Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Of Saints and Other Things
















Saturday was the feast of St Crispin. We read a little of this martyr but what struck us the most ( me the most) was how his name sounds so edible! We went through a list of all the yummy, crispy foods we like- including Nestle Crunch. I am not a big chocolate fan, usually like dark chocolate but I do have a soft spot for the milk chocolate and rice bubbles in Crunch.

Oh, and we were a bit more literate than that! Looked up St Crispin's Day today, the Battle of Agincourt, and read the St Crispin's Day speech from Shakespeare's Henry V.

Also, today is St Simon and St Jude . Anthony is named after St Jude, Jude of the New Testament - Anthony's full name is Anthony Michael Jude...

And we are planning some fun for this week's feast of All Hallow's Eve ( Halloween), All Saints and All Souls. You can check out the links in our blogs in the sidebar. Homemade sweets and paper chains, orange and black, for Halloween. A special dinner and the Litany of All Saints for Saturday. And Mass.

Mass and prayers for souls, and the De Profundus, and Soul Cakes for Sunday.....

Our centrepiece above is a votive candle, rosary beads, roses from the garden. You can also see the flowers, again from our garden, near our Bible and missals and small icons of Our Lady...and near dh's ships....and two of our crucifixes, placed on the wall.

I have been hesistant to add items to our wall. We rent. I've felt we may move. Then, slowly, gradually, over the last two years, I have added prints. Photographs. And now crucifixes. The longer we stay here * nearly 3 1/2 years now * the longer it looks like we are staying.

Freaky to stay in one house and in one area for such a long time.

A new experience for me.

I don't really know how to live anywhere long term, how to stay friends long term without having to resort to email and blogs to keep in touch...

That crucifix, by the way, the San Damiano Cross , is the one St. Francis was praying before when he received his commission from the Lord . It is the very first crucifix I ever bought, before I was even Catholic. Pregnant with son number five, Alexander, suffering many health problems, being sent to hospital and bed rest, being told I and the unborn child may die, being told not to have any more children, with all these things heavy on my mind, I called into a little Catholic bookstore on my way to hospital. I spied the San Damiano crucifix - although I didn't know that was its title. I liked the art, icon-ish. I liked the colours. I bought the crucifix and kept it next to my bedside in hospital.

Alexander is now seventeen, so that crucifix is more than seventeen years old. And it is memory-ridden.

1 comment:

Greg said...

Yes that crucifix...it's been a part of my life now for so many years...