Sunday is “Stir Up Sunday”. Do you have plans?
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aam on 29 June 1972. Paul VI says, “the smoke of Satan has entered the Church of God”: “Does the doctrine of apostolic succession mean there are to be successors of Judas Iscariot?”
Patrick-K on 1 July – Most Precious Blood and also the Feasts of St. Junipero Serra and St. Aaron, brother of Moses: “Some of these prayers are the same as in the litany of the Precious Blood: https://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Filius/LitPSDNIC.html”
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"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
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Recent Posts
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- ROME 22/06 – Day 32: My View For Awhile
- 1 July – Most Precious Blood and also the Feasts of St. Junipero Serra and St. Aaron, brother of Moses
- ROME 22/06 – Day 31: Someone saw the list… no… the Letter!
- Look at more of “Desiderio desideravi”
- You have seen the logo for the 2025 Jubilee? – UPDATED
- 29 June 1972. Paul VI says, “the smoke of Satan has entered the Church of God”
- Francis’ NEW “Desiderio desideravi” an Apostolic Letter “on the liturgical formation of the people of God” – an attempt to explain Traditionis custodes, to calm the storm
- Batten down the hatches!
- ASK FATHER: Are we obliged to avoid businesses which will pay for employees’ abortion?
- ROME 22/06 – Day 28: Guess the meat
- In your goodness, pray for falsely accused priests and canceled priests
- ROME 22/06 – Day 26: Indulgences and indulgences
- Your Sunday Sermon Notes: 3rd Sunday after Pentecost (N.O. 13th Sunday)
- ROME 22/06 – Day 25: Really day 26, but… hey!
- ROME 22/06 – Day 24: “talkin’ ’bout my g-g-generation”
- It’s as if the stars aligned on 24 June
- ROME 22/06 – Day 23: Resistance is futile
- On this Feast of the Sacred Heart, when SCOTUS overturned Roe, remember that “Abortion Pill” use will be pushed hard by the Left, and that there is a SAFE REVERSAL after the first pill. @HeartbeatIntl
- US SUPREME COURT issued Opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson – ROE and CASEY OVERTURNED
- “Perdonamose!” St. John’s Birthday Feast and Midsummer Snails
- ASK FATHER: Pork butt for the Sacred Heart
- What do we do when we synodize?
- ASK FATHER: Does the humeral veil contradict in the use of Eucharistic ministers?
- ROME 22/06 – Day 22: “Even in another church St. Rita is sad… about… you know.”
- Vatican Synod’s (“walking together”) on spirituality of synodality (“walking togetherality”) is coming: The merciful heart loves… demons.
- ASK FATHER: What if 100 priests wanted to leave a diocese because of the bishop?
- LOOK! UP IN THE SKY!
- 22 June in the Novus Ordo: St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More
- ASK FATHER: Bishop bully: You have the right to kneel, but not to a kneeler.
Let us pray…
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
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Yes, I am making the plunge this year and plan on stirring up a Christmas Pudding on Sunday. Here is a link to one of the recipes I have my eye on: http://britishfood.about.com/od/christmas/r/xmaspud.htm
In addition, I have decided to get really crazy and do a Wassail Bowl. We always have an English Christmas with roast beast, Yorkshire Pudding and so on. There are lots of recipes for Wassail Bowls out there. Anyone have a good recipe to suggest?
Surely “stir-up Sunday ” is the first in Advent, with the Collect beginning “excita”, translated by Cranmer as “stir up, O Lord”.
[It is understandable that you might be confused by this. But the “Stir Up” does refer to the Sunday before the 1st Sunday of Advent. Yes, the 1st Sunday, in the Roman Rite, has a Collect that begins “Excita”. So does the Last Sunday. 34th and Last Sunday after Pentecost: Excita, quaesumus. Dómine, tuórum fidélium voluntátes: ut, divíni óperis fructum propénsius exsequéntes; pietátis tuæ remédia maióra percípiant. 1st Sunday of Advent: Excita, quaesumus, Dómine, poténtiam tuam, et veni: ut ab imminéntibus peccatórum nostrórum perículis, te mereámur protegénte éripi, te liberánte salvári.]
V. E., it is confusing. The website “Catholic Culture”, says that it is the first Sunday in Advent… but British friends say it is this coming Sunday. I give them the preference, mostly so my mincemeat can soak in its rum/brandy bath longer (and because it looks like a post-Reformation tradition).
You could always make two puddings – the Protestant one this Sunday and the Catholic one next.
@Wendy:
I think we’d be better of calling the one made this Sunday the ‘Christus Rex’ pudding. Added bonus: when stirring/whisking/crushing ingredients, you can imagine them representing your favorite heretics / leftist loonies, all while singing ‘Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat!’.
I do have a plan for Stir Up Sunday. Last year we tried it out, and served the pudding on Christmas Day and it was a tremendous hit with everyone here! Tomorrow night I’ll soak the currants and raisins in tea.
Ok
Now Im off into the interwebs searching a recipe for Christmas Pudding. Thanks for highlighting this tradition Fr Z! I love these traditions that mark the change of liturgical season.
Instead of Christmas pudding, I was going to start my homemade coffee liqueur, and a batch of Limoncello, so they will be ready to give as gifts this Christmas. I am eschewing (is that correct?)
the buying of expensive gifts for two reasons:
1. I’m Broke.
2. This gift-giving is out of control. As I write this, I am listening to the news from around the country regarding so-called “Black Friday” instances of man’s inhumanity to man for a cheap flat screen T.V. “lets celebrate the birth of Christ buy stabbing someone!” (grrrr)
Semper Fi!
Beaujolais.
Vetusta ecclesia wrote:
Surely “stir-up Sunday ” is the first in Advent, with the Collect beginning “excita”, translated by Cranmer as “stir up, O Lord”.
Ah, but there’s a rubric that it is always to be used on the Sunday before Advent, in case that isn’t the 25th Sunday after Trinity.
Here”s he explanation from Wikipedia:
“Stir-up Sunday is an informal term in Anglican churches for the last Sunday before the season of Advent.
The term comes from the opening words of the collect for the day in the Book of Common Prayer of 1549 and later (a translation of the Roman Missal’s collect “Excita, quæsumus”):
Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 and later, this collect is listed for “The Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Trinity”, with a rubric specifying that this collect “shall always be used upon the Sunday next before Advent”. This reinforced the significance of this day as forming part of the preparation for the season of Advent. The rubric is necessary because the last Sunday before Advent does not always fall on the twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity: Trinity Sunday is a moveable feast and the Advent season is fixed, so the number of weeks in between varies from year to year.
Thus, this collect always was read just before Advent. Since most recipes for Christmas pudding call for the mixture to stand for several weeks before cooking, the day subsequently became connected, in countries which used the Book of Common Prayer, with the preparation of Christmas puddings in readiness for Christmas. Supposedly, cooks, wives and their servants would go to church, hear the words ‘Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord…’, and be reminded, by association of ideas, that it was about time to start stirring up the puddings for Christmas.
It’s not so easy to jump right in an make a Christmas Pudding.
Question: do I need both a Pudding Basin and a Pudding Steamer? Recipes call for a lid. It doesn’t appear the stoneware basins come with lids ? I’ve been googling an hour :-)
AnnAsher: There are metal basins with lids. I have a couple ceramic basins without. I have used a plastic wrap over them for the steaming process. You can use parchment paper and string to tie it down. The raised outside edge around the top of the basin makes it easier to tie the covering down with string. I also made a handle from string across the top reaching underneath to make it easier to extract the basin from the stockpot I used.
Not making a pudding – but I made the Christmas cake last Sunday! it gets its first top up of Amaretto this weekend! I made a large one which will get made into about 6 smaller ones for gifts. Hopefully some left over for me too. The Amaretto tastes like liquid marizipan, if you like marzipan you will really appreciate a Christmas cake made with it!
Dear Fr Z and AnnAsher, I have used plastic pudding basins without their own fitted lids to good effect. I used double thickness aluminium foil around the rim, lined with baking parchment, with enough width to overhang the edge well, tied firmly with string. This was fine for the long steaming and the puddings kept perfectly for up to two years with these covers. They tasted fabulous after two years to mature, which happened because I lost them at the first Christmas after they were made and they turned up the next year!
My recipe is from a vegetarian cookbook (though we are meat eaters) and it contains prunes, apricots, treacle, beer and rum along the other ingredients! The flavour is great. We make several and give them away as well as saving some for the next year or for Easter when they taste like a rare
treat.
My children love to stir the mixture (everyone in the household has to have a go at this, even the baby) and make a”wish”- I have tried to steer this towards being a prayer for good things and peace and harmony for those in need, it is a useful teaching moment!
The steaming needn’t require special equipment; a saucer in a pan with a close fitting lid is fine, just to keep the pudding from touching the bottom. We also use metal steamers that fit in the saucepan.
It’s nice to do other preparatory jobs for the season while the steaming goes on, perhaps making other gifts or Christmas food, this helps to pass the time and keeps you around to top up the water. I set the oven timer for hourly increments to alert us to dry pans. And of course to repeat the collect with the words “stir up”; another thoeological teaching moment for the little ones!
I don’t steam the puddings for the full 8 hours at this point, six is ok with a good steam for a couple of hours on Christmas Day, or a few minutes in the microwave, but steaming is better for moistness.
Thanks for encouraging this lovely tradition! Are the any typical Christmas foods from the US we could try?
Unfortunately tomorrow, the day on which I originally planned to buy the last remaining ingredients, will be quite busy for me. So perhaps I won’t be able to get started on Sunday. I certainly intend to do my best at creating my first ever Christmas pudding!
Rachel K: As long as you don’t use Plastic Padding in your pudding… ;-)
Brandy? check
Dried fruits? check
Applesauce? check
Ready to start soaking fruits. And gathering cake ingredients.
Also, my Advent CD from the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, arrived today. On my honor not to take it out of the wrappings ’til Dec. 2…
Will also be repairing/repainting the movable stairsteps on which the outdoor Nativity is displayed.
I’ll be baking my whiskey cakes the family loves them with fresh whip cream. Christmas morning I’ll bake a bread pudding for the grandchildren.