Two-fer Tuesday on the Feast of St. Mark

1) First of all, remembering that this is the day of the Greater Litanies, when we pray for God's blessing on our crops at the beginning of the growing the growing season, I'd like to share a post with the traditional blessings for all the parts of one's property. Click here.  

In the life of our family, this practice of blessing our property was one of the highlights of our year, as all the parts of the ritual, itself, appealed to all of us -- and the very fact of the blessings gave us a special feeling of security, as if God's arms had been placed in a special away around our home. The post linked here was put together in about 2022, when we lived in Nebraska! (How time flies!) It chiefly details the prayers said.  I need to put together a simple how-to regarding the craft of making the "staffs" that we plant on the four corners of the property, but there is really very little "craft" involved -- and no right or wrong way of doing it. 

In a nutshell, we have the children go find strong straight sticks, at least five feet tall and either save from the pantry small jars or bottles (about the size of a small vanilla container) or we buy little jars at Hobby Lobby (that have caps) and fill them

with Holy Water. We then take either a plain little bit of a Palm Sunday palm or a palm that has been folded into a cross (see here) and with some ribbon (as much as you like, tied however you think best) we tie the holy water and the palm to the staff (stick). Sometimes a bit of glue-gun glue might be employed. When we go around placing these at the four corners, we bring some strong twine, because sometimes the best way of making the staffs stand up (especially if the ground is either especially damp or is frozen) is to tie them to trees. Alternatively, you can bring a T-post and a post driver with you (something you'll only need to do once) to place permanently at the corners of your land. Each year, the family will affix a new staff to the post -- or re-do last year's staff, if you like.

2) To end the day in a special and memorable way, Mom (with her helpers) can prepare a Venetian dinner in honor of the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice, where St. Mark's relics were laid. You can find some great menu items here. And some more ideas here and here. And, since the iconography of St. Mark is a lion, you can listen to the story of how that came to be right here -- and make the cutest little lion cupcakes, following the instructions here. The recipe for a lion cake can be found here. 

It is called a feast day, after all! Creating memories of happy times connected with holy things are one of the best ways of snuggling a love of the Faith into the hearts of our children -- and because we are human, the way to our hearts... well... may not actually be through our stomachs -- but the love and nurturing and time and effort that goes into making our homes come alive with the traditions of our Faith... This really does help pave an excellent path to the children's hearts and our own!