Quick Takes #4 It's Still Christmas!
It's time to bring back the broccoli.
Merry Christmas, friends! I’m thinking of all of you as I wrap up, throw away, and freeze what must be 50 pounds of sugary treats acquired during the feast. If I invited all of you to celebrate, we could make short work of the goodies and then get back to reasonable foods… like broccoli. Although—come to think of it—if it was a Christmas party, you might feel obliged to bring a plate of cookies, and then the difficulty would be compounded…
And so I go back to packing, tossing, freezing.
At any rate, it’s time to reign in all of the beautiful sugary food and round out the remainder of the Christmas season beautiful nourishing food. I splurged and it was fine but now my body is yelling at me. Lupus is unforgiving. The rule of thumb for holiday foods is pretty simple: If I eat inflammatory foods, I have pain. It was worth it for three days and is no longer worth it. Thanks be to God for the many years of hard and fruitful lessons about caring for the body. I purge the kitchen with much gratitude.
On to some (relatively) quick takes…
ADDRESS ONE ANOTHER IN SONG
The fact that I continue to visit public places and have never been caught in the middle of a praise and worship flash mob is an ongoing source of consternation. The video below of a group of men singing in a Chick-fil-a is still one of my favorites when I try to live vicariously through YouTube. I also dream of standing in the produce section of Walmart singing “How Great is our God!” Perhaps this is how it will be everyday when Christmas takes such deep root in our souls and bodies that we live with songs of praise on our lips. When we have truly fallen in love, the worship of the liturgy will flow out into the streets.
“…be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.” - Ephesians 5:18
A FAITH THAT NEVER INTEGRATES?
As college students prepare to leave their home communities to head back to school again after break, I’m pondering—as I often do as a mother of young adults—the sorrow of communities fractured by the dominance of the institutional schedule. For the majority of the year, many parishes experience a significant loss of members between the ages of 18 and 24. The dream of healthy integrated Catholic communities is fractured by the reality that most of us send the young packing as soon as they graduate.
As a mom of some young adults who have chosen to stay local, I feel the emptiness keenly. It is lonely for the young left behind. They sense that dynamic community can be found primarily and best by going away to college.
That shouldn’t be true.
With those thoughts in mind, I came across this article in Sword and Spade about the immaturity of faith planted in youth ministry. The author expresses some concerns that I share regarding the institutional funneling of youth, and also a vision of integrated community. I don’t have a subscription (yet) so I was only able to read part of the article, but even that bit was worth reading.
Excerpted from “Kid Catholics” published December 14 in Sword & Spade:
For healthy intergenerational relationships, parents must see that they need each other significantly more than they need youth programs or staff. We need the type of community where mentoring and friendships are established, expected, and tended. And, in the maturity, where the interchange of mentoring – likely known more simply as “community” – is also expected and treasured. In other words, we must make it about being mature men and women, not focusing on the formula for our kids that will out-compete the world. This makes the adult community the focus of formation, even if it is for the sake of the young.
COPYCAT CRUMBL SUGAR COOKIES
I know I said I was done with sugar but some of you are going to want cookies again in a few months and these are so good. We made them gluten free by substituting King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free flour and they turned out perfectly. The science of GF baking can be tricky, but we love when it’s just this easy!
We typically make these cut out sugar cookies for Christmas but ran out of time this year. Though these round cookies aren’t as pretty, I loved the texture and taste. Soft and delicious! Now we get to see how they fare in the freezer since I just wrapped a couple dozen.
Copycat Crumbl Sugar Cookies Recipe
"What would Vicki do?"
I've been getting phone calls for about a year from an elderly man I don't know. He knew a woman with my number many years ago (pre-cell phones) and has been trying to reach her. Her name is Ellen.
At first he called so often that I thought of blocking him, but instead I started to answer his calls to politely remind him that I'm not Ellen. Last week he called many times. I let most of them go but finally picked up, told him again that I wasn't Ellen, and wished him a Merry Christmas.
Then I thought about what Vicki Przybylski might do and I called him back to ask his name and to let him know that I would pray for him. (She probably would have done that months ago.) And we got to talking...
He told me that Ellen would be 99 years old and she was the last person still left on his list of people he used to know. It had diminished to five. To one. Then to none. He said he'd better just face the reality that she was gone and give up now... and he started to cry a little.
I asked him about Ellen and about himself. We talked about God and he told me about his prayers for healing for his eyes and other things and his hope to be able to learn the piano "by heart not by sight."
I learned that he lives in a Cleveland nursing home under a court appointed guardian. (I looked the place up later and my heart sank when I saw the one star rating.) He loves music and he remembers Ellen because she liked to listen to him sing. He used to sing to her from The Great American Song Book.
We talked for half an hour and he apologized for taking my time. I told him that he'd brought joy to my day and he got choked up again. Then he asked me if he could call sometime to sing for me. I said yes but that I'm often away from my phone so he should feel free to leave me messages.
That was last week. And today, at the end of this very long week, during which I had been sick with some nasty flu, temporarily displaced from home in a hotel, and frustrated that I couldn't do the usual home/kitchen prep for Christmas...
I got three messages from a man who has no one left on his list. Except maybe now me. He sang me some of his favorite songs (Billy Joel, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra) and I cried.
I wasn't able to go to Vicki's funeral because I was sick, but those messages came in during the liturgy... and I just really don't believe in coincidences.
CATHOLIC FITNESS
This is the time of year when multiple fitness certifications renew and I’m blessed with a little bit of scramble and immersion in some of my favorite things. If you are currently a participant or instructor of yoga, I invite you to learn more about Catholic alternatives HERE. They are not “Catholic yoga” (which would be a contradiction since yoga is Hindu bodily prayer) but truly Christ-oriented bodily prayer.
I recently sustained another major joint injury (I do have degenerative joint disease so I should stop being surprised) and so local classes will be temporarily disrupted, but the links on my website will take you to free trials of both SoulCore and Pietra Fitness online classes. I encourage you to look up local instructors as well, since the experience of prayerful movement in community is worth it.
In the past year, I have suffered both a hip labral tear and shoulder labral tear. I have continued to grow in knowledge and strength in mind and body and these setbacks have actually accelerated my learning and growth, pushing me into areas of study and practice that I probably wouldn’t have engaged otherwise. I am stronger than I have been in two years.
My interest in injury prevention, strength, mobility, and training others through pain has increased, and I look forward to incorporating all of this into future practice.
God’s design for our happiness and healing is incredible. Blessed be God.
I’m struck during these seasons of celebration at how important the details are in life and how much God intends us to notice them. The God of fingernails and weirdly hairy caterpillars has created us with an unquenchable desire to make things delightful, too.
Within the complexity of our stirred up seasonal struggles, the God of all creation notices everything about you and He takes delight in that candle you lit because it was pretty, the bow you placed just so that was promptly torn off, and the attention you gave to the gravy and the gifts. He saw that one tear that fell before the guests arrive. And when Jimmy Stewart stood at the edge of the bridge and you held back a sob, God the Father and give of life felt that with you.
He is madly in love with you. And I pray that someday we can all be comfortable standing in the radiance of such seemingly reckless devoted love… and just surrender to it.
God bless you, friends. It’s still Christmas! Party on and maybe add some broccoli.
Melody
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This was beautiful and the story about the caller was like a Christmas miracle! I do hope you go visit him and let him sing to you in person! We'll pray for him, too!