that pesto usually comes from a jar and we look the other way about the parmesan (don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good!) but if you’d like a highly rated vegan pesto recipe, look here. There are loads of other options online as well if pesto isn’t your poison.  Of course, on the feast day, put a tablecloth on your table and light some candles, no matter what you eat, to mark the feast. Even if you’re eating peanut butter sandwiches, then you’ve brought the day into your home. 

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Each Christian home represents an infinitely great home — the universe, heaven and earth, in which the Lord dwells. Therefore, in every Christian home you see images of the Savior and the Mother of God, heeding the prayers of those who live in the house and resort to Him. - St. John of Kronstadt

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Rituals, as seen through Memorial Day, by Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

WHY DO PEOPLE NOT REMEMBER THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEMORIAL DAY AND VETERANS DAY?

(NB: If you do know the difference and always remember it, this isn't a criticism of you. In fact, it's not a criticism of any person nor of these civic holidays. It's an analysis of a phenomenon. If you're interested in that, read on.)

Every year, we see article upon article and numerous social media posts reminding everyone that Memorial Day and Veterans Day are different. A handful will also mention Armed Forces Day.

In case you're confused, Memorial Day (last Monday of May) is about those who died in military service (sometimes including all veterans who are dead), Veterans Day (Nov. 11) is about those who served in the past but did not die while doing it, and Armed Forces Day is about those currently serving. (For my non-American readers, these are all American civic holidays. This is the context I'm writing about here.)

But why is it that people seem to mix these up? Why do we see so many reminders that the day isn't about backyard barbecues? (With apologies to people who, like me, use the word "barbecue" to refer to a dish and not an event nor technique -- Eastern Carolina pulled pork forever! But of course I will happily eat all barbecues. Anyway...)

Here's my theory: Holidays -- holy days -- in the traditional religious sense, whether Christian or anything else, are marked not merely by a date on a calendar or simply a theme to remember. Rather they are marked by liturgical celebrations.

In other words, there are specific rituals that people engage in that allow for participation in the (usually historical) event that is being connected with. And there are also usually pre-seasons of anticipation and post-seasons of denouement.

So, for Easter we have Lent and Holy Week and then finally the explosion of joy at the Paschal vigil itself, and for Christmas, we have Advent and then the somewhat quieter happiness of the Nativity. And there are 40- or or 12- or 8-day seasons following. And there may well be gifts and parties, etc., that go along with these feast days, but the heart of the celebration is ritual participation.

Even in non-liturgical churches, you get something ritualistic for these feast days, though often rather reduced in comparison to the liturgical churches -- think of candlelight services, caroling, sunrise services, etc.

But there is something that has been happening to those feast days in some of those churches that I think gives us the key to why Memorial Day and Veterans Day are so muddled in so many minds.

In many churches, the lead-up to those feast days may be reduced or even non-existent. So the actual celebration on the day is often also much less in terms of time and complexity. This makes human sense -- with less anticipation, it's not as big of a deal when you arrive. And there is often zero post-season denouement. And it is exactly in those contexts that we see the rise of reminders for "the reason for the season."

Christmas trees and bunnies and candy and presents are the key markers for those holidays for many people. Why? Is it because they're just bad people?

My sense is that it's because those are the rituals they're participating in. In other words, the things that you do regarding a holiday are what defines its themes for you.

You may not think of Christmas morning present-opening as a liturgical ritual, but it absolutely is. The same is true of Easter egg hunts. And if those are your rituals for those holidays, then that is what those holidays will "mean" for you, no matter how many "keep Christ in Christmas" sermons you hear or bumper stickers you read.

Or what about Thanksgiving? Why do so many people call it "Turkey Day"? Well, what ritual are they engaging in?

Okay, back to Memorial Day in particular (since that's today).

Memorial Day once was marked (and still is, for many people) by decorating the graves of departed soldiers, sailors, etc., and was appropriately referred to as "Decoration Day" historically in many places. (The history of Memorial Day in the US is rather complex but kind of interesting. There doesn't seem to be a single origin-point that can be indicated as the "authentic" historical celebration. It's a collection of merged local traditions.)

So the ritual people engaged in was to visit cemeteries, honor the dead, and perhaps say prayers together. And there was often even a ritual meal of sorts, sometimes eaten off the top of the graves. Some people still do these things, but I'd be willing to guess that most don't.

If that is what Memorial Day is for you, I can see no way that you would not know that it is about the departed.

If, however, your ritual participation in Memorial Day is about parades or grilling in your backyard or a day off school or work (which are all fine things that I enjoy myself), then it is rather easier for the commemoration to get muddled in your mind.

There might be some kind of military imagery happening in those rituals (especially parades), but it's not like they're going to be parading dead soldiers or gravestones, so the element of death may well be less easy connect with.

My point here is not to criticize anyone's celebration of Memorial Day or any other day. Rather, the point is that if we want a holiday to connect us with its intended meaning, we should think in terms of ritual and not so much in terms of reminders. Reminders are great, but in the end, who you are and what you know has a lot more to do with what you do than with what you think or agree with.

And when it comes to holidays, even if we try to get away from it, the rituals are what makes them what they are. Without rituals, a date on the calendar is unlikely even to get remembered.

I mean, how many of you started this little essay not having even heard of Armed Forces Day? (It's on the third Saturday of May, by the way.) Aside from a few parades, it almost doesn't exist for most people.

And when we do have rituals for these various days, we should think about exactly how the rituals connect us with what is being marked. So, if you don't have anything about death in your ritual for Memorial Day, it's probably a good idea to ask yourself how well it's doing the job.

I wish blessed memory and everlasting repose in Christ to all your departed.

[liturgicalliving]

Getting away from the world doesn’t mean running away from the family, or from society, but leaving the manners, customs, rules, habits, demands completely opposite to the spirit of Christ accepted and ripening in us. - St. Theophan the Recluse

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Christ is risen!

I think this, more than anything else, has brought the feasts into our home. Every feast day, including Sunday’s, we out a tablecloth on the table and candles. We use beeswax candles because the church uses beeswax candles. Sometimes we use a different color candle or runner (like blue for Marian feasts). Here is set up for Pascha.

Yes the eggs are fake but I like the look and you can’t leave real eggs out for fifty days.

We’ll also sing western style hymns after dinner, relating to the feast. This introduces our kids (and sometimes ourselves) to beautiful western hymns and singing together for fun is a fading art. For that we use the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal which you can find online for cheap, used, and has most of the great old western hymns. Minus Marian hymns which we print out and stick in.

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Authentic, Messy Faith

CHRIST IS RISEN!  I’m not going to spend a long time on the “what” of Liturgical Living, because many people understand it nowadays. Faced with a greater and greater anti-Christian culture, we have nothing to offer in alternative, having given up the flow between our parishes and our homes. Liturgical Living is going to share practical ideas to bring the parish life into the home life.  Something frequently overlooked, I feel, in previous attempts in this area, is the liturgical aspect of our worship, and our nature. A lot of recommendations for “the domestic church” neglect to bring the symbolic language we’re speaking in our parishes, into the home. Coloring pages and models of the Temple and such are fine for teaching about the feasts, but they don’t use any of the things our faith uses to teach. In the parish temple we see cloths of different colors, we see bread, smell incense, taste wine, see icons, light candles and sing. We have processions and community and special prayers.  In my opinion then, these are the things we need to use in our own homes. I think some people feel these ‘formalities’ feel awkward in the home, but really what I’ve found is a greater consistency then between the home and the parish, between feast day dinners and the Divine Liturgy. Instead of feeling like we have one faith at home and one faith at church, we can really feel like our faith is flowing one into the other.  So I have some rules about the traditions I’ve implemented in my family for our domestic church. I don’t want to change the tradition as the kids get older, because it’s ‘too childish’ for them now. We don’t have to stop having Christmas trees, because adults and children both enjoy them. So it’s no use having childish traditions; when our kids are older  they’ll just leave them behind. We’re looking to instill eternal truths using long-term symbols and traditions that they’ll share with their own kids. Plus, it means that no matter what age someone starts using these practices, whether they live alone or with others, they’re ‘serious’ traditions, not cast aways.  

I also always strive to use God-made materials. I believe there’s a difference between an electric candle and a flame-lit one, for example, or between something plastic and something wood. We do what we have to, occasionally, but when possible, use the natural stuff.  Finally, know that real worship and the real struggle for salvation, in my experience, is messy. You know, deep down, when something is not serious, and not authentic. The hay under your tablecloth at Christmas gets everywhere, I know, but it’s much more real than putting a picture of hay under your tablecloth, or using yellow yarn. This follows that principle of using the same things from our churches - it is inconvenient to have a building dedicated only to worship, to get up early, to fast before Communion, and to stand for so long. But these things all reinforce that this is important. Doing things which are inconvenient at home will do the same and, just as we can stand for an entire Liturgy with much more ease now than before, you’ll eventually bring these things into your normal life and be surprised when your guests are surprised at them!  So here are my ideas, as we go. I won’t blog every day or anything, but throughout the seasons we’ll share traditions that you can establish in your family for generations, or enjoy alone. We’ll start fires and share meals and maybe make our neighbors think we’re crazy, but we’ll also be constantly inviting Christ into our homes.  Christ is risen!