Monday, February 1, 2010

Feast of St. Brigid

Young Sister Brigid and seven other women lived together in a convent.  They worked hard, raising cows and chickens, planting and harvesting fruit trees and gardens.  With these, they prepared food and fed all the hungry people who came to them.

One day, many hungry people had come to the convent.  All the eggs were scrambled; the butter had been used up on the bread, which was gone, too.  Not a pear remained in the bowls.  Not a drop of milk remained in the pitchers.

Then before the good sisters had time to relax, word came that they were to receive more visitors--seven bishops!

The sisters were very upset.  "What can we do?  There is no food left in the house to serve them!" one of the women wailed.

Of course, there were no supermarkets or restaurants, either.

Brigid smiled.  "I think God will provide this meal," she said.  "Go ask the hens if they might be so kind as to give us more eggs.  Then talk with the cows.  Perhaps they will give us a bit more milk.  Oh, and go ask the fruit trees to ripen some fruit."

As the other sisters left the room, Brigid stirred up the fire of the oven.  Then she opened the oven door and smiled again.  There were two loaves of hot, golden brown bread!

Soon the others returned.  One carried a pitcher filled with fresh milk.  Another carried a basket filled with hens' eggs.  Two others held their aprons out, which were filled with pears.

"Time to cook!"  Brigid said cheerfully.  "God has blessed us again!"

Story from The Big Book of Catholic Customs
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To celebrate the feast day of Saint Brigid we colored lovely pictures from waltzing maltilda and had to have brunch for dinner.  The kiddos loved it.  I think brunch is their all time favorite meal and to have it for dinner during the week was beyond a treat for them.

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