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.

*

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.

*

Christ has come on Christmas Day

so that He could destroy death by death.

May His Resurrection comfort and give courage

to us!

Memorial Dish - Kolivo (Part 2)

Once the Wheat berry is boiled,

spread it out on clean towels.

My Bulgarian friend explained to me:

In a separate place crush up (triturate) some biscuits/cookies/crackers (they should be lenten now). If you don’t have biscuits/cookies/crackers you can put hard-baked flour ( put one cup flour in a pan an put it on the hot-plate, stir it without interruption until the flour becomes brown).
Mix well the boiled and dried jito with the biscuit’s powder.

I put raisins in,

and plumped them a little bit by pouring some boiling water

over them in a pan.

Watch them that you do not over cook them;

the raisins do not have to be in the water more than 5 - 10 minutes.

I made some hard baked flour

as I did not have cookies;

there is a biscuit called Marie Biscuit

that another Bulgarian uses to sweeten the Kolivo.

*

My friend continues:

Put the mix in a bowl and before living for the church cover it with powder sugar (otherwise the powder sugar will melt quickly and wll wet the jito).

On the top of the powder sugar you can put some decoration like a Cross or something else, also you can put some walnuts. The nuts you can put also in the jito/biscuit mix.

*

I chose to go without nuts so that I could give out the Kolivo without worry

of anyone having allergies to nuts.

*

After the service,

I cut up the bread

and put the Kovlivo in disposable cups with spoons

and handed them out.

*

Bulgarians have the priest pour a little bit of red wine

in the bread

(or the Kolivo if the bread is not able to be used).

*

You hand the food to the people attending in memory of

your beloved one

and traditionally the response of the person receiving the food is

to the effect of

May God forgive them.

O Thou Who savest fallen Adam and the whole human race from

eternal perdition, O Good One, Thou didst sent Thy Son

into the world, by Whose Cross and Resurrection life eternal hath

dawned on us. Trusting in Thine infinite compassion, we look

for the incorruptible kingdom of Thy glory, we implore Thee to grant

it to our departed loved ones, and we pray Thee:

O Lord, gladden the souls wearied by the storms of life, that they may

forget earthly sorrows and sighings; do Thou harken unto them

in Thy bosom, as a mother hearth her children, and say to them:

Your sins are forgiven you. O Lord,

receive them into Thy blessed, calm haven, open to them the palaces

of the angles and saints, that they may rejoice in Thy divine glory.

O Lord of unutterable love, remember Thy servants

who have fallen asleep!

- Ekos 1 of the Akathist for the Repose of the Departed

from the Book of Akathists Vol 1

published by Holy Trinity Monastery,

Jordonville NY, 1994.

*

May Lucia's Memory be Eternal!

Memorial Wheat Dish - Kolivo

To make the Kolivo

you can use either Pearl Wheat or Soft Wheat.

*

My Bulgarian friend uses Pearl Wheat and I used this as well.

The difference is that Pearl Wheat cooks up in a matter of 10 to 15 minutes

while Soft Wheat you boil and leave simmer for much longer.

*

Another word for Kolivio is "Jito" --

here is the recipe that my Bulgarian friend passed on to me:

JITO

I will call the boiled wheat “Jito”:

Put 1/3 or 1/2 (or the whole package, it depends how much you need, I put usually max 1/2 package) of the Jito’s package into a cold water (the water should cover the jito) and boiled it for about 10 min. When jito is ready the grains must be soft but in their shape. You can try the readiness when you chew it up, then the grain should be soft but not like a mess but a little bit hard. Be careful because if it become very, very soft, it will be like a mess and that is not good.

That’s why try the readiness often and ALMOST ALL THE TIME STIR !! IF THE WATER BECOMES LESS PUT MORE. When you decide that the jito is boiled then drain it and put it on a piece of cloth/towel to dry for a while.

I used a large pot to boil the Pearl Wheat in.

I spread out two tea towels on baking sheets

for the Wheat berry to be spread out to dry

(this is a part which you have to watch the timing,

so that it does not become too dried out).

I soon understood why my friend empathized

having water to cover the Pearl Wheat,

as it quickly soaked up water

as it boiled.

*

The next post will explain the rest of how to make this dish.

*

The wheat is used to remind us of the Resurrection

and it is in Christ that we look to

in these times of grief

and preparation....

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.

*

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.

*

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.

*
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.
*
After it had doubled
I kneaded / punched it again
and let it rise,
again putting the tea towel over it.
*
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.
*
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