Always Advent

I don’t make them every year, but hot cross buns are a nice Good Friday tradition that you can use as a teaching moment with children and as a way to connect with other families.

Make 11 buns according to your favorite recipe. Whether you add a cross of frosting or just cut them into the top can vary from year to year. Some people omit the frosting cross because of the traditional Lenten observance of avoiding sweets during Lent and Holy Week. I usually include it because it is a traditional reminder of the sweetness of the Cross, on which was hung our salvation.

Bring the plate of 11 hot cross buns to someone’s house or invite a family over to your house. Ask any children present to count how many there are, then ask if anyone knows why there are only 11 instead of a nice even dozen. (Answer: there are 11 hot cross buns in honor of the 11 faithful apostles. Remember that Judas was gone by this point in the Passion.)

The recipe I have is from A Continual Feast by Evelyn Birge Vitz

Ingredients:
1 pkg dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (about 100-100 degrees F)
1 teasp. white or light brown sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sweet butter
1/3 cup brown or raw sugar
1 teasp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
4 to 4 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 teasp. cinnamon
1/2 teasp. ground cloves
1/2 teasp. nutmeg
1/2 teasp. ground ginger (or substitute allspice)
2/3 cup dried currants
Optional:
1/3 cup finely diced or julienned citron

Frosting:
2 tablespoons milk
4 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar (more if needed)
grated rind of 1 lemon

Directions:
Sprinkle the yeast into the lukewarm water. Stir in 1 teaspoon sugar. Let sit until frothy.

Scald the milk. Add the butter, sugar, and salt. Stir until blended. Cool to lukewarm. Beat the eggs until light, and combine with the milk mixture. Add the yeast.

Sift 2/3 cups of the flour with the spices into a mixing bowl. Make a well, and pour in the yeast mixture. Beat for 5 minutes.

Toss the currants, and citron, if using it, with the remaining 1/2 cup of flour. Mix into the dough.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour if necessary. The dough should be fairly firm, otherwise it will not take the cuts for the cross.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover the dough with a towel and put it to rise in a draft-free spot until doubled in volume. This will take about 2 hours.

Punch the dough down. Shape it into 2 dozen buns. (See my note above–I recommend making 22 buns with this recipe, or halve the recipe and make 11)

Place the buns 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart on well-greased cookie sheets or in muffin pans. With a sharp knife cut a cross into the top of each bun. Allow them to rise until doubled in bulk, 30-45 minutes.

Bake at 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes.

For the frosting, mix the milk with enough sugar so that the icing is not runny. Add the rind. Brush a cross on the top of each bun.

Photo above is a detail from Pieta, by Giovanni Bellini.

Our pastor taught us this little prayer (which he says the nuns taught him as a child):

I have found Him whom my soul loves.
I will hold Him, and never let Him go.
(based on Song of Songs 3: 4)

The nuns as his school growing up taught the kids to say this prayer during the elevations of the host and chalice.

I usually save this one for when I return to my seat after receiving Holy Communion, because the one I learned to say at the elevations is:

My Lord and my God!
(at the elevation of the host)

and

My Jesus, mercy.
(at the elevation of the chalice)

I have a friend who’s a Dominican priest, and when he was in seminary he started praying the Divine Praises after communion. My kids and I recite these together right after Mass–they’re usually right there in the inside back cover of the missalette, although by now we’ve pretty much memorized them. One of the kids or myself leads them, out loud but quietly, and the others repeat each line.

These are all excellent ways of increasing your devotion to Jesus, especially in the Holy Eucharist and for keeping your focus on Him during the Mass.

Note: these prayer practices are not approved for public liturgical use–they’re just prayers I and my children say as private devotions.

My mom has a friend from Greece. When I first met her she greeted me with an embrace and that famous European “double kiss” –- one on my right cheek, one on my left.

She took note of my surprise. “You’re not familiar with this greeting, Clare?”

I told her I had seen people greet each other that way many times, but no one had ever greeted me that way.

She asked me if I knew the symbolic meaning of a kiss on both cheeks.

I told her I did not.

“In Greek culture, it means that when I greet you, I greet and accept both sides of you, the good and the bad.”

I thought that was great, but…

…I imagine it’s sometimes easier to greet a stranger that way than someone you know well. Haven’t most of us experienced the hard reality that the people you know best are sometimes the hardest ones to accept and to love? Are there times, even in Greek culture, when people can’t bear to offer the “double-kiss” greeting? What do Greeks and others who practice that custom do at those times?

How about when looking in a mirror? Can I accept the fact that there are two sides to myself: the “new creation,” transformed in Christ, and the “old man,” still struggling for dominance years after I’ve “formally” broken ties?

That’s part of the great battle everyone fights.

These are the intercessions from the Liturgy of the Hours today: Morning Prayer, Wednesday of Week 4 of Lent:

Help us to receive good things from your bounty with a deep sense of gratitude, and to accept with patience the evil that comes to us.

Teach us to be loving not only in great and exceptional moments, but above all in the ordinary events of daily life.

May we abstain from what we do not really need, and help our brothers and sisters in distress.

May we bear the wounds of your Son, for through his body he gave us life.

Amen.

I’m following up a bit on a “Soul Hack”** post of mine from a couple days ago about a Lenten all-media fast. Here’s a bit more on that subject from an excellent article in GodSpy by Angelo Matera:

Pascal said “the sole cause of man’s unhappiness” is that he doesn’t know “how to stay quietly in his room.”

That suggests something you can do for Lent—nothing. It’s not too late.

and

One reason we’re addicted to activity is that it takes our mind off questions we don’t like to ask—What’s the meaning of life? What happens when we die? Why does God allow evil? These are the questions that Pascal said gave rise to distractions like fox hunting—and today, monster truck shows. Being a Christian doesn’t settle these questions, otherwise theologians would be out of work. And the spiritual growth that comes from grappling with the answers is a life-long process.

To read the full article go here: The Joy of Nada: Doing Nothing for Lent

** “Soul Hack”? What the heck is that? A Soul Hack is a spiritual Life Hack–a technique or trick that makes things in your life and work better, easier, more efficient, more organized. If you’ve never heard of Life Hacks before, try these two websites:

LifeHacker
Lifehack

I did a quick Google search on “Soul Hack” and I don’t think anybody’s using it in the sense in which I’m using it–something you can do to shake things up in your spiritual life in order to better effect your ongoing transformation in Christ. Perhaps I just coined a phrase. Clever me! :)

“It is a very fine thing to feel ashamed of oneself when one realizes one’s own imperfections and misery, but the feeling must not drag on lest one lose heart. It is necessary to raise the heart to God with a holy confidence, founded not in our strength but in God. We indeed change, but God never does; He always remains equally good and merciful toward us, whether we are weak and imperfect or perfect and strong. I always say that our misery is the throne of God’s mercy, and so we must realize that the greater our misery, the greater should be our confidence in Him.”
(St. Francis de Sales, Spiritual Discourses II; O. VI, p. 22

“During the course of the day, recall as often as possible that you are in God’s presence. Consider what God does and what you are doing. You will see His eyes turned toward you and constantly fixed on you with incomparable love. Then you will say to Him, “O God, why do I not look always at You, just as You always look at me? Why do You think so often of me, O Lord, and why do I think so seldom of You?” Where are we, O my soul? God is our true place, and where are we?”

(St. Francis de Sales, INT. Part II, Ch. 12; O. III, p. 92)

Lovely article here from Zenit last year: a summary of some things Pope Benedict XVI said about Heaven, the narrow gate, friendship with Christ, etc:

Get Your “Passport” Ready for Heaven, Says Pope
http://www.zenit.org/article-20341?l=english

Father, look on us, your children. Through the discipline of Lent, help us to grow in our desire for you.

–concluding prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, Tuesday in Week 1 of Lent, Morning and Evening Prayer

–

St. Catherine of Siena was a 14th century mystic and doctor of the church. In her book, The Dialogue, she listed four interior qualities we should strive for in order to make our reception of the Holy Eucharist more fruitful. These qualities are faith, love, conversion and desire.

Faith means believing that what we’re receiving in Holy Communion is truly Our Lord Jesus Christ. Love means to give ourselves in service and charity to God and neighbor. Conversion means to turn our hearts away from our sinfulness and our false self and toward Jesus. Desire is an inner longing for communion with God.

All four of these qualities work together to deepen our Eucharistic devotion, but desire provides the motivation to grow in the other qualities. If we don’t really want God, our faith will be weak, our love lukewarm, our conversion half-hearted and our reception of Holy Communion won’t bear much fruit in our lives.

-
by Clare Siobhan

Fasting simply means going without food for a time. Many people have undergone a fast for medical reasons, such as before getting a blood sample drawn or before surgery, or for other health reasons, and in these cases the rules are clear: “No food or water after midnight the night before,” for example.

The Catholic Church also prescribes a fast for our spiritual health, on two special days during the year: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Here, too, the rules are clear:

No meat. Only one full meal that day. Two smaller meals that together do not add up to one full meal. No food between meals.

This is the minimum penance required by the Church, and even then it is not binding if it impairs your ability to work or otherwise perform your duties on those two days. Fasting is not dieting; it is a spiritual practice.

The Church encourages us to do more, though, if we can, and make regular fasting and penance part of our lives, year-round. If you’re old enough, and if you’re not expecting or nursing a baby, and if your health permits it, try one of these fasts:

• Observe the old-fashioned Catholic custom of eating no meat on Fridays even when it’s not Lent. Many people are unaware of the fact that we are really expected to abstain from meat on all Fridays, even outside of Lent. However, church law says we may eat meat on Fridays if we substitute some other form of penance.

• On Wednesdays and Fridays, consume bread and water only. This is a popular fast, promoted by the Marian devotion movement.

• On Wednesdays and/or Fridays, consume nothing except water all day. (Or black tea only, which the Irish called a “black fast.”) Break your fast with your family at dinnertime. If you want to extend the fast, begin it the night before by passing up dessert and eating no snacks that night. And if you’re skipping breakfast, no fair sleeping in: get up at the regular time and spend that time in prayer.

• Eat three meals a day as usual, but consume nothing between meals and skip all desserts or other sweets.

• Follow the rules of fasting normally observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday: partial breakfast, partial lunch, full dinner, no snacks, no meat. Poor Clare nuns, following the practices of St. Francis and St. Clare, fast like this every day: 365 days a year. Try fasting like this for the 40 days of Lent.

• Resolve not to have a second helping of anything. To make this even more penitential, have someone who doesn’t know you’re doing this load your plate for you, so you’re not tempted to give yourself a second helping at the front end.

But why would anyone want to do this? Yes, fasting is a form of penance and reparation for sin, but how does going without food help us grow closer to Jesus? What do I mean when I say that fasting is the “bat phone” to the indwelling Holy Spirit?

Here are a few things I’ve experienced and learned from fasting:

The self-control learned from fasting spills over into other areas of life. If you can learn to control your appetite for food, you can also control your other appetites.

When I haven’t eaten all day and I’m hungry and tired, I feel a greater unity with the poor and a greater desire to help them, because they often must fast not by choice but because they have no way to get food. Jesus is very close to the poor.

When I’m so hungry that even birdseed begins to look appetizing, I have a greater understanding for people who chase after all the wrong things in order to satisfy their spiritual hunger. If my body starts to complain after only a few hours without food, imagine the many souls who are suffering deeply after going for years without Jesus, the only true spiritual food.

I realize that sometimes I eat mindlessly, out of boredom, or to comfort myself. Fasting teaches me to make use of food and other comforts more mindfully and with greater appreciation. Fasting empties us out so that God can fill us up.

If a fast is going well (not by my own efforts but by God’s grace), my body stops complaining and a spiritual awareness kicks in. My desire for food disappears, in fact. I become interiorly docile and peaceful, and my body and my mind become aware of what my spirit lives daily—longing for the day of perfect union with Jesus. “My soul yearns for you in the night. My spirit within me keeps vigil for you.” (Isaiah 26:9)

Just as often, a fast won’t go so well, and I arrive home from work hungry and irritable. That is the time to humbly accept my human weakness and break my fast so that I can contribute to a peaceful, happy atmosphere in my home and not make my penance a cross for the people I live with.

Fasting is definitely worth doing. If you have trouble persevering in a fast, try offering it up for a particular intention or for a particular person who needs your prayers. Use your fast to make reparation for a specific fault or sin—one of your own or one of the “societal” sins, such as abortion, sins against chastity, pornography, gambling, and so on. God will honor every effort.

(This article originally appeared in the Family Centered Faith Formation News, volume 4, issue 6, February 2007, produced by the Holy Trinity Office of Religious Education, Westmont IL)

Somerset Maugham says, “I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham

Books by W. Somerset Maugham: here