The Friday before last, the day after St. Patrick’s Day and the day before our trip to the ocean, I hosted our 5th Little Flowers Girls’ Club meeting for Wreath III. It was a busy week! Originally I tried re-scheduling it for earlier that week, since two of the sweet little girls in my group were suppose to be headed to their new home. However, thanks to a change of plans and a later flight, they were able to make it to the meeting after all!
For this month’s Virtue Notebook/Scrapbook Page, I used the memory verse for Self-Control, a quote from St. Felicity (found here), a quote from the bible, an image of St. Felicity and her Seven Sons, and a few amaryllis flowers. You can download my document here.
Don’t you just love that quote?!? I teared up during the meeting when I was trying to explain to the girls how St. Felicity is such an amazing example of self-control. . . Encouraging her children to look towards heaven, as they were all about to be martyred for our faith!
We read and discussed a story about St. Felicity, along with a couple stories from The Book of Virtues. We also talked about Self-Control goes hand in hand with offering sacrifices.
“Self-control is holding oneself within due limits in pleasures and duties, as in all things else; self-denial, the giving up of pleasures for the sake of duty.”
With Charlotte’s post on her Crown of Thorns in my mind, I explained to the girls that when we make a sacrifice, “we hope in some small way that our sacrifice will help make amends for the sins that caused the suffering Our Precious Lord endured.”
“When St. Therese was a child, her older sister Marie gave her a string of beads to help her count the gifts she did to offer to God. In this way she was able to advance in perfection daily.
Sacrifice Beads or Good Deed Beads are a string of ten beads, which can be pulled and remain in place. They are used to count the acts of love or sacrifices a person makes in a day for God. The string of beads helps a person to grow in virtue by challenging them to be faithful in making acts of love each day. Sacrifice Beads also have a fixed Our Father bead on the end of them and can double up as a rosary.” ~ The Little Ways
Originally we planned to have the girls iron on a “No Licking the Spoon” image to their aprons, but at the last minute we decided to have them paint the handle of a wooden spoon to either attach to their apron (with a little loop) or keep in their pocket. Next time I am going to be sure to put down some newspaper first!
I kept it quick and simple since we had overnight company and I didn’t want to spend all morning in the kitchen.
I completely forgot about a suggestion from a friend to place a bowl of M&M’s in the middle of the table during the meeting – and having the girls practice self-control in not touching the M&M’s during the meeting and then only taking a few afterwards. . . Next time!
We are sure going to miss you, “Branch” and “Blossom!”
St. Therese, the Little Flower, pray for us!
we are blessed to have you! Deo gratias!
How fantastic! I can't wait to see your St. Cecelia post. (Primarily because that is what I am working on now). Great job, wonderful posts!
Thank you, both! 🙂
Nicole ~ I did Wreath 1 a couple years ago and you can find my St. Cecilia Post here.
You can also find links to all of our past meetings (Wreaths I, II and III) towards the bottom of this overview post.
We participated in the Little Flowers program last year. We did not participate this year and we miss it. I know our group leader really enjoyed her part in bringing the teachings of the virtues and your little projects were used by our little ones as well. 😉 That's how I learned more of your blog.
Our church would benefit from having a Little Flowers group. Are all the girls in your group homeschooled? I find that we don't have many Catholic homeschoolers in my area, it would be easier to just recruit girls through my parish.
GREAT JOB. Thank you for all you do! blessings.
Jackie ~ Yes, all of the girls in my group are homeschooled. I do host my meetings during the day (Friday afternoon) which makes it difficult for children that attend school. Two of the girls that were in my group last year went back to school this year, and now another two girls moved away. . . Those were the only girls in our homeschool group that were actually my daughters ages – the other girls are either older or younger. So you see, we are very short on girls in our group too! I might need to change the meeting time next year and open it up to the girls at the local Catholic School. We'll see! 🙂
So I am the leader of little flowers meeting and I LOVE your poster that you did. I tried to download the document you made. Is there anyway I could have access to it, so I can do it with my girls?
So I am the leader of my little flowers meeting and I LOVE your poster that you did. I tried to download the document you made. Is there anyway I could have access to it, so I can do it with my girls?
I'm sorry they are no longer available. I was asked to remove them by the publisher and author of the program. I worked with them to create new pages that are available directly from the publisher.
You can find the links to the updated "Little Flowers Crafting Pages" here:
https://www.showerofrosesblog.com/2015/09/wreath-iii-crafting-pages.html
http://www.beholdpublications.com/wordpress1/product/wreath-iii-crafting-pages/