It all went so quickly. Before we knew it, Mardi Gras was coming and in the blink of an eye it was gone. At work we had a Mardi Gras luncheon and I decided to make a King’s Cake. I didn’t know what it was actually, and I envisioned making my super chocolate cake in a bundt pan, decorating it like a crown, and then taking that in. But when I got on the internet to see what it should look like, I discovered that king’s cake is actually a bread with a baby (plastic of course) or a coin baked inside. 
I found a wonderful recipe here and proceeded to make it. In the process I learned that even when the jelly roll-up is done evenly, the bread doesn’t always rise evenly, so mine was not perfectly round. I also learned that Mardi Gras colors mean something: gold stands for power, green for faith, and purple for justice.
From Mardi Gras the move to Ash Wednesday is very quick and almost jarring. From revelry (OK, we didn’t revel) to the austerity of Lent is a stark contrast. It is a blessing from the Church that we have this time to re-evaluate our past year since Lent ended and realign our habits. I know I have eaten more than I should and prayed less than I should and probably picked up other bad habits as well. So with the memory of King’s Cake still fresh, I am looking forward to fewer rich foods and more time for quiet and prayer. St. Teresa of Avila said Lent was the time for obrar y callar. That is to say, Lent is a time to act (do what we must, pray, etc. ) and to be quiet. That will be my challenge. How about you?
She was good to me and welcomed me into the family as one of her own. She loved God and didn’t care who knew it. I used to be amazed at how she could strike up a conversation with a total stranger and end up talking about God.
Today was a special day. We witnessed a Baptism in the Tridentine Rite. There are numerous prayers and rituals associated with the Rite that I had either neither seen, or had just forgotten. There was the “Churching” or bringing into the Church of the mother and child after the Baptism. There was the dedication of the child to our Blessed Mother, done by the father of the child. It was all very rich. What made it even more special, was the fact that the baby is the grandchild of some friends from our past–the early ’70s to be exact. Even neater is that their grandchild, Thomas, is only 11 hours younger than our latest grandchild, Thomas. To top off the celebration, Pat and Armond were celebrating 40 years of wedded bliss. We catch up with them next January!
