Feasts for the Table — and the Eyes

A few weeks ago, the Catholic Church announced it had a mascot for the 2025 Jubilee Year: Luce, a Catholic pilgrim in the style of a Japanese pop-culture cartoon. It caused a rather large firestorm on Catholic social-media and news sites, drawing condemnation from some and praise from others. Opponents argued that Luce was cheesy, wondered why the church hadn’t picked one of her many saints for the role, and asked why the jubilee even needed a mascot. Luce apologists found her inviting, a good use of a popular art form to reach the masses.

The argument reached my family’s group chat and prompted me to continue pondering questions I’d had about Catholic art since returning from Rome last month.

With all of this swimming around in my head, imagine my surprise upon opening up my copy of The Catholic Kids’ Cookbook, a new publication from Word on Fire, and finding it full of classical artwork from some of the greatest artists in the Western canon. Yes, it is a cookbook, but authors Haley Stewart and Clare Sheaf have succeeding in presenting many beauties of the faith in a simple and inviting manner.

The book’s straightforward layout walks readers through the liturgical year in pictures, words, and recipes. From the very beginning, Stewart and Sheaf give readers the tools they need to use the book to its fullest. They remind us that “the Church is a family” and that “it’s a family with traditions: songs, meals, prayers, and celebrations.” More than that, “These traditions remind us who we are. They help us tell our story, and it’s a very beautiful story: we are loved by God and he made us part of his family.”

The authors drive home a powerful point: Food is intimately connected to faith, and “the liturgical year is the calendar of seasons, feasts, and fasts by which we learn the story of God’s love for us.” From there, we are led gently into a few modest pages defining the liturgical year, explaining how we can “live liturgically,” and giving practical tips on using the book.

There are six sections, and each opens with a short, lovely explanation of the season being entered into. The book’s 33 recipes are accompanied by a short description of the feast or saint they are paired with. These descriptions often provide readers with a few other suggestions for celebrating the occasion or explain a truth of the faith. Throughout the book, there is never pressure to “do everything” — the authors stress at the beginning that since the church has “recognized thousands of saints,” there are “too many saints for any one family to celebrate, so just pick a few and you can join the Church in honoring and befriending them.”

All of the recipes look delicious, and I was particularly excited by their selection for St. Lucy’s Day: “Eyes of St. Lucy (Lemon Posset).” St. Lucy is a dear friend and patron of mine, and I’m accustomed to her association with Swedish St. Lucia Buns and — in my home — cinnamon rolls. This new addition is charming and will hopefully make its way onto my table on December 13. There are a good mix of easy and difficult recipes, from “Trinity Chicken Pot Pie” to “Manger Munchies,” geared toward involving children in the kitchen in fun, meaningful ways.

Deftly woven throughout the book are well-chosen Scripture passages and gorgeous art pages that pair with the various feasts and saints. Botticelli makes a fine showing, as does Fra Angelico, and there is a stunning, sobering spread of Diego Velazquez’s Christ Crucified. Did the authors make a mistake by combining food and high art into one book, and a book aimed at children, no less? I don’t believe so. Sharing beautiful and significant art with children is vitally important.

Often, there is an unfortunate tendency to dumb down art and literature and ideas when introducing them to children. Of course, there are plenty of books and paintings that aren’t suitable for young eyes and minds, but by turning everything into a cartoon or an abridgment, we risk harming a child’s sense of wonder. We also underestimate their powers of observation and the importance of imparting our shared tradition to them through age-old art, music, literature, and more.

This cookbook strikes an admirable balance, putting an attractive, useful tool in the hands of Catholic parents (though non-Catholics will find riches here, too!) as they work to guide and instruct their children in the beauties of the faith.