Using the Liturgical Calendar in Our Prayer Life

Lifestyle

Oct 26

By Sarah White,

The Liturgical Calendar of the Catholic Church is the main tool we use in bringing the Liturgical Calendar into our homes through food and drink. It is where we go to know which saints are celebrated on certain days and the yearly dates of the different seasons. In celebrating their lives or liturgical seasons through specific meals and drinks, we can also bring our prayer life into the experience.

One thing that motherhood took away from me was the nearly unlimited availability to enter into reverent silent prayer. The days of slipping into the back of the chapel, arriving early or staying late after Mass, attending adoration nights without a second thought, were no longer easy to come by. I had a little person who always needed me, and who (understandably) did not have an understanding of reverence.

One thing that motherhood gave me, though, was the (1) realization that I could and (2) grace to carry out the practice of active prayer: of offering up whatever you are doing as a prayer and/or offering to the Lord. I may not be able to arrive early for Mass to pray a silent, peaceful rosary, but I could offer up the act of changing my daughter, of combing her hair, or tending to her with food and drink, and physically bringing her to the Holy Altar as an offering, a prayer to God. Maybe my nights ended with breastfeeding a little babe to sleep instead of kneeling in an adoration chapel and that was okay––for the rocking, the feeding, the care, and the bodily sacrifice, was something that God also saw as an act of adoration when I offered up those nights to him.

Active prayer is a beautiful thing to bring into your day and into your prayer life. So much of your day opens up to being offered to the Lord, if we wish. He doesn’t discriminate. He won’t turn it away in judgement. If anything, I imagine the angels and saints and Christ Himself rejoicing in all that we can find to offer to Him, since all is a gift from Him in the first place.

Cooking is Also An Offering We Can Make to God

Whether that is cooking for one or for twenty, for young adults or for little children, for your friends or for strangers, your time in the kitchen can be made an offering to the Lord. You are caring for and preparing his gifts for your brothers and sisters in Christ––something worthy of offering back to Him for sure.

One tangible way is to simply say out loud or in your heart, “Lord, I offer all this to you.” Another way is to ask for the intercession of the particular saint(s) you are celebrating as you prepare a meal or drink to honor him/her. Another is to pray (if available) a popular prayer to that saint with the people you are sharing a meal with before y’all break any bread. Any kind of prayer is open to us as the faithful, and all are fantastic ways to bring the physical celebration back to our spiritual lives.

The saints and the Catholic Church’s attention to them were originally explained to me with the following metaphor: Let’s say that you want to become a professional soccer player when you grow up. It would be logical to watch a lot of soccer, pay attention to the best of the best players, even develop one or two favorites of your own. It would also make sense, and be in your best interest, to see what these people did to get where they ended up. How did they practice? How did they play? How did they get better? How did they celebrate? How did they lose? Now… replace professional soccer with sainthood, soccer players with saints, and your dream of becoming a professional soccer player with that of becoming a saint. The goal is not to copy every single thing someone did to get to Heaven––the saints hold shockingly different testimonies from one another!––the goal is to pay attention and learn from them, because they obviously did something right. And just like people become professional athletes in different ways, coming from their own particular backgrounds, you and I are able to become saints in our own ways as well.

Recipes

Taken from the cookbooks Drinking with the Saints and Cooking with the Saints

November 17, Saint Elizabeth

Saint Elizabeth was the daughter of a Hungarian king and married at age fourteen. She was passionate about helping the poor, and built a hospital in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Widowed at age 20, she joined the Third Order of Saint Francis and spent her days with the poor at the hospital she founded. Miracles of healing have been reported at her grave site. To celebrate this Hungarian saint, you can make a Hungarian meal!

Gulyasleves

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons paprika

1 ripe tomato, diced

2-3 stalks of celery, thinly sliced

10-12 whole black peppercorns

4 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 pound beef roast, cut into one inch cubes

1 pound boneless pork roast, cut into one inch cubes

5-6 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a dutch oven over medium heat, saute the onions until golden. Stir in the paprika and tomato, and cook for about 10 minutes.
Add the celery, peppercorns, carrots and meat, and cook until the meat starts to brown.
Add 4-6 cups of water. Cover, and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes, then add the potatoes.
Cook until the meat is tender, about 1.5 hours. Add extra water as needed.

November 23, Saint Clement

Pope Clement was the third successor of Saint Peter and the first “Apostolic Father”––a Church Father who had contact with the original Apostles. There is an old English nursery rhyme about church bells relating to this saint: “Oranges and lemons / Say the bells of St. Clement’s.” So, naturally, a drink made to celebrate this pope includes oranges and lemons.