Bookish Inspiration

Long before we had the ability to share our faith via the blogosphere, there were some very special books that I stumbled upon (before stumbling was something people did on the computer!). These wonderful books give me much the same feeling I get when I browse the blogs of the very many Catholic women who share the every day celebrations and challenges of raising their families- I get to peek in to the window of Mrs. Newland's home and see how she did it. 

I love The Saints And Our Children! In it Mrs. Newland shares with us the lives and wisdom of the saints.  Through Saint Therese she gives us help for guiding our own children- "We must not confuse blunders with faults, mistakes with sins. Only if our motive is supernatural can we overcome our irritation and always differentiate between them; correction and punishment must be dictated by our concern for our children's soul, not our embarrassment in front of the neighbors!"  

In the forward of The Year & Our Children,  Mrs. Newland shares that her family did not always do these things (celebrate feast days of the church at home)- they are one of the families that "picked them up". I can so relate to that. Advent, the 12 days of Christmas, Saints of Advent, the conversion of St. Paul, and so much more are covered in this book. Available on Kindle! 

Both of these books are very "readable". Trust me- these days my brain power is limited, so, if I say so, they are! Happy reading. :) 

Faith Lesson Planning::Update

You can click on the pictures to view them larger. 

Usually, when I set up a system, there is some tweaking involved, but things have worked pretty much as I originally planned. The only real difference between this post and my last planning post is that the forms are filled in.

page 1                                                     page 2

Page 1- A list of possible feast days to celebrate for the month.

Page 2- Monthly calendar with a sketch of our regular activities (I didn't include detailed planning here- just enough to help me be realistic with our church year planning). I highlighted the dates that we are going to recognize above and beyond our normal "saint of the day" reading.

Page 3- On this page are other special days of the month, things that we plan to accomplish, and a list of possible celebrations. The circled dates are the ones we plan to celebrate in some way (highlighted on the previous page)- the others are special saint days (confirmation saints and such) of someone (dad, sisters, cousins...) who is dear to us. This will give us an opportunity to acknowledge that day with the gift of a coloring picture or holy card.

Page 4- For the feast days that we plan to especially acknowledge, I filled out this form. I can add to it if we want to include more activities.

I have page protectors in the back of our binder for things that go with our plans.

Putting all this is writing does not change what we normally do, but it does give me a sense of perspective as far as what is realistic. I also hope that it will give us a sense of accomplishment. Often, my boys and I have lots of plans in our heads, but they don't all come off. This will make it easier to track what we actually do.

Faith Lesson Planning::Part 1

Even though I was born and raised Catholic, much of the culture and richness of our faith was lost on me. I hope to offer my children a better understanding of their faith while learning right beside them.

Our journey toward this goal began when my adult children were little. At that time everything was as new to me as it was to them- the rosary, mass during the week (I honestly had no idea that there was mass during the week!), the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Church history, the saints... it was like opening a treasure box full of gold! Since then different things have propelled us forward on our faith journey:  our church, friends, books, online resources (yes, the Internet can be used for good), the Lightweigh program (amazing!),... and I am so grateful.

Living our faith fully- celebrating the church year and more- is something I aspire to do. In an effort to do that, I am trying to put together a planning system. I'll share what I have so far.

To begin I went to "That Resource Site" to print planning pages. I used the pre-dated Angel Calendar that has a back sheet to list special events for the month.  To help with planning, I printed a copy of the liturgical calendar available from ChurchYear.Net.  Saint of the Day at American Catholic.org is also open on my computer to match up the saints we plan to listen about


page 2 and 3

Working from there, I listed the saints and feast days that I want to pay special attention to on the "back page" of the Angel Calendar (page 3). 

Using the single subject planning page from "That Resource Site" as a model, I created a page to sketch my plans for the particular feast day we want to focus on.


page 4 (or more)

With my calendar and books in front of me, the plans begin. I also have the computer open to these resource pages: That Resource Site, Catholic Culture, Catholic Icing, Paper Dali blog, Waltzing Matilda blog, and The Domestic Church.

As I am planning, I am working on a resource list. This is partially for my benefit, but also so that I can give my sister a copy of the list so that she knows what I have on hand.