Monday the 1st: Saint of the Week

 *St. Justin Martyr died in the 2nd century as a martyr under Marcus Aurelius. A description of his martyrdom written at the time:

The saints were seized and brought before the prefect of Rome, whose name was Rusticus. As they stood before the judgment seat, Rusticus the prefect said to Justin, "Above all, have faith in the gods and obey the emperors."
Justin replied, "We cannot be accused or condemned for obeying the commands of our Savior, Jesus Christ."
Rusticus said, "What system of teaching do you profess?"
Justin said, "I have tried to learn about every system, but I have accepted the true doctrines of the Christians, though these are not approved by those who are held fast by error."
The prefect Rusticus said, "Are those doctrines approved by you, wretch that you are?"
Justin said, "Yes, for I follow them with their correct teaching."
The prefect Rusticus said, "What sort of teaching is that?"
Justin said, "Worship the God of the Christians. We hold him to be from the beginning the one creator and maker of the whole creation, of things seen and things unseen. We worship also the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God."
Rusticus said, "You are a Christian, then?"
Justin said, "Yes, I am a Christian."
The prefect said to Justin, "You are called a learned man and think you know what is true teaching. Listen: if you were scourged and beheaded, are you convinced that you would go up to heaven?"
Justin said, "I hope that I shall enter God's house if I suffer in that way. For I know that God's favor is stored up until the end of the whole world for all who have lived good lives."
The prefect Rusticus said, "Do you have an idea that you will go up to heaven to receive some suitable rewards?"
Justin said, "It is not an idea that I have; it is something I know well and hold to be most certain."
The prefect Rusticus said, "Now let us come to the point at issue, which is necessary and urgent. Gather round then and with one accord offer sacrifice to the gods."
Justin said, "No one who is right-thinking stoops from true worship to false worship."
The prefect Rusticus said, "If you do not do as you are commanded you will be tortured without mercy."
Justin said, "We hope to suffer torment for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so be saved."
In the same way the other martyrs also said, "Do what you will. We are Christians; we do not offer sacrifice to idols."
The prefect Rusticus pronounced sentence, saying, "Let those who have refused to sacrifice to the gods and to obey the command of the emperor be scourged and led away to suffer capital punishment according to the ruling of the laws." Glorifying God, the holy martyrs were beheaded, and so fulfilled their witness of martyrdom in confessing their faith in their Savior. --from the Acts of the Martyrdom of Saint Justin and his Companions

 

 

Friday the 29th: Food for Easter

 *From the bottom: chickpea and rice dish

*Flourless chocolate cake with whipped cream and berries

*The joys of Easter dinner

*Lemon cream cheese coffee cake

*Just the chocolate cake without the toppings 

Thursday the 28th: Food of the Week

 *Tomorrow will be Margarita Pizza or Rigatoni with Meatballs.

*Today is going to be leftovers or food out, depending if we have house showings tonight or not.

*Yesterday was sweet and sour pork chops.

*Tuesday was a sheet pan dinner of gnocchi and veggies (including butternut squash). It needed more onion but otherwise was very nice.

*Monday we had beef stir fry with rice.

*Sunday we did a lemon roast chicken with lemon oregano potatoes.

 

Wednesday the 27th: Music of the Week

 *I'm down to my last two Masses here in the area before our move. One was added at the last minute, but I'll have a good cantor, and the other is at one of my long time parishes. It will be bittersweet, but every day I'm becoming more reconciled to the adventure that moving will be.

*I've also been able to go back to my personal music, so I'm back to C major 4 octave scale, part of Widor's Toccata, and part of FFIX music. 

Tuesday the 26th: Food and Hair

 Sometimes I get on a roll of taking pictures of our food, whether it be burgers and fries or sheet pan gnocchi with lots of veggies and sausage. I also got probably my last hair cut before the move in April.

 

 

Monday the 25th: Saint of the Week

 Today is St. Bede the Venerable, given that title even in his own lifetime for his learning and preservation of knowledge. An English Benedictine monk of the 7th and 8th centuries, he wrote the history of the Anglo-Saxon Church for his time.

Quote from one of his homilies about Mary: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, any my spirit rejoices in God my savior." With these words Mary first acknowledges the special gifts she has been given.
Above all other saints, she alone could truly rejoice in Jesus, her savior, for she knew that he who was the source of eternal salvation would be born in time in her body, in one person both her own son and her Lord.
"For the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name." Mary attributes nothing to her own merits. She refers all her greatness to the gift of one whose essence is power and whose nature is greatness, for he fill with greatness and strength the small and the weak who believe in him.
She did well to add: "and holy is his name," to warn those who heard, and indeed all who would receive his words, that they must believe and call upon his name. For they too could share in everlasting holiness and true salvation according to the words of the prophet: "and it will come to pass, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." This is the name she spoke of earlier when she said "and my spirit rejoices in God my savior."

 (Picture from Pinterest traced to https://www.stbedes.org/about/st-bede?utm_source=Pinterest&utm_medium=organic)

  

Friday the 22nd: Food of the Week

 *Tonight is meatballs and mashed potatoes. The Husband likes his with a red sauce, and I use the Potenza Meatballs recipe from The Bread Monk. The mashed potatoes are a little difficult since we don't have a masher, but I think I will make them more smashed and trust they'll come together.

*Yesterday I made a dill and horseradish potato salad. It had no mayo, which was nice, and instead used olive oil and horseradish and mustard and lemon juice and herbs to make a nice creamy sauce. We had it with parmesan chicken from Aldi's. This was also the day that the boy cleaned out every leftover from the fridge for his lunch.

*Wednesday we had peanut butter, honey, cayenne pepper, and bacon sandwiches on cinnamon bread. 

*Tuesday was sausage patties and a fruit salad. I used apple, banana, grape, mango, nectarine, and plums. 

*Monday the boy made hash brown sheet pan casserole and green beans with shallots and lemon from hi Betty Crocker cookbook. He did a great job.

*Sunday we had cornmeal fried pork chops with goat cheese smashed potatoes. I definitely have more energy for cooking as we reach the end of the school year and my looming unemployment.

Wednesday the 20th: Music of the Week

 *Tomorrow is my last day of work so I played notes for some choir builders today. Last Wednesday was the last time my choir director directed me, which may sound minor but felt like a big deal. It was also the last time I heard the school sing the Alma Mater, which affected me more than I thought.

*I play three Masses this weekend and two of those will be my last time at those parishes. 

Tuesday the 19th: Random photos

 *This is my boys dressed up for a night out. No notes.

 

*These are the drink options at the Black Dolphin downtown. They were delicious.

*I tried some tricolor bread braids. They were delicious and beautiful with pumpernickel, wheat, and white strands.

 

Monday the 18th: Saint of the Week

 *St. John I is a 6th century pope, from Tuscany, who died from mistreatment after being imprisoned in Ravenna for not supporting Arianism but also arguing that Arianists needed to be forgiven.

 

 

Thursday the 7th: Food of the Week

Tomorrow is crispy potato cubes and a salad kit--I presume, but I won't be here because I'll be on the St. Louis choir trip. 

 Today is Betty Crocker's Spanish Rice.

Yesterday was McDonald's and Fritz's and leftovers.

Tuesday was flatbreads topped with onions, spiced beef, and feta cheese and mint. They were really tasty if a little too salty in places.

Monday was a cheddar biscuit pie with a turkey sausage filling. This always turns out well, but I maybe wish there was a little more sauce in the filling.

Sunday was some beef kebabs. I think I would have preferred smaller chunks and maybe chicken over beef. 

Wednesday the 6th: Music of the Week

 Tonight is my last concert at my school! I'm both happy to have this chunk of work done and very sad that I won't get to play with them again. Tomorrow is a concert at another school as a fill in, and then Friday and Saturday is a trip to St. Louis for a choir competition. Busy, busy next few days.

Tuesday the 5th: Flowers abloom

 This is the first year one of my Lenten roses has bloomed for me. I'm thrilled.

 

 

Monday the 4th: St. Florian

 From https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=149

The St. Florian commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on May 4th, was an officer of the Roman army, who occupied a high administrative post in Noricum, now part of Austria, and who suffered death for the Faith in the days of Diocletian. His legendary "Acts" state that he gave himself up at Lorch to the soldiers of Aquilinus, the governor, when they were rounding up the Christians, and after making a bold confession, he was twice scourged, half-flayed alive, set on fire, and finally thrown into the river Enns with a stone around his neck. His body, recovered and buried by a pious woman, was eventually removed to the Augustinian Abbey of St. Florian, near Linz. It is said to have been at a later date translated to Rome, and Pope Lucius III, in 1138, gave some of the saint's relics to King Casimir of Poland and to the Bishop of Cracow. Since that time, St. Florian has been regarded as a patron of Poland as well as of Linz, Upper Austria and of firemen. There has been popular devotion to St. Florian in many parts of central Europe, and the tradition as to his martyrdom, not far from the spot where the Enns flows into the Danube, is ancient and reliable. Many miracles of healing are attributed to his intercession and he is invoked as a powerful protector in danger from fire or water. His feast day is May 4th.