The Cocktail Queen

Father Ignatius was washing his car in the church’s car park one afternoon when he was approached by a young lady wearing a low-cut T-shirt, a short skirt, and knee-length boots.

“Are you the priest that works in this church?” she asked.

He was still wearing his white collar and replied, “I am the Parish priest. How may I help you?”

“Can we speak privately please?” she asked again.

Father Ignatius put down the bucket of water and invited her into the Parish house. He sat at his desk in his office and she made herself comfortable in the armchair by the window.

After a short silence she said, “This isn’t easy for me …”

“Take your time,” replied Father Ignatius gently.

“Don’t know where to start …”

“Start at the beginning … what can I do to help …”

“I serve drinks at the Bitten Apple Night Club … I’m a barmaid … they call me Cocktail Queen …” she interrupted.

The priest nodded and said nothing, encouraging her to go on.

“Have you been there? The Bitten Apple … just by the cinema?”

“No, I’ve never been there …” he answered calmly, and wondering where all this is leading to.

“If you ever want to go let me know … I can let you in without paying the entrance fee … get in at the back …”

“Well … that won’t be necessary …” hesitated Father Ignatius, still wondering what this young lady wanted.

“I’m not a bad person you know … people look at me and think I’m a bad person …”

“I’m not here to judge you,” he answered, still remaining calm to help her say what she had on her mind.

“This is very difficult, but I have to tell you because I believe in God and all that …” she stopped for a few seconds and sighed. He let her pause for a while until she continued, “I’m pregnant … there I said it!”

“That’s good news … isn’t it?” he said with a smile.

“A nuisance more like … it’ll interfere with my work … and my boy-friend is mad about it. It’ll be Christmas soon … and a right present he’s given me …”

“I see …”

“Well he said we should get rid of it … he is willing to pay and all … I was wondering whether God would forgive me if I got rid of it … because I can’t give up work you see …”

“You’re asking me to condone the killing of a living human being; because that’s what it is you intend to do,” said Father Ignatius sternly.

“I’m asking for forgiveness” she said, “I was brought up Catholic years ago as a child, although I don’t go to church now … I’m too busy you see … I was told if you confess your sins the priest has to forgive you …”

“It doesn’t work quite like that …” he said hiding his temporary loss of patience.

“You can’t ask for forgiveness for something you’re about to do. Something which you know is wrong; and yet you intend to do it all the same.”

“It's either that or I lose my job and lose my boy-friend. Then where will I be?”

“You do realize what abortion is Miss, do you not?” he asked gently trying to calm down the situation before it got out of hand. “It is the ending of a life. It is not a matter to be considered lightly and in a cavalier way as you and your boy friend seem to think. I do not believe that it is right, and I must advise you against it in the strongest way possible. I urge you to re-consider what you’re intending to do …”

She looked at her watch and interrupted him once again, “Do you think if I go to another church the vicar there would forgive me?”

It was obvious that she was not listening and that her mind was made up. All she needed was re-assurance from the church, or any representative of a Deity she happened to vaguely believe in, that what she was doing was right.

“I doubt that you will find any vicar or priest who would …”

“I’ll have to go now,” she said looking at her watch again, “I’m on at the Bitten Apple in half-an-hour …”

“Before you go, just wait a second … I’d like you to get in contact with these people if you can. They may be able to help you. They will talk to you about your pregnancy, but I must tell you, they will never agree to you having an abortion. On the contrary, they will help you see what a gift you have living within you right now …”

“Whatever … I’ll think about it … I don’t think they’ll help … I just have to get rid of it … I’m not into having babies and all that …” she said taking the card from his hand and making her way out.

As he saw her leave Father Ignatius prayed silently for that living human being threatened with death before breathing his first breath.

All that happened some months ago and the priest never met the young lady again … until yesterday.

He was at the supermarket and about to pay for his purchases when the cashier recognized him. She told him that the baby is six months old now, and that she gave up work at the night club and was now working at the supermarket and living with her boy-friend, the baby’s father.

As he drove away the priest praised God for saving the unborn-child and prayed that maybe … one day … this young family may get to know and love the Lord.

Baking for Sundays

Our family has developed the Lenten tradition of baking for Sundays. No baked treats are to be had during the week, so the excitement builds as the week progresses and ideas fly around for exactly what will be baked on Saturday to be consumed on Sunday.

This has to be my favourite chocolate cake recipe because it's simple enough, but a great deal tastier than your every day, run of the mill recipe. The recipe makes quite a large cake, so it would be suitable for dividing into round pans and sandwiching with cream or pour into a large square fruit cake tin.

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

           1 cup plain yoghurt

3/4 cup cocoa

200g soft butter

1 & 1/2 tspn vanilla extract

1 tspn bicarb soda

1/4 tspn salt

3 cups SR flour

1 cup of hot, strong espresso OR 1 cup hot water with 3 heaped tspns instant coffee

Place all ingredients in this order in a food processor for 1 minute. Place in greased baking tin (2 loaf tins or 1 20cm tin)
Cook at 160 degrees (C) for about 1 hour, use a skewer in the middle to test for readiness.

This goes really well in the freezer.

Tastes great with or without icing.

Buttercream icing:

I usually beat a couple of tablespoons of butter until creamy, then gradually beat in icing sugar (and cocoa if you want chocolate icing- food colouring if you want it coloured) until it starts to get very thick. You can also add a small dash of milk to make it more creamy or to make a larger quantity so you can add more icing sugar without it being too dry.

Enjoy!

Kelly @ The Handmaden.

Learning about the Papal Election

            When Pope John Paul II was elected, I was a toddler.  When Pope Benedict XVI was elected, I had a 6 year old, who was in kindergarten, and a three year old, a two year old, and an eight week old at home with me.  Though I clearly remember Pope JPII’s death and funeral, I remember very little of the papal election that followed.   

          I do remember hearing the names of possible new popes.  And, I remember hoping and praying for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.  I remember feeling happy and filled with peace that he was the new Pope, but I don’t remember watching for the white smoke, or hearing the announcement “Habemus Papam.” 

            This time, (though I am a little sad that Pope Benedict is retiring) I am very anxiously awaiting the exhilaration of hearing the announcement that, “We have a Pope!”  I have spent the last few days learning all that I can about the process and preparing lessons to share it all with my children.    

           My children and I sat down this morning surrounded by things I had printed off from the computer and we talked about the conclave, the College of Cardinals, and the procedures for electing and installing a new pope.  We looked at pictures of St. Peter’s square and I pointed out the Sistine Chapel where the conclave will take place and where our new Pope will be chosen.  It is all very exciting and there is so much to learn! 

            Some of the resources we came across were so fabulous I just had to share….  So here is a list of the resources that my children and I found most helpful:

• How a Pope is elected, an interactive slideshow: 

 http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/come-si-elegge-il-papa/

• A Papal Unit Study-- found on "Shower of Roses" blog

 http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/2013/02/papal-unit-study.html

• A diagram of Papal Vestements

http://www.infovisual.info/06/070_en.html

• 2 articles on Papal elections and history--
  found on "In the Heart of my Home" blog

 http://pflaum.com/jpii/elect.pdf

 http://pflaum.com/jpii/didyou.pdf

• Super cute crafts and activities for kids of all ages

 http://www.catholicinspired.com/2013/02/learning-about-election-of-new-pope.html

• Adopt a Cardinal to pray for

 http://adoptacardinal.org/

Grief, Love and Hope: a Review

My dear friend Amy wrote the following review of my book Grief, Love and Hope for My Library Thing. She has given me permission to publish it here as well.

I knew Sue before I knew about her baby, Thomas. Then I found out about Thomas, and that Sue had written a book about him, and her experience of having a baby born who could not live once he was born. This book was born out of her need to write her thoughts down, her desire to remember every thing she possibly could of her child's brief life, and also, for her children to share their memories of their baby brother. "I wanted to make a permanent record of Thomas' short life and the effect it had on our own lives. I am so glad we had you. I wrote your story as a sign of our love." 

For those who hope to comfort, it is an honest account. For those who have walked this path already - of having an infant child die, maybe within hours of birth - it will comfort, because of how honest it is: pain so painful is somehow more bearable when shared. While written with Catholic sensibilities, Grief, Love, and Hope transcends boundaries of religion, important though they are. Any parent who has had a child die, who loved and had hopes for their child, will have find much common ground with Sue Elvis. Published eight-and-a-half years after Thomas's birth and death, Sue writes, "Perhaps Grief, Love and Hope will help such parents feel less alone in their suffering and give them the hope that they too will survive."

Written mostly in diary form - literally using passages from her diary, Sue Elvis takes us through the overwhelming sadness that engulfed her, along with the glimmers of hope that came along occasionally, and eventually even, a return of joy. As she is an able writer, even at the worst of times, this effort, while hard to read from the emotional standpoint, is a joy because of how well she expresses herself. Poignant, yet with a light touch, she even has a short chapter, How Many Children Do You Have?, facing head on - but without useless advice - the unsolvable dilemma of how to answer that oft-asked question. In Sue's case, she had many early miscarriages, as well. Her children write their own short accounts; one, a poem.

From the Foreword, "It is a diary record plus later comment of extremely personal experiences yet without any cloying emotion or sentimentality. It proved deeply moving to this reader." (  )

Library Thing

Thank you so much, Amy!

Grief, Love and Hope is available from Cardinal Newman Faith Resources

A free PDF version is also available

Our Australian Catholic Families Facebook Community

Have you visited our Australian Catholic Families Facebook page? It was set up as a link to this blog. But the page doesn't just contain blog post notifications. We regularly post other information, photos and links that might interest families, such as...

Links to Catholic books and freebies
Links for craft, Advent and Christmas activities
Links for the Year of Faith
Information about events that are coming up
Beautiful and inspiring photos
Links to interesting articles on other blogs
Links for recipes

There is also an opportunity to comment and share your own information.

So please follow the link, have a look around, 'like' our page and get involved. Lots of people have been 'talking' and  it would be lovely to see our online community grow even bigger. 

Looking forward to seeing you on our page!

Speculatius for the Feast of St Nicholas

Written by Sue Elvis

It’s not too late to bake up a batch of Speculatius to celebrate the Feast Day of St Nicholas...

1 cup butter

1 cup lard

½ tsp nutmeg

4 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

2 cups brown sugar

4 ½ cups sifted flour

½ cup sour cream

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ cup chopped nuts

• Cream the butter, lard and sugar together.
• Add sour cream alternately with sifted dry ingredients
• Stir in the nuts
• Knead the dough into rolls
• Wrap the rolls in plastic wrap, chill in fridge for a few hours or overnight
• Roll the dough thinly and cut into shapes
• Bake in a moderate oven for 10-15 minutes
• Serve with warm mulled wine or just a plain glass of red!

We've made a huge batch of Speculatius. We'll enjoy some tomorrow on the Feast of St Nicholas. We'll freeze the rest and eat them at Christmas.

These biscuits are guaranteed to be very delicious.

PS To be totally accurate, my daughters did the baking. I just wrote the post!

How the Grinch stole Christmas.

Image source

Most of us know the famous Dr Seuss story where the Grinch is able to infiltrate Whoville and steal "Christmas" from right under the little Who's noses.

If you are a Christian in these modern and secular times this may be an all too familiar feeling - that Christmas is being stolen from under us and transformed into something that could be called worship, but certainly not that of Christ Our Saviour!

It is the worship of gifts, money, decorations, food and festivities and all under the popular term of "happy holidays" - a very non Christ like term.

So what can we do? How can we keep Christ in Christ-mas?

Of course it starts with our spiritual lives and our personal worship of Jesus. He must be born in the stable of our heart.  If we have this part right then we are on the right track as we will be a beacon for others as the light of Christ shines forth from us. But there are practical things we can do too.

Do not adopt any of the popular secular terms associated with Christmas. "Happy holidays" does not represent Christ in any way.

Do not buy anti-Christmas propaganda! This means only sending holy and appropriate Christmas cards, even to non believing friends (this has the added bonus of a holy image being displayed in a non- Christian home, even if it's only for a short time).

Ask your post office specifically for religious Christmas stamps. If we don't create the demand they will not supply them.

If you are celebrating Christmas with some non Christians do not adopt their accepted methods of celebrating. Keep your interior recollection and keep the day holy! Set a positive example.

Make Christ centered family traditions. Mass, advent wreaths, special prayers are just a few holy devotions. One of our traditions is to set an extra place at our Christmas dining table for The Unseen Guest.

It is an absurd thing to throw a great big party on someone's birthday, sate ourselves and make merry, all the while ignoring He whose birthday it is, especially when it is the birthday of the King of the universe!

Merry Christmas and abundant blessings to you all!

You can read more about me and my family here.
This post was co-authored by my husband Patrick.