Sunday, December 12, 2010

Gaudete Sunday, Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Lucia Bread


Gaudete Sunday! 

Rejoice! 

We're more than halfway through Advent. We are not in a panic. We are savoring a well-paced preparation for the real beginning of the Christmas season.  And today at Mass, I'll receive this valuable reminder:



Be patient, brothers and sisters,
until the coming of the Lord.
See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth,
being patient with it
until it receives the early and the late rains.
You too must be patient.
Make your hearts firm,
because the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Do not complain, brothers and sisters, about one another,
that you may not be judged.
Behold, the Judge is standing before the gates.
Take as an example of hardship and patience, brothers and sisters,
the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.  


 ~~ James 5:7-10







Today is also the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

My personal devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe began about ten years ago, and is chronicled here.











Tomorrow is the feast of St. Lucia. My daughters' godmother, Holly, originally led me to the St. Lucia braided bread recipe that we always look forward to (you may translate "look forward to" as "my children would have my head if we didn't include this bread in the Advent season.")  You can visit this post for more details and links on our St. Lucia celebrations, and this one for the recipe for the bread.


And believe me, you do not need to be afraid of this bread recipe! You can't ruin this bread! If I can do it, you can, too. It's an incredibly forgiving recipe, so step away from the yeast fear. You'll be so happy you did. This bread ring is beautiful and delicious. If you've never tried it, I hope you will this year. And, if you don't have time this week, just file the recipe away and make it as a treat during the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Rejoice! Happy Gaudete Sunday!

3 comments:

Rochelle said...

My rosary has an Our Lady of Guadalupe medal.

Crafty P said...

oh I'm so glad I googled st lucy bread and found you! THAT recipe has been in my "to try" file ever since it appeared in the magazine. I was going back and forth about making it but you've convinced me to give it a GO! Sending it tomorrow for the kids at school! Thanks for encouraging me today!

Abby said...

I make your St. Lucia bread every year. We also use the same bread recipe for a Christmas bread that we have Christmas morning, only we add candied dried fruit and nuts to the dough, and sprinkle the top with the dried fruit instead of cranberries.

This year, though, I definitely *needed* to make the bread since it's now not just a fun saint's day to celebrate for us anymore, but also of particular importance to our munchkin. The only problem is, she's sensitive to eggs. So - in case anyone out there wants to make the recipe, but can't do the egg part, I modified the recipe to omit the eggs: just increase the butter to 8 tbsp and add an additional two tbsp of either OJ or milk. Turned out great even so - yum - one of the highlights of Advent for me :)