Due to St. Patrick's Day falling in Holy Week this year, the Bishops have shifted the date of his liturgical celebration to Friday 14th March. Canon lawers have been working furiously to find a way out of the corned beef dilemma. It has never been a dilemma for me, because, even though I am 100% Irish on my Father's side, and entitled to an Irish passport should I feel the urge, the sight of a plateful of corned beef and cabbage turns my stomach. The fact that this particular "traditional Irish meal" was unheard of in the Emerald Isle until the 'Irish-Americans' started exporting the St. Patrick's day hoopla, doesn't seem to matter. A real Irish meal would be a nice plateful of boiled spuds, with skins melting off, slathered in nice Kerrygold butter - yum!
The Canon lawers have come up with the 'Corned Beef Indult - Extraordinary Form' -:Friday of the last week of Lent will not be Friday, even though it will be the day after Thursday and the day before Saturday. As Tiny Tim might say, were he thinking of Canon lawers (and we have no evidence he wasn't) "Gawd Bless 'Em, one and all!"
6 comments:
Actually, I'll take the ordinary form of corned beef...
The simplest thing to do is a)Celebrate St. Patrick's Day by going to Mass on the 17th and Fr. will celebrate Mass for Tuesday of Holy Week. He'll use the Collect for St. Patrick as the closing prayer of the Prayer of the Faithful.
b) Eat Corned beef on the 17th without going through the mess of actually having corned beef on a Friday in Lent.
c)This is reasonable and fun and allows us to get ready for the solemnities of Holy Week without blowing up the last Friday before Holy Week.
d)My mom makes a really good boiled dinner. My K of C does too.
Plus, no canonists were harmed in my previous post. Always a good thing. :)
And here I thought a boiled potato and a sixpack constituted an Irish 7 course meal!
Karen
Father,
This has nothing to do with Corned Beef, but I've heard you really want me home! :-) It's kinda nice to hear that, and I'll be glad to see you and everyone else in a week. I will say though that if you want me back there that much then you better not let the bishop move you anytime soon!
Hope you are doing well, see you soon.
The Irish started eating corned beef when we got to New York and discovered Jewish delis.
My Irish soul (well, only half, as the other half is a Polish one) likes nothing better than a pint of Mother's Milk on the good Saint's Day!
No, this is not a lactation fetish - any fool will tell ye that Mother's Milk is GUINNESS, me boyo!)
Thank you Father for once again clearing up the 'Corned Beef and Cabbage' misunderstanding which is endemic in these parts. Growing up in Ireland we never heard of corned beef. Boiled Bacon and Cabbage was the usual fare, as I recall ('Bacon' being 'Ham' on this side of the pond but 'Rashers' on the other side...). I wasn't wild about that back then either.
Interesting that you mentioned the Irish passport issue. I gather 'dual citizenship' is possible today. Back when I became a US citizen some 30 years ago, you had to give up Irish citizenship in the process. Not that I would have much use for an Irish passport any more, but it would ensure a speedier passage through European airports...
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