March 15, 2024
Dear Friends,
Happy (almost) St. Patrick’s Day, if you celebrate that Feast Day, that is. Probably today or tomorrow, I will break out Grandma’s recipe for Irish Soda bread. I don’t think I’ve ever told this story before, but in my family, there is controversy over the family recipe. Apparently, there are two different recipes circling the family group chats. Unlike Grandma’s rice pudding recipe (that none of us have), she gave out two very different recipes for the Irish Soda bread, depending on if she liked you or not. Since I have both recipes and have confirmed from other extended family members, which is the valid recipe, I don’t have the heart to tell the one side of the family, Grandma didn’t give them the real recipe.
How messed up is that though? I know this is how it goes, same thing with the pasta sauce, and other family traditions. If Grandma didn’t like you, she lied about the recipe. There is a lesson in this. We value our traditions. Even if we do not necessarily like that person, is it worth having two recipes going around claiming to be the original, just to spite a person? Frankly, as I am writing this, I want rice pudding but will never be able to make it. All I remember is the big pot (apparently, I can’t call it the name I want to) and pouring gallons of milk into it. I can still hear the sound as the milk empties from the jug. But alas that recipe is lost to us.
Wow, I really went on a tangent there. Sorry about that! But seriously, I want grandmas rice pudding. Anyway, as a society, we have traditions that we do pass on to our children, grandchildren, etc. We need to remember that in all aspects of our life, not just our family traditions. It is what we need to be doing for our faith as well. This is why we have faith formation tied to masses; this is why we need to always invite people to join us. When asked how do I get my son/daughter back to church? My response is, we live by example. We always invite them to join us. We cannot force our faith on anyone, but we can share our traditions. We can always invite them. This is how people find God, through invitation and tradition, not nagging.
Two paragraphs about food followed by a short message. Weird. Speaking of invitations, I want to remind you of our Parish Mission and Reflection on St. Joseph this Tuesday, March 19, which is the Feast of St. Joseph. Join us for mass, a reflection, and the blessing of our St. Joseph’s table full of wonderful desserts. The other food which is part of the family tradition will not be on the table, because who wants to eat a full meal at 8:00 pm. Open some windows. Enjoy your day. See you over the weekend and hopefully on Tuesday at 7:00 pm.
God Bless,
Fr. Brian
P.S. Why do leprechauns make terrible comedians? Their jokes are always a wee bit short!