There are many wonderful feast days leading up to Christmas, as well as following Christmas. One of them is on December 27th. It is the feast of St. John the Apostle. He was one of the sons of Zebedee, or “sons of thunder”, and the apostle whom Jesus loved.
For this feast day, while hubby made dinner, I made some spiced wine and dessert.
Before dinner, my husband blessed the wine.
The following explains why this is a tradition of the Catholic Church:
According to legend, he was served poisoned wine, but survived because he blessed the wine before he put it to his lips; the poison rose from the chalice in the shape of a serpent. In his happy memory, Catholics bring wine to church, which the priest blesses, turning it into a sacramental called the “Love of St. John.” Catholics use this sacramental wine for special occasions throughout the year and to give to the sick.
When it is drunk on his Feast Day, we drink it before dinner as a toast to St. John. The Father of the house lifts his glass toward Mother and says, “I drink you the love of St. John.” The Mother replies “I thank you for the Love of St. John” and then turns to the oldest child, lifts her glass, and says, “I drink you the love of St. John…” — and on it goes down the line until each has been toasted.
Snuggles especially enjoyed the blessing! Isn’t he such a cutie!?
Anyways, the wine was boiled long enough to remove all the alcohol, and Rascal was the first of the children to be brave enough to try it!
Twinkle Toes and Chiquita were brave as well… But Captain wouldn’t touch it until after dinner, when he finally took a tiny sip. It actually wasn’t bad. It basically tasted a lot like hot apple cider. Probably because I used the same mulling spices 🙂
After dinner, the children received a new book about this dear Saint to use with our Catholic Mosaic program.
Rascal also drew a couple great pictures of this great saint! He is turning into quite the artist!
St. John the Apostle, Pray for Us!
What a delightfully fun celebration, mine were all too sick to properly celebrate, but my dear hubby and I enjoyed our blessed wine 🙂 Happy New Year to your sweet family!!