Tasting the Church Year
An invitation to Thursday's live discussion with Dr. Michael Foley!
After our chat, a link to its recording will be posted below!
Welcome! Whether you’re a longtime friend or a new kindred spirit here (I recommend visiting the Village Green to get your bearings), I’m delighted to be a companion to you through the liturgical year.
Pax+bonum, Kristin.
One of my favorite aspects of the Church calendar is how embodied it is.
In his immense kindness, Jesus used staples of bread and wine to communicate himself…and, through the in-breaking of sacred time in the Eucharist, continues that shared supper.
The traditions of our calendar, in so many ways, feel a bit like echoes of this pattern: through our senses, through the simple blessings of food and drink (or, on the flip side, the wisdom in fasting from indulgence!), we get to taste our way through the life of Christ and his Saints.
What an incredibly humane gift all these traditions are!
In all honesty, I had found much of Scripture to be opaque until I began to embody it through celebration or memorial, through friends and flavors, through a connection of the Story I was encountering to the land and the community in which I find myself here and now.
I can’t pretend to grasp the mysteries or plumb the depth of Scripture, but, by tasting its story, I find a familiar and immersive liveliness. Just as the word “Christmas” evokes the fragrance of cinnamon or a turkey cooking in the oven, other holidays I celebrate now have tastes and scents to them: St. Bartholomew was a name on a page for me until I encountered him through watermelon and honey, and blackberry crumble & apple cider now call to mind St. Michael.
In exploring the annual calendar cycle this way, a pair of incredibly witty books have been stand-by companions to me: Dining with the Saints and Drinking with the Saints by Dr. Michael Foley (Dining also by Fr. Leo E. Patalinghug).
These books are both wise and funny, filled with approachable recipes, contextual history, hagiographies, and more. Dr. Foley has a brilliant way of distilling (oh! A pun!) the myriad traditions of our calendar into an accessible form…so, after years of enjoying these books, I’m thrilled to have Dr. Foley joining us for a live discussion!
I’m especially delighted that we’ll be having this discussion right at the start of Lent, however paradoxical that may seem - Dr. Foley’s books help to tease out the nuance of fasting, reminding us that “the Great Fast, as Lent is still called in the East, is the mother of so many foods”…and calling us to explore the diverse tastes of Lent, seeing how the boundaries placed around food and strong drink have produced some truly exceptional and creative flavors.
What better time to re-examine the foods & drinks traditional to the Church year?
Dr. Michael P. Foley is a Professor of Patristics in the Great Texts Program at Baylor University, a Catholic theologian, a mixologist, and the author or editor of over a dozen books and around 400 articles on topics including sacred liturgy, St. Augustine of Hippo, and contemporary film and culture.
» Here are all the details for our live chat…
