February 2018 - AMAZING-NESS - St. Odilia Church
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February 2018 AMAZING-NESS FIGHTING FEBRUARY PRETZEL PRAYERS ST. BLAISE
Love is our true destiny.
We do not find the meaning
of life by ourselves alone –
we find it with another.
~ Thomas Merton
3 WAYS TO BE DISCIPLES THIS LENT
1. WITNESS IN WORD. Try to give up gossip for Lent.
We live in a culture saturated with anger and negativity.
Joyfully witness to the Gospel with kindness or compas-
sion. Write, and send, a note of thanks for good service or
a job well-done.
2. WITNESS IN SPIRIT. Start a “prayer
project” this Lent. Pray for friends and
relatives, pray for enemies and those
Recipe for Mardi Gras with whom you struggle, and pray for
the dead that they may find eternal
Although King’s Cake is most associated as a Mardi rest in God.
Gras food and Cajun and creole influences are popu-
lar because of New Orleans’ over-the-top celebration 3. WITNESS IN DEED. Bearing fruit
on this day, start the day before Ash Wednesday with means living as Jesus taught us — loving
a simple (banana-flavored) pancake breakfast (a food God and our neighbor as much as ourselves. Call or visit
sometimes associated with Fat Tuesday). someone who is lonely. Buy a few groceries for a shut-in
or someone recovering from surgery. Offer to baby-sit
INGREDIENTS: for a family with small children. As Matthew’s Gospel
• 1 cup all-purpose flour reminds us, by our fruits we shall be known (see 7:20).
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt Mardi Gras Fun Facts
• 1 egg, beaten
Mardi Gras first became a holiday in 1582
• 1 cup milk
when Pope Gregory XIII placed it on his
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Gregorian calendar on the day before Ash
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
Wednesday. The holiday arrived in North
America in the late 17th century in Louisiana.
DIRECTIONS
1. Combine flour, white sugar, baking powder and
The official colors are gold, purple and
salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, veg-
green. Gold represents power; purple, justice;
etable oil and bananas.
and green, faith.
2. Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter
will be slightly lumpy. Mardi Gras is a state holiday in some places,
3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over including Alabama, Florida and parts of
medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the Louisiana. Although it’s not a state holiday in
griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pan- Texas, Galveston is home to one of the largest
cake. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both celebrations in the country.
sides; serve hot.
February Snapshots
SAINT OF THE MONTH
ST. BLAISE
The “Roughest” Month? FEAST DAY: FEB. 3
February may be the shortest month D. 316
of the year, but as Scott Warden, our
Confessions of a Catholic Dad (Page 7) Blaise was a physician in what
is modern-day Turkey who was
columnist puts it: “February is rough.
known for his ability to heal
Possibly the roughest.” When you layer
both humans and animals.
The Crosiers
on the beginning of Lent (like this year)
After a conversion experience,
— which brings with it a focus on pen-
he focused on spiritual illnesses
ance and sacrifice the Church calls us and eventually became bishop
to in preparation for Christ’s resurrec- of Sebastea. From early times,
tion — many would rather jump right he was associated with ailments of the throat, a designation that
to March. apparently arose from the legend that he cured a child who was
But Take Out will help your family stay choking on a fishbone while he was on the way to his own mar-
focused on the happenings of February tyrdom.
2018. Our poster — “We Thirst for You,
O Lord” — gets you started on Lent On his feast day, two crossed candles are used to touch the
with “signs of the season” and a couple throats of the faithful while imploring him for protection against
activities to begin the six-week journey diseases of the throat in the coming year.
to Holy Week.
IN HIS MEMORY:
Early February includes the feast of the
• Attend a blessing of the throats
Presentation of the Lord. Contributor
• Serve fish for dinner … but watch
Erin O’Leary (Page 6) looks at how, on
for bones
that day, the Holy Family set the exam- • Bless a candle for use during
ple all our families should follow in our family prayer
attempts to be holy.
In addition, Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day
and the Stations of the Cross (in Lent)
can each help us get past the “rough”
days of the month. March will be here
before you know it. February 2018 • Volume 12 Number 6 • $2.50
President: Joe Wikert Design Director: Tyler Ottinger
Editorial Director: Greg Willits Production Manager: Christopher Rice
Editorial Team: Tyler Ottinger, Marla Overholt, Lindsey Riesen, Scott Warden, York Young
ONLINE www.osvparish.com Our Sunday Visitor, Publishing
Chairman of the Board: Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades
Check out our popular OSV website at Copyright © 2018, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. Editorial address: Take Out, 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750. Take Out®
www.osvparish.com. It is loaded with prayers, is published monthly, September-June, to support Catholic families grow in faith. To order call 1-800-348-2440.
activities and resources for your family. Click on
Resource Library and look for Take Out extras.
Cover photos: Shutterstock
FEBRUARY 2018 – TAKE OUT 3
Before Jesus began his ministry, the Spirit “drove him out into the desert” (Mk 1:12). After 40 days, he emerged to announce the kingdom of God was at hand
and encouraged the people to “repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15). As we begin the season of Lent, we, too, enter into our own desert.
The Gospel reading on the First Sunday of Lent (Mark 1:12-15) helps us understand the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. We are told that he went out into
the desert for 40 days, where he was tempted by Satan and ministered to by angels. Next, Mark says that, after John the Baptist had been arrested, Jesus
announced that the “time of fulfillment” was at hand and began his preaching and teaching.
What lesson lies here for us? While Lent is a time of service to others, it must also be a time of preparation and renewal of self. We cannot give what we do
not have. Just as Jesus had to spend time in the desert, so we, too, need to take time this season to allow God to show us where we need to change and give us
the courage and conviction to act on those changes. This give and take is part of the flow of life and one of the great lessons of Lent.
SIGNS OF THE SEASON
LENT
The word “Lent” has a specific religious connotation today, but originally it was used to mean “spring.”
THE COLOR PURPLE
The deep purple color that fills the Church during Lent symbolizes Christ’s suffering and death, but, because purple is also
the color of royalty, it foreshadows Christ’s kingship and resurrection.
ASH WEDNESDAY
On this first day of Lent, we receive ashes in the form of a cross on our forehead and are reminded to “turn away from sin
and be faithful to the Gospel.” In receiving ashes, we embrace Jesus’ journey: the cross of suffering and the promise of resur-
rection. We are marked as believers, as sinners, and as people in need of Christ’s forgiveness and salvation.
FASTING
Fasting, strongly identified with Lent, is often observed as fasting from food. It is not because our bodies need to be punished (or that we need to go on a
diet); we fast to allow our physical hunger to remind us of our spiritual hunger, our need for God. Another reason we fast is to remind ourselves of our baptis-
mal commitment and need for renewal. Fasting not only reminds us of our dependence on God, but also of the needs of others, the hungry and the poor.
FAMILY ACTIVITY
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
If you cannot attend Stations of the Cross at your parish, create your own.
While many Stations in churches are elaborate and ornate, all that is required
is to have 14 crosses (preferably wooden) located so that you can take a step or
two between each one. As a family activity, create 14 crosses from small twigs
or branches and place them in a line in your backyard or living room. Walk
together as a family, remembering the events of the Passion. At each cross, bow
or kneel and say, “Because of your holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.”
TRADITIONAL STATIONS OF THE CROSS
1. Jesus Is Condemned to Death
2. Jesus Accepts His Cross
3. Jesus Falls the First Time
4. Jesus Meets His Mother
5. Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross
6. Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
7. Jesus Falls the Second Time
8. Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
9. Jesus Falls the Third Time
10. Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments
11. Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross
12. Jesus Dies on the Cross
13. Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross
14. Jesus Is Placed in the Tomb
PRETZEL PRAYERS
Long considered a Catholic food of Lent, pretzels date back at least 1,400 years. Because fat, eggs and milk were once part of the
Lenten abstinence, these little bites of bread made only with flour, salt and water were invented. They were wrapped in the shape of
arms crossed in prayer and the three holes created by the shape represented the Trinity. Traditionally, pretzels were perfect to share
with people who were struggling for food or living on the streets because they didn’t spoil easily. Make your own pretzels as a family
(find a recipe on the internet) and share them with someone in need in your neighborhood or community.
Images: Shutterstock, The Crosiers FEBRUARY 2018 – TAKE OUT POSTER
Amazing-ness:
Guide Your Family in Faith
By Erin O’Leary
Parenting can be one of life’s greatest joys, but also one of life’s great-
est challenges, in which there is bound to be tension, conflict and a few
slammed doors from time to time. As a parent, your job is to love, guide
and be patient. Still, it can be difficult to know if you are doing this job
“right.”
On the feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Feb. 2), we remember the Holy
Family going to the Temple and presenting Jesus. According to the customs of
the time, families were required to bring firstborn sons to the Temple for presenta-
tion. Mary and Joseph followed the traditions of their faith and dutifully brought Jesus.
But what happened that day was remarkable. The young family encountered a devout man
named Simeon who had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. When
Simeon saw Jesus, he took him in his arms and declared his journey on Earth was complete:
“Now, Master, you may let your servant go / in peace, according to your word, / for my eyes have seen your
salvation, / which you have prepared in sight of all the peoples, / a light for revelation to the Gentiles / and glory for
your people Israel” (Lk 2:29-32).
Scripture continues with the line, “The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him.” I take
great comfort in this sentence, that even the Holy Family had days when they were amazed.
To guide your own family in its faith and be amazed, using the Holy Family as an example is a good place to start:
1. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. As parents and caregivers, we encourage our children to keep working on the
important things in their life. We encourage them to practice math facts, jump shots, musical instruments or paral-
lel parking. Each time, they build their skills and gain a deeper appreciation for what they can accomplish. We also
need to practice our faith every day, just as Mary and Joseph did when they brought Jesus to the Temple. We do
this in big ways and small. We accept the sacraments and guide our children through these important traditions.
But we also practice our faith in day-to-day actions and prayers. Our acts of kindness — opening the door, a warm
hug, a generous donation — are each amazing ways to strengthen the relationship that God wants with each of us.
2. OPEN YOUR HEART. Perhaps the most wondrous example of
watching and listening in Scripture is in Luke 1, when the angel
visits Mary to share the life-changing news that she will become
mother to the Messiah. At first doubtful, she wonders how it can
be that she will bear a child. The angel tells her that with God
nothing is impossible. Her reply is nothing short of amazing: “I
am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according
to your word” (v. 38). Mary’s grace-filled response is our earthly
reminder that with God all things are possible. We, too, encoun-
ter life-changing events — some joyous, some tragic. But with
each event, when we open our hearts to God, our experience with
these events will be transformed. When we surrender our fear
and trust that God will guide us, life-changing events truly do
change our lives.
3. CELEBRATE YOUR AMAZING-NESS. Every family is unique and
blessed. You share much more than eye color or favorite pizza
toppings. You share your lives and experiences. Sometime in the
next month, celebrate your family. Share photos taken over the
past year and tell the stories that go with these photos. Connect
through your shared experience of your family.
6 TAKE OUT – FEBRUARY 2018 Image: Shutterstock
Love Can Conquer All
– Even February
By Scott Warden
I don’t have any statistical data to back this up, but if there are any intrepid researchers willing to take the ball and
run with it, be my guest. Here is my hypothesis: February is rough. Possibly the roughest.
Because life from November to January is nonstop parties and planning and cooking and cleaning and wrapping
and decorating and un-decorating and driving, once February rolls around, we’re all ready for a four-week nap.
February is cold, and it’s dark when we leave for work and dark when we get home. You know those dreary days
when you don’t want to get out of your pajamas (much less leave the house)? February feels like 28 days of those.
Maybe it’s because of this — the darkness and coldness and the recent memories of too many celebrations — that,
come mid-month, my beautiful, devout wife and I have no use for Valentine’s Day. None.
We do have one tradition on Feb. 14 to which we’ve adhered most of our 16 years of marriage, which is the follow-
ing conversation:
Me: “Hey, sorry I didn’t get you a Valentine’s card. Again.”
Her: “Oh, right. It’s Valentine’s Day. It’s totally fine. I didn’t get you one, either. Again.”
We’re super romantic.
To be fair, as a Catholic and casual student of the saints, there isn’t much of a devotion to get behind. Legend has
it that the saint himself — or saints, as there are two who share the feast day, and nobody is really certain which is
being honored — had little to do with the holiday’s popularity. No, they are fortunes of circumstance, as the day was
pegged to honor lovers because it is in mid-February when birds commonly choose their mates.
But maybe we’re doing ourselves, our family and our faith a disservice by ignoring the feast day of the mysterious
Sts. Valentine. Yes, it’s been hijacked by Hallmark and 1-800-FLOWERS and Whitman’s Samplers, and somewhere
along the way we’ve even stripped the poor Valentines of recognition of their sainthood, as it’s not even liturgically
celebrated as St. Valentine’s Day (unlike St. Patrick’s Day, which also largely has had the catholicity rung out of it).
But none of this means that we as a family, inside of our own home, can’t take it back. Both St. Valentine and St.
Valentine 2.0 were third-century martyrs, and while they are connected popularly with love for reasons outside of
their control, they sacrificed their lives because of their love for Christ and his Church.
It is this sacrificial love — the love they had for Christ and the love Christ had for us, and not the type depicted on
the Hallmark Channel or professed with roses or chocolate truffles — that deserves a day of recognition.
And so perhaps we can carry with us the fire they had for the Faith and allow it to brighten even the dreariest
month.
Image: Shutterstock
FEBRUARY 2018 – TAKE OUT 7
t h T a l k
Fai amilies
for F ■ Feb. 4 — Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 1:29-39: Everywhere Jesus went, he healed the sick,
bringing hope to people. Even when he went off to pray,
25 Years of the Catechism of the Catholic Church people looked for him. Jesus immediately responded, going
to the next village to teach, care for and help people.
“By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church Jesus took time to pray. What do you think Jesus prayed
about? What do you pray about?
unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus
in the desert.”
~ Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 540
What can you do over the next six weeks to
show people Jesus lives in you?
■ Feb. 11 — Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
What will you do this Mark 1:40-45: Jesus shows his compassion in this Gospel
Lent as an outward sign How do you when he cures a man of leprosy, a disease that was consid-
of repentance? overcome ered so bad in those times that no one would even touch a
temptation? person who had it.
How do you think the people felt when they saw Jesus
reach out to touch the leper?
ON THIS DAY WE CELEBRATE
■ Feb. 18 — First Sunday of Lent
Mark 1:12-15: In today’s Gospel Jesus comes to Galilee after
■ Feb. 2: Candlemas
Bless a candle for use during prayer this year. spending 40 days in the desert. His time there prepared him
to spread the Good News. His first message was: “The king-
■ Feb 5: St. Agatha dom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Listen for her name in the Eucharist prayer.
What do you think God wants you to do with
■ Feb. 13: Mardi Gras the 40 days of Lent?
Plan your Lenten penance. But celebrate today!
■ Feb. 18: Blessed Fra Angelico ■ Feb. 25 — Second Sunday of Lent
A great artist. Do an art or craft as a family. Mark 9:2-10: Today’s reading from Mark tells the story
of Peter, James and John on a mountain with Jesus when
■ Feb. 20: World Day for Social Justice he was transfigured (changed) in a magnificent way. His
“If you want peace, work for justice.” — Pope Paul VI clothes became dazzling white, the prophets Moses and
Elijah appeared, and a voice from the cloud said: “This is my
■ Feb. 23: St. Zebinus
Images: Shutterstock
beloved Son. Listen to him.”
A hermit, and proof that there really are saints
from A to Z! The apostles heard God say: “This is my beloved Son.
Listen to him.” Where do we hear God speaking today?
■ Feb. 28: Inconvenience Yourself Day
Do a secret good deed.
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