Traditional blessing of Easter Food

Each year on Holy Saturday our Parish Priest blesses meat, bread and eggs brought in by families that will be used for their Easter feast. I've been told that this is an ancient Catholic tradition that has survived best in Eastern Europe - Poland in particular where it is referred to as Święconka or in some regions Święcone. I'm half Polish, although grew up without any Polish customs or traditions in my family, so it's lovely to incorporate this into our family Easter rituals - so my quarter-Polish children have some sense of the Grandfather's culture.  


The prayers are particularly beautiful and remind us of the passover and the resurrection. Today the families who brought in their food also received a blessing and together we prayed Blessed Pope John Paul II's Prayer for Families. 

After the rigours of Lent -- and particularly Holy Week -- this simple ceremony feels like a gentle push towards the coming celebrations of the glory of the Resurrection. 

I wish all my readers a blessed and happy Eastertide. Blogging will resume after Easter and I will pray for you all at the Easter Vigil this evening.
 

Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere!

Stations of the King's Cross

This past Lent, an anonymous Catholic artist created a booklet called "Stations of the King's Cross" which featured a series of original paper-cut illustrations to encourage travellers on London's Central Line tube to meditate on the Stations of the Cross as they travel in either direction. 

Describing her project, the artist says:

Stations of the King’s Cross is a little illustrated prayer aid for following the way of the cross while traveling on the tube. Moving clockwise or anti-clockwise on the circle line,there’s one tube stop for each station, ending up at, appropriately, King’s Cross.They contain 14 beautiful illustrations, which have been created by intricately cutting single sheets of white paper.The booklets have been made & distributed by a young artist who has always found idle train trips a fruitful opportunity for prayer, been moved greatly by this profound devotion, and thought that other tube-travelers might appreciate this neat idea of combining the two. 

During Lent, copies of the booklet were left in the trains; travellers can now request a copy by visiting the artist's website. The booklets are free but donations to cover costs are welcome.

The striking paper-cut illustrations are to be sold by silent auction with all proceeds supporting three charities: Mary's Meals, The SVP and The Bard School. The images can be viewed (and bid on) on the Stations of  the King's Cross website. 

On Saturday 26th May an exhibition of the original artworks will open at St Mary’s, Eversholt Street (near King’s Cross Station.); this is the eve of Pentecost, which marks the end of the Easter Season. The exhibition will open with an evening prayer at 7pm, followed by refreshments, and an opportunity to view the artworks accompanied by live piano music. Free booklets will be available for people to take as they please, and everyone is welcome to the event. The exhibition will be open 9am – 8pm daily up to and including Monday 4th June.

So - if you're looking for an interesting present for somebody, whist supporting a good cause it may be worth checking this out.

For my part I'm just delighted to see orthodox Christian practice in the public square and think that it's important to support projects like this. I don't often travel by tube, and rarely take the Circle Line, but I have been told that the booklets were readily available on trains during Lent - and that can only be a Good Thing. What an exceptional example of evangelisation! 

Święcone - Blessing of Easter Food

Traditionally on Holy Saturday food to be eaten in the Easter feast is brought to the parish to be blessed. A traditional blessing includes prayers over the meat, eggs and bread as well as salt. The tradition has been kept alive by Polish Catholics, and for the past two years our Parish Priest has invited families to bring baskets of food representing their Easter meal to Church on Holy Saturday for the blessing (Święcone in Polish - rather close to my maiden name!). As I'm half-Polish and our children are, therefore, one quarter Polish, we thought this was a good practice to add to our family traditions. The photo is our our basket this year  - bread, eggs from our our chickens, and lamb prepared with sea-salt and rosemary. 


We've abstained from meat during Holy Week - my youngest has woken up every morning for the last three days asking "Can I have sausages NOW?"  so we will appreciate this meal when its time comes.
                 
               ... not long to go until we can celebrate. 
                                          
                                            Not long now to wait for the Resurrection.

Wishing you all a happy and blessed Easter!