A Taste of Christmas

How better to enter into the spirit of Christmas than by attending a special evening with London’s award-winning King’s University College Chamber Choir.

A group of us Sisters made the two-minute trip to the magnificent chapel at our former home, Windermere on the Mount.

Upon entering, we were bathed in the serenity of the setting.  Against a backdrop of plush blue and green backlit panel draping, the grand piano, violins, viola, and cello sat ready. The musicians took their places.  The uplifting tone of the evening was set.  Talented conductor, Janet Loo, stepped onto the dais, and thirty-nine beautifully gowned and suited sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses walked across the stage and stood on the tiers before us.  Thus began an exhilarating selection of intricate choruses to ring in the festal season.  In the acoustically superb chapel, the crystal-clear voices in multiple harmony soared and descended in beautiful choral renditions from a tingling, “Gloria in Excelsis Deo”, to “Rosa Mystica” and the haunting, “Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming”.  In a change of pace, there was eager audience participation with the ever old ever new, “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”.

In one seamless evening of outstanding repertoire, we left the world of noise behind us and lived suspended in peace and calm.  As the performance ended and we headed back into the night, we were uplifted to have spent an evening where music nourished our inner selves. It was calm for our souls, pride for our hearts and a blessing to witness such outstanding musical talent. 

Sister Jean Moylan, csj

Garnishes of Beauty - Edible Flowers

At Stillpoint House of Prayer, we are blessed with Karen and Jasmine, a mother and daughter team, who prepare nutritious and appealing meals for our guests.  Admiring their presentation of food, someone on retreat commented “They have a spiritual gift.”  This statement got me thinking.  When someone takes a bit of extra time to add a garnish as a creative touch, this gesture shows that person cares.  The added ‘ingredient’ brings beauty with the potential to touch a person’s soul and can stir up a natural response of gratitude to God. Edible flowers are garnishes that offer a delightful sensory experience. The thought of eating them may seem unnatural to some; however, for centuries, cultures around the world have brightened their recipes by adding flowers. When innovative cooks use flowers and artistically arrange them on a plate, they enhance our lives with a burst of colour, interest, taste, and texture.  The flowers are meant to harmonize with the foods and accurately represent what is contained within the dish, give a clue to the flavour of the meal, complement the taste of the dish, enhance food’s aromatic qualities, and fill empty space on the plate.

There are many options for edible flowers that can be used throughout most seasons.  Nasturtium, pansies, marigolds, tulips, cornflowers, verbena, geraniums, honeysuckle, johnny jump-ups, and calendula flowers are just some of the varieties available.  When the anthers are removed, gladiolus act as lovely receptacles for sweet or savory spreads or mousses.  Roses are sweet with subtle overtones, ranging from fruit to mint to spice, reminiscent of strawberries and green apples.  Although all roses are edible, the darker varieties have a more pronounced flavour.

Always check to make sure a flower is edible and, when in doubt, don’t eat it!  Azaleas, buttercups, daffodils, delphinium, and wisteria are poisonous. Never use pesticides or other chemicals on any part of any plant that produces blossoms you plan to eat.  Roadside flowers are not to be harvested because they may have been exposed to vehicle exhaust and salt runoff from the winter months.  Anyone with allergies proceed with caution.  When dining out, ask if a flower used as a garnish is edible.   

Edible flowers are always best when picked fresh from the garden at a cool time of day; morning is often best.   Be sure to wash the flowers and check to be sure that no insects are stuck inside your flowers. The petals are the best parts of many edible flowers so remove the heel at the base of the petal as well as the stamens, pistils, and calyx of larger flowers.  Some, like pansies, however, can be eaten whole.  After cutting the petals away from the bitter base of the flower, carnations can be steeped in wine, candied, or used as cake decorations.  

Every year when planning the landscape of your garden, be sure to add varieties of edible flowers.  These flowers not only add beauty to your landscape, but valuable nutrients as well.  As perfect companion plants, they will naturally enhance your gardening success.  Most edible flowers like roses and lavenders contain vitamin A, C, and E.  Antioxidants also protect the body from damage linked to disease and ageing. Now, this is “flower power”!

-Sister Kathy O’Keefe, csj on behalf of the Federation Ecology Committee

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RESOURCES from Google:  The Ten Best Edible Flowers to Grow in Your Garden    Stephanie Rose      Mission on The Tabernacle:  The Spiritual Gift of Creating Beauty    Becca Hermes          10 Benefits of Edible Flowers    Teleflora

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS:

• BEFORE CONSUMING ANY PLANT OR FLOWER, CHECK WITH A MEDICAL OR PLANT PROFESSIONAL.

• NOT EVERY FLOWER/PLANT IS EDIBLE – In fact, sampling some flowers can make you very, very sick.

• You also should NEVER use pesticides or other chemicals on any part of any plant that produces blossoms you plan to eat.

• Never harvest flowers growing by the roadside.

• Identify the flower exactly and eat only edible flowers and edible parts of those flowers.

• Always remember to use flowers sparingly in your recipes due to the digestive complications that can occur with a large consumption rate.  Most herb flowers have a taste that’s similar to the leaf, but spicier.  The concept of using fresh edible flowers in cooking is not new.

Interfaith Friendships

Image: Jeremy Yap/Unsplash

I was inspired to share this inspiring article from the Center for Action and Contemplation. The article is by Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core.

The article describes how asking youth to share with each other stories from their diverse religions, how values held by all of them can lead to joint participation in a service project that implements these values.

You can find this inspiring and hopeful article here.

-Sister Pat McKeon, csj

To Explore Further. . . Read Richard on interspirituality and solidarity.

The "Critical Yeast"

Some wisdom for our time from John Lederach on the Importance of the Few, the "Critical Yeast".

John Paul Lederach is a senior fellow at Humanity United and professor emeritus of international peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame. He is also the co-founder and first director of the Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. In 2019 he won the Niwano Peace Foundation Peace Prize.

Header Image: Karyna Panchenko/Unsplash

A Reflection on Love and Loss

As I recall Claire Oliver’s words:  “I will lovingly accept the ‘bad’ and ‘the good…and try to see everything that happens as a gift of love. (From Maxim 10 1 E).

My youngest sister Cathy died very suddenly at the beginning of May – which sent her immediate family – husband and daughters, as well as her 7 remaining siblings and friends into deep grief and shock.  “This cannot be true, I just played cards with her on Saturday night; I had breakfast with her two days ago on Mother’s Day; I had a long chat with her on the phone not three days ago…”

My dear sister, Cathy.

My acceptance of Cathy’s death took some inner work and acceptance of my own feelings of loss and down-right anger at what happened to her. 

Why?  Why her? She’s too young. The family needs her, she was the connector for the rest of us. 

Going into an 8-day retreat in August was going to be time that I could get some direction around how to really live this new reality with a deeper faith and trust.  So, with my ‘take charge’ attitude I was going to find out some answers to my questions.  As I sat one morning quietly by the window asking God about the day Cathy died my questions were:  What was it like?  Was she afraid?  Were You with her?  Who else was there?  Did she just take Your hand and look back at all of us and wave goodbye?  Is she okay?

“I SAT ASKING GOD, WHY?”

Sitting with these questions and letting them just be in the universe and outside of myself, I closed my eyes and waited.  Suddenly, I had a sense of inner peace and could hear Cathy laughing and clearly saying to me “Gotch ya!”  Her laughter and those words often came when she knew she had one upped me on something- so I knew intuitively that this was a response from her. 

Keeping my eyes closed, I saw my parents, my other sister Mary Jane and her husband Don standing with some of the members of the Community who were significant women in my life and who loved me  – standing with Cathy and they just said “Ann, Cathy is fine, she is with us – with all of us who loved you and she will be okay.”  I was overwhelmed and thought - I’ve lost my mind here!  When I shared this with the Director later that day her words were:  “Ann, you have had a visit from the Communion of Saints…and Cathy is among them now.”

My remaining days of retreat were filled with the gift of looking at death and not being afraid – and I spent time with the following quote from John O’Donohue:

“Death is actually a re-birth.  Where does the soul go?  It goes nowhere (Eckhart).  The eternal world is not some faraway galaxy-but it is HERE.  The dead are here with us, invisible to us, but we can sense their presence.  They are looking out for us.  For the dead, time is a circle.  Eternity is pure presence, pure belonging.  When you are in the eternal, you are outside of nothing.  You are within everything, enjoying the fullest participation. There is no separation.  You are embraced in the purest circle of LOVE.  You are everywhere and you are nowhere.  BUT you are in complete presence – DO NOT BE AFRAID.  (Walking in Wonder)

As I go forward this new year, I choose to live into the deeper meaning of this Maxim as I continue to “see everything that happens as a gift of LOVE.”

-Sister Ann MacDonald, csj