Hello everyone!

Lent, otherwise known as the Great Fast, has commenced officially!

As I delve into more of the traditions of the Catholic Church, I've become very fascinated with the everyday lay traditions that reflect certain seasons of the Church year. And that includes things like food.

In previous years, I had not given much of a thought to what I ate during Lent, but the quantity of it. In other words, attacking it from the fasting angle. That, unfortunately, ended rather disastrously for me every time - it was a good thing that I hadn't learned about the fast-till-3pm tradition, otherwise, I would have been in serious trouble!

But then, I saw this excerpt from a book by Maria von Trapp, which was obtained HERE.

"Abstinence in the old times (and the old times reached almost to the days of our grandparents) meant that nothing was eaten (or kept in the house) which comes from animals: no meat, no fish, no lard, no milk, butter, cheese, cream. The Lenten fare consisted exclusively of vegetables, fruit, and a bread made of flour and water and salt."                  ~ Maria von Trapp, Around the Year with the von Trapp Family.

Sounds like veganism, doesn't it?

In practice, it is. Except that there is a completely different motive behind it. In the case of abstinence, it's giving it up as penance for sins instead of "respect for animals". A position that I may have to address sometime in the future...

There was also a practical aspect for this pre-1955 abstinence. Before the mass commercialization of agriculture, a lot of animal products were heavily regulated by natural seasons. During late winter/early spring, cows were heavily pregnant and game was lean and scarce. And, in the really olden times, it was imperative to clear out the old stores and animal products before the spring weather hit. Otherwise, there would be spoilage and waste.

Now I will admit when I first heard of this form of abstinence, I looked at it askance too. The laws of abstinence in the Catholic Church have since been relaxed...but maybe they've been too relaxed.

I mean, if demons are driven out by prayer and fasting, and there certainly is a lot of demonry going on around here, then surely it wouldn't be a bad idea to turn back to some of those older practices??

This is what lead me to adopt the practice of doing that "vegan" abstinence on Ash Wednesday last year (I would have done it Good Friday too, but I think I was sick then). And I will admit...it was HARD - I remember that my breakfast was a grapefruit (which is NOT my favorite citrus by any means) and my lunch was a veggie salad and plain quinoa, the latter of which wasn't prepped right and tasted terrible.

This year on Ash Wednesday, I wanted to try it again, and maybe have a better margin of success.

After much pleading, I got a recipe from Lia for a sweet potato quinoa chili that her mom had made a few times when I was there that I had remembered liking a lot. I was going to beat that quinoa monster if it killed me.

Since Wednesday is my night to cook at my house, I decided to make that, in addition to a salad and some soft pretzels.

I started Ash Wednesday off by...veggie shopping. On an empty stomach too, which is always a super super bad idea. 

Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn

You see, we're terrible about vegetable consumption in my immediate family. Even though we always have a vegetable with our dinners, we tend to cycle through 4 different frozen vegetables on a regular basis. #boring. Salads don't make it on the table as often either.

When I was in college, I would have a salad almost every other day, especially at the end of my college career. I mean, there was a salad bar there, with yummy fresh spinach and other goodies. How else am I going to get my vitamins and minerals up? My aunt was also instrumental in introducing me to other cool vegetables like the bok choy you can see in the picture.

In this veggie haul, I got bok choy, lettuce, fresh spinach, turnips, onions, radishes, cucumbers, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and a weird cabbage-like vegetable called a radiccho. I was super miffed that there wasn't any jimaca or bell peppers worth buying, though I did get frozen pepper strips. Oh and the canned tomatoes too, but that was for the chili. And a can of water chestnuts because I love those things. Should have bought some shallots too, darn.

Anyway....

After I snuck the veggies into the house, it was time to start in on the pretzels!

And of course I forgot to get pictures of the making of....*facepalm*.

This has been a tradition of mine for at least two years running to make whole-wheat soft pretzels. I use a recipe called Buttery Soft Pretzels that you can find on Allrecipes.com. Weird that they call it that when there is no butter in them but whatever. The only thing I do different for that recipe is that I use half whole-wheat and half all purpose flour rather than have it all white flour. To me, it gives a whole different flavor, and it's slightly more healthy.

Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn

Right after the pretzels were done, it was time to start in on making the chili. I soaked the quinoa for an hour, which I've never done, but will do from now on because it helped the taste so much.

First thing was the onion, shallot and sweet potato were sauteed...though half of it DID burn before the potatoes were cooked enough. Knew I should have chopped those smaller.

Then I put the crushed tomatoes and the frozen corn in the stock pot, adding in the cumin and the chili powder (because that's what makes it CHILI after all....*glares at purist brothers who insist otherwise*

The veggies went in and the heat was turned up. The quinoa was added last.

This was BEFORE the quinoa really swelled up and sucked all the liquid out. Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn

I left it to simmer as I was finishing the salads, though admittedly, I should have taken it off the heat before hand as the quinoa really sucked up a lot of liquid. I now understand why there was a really teeny note that there should have been TWO large cans of tomatoes rather than one. Ooops.

Come to think of it, I probably could have added a little more spice too....but there were family members to consider * cough, my mother cough*. Though, said family member actually LIKED it, so maybe a little more spice wouldn't have hurt that much....

In the midst of all that, there were of course salads to be prepped. I was reminded that hand chopping vegetables takes FOREVER. I should really invest in one of those box-veggie-cutter things you see on those ads on TV - Chop Magic I think is the one....

Mine's the boring one in the corner....the one with no cheese on it *sadface* Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn

All that food had to be scarfed down pretty fast, as we had to hurry in order to get to church on time, LOL. Stinks having an hour to commute to Mass sometimes.

I will say though, that today was the first successful fast and abstinence that I've ever had in the entire history that I've been attempting to do this (which would be about 7 years now). It wasn't without side effects, mind you, but at least I didn't have a dip in sugar or any serious nausea.

I hope to explore this topic more, maybe with a post about ideas on abstinence meals? As proven above, I'm sure there is a hidden variety, even with the restrictions :)

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine

P.S. If anyone is looking for my Lenten post from this year that Lia was referencing in her post, I regret to announce that I've taken it down. Not because of any real *problem* with the post itself, or with anyone in particular. It was a personal decision to keep my penances more private (and hopefully, both keep them better and that they be more pleasing to God).

A blessed day to you!

For this month's Faith-related post, I wish to address a certain common-held debate amongst Christians, one that revolves around Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

Before I delve into this rather controversial topic, I wish to give a disclaimer. I must admit with due humility that I borrowed some of the ideas presented (especially in the latter part of the post) from a certain Deacon's apologetics class that I was privileged to attend in the fall of 2018, and I have borrowed others from a lay theologian, whom I give credit later on. I am not a theologian, and am only an amateur apologist of my Faith. I am willing to engage in civil debate, and if I find myself later to be in error, I will post a correction as soon as possible. 

To begin rather bluntly, the Bible is not the all-comprehensive guide to theological truths. It's an overview or gateway, most certainly. The key events of our salvation are all there.

But is it...everything?

Let's put it this way. If we poor humans can devote entire books to just one person, detailing various portions of their lives with meticulous detail and still miss something, that God is going to relegate His Life and teachings to just....one big book?

I think not.

I'm going to approach this not from a theological apologist's point of view. I'm certainly not qualified for that, as I pointed out before.

But I am going to approach it from a historian's point of view.

As a historian, I was not taught to take sources at face value, simply because I don't know if there are errors, or holes that would put the authenticity into doubt. The solution was to look to corroborate with other sources to match up details.

For example, when I'm looking at records for genealogy, I'm looking for certain things that repeat. Birth dates are the most common of these - if the dates match, that's a good chance that it's the same person. I'll also look for a similar group of people - siblings on a census for instance.

If I used just one set of records, like the Federal Census for example, it would give me a lot of relevant information. Names, relations, location.

But I wouldn't know when they were born exactly, when they died exactly, and other little details that give context to their lives. Because the Census is just a snapshot in time. I need other records (birth, church, military, occupation, residence) to completely round out the person's life and study them in more detail. 

Now let's take Our Lord. The Bible reveals with great detail the key elements of Our Lord's life. But we are still missing intimate details. Such as, Our Lord's own birthday for instance.

The Bible doesn't reveal exactly when Our Lord was born. But, it does reveal it indirectly.....by another person's birth: St. John the Baptist.

The Bible reveals that Zachary, St. John's father, was a high priest and it details that he was serving in the temple at a certain point in time, in which the Angel Gabriel came to him. Thanks to the meticulous records left behind by Jewish recorders, we actually know the months in which he served in the temple in the Jewish calendar. It's then a simple thing of using logic to figure in ancient travel times to figure out when St. John was conceived, and then it's a simple 9 month addition to figure out when St. John was born. Since Our Lord was conceived when John was six months in the womb, it would stand to reason that Our Lord would be born 6 months later. From there, it's a simple conversion from the Jewish calendar to the Gregorian, and voila!

And to make it even better, we can even access historic climate information to give an idea of what the weather was even like! (Fun fact: did you know Palestine is on the same latitude as Texas? Which means that they get similar weather to Texas, which means that winter is not that cold there??)

(Now before I go any further, I need to cite that the information about Our Lord's birthday was paraphased from a video on this very subject by Dr. Taylor Marshall, a lay theologian. I'll link the video HERE.)

The Church, like a curious child, is never satisfied with an unanswered question. She will hunt for the truth, no matter what it takes. The Church is never random, either. There is always a reason behind every little truth, every little ceremony, even down to the tiniest details.

Just because something wasn't written down, doesn't mean that it didn't happen. That it isn't important to remember. That it didn't have an influence on later events. 

If your life had to be reconstructed from what writings you left behind, would it give an accurate picture of yourself? I know mine would not. It would have to be filled in, probably by other people around me giving oral testimony.

I will admit that oral histories and traditions can be problematic. They can be more prone to error, simply because it is a living memory, and not concrete like writing is.

But I could argue the same problems exist for writing, especially when it comes to translations. The Greek translation and the Hebrew translations of Scriptural books give so much more linguistic context that it puts our English Bibles to shame.

What I'm trying to get at, in this rather convulted rigamarole that you're scrolling through, is that nothing, not even Scripture, is worth anything if it is not put into context.

A fact that is actually pointed out...in the Bible itself.

And Philip running thither, head him read the prophet Isaias. And he said: Thinkest thou that thou understandest what thou readest? 
Who said: And how can I, unless some man shew me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. 
And the place of the scripture which was reading was this: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter: and like a lamb without voice before his shearer so openeth he not his mouth. 
In humility his judgement was taken away. His generation who shall declare for his life shall be taken from the earth? 
And the eunuch answering Philip, said: I beseech thee, of whom doth the prophet speak this? Of himself, or of some other man?
Then Philip, opening his mouth and beginning at this scripture, preached unto him Jesus. 

(Acts 8:30-35, DRV. Emphasis added)

In this Biblical account, the eunuch was introduced to the Sacred Mysteries by Scripture. Therefore, Scripture cannot be discounted as a "gateway" to learning about God, and it has it's rightful place as a teaching tool. Indeed, all the key truths of our Faith are derived from Holy Scripture as I've said before.

But, the eunuch was struggling to grasp the crux of the hidden message that was presented in Scripture. He had no way of decoding it himself. This is why God sent Philip, a living breathing recepticle of the Faith, to teach him.

You have to remember at this time, there was no New Testament - that wasn't compiled for another 100 years. Everything HAD to be handed down orally, from Jesus Himself, to his Apostles, to their Disciples, to their families, to their children, and thus it continued throughout the generations. Some, like St. Matthew and St. John wrote first hand accounts, as early as the year 69 AD. Others, like St. Paul, wrote second hand exhortations, which came from the Apostolic teachings that he had received from St. Peter.

You may be able to teach yourself many things from a book, but it is never as good as when you learn from a person.

This is why I will never believe in Sola Scriptura.

Because Our Lord never used a Bible to found the Church.

He used living, breathing Apostles.

And don'tcha think that Jesus would have used the best tools available to spread His Church?

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine

Hey y'all!

I had NOT intended to make a post about this particular jumper and as such, I didn't take any pictures of the sewing process. After all, it was supposed to be one of those quickie projects that was going to be a blip mentioned in passing.

Then THINGS started happening, and it was too good NOT to share.

So, here we go.

I started this jumper a few years ago - I want to say I was still in college at the time. At the time, I really liked jumpers and my last one had been recently relegated to the "daughter clothes bin". I also wanted lighter fabrics since most of my clothes are, in fact, dark. And winter skirts were needed.

Hence the buying of two pink flannels - one with a diamond pattern and one with pink and yellow skyrockets on them. I made one jumper with the pink diamonds (still have it, still wear it) and started the second one. Everything was cut, the bodice and skirt were constructed and sewn together. It even had a hem. All it needed was a zipper, the facings and the straps and it would be done.

But for some reason, the project was...abandoned.

*cue the sad music*

I remember having to buy another zipper for it, I think because the first one was so short. But I still didn't pick it up again.

Until January 2020, when I took it out of my sewing cabinet one fine Wednesday that I was off from work.

The problems began immediately when I realized that I was missing half of the instructions for the "View B" I was attempting. I then remembered that I had been following the instructions for View A because of this, but the instructions had pretty much run out at that point.

No trouble, I said to myself. I know how to do the rest of the steps, it shouldn't be that hard. I have, after all, been sewing for over a decade, I should know what I'm doing.

Lies. All lies.

I made a trial fit before I put in the zipper and found that something was really wrong. It was miles too big in the waist.

It was then that I realized that while I was sure I had cut out the correct pattern pieces, I had forgotten to put the darts into the bodice....which would have shortened the waist by over 4 inches.
So, the bodice had to be ripped off the skirt and the darts put in.

That's when I discovered that the bodice wasn't cut right. It was cut straight when it was supposed to be pointed on the darts.
(oh trust me, it only gets better from here)
I had to change the design of the darts slightly in order so that they didn't curve on me. Wish now I had gotten a picture, but it wouldn't have looked flattering at all.

So then, the bodice was darted and the skirt re-gathered and put back on. I then binded the seam with some flannel scraps so that I wouldn't have any fraying issues.

So then, it was time for the zipper, which was an invisible one. I personally prefer them to the regular zippers because they look much nicer.

That's when I discovered, to my chagrin, that my Phaff machine didn't HAVE an invisible zipper foot. Stupid machine was from the 80s and I suppose they didn't have invisible zippers then.

So I had to go use my mother's sewing machine. Except that it was almost inaccessible because the table it was on had Blue Couch up against it. (I'll tell you more about that Blue Couch at another time).

I said "almost" inaccessible. You could use it if you knelt on the couch...you just couldn't reach the foot petal.

So, what does an enterprising girl do?

Fish out the petal, plug in the machine and squeeze the foot petal with her right hand and guide the fabric with the left. Rather efficient system.

Of course my mother doesn't notice my rather unorthodox method until I'm well over halfway putting the zipper in. She asked me why I just didn't move the couch.

Now you tell me, why would I take the risk of moving the couch the wrong way and knock it off it's wooden blocks just to get to the machine for five minutes and then have to move it back? Too much work, if you ask me.

Anyway, after a moment of panic when I thought I had put the zipper in backwards (the opening wasn't big enough for the zipper to flip out, it was fine), it was time for another fitting.

I'll now refer you to the following Hangouts conversation I had with Lia....



 Another couple of hours, and here is the finished product:



I really like how long it is - it makes me feel really feminine. I'll definitely be wearing it around the house this winter :)

Now it's your turn to chat! What sort of abandoned projects do you have lying around? Do you sew, and if so what is the latest project you've done? Tell me in the comments below!

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine