Jerome's Feast Day

September 30 is the remembrance of Jerome. I choose to remember his story because it's a reminder of the history of the Bible. Sometimes I think we think the Bible has been around forever and too, in people's hands. Yes, currently it's in about everyone's home and can be found almost anywhere. We take it for granted. In fact many of us probably have many copies and in many translations.

BUT, for thousands of years the Old and then the New Testament were oral tradition in churches and gatherings. The common populace could never own scripture, let alone read it for themselves till still a period of time after the printing press. For those thousands of years it had to be handwritten and not on today's abundant paper.

Grouping of texts were coveted and guarded. Some monasteries built up around one such book. But a whole canon of what we today know as The Bible didn't begin to come together until around AD400. And then not to the common people.

The Hebrew canon was finally established about 100AD. The New Testament began first around the texts written or authorized by an apostle of Jesus. Initially what was used in churches was oral readings for edification of the body.

Jerome had devoted the bulk of his life preserving and caring for early church documents. In 383 Pope Damascus I commissioned Jerome, his secretary, to make a good, complete Latin translation of the Bible. It is called the Vulgate, meaning "common" or "popular". It took him 21 years to complete.

Jerome wrote many commentaries on books of the Bible and was doing the commentary on Ezekiel when Rome was being ransacked and fell, and likened the book to what was then happening. He lived his last years from 386 to 420 in Bethlehem, living as a monk and finishing the Bible translation.

There's so much history in connection to the Bible and it is fascinating and too much to post now. Throughout church history there are many people, who being able to read scripture, would tell the church leadership a thing or two!... And too, when the Muslim peoples started pushing on all the borders of Europe and Constantinople fell, Europe had not had any original language documents, and with the refugees came a lot of original manuscripts and art and all. Which began both the Renaissance and Reformation (both the arts and spiritual attraction to what had not been seen in Europe since the barbarians' destruction). And that starts a whole new era that we're just now maybe attempting to alter into a new era?!

So all I'll add here, is that Jerome was noted as a cantankerous, codgy, feisty character, that I wonder about the spirit of his translation! But it was the only one for a thousand plus years and it did spread the Gospel through the known world.

Michaelmas tomorrow

We're leaving town this afternoon to sing at a wedding and also stay with friends at a cabin along the Colorado River on the western slope (we're on the eastern slope). Been thinking it's going to be a beautiful drive. Though our own trees aren't turning yet, when out-and-about I can see the golden aspens on the hillsides. And the name Colorado (color red) shows more when driving around the state. We don't have red maple trees, but scrub oaks and other bushes on hillsides can be quite colorful some years.

And since we're leaving, I can't post tomorrow on Michaelmas day. Ever hear of Michaelmas Daisies? They are perennials we can plant that are fall blooming every year. We have wildflower daisies that are purple with yellow centers that bloom in our area all fall--one of the last flowers of the year.

I made a felted dragon that I pull out this time of year. It sits on a rock in the center of the kitchen table. And then a white sheep wool angel with gold threading and a sword, hangs over the table. This visual is for reminding my heart of stories to remember and give prayers of thanks.

"A woman, robed with the sun, standing on the moon, and crowned with a garland of twelve stars, was giving birth to a child crying out in pain. There was also a huge dragon...in front of the woman in childbirth, waiting, ready to eat up the child as soon as it was born...War broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought the dragon..."

What a fantastic story! It reads like Greek mythology...Read Revelation 12:1-9. Archangel Michael is mentioned throughout scripture. Like Daniel was praying for three weeks and on the 24th day he was surprised by "a man dressed in linen with a belt of pure gold. His body glistening and as if sculpted from the precious stone beryl. His face radiated light like lightening, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like polished bronze, and his voice sounded like a huge choir of voices." He had been detained in spiritual warfare which is beyond our vision.

If all the mentions of angels in scripture--bringing good news, warning of danger, guarding from evil, guiding and protecting, nourishing, and instructing--functioned as such then, wouldn't they still be doing this on into today?! Do we live believing this? Each year I give a special focus to this piece of my faith in God, and thank him for his angels.

Michaelmas is one of the four cardinal points of the year, opposite the Resurrection. In art, Michael is sometimes depicted with balance scales as if he's weighing the souls of men. Do we have our own dragons in our lives? An art piece has Michael gazing at the child lying in an animal feed trough. The child that asks to be born in each human soul. It's a time for contemplation and resurrection of the soul, new beginnings, as with this Jewish season I've been posting about.

"Thank you God for your awesome provision for me. Help me see the realities of the spiritual realm all around me."

St Vincent de Paul

It's the Feast of Saint Vincent de Paul today. I googled him. There's a lot of thrift store listings besides sites with his story. I always think of the thrift store we go to every time we visit Monte's mom. We call it St Vinnies. Lots of Amish go to this store.

There's too much he did to write up, and it's been done elsewhere. All I can say is he was a wonderful man and had a huge heart for invalids, orphans, war victims, convicts, and galley slaves (taking one's place once). He had a gift for persuading the wealthy to be charitable. And many women developed hearts for the needy and wanted to be trained in caring for these people.

I'll just let some of his words, say who he is -

However great the work that God may achieve by an individual, he must not indulge in self-satisfaction. He ought rather to be all the more humbled, seeing himself merely as a tool which God has made use of.

We must love our neighbor as being made in the image of God and as an object of His love.

The Church teaches us that mercy belongs to God. Let us implore Him to bestow on us the spirit of mercy and compassion, so that we are filled with it and may never lose it. Only consider how much we ourselves are in need of mercy.

Extend your mercy towards others, so that there can be no one in need whom you meet without helping. For what hope is there for us if God should withdraw His Mercy from us?

The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it.

Free your mind from all that troubles you; God will take care of things. You will be unable to make haste in this (choice) without, so to speak, grieving the heart of God, because he sees that you do not honor him sufficiently with holy trust. Trust in him, I beg you, and you will have the fulfillment of what your heart desires.

Saint Vincent de Paul

Feast of Booths - Sukkot

This is the third Jewish fall festival in Leviticus 23, starting this eve at sundown, lasting seven days. Five days following Yom Kippur temporary shelters are constructed. It is the end of the harvest season. Did I mention earlier about the Hebrews returning from captivity, in Nehemiah 8, and hearing the Torah for the first time for many generations? and this was the first feast they celebrated.

I believe the pilgrims, reading scripture, celebrated this feast as our first Thanksgiving. Responding in thanksgiving after their first hard year in this new world.

This is the third of the harvest festivals when Jews made (do many of them still?) a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the highest city in Palestine. While traveling they quoted from memory Psalms 120-134, which are called the Songs of Ascent. Three times - Passover, what became Pentecost, and this festival of ingathering.

People live in huts for a week remembering and telling stories of Abraham leaving home and relatives, to follow God's calling, and lived in a tent. Then too the Israelites had no permanent dwellings in their wandering the wilderness. They often lived in booths close to the harvesting too. (II Corinthians speaks of our bodies as tents, and eventually we'll have heavenly bodies.)

The booths are decorated with harvest produce. A priest during this time pours water from a pitcher symbolizing gratitude for rain and more for the year to come. Jesus risked his life as a 'wanted man' coming into Jerusalem for this festival in John 7. It is here that he said, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." The surrounding Jews were thinking water in relation to the festival. Jesus knew the drought of their hearts.

There's a great movie to give us the feel of this festival in the midst of modern-day Israel. It's the meeting of secular and sacred Jews. The movie done in 2004 is "Ushpizin", which means "holy guests". Moshe (Moses) and his wife Malli are poor and wanting a baby and hardly able to feed themselves and celebrate Sukkot, let alone entertain unexpected guests! It's a very good movie and story!!

Herbs

In the recipe I just posted, I used up the last of my cilantro from the garden. BUT...

I've cleaned my southern exposure great-room window of it's old scruffy plants and washed everything down. I've potted up all sorts of herbs to grow all winter. I only dug up two herbs from outside, but bought everything else. Plants brought in always get aphids.

I dug up an epazote I had out with the tomatoes and basil. I hope it doesn't get bugs. The nursery won't get it again till next spring. It's used in some authentic Latin American recipes, like with beans. When I dried some, I had to smell the packaged bit I still had from Arizona, to see if they were the same. They were. It smells really weird! I also dug up a bunch of chives. I can't imagine them getting bugs!

I do have other pots of herbs in the greenhouse that I had outside - they'll stay in the greenhouse. I've been bringing in flowers from outside too. I do this every year and they last most of the winter. But I do have to spray them with Safe Soap. But next spring I just replant these pots with new annuals for the deck, and some of last year's are still living.

I have a grape vine in the greenhouse that's loaded with hanging clusters of Thompson Seedless Grapes. We've been eating them and will put the clusters in ziplock bags and freeze. Then you just eat some 'grape popsicles'. The grape vine grows along wire fencing we hang from the ceiling. It eventually shades the greenhouse from the intense summer sun.

Onion, Potato and Zucchini Soup

I made this soup last night, and several times before, since I've had to use up zucchini! :) It really is very good, and I've froze it too. (Another good use of zucchini. You can only have so much frozen zucchini bread, which Heather plans to still do.)

3/4 virgin olive oil (should form a good puddle in the pan)
3 onions, sliced
2 potatoes, diced
3 large zucchini, diced
1/4 cup tomato paste
juice of 4 lemons
2 bunches of cilantro (you don't really taste it, yet it adds SO much)
salt to taste

Saute onions for about 15 minutes over medium-low heat. Add potatoes (when organic, I wash and keep the skins on) and saute a bit more. Add zucchini and tomato paste. Barely cover with water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on medium-low till everything is soft. Remove from heat and add cilantro and lemon juice. Puree in pan with an immersion blender, or in batches in blender. This is good hot or cold. I didn't think this would be so great without an added broth, but it doesn't need it!

All I've been doing for awhile this afternoon is recipes!. My MOPS group is doing a cookbook for fund-raising, and of course I've added recipes. But I've been on the website proof-reading a lot of the recipes. It's been fun seeing the variety that's been submitted.

Supper Group

Last night we had our supper group at our house. Originally the five of us gals met together for what I posted earlier - 'Bible study or Divine Reading' - for several years. Then we thought of inviting our husbands for a supper. So it's an official church small group, that came about on it's own, and we've been doing it for more than two years now.

Monte says I need to post all the recipes. It WAS a wonderful Mexican meal. I'll just talk about the menu and if anyone wants specific recipes, I'll post them.

While finishing up the entrees we had appetizers and drinks ready to go for people to dive into. Typical chips and salsa, and my homemade guacamole, and Monte's fresh tomato salsa with lots of cilantro (the last of my garden's). But I have a tortilla press and mixed up masa and made some of our own chips, but we need to perfect getting them crispy. The hit was 'queso panela'. I'm always asked for this recipe. It's a round pound of cheese, queso fresca, in most stores' specialty cheese section, poked and marinated with olive oil, lots of garlic and lots of oregano. Then bake to soften.

Our dessert was ready too. I've read that if you have a great beginning and ending to a meal...So that's where I try and focus now, often veggies and dips up front or fruit. We made pureed mango and fresh squeezed lime juice with just a bit of sugar into an ice cream and served it with a few raspberries from what we picked Friday.

I grew up loving tamales and chimichangas and still do. I found authentically, chimis are really called chivichangas (they're fried burritos). So we made them. Monte usually browns the meat and crockpots it. This time he browned the beef on the grill with mesquite smoke and then crockpotted it till it could easily shred. Then sauted it with some tomatoes and onion (he'd have to tell me the rest). But that was the filling for the thin tortillas we get raw, and cook, from Costco. I made pork filled tamales with a 'verde' sauce (grilled tomatillos, jalepenos, onion and garlic, pureed, and cooked down with chicken broth, and add cilantro).

The side dishes were parboiled purple potatoes, then cooked in butter with lots of garlic slivers. Then because we had just got a bushel of mild green chilies roasted, we sauted some of these up, cut in slivers along with sliced onion and added cream. That was most of us's favorite. And then a salad with an avocado dressing I made.

We all really look forward to this getting together. We strive for once a month. In today's busy lives - from pastoring, to eldering, to church secretary, and counseling, and writing, and geology, and plant nursury seasons...It's great to have a time to unwind, to laugh, to share, to cry, to pray...with close friends.

Mice & rodent repellant

Mice problems? Every fall we have mice trying to get into the house and get trapped in walls and smell. We have a local site: www.pinecam.com, that started up when the forest fires were starting up everywhere and shifting with winds, and us locals were frustrated with the news source down in Denver. So now there's cameras posted all over and people reporting in for everything from bad weather, traffic, lost animals, recipes, restaurant reviews, etc. It was there I found this recipe.

I've not made and tried this rodent recipe yet. Monte's mom just told us about their mice problem in Wisconsin and I gave her the recipe. I just know from all the chat letters, that people said it really worked. We do need to use it, though things have changed. Since the garage got that spray-on, expanding foam insulation, for a bit we were smelling mice where we've never smelled them before. I think they're 'lost' since their typical paths have been eliminated.

1 gallon water
1 onion, chopped fine
2 jalepeno peppers, chopped fine (I often where gloves when handling jalepenos. If you forget and wipe your eyes...:( sob)
2 TB cayenne pepper
Boil 20 minutes. Strain. Pour or spray around holes and house edges.
Some people told stories of spreading the strained solid stuff in critter holes too.
Someone said adding oil, it could be 'painted' on.
Most said they only had to do a couple applications in spring and another in fall and it's worked!

Tashlich

I periodically look at the award winning children's books and any related to the calendar days. We can learn so much from these stories (I love Aram's children sermons at our church!). I've found stories for the Jewish celebrations to be most meaningful (and adding Christianity along with the Jewish festivals has great depth).

One story had a pretty cantankerous, nasty man, open a door all the time and sweep his dirt into the basement. And then once a year, he'd go down into the basement and bag up all the dirt. He's shown carrying these bulky large bags out to the beach where he deposits everything into the sea.

There's a ritual the Jews have added beyond what's in Leviticus 23, doing sometime during the 10 High Holy Days. It's called Tashlich, which means "casting off", and it consists of a symbolic casting of one's sins into a river or body of water. It most likely comes from Micah 7:18-19--"where is the god who can compare with you--wiping the slate clean of guilt...mercy is what you love most...you'll cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."

Go for a walk with family and friends. Wear something with pockets and gather stones as you walk. You could even give the stones some specific names of things you'd like cleaned up in your life. Then turn the pockets inside-out, tossing the stones into the water.

I've always noticed rocks and have collected some since I was a kid. I can imagine finding a pretty one and not wanting to throw it away. Isn't that much like things in our life? "I don't want to give this up yet!" Once thrown into the water, we couldn't find that rock again. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us" says Psalms 103:12.

Have fun throwing stones into the water. Skip some stones across the water. Wanting to get rid of sins can be just as enjoyable.

Yom Kippur

Today all over the world Jews are fasting. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement--a once a year time for forgiveness of sins.

I don't know what's done today, but in scripture it's the once a year time of the high priest entering the Holy of Holies--like when Zacharias went in in Luke 1:8-23 and was told by an angel him and old barren Elizabeth will have a baby. I think they tie a rope around the priest's ankle so if he doesn't come out, the priest can be pulled out.

I posted earlier about Rosh Hashanah and the 10 Holy Days leading to Yom Kippur. These days are not so much external 'celebrations' as internal reflection. The yearly awakening of the conscience for putting things in order in homes and relationships.

Atonement means at-one-ment with God. In scripture God told Jeremiah, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it...I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Jesus became our high priest and through him we may walk into the Holy of Holies into the presence of God. Remember at Jesus' crucifixion, the veil in the temple, the dividing wall into the Holy of Holies, was ripped in two from top to bottom?! We have this at-one-ment- with God, not just once a year, but at any time we desire.

It's a great once-a-year time to remind ourselves of God's grace.