Martinmas

Lord God of hosts, you clothed your servant Martin the soldier with the spirit of sacrifice, and set him as a bishop in your Church to be a defender of the catholic faith: Give us grace to follow in his holy steps, that at the last we may be found clothed with righteousness in the dwellings of peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

 - Collect for St. Martin from Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2006

The night was dark and our lights were bright.    The story was told in the center of the labyrinth with figures and candles.  The children were joyful on their nighttime adventure and the cookies were warm.  "Let it Shine, Let it Shine" and "You are the light of the World..." rang out through the mild November night.  I do believe the Martinmas lantern walk is my favorite remembrance of a saint.

We've settled on the following cookies as our Martinmas tradition.  The cookies are cut in starts, moons and christmas lights to represent the light of sharing.  We all broke our first cookie after the walk in half and shared the larger half with the person beside us in the spirit of St. Martin sharing half his cloak with the beggar.  The children who ate a second (or third) cookie still wanted to share half with someone, much to our delight.

Martinmas Gingerbread Cookies

adapted from Apples for Jam

These are a subtle gingerbread cookie and go wonderfully with coffee.  We dipped the left overs in dark chocolate for a special treat.

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

7 oz. cream (whipping or pouring)

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter

2 eggs

4 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

warm maple syrup and spices in a small saucepan.  Stir until all spices are disolved.

Mix in cream.

Beat sugar and butter together for 2 minutes.  Add eg.  Mix in flour and baking powder alternating with the syrup/spice mixture.

Cover and refrigerate for 4 or more hours.  Using a generous amount of flour cut out shapes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 10-14 minutes (if making tiny cookies check sooner.)

Sift powdered sugar on the cooling cookies.

Enjoy!

Happy All Saints!

Rowan was Saint Martin.  He wore two silver capes and tore one off as he told the story of helping the beggar he found at the city gates.

This was the first year that we have done an All Saints feast.  We've done games as a family, but have never ventured into costumes or invited any friends.  We had one family join us this year and as it went well, I'm very hopeful we could invite more next year.  It was a simple meal (uhm, with four soccer games, trunk-or-treat and trick-or-treat this weekend Costco rotisserie chicken was unapologetically just the thing.)  

The ten of us dressed as saints (we wore very simple costumes thrown together or simply brought a few props).  We used a doorway as a stage and each person told their story or gave clues to see if the rest of us could guess who they were.  St. Christopher, St. Elizabeth of Portugal, St. Francis, St. Martin, St. George, St. Patrick, St. Joseph, St. Lucia, St. Margaret, and St. Joan were represented.  We let the game be the last hurrah for Halloween candy and for acting or guessing correctly you got a piece.  The kids were really into it and I think we all left feeling like we learned something about these wonderful stories.  

I found this website incredibly helpful in transforming costume box basics into saints.  

Mary Magdalene Day

I would love it if anyone who grew up in a family that lived out the Episcopal or Catholic church year would let me know what that looked like.  Having grown up in a conservative church with little sense of the church year (we celebrated Christmas and Easter and maybe did something for advent), I would love to have more ideas on what this might look like.  I love the planning and figuring out, the gathering of ideas and information.  I'm happy to creatively come up with what I can, but it would be fun to hear more traditional ways of doing things.

Today is the feast day of Mary Magdalene and I'd love to share what I've learned about her and her feast day.

There are several Marys in the New Testament: Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany (sister of Martha and Lazarus), the Other Mary (mother of ) and Mary Magdalene.  

Mary Magdalene is best known for being the first to see and hear Jesus after his resurrection.  "Mary" he said and she knew it was Jesus.  She has been called the Apostle of the Apostles.  She was with Jesus through his earthly ministry and witness the resurrection.  

There are differing views on which Mary doused Jesus' feet with perfume and wiped them with her hair.  Traditionally this act was also attributed to Mary Magdalene.

So in preparing for the day I found that Mary Magdalene's symbols are a box of ointment to represent the feet washing story and a red egg.  There is a story surrounding the red egg in tradition, but most importantly the red represents the blood of Jesus, the egg symbolizes new life in Christ and the cracking of the eggs represents the breaking of the gates of Hades and Christ's victory.   I gave the boys wooden eggs to paint red (looses the cracking portion, but is a nice symbol.)  Next year I want to save my onion skins to make red boiled eggs for part of a meal on this day (see tutorial here). 

I tried to find a Madeleine pan, but I was unsuccessful.  A pan is now on my wishlist and in the meantime, I chose to make rose cupcakes.   The name "Mary" and roses are linked in my brain.  Traditionally the rose is a symbol of Mary the Mother of Jesus not Mary Magdalene, but we're going with it and saying that it symbolizes the garden where Mary encountered Jesus after His resurrection. 

I used a photocopy of Fra Angelico's painting Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and this tutorial to make a self standing image of Mary and Jesus (I actually made three to figure out the process, but the larger ones on darker wood didn't turn out nearly as well.)  This is a fun way to bring great art into our celebrations.  I would love to purchase real icons of all the saints, but we'll be building that collection very slowly as finances allow.  This is a great 'in the meantime'.

Martinmas: Let your Light Shine

Today is Martinmas.  For awhile during the Roman Empire Martinmas was the beginning of Advent (which left 40 days of fasting till Christmas without Saturdays and Sundays).  It is a day to remember that we carry our light into a darkened world.  And while we don't begin our advent till four weeks before Christmas, there is always a shift for me at Martinmas.  Winter is coming and with it we prepare to celebrate light in darkness through the holidays.

Our homemade lanterns were a bit of a failure (we attempted balloon lanterns like this).  I didn't get the tissue till Sunday and we didn't get started till today so they didn't have enough time to dry.  I tried breaking the balloons and they totally crumpled.  So, out came the battery lanterns Great-Grammie sent for the older boys when Athan was born.

I must say the path we walked in Scotland, which was dark, was much more appealing for a lantern walk.  The boys were rather disappointed that street lights made our lanterns pretty unnecessary.  Next year we'll have to go to a park or green space.

But despite all that could have been better, we had a good walk around our block with our lanterns singing This Little Light of Mine and You Are The Light Of The World (Matthew 5:14 & 16).  (Every year I intend to learn some of the lovely Waldorf kindergarten songs to add to the mix, but never seem to manage.)   It was a balmy night and we all loved sharing some yummy ginger cookies shaped like stars, moons, Christmas lights and men when we got back to the house.  It was really meaningful to talk to the boys about St. Martin and what it means to be a light in the darkness this year.  I love watching their understanding of traditions grow each year.

St. Matthias

Yesterday was St. Matthias' feast day.  He is an interesting figure in scripture.  He was with Jesus from his baptism and saw all that the other apostles did, but is never mentioned before or after he takes over Judas' roll among the other eleven disciples. (Some scholars say he is also known by either Nathaniel or Zacchaeus in the gospels; I need to do some research.)

To celebrate the day we had a small sweet treat and read Acts 1:12-26 after dinner.  

**Here is my ad-libbed recipe for mini blueberry and lemon cheesecakes.  These were solely the result of the fact I had some broken graham crackers and half a stick of cream cheese that was nearing the end of its life.  We've enjoyed s'mores a couple times over our fireplace this winter, but the second box of grahams I bought were in small pieces.  These little cheesecakes were quite good and not too sweet (with a birthday and Valentines day a week ago we are all sugared out!) and as they were a hit with the boys, I thought I'd share the recipe.

Crust

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

3 TBSP melted butter

mix and press this into mini muffin tins

Filling

4 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

1 tsp corn starch

1/2 lemon squeezed

1 egg

Mix till smooth, spoon over graham cracker crusts, bake at 350 till firm (about 10 minutes I think)

Topping

1 cup frozen blueberries

scant cup of water

3 tsp corn starch

2 TBSP honey

boil, stirring constantly until a thick sauce forms, spoon over baked cheesecakes, refrigerate till time to eat

St. Valentine

We've done a fair amount of godly play stories at home and I've taught lots to groups at church.  But, I've been wanting to teach a group in our home - a godly play party.  When I received the Godly Play book 7 on the saints it seemed like great material to try this out on.  So we had a Saint Valentine Godly Play party with a few friends on Valentines Day.  

We kept the traditional godly play pattern of story, work and then feast.  The whole party was after school and not much longer than an hour so that we could be done before dinner time.  

I told the story of Saint Valentine (notes on materials below).

For work I had a few options, but also was fine with them just going to play together at whatever they chose.  The options for work were telling the story, playing doctor with Rowan's doctor set (Valentine was a doctor), looking at books about various saints, and making valentines (thanks to Jim's Grammie who sent us an amazing box of supplies!)

The feast was simple - I made popcorn and apples.  A friend brought some heart cookies.

Overall I was happy with our time together.  I'm still not as crazy about the format for these stories and would prefer more action with the figures (and perhaps more figures from the story).  The kids did very well, even though a few of them aren't in godly play on a regular basis.  Our time together didn't have the sacred feel that Sunday mornings of godly play often have. Part of this was because of the setting and partly because I didn't use the liturgy I normally do with godly play (we didn't light a candle together/ change the light, pass the peace, etc.)  I'm not sure that I would do this differently if I was doing it again.  I was fine with it having more of a party feel.

Has anyone else tried having godly play with more than your own children in your home?  If so, how did it go?  What did you like and what would you change?

Notes on Materials:

St. Valentine is made on a bendy rope and wood doll like these.  He is dressed in white wool with a wool felt stole, robe and hat.  His hair is wool yarn.  The Godly Play curriculum dresses him as a roman.  He would not have worn priestly garb much as he had to be secretive (Christianity was outlawed during his time). However, I chose to dress him as many statues and artwork of St. Valentine are depicted - in red priestly garments.

The Crocus is stitched from wool felt.  This falls from the note that Saint Valentine sends to a little blind girl and is the first thing she sees upon being miraculously healed.

The Note says 'From your Valentine' and I tied it with a red ribbon.

The Mortar and Pestle are to represent how Valentine was a doctor.  I need to look for a small one of these - I borrowed a friends large one for the story.

Thomas Aquinas

For Christmas I received Volume 7 in the Godly Play series, which has a lesson for one saint each month of the year.  I decided that I wanted to make dolls of all 12 saints and tell the stories through the year.  We'll see how it goes.  

January 28th is the feast day of Thomas Aquinas (we celebrated on sunday the 29th) and I finished up my first doll that day and told (ahem... read) the story of Thomas.  Reading about the saints got me really excited about sharing their stories with the boys.  My only disappointment is that these lessons (like the enrichment lessons in volume six) are more about talking and setting objects down as you tell the story, as opposed to, telling the story with the objects.  With younger children moving the figures and telling a story seems to be more engaging.  And, from this storyteller's perspective it is more fun!

You can see the godly play sets to buy for volume seven here.  These have wooden cutouts for the figures, but I think having the dolls will be more fun (plus the sets are super expensive!)

We had a good time with our first story and Rowan loves playing with the Thomas doll.  The next saint is Valentine and we have a few friends slated to join us, so I'd best start work on doll number two.

In this photo you can see some other items used in the story.  The ox is because Aquinas was known as the silent ox and he is holding two small books - the Bible and Aristotle.  You also use some straw (I used a felt bale I made a while back for Rowan's farm set because I didn't have any real straw around) to represent how Thomas realized at the end of his life that all he had written about was like straw - the most important things to know about God can't be written.

Crafting Notes:  He is made on a 15 cm bendy wood and rope doll like these.  I bound his body with some old wool socks to make it rounder (he was a big guy and the doll is really skinny).  His tunic and cape are wool and his sash and hair are wool yarn.

A Monk's Supper

We are beginning our medieval history unit and I'm loving it.  I'm particularly taken with learning about the saints as we watch how Christianity spreads through Europe.  I think it is because so many of the stories are new to me and yet, they make the stories of the Bible come alive for me in a new way.  We've been enjoying lots of books on the saints to supplement our curriculum and had a monks dinner a few nights ago.

Dinner was candlelit and was supposed to be entirely silent while scriptures were read throughout.  We were quiet while a couple chapters were read and, because I turned out the lights, dinner did have a more hushed quality.  We ate lentil soup, cut apples and pears, and crusty bread (with no butter or jam).  But, as Jonah pointed out, aside from the absence of butter it was a very normal meal for us.  But, they liked their monks dinner so much we've now had three meals by candle light with Bible reading at their request.  We'll see how long this lasts, but I'm loving it!

A few books on saints we've enjoyed in the past week...

The Holy Twins by Kathleen Norris illus. Tomie dePaola

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola

Augustine came to Kent by Barbara Willard

Early Saints of God by Bob Hartman

Martinmas

We celebrated Martinmas (the feast of St. Martin) last night for the first time.  The story of Martin is a wonderful one.  A young Roman officer in France, Martin sees a beggar in the cold so he takes his sword and slashes his own cape in two giving half to the poor man.  I painted figures during nap time and made two simple capes with elastic through them - they can be worn as one cape and then one can be taken off to be shared.  The boys loved the story and it was especially appropriate as we we've just finished studying Rome.  

After Dinner we headed out on a lantern walk - a Martinmas tradition.  The boys had such a fun time walking on the Lade Braes with their lanterns in the dark.  They are begging to do it again soon.

I was inspired by lantern images I found online.  We used some sheets of watercolor paper (the boys have been doing a lot of wet-on-wet painting) and then modge podged tissue over holes I cut with an exacto knife.  It was a simple and fun project.  Next time we will all use electric candles.  I like real candles, but Jim and mine blew out in the first minute of walking through the gusty Scottish night (the boys luckily had electric candles so their lanterns worked well).

Celebrating St. Nicholas

St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, was best known for giving food and money to the poor and for making toys and gingerbreads for children.  The past two years we've had friends join us for a St. Nick Dinner (simple soup and salad) followed by St. Nick bags with a small wood toy, a gingerbread man, chocolate coins and an orange to represent all the things he was known for giving. 

This year we added two books to our library Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend and Saint Nicholas: The story of the real Santa Claus.  I'm impressed with both, they are well illustrated and are good tellings of the story of the three daughters St Nick gave money to (secretly in the night - and some of it supposedly fell in stockings) for their dowries.   The former goes into the 'legend of Santa Clause' at the end, which I don't read aloud because I want to keep the magic of Santa alive for Jonah.  They are both good resources for celebrating Saint Nicholas Day (typically Dec 6, though in Holland and in our house this year Dec 5.)

Two girls, St. Nick, money bag, and stocking for telling and playing with the St. Nicholas story.