Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

(My parent's Nativity Set)

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Christ is born! Glorify Him!

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My church here had Christmas Liturgy tonight

after Matins.

So beautiful.

The hymns of Christmas...

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I got to see my Godmother

and many familiar faces;

they are good to me here,

even though it has been 6 years since I lived here

and was chrismated...

Tomorrow will be my extended family

Christmas day.

Praying very much for

Kh. Ramia and Fr. Anthony

and all those who are in loss this Christmas;

May Christ and His Virgin Mother the Theotokos

bring comfort through their intercessions.

Christmas time and grief

Christmas time is often

painful,

pain such as losing a beloved child

such as Lucia;

the last time I saw Kh. Ramia she was beautifully

pregnant with Lucia.

To lose such a daughter is heartbreaking.

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I think also of the woman in my parish

who lost both parents

41 days apart

and could not go to the funerals;

how we did services for them at my church,

how the woman brought different breads,

we sang,

held the candles,

and loved her.

Thank God that we have the church and prayers therein

to help sustain us through the dark valleys of grief.

Christ is with us in these times,

Christ wept at the death of Lazarus.

(The priest says:)

May Christ our true God, who rose from the dead and as immortal

King has authority over the living and the dead, have mercy on us and save us,

through the intercessions of his spotless holy Mother; of the holy, glorious,

and praiseworthy Apostles; of our venerable and God-bearing Fathers; of the

holy and glorious forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; of his holy

and righteous friend Lazarus, who lay in the grave four days;

and of all the Saints, establish the soul of His servant (name) departed from us,

in the dwelling place of the Saints; grant rest to him (her) in the

bosom of Abraham and number him (her) among the righteous.

- from the Trisagion Service by Holy Cross Orthodox Press

Prayer to the Mother of God

O Most Holy Lady Virgin Theotokos, do Thou save and preserve

under Thy protection my children (names), all youths and infants,

baptized and unnamed, and those in their mothers wombs.

Cover them with Thy maternal garment, preserve them in

the fear of God and in obedience to their parents.

Entreat my Lord and Thy Son that He may give them what is

profitable for their salvation. I entrust them to Thy maternal care,

for Thou are a Divine protection for Thy servants.

- prayer written at the back of the small pamphlet,

Akathist to the Mother of God, Nurturer of Children

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May God be near to all those for whom the

Christmas holidays

are also a time of loss and grief.

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Christ has come on Christmas Day

so that He could destroy death by death.

May His Resurrection comfort and give courage

to us!

Memorial Bread

Beautiful newly departed Lucia

I know is on many of our hearts and minds

today as we learned of her

entrance into

the Kingdom of God.

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I have been planning on telling everyone

about the bread and kolivo

that I used for the panakyda

for my spiritual mother

and thought that to honour Lucia

I would share

the recipes from two women in my parish,

one is Bulgarian, one is Ukrainian.

Part of grief for us as Orthodox Christians

is the in preparing these dishes.

I cannot tell you how important and comforting

it is for Orthodox Christians to do these things;

I see it very much in my church.

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So with love for Lucia

and her beautiful grieving parents,

I am going to give you the bread recipes

I was given.

My Bulgarian friend and I emailed extensively one day

for both the bread and kolivo recipes.

In my next post I will explain how to make the kolivo,

which is beautiful and a bit more involved.

Bread 1

2 cups regular yougurt (for the Lent you can put instead of yougurt water)
2 cups flour
2 soup spoons oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 soup spoon baking powder

Mix with the mixer . If the mix is too thin, put more flour, or if it too thick, put more water. Put on the top walnuts. Bake.

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Bread 2

1 coffee spoons salt
600 grams water
2 soup spoons yeast (as a powder)
flour

Warm the water. Mix the baking powder with the flour and put it little by little in the water, add more flour until you get a dough. Knead it for a while. Then leave the dough for a while, it have to grow (if it possible leave it in a warm place, close to the oven, or on the stove). Then take a dish and spread an oil on the bottom, put it the dough in it and bake it. You can make a Cross or, flowers or other figures from the dough for decoration.

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In these books usually they put many ingredients but for Lenten bread/dough I put only flour, salt, water, yeast. For my bread maker I put 1 1/3 cups water, 1 tea spoon salt, 1-2 soup spoons oil, 1 tea spoon sugar and 3 1/3 cups flour. The flour must totally cover the water. On the top of the flower is the yeast-2 tea spoons. Then I put the bread maker on dough and after 2 hours it is ready. But I leave it for 30 min. more in the machine to relax and grow. Then again needs to be knead it, and then make it in the shape that you want and again leave it for a while (around 1 hr) for growing. Bake it.

I don't now your machine how big is, that's why use your instructions! If you don't have one for dough just follow these for a regular white bread, ignore the milk and eggs, and put only water, salt,
sugar, oil, flour, yeast, AND PUT THE MACHINE ON 'DOUGH'' INSTEAD OF ''BREAD''. And this is it.

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After the dough was made
(I had to mix a little bit of the flour that did not get mixed by my
bread machine)
I kneaded it in my hands,
punched it a bit
and let it sit to rise,
putting a clean tea table cloth on top while it rose.
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After it had doubled
I kneaded / punched it again
and let it rise,
again putting the tea towel over it.
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Then I molded it into a small mound,
took a little bit of the dough off the side to
make the Cross
and let it sit for a little bit
before putting it in the oven.
I think I baked it around
370 degrees
for about 30 minutes;
when it was slightly golden and smelled
wonderfully of bread
I took it out and immediately
(I used my hands as I did not have a brush)
put olive oil over the top of the bread
and it turned a beautiful golden colour
within seconds.
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Once it was cooled
I covered it with the cloth again
(wrapping it lightly)
before bringing it to church the next day
for the service.

Among the spirits of the righteous perfected in faith,

give rest, O Savior, to the soul of your servant.

Bestow upon it the blessed life which is from You,

O loving Lord.

Within your peace, O Lord, where all Your Saints repose,

give rest also to the soul of Your servant,

for You alone Immortal.

- From the Trisagion Service,

published by Holy Cross Orthodox Press

Memory Eternal!

With tears and a heavy heart,

I must tell you that

Kh. Ramia and Fr. Anthony's

beautiful daughter Lucia

has joined the Saints and Angels

with our Heavenly Father.

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Memory Eternal!

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Let us keep Kh. Ramia and Fr. Anthony

in our prayers especially at this time.

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Lucia touched all of us

and truly is a child of light.

To always pray for those we love and care about

Yesterday

(new calendar)

was St. Lucia's day.

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Wanted to mention that Kh. Ramia

has two new blog posts on

her little Lucia;

one for St. Lucia's day

and one a little earlier that has the

dearest video of little Lucia.

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Lucia is clearly such a fighter!

Keep praying for her

as it is such a struggle.

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Thank God that He cares so much for children.

St. Lucia,

intercede mightily for little Lucia!

On This Snowy Saturday Morning

One of the many days I walked to my doctor's this week

(We either talked on the phone or in person)

I noticed for the first time this Cross.

How heartening.

We need to keep praying for Kh. Ramia's Lucia -

she is struggling greatly and valiantly

to stay alive.

Please do continue to pass on your encouragement to

Kh. Ramia.

This is one of the deepest sufferings a human can go through -

the grave sickness of her child.

A dear friend of mine

spent time with me last night

after we ate together

we prayed esp. to the Mother of God

and to St. Nicholas.

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The medicine that I am taking appears to be helping,

the swelling is reduced and I am not in pain

due to the situation.

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I go over to a friends house DV later today.

After more research (unexpected bank/tax issue)

I still may be facing a significant unexpected bill.

But God is with us, with me and

the prayers of St. Nicholas for help

are of great effect -

both my friend and I have received financial help from him

on both the new calendar and old calendar

St. Nicholas Day.

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Praying that Christ will help us all in this day

keep us in His peace.

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Please pray for Lucia, Kh. Ramia and her husband Fr. Anthony.

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God is with us.