ST. HIPPOYTUS-FILET MIGNON DAY-TEA WEEK
Judith,
Chapter 11, Verse 1
Then Holofernes said
to her: “Take courage, woman! Have no fear
in your heart! I have never harmed anyone who chose to serve Nebuchadnezzar,
king of all the earth.
Beauty meets the beast while he is reclining in bed.
He wants her almost as much as Jerusalem.
Two
Speeches[1]
Holofernes, servant of the King of Assyria, tells the
apple of his eye assuming she serves his king to take courage. He is blinded to
the fact that she serves the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords and is a servant
of Yahwah. Holofernes promises good treatment for a servant of Nebuchadnezzar.
Judith answer is a mixture of cunning and truth. She states, “If
you follow the words of your maidservant, God will successfully perform a deed
through you, and my lord will not fail to achieve his designs.” She
flatters and he loves it. In truth she states:
·
As
for Achior’s speech in your council, we have heard it…So then,
my lord and master, do not disregard his word, but bear it in mind, for it is
true. Indeed, our people are not punished, nor does the sword prevail against
them, except when they sin against their God.
·
But
now their sin has
caught up with them, by which they will bring the wrath of their God upon them
when they do wrong; so that my lord will not be repulsed and fail, but death
will overtake them. Because their food has given out and all
their water is running low, they have decided to kill their animals, and are
determined to consume all the things which God in his laws has forbidden them
to eat.
·
They
have decided that they would use the first fruits of grain and the tithes of
wine and oil, which they had consecrated and reserved for the priests who
minister in the presence of our God in Jerusalem—things which the people should
not so much as touch with their hands.
·
As
soon as I, your servant, learned all this, I fled from them. God has sent me to
perform with you such deeds as will astonish people throughout the whole earth
who hear of them.
A
Mark of True Love is generosity.
To
love another, we must first love
ourselves. Paul’s hymn to love, however, states that love “does not seek its
own interest,” nor “seek what is its own”. This same idea is expressed in
another text: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to
the interests of others” (Phil 2:4). The Bible makes it clear that generously
serving others is far more noble than loving ourselves. Loving ourselves is
only important as a psychological
prerequisite for being able to love others: “If a man is mean to himself, to
whom will he be generous? “No one is meaner than the man who is grudging to
himself.” (Sir 14:5-6). Saint Thomas Aquinas explains that “it is more proper
to charity to desire to love than to desire to be loved,” indeed, “mothers, who
are those who love the most, seek to love more than to be loved.” Consequently, love can transcend and overflow
the demands of justice, “expecting nothing in return” (Lk 6:35), and the
greatest of loves can lead to “laying down one’s life” for another (cf. Jn
15:13). Can such generosity, which enables us to give freely and fully, really
be possible? Yes, because it is demanded by the Gospel: “You received without
pay, give without pay” (Mt 10:8).
The Saint of today-St. Hippoytus was a priest and a person of some
importance in the Church in Rome who in his book, “The Apostolic Traditions”, displays
the liturgical life of the Christian at Rome in the first centuries. Of
interest is the tradition of the hours.
Divine
Office:
6 a.m. Prime:
"All the faithful, men and women, upon rising in the morning before
beginning work, should wash their hands and pray to God."
9
a.m. Terce:
"When you are at home, pray at the third hour and praise God. But if you
are away when this hour comes, pray in your heart to God. For at this hour
Christ was nailed to the Cross."
12
p.m. Sext:
"In a similar way you should pray again at the sixth hour. For at the time
when Christ was nailed to the Cross, there came a great darkness. Prayer should
therefore be said in imitation of Him who prayed at that hour, viz., Christ
before His death."
3
p.m. None:
"The ninth hour too should be made perfect by prayer and praise . . . in
that hour Christ was pierced by the spear."
6
p.m. Vespers:
"Once more ought you to pray before you go to bed."
Matins: "At
midnight rise from your bed, wash yourself and pray. If you have a wife, pray
together in antiphonal fashion. If she is not yet of the faith, withdraw and
pray alone and return again to your place. If you are bound by the bond of
marriage duties, do not cease your prayers, for you are not stained thereby. It
is necessary that we pray at that hour (i.e., Matins), for at that hour all
creation is resting and praising God. Stars, trees, water are as if they were
standing still; all the hosts of angels are holding divine services together
with the souls of the just. They are praising almighty God at that hour."
What an inspiring passage!
Sunrise-Lauds: "In like
manner rise and pray at the hour at which the cock crows . . . full of hope
look forward to the day of eternal light that will shine upon us eternally
after the resurrection from the dead." Motivation for these "hour
prayers" of the early Christians was the conviction that daily they were
reliving Christ's death and resurrection. Every new day was a day of
resurrection, and daily they were raised with Christ on the Cross. It is an
example that should spur us on to give the Mass, the Breviary, and
the Bible the place of honor in our lives.
Filet Mignon Day[4]
” When you’re a failure in
Hollywood, that’s like starving to death outside a banquet hall, with smells of
Filet Mignon driving you crazy.”
~ Marilyn Monroe
~ Marilyn Monroe
There is a cut of meat that is the very definition of luxury and
decadence, one that falls from the lips of the common people and the rich
debutante royalty of Hollywood in equal measure. Filet Mignon is French for
“dainty fillet” and first found its way into the world in the 1906 book,” The Four Million”. Filet Minion Day celebrates the history
of this steak and the delicious role it has played in exquisite meals. Tenderloin.
The very word implies a rich and succulent meal that absolutely melts on the
tongue, but even in this most perfect cut of meat, there is a portion that is
unquestionably the best. This portion is the fabled Filet Mignon. This
delicious cut is served in 4 to 8oz portions and comes prepared in one of three
varieties, seared in a pan, grilled over coals or the most famous, wrapped in
bacon. The bacon is typically added to enrich the piece with fat, as Filet
Mignon tends to leanness. Even though it comes from the tenderloin, there are
still multiple cuts of Filet Mignon one can choose to indulge in. The prime cut
is the most popular and is available from any form of cattle, the Angus Cut, however,
comes specifically from vegetarian fed beef and is far and away one of the best
forms of beef available. If you’re truly feeling decadent, you can purchase a
32oz whole Filet Mignon Roast. It may set you back about $65 a pound (That’s
$130) but it’ll be worth every succulent bite.
How
to Celebrate Filet Mignon Day
If you don’t have a talent with cooking, you can head out to
your local steakhouse and enjoy an expertly prepared cut of Filet Mignon. If
you’re feeling more adventurous you can head down to your local butcher and get
an excellent cut of meat that you can prepare yourself! Marinate it in a
wonderful sauce while you get the coals ready, wrap it in bacon, and set it
upon the grill to cook. Gently though! Filet Mignon is best-served medium rare
so that the soft tender nature of the meat will be preserved. This is just the
first step on enjoying Filet Mignon Day, but it doesn’t have to be the last!
Australian
Australia’s carpetbag steak combines two of the country’s most celebrated
products: fresh, sea-bright oysters and (ideally) free-range, grass-fed beef.
The name of this specialty derives from the shape of the finished dish.
Although many recipes call for broiling the steaks or grilling them over
charcoal, those methods tend to dry out the meat and prevent its beefy juices
from mingling into the oozy lushness of the salty oysters. Better to sauté the
steaks for a moistly tender result with maximum flavor contrast. Carpetbag
Steaks
Serves
4
Necessary
equipment: Kitchen string and a trussing needle or small satay-type skewers 4
filet mignon steaks, each about 2 inches thick or 7 to 8 ounces Salt and
freshly ground black pepper 8 medium-size oysters, as freshly shucked as
possible 6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter 2 tablespoons finely chopped
fresh flat-leaf parsley 2 to 3 anchovy fillets (optional), finely mashed
1. Using a very
sharp knife with a thin blade, cut a 2-inch-long horizontal slit on the edge of
each steak to make a pocket about 2 inches deep.
2. Sprinkle
salt and pepper onto both sides of each oyster. Slip 2 oysters, side by side,
into the pocket of each steak.
3. Close the
opening of each pocket, either by sewing it shut using kitchen string and a
trussing needle, or by fastening it with a small skewer. Pat the steaks dry on
both sides with paper towels.
4. Heat 3
tablespoons of the butter in a large, heavy skillet, preferably cast-iron or
copper, over moderate heat. When the bubbling subsides, arrange the
oyster-stuffed steaks in the skillet, making sure that they do not touch one
another.
5. Cook the
steaks on one side until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes, then turn them over
and lightly brown them on the second side, about 3 to 4 minutes time. Reduce
the heat to low and cook the steaks, turning them frequently, 7 minutes longer
for very rare steak, or 9 to 10 minutes for medium-rare. Anything more cooked
than that will hardly be worth eating. Transfer the steaks to individual
serving plates.
6. Melt the
remaining 3 tablespoons of butter in the skillet and stir in the parsley. Spoon
some of the parsley butter over each steak before serving. If you like the edgy
sophistication that anchovies can impart, stir the mashed fillets into the
parsley butter before spooning it over
the steaks. .
How
to celebrate Afternoon Tea Week
Daily Devotions
[1]The
Collegeville Bible Commentary, 1986.
[2] Pope Francis, Encyclical on Love.
[5]
Sheraton, Mimi. 1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List.
[6]
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/afternoon-tea-week/
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