Category Archives: Easter

Palm Sunday ~ Fairest Lord Jesus

Fairest Lord Jesus

Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature,
O Thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy and crown.

Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing.

Fair is the sunshine,
Fairer still the moonlight,
And all the twinkling starry host;
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
Than all the angels heaven can boast.

All fairest beauty, heavenly and earthly,
Wondrously, Jesus, is found in Thee;
None can be nearer, fairer or dearer,
Than Thou, my Savior, art to me.

Beautiful Savior! Lord of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
Now and forever more be Thine.

Have a wonderful Palm Sunday and beginning of Holy Week everyone…

Because of my very interesting day yesterday which I will share sometime soon I’m reposting my Palm Sunday Hymn from last year.  We have a new modem so my technical difficulities have been healed till the next time. Thank you to my sister Lana for posting such a beautiful explanation of why I haven’t been online.

All of my posts this coming Holy Week will be concentrated on the events of this week in history and all related to Jesus and the Cross and His Resurrection! This is a great challenge for me to incorporate Easter into all the weekly challenges I participate in.

Sweet Cheese Spread for Kulich ~ Seernaya Paska

My Russian heritage affords me some really good Easter eats. Every year we look forward to having our Easter Bread which we call Kulich in Russian and my Mennonite Friends called Paska.

We also make this yummy cheese spread to spread on this Easter Bread!

Seernaya Paska for Kulich (Russian Easter Bread) The X and the B are for Xpucmoc Bockpec (Christ Arose)

paska class 005

 

Seernaya Paska  (Сырная пасха)

Ingredients:

18 – hard boiled eggs /
3 pounds Farmers cheese /a dry curd cheese like a dry cottage cheese can be substituted.
1 pint whipping cream /
3 cubes unsalted butter (12 oz.) /
3 cups sugar /

Press the Farmers cheese through a sieve. (This is the hardest part of the recipe) If you find a very small curd cheese you won’t have to do this to the cheese. I usually use a wooden spoon and press it through a wire strainer a little at a time. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. (You will not be using the whites).

Press the egg yolks through the sieve. Cream the sugar and butter together. Beat in the egg yolks. Beat in the cheese. Add whipping cream and mix well. You will place the mixture into a strainer lined with about 3 layers of cheesecloth. You will need enough cheesecloth to wrap up and over the top of the cheese. Place the cheese mixture into the cheese cloth lined strainer or another container to mold into shape. Bring the ends of the cheese cloth up and tie the ends on top of the cheese in a knot. Place the sieve into a larger bowl suspended with enough room for the cheese to drain without sitting in the drained liquid. Place a plate on top of the cheese an place a heavy rock, brick, or other weight on top of the plate. Refrigerate over night.

I have used different shaped plastic flower pots to drain and mold the cheese into a higher domed result. If you choose to use a flower pot make sure there are enough holes in the bottom of the pot so the liquid can drain well.

This recipe is enough to feed an army. If you don’t have to feed an army here’s a scaled down version :0)

If you just want a normal amount, cut the recipe in thirds. (6 cooked egg yolks, 1-lb. cheese, 2/3 cup whipping cream, 1 cube butter and 1 cup sugar. Enjoy!

Farmers Cheese or Hoop Cheese can be hard to find. There are Russian delis that sell a dry curd cottage type cheese that will work. If you can find a dry cottage cheese at the grocers that will work too.

Here are examples of the Seernaya Paska I have made over the years.

Jesu, Our Hope, Our Heart’s Desire ~

 

Jesu, our Hope, our heart’s Desire,
Thy work of grace we sing;
Redeemer of the world art Thou,
Its Maker and its King.

How vast the mercy and the love,
Which laid our sins on Thee,
And led Thee to a cruel death,
To set Thy people free!

But now the bonds of death are burst;
The ransom has been paid;
And Thou art on Thy Father’s throne,
In glorious robes arrayed.

O may Thy mighty love prevail
Our sinful souls to spare!
O may we stand around Thy throne,
And see Thy glory there!

Jesu, our only Joy be Thou,
As Thou our Prize wilt be;
In Thee be all our glory now
And through eternity.

All praise to Thee Who art gone up
Triumphantly to Heav’n;
All praise to God the Father’s Name
And Holy Ghost be given.

Words: Un­known au­thor, 7th or 8th Cen­tu­ry (Je­su nos­tra re­demp­tio, Amor et de­sid­er­i­um); trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by John Chand­ler (Hymns of the Prim­i­tive Church, 1837) and the com­pil­ers of Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, 1861.

ht: cyberhymnal

Photo Hunters ~ Glass

 

A stained glass window at St. Mary’s church in Painswick, Gloucestire, England. This church is known for its 99 Yew trees.

 

This is St. Mary’s with some of the Yew trees…

For more Photo Hunters click over to tnchick.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Eggs and Kulich

Our Easter preparations are on their way.

Katie colors the eggs each year.

 

I decorate the show piece of our food celebration, the Kulich (Russian Easter Bread). I did say decorate. I didn’t say I baked it. That is still on my list to do before I die.

 

We will celebrate all day tomorrow with friends, family, food, hallelujahs and hosannas to our Resurrected King.

Blessings on all your preparations and celebrations…

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.

Legend of the Dogwood ~ Easter

 

~~~~

The Legend of the Dogwood

There is a legend, that at the time of the Crucifixion the dogwood had been the size of the oak and other forest trees. So firm and strong was the tree that it was chosen as the timber of the cross. To be used thus for such a cruel purpose greatly distressed the tree, and Jesus, nailed upon it, sensed this, and in His gentle pity for all sorrow and suffering said to it: “Because of your regret and pity for My suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a cross. Henceforth it shall be slender and bent and twisted and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross. ..two long and two short petals. And in the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints, brown with rust and stained with red, and in the center of the flower will be a crown of thorns, and all who see it will remember.”

I recognize that this is just a legend but I wanted to post this entry because I’ve always loved the Dogwood blooms. If I look at them and think about what my Savior did for me that’s a good thing. He created the tree, the beautiful bloom, and you and me to enjoy it! Praising God this Easter season for His sacrifice on behalf of us.

Here are some interesting facts about the dates that Easter falls on;

Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox. This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman Calendar.

Here’s the very full moon from last night 3-21-08 that caused Easter to be so early this year!

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will see for the rest of our lives! The next time Easter will be this early is in the year 2228 (220 years from now).

The earliest calendar date on which Easter can fall is March 22nd and the latest date it can fall is April 25th.

Next year in 2009 Easter will be on April 12th!

Happy Easter Everyone…

Sky Watch ~ Good Friday

 

Luke 23: 44-46 ~ “It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, because the sun was obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.” Having said thus, He breathed His last.”

For more Sky Watch photos visit Tom at  Wiggers World.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.

Poetry of the Cross

Over at Rebecca Writes there are links to posts with the theme of the Poetry of the Cross. This is something I found that I’ll contribute during this Holy Week.

I found this old book on our bookcase that Dear’s parents owned. It is called The Gospel in Art by Albert Edward Bailey copyright 1916.

I’m sharing this portion from the section RENI: “ECCE HOMO” John 19:1-5

 

Reni, Guido (1575-1642) Original: in the National Gallery, London.

“There is no denying that the thought of Christ’s suffering has been a powerful stimulus to the religious life of the past. Latin Christianity is full of it, and even Greek Christianity found inspiration in it. Hymns to the suffering Savior have sounded from many a monastery cell and have echoed sweetly down even to our own time. Take for example the wonderful hymn of Bernard, redolent of the midnight vigil and of modes of thought characteristic of his age, but of such beauty that every country and every Christian sect claims a share of it.

“O Sacred Head, now wounded,
With grief and shame weighed down;
Now scornfully surrounded
With thorn, thine only crown.
O Sacred Head, what glory,
What bliss till now was thine!
Yet though despised and gory
I joy to call thee mine.”

This hymn is one section of a long poem beginning “Salve mundi salutare,” addressed to the different members of Christ, “a most devout prayer of the Abbot St. Bernard, which he made when an image of the Savior with outstretched arms embraced him from the cross.” There is a still earlier hymn by Theoctistus of the Studium, Constantinople, less widely known but scarcely less beautiful in Neale’s translation. It is found in some of our hymnals under the first line, “Jesus, name all names above.” This hymn evidently arose under the same need as Bernard’s, and serves to show how all the harrowing details of suffering may be blended in thought with one’s highest spiritual good.

“Jesus, crowned with thorns for me,
Scourged for my transgression,
Witnessing in agony
That thy good confession.
Jesus clad in purple raiment,
For my evil making payment:
Let not all thy woe and pain,
Let not Calvary be in vain.”

When we visited the National Gallery we started in the religious art section with painting after painting of Christ on the cross. After a while I was eager to head to another part of the gallery. When I think of Jesus I do not typically picture Him on the cross at Calvary. I’m always eager to get from Good Friday (which my nephew thinks should not be called “good”) to Resurrection Sunday. I love to picture the Risen Christ, triumphant and victorious, after all that pain and agony. He Lives! Thanks be to God!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.

Back to the Burke-Gilman Trail

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.

Today was my first real walk since I broke my toe and have been in Washington. I get to do this same walk again on Saturday, a reunion with my two Washington walking buddies. Jody and I did the walk today and it was nice to be on this trail again. The Spring scenery here in Washington is very different from my California walks. There are signs of Spring but it’s still quite cool and dreary with welcomed sun breaks here and there.

 

The Burke-Gilman trail in the Seattle area of Washington runs from Shilshole Bay 18 miles partly along Lake Washington and then intersects with the Sammamish River Trail that runs all the way to Marymoor park in the city of Redmond along the river. We start at Log-Boom Park in Kenmore on Lake Washington and head east on the trail.

 

There were some pretty signs of Spring along the Sammamish river part of the trail in Bothell.

These huge birds looked like buzzards but we couldn’t get focused in close enough to really identify them. They were very large like a buzzard.

 

I took a shot of the willow tree for you Willow! The last photo is looking north along a creek that crosses underneath the trail. This was the first day this week that I put my pedometer on for the walk and it was over 15,000 steps and after my stops on the way home I’m up to 17,430 steps!! On the way home from the walk I had to stop at a thrift store because I’ve done some cleaning out since I’ve been here and wanted to donate some stuff, but I couldn’t leave without doing a little shopping…hmm, counterproductive?!

 

I found this sweet little mug for 50 cents with a bird and I think dogwood blossoms and the reversible table runner with blue flowers and green leaves on one side and blue and white stripes on the reverse for $3.20. I added it to my Easter table and am ready for our brunch on Sunday after the 8:30 service we decided on for Easter. I so love anticipating celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ each year…

Have a wonderful day!