The Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle is celebrated on November 30th. The beginning of Advent is alway determined by St. Andrew’s Day. The Sunday nearest to his feast is always the First Sunday in Advent. If November 30th falls on a Monday through Wednesday, Advent begins the Sunday preceding; if it falls on Thursday through Saturday Advent begins the Sunday following. This year the feast of St. Andrew happened to fall ON the First Sunday of Advent.
St. Andrew is a patron saint of one of our boys and we had so much fun celebrating his feast day in addition to our usual First Sunday of Advent family activities, stories, and prayers.
Additional Stories can be found in the following books:
.: COLORING PAGES :.
(Note: Now is the perfect time to order paper dolls for the upcoming feasts of St. Nicholas and St. Lucy!)
.: CRAFT – ADVENT CANDLES :.
The beginning of Advent is alway determined by St. Andrew’s Day so I decided to have the children roll 100% Beeswax Advent Candles using this lovely Advent Candle Kit. It is one of our Advent & Christmas Favorites from Holy Heroes!
Like the candles we’ve rolled in the past, these were so simple to make, even the little ones were able to help with a little supervision.
.: SNACKS :.
As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
Matthew 4: 18-20
Andreasherzen
(St. Andrew’s Hearts)
Breakfast for dinner… Yum!!!
I adapted a recipe from Cooking with the Saints and baked them in this Traditional Heart Waffle Maker. They turned out amazing! We won’t be waiting a year to make them again… As soon as I have a chance to share the recipe at Catholic Cuisine, I’ll update this post with the link.
+ A Few More Links +
.: PRAYER – ST. ANDREW CHRISTMAS NOVENA :.
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.
St. Andrew the Apostle, Ora Pro Nobis!
Prayer of Mothers
Father in heaven, grant me the grace to appreciate the dignity which you have conferred on me. Let me realize that not even the Angels have been blessed with such a privilege—to share in your creative miracle and bring new Saints to heaven. Make me a good mother to all my children after the example of Mary, the Mother of your Son. Through the intercession of Jesus and Mary I ask your continued blessings on my family. Let us all be dedicated to your service on earth and attain the eternal happiness of your kingdom in heaven. Amen.
I always love reading about how you celebrate Feast Days.
2014-12-02 12:03:27
Beautiful celebration Jessica! The snack brought me back to when we had a shark themed birthday party for our son several years ago and the guests "fished" with PB, goldfish, and pretzel sticks too! 🙂 So fun! Have a blessed Advent!
2014-12-02 12:34:12
What a wonderfully celebratory day for a great saint and his cutest little namesake! Love and hugs to that big guy! His hair has gotten so dark, I almost didn't recognize him!
2014-12-02 13:29:21
How fun! What a great celebration.
2014-12-02 15:17:26
Marking this one for next year. Beautiful!!
2014-12-02 15:29:27
Lovely…just lovely!
2014-12-02 17:07:23
So beautiful- and I love your little "fishers of men!"
This is so off topic, but may I ask where you found your dining room chairs? My husband is making a table for us (to fit our family of nine, plus guests as they come) and I haven't found chairs that I like that are a reasonable price.
Blessed Advent to you all!
2014-12-02 18:51:03
That is so great that your husband is able to make a table for your family! We ordered our table and chairs from a local furniture store, but it's Hillside Village with straight legs and x-backed chairs made by Intercon. We originally purchased this table but it arrived with scratches and any little thing would chip it so the store exchanged it for us. Our current table was more expensive but it's held up well and the chairs are so much more sturdy and comfortable. They are big though and I often wish that we had a bench or two so a lot more could fit around the table. (I can seat 10 right now, but have two more chairs and an extra leaf that don't fit in the room unless I turn the table at an angle.) Good luck finding the right chairs for your family!
2014-12-02 19:44:48
Everything looks beautiful! Little Bud is looking so much like Snuggles! I thought he was Snuggles at first. How is Twinkle Toes enjoying her glasses? I had to get glasses when I was eleven, and it took me a while to adjust to them 🙂
2014-12-02 20:30:37
Oh I also meant to mention I've been wanting a waffle maker for a few years now, but have never bought one with all the good and bad reviews of them….too many choices! Would you say you've been happy with yours and how often have you used it? Thank you so much!
2014-12-02 21:19:55
The picture of Jesus and Mary with the St. Andrew novena prayer is beautiful. I hope it is o.k. if I set it as my computers wall-paper this Advent. I forget to pray my novena prayers every day, so instead of committing to the St. Andrew one this year, I'm just going to say the prayer every time I sit down at our computer. Thank you for your ministry to us.
2014-12-02 22:12:49
I love the St. Andrew novena prayer. It has been part of our family's Advent for a few years now. It is such a beautiful prayer! Hope you have a blessed Advent!
2014-12-02 22:17:40
Thank you, Kari! Bud does look like Snuggles, doesn't he! Those two have so much fun together. It is taking Twinkle Toes a little while to adjust to wearing glasses, but she is really liking them and loves that she isn't getting headaches every day any longer. I'm so glad we took her in for an exam.
2014-12-02 23:07:33
You need to ask me again in a year! 😉 I was having the same problem and have had a couple different versions on my wish list for the past few years, ever since Bud was born and I knew I wanted one particularly for this feast day. I finally decided on the one linked to in this post, but I've only used it once. It worked wonderfully. I also have a (Flip-Style) Belgian Waffle Maker that my husband purchased from Costco for my birthday about 5 (?) years ago. We've used that one frequently over the years and it still works well.
2014-12-02 23:14:24
Thank you, Stephanie! After we finished our family prayers the other night I had to get my camera to take a picture. The statue ties in so beautifully to the St. Andrew Christmas Novena. You are welcome to use it as your computers wall-paper. I only uploaded the low-res version to the blog, but if you send me an email I can forward the hi-res version to you if you'd like. God bless you and your family!
2014-12-02 23:16:55
Lovely, just lovely…all of it. Going to have to try those waffles.
2014-12-03 19:30:30