Good-bye June!

Where did you go?

Our feast day table was a bit hodge podgy this last month.  But here are a few of our decorations.

 We came across this card during an organizing spree- perfect timing. 

When you turn it one way, it is the Sacred Heart.

The other, the Immaculate Heart. (The photo kind of blurs the two hearts)

For the feast of Corpus Christi.

Votive candle holder dollar store find.

However!! Note to self- never ever leave a flame lit near the open door and think it is safe enough. The wind came through and blew this right in to the flame! I really thought I had checked it out, but was obviously mistaken!

Made a few years ago by one of the boys.

A fun June read: 

This book contains snippets from the lives of 115 saints. Some familiar (Bernadette, Jerome), and some not so familiar (Ansgar, Benilde) are included. Each saint gets just a page or so description plus a little "thought for the day". I'll admit that some thoughts are better than others, but we are still enjoying this fun little book that came to us via James' Easter basket. 

Happy Feast Day of Blessed Junipero Serra!! 

A favorite of us Californians- click his name to hear about him. 

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. :) 

Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Valentine's Day

Sometimes things don't go how we plan- at all. That is okay. We are meant to celebrate the church year. Not to fret over it.

Friday, for Our Lady's feast day, I had all kinds of things bookmarked to do. I had a few off days and then was under the weather, so we simply read a beautiful story from our Catholic Heritage Curricula reading comprehension book. We did not even make it to mass. :( That is okay.

For St. Valentine's Day, again, we had lots of stuff planned to do this weekend in preparation of this special day. That was when I went full on out of commission. Again, that is okay. In Susan Fowler's Building the Family Cookbook, she writes that "St. Valentine's Day is a wonderful day to show your family how much you love them!". So, my plans may have flown out the window, but, with a few simple things, it was not hard to impress my family (they impress easily ;)) and make them feel loved.

 Pretty flowers for the table.

 Our table all set (missing a few chairs still). I love the banner

(we usually make one) that I found on sale at Target.

 And I love dollar store balloons!

 Cupcake brownies that the boys made with their big sister. (so glad to have
daughters that care to make memories with their little brothers)
                                                                                                                                                                                

We read this sweet book that I ordered earlier this year. 
                                                                                                                                            

 My boys' favorite meal- chicken packets. Basically, it is chicken, cream cheese, and
milk mixed together and wrapped in a refrigerator roll that is buttered and rolled in bread crumbs.
                                                                       

And, a small gift. What Ninja Lego stuff has to do with Valentine's Day is- well, nothing. But, my boys love Legos. We have a tradition of placing a small gift on each child's plate at dinner time on Valentine's day. Mark already found "friends" for his new Lego guy and put them on the plate too.

This picture turned out totally blurry, but I thought it showed that the boys are pretty pleased.

Happy Saint Valentine's Day to All!

St. John Bosco

It was not quite the relaxing day we had planned, but...

Mark made yummy cookie dough (Bachelor Buttons from Catholic Cuisine).

 The boys colored pictures and set the table.

James rolled the cookie dough into balls (like the balls that St. John Bosco used to juggle), rolled them in sugar, and cooked them.

Paul juggled. I have no idea why I have the camera sideways!

And I made a yummy stuffed bell pepper dinner (also from Catholic Cuisine) for the adults. The kids made their own pizzas.

We read about St. John Bosco in Stories of the Saints (CHC) and watched half of the movie, St. John Bosco: Mission to Love (it is a long movie!). 

Novena in Honor of St. John Bosco

Father and Teacher of the Young

In need of special help, I appeal with confidence to you, Saint John Bosco, for I require not only spiritual graces, but also temporal ones, and particularly...

(add your personal intentions here)

May you, who on earth had such great devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to

Mary Help of Christians, and who always had compassion for those who were suffering,

obtain from Jesus and His Heavenly Mother the grace I now request, and also a sincere

resignation to the Will of God.

(Recite the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be)

St. John Bosco and Our 30th Anniversary!

If you have read my profile, it says thirty years already. I think when I went through updated info., like grandbabies and such, I just rounded up. This (Jan. 31) is the for real day of being married to my wonderful husband for 30 years. We were sooo young- 17 (me) and 21 (hubby). I know at the time quite a few people thought we were crazy but here we are thirty years later, truly blessed beyond belief and happily, madly in love. Please don't misunderstand that to mean that there have been no struggles. We have those every day. But I can't imagine going through those struggles with anyone else at my side. Truly thanking God today.

And, St. John Bosco! This is one of our favorite saints. I guess I could actually say that about almost any saint we learn about, but he is a "boys' saint" (although I am sure girls love him too). He had a heart for boys, and my boys and I have enjoyed learning more about him.

In celebration of St. John Bosco, we are going to:
*listen to his story on Saint for the Day
*read about him in our CHC Stories of the Saints book
*make these special cookies and hot chocolate (to eat and drink during the story)
*and prepare this special stuffed bell pepper meal from Catholic Cuisine (with pita bread pizza as alternative for the kiddos).

To top it all off, a friend of ours is loaning us the movie, St. John Bosco: Mission of Love.  It will be a great day to celebrate this saint and spend time together with our family celebrating our anniversary!

To read if you don't have a book about this saint: St. John Bosco at Domestic-Church.

Also, a Novena in Honor of St. John Bosco.

One more thing- I almost forgot. Paul says he is going to juggle for us in honor of St. John Bosco. ;)

Saint Juan Diego Table

We usually "set" our table in the evening before dad comes home. Occasionally, I surprise the boys in the morning with something special. But, this morning, Mark was up and ready to with the candles lit! :) I would love to think he was being extra holy in his enthusiasm, but that boy loves fire--- I think he might have been motivated by the opportunity to light three candles.

 We just added our Saint Juan Diego things to our "Immaculate Conception" table.

Books we are reading today/Saturday. The CHC reading comprehension book on the bottom of the pile has a well written story about Saint Juan Diego.

The "Our Lady of Guadalupe" side of the candle.

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.

Parade of Saints

We are continuing with our Parade of Saints this year. We have added a few already and have a few waiting in the wings (we ran out of laminating sheets). They boys are determined to fill the door from top to bottom. It could happen. As soon as we get them laminated, we will be adding St. Sebastian, St. Raphael, and St. Paul Chong Hasang. Honestly, I just love getting to know the saints!

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

St. Francis

St. Francis, pray for us.

One of our first posts, on October 1, 2008, was in preparation of Saint Francis' feast day. Shortly after that, we posted our "after" pictures of our St. Francis feast day celebration.


Waltzing Matilda has a magnificent coloring page that we have used.


Apostleship of prayer has a  narrated slide show that can be watched.
It takes just a quick second to load.


And, Saint of the Day has a short audio for this feast day.


For a great craft, Catholic Icing is the place to go. I think we are going to try a St. Francis spoon saint tomorrow.


I am printing some Saint Francis Trading Cards tonight from That Resource Site. There are also plenty of other resources for this feast day there as well.

Start by doing what is necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. ~St. Francis of Assisi

Saint Padre Pio

We have this lovely coloring page thanks to Waltzing Matilda's blog that we will add to our "parade of saints". Plus a short book by Rev. Jude Winnkler, OFM conv. And, we listened to saint of the day about this holy man.

 

 Apostleship of Prayer on Padre Pio.

St. Patick's Day At Our House

We love St. Patrick's Day around here- my grandmother, Mary Agnes Sweeney, was Irish and fiercely proud of it. She loved to tell about her big Irish Catholic family and their antics. I just wish I had been old enough to understand how valuable it would have to been really listen and remember the stories that she shared.

Life has been cr-aaaa-zy around here, so there has been little time to prep for any big celebrations. We did set out our decorations, read a few books, and make a few projects

(St. Patrick Spoon Saints were made last week). James, who was home alone with me

today, made this just for fun mobile to help liven up the decor. :)

In his school box- all the fixins. The weird goopy stuff to the left is glitter glue- James would have preferred to use the sprinkle kind (it is more fun), but all we had on hand was an old bottle of gold glitter glue- it all glopped out of the bottle, so I scooped it up with a shell that was sitting on the shelf- so, note to self- buy new glitter. . .
James hard at work on his mobile. He could have done the cutting- he actually loves to cut, but I don't think he would have finished it in one day if I did not pre cut the pieces. The project, printed from The Knack, is labeled for ages 9-12. After completing the project with James (6yo), I think it is the assembly that bumps the age range up- if a child has mom or an older sibling to help, age 4 and up would work.

The completed project hanging in the kitchen over the table.

A cute project from last year, ordered from the Oriental Trading Company.

Our St. Patrick's Day books.
And, our table. My daughter suggested putting green Easter grass in the vase (super cute, I thought!)- I looked for a week for some, but no one had green Easter grass!! Go figure. Next year...