Formally equivalent Christmas cookies

From dot.Commonweal: Formally equivalent Christmas cookies.

Editor

Katharine E. Harmon, Ph.D., edits the blog, Pray Tell: Worship, Wit & Wisdom.

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Comments

53 responses to “Formally equivalent Christmas cookies”

  1. Xavier Rindfleisch

    Deign to imagine, with a serene and kindly (yea, even a merry) countenance, how these comestibles will augment the immensity of your majesty, or the majesty of your immensity . . . as the case (declension) may be!

    PROSIT!!!!

  2. Linda reid

    How clever!!! And too much of a coincidence!!!!! I am baking these cookies as we read!!

  3. Alan Lukas

    For half the number of cookies, use the chapel size version of the recipe.

  4. Paul Boman

    Are there canonical instructions regarding who may purify the cookie sheets after baking?

  5. Jonathan Day

    Pay close attention to the cookies once in the oven, or you will burn them through your fault, your fault, your most grievous fault.

    A blessed Advent and happy Christmas to many.

  6. Tears rolling like a river down my face. What a holy hoot!

  7. Janet Darcy

    And now a word from our sponsor…

    http://www.dancingsantacard.com/?santa=37948

  8. Lee Bacchi

    The opening prayer of today’s Eucharist was quite a downer. Some of these cookies will be just the thing to get me out of the dumps!

  9. John Woelflein

    I’ve been laughing at this from the rising of the sun to its setting.

  10. Gerard Flynn

    You won’t be laughing by the time dewfall kicks in, so a few chalice-cakes should do/dew the job.

  11. Sean Parker

    And don’t dare use the old recipe any more or you’ll end up in Hell.

  12. Mary Burke

    And the cookies may be confected and then served by male cooks only.

  13. Steve Millies

    I think they missed the mark here, actually. Wouldn’t a formally equivalent Christmas cookie actually be, in the case of a star, a large mass of hydrogen and helium that would burn my mouth?

  14. Elaine Steffek

    Half the cooks will make them wrong because they’re not looking at the
    new recipe cards.

  15. Xavier Rindfleisch

    A friend writes:

    “These cookies are worthy to enter under (the) roof (of my mouth).”

    And I hope one of our “cross-posters” has the courtesy to share this recipe with that other blog that has long championed both formal equivalence and wonderful recipes!

    1. Brigid Rauch

      Someone did share the recipe, but the folks over there didn’t get the joke!

  16. Anthony Lehmann

    I certainly hope this new recipe does not result in a “HALF-BAKED” product.

  17. Jeff Rexhausen

    Comments from an anonymous member of Vox Clara:

    โ€œAll-purpose flourโ€ must be changed to โ€œmany purpose flour.โ€

    Sugar is clearly a dynamic, not a formally equivalent translation. The word in the original Latin is dulcedo, which was rendered โ€œsweetnessโ€ in the 2008 ICEL translation, but this is considered too โ€œlow churchโ€ a term. Vox Clara has determined that โ€œcharmโ€ (a more โ€œhigh churchโ€ term) is the best translation. [Please note, however, that Lucky Charms are not approved for use in this recipe.]

  18. Sean Parker

    Also note that these cookies can only be baked in a wood burning oven since that was what was used for generations, and using an electric or gas oven would invalidate the cookies’ worthiness.

  19. M. Jackson Osborn

    .

  20. Jonathan Day

    MJO, kudos for your comment of 16 December 2011 12:47 am. You have shown us a new level of noble simplicity.

    1. Patrick Towell

      JD (#21) overlooks the fact that MJO offered his comment in such elevated language that the comment has ascended clear up out of the comment space.

  21. Hugh Farey

    Christmas Cookies – The 1973 Version.

    Mix some ingredients.
    Chill them for a while and then cut them out.
    Cook and decorate them.
    Enjoy!

  22. Jordan Zarembo

    From the dot.Commonweal “recipe”: “when in the fullness of time, you are ready to bake these spotless cookies, these delicious cookies, these Christmas cookies” […]

    Spoofing the unde et memores isn’t funny to me, given that the anamnesis is one of the holiest and most important parts of the Mass. In fact, I find it rather tasteless. The consonance of the Latin text is purposeful, even if a literal translation sounds contrived.

    Then again, I realize that humor such as this is part of the coping and healing process for those who are dissatisfied with the new translation. I should lighten up and remember the role that humor and satire plays in dissent.

    1. Sean Parker

      Healing assumes that everyone is going to accept the new version. We do not all accept it.

      1. Jordan Zarembo

        I’m convinced that we must have reconciliation in disagreement to keep the fracture in the Church from splintering even further. It’s enough to recognize the existence of liturgical diversity and the right of every Catholic to worship according to his or her own conscience. That is enough healing that can be expected. That is enough to keep the Body of Christ together.

        It is difficult for me to separate the satire of the Commonweal piece from the importance of what is being criticized. I need to remind myself that the translation is being criticized, and not the typical Latin of the Roman Canon.

    2. Graham Wilson

      /humour off
      Jordan – you are right, but so very unfortunately, the ostentatious and faux character of the new so-called “sacred English” itself lampoons the Mass and mocks the Mass. The text’s pretensions to being vernacular when it apes Latin, to being sacred when it sounds turgid, open the Mass to ridicule.

      No wonder Sebastian Moore calls the use of “chalice” in the institution narrative an “unconscious vulgarity”.

      Perhaps your anger could quite as well be directed to those who caused this “slavishly accurate” mockery in the first place.
      /humour on

      1. Jordan Zarembo

        I’m not angry with dot.Commonweal or the “chef” who composed this recipe. This is coming from someone who’s sole culinary triumph was learning to open cans with a right-handed can opener. This is often difficult to learn when when you’re a lefty.

        The satirical recipe is an ethical and moral victory for Catholics opposed to the new translation. Conservative/traditional critiques of postconciliar liturgy and liturgical studies are often laden with ad hominem attacks and bald hostile name-calling. The faux recipe acts charitably by not attacking the creators of the new translation, but rather the perceived absurdity of the results. Anger directed towards the translators is anger directed fruitlessly at persons. The results of their work should be the only focus of criticism.

      2. Gerard Flynn

        Nonsense. Anger directed at the actions of the creators of the interlinear translation is justifiable if they knew that what they were doing was vulgar, but for reasons of preferment chose to continue on.

      3. In memory of C. Hitchens who passed away today – quoted as saying: “….human equality and freedom happen & advance when we can laugh at authority”

    3. Jim McKay

      To me, it sounds more like Richard III:

      This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
      This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
      This other Eden, demi-paradise,
      This fortress built by Nature for herself
      Against infection and the hand of war,
      This happy breed of men, this little world,
      This precious stone set in the silver sea,
      Which serves it in the office of a wall
      Or as a moat defensive to a house,
      Against the envy of less happier lands,–
      This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

      But I suppose that is because the cook mimics Shakespere’s iambic pentameter, while the liturgist has seemingly no ear for such things. ( drop the “that you” at the beginning and it would easily be massaged into blank verse.)

      1. Joe O'Leary

        John of Gaunt in Richard II.

        Are you saying that the new translation or the parody of it sounds like this sublime speech???

      2. Jim McKay

        The parody comes closer to Shakespere’s rhythms.
        The liturgy could sound that way, eliminating some of the clunkiness, but it does not. If there is some rhythm to it, I have not heard it.

    4. Ann Riggs

      My son likes the revised translation — and did the LOLROTF thing with the recipe . . . one unforeseen advantage of the new translation is the restoration of Catholic humor — an entire generation or more missed out on putting Latin to humorous uses, so the new texts are the next best thing.
      But yes, the humor IS part of the coping. A strategy, it would appear, might be beyond your ken.

  23. Sean Parker

    Actually, here’s the 1973 version – simple, well thought out, and to the point:

    Makes 36 cookies:

    Prepare dough by creaming 1 cup butter, 2/3 cup sugar.

    After combining the butter and sugar, beat in 1 large egg.

    In a separate bowl sift together 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

    Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter mixture, and mix by hand.

    Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours.

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

    On a floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch, and cut into various shapes using a cookie cutter. If you don’t have any cookie cutters, dip a round drinking cup into some flour, and use it instead.

    If you desire, top the cookies with sprinkles.

    Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until cookies just begin to brown on top.

    Place cookies on a cooling rack until they reach room temperature.

    That’s a 1973 version, none of that poetry crap.

    P.S. If you wish to use other versions of this recipe, feel free. Unlike some versions, we don’t believe in forcing you to only use one version by telling you that all other versions are now null and void.

    1. Lynne Gonzales

      My…that’s so easily understandable! One can actually follow along and get good results.

  24. One does not put butter in a chalice…and one does not put the Precious Blood of Christ in a cup.

    1. Anthony Ruff, OSB Avatar
      Anthony Ruff, OSB

      Huh?
      People put Precious Blood in a cup all the time, not least where they’re following official Roman Catholic documents (or the Bible!) that call it a cup.

      awr

    2. Gregory Merklin

      While not every cup is a chalice, every chalice is a cup.

    3. If one were to behold a king wearing his crown and seated upon his throne I would think it inadequate to describe this scene as “a guy wearing a hat sitting on a chair.”

      1. Gerard Flynn

        Thank you for explaining that you would think it inadequate!

        And your point is?

      2. Joe O'Leary

        Are you joking? The Bible say Jesus was hung on a tree — even downgrading whatever solemnity might have attached to the word crucified.

    4. Gerard Flynn

      Where were you for the last 38 years, Father, when that is precisely where it was entrusted!
      Jesus entrusted his precious blood to the vessels available at the Last supper.

    5. Joe O'Leary

      the Greek word poterion, translated by St Jerome as calix, means a drinking-cup. St Jerome foreswore dynamic equivalence in his biblical translations. Perhaps you will say you do not put the Son of God in a stable —

  25. Mary Burke

    I read at Mass this morning. I was tempted to alter the response to Psalm 67 to:

    “Let the peoples praise you, O God!
    Let many of the peoples praise you.”

  26. Fr. Jim Blue

    We haven’t gotten around to “chalice” here yet. So far no temple police.

    What I like about this post is a reminder that sometimes finding humor in a tragic situation helps to deal with it more creatively.

    Case in point, drawing from ICEL1998 on occasion is really not that big of a deal. It’s just being the cook who has freed her/himself from the cookbook.

    I don’t see real cooks using measuring cups and spoons very often. (Bakers yes, baking is chemistry.)

  27. Janet Darcy

    Take it from Janet, me thinks FATHER Shawn doth protest WAYYYYY toooo much…

    http://www.shawnthebaptist.org/images/2011/12/IMG_0440.jpg

    1. Please explain…

      1. Janet Darcy

        Take it from Janet: a pulpit, Crucifix, classic vestments of the Roman Rite, slow sign, construction cone.

        You figure it out.

        Fr Blue did…..and so did my boyfriend!

  28. Fr Jim Blue

    Yikes.

  29. JMJ
    My, my. Lighten up, folks. It’s cookies, for Heaven’s sake.
    And with your spirits! Make mine egg-nog, thanks.

  30. Claire Mathieu

    Photocopies of this recipe were distributed today to the choir members: compliment of our pastor.


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