The blessing of meat, eggs and bread at the end of Lent is a Catholic tradition that has been preserved by the Polish people.
A Polish family in my parish asked to bless their baskets of food (containing these items) on Holy Saturday so I arranged to do so at 11am, letting others know also. Above you can see a basket (Święcone) that was prepared as a gift for me.
When I was asked to do this blessing by another Polish family a couple of years ago, I was intrigued to find that in my 1860 copy of the Roman Ritual (above), there is, precisely, a blessing of lamb, eggs and bread for Holy Saturday.
This convinced me that the devotion kept by the Poles must have been something more widely practised in past centuries. The immediate explanation might be that this is the blessing of food at the end of the Lenten fast. It must be more than that. People would have abstained from meat, and from lacticinia (including eggs) but not from bread. Perhaps there is a more specifically eucharistic reference. The modern Polish custom is to have a model of a lamb, or a lamb made out of sugar, but also to include other meats (including delicious Polish sausage.)
Liturgical observers will also note that the blessing is expected on Holy Saturday, late in the morning. This will seem odd to priests who have only known the evening Easter Vigil: Holy Saturday is nowadays observed as a day of mourning at the tomb of Jesus; although the altar of repose is not supposed to be a focus of devotion. We are simply meant to observe a void. I remember many years ago in Rome that a parish priest put up a liturgically correct notice at the altar of repose where there was a fine statue of the dead Christ. It admonished the faithful that this was not the tomba di Cristo. A fellow student suggested putting up an alternative notice saying "Si, é la tomba di Cristo e si deve piangere un pó" ("Yes, it is the tomb of Christ and you should weep a bit.") Not something to cling to in doctrinal terms but certainly a recognition of something that was eradicated from the sentiments of the faithful.
Until 1951 the Easter Vigil was in the morning: a ceremony lasting perhaps four hours or so. At the end of that, people would have a slap-up lunch to celebrate the resurrection of Christ and the end of the Lenten fast. Hence the blessing of the food before the meal. There may also be an element of prayer for restoration of health after a debilitating fast.
Now there seems to be a haze of mixed memories. One young (i.e. well after the 1950s) family I spoke to, said that in Poland there were always Masses on Holy Saturday morning. A Polish priest firmly assured me that the blessing was always done on Easter Sunday morning. The wholesale disruption of the Triduum services in 1955 served to confuse many long-standing popular customs and devotions that were centred upon the Liturgy. Naturally this was done with the scholars with little pastoral experience who felt that their bureaucratically tidy reforms would help people participate in the Liturgy.
Next year, I think I will try and encourage this devotion among all the families of the parish. The Easter baskets were fascinating for the children who were present this year, and I think it would be a good way to get families to come along to Church for a little prayer and catechesis on Holy Saturday.
Here is a link with more information on the current observance of the Święconka
For those who want a copy of the Latin text of the traditional blessings, here is a link to a pdf of the Rituale Romanum. The blessings of lamb, eggs and bread are on page 198. Here is an English translation taken from the very helpful Sancta Missa site:
THE EASTER BLESSINGS OF FOODI was told that there should also be a blessing of salt, since this is traditionally included in the Święcone. My guess is that it would be an exorcism of salt.
Blessing of Lamb
P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
All: Who made heaven and earth.
P: The Lord be with you.
All: And with your spirit
Let us pray.
O God, who by your servant Moses commanded your people in their deliverance from Egypt to kill a lamb as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, and prescribed that its blood be used to sign the two door-posts of their homes; may it please you to bless and sanctify this creature-flesh which we, your servants, desire to eat in praise of you. We ask this in virtue of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever.
All: Amen.
It is sprinkled with holy water.
Blessing of Eggs
P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
All: Who made heaven and earth.
P: The Lord be with you.
All: And with your spirit.
Let us pray.
Lord, let the grace of your blessing come upon these eggs, that they be healthful food for your faithful who eat them in thanksgiving for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever.
All: Amen.
They are sprinkled with holy water.
Blessing of Bread
P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
All: Who made heaven and earth.
P: The Lord be with you.
All: And with your spirit
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus Christ, bread of angels, true bread of everlasting life, be pleased to bless this bread, as you once blessed the five loaves in the wilderness, so that all who eat of it may derive health in body and soul. We ask this of you who live and reign forever and ever.
All: Amen.
It is sprinkled with holy water.
9 comments:
Happy Easter, Father!
Here in our city, we have a big blessing of the food, for we have a large polish comunity. Here are some pictures:
http://www.curitiba.pr.gov.br/fotos/album-tradicao-de-pascoa/22638
In Christ,
Patricia
Despite the "liturgical tidying" the '55 reforms left something quite incoherent. Why proclaim Easter and its light and then celebrate its vigil? The monks at Worth used to reverse this order, with some justification, I think.
Many thanks, Patricia. I have posted that photo.
Dear Father,
You must not have many ethnic Slavs over in England. It is NOT just a Polish thing, it is a Slavic thing. Although the Poles do get lots of publicity on these matters.
The meat traditionally was not lamb, but pork, pigs being more commonly kept for food by the peasants than sheep or lambs.
There are several sites over here in the USA that go into details, and more than one parish had inserts in the Sunday Bulletins.
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1064
http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/polisheaster/a/blessing-baskets-swieconka.htm
http://www.stcoletteohio.com/Easter-Food-Blessing.html
http://www.wfmz.com/lehighvalleynews/27648719/detail.html
In Cleveland Ohio, where I grew-up, the Blessings were in the afternoon, and done around the same time that the Altar Guild Ladies would decorate the Sanctuary for Easter Vigil.
Christ is Risen, Alleluia!
We had a bit of spotlight trouble just before the vigil on Saturday evening and eventually had to trail a cable across the pitch black sanctuary so that a server could shine a light onto the lectern from which the deacon proclaimed the Exsultet. (PS: don't let Elfin Safety know, or we'll be in for it!) It worked quite well, I think, and was better than switching all, or even some of the sanctuary lights on. The lighting up the of the Church and the unveiling of the statues at the Gloria is always one of my favourite bits of the Vigil. But it did make me wonder whether one of the reasons why the Vigil was anticipated on Saturday afternoon and/or morning was, simply, that such expedients were scarcely possible before the invention of electricity.
I also felt that the pre-1950’s arrangements (probably) spaced out the Holy Week liturgies a bit better than the current rules. The Vigil may have been longer, but at least you had Saturday afternoon and evening to recover from it! At present, if you are scrupulous about observing the rubrics, you can’t start the Vigil until after dark, which means that you don’t get to bed till well after midnight, which in turn means that you feel incredibly tired for the Easter Sunday High Mass and absolutely shattered by the time Vespers comes round in the evening!
I more and more incline to the view that the modern scruple about liturgies taking place at the “proper” time is a scholarly invention that might work well for a small group of committed, and well-educated, adults, or in a monastic context, but which works less well in an ethnically, and socio-economically, diverse context of an inner city parish. Its all part of the general, and entirely deplorable, trend in which, to quote Aidan Kavanagh:
“the liturgy becomes perceived by many as less an obedient standing in the alarming presence of the living God in Christ than a tiresome dialectical effort at raising the consciousness of middle-class groups concerning ideologically approved ends and means”
Buckeye Sandy - Whoa! I don't want to start an ethnic row here :-) Sure, I expect that other slavic people observe the custom - my point is that it is actually Catholic.
The first blessing in the old ritual was for lamb, in reference to the passover. However, many people of modest means would not be able to afford lamb, so would use pork or sausage. But there is a lamb of some sort (even if only a model) in the basket. This is because Christ is the paschal lamb.
There are lots of layers to this tradition and I think we should reclaim it for the whole Catholic world. Many thanks to all those people who have preserved it.
We have Matins and Lauds here (about 30 usually attend) and afterwards there is always a little procession of Eastern European families with their baskets of Easter goodies for blessing. I think i will encourage others to follow the custom next year. Oh, and the sausages are delicious - Fr's Easter breakfast is always delivered after the Vigil!
The Vigil timings were a bit awkward this year. I went for 8 and twilight did us for the fire - it was rapidly darkening by the time the Easter Proclamation began.
I must admit to flagging by the end of my third Easter Mass and dropping off to sleep at lunch over the pudding. One imagines that reforming liturgist-type priests only have to do one of everything, have teams of experienced 24/7 sacristans, ready-trained in the Triduum servers, an assistant priest or two to help hear Confessions...and a superwoman of a housekeeper!
I am thoroughly worn out by it all - but Alleluia happy!
Pope Benedict was born on Holy Saturday, April 16,1927.
Laurence Paul Hemming in his excellent wee book on the Holy Father noted: "In those days the Church celebrated the first part of the Easter Liturgy, the Liturgy of the Resurrection, on this morning, and so the newly born Joseph was immediately baptized in the font blessed in the course of the splendid Easter Liturgy of that day. Benedict has himself said of this event: "To be the first person baptized with the new water was seen as a significant act of Providence. I have always been filled with thanksgiving for having had my life immersed in this way in the EasterMystery.""
Yes, this is very much the norm over here in Slovakia. We spend every other Easter in Bardejov, over in the East near the Polish border, and they have two separate sessions of blessing of food on the main square outside the basilica.
Eggs, sausage, salt and a lovely sponge lamb.
It is of note that they don't eat lamb in this part of the world.
In the past, when I have mentioned this to my (Byzantine Catholic) mother in law, she has suggested that lamb has an unpleasant smell and taste! But I suspect that's a little off topic.
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