18 March 2015

St Joseph and looking ahead

Two solemnities, Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday, Holy Week, Easter.

There's a lot happening in the next 18 days.

Tomorrow (March 19) we have the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of Mary and foster-father of Christ. (Solemnity = really big deal, the Gloria and Creed at Mass, sumptuous food even though it's Lent, meat for supper even on a Friday, etc.)

St Joseph is, among many things, the patron of husbands, fathers, and workers. And also Sicilians, which made no sense to me so I had to look it up; apparently Sicily was suffering from a terrible drought in the Middle Ages and the Sicilians prayed to St Joseph for rain, and the drought ended and their crops were saved. But anyway, husbands, fathers, workers, Sicilians... all categories that Matt falls under. So after celebrating a portion of my heritage yesterday (and I was very proud when Little Bear excitedly explained to his dad that we were having shepherds pie "because St Patrick was a shepherd!"), we're making sure to celebrate Matt tomorrow. Both the Sicilian aspect and otherwise—St Joseph's feast is basically the Catholic version of Fathers' Day.

Somewhere, hopefully in the drawer with our other holy cards, there's a picture of St Joseph and the young Christ Child playing and laughing together; it's one of my favorite images of him, and if I can find it I'll set it out tomorrow. It has a prayer for fathers on the back, if I'm not mistaken. I'll try to share it tomorrow! 

Food-wise, I'm sending minestrone with sausage in Matt's lunch tomorrow, and for supper we're planning to attempt chicken piccata with capers alongside an as-yet-undetermined pasta dish and broccoli. I was thinking about a very small cheesecake but forgot to pick up any cream cheese or ricotta, but we'll come up with something good.

Also: I still haven't figured out the "why?" on this one, but a couple of websites said it's traditional in Sicily to wear red for St Joseph's day; glad I learned that tonight! (If anyone knows why red, please enlighten the rest of us!) I should still have something red that fits, maybe? There's always scarves again if not, although it was 51 F here today so it's not really scarf weather anymore! Matt and Little Bear are set, though.

Tomorrow or the next day I'm hoping to find the time to sit down with my calendar and some cookbooks and plan out the coming two and a half weeks of liturgical busyness in the Shifflerhaus, and to share our plans with you. If I'm not online tomorrow, happy solemnity of St Joseph!

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