The Feast of the Presentation ~ Feb. 2

A much belated post! We celebrated the Feats of the Presentation of the Lord in the temple, sometimes referred to as Candlemas, because in days of old, people would have their candles blessed on this day by a priest. Some parishes still do this, and we would have asked our priest if he could bless our candles had we seen him after the Mass.

We spent part of the morning making our own candles! We used a beeswax candle rolling kit, which makes it quite easy for kids! Using the sheets of beeswax, we were able to make several taper candles, including some Advent wreath candles (although we're short one purple! ;). You just stick the wick in them and roll them up! They can be cut to make tapers, or just rolled together to make thicker, straight-edged candles.

We wil have several candles now for use throughout the year... if only I could figure out the best candle holders for them! The ones that are a bit thicker than tapers... but not as thick as votives... for now, they are in votive holders, balancing precariously!

We made this red candle with cut-outs of doves on it specifically for Pentecost, but we used it also for this day's feast, as Mary and Joseph offered two turtle doves as a sacrifice.

After making candles, we headed to our parish's daily noon Mass, where we heard the reading from Luke which set the stage for our tea time luncheon. We did a similar luncheon last year, and the idea came from the Liturgical Teas by Alice at the blog Cottage Blessings. I also just read her book, A Haystack Full of Needles, and found it to be full of good ideas that could be useful throughout many years of homeschooling!

We got to use our nice new serving dish set that my brother and his wife gave to us for Christmas. The four sections contain whipped cream, strawberries, hummus, and baby carrots.

On Caroline's plate, you can see the turtle-dove shaped PB&J sandwiches, which I cut out using a dove-shaped cookie cutter. "...and to offer the sacrifice of 'a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,' in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord." (Luke 2:24)

Strawberries pierced with "sword" toothpicks and dipped in whipped cream - the white whipped cream symbolizes Mary's purity, and the strawberry symbolizes Mary's heart: "Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, 'Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.'" (Luke 2:34-35)

The girls used the "swords" to symbolize Simeon's words regarding Mary being pierced by a sword in the sorrows she would come to endure while watching her son die.

Baby carrots with hummus on the tip: these symbolize candles with a flame, as the day is called Candlemas, and also since Simeon commented about Jesus being a light for the world: "...for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel." (Luke 2:30-32)

We were also going to have pretzels, but I forgot to get them out! Their shape can remind us of arms folded in prayer, symbolizing Simeon, who held the infant Jesus in his arms: "Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the holy Spirit was upon him." (Luke 2:25)

And for dessert, chocolate fondue! We dipped our homemade marshmallows from M week into it using long wooden skewers, symbolizing Anna, who was also praying in the temple, as she was a very devout and holy woman (the white of the marshmallow), and was also a widow (the "black" of the chocolate): "There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer." (Luke 2:36-37)

Yum!!!

You can tell they thoroughly enjoyed this part! And the chocolate fondue definitely made the marshmallows taste great - I didn't care for them just plain, personally, although everyone else in the family had been eating them up!

A Luncheon Tea for Candlemas

I have been eyeing the liturgical year teas at Cottage Blessings, and I thought that this one for Candlemas, or the Presentation of the Lord, sounded easy enough that I could pull it off as a first try at a liturgical tea. I invited my friend Beth to bring her children, and we put together a luncheon tea to celebrate the day. We have been having such fun getting together to have Catholic celebrations, and this was a first-time try at doing something for the liturgical year on a weekday. We have done a few things on weekends with a couple other families as well, and it looks like we're going to have to make it a regular occurrence! It would be lots of fun to have some sort of party each month for our families, and then maybe also something just for the kids on another day. Beth is hosting a Saint Valentine's party in a couple weeks! :)

Yesterday, Caroline and I worked on a little craft to prepare. I found this dove pattern online and was thinking it would be fun to make two turtledoves out of felt... but I didn't have any felt that wasn't green or orange or red or... anything but white or grey! So we just made them out of paper instead. One year we'll make them from fabric!

We used embroidery needles and thin string (yarn was far too thick; I tried that first!). This was Caroline's first-ever time sewing. She did a great job!! Sewing paper for a first time at sewing worked out pretty well... I was impressed with how well she was able to make stitches! She got tired of it after a few inches, but I thought that was to be expected for a four year old, right?

She also decorated her turtledove before she sewed the sides together.

Then we stuffed them with cotton balls so they'd be three dimensional.

Here are the completed turtledoves!

We set out our homemade nativity, as this is the last day that the infant Jesus is mentioned in the gospel readings (the Pope keeps his nativity out through today's feast!), the book Mary, Mother of Jesus open to the page about the Presentation, and...

this little clock, which has a picture of the Presentation in it! I randomly found this over the weekend, in Fred's, of all places. I never go in that store, but there was something in the weekly ad that caught my eye, and I happened to walk past a shelf with these clocks! What luck! If you click on the picture above, you can better see the picture of the Presentation.

I followed several of the recommended menu ideas from the original idea at Cottage Blessings... and came up with some variations as well.

On the menu:

pretzels, which represent Simeon's arms as they held the baby Jesus

baby carrots and hummus for the candles - Simeon said that Jesus was "a light for the Gentiles," thus the tradition of the blessing of candles on this day

Okay, so use your imagination... the hummus is the flame. You didn't need me to explain that this was a candle, did ya? ;)

toothpick "swords," since Simeon predicted that Mary would experience sadness as if a sword had pierced her heart

strawberry "hearts" to be pierced with the "swords," along with whipped cream for dipping, the white representing Mary's purity

Chocolate marshmallow cookies to represent Anna, who prayed day and night in the temple and was there to see baby Jesus as well... the white marshmallow represents Anna because of her goodness and holiness, the black of the chocolate is because she was a widow, and the marshmallow stands on the cookie "floor," just as Anna remained always on the floor of the temple. Deep, no? I didn't make this one up! ;)

two turtledoves - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into dove shapes using a cookie cutter

I made lots of turtledoves, since we were serving six children in all... and the grownups ate the scraps!

The table, all set and ready... I also made some raspberry tea, and chocolate almond tea for the grownups! We used Cecilia's leftover snowflake plates... this date marks the halfway point in winter. Halfway to spring!

Brianna and Caroline enjoy their lunch... Caroline had just stuffed a speared and dipped strawberry into her mouth, ha ha!

Leah, Kaitlyn, and Sam

Cecilia with her tea... I am not kidding when I say that she asked for more tea twelve times! Granted, these adorable tiny teacups only hold about a tablespoon at a time... aren't they so cute? Beth brought them for us to use for the tea!

And here are all the "big kids" finishing up their lunch. This was a fun idea, and I look forward to doing it again in the future! I think these teas will be a fun resource for years to come... I think it is a fun way for the older kids to begin to learn about Bible stories and saints! Thanks to the Johnstons for joining us and for providing strawberries, carrots, cookies, and teacups!