Our Lady of Sorrows

Our parish has the blessed privilege of being named for Our Lady of Sorrows and today was an absolutely beautiful day to honor Mary, our Sorrowful Mother.  Father had an amazing morning planned for all the classes, having each participate in a Eurcharisitc Procession from the school chapel to the church for prayer and adoration.  It was such a neat experience for all involved.

  

Bug on left in blue.

Birdie on right with white bow.

Our church has such a beautiful side alter dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows and it was the perfect place for our moments of prayer. 

The procession at school was a great way to start the day.

We ended the day with some crafts and baking. 

We mixed up some little heart-shaped white cakes to decorate in honor of the seven sorrows.  While they were all baking, the girls colored the heart of Mary, glued it to a little red envelope and wrote out the seven sorrows to place inside it.  We found arrow-shaped toothpicks at Kroger which worked perfectly for the craft as well as the cakes.

Our Lady of Sorrows, Pray for Us!

Happy Birthday, Mary!

I'm finally getting around to posting our day last Wednesday, as we celebrated the Nativity of the Blessed Mother. Of course, we had to be in school, but we did have a birthday party for Mary with several of the classes. The cake was beautiful and absolutely delicious! It had been kept in the freezer and was still partially frozen, which, for some reason, really made it good!!

YUM!

After school, we went to evening Mass, followed by Adoration. We haven't been to the Wednesday evening Mass for quite a while. (It tends, unfortunately, to be a wintertime routine that we loose the habit of in the summer.) Mary's birthday prompted us to go this evening and it was nice to get ourselves back into that habit.

The girls enjoyed the extra time spent with Jesus, too. We prayed the Rosary in honor of Mary, then we had the opportunity for reconciliation.

Once at home, the three of us made blueberry muffins (more for the next day's breakfast, but they were perfect for Mary's birthday celebration!).

Bug formed them into a cross and chose blue candles...interestingly enough, there were seven blue candles and seven muffins made a perfect cross. Just enough for the seven sorrows (although that's next Wednesday, isn't it!?)

With a little bit of extra time before bed (and no homework!) the girls got creative on their own. They dug into the "old clothes" box and pulled out two old uniform shirts. They decorated the fronts with markers just for fun, making "I belong to God" shirts!

There is a story there...Father has a T-shirt that says the same thing and he happened to have it on at school. Evidently the girls liked it!

Happy Birthday, Mary!

Blessed Mary, Mother of us all, Pray for us!

In Honor of Blessed Mother Teresa

September 5th is the optional memorial of the Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Mother Teresa is a favorite saint-to-be in our house. She has been of interest because of a CD by the beautiful Catholic artist Danielle Rose. Her CD I Thirst is dedicated to Mother Teresa and takes several of her more famous quotes and prayers and puts them to music. It has been an inspiration to me and to my girls. The Prayer of Mother Teresa is one of their favorite songs on the CD. I have to admit, it's one of mine too!

Well, September 5th fell on a Sunday this year...a special Sunday for our family, as the 11:00 Mass this morning was offered for my husband's parents.

After Mass, many of his siblings and their families went to lunch. It was a nice way to honor his beautiful Mom and Dad and a nice time to catch up with family.

Once at home we tried something new. I found this post and the recipe for Indian Sweet Bread. We thought it really sounded good, so we went to work mixing, kneading, rolling and frying. It turned out yummy...and according to Birdie...kind of like an elephant ear, especially when you cover it with confectioner's sugar! I'm not sure that falls into the true category of traditional Indian Sweet Bread, but it sure did taste good!

Bug tolerated the sticky fingers much better than I would have expected!

Birdie, on the other hand, not so much!

What was so beautiful here was that as she was waiting to flip the bread, I could hear Birdie humming the tune of The Prayer of Mother Teresa from the Danielle Rose CD, even though we had not listened to it on today! I love to watch the Holy Spirit at work in my girls!

Then the work table was set...

In a stretch to find something new and different for today's craft, I decided to try creating a photo collage of Mother Teresa. It was a hit. The girls loved seeing the pictures so much that we even brought up some more photos on-line for them to look at. They were especially interested in the real photo from which the coloring page was drawn. Isn't she talented?! The collage included some of her words of wisdom and, of course, her beautiful prayer which, as I mentioned, my girls dearly love. It was neat to see them make the connection between the other quotes we used and some of the other songs on the CD.

Our finished board looked nice! It was great to get it updated. We've been behind since school started!

Prayer of Blessed Mother Teresa

Dear Jesus,

Help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine. Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus. Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.

Amen.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Pray for Us.