Is tea Catholic?
It is certainly ‘catholic’ but can a cup of tea be said to be a Catholic drink?
You can certainly have Catholic tea and I use an old a valued recipe when doing so but while I was making my 11 o’clock cup of tea a few minutes ago, I began to ponder this almost (in such turbulent times) frivolous, Marie Antoinette type of question.
When I write of tea I mean that which is taken with milk and/or sugar or with lemon. I do not mean peppermint or chamomile or any of that sort as I was always told they were tisanes.
I don’t mean Green Tea either, which makes me involuntarily wrinkle my nose.
I take my tea with milk and two teaspoons of sugar or 3 sugar cubes. . .
So, is tea Catholic?
Presbytery housekeepers always seemed to be making tea, often in big old tea pots, and I am pretty sure that if St. Martha had known about it she would have made pots of tea for Our Lord and the Disciples – and cake as well.
My late Father had a distant cousin who was a Canon of Canterbury Cathedral and I pretty sure that back in those days a cup of tea was de riguer in polite C of E clerical circles.
So then is tea a Protestant drink?
A moot point but I think not. I cannot picture the American Baptists taking tea (although I might be wrong there) nor the German Lutherans. On the other hand I don’t suppose that Pope Benedict drinks tea - I put him down as a coffee drinker. Germans are hopeless at making tea. They are much better at coffee.
I am sure that many would say that coffee is a Catholic drink and perhaps that is true but (a) I don’t like the taste of coffee and (b) I am coming from a background of genteel Anglo/Saxon sensibilities..
It probably doesn’t even matter what I think because all good things come from God and so both tea and coffee, coming from His bounty, are (in a sense) Catholic.
It is all about the way you perceive things.
And perception is a funny thing.
I would say that I am ‘Catholic’ but my great aunt, a parishioner at Brompton Oratory, would have said that she was ‘Cartholic’. A Protestant would describe both of us as ‘Roman Catholic’ or, at worst, Papists. The Secular world would have a whole different set of ways to describe us.
Perceptions are so influential and not always in a positive way.
I read so much in the papers about the American Elections. Both Messrs McCain and Obama must be living on their nerves at the moment, desperate not to appear negative to voter perceptions. . .
Anyway I am wandering off the topic of my post: I was taught how to make Catholic tea by an Irish Nun (and you can’t a better authority on such things than that!).
So this is what you do: Once you have filled the pot with the leaves and water you put the lid on and begin to turn the pot clockwise while reciting one Hail Mary. Having completed the prayer you say another Hail Mary while turning the pot anti-clockwise. You then say the third Hail Mary turning the pot clockwise again and Deo Gratia, your Catholic Tea is made and ready for pouring!
I always think that it tastes better made this way and you get to honour Our Lady with three Hail Marys in honour of the Immaculate Conception at the same time.
PS: I did have a photo of my tea cup filled with the 'life saving oolong' (as Bertie Wooster would have said) to post on this entry but Blogger is exceedingly slow to upload photos today and I admit that I lost patience in the end...
