Christmas Eve

Well that's it!

I have had it!

I have been working like a navvy all day and now I am finished.

I nipped out first thing to buy potatoes and carrots from the grocer for tomorrow's dinner. Then I did a little extra shopping for the Christmas Stockings. Everywhere people were wishing each other a merry Christmas or Happy Feast. There was a certain something in the air and that certain something was the joy that comes with celebrating the Birth of Our Lord!

It is a grey dull foggy day here but no one seems to mind. Everyone was chatting and the children were happy and smiling. I wish our world was like this all year round.

When I got home I finished the Cake and then made mince pies and sausage rolls. Then I cleaned the kitchen, and generally assisted AGA who is in charge of clean up as we have a very dear friend coming to Christmas Lunch with us so everything needs a once over. He is also in charge of the Christmas Pudding and Roast Duck we will be having tomorrow.

We shall be going to the Basilica for Midnight Mass although it will kick off at 10pm with a choral concert to which we will go. The church looks so lovely and I thought I would share a couple of pictures with you but not before I have wished you - yes you! the one reading this blog post! - a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!

I may have time to post on Boxing Day but if not then I shall be back on the following Weekend as I shall be back in London for the week...

Here is a view that shows the Advent Wreathe suspended form the ceiling and you might just make out, behind the altar, the Christmas tree.

And this is our Nativity scene. It is the nicest crib I have ever seen and is built up gradually over the Advent period until it looks as you can see now (I took the photo yesterday) and later Our Lord will makes His entrance!

Cake complete

Finally the Christmas cake can sit back and rest.  It has had its icing overcoat put on and then has been 'gussied' up for Christmas Day.


I am rather pleased with this particular cake and I found the perfect holly leaves and berries to decorate the top - I just hope it (the cake, not the decoration) tastes okay!
Do you put a candle on your Christmas Cake? I always put one as it is Jesus' Birthday!

Christmas Markets

Because Tom (from Vegas) asked me if I would sometime post pictures from the Christmas markets here in the Dusseldorf area I have finally done so and here they are!

Angels for sale

Gluhwein anyone?

There are always plenty of food stalls

I like the deer on the roof of this stall

The famous Kathe Wohlfarht stall - seller of very nice Christmas decorations

Christmas decorations galore!

More decorations

This is a section of the market around the old town square with our famous ruler Jan Willem, on horse back above us all!  I took this photo from an upstairs shop window, just for this blog!

Another view of the town square section of the market.

The pictures are rather grey because at present it is always raining or just about to rain.

Wow!

I have just returned from a spectacular choral concert given at the St. Suidbertus Basilica here in Kaiserswerth. The Basilica is not a huge building but it was packed. I estimate about 400 were there, of all ages. AGA and I were lucky to find seats!

The concert was performed by the Basilika-Chor St. Suitbertus – this is the parish choir and very good they are too. Two of their number work at the our small supermarket.

There was a lead Soprano as well who was not all that good although I certainly could not do better.

And finally some pieces were performed by the Choralschola St. Suidbertus – this is an all male choir of about 10 parishioners. They perform Gregorian Chant at Mass and are absolutely fab!

Now to the music, which was being performed in honour of MarianSontag (Mary’s Sunday) which we celebrate today in honour of the Blessed Mother.

And what music is was!!!

J.S.Bach: “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”

(Sleepers Awake. Lovely as always)

The Introitus for the 4th Sunday of advent: “Rorate caeli desuper”

(Sung by the Choralschola – it took the breath away!)

Carl Orff: “Tauet, ihr Himmel, fern aus den Hoehen”

(Not being an Orff fan I found this to be turgid. I ma having difficulty translating this one too)

Luis de Vittoria: “Ave Maria”

(I am a major follower of Vittoria – when I saw this was on the programme I was very exited and the performance was exellent!)

Moritz Hauptmann: “Macht hoch die Tuer”

(Make high the door. 19th Century.  Not bad)

Hugh Keyte: “Maria durch ein Dornwald ging”

(Mary by a thorn forest went. A modern-ish piece. Quite nice in a Vicar of Dibbly sort of way)

Jan Kampanus Vodnansky: “O Heiland, reiss die Himmel auf”

(Lovely)

Offertory for the 4th Sunday of Advent: “Ave Maria, gratia plena”

(Wonderful)

Marian Antiphon: :Alma Redemptoris Mater”

(Spectacular)

J.S.Bach: “Mein Glaubiges Herze, frohlocke”

(I think is ‘my heart is glad’ or something like that anyway. It was sung by the Soprano, from the organ loft.

Giovanni Battista Bononcini: “Divertimento No 7”

(Very nice organ piece)

Friedrich von Spee: “Von Kindlein Frisch geboren”

(A Child, flax fresh was born. Such a lovely title. It wouldn’t be a concert without something from our local lad. Beautiful as is all of his work.)

Michael Praetorius: :Es ist ein Ros’ entsrpungen”

(‘We know this as Lo, how a Rose ere blooming’, I like this a lot in English. In German it is just as nice.)

Anonymous: “Jauchzet, ihr Himmel”

(Praise, Heaven. A lovely 17th century piece)

J.S.Bach: “Ehre und Preis sei Gott, dem Herren”

(Honour and Praise to You O God. Only three Bach pieces! I liked this a lot.

Hans Leo Hassler: “Verbum caro factum est”

Then we finished up with everyone singing another, very rousing version of the great Advent hymn “Macht hoch die Tuer”, after which we all wandered off home!

Marzipanning

Today was the day to Marzipan the Christmas cake.

I don't possess a food processor so I cannot grind my own almond meal.  Instead I buy it in packets.  But there are problems in buying the almond meal.  

Firstly, here in Germany they sell almond meal but it is ground with the brown casing and I am sorry but I prefer my marzipan to be unadulterated.  

Secondly, around Christmas time they do sell refined almond meal but the moment the Fraus get a whiff of it in the air they descend upon the shops en masse and then there is none left! 

You have got to be quick!

I pride myself on the fact that I have learnt to be swift, and so, like an experienced old lion seeing a zebra wandering down to the old water hole but knowing that the moment he lets it out of his site the hyenas will be on to it, I zipped into Dusseldorf and beat the Fraus.  I bought 4 packets - 3 to use and 1 to keep.

I mixed the almond meal with icing sugar and castor sugar and almond essence and lemon juice and a beaten egg and formed it into a ball with my hands.  Mixing marzipan by hand is great for your skin too by the way as the oil makes them feel soft. . .

Then it was time to wake up the cake and get him out of his tin. He was looking a bit drowsy but smelt so good. The minute I lifted the lid of the tin I knew this was a good cake. So I took his photo!  And he is a heavy one too.

then I rolled our the marzipan and having coted the cake in warm apricot jam I proceeded to help him on with his first lot of clothing.

Now he is resting on a cake stand in the sittingroom while the marzipan dries a little before going back into his tin. Soon it will be time to apply his outer garment of royal icing fit for a King among cakes, made to celebrate the Birth of Our King!

Christmas?

I’m sorry but Christmas is not for the children.

(And what’s more, the greeting ‘Merry Christmas’ should not be renamed Merry Kidsmas (as heard this past week for the title of a competition on BFBS radio.))

Christmas should not be the occasion of recourse to an unholy outburst of ‘hedonistic materialism’ so recently decried by Pope Benedict.

Of all our Christian Feasts, Christmas has been the one most defiled by the modern world with all its secular consumerism and fashionable agnosticism. It has been transformed from a joy-filled celebration to celebrate the birth of Our Lord into this sin-filled World of ours so that we might be saved; into an occasion for greed, selfishness and out of control materialism.

We buy gifts for our loved ones in memory of the gifts bought by the Three Wise Men but so often we go overboard. We load children with presents so that the real meaning of the gifts is forgotten! And such presents that are mass produced by people who care not one jot for Christ! How often do the presents we buy have anything to actually do with the Christmas message?

And we buy gifts for ourselves! 

What is that all about? 

That is not the true spirit of giving! Buying Christmas gifts for ourselves is selfishness and a crime. If you think that you have money to indulge in by buying presents for yourself, you might do better to give that money to the poor who have nothing.

Christmas is being defiled by all sorts of impiety. 

In one Christmas Market here in Germany I saw a stall that prominently displayed posters and cards etc which depicted illustrations from the 1950s but with profanities scrawled across them. I felt nothing but disgust and shame when I looked upon them. Is that the way to celebrate the Birth of Our Lord? By selling filth?

My goodness but we need one of those old fashioned prophets like Isaiah or Habbakuk to come along and give us a good ticking off!

Of course this is not to say that the entire world defiles Christmas and its message but a goodly proportion do and they surely offend Our Lord.

But hold on one moment - have I a log in my own eye?

Do I also offend The Lord at this time?

Am I living the full spirit of the Christmas message of utter love and self-sacrifice?

No.

My life is filled with moments of back sliding, spiritual laziness, self indulgence and sin.

If I love the Christ Child (and I do!) I must do a lot better and there no more perfect time to begin than right now!

What about you?

Euthanasia

Three Cheers for Pope Benedict XVI!

Why?

He has spoken out against the secularists of Luxembourg.

See here

and here

I looked but did not see any reports of this in the mainstream 'Western' press (although I may not have been looking in the right places).  

I did read the Luxembourg press review of the voting and the fact that a lot of people in the parliament seemed outraged at the Church's attempt to interfere with what they called 'self determination' but where do they see God in this definition?  It appears that they have turned not only heretic but have succumbed to a truly horrible wickedness.

If I am understanding things correctly this dreadful Bill has passed the Second Reading in the Parliament...

and then from Australia comes this this and you realise that our World is growing more wicked than in the times before Christ came into the World to redeem us!!!

48 hours in the life of . . .

. . . a Christmas Cake. 

(This all took place last Sunday and Monday).


Here is the fruit you saw last week, all mixed up now with the flour, eggs, best Irish butter, brown sugar and spices. It all looks rather sickly but believe me if you were to have tasted a bit of the raw mixture from the wooden spoon you might just think you were on the way to Heaven!
Then it was a case of 'into the oven with him'! 

5 and a half hours later out he came. Very hot and angry. 

While he sat on the stove top in his brown paper coat, I quickly prepared his 'bed'.


Left in the tin, sprinkled with a few teaspoons of brandy, the baking paper folded over the top and aluminium foil on top of that, he was wrapped in a towel with a plate placed on his head - for 24 hours while he cooled down.

Monday afternoon, I returned home from school.  The cake was well cool by now so I tipped him out to enable us to get a proper look at him and my goodness what a healthy speciman of a Christmas Cake he is!

Dr Brandy was ever on hand to sprinkle him . . .

. . . after which he was wrapped up in new baking paper, aluminium foil and placed him in a cake tin.
And there he sits even as I type.
He has been in there for one week and has another one to go. I check in on him every second day and 'feed' him with a couple of teaspoons of brandy - he isn't complaining because he knows that next Saturday he will be measured up for his marzipan undergarment!

I am having trouble uploading pictures to Blogger which is extremely irritating!

In the meantime here is a video from YouTube of Away in a Manger.  With Good King Wenceslas this is my favourite Christmas carol.

Six things that make me happy.

A mid-week post because two of my blogging world friends: Philip and Ttony tagged me with a meme to list six things that make me happy...

So here they are:

Food

Food is one of my favourite things. Food, and the presentation of it in appetisingly tasty forms is a wonderful gift from God! Reading about it, cooking it, writing about it and of course eating it: My love of food is all encompassing just like my love of God!

The Holy Trinity

The Holy Trinity is one of my favourite things. I love receiving Our Lord at Holy Mass and singing his praises (even in German).  When I go to bed I like to think about the Holy Trinity until I fall asleep – I hope that the time will come when I can spend eternity in the presence of my God!

Books

Books are one of my favourite things. New books to be sure but old books especially. Second hand books. I can spend a happy afternoon or indeed an entire day, looking through old second hand bookshops for treasures that appeal to me. Biographies of Saints and other interesting people, Murder mysteries of the more gentile sort, Poetry and books on the countryside and nature. 

PG Wodehouse never fails to make me laugh. I love the intellectual niceties of ‘Fr Brown’ ‘Brother Cadfael’ and Lord Peter Wimsey. Dame Edith Sitwell’s poetry is fab as is the Earl of Surrey’s. Mary Mitford’s ’Our Village’ is such as nice book. Roper’s Biography of St. Thomas More. Prescott’s bio of Mary Tudor. I could go on. But by far my favourite books are those on all periods of English history. I well remember the time I spotted both volumes of Dr Shirley’s edition of ‘Letters of King Henry III’ in a second hand shop. I know I spent a lot of money on them but now as I look at them sitting there all snug on the bookshelf I feel a happy glow in my heart!

13th Century

The 13th century is one of my favourite things. It was an innocent time. Unsullied by the bleakness of the Black Death. The passions of the people were exceedingly childlike and they had a child like trust in God although they didn’t always do good. When they were happy they laughed out loud and when they were sad they cried. They were an uncomplicated people. True there were fights and indeed they were sometimes big ones as at the Battles of Lewes and of Evesham. There was also a lot of legal wrangling. 13th Century in England was presided over by one of my heroes, the artistic King Henry III (I know not to everyone’s taste). Then there was St. Francis of Assisi, St. Dominic, Abbess Euphemia of Wherewell, St. Louis IX, St. Thomas Aquinas, Eleanor of Provence, Richard of Cornwall, and the list goes on. And there was a growth in gardening, the introduction of more comfortable habitation at all levels of society, new discoveries and glorious churches that sore to the skies. What a time to be alive!

Family and Friends

Family and friends are among my favourite things. My mother, my best friend AGA, my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew, my cousins, friends at work and at play and when blogging  – they all go to make my life pleasurable. How could they not be a part of my favourite things!

Music

Music is one of my favourite things. Baroque music is my great love (especially Handel and old Jean Philippe Rameau after whom my car was named). Handel is alleged to have said that the only music that Englishmen liked was the sort they could tap their feet to – and that is me! I love dance music. Not for me andante or lento. I want gigues, vivace and presto!  And yes it is true that I sing 'Rule Britannia' at the top of my voice while baking cakes. . .

During the 80s and 90s I listened to dance music loudly, all the time and I still listen to it today along with various current ones which I store on my iPod for when I am doing the cleaning or on a plane flight, or studying… Actually I am listening to it as I type this post (Mind you, I am also eating a large piece of Stollen (German Christmas cake) spread with butter and raspberry jam)

At the age of forty-five, I am too ‘ancient’ to go to a nightclub without looking silly. I would probably get tired rather quickly if I did go as well as being shocked by the licentiousness and vulgarity, but I can still enjoy the music providing the lyrics are okay. 

Having said that though I also find that these days I enjoy the more dramatically sublime (if you can say such a thing) music of the likes of Vittoria, Tallis and Monteverdi, provided, like Ttony, you can play it loud. The Coronation music for King James II is a particular favourite of mine and would you think me silly if I was to say that Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lake Ascending’ always brings tears to my eyes? I always think that it is such heart-stirringly brave music.

Yikes! That is a very long explanation! Mea culpa if I became boring ...

Okay so there are my six. 

Mind you I could have put in some more as there are many things arising from being surrounded by God’s most wondrous bounty that make me happy!

Now as for who I would tag. . .

It is tricky because some of my possible candidates have already been tagged...

I chose:

Tom my cyber cousin in Vegas

Adrienne (because she hasn't posted one yet although I bet she has been tagged already.)

Elderflower 

Rita who writes some of the most thoughtful posts I know

Terry over there at the Abbey Roads Sites

Louise who write a very amusing yet thought provoking blog

Catholic Hero

By now many of you will have read about the courageous stand of Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg over the proposed Bill going through his country's parliament to legalise euthanasia.  If you have not then I refer  you to this blog post at the Hermeneutic of continuity .

As a result of his stand the Grand Duke is being scandalously attacked by the Media.

I don't see anyone in the public eye standing up for him.  I hope the archbishop steps forward but I haven't heard or read anything in that regard this far. . .

I admire the Grand Duke's stand and his determination to hold to his Faith against the whims of the materialistic, secular world who wish to perpetrate such a wicked act, thus attempting to remove God from the picture and override His will when it comes to the time of death for all of us.  What a horrible Christmas present for the people of Luxembourg!

Anyway, I was reading all the various posts in response to the blog post and thought: "yes its all very well to say that I agree with what the Grand Duke is doing, but what can I do?"

Well the answer is simple. 

Firstly I can pray to God for the Grand Duke and his family,as well as for the parliament and the Luxembourg people.

Secondly I can write an email of support to this courageous man and tell him that I support him in his hour of need - and so this is what I have done!  Why don't you follow me and do the same. The email address appears to be:

service.presse@gdl.etat.lu 

and you can write in English so really you have no excuse!

Okay, I admit it

I think that I am addicted to blogging and my so called breather has lasted 5 days...

I just couldn't keep away from my blog and then checking everyone else's.  

My blog is like my own little Internet house and I like it a lot so here I am back again.

I have been thinking about it and I am going to post on weekend's as that is when I have the time.  This week I concentrated on everything else and my studies didn't suffer.

Which is a good thing!

So anyway. . .

Today I went with AGA to Dusseldorf and visited the Christmas markets, and bought some things for my family which I can send off during this week.

It was cold and packed but that is how it always is.  There were lots of French, Dutch and English being spoken because German Christmas markets are rather famous and a lot of people come to see them and spend their money.

In the afternoon I visited the much smaller version in Kaiserswerth and listened to the children from our school sing for the market go-ers.  I took some photos and I must say that they sang so nicely after which the teacher/parent choir sang as well.

After that and a little rest I went to the Vigil Mass which this week was in honour of all the alter servers.  There were about fifty of them there, from Kaiserswerth and the three sister churches, and the priest gave a lovely sermon on his own childhood alter serving which made them laugh, and cleverly worked into it a lesson on the Gospel reading.

I was in two minds about going to Mass this evening because I was tired and it is rather cold outside...

And then I thought I wouldn't end up going tomorrow either because I have the Christmas cake to supervise and ... and .... and .... the excuses piled up.

Then I stopped.

I LOVE Jesus so how on earth could I be thinking that I wouldn't go and see him and receive him into my heart this weekend?  Why would I not want to go and see my best friend in the whole world?  True, I do have things to do tomorrow and I prefer the Vigil Mass as it is a quieter one (which is more to my inclination) So I put on my hat, coat and gloves, grabbed my missal and sallied forth and I am so glad I did because I always feel so revived when I receive Our Lord.  

It makes my heart shout out how much I love Him!  

Does it do that for you?

Taking a breather

I'm taking a breather from blogging for a while.

I just have too much work on my plate at present to concentrate on it.  Not only my day to day work but my University studies which are increasingly taking up more and more of my free time!

I keep posting in spurts and then time passes and I feel guilty and then think that no one will be reading my posts anyway.

Maybe I am trying to put too much into blogging.  Too eager.  Too much trying to make my mark!  

And I see so much uncharitable-ness in the Catholic blogging sphere that I disagree with.  Sometimes it seems to border on Pharisee-ism and that makes me sad and a bit like Jeffery Smith whose blogs I enjoy so much!  (Mind you I see a lot of niceness and true practicing of God's presence as well.)

Anyway, I shall see how things are in the new year.