Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Cooking for Christ


From Amy Welborn comes a review of a charming-looking piece of mid-century Catholic literature, Cooking for Christ, by the Catholic Rural Life Conference.
...it’s an invaluable glimpse into the era, as the first sentence of the Preface indicates:
This book is an extension of the Missal, Breviary and Ritual because the Christian home is an extension of the Mass, choir and sacramentals.
That era being clearly resistant to stereotype and caricatures of an unengaged laity. As the author herself says in the very next paragraph, We need not shed tears over the past; neither should we exalt the present as the zenith of perfection or condemn it as the nadir of depravity.
Part cookbook, part reflection, it looks like a lovely addition to any domestic church's library. And the good news is that it's still in print!

4 comments:

Elizabeth said...

What a surprise to see this book reviewed on your site this morning. I love this book! I got it on eBay a couple of years ago ~ it's priceless.

It truly is a cookbook, Church history, Saints history, Catholic child-rearing, Catholic customs, rural life and Daily Missal ~ all in one fairly small book. This book written in the 1940's makes me SO long for the days when it was much more common that the Faith was the center of Catholic's lives. Delightfully written too. I wish she had written other books but I haven't found anything else by her.

Thanks for the review!

Jennifer Gregory Miller said...

Thanks for the heads up! This is my favorite liturgical year book of all time! I always talk and write about it! I left a long comment on Amy's blog. I'll just keep it short and say, while the book is in print, it's very revised, so it's not the original version Amy shares. The recipes are edited, and the text is severely revised.

Elizabeth said...

@Jennifer: I'm sorry to hear that they're re-printing it, but edited. Good Lord, I wonder what they changed in it besides some of the recipes. I would encourage anyone looking for it to look for the original 1949 edition on eBay, Abe Books, Alibris, even Amazon might have some sellers selling the original hardback. It's so worth it!

Margaret Mary said...

I saw one on ebay yesterday - buy it now for about $68. Sadly out of my price range. :(