I am the true vine

In the gospel for this Sunday Jesus tells us that He is the true vine and his Father is the vine grower.  He also tells us that He is the vine and we are the branches.  If we abide in Him we will bear much fruit, because without Jesus in our life we can do nothing.  I am serving grapes tonight to remind us that we need to bear fruit for God.
Tonight is our last class for the year and the end of my blog.  Have a very blessed summer!

Empty Tomb Cookies

I am so glad that the Easter Season last for 50 days because it gives me a chance to use many of the Easter ideas.  My treat for CCD is empty tomb cookies.  The story of how you make them is really cool so I am attaching the recipe.  We aren't making them in class, since I will not have them tomorrow morning when they are finished, but we will talk about how they were made.

Here is the recipe, Enjoy!

Empty Tomb Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup whole pecans, in a plastic baggie

1 teaspoon vinegar

3 egg whites

1 pinch salt

1 cup sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 500 degrees--you MUST do it now. Also, gather a cooking mallet, kitchen mixer, masking tape and Bible.

Read John 19:1-3 ~ Jesus was beaten for our sins; beat the nuts with a cooking mallet; set aside.

Read John 19:28-30 - Jesus drank something like vinegar (gall), sniff the fragrance, dip finger in and taste, too; place the vinegar in a mixing bowl.

Read John 10:10-11 - Egg whites symbolize Jesus' holy, innocent life; add whites to the bowl with the vinegar.

Read Luke 23:27 - the bitter tears of the women; taste a few grains, remember your own sins; add the salt to the bowl.

Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16 - Sweet salvation! Taste and see; add to the bowl.

Crank up the mixer and let it go while you read from Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3; let the mixer go for about 12-15 MINUTES; this needs to be VERY stiff!

Read Matthew 27:57-60 - Fold the nuts into the egg-sugar mixture; this symbolizes the rocks in the garden.  Using a scoop or knife & spoon, drop by spoon into mounds (to resemble a rocky tomb); put into the oven and turn it OFF!

Read Matthew 27:65-66 - The tomb is sealed; use two pieces of tape (5-6 inches long) to "seal" the door edges (symbolically).

Read John 16:20 & 22 - Consider these passages, then go to bed!

NEXT MORNING: Read Matthew 28:1-9 - Jesus is risen! Behold--the empty tomb! Unseal the oven door, take out the cookies, break or bite one in half -- it should be hollow inside---empty---just like the Tomb!

He is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

Serpent on a Pole

The Israelites are almost ready to move into the Promised land, but before they do, they once more complain  about Moses and God.  To punish the people God sends seraph serpents which bite them and cause death.  The Israelites repent of their sin and ask God to heal them.  God instructs Moses to make a pole and put a serpent on the pole.  When the Israelites look at the serpent on the pole, with faith, they are healed of their snake bites.  The serpent on the pole prefigures Jesus on the cross, Jesus heals us of our sins.

My thought for the treat was a good thought, but the finished product did not turn out as well as I had hoped it would.  I made soft pretzel crosses and hoped to find gummy serpents but could only find gummy worms to tie on the cross with licorice.  The students did enjoy the soft pretzels and gummy worms even if they did not look so good.

Seder Meal

Every year during Holy week I host a Seder meal for their class.  Here are the symbolic foods that we had for our Meal:

Four cups of wine; The cup of Sanctification, The cup of plagues, The cup of Blessing, and The cup of Praise

Parsley-The Passover holidays come in the spring, when the earth turns green with new life. Only God can create life and keep it alive. This green parsley is the sign of life.

Salt water-while the Israelites were still slaves in Egypt, their life was miserable. The salt water stands for their tears.

Matzoh (in the white cloth) -On all other nights the Israelites ate any kind of bread, but on Passover they ate matzoh, unleavened bread. When their ancestors left Egypt, they were in such a hurry they didn't have time to let their dough rise. Instead, the baked it flat. The Scriptures tell us that leaven is a symbol of sin.

Horseradish (bitter herbs)- to remember how bitter life was for their ancestors in Egypt.

Haroset-The Israelites worked very hard to make brick and clay to build cities for Pharaoh. They remember this in a mixture called haroset, made from apples, cinnamon, honey and nuts.

Lamb shank-This bone stands for the lamb whose blood on the Israelite houses was a sign to God. The blood will show their obedience; when God saw the blood, he passed over them and no plague  touched  them when God punished Egypt.

Egg-traditional offering brought to the Temple on feast days.The egg is now a symbol of mourning, reminding us of the destruction of the holy temple in Jerusalem.  The hardness of the shell also reminds us of the hardness of Pharaoh's heart.

Group picture before our celebration.

The Easter Story

While I am babysitting my grandchildren in Columbus, Judy my sub is showing "The Easter Story" to my students.  I have pretzels and flavored water for them to snack on while watching the movie.

Pretzels have been around since the time of the Roman Empire.  Because they are made from a mixture of flour, salt, and water, pretzels were considered an ideal Lenten food.

Pretzels are said to have been first made by monks, who twisted long, thin strips of dough into a shape that looked like praying arms.  Thus, pretzels were first called bracellae, or “little arms.”  Some traditions say that the small twist in the middle of the pretzel represents a child’s arms, while the encircling part of the pretzel is the parent’s arms.  The three holes formed with this type of twist represent the Trinity.

For a long time, pretzels were considered strictly Lenten fare.  In some cities, pretzels were distributed to the poor during Lent.  In other places, pretzels were sold by street vendors, and eaten with beer or soup.  In Austria, pretzels were suspended from palm branches on Palm Sunday, for passersby to pluck and eat.

Pretzels come in many shapes and have very simple ingredients.  The ingredients of pretzels are ones that are easily found and yet have a story far beyond what we see.  People are often the same way.  Frequently we look at the outside and fail to see who they are beyond their surface appearance.

Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey

After wandering in the dessert for a year, Moses sends 12 spies, one spy from each tribe to scout out the land of Canaan.  After scouting out the land for forty days the spies returned with a huge bunch of grapes and some figs and pomegranates.  The spies told Moses the land was flowing with milk and honey. 

Even though the people knew the land was prosperous and that God had been with them through their wandering they were fearful of the people living in Canaan, they wanted to return to Egypt.  God became very upset with the Israelites and wanted to destroy them.  Because Moses interceded for the people God did not destroy the Israelites but told them they would have to wander in the dessert for forty years before they could enter the Promised Land.

For the students treats I had fresh grapes and pomegranates and milk and honey ice cream.

Manna in the desert

As the Israelites are traveling to the Promised Land, Canaan, they do a lot of complaining.  One of their complaints were they are sick of the desert food, they think they want to back to Egypt where they had plenty of food.  God tells them He will send them quail in the evening and manna  in the morning.
The manna looked like little coriander seeds which the Israelite's ground up to make cakes.  In the book of Wisdom it says that the manna delighted everyone, no matter what his taste.  If you were craving sweet it tasted sweet if you craved salty it tasted salty.
The Israelites were instructed to only gather enough for one day except for the day before the Sabbath, then they were to gather enough for 2 days so they could be free to celebrate the Lord's day.  God was testing them to see if they would trust him to provide for them. 

So for my treat I made applesauce muffins.