Happy Thanksgiving!!

I have not had a chance to take new pictures this year, so this one from last year will have to do! We have a fun thanksgiving breakfast planned, a new place to take a hike in the afternoon scouted out (weather permitting), and a family and friends park day to look forward to on Friday!! 

Wishing all a very blessed Thanksgiving weekend! 

One More Time::Miguel Pro

If you can't tell we were pretty excited here to be celebrating the Feast Day of Blessed Miguel Pro. We are still excited to be celebrating this merry priest, but it has been a day of good intentions and little else! 

After donning our "friend of Miguel" badges, we set off for mass. We attend a church that is a bit of a drive, so decided to go to a church near our house. This church does not have mass on Tuesday morning. :( Ackkk! Oh, well. Spirits intact I decided that a good feast day celebration deserves a fun meal, so we headed to McD's for a breakfast sandwich (a super special treat as we don't do that very often!)

From there we made the decision to drop by the place that we were told has a relic of Padre Miguel Pro's. We had tried to call ahead, but to no avail- we figured no harm in stopping by. The receptionist had no idea what were talking about and did not want to look in to the matter. We did see this lovely shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes (which was fitting as Padre Miguel Pro did visit Lourdes).

We arrived home to a message from a priest at the center where the relic is- yes, it is there. Arrangements can be made for us to shown in to the chapel where it is hanging with a picture of Blessed Miguel. We will go another day. :)

Finally, we made our lovely "Mexican" hot chocolate and had sort of a "Miguel Pro quiz" while we sipped our drinks. The boys said that the hot chocolate was Yummy!! :)



Feast Day Activities for Blessed Miguel Pro

Join the party!

Padre Miguel Pro struck a chord with our family the first time I read his story to my boys. For boys, who tend to be inspired by "super hero" type things, this priest is a real life super hero. We have recently found out that this blessed man spent some time just miles from where we live!!-- and  a relic of his is there. We are hoping to be able to visit this place in honor of Padre Miguel's feast day tomorrow.

For today:

We made this great little Mobile Christ the King Shrine. This idea is from the Celebrating Blessed Miguel Pro activity book. The shrine is inspired by the traveling kit that Blessed Miguel would have had to carry hidden with him to secretly celebrate mass at a time when doing so was illegal in Mexico. Padre Miguel Pro's last words: "Long Live Christ the King" set the theme for the shrine.

Also from the activity book:

We are working a crossword puzzle about the Life of Blessed Miguel Pro.

Mark is pleased that his shirt has one of the crossword answers on it. 

Still to come:

Color our "Friend of Miguel Pro" buttons (from activity book), make some Mexican Hot Chocolate (not sure how authentic this recipe is, but it is easy), and, as mentioned, we hope to visit his relic nearby.

I had hoped to invite some friends over for this special day, but I think we will wait for All Saint's Day next year and have a "Padre Miguel Pro" activity table. I forget how crazy things get as the holiday nears. I'll look at this as our "test run". :)

I am linking this to Paper Dali where you can see other Miguel Pro inspired posts.

Our Feast of Christ the King

Due to lack of planning, what would have been done throughout the week was quickly put together yesterday and today. Whew! We did it and actually had fun too.

 The boys colored...

 cut and laminated...





 baked and decorated...



and, finally, set the table!

Our crown cupcakes. We searched and searched (while doing errands on Sat. evening) for "Hershey's Kissables" to make crown jewels for our cupcakes (as shown here). We found none, so our cupcakes look more like a crown of thorns, but the boys are happy with them.

Before mass, we used this post from O Night Divine for a jumping off point to talk about this special day. We also read the mass readings for the day from James' Magnifikid so that the boys would be more in tune to what was being read and being discussed during the homily (works for me too :)).

Happy Feast ( Solemnity) of Christ the King!!

St. Martin of Tours

My boys became fascinated with St. Martin of Tours last year when we read about him on the morning of his feast day and then went mass that day. As it turns out, Father Jeff (who said mass) had a particular interest in St. Martin and gave a fairly lengthy (for a weekday) homily. My boys were very excited to share information with Father after mass. This really made St. Martin stick with them. Plus, St. Martin really is a cool guy- you can wear a sword if you dress up as him on All Saint's Day (as my 7yo did)!

Some fun stuff to celebrate St. Martin's Feast day on November 11.

Coloring Page from Waltzing Matilda
Mini book to make from That Resource Site
Generic Saint Biography Template from That Resource Site
Paper Doll St. Martin and Beggar by Paper Dali
Food to Celebrate St. Martin and Other November Feast Days from Catholic Cuisine

Blessed Miguel Pro

¡ Viva Cristo Rey !

We first met this holy man when we read  "God's Secret Agent: Blessed Miguel Pro" in Stories of the Saints (vol.1) by Elaine Woodfield from Catholic Heritage Curricula.

A priest in Mexico in 1927, Father Miguel was at constant risk of being arrested. According to the atheist government of the time, Father was a criminal just for being a priest. The story of Father Miguel Pro is one of a priest doing his best to serve his people under the most difficult circumstances. My boys were taken with his wit, his humor, and his heroism.

Father Miguel Pro's feast day is November 23rd, so this is a great time to get to know him!

Blessed Miguel Pro Resources:
Blessed Miguel Pro's Home Page
A brief history of Blessed Miguel Pro's arrest and execution with photos.
Link from Blessed Miguel's Home Page. There are photos of the execution, so I strongly suggest previewing this before allowing children to see.
Jose Finds the King: A Blessed Miguel Pro Story (book)
Reading Comprehension: Stories of the Saints Volume 1 (book)
Paper Dali on celebrating Blessed Miguel Pro

Parade of Saints Summary

We had so much fun this month learning more about our friends, the saints! We spent a lot of time coloring pictures of saints, reading about saints, having wonderful discussions about saints, and watching a few videos about them as well. I have put together this final blog post to share the wonderful resources that we use this month.

Resources:

The original idea for a "parade of saints" came from the Under Her Starry Mantle blog.

Some of the fantastic, free, and really beautiful coloring pages that we used came from the Waltzing Matilda blog.

The Paper Dali blog also has some amazing paper doll saints to color.

We listened to the Saint of the Day at americancatholic.org .

Apostleship of Prayer has nice videos to go with many saints- they are more like slide shows with an audio. They are very well done, interesting and just a few minutes long. The only disclaimer that I offer is that they were not made specifically for children. When I searched a video of a certain saint who had suffer a rather horrific incident, I found the video a bit too blunt in its information to share with my children. Fortunately, these videos are short enough to quickly preview before watching.

Some information on specific saints that we found very helpful and enjoyable.

Blessed Miguel Pro (my boys' favorite saint!)
Kateri Tekakwitha from the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Church Website
Kateri Tekakwitha - video found at CatholicMom.com
Mother Josephine Bakhita - from Vatican: the Holy See
Blessed Father Damien- from EWTN
Joan of Arc - from Garden of Praise


The Stories of the Saints reading comprehension books by Catholic Heritage Curricula have well written saint's stories that really hold my boys' interest. These are by far their favorite of all the saints books that we own. We don't use the reading comprehension portion-- just the stories.


Other saints books that we own and use frequently are:

Saints for Young Readers Volume 1 and Volume 2. These have a saint (or more) for each day of the year.

The Saint Joseph Picture Books Gift set- Book of Saints Vol. 1-12. These books feature a full page picture of each saint and one page of information. Just right for a nice introduction to a saint.

Similar to the above St. Joseph saints books, but are individual titles that feature just one saint per book. Kateri Tekakwitha is one (we own several) that we used. There are many in the series and they are very affordable at about $1.50 each.

Encounter the Saints series- we have a just a few of these short chapter books, but have found the ones we own to be very interesting and informative.

This post explains how this all started:
Our Original Parade of Saints Post

This is picture of our completed (for now) saint pictures:
Our Final Parade of Saints

The links to products I have featured here are chosen in this order--
1. a company that I highly value
2. if that company does not feature the item or has it listed in a way that I find complicated, I try and find another company I have used or recognize.
3. if all else fails, I just try to find the product and link it.

Our Final Line Up

After a month of coloring (not as often as we had hoped) we have a nice collection of saints to use to decorate for All Saint's Day next year, and we have all learned quite a bit!!

Today the boys regaled their brother-in-law with stories of Blessed Miguel Pro, Blessed Mother Theresa and St. Damien of Molokai.

Hopefully, we'll add to our line up throughout the year on various feast days. It has been a great month of learning and having fun with the saints. :)

 

Thank you to Erin (16yo) for taking the pictures. :)

Feast of Christ the King

Glitter is fun! :)

Using Seton's Art 1, the boys (James 6, Mark 9) colored and cut out this scene. They cut the pieces and glued them to a piece of cardstock. The Jesus figure is mounted on it's own piece of cardstock and cut out before being glued on. Glitter was added (in abundance :)) after the pieces were cut.

Two More...

We are still working on our Month of Saints!

As I anticipated, life got crazy (school, colds, grandbaby being born...) and we skipped a few days. We were back at it today with St. Joseph the Worker (colored by James) and St. Martin of Tours (by Paul), whose feast day is tomorrow. Mark is also working a Saint Michael picture, but it is a bit more detailed- it will have to be a two day-er!

I had several pictures for the boys to choose from to color. Usually, they pick at least one of the saints that I have something prepared for-- either to watch or read about. This time, those were not the pages that motivated them. None the less, we watched the two videos that I had ready to go and we will color the saints from those stories another day! I was able to find information about St. Patrick and Blessed Kateri that the boys found very interesting! We did read just a page about St. Martin of Tours from the Book of Saints Part 6 by Father Lovasik, S.V.D. Tomorrow, on St. Martin's feast day, we'll listen Franciscan Radio's Saint of the Day audio (just over a minute long) to learn more about him.

New Additions

Our line up for today (left to right) Mother Teresa of Calcutta (colored by Paul), Saint John Capistrano (by Mark), St. John Vianney (me :)), and Blessed Juan Diego (James- and I think he did an amazing job!).

We read about Blessed Mother Teresa from this little book by Rev. Jude Winkler OFM Conv. and listened to some online audios found on Youtube by apostleshipofprayer (click "uploads" to view the many choices available or search by name). The boys were very impressed that she cared for those with leprosy as well (we just read about Fr. Damien). She is also very real to the boys as she died just the year before Paul was born. It really brings the idea of sainthood in to the context of today!

More Saints!

Today I came across this beautiful lady (Saint Maria Goretti) in an old coloring book that was colored about 10 years ago by Michelle (now a college student). We are adding it to our "saints parade" and the boys are excited to see if Michelle notices her art work hanging with their pictures. :)

Our featured saint's feast day today in our Saints for Young Readers book that we read each morning (well, most mornings ;)) was Saint Martin de Porres. We also listened about him on Franciscan Radio (about a 90 second blurb). I found this cool slideshow later in the day at the apostleshipofprayer site. We'll watch that tomorrow.

*

In the meantime, while the boys colored, I read some excerpts from Saint Maximillian Kolbe: Mary's Knight. I read just a page from the book about his childhood and then the very end when Fr. Kolbe offers his life in exchange for another. Very compelling, inspiring reading!!

And then, finally, St. Francis and Blessed Miguel Pro. The boys have always been inspired by Miguel Pro. It is a story of true adventure and heroism that any boy can appreciate! Paul (11yo) has decided to choose him for his confirmation saint when the time comes. :)

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Our bedtime conversation tonight was about the heroism of saints- one of the boys mentioned that a particular saint was heroic. Paul gave a rather snippy "well, most saints are heroic" (kind of in a no-duh tone of voice). Rather than getting snippy back (yes, I was tempted), we had a fun discussion about the ways that different saints are heroic. Some are less obvious, so it was an interesting!

**if anyone is tempted to point out that not all clothing is accurate in color, I deferred to each artist's opinion when coloring his saint picture. I did try and point it out and was told (with great conviction) that it looks nice this way. :)

Month of Saints

Praying for the Holy Souls

In the Catholic faith, we are taught to always pray for the Holy Souls who may be in purgatory, but the month of November is traditionally set aside for this. I have to admit to not being raised with this understanding, so this is fairly new to me. A good place to begin if you are not familiar with this concept is this article at the Domestic-Church site.

This year, from our Art 1 for Catholics by Seton Press, the boys put together this prayer card reminder to hang on the wall . Our family name will be written across the top.- (ex. Smith's Holy Souls List) Then those that our family wishes to remember will be written on the lines. It's a small thing, but it is a start to taking part in All Soul's Day and praying for our deceased loved ones throughout the year.

Parade of Saints

November beginning with All Saint's Day inspired us to begin a serious saint overview this month. Stealing (well, borrowing might be a nicer way to put it) a few ideas from other blogs and people we know, we began today.

We are using this idea from Under Her Starry Mantle to make a "parade of saints". We are using these coloring pages from the Waltzing Matilda blog- scroll down and you will see the complete list of available pages on the right.

My friend, Tamara, is also doing a saint project. She is letting each of her children choose a saint trading card each day, reading the information on the back of each card and then delving in to one of the saints a bit deeper. The children can then report (share :)) to dad that evening what they have learned.

 
As a take of on that, I read about one of the saints while my boys colored saints pictures today (they have a longer attention span for coloring if I read to them). I read about Father Damien of Molokai from one of the Stories of the Saints books offered at Catholic Heritage Curricula. The boys actually had a great time sharing with dad this evening- even James (6yo) remembered much of the story and was excited to share. He was also my most enthusiastic artist-- coloring both Fr. Damien and St. Bruno!

These are our saints for today. I know that realistically we won't be able to do this every day this month, but I am hoping for 2 or 3 times a week.

If you don't have a saints book on hand or information about the saint you are looking for, you can look for a saint by name and listen to a nice story at Franciscan Radio . My boys enjoy listening to these short stories.

***Paperdali blog is also a great resource that I just discovered for coloring pages and more!!

For a Good Explanation of All Saint's Day...

from the Domestic Church website-

http://www.domestic-church.com/CONTENT.DCC/20000901/ARTICLES/all_souls.htm

There are so many saints and martyrs that it's impossible to give each of them a feast day.

The Church has set aside November 1 as a feast commemorating all the saints. On All Saints Day, we venerate all the saints in heaven, the Church Triumphant who intercede and pray for us and for the souls still in purgatory.

These saints are tangible reminders of hope. They are the pilgrims who have reached their destination - heaven. Not only are these holy men and women our examples, they are also our intercessors, doing all they can to bring us to our heavenly home.

In Preparation for All Saint's Day

Saints!? Somehow I missed these wonderful people while growing up in the Catholic Church (obviously I was not a very attentive child!) Now I love the saints!! Saints are the best examples to share with children on how to live our faith . Their struggle was human and often heroic and can inspire our children if we make the saints real to them. It took me a long time to be able to talk naturally with my kids about the saints- it felt forced or awkward at first. Keep at it- you'll find yourself having fun and making friends with the saints!

The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism No. 1 explains that the saints are God's friends. Just like us they knew joy, sorrow, and suffering, yet they did not forget God. They loved Him and always worked to do His will. While they struggled, just as we do, they knew the road to heaven and stayed on it.

I love to have pictures (just little prayer cards) and statues (we don't have many, but I would like to) to help remind us of the saints. Saints become much more present to our kids when they "see" them- just like keeping pictures of far away friends and relatives around make them more present to our children.

We have been learning about a few favorite saints this month. I asked my little group today what we learned from Saint Therese and got the answer --- "little things matter"! Good job Christian! 

We have discussing St. Therese's big mission to save souls by doing little things. That she did not have to go out and do great big heroic things to change the world (although I would certainly consider her heroic). She did things right where she was- sacrificing the little every day inconveniences and hardships. 

Whether she was praying for her "first soul" or for priests, she did it in her little way - by offering to God only "very little things". 

What a great saint for our kids!!

http://www.littleflower.org/learn/about/life.asp

It took just a minute to catch on to making St. Therese sacrifice beads. They are actually pretty simple.

http://thelittleways.com/how-to-make-sacrifice-beads/

I did not know if the boys would want to make beads with a St. Therese medal- somehow I thought that they might get hung up on her being a girl, so I bought a few Sacred Heart of Jesus medals just in case- they all decided for St. Therese and are very happy with their beads.

They turned out super cute!! Julia and Paul even made some for Paul's godmommy, Shauna (who is also Julia's cousin). Mark made some for Shauna's husband, Peter. Mark was worried that Peter would feel left out.