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.

The Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe

The Feast of St. Max fell on a Saturday, so we had grand plans that would fill the afternoon, since it's way too hot to do anything else. Well, we learned earlier in the week on the Feast of St. Clare that plans don't always go the way we think they will...And so it was with today as well, but at least there were no spills...only interruptions!

The agenda today included two recipes and several crafts:

Ptasie Mleczko (our version anyway!) from Waltzing Matilda

Crown Cakes

Coloring picture of St. Max

Handmade Holy Cards

Beaded Maximilian Kolbe Chaplet

(all found at my favorite blog, Shower of Roses)

Birdie and I made the Ptasie on Friday evening, so it was ready to go. We just melted chocolate chips and rolled them in chopped almonds. Not really the traditional Polish candy, but the girls loved the idea! The hardest part was waiting until Saturday to eat one!

The crown cakes (one white and one red) were made of a 9x9 brownie that was cut in half and serrated at the top to look like a crown. (Ugh, I know...this one would have been perfectly gorgeous, but just more than we could do today!) The girls iced and sprinkled the necessary sugar color as I read the story of the vision of Mary offering the crowns of purity and martyrdom to St. Max. He, of course, accepted both.


Not too terrible to look at, delicious to eat, so all was well!

And then grandpa came by! Time out for a while to visit!

After grandpa left we were all prepared to get to work on the crafts. Our table was set with the coloring page (also from Waltzing Matilda) and materials for making our own holy cards (stickers, colorful papers, images of St. Max). Just as we were beginning, two little neighbor friends came by to see the baby bunnies that we are babysitting for a family down the street! The bunnies are positively irresistible, so we had to take another time out!

Once back at work, the coloring pages and holy cards were completed and really turned out nice. Our regret for the day was that we were not able to get the beads out and bead our own St. Maximilian Kolbe Chaplet. Birdie has been very interested in beading her own rosaries and chaplets, so she was disappointed that we didn't have time. The bunnies, however, quickly consoled her!

And our work board looked quite nice as we finished our day.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, Pray for Us!

Celebrating St. Clare, Mishaps & All!

So...we planned a great day filled with snacks and crafts for the Feast of St. Clare, but sometimes the best plans don't always work out!!

The original thought was to wake and read from Francis and Clare: Saints of Assisi by Helen Walker Homan. But...Grandma called and wanted to take the girls shopping for new shoes for school. Who am I to refuse new shoes?! So off we went to the mall. After getting shoes, new uniform pants, new jeans, a treat from the dollar store and lunch at Dairy Queen, we were finally on our way home. (Did I mention we are blessed with the most wonderful Grandma ever? God Bless you, Mom.) Once at home, we needed a little down time, which was interrupted by a call to come swim at the neighbor's house. Who am I to refuse swimming on a 95 degree day? So the kids were off to swim down the street. Our plans were then completely upside-down.

So...I decided to surprise the girls with a work table set with some fun stuff when they returned. So I prepared for a craft similar to this one, with the materials that I could find on hand. I also knew they would be hungry, so I created a monstrance made from nacho chips, pretzels and cheese. It turned out pretty cute!

When the girls got home, they took one look at the table and dove right in! Birdie's first words were, "It really looks like a monstrance!" Well...that was the first thing that went right that day...but don't get your hopes up for much more!

The snacks were far more tempting than making a paper plate monstrance, so hands were flying as the girls sat down and tried to eat, drink, cut and glue. (I forgot to mention the blue-raspberry slushies, didn't I?)

Now I know why we only do one thing at a time. Yes... that is Bug's slush on what should be her paper plate monstrance. At least it wasn't all over the floor!

But eventually things came together and after getting Bug a new plate (thankfully there were several in the cabinet), the finished products looked very nice.

I love how Bug is holding hers up like Father!

And then we called it quits for the day!

St. Clare, PLEASE pray for us!

Daughters of Light: We Celebrate St. Philomena

Although the celebration of the Feast of St. Philomena has technically been removed from the liturgical calendar, we still planned a nice day of remembrance for her, as she is so near and dear to our hearts and since her removal from the calendar was in no way ever meant to deny external devotion to or veneration for her. We didn't, however, know just how we would fit in a celebration for Philomena and Clare, who traditionally holds August 11th as her feast day! So we compromised...We spent August 10th with St. Philomena and planned activities for St. Clare on August 11.

We found a beautiful image of St. Philomena on-line, which we printed, along with pictures of an anchor and bow & arrow (symbols of her martyrdom) and the angels that ministered to her during her torture and imprisonment. The girls used fancy scissors to cut the images, colored them and added them to the main page (red for martyrs, of course), hanging the anchor and arrows in mobile-style. The girls each chose her own wording as an invocation to St. Philomena.

Bug's Prayer: Patron Saint of Youth, Pray for Us

Birdie's Prayer: Powerful with God, Pray for Us

The finished products looked beautiful hanging on the girls' bedroom doors.

And, of course, we ended our day by praying the St. Philomena chaplet, using the beautiful hand-made chaplets created by our dear friend Diane.

The Saint Philomena Chaplet is made of 3 white beads (for her virginity) and 13 red beads (for the 13 years of her life before her martyrdom). The chaplet consists of the following prayers:

The Apostles' Creed: To ask for the Grace of Faith.

Three Our Father Prayers: To honor the Holy Trinity and in Thanksgiving

Thirteen Prayers to Invoke the Intercession of St. Philomena

Hail, O holy St. Philomena, my patroness after Mary my Mother, as my advocate with thy Divine Spouse, Jesus, intercede for me now and at the hour of my death. St. Philomena, beloved daughter of Jesus and Mary, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

In Conclusion:

Hail, O illustrious St. Philomena, who shed so courageously your blood for Christ! I bless the Lord for all the graces He has bestowed upon you during your life, and especially at your heath. I praise and glorify Him for the honor and power with which He has crowned you, and I beg you to obtain for me from God the graces I ask through thine intercession. Amen.

Beloved St. Philomena, Daughter of Light, Pray for Us

The Perfect Day for a First Post: The Feast of St. John Vianney

It has taken me so long to get the first post onto this blog. I sign in and click to post and then...I do nothing! I haven't been able to find the right thing...I haven't been able to find the right words...it just wouldn't come. Until today. Today is the Feast of St. John Vianney, the beloved and humble patron of parish priests and a man whose trust and devotion to St. Philomena was unwavering. It was he who called her The New Light of the Church and who began so dedicatedly to distribute the St. Philomena chaplet to all those around him. What better way to begin my blog than with the celebration of one of our Church's beautiful saints, while at the same time creating a dedication to the saint our family holds so near and dear to our hearts.

When Birdie and Bug woke this morning, they found our work table full of fun projects honoring St. John Vianney. The girls were familiar with St. John Marie already, as we've read the book St. John Vianney: A Priest for All People by Elizabeth Marie DeDomenico. Our parish priest has an intense devotion to St. John Vianney, so he also speaks and teaches of him often. So when the girls saw the coloring pages and holy cards, they knew right away whose feast day it was!

We were crunched for time this morning, so much to the disappointment of the girls, they only had time to do one project and then we were off to Bible School. Birdie chose to color her coloring page, which came from a downloadable coloring book from Relevant Radio. Bug decided to make her own holy card. (Of course she did! That meant getting out the gold paint!)

As the girls were finishing up and getting ready to eat breakfast, they had the fun idea of taking the crafts they made to Bible School with them and leaving them as an anonomous, surprise gift for our priest ~ since he sooooo loves St. John Vianney! (Birdie has been reading Olivia and the Little Way by Nancy Carabio Belanger and this fit in perfectly with the lesson of doing small things (the little way) for others without the expectation of anything in return.) So we gathered the things together and added a couple of snack-sized Butterfinger candy bars (his favorite!) and off we went. The girls had a blast sneaking in early and placing the goodies on his chair.

They were ever so excited when Father realized who his admirers were!

Father, of course, incorported St. John Vianney into today's Bible School lesson, showing a quick movie to the younger kids about him. Birdie and Bug didn't get to see it, as they were teacher's assistants rather than participants this year. (Officially only Birdie is old enough for that, but Bug was allowed to be an assisstant to the assisstants! Sometimes it's not what you know, but who you know...wink, wink!) But anyway, Father let us borrow the movie for the afternoon, so as I was preparing lunch, the girls watched the EWTN production of My Catholic Family: St. John Vianney. Then we were in for an afternoon of crafts!

Birdie and her wood spoon
mini-saint.

And the paints came out again!

We have been addicted to these little guys ever since seeing this post.

Bug's first time making a wood spoon saint!

When all was said and done we had a project board full of fun things to celebrate St. John Marie Vianney and we planned on ending it with a chaplet at bedtime to honor his most beloved saint (and our's!) St. Philomena. I'd love to end with a picture of the beautiful chaplets that were given to my girls by our dear neighbor, Diane, who hand-crafts rosaries and chaplets with designer beads. They are absolutely beautiful...but...I've just realized that my first post has become more of a novel that has actually taken me 2 hours to compose! Hopefully I'll become a bit more efficient as time goes on! So the St. Philomena chaplets will have to wait for another post, on another day and instead I will end with one more photo of our completed project board.

St. John Vianny, Pray for Us.