Even a custom like Christmas baking, apparently such an external activity, has its roots in the Church’s Advent liturgy, which makes its own the glorious words of the Old Testament in these days of the declining year: “In that day, the mountains will drip sweetness, and the rivers will flow with milk and honey.” People of old found in such words the embodiment of their hopes for a world redeemed. And once again, our ancestors celebrated Christmas as the day on which God truly came. When he comes at Christmas, he distributes his honey (so to speak).Truly, the earth must flow with this honey on that day: where he is present, all bitterness disappears, and there is harmony between heaven and earth, between God and man. The honey and the sweets are a sign of this peace, of concord and of joy.[Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger]
CLOCHE tip: Rebecca Teti at Faith & Family Live
Image source: Margaret Mary's Gingerbread house
It's only somewhat related, but I found I was able to store this gingerbread house for the entire year and it still looks almost the same as when I packed it! It's on a very stable plywood base and I put it in a box labeled "fragile" in my dry crawl space. The only thing that didn't do so well was the pretzel railing for the porch (and they actually look fine, but broke loose when I took it out of the box).
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post! And who else, but a Bayerischer, would come up with it? I love our Pope!
ReplyDeleteNice gingerbread house!