Saints Peter and Paul

This Feast is quite remarkable: we honor two great saints, very different from one another, who even argued together on how to deal with the Gentiles joining the young Church. There was Peter, the fisherman, impulsive, wholehearted, who denied Our Lord and Paul, the Roman citizen, the intellectual, who persecuted Our Lord through His Church. However, it is what brings them togheter that is more important: they met the Risen Christ, they were forgiven, and filled with the Spirit, they fulfilled their Apostolic mission and were crowned with martyrdom.

"They were able to overcome every trial because their trust was not based on human resources but on the grace of the Lord, who delivers his friends from every evil and saves them for his kingdom." Pope John Paul II

The preface of the Holy Mass today presents this beautifully:

"Peter raised up the Church from the faithful flock of Israel. Paul brought your call to the nations and became the teacher of the world.

Each in his chosen way gathered into unity the one family of Christ. Both shared a martyr's death and are praised throughout the world."

All in our chosen way, we are called by God to build His Kingdom, not ours. May the example of Sts. Peter and Paul inspires us to stay faithful and to be united in Christ's love (however different we may be individually).

Friday abstinence

This friday is the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul and we can celebrate their feast day with a good meal. However, all fridays of the year are days of penance. So, catholics from age fourteen to sixty are bound to abstinence of meat or another food or acts of penance according to their Bishops' conference (exceptions: when the friday falls on a first class feast or during an octave) . Both Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of required fast and abstinence and abstinence from meat is also obligatory on the fridays of Lent. Children, the elderly, the sick, pregnant and nursing women are not bound to this obligation. It is also good to remind ourselves that any deprivation that would hinder the service of our vocation and of our state in life is not the will of God.

The Church shows its wisdom by prescribing days of fast, abstinence and penance. Meals are important to the domestic church and are essential in living the Liturgical year. By following the days of fast, abstinence and the feasts, we can recall to our memory the events of the lives of Christ, Mary and the Saints. It also helps us curb our passions (starting by the one for food) and realize how blessed we are by Our Lord. More importantly, it unites us to His suffering and the suffering of His Church in a special way. The Feast days are then appreciated and celebrated in a deeper manner.

The domestic church can live friday penance in many small ways:

- cook a vegeterian or fish dish

- make the meal plain and forego desert

- if the children do not like your menu, have them eat a small "offering" portion as a sacrifice before giving them something else

- collect money from each member of the family for the Sunday offering

- make the day a "no complaint day" and reward the family with a surprise treat on Sunday or Saturday

To help vary the menu, here is a recipe of Quiche (from my mother) that is easy to make and nutritious as well. It is crustless, so no pate brise to make!

3 eggs, beaten

1 cup of milk

1 cup of flour

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking powder

2 cups of broccoli florets (or any other vegetable), cooked

1/4 cup of chopped onion

1 cup of grated cheese

2 tablespoons of butter

Warm up the oven at 350C.

Melt the butter and pour in a baking dish.

Whisk the milk and eggs together in a large bowl. Add the flour, salt and baking powder; whisk until smooth. Add the chopped onion, broccoli and cheese and mix. Pour in the baking dish and cook for about 45 minutes or until cooked. Et voila!

Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist

Since I am French-canadian, this is a very important Feast day as St. Jean le Baptiste is our patron saint. I have vivid memories of the bonfires lit up in the park next to our home during my childhood.

In the Church calendar, only three birthdays are celebrated: Our Lord, Our Lady and St. John the Baptist. All the other Saints are honored on the day of their death or birth in Heaven. Exceptions are Our Lady, who was without sin from her immaculate conception and St. John, who was cleansed from original sin in the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth. The Council of Agde in 506 confirms this feast as one of the highest in the Church life. Three masses, like at Christmas, were celebrated on that day.

It is celebrated on the 24th and not the 25th because of the way romans calculated their calendars: Christmas is 8 days before the kalends of January, the birth of St. John the Baptist 8 days before the kalends of July and since June has 30 days, it gives us the 24th of June as the date for this feast. It is a feast of light, the longest day of the year (approximately). Bonfires are a tradition in many countries (including my native Quebec).

It also means that the days are going to become shorter until Christmas. "He must increase: but I must decrease" John 3:30.

St. John the Baptist is the saint of adulthood, of maturity. He shows us how to prepare the way of the Lord in repentance. His ministry is intimately linked to the sacrament of Baptism and to the sacrament of Reconciliation. Like him, we are also called as Christian parents to prepare the way of the Lord in our home (and sometimes it feels like preaching in the desert!), so that our children will recognize the Lord in their own life.

"...the Lord willed to announce to men His own coming through the Baptist, lest if He appeared suddenly, they would fail to recognize Him." - St. Augustine

For the domestic church, if you are not up to a bonfire in your backyard, decorating your door with lilies, St. John's wort and birch leaves is a nice way to mark the day of his birth. I also serve a barbecue (fire!) and corn on the cob that day, as my parents did.

Ordinary Time

The life of the Church follows two cycles: in the Temporal cycle, the life of Christ is relived in liturgical time; in the Sanctoral cycle, the emphasis is on Mary, the Mother of God and then the saints and martyrs of the Church. The year is divided in season: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter (finishing after the Octave of Pentecost) and Ordinary Time.

Following the seasons of the Church and the Temporal and Sanctoral cycle is a great way to enrich life and faith in the domestic church. The life of the domestic church should not be limited to the great Feasts of Christmas and Easter! Actually, by living each season well, we will appreciate them with even more depth.

We are right now in Ordinary Time, the longest season, the season of growth and maturity, symbolised by the color green. Basking in the Glory of the Resurrection, strenghtened by the Holy Spirit, we are ready to grow in holiness. It is then a wonderful time to practice the truths of the Faith in daily life.

Here are some suggestions to live Ordinary Time in your home:

- I love to put candles on the table at dinner time and I choose the color according to the season, to honor a Our Lady or a saint. Right now the color is green. Children really like changing the colored candles with the season or a special feast.

- It is a great time to establish a regular pattern of prayer in personal and family life and persevere in it.

- Celebrate the solemnity or feast day of the saints and Our Lady, for they are bountiful during the summer. In July: St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Maria Goretti, St. Benedict, Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, St. James, St. Bridget,....

- Meditate on the Luminous Mysteries when saying the Rosary.

- There is more leasure time during summer, so why not start a good spiritual book, Sacramentum caritatis for example (the cover is green, so you can keep the color scheme going).

- Planting a garden and having the little ones help is a wonderful way to introduce them to the first chapters of Genesis as well as having fresh food for the summer.