The May Magnificat {and Giveaway Winners!}
The May Magnificat
MAY is Mary’s month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season—
Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?
Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?
Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?—
Growth in every thing—
Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested
Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.
All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature’s motherhood.
from Maiden and Mother: Prayers & Hymns to the Blessed Virgin Mary Throughout the Year
- scmom (Barbara) – “What a lovely drawing! All very nice gifts. I post every day in May for Mary…one small thing I can do for love of her.”
- Joy Beyond the Cross – “I love, love, love all of these beautiful items. Thank you so much for the opportunity to win! God Bless!”
- Melody – “I sure would love to win any of these. 🙂 Happy May! Ave Maria!”
- montanamama90 – “I would be so happy to win any of these! ~Kaylyn”
- Kerry – “How thoughtful of you, Jess. What a lovely giveaway. Please enter me.”
{pretty, happy, funny, real}
Shortly after taking this picture, a young man walked by talking on his cell phone and the goose came within inches of getting him too. We did try to warn him, he was too distracted.
And poor little Bud has been missing his Wheely Bug… I hid it last weekend, in an attempt to try and encourage him to start walking more often. Who needs to walk when you can just cruise around the house all day?! It has already made a difference, but he sure misses his wheels…
May Day Giveaway in Honor of Our Queen and Mother
O Mary, we crown thee with blossoms today,
I love the month of May! Summer is right around the corner, our school year is coming to an end, and the whole month is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary! (You can find some of our past feast day celebrations during the month of May in the archives.) I finally made it to town this afternoon for groceries (we have been out of pretty much everything) and picked up a small bouquet of flowers for Our Lady. (My statue isn’t included in the giveaway, but you can find it here.) I pulled out my old, but favorite, Handmaiden of the Lord CD (a gift from my husband years ago) to play this month, and I also keep finding myself humming Queen of the May. Mother’s Day is coming up and I thought it would be fun to start the month with a giveaway – or five… The following items have been generously provided by Krista and Jesse Tree Treasures in honor of Our Blessed Mother.
#1 – The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary
sponsored by Krista – Thank you Krista!
“The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a shorter form of the Divine Office in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has long been the Church’s daily liturgical prayer to Our Lady, and these hours of praise have been used by Priests, religious and the laity throughout the centuries. Lay people used to flock to the great Cathedrals to publicly recite The Little Office during the Middle Ages, and during the great persecution, when the practice of the Catholic Faith was illegal, the Little Office was highly recommended by the Church.”
Read more here…
#3 – “Be a Son-Flower”-Follow the Son
#4 – Chosen
Inspiring Women of FAITH Necklaces
sponsored by Jesse Tree Treasures – Thank you Angie!
#5 – St. Therese the Little Flower Daily Journal
I purchased one of these for myself and purchased an extra for one of you!
“Many spiritual directors recommend daily spiritual reading, followed by meditation and simple journaling of thoughts and inspirations. Journals become a record of our walk in the spiritual life. This Saint Therese the Little Flower Catholic Journal was designed specifically to guide you in the practice of journaling. This high-quality lay flat wirebound journal provides ample space to write and is filled with illustrations and inspiring quotes from Saint Therese the Little Flower to guide you on her “Little Way”. Also included are how-to tips to begin constructive journaling; not simply putting thoughts and feelings on paper, but directing them to help you make truly virtuous choices!”
[Update: I purchased these Journals from Casa Maria Bookstore when ordering the Mananitas CD for Chiquita’s birthday. They are also offered at an incredible price from Tan at the moment (You can visit TAN Books via my new Affiliate link here!), even with the shipping charges it is still less expensive than the Amazon price. I’m considering ordering a number of copies to use as prizes for next year’s Little Flowers Mother Daughter Tea Party.]
UPDATE: Thank you!
If you would like to be entered in the drawing for a chance to win one of the above items, just leave a comment on this post before Midnight (PST) on Sunday, May 5th. Also, please leave your email address, or have it linked in your profile, so that I am able to contact you should you win. I will update this post with the winners on May 6th.
AND THE WINNERS ARE:
- scmom (Barbara) – “What a lovely drawing! All very nice gifts. I post every day in May for Mary…one small thing I can do for love of her.”
- Joy Beyond the Cross – “I love, love, love all of these beautiful items. Thank you so much for the opportunity to win! God Bless!”
- Melody – “I sure would love to win any of these. 🙂 Happy May! Ave Maria!”
- montanamama90 – “I would be so happy to win any of these! ~Kaylyn”
- Kerry – “How thoughtful of you, Jess. What a lovely giveaway. Please enter me. My email is …”
Catholic Daily Planners and the Church Calendar
One of the frequent questions I am asked is how I keep track of the upcoming feast days, and whether or not I have a favorite planner.
Just the other day Annie left the following comment on my Keeping Track and Making Progress {Daily Checklists and Planners for the School Year} post from last year:
This post was very helpful to me! I switched to the checklists midyear, and it was so much easier. Thank you! I’m looking for a new calendar to keep track of feast day celebrations. Do you have a preference between the Tan one and The Catholic Daily Planner now that you’ve used both?
Since I actually just ordered a couple new planners for the next school year, I thought this would be a great time to revisit the topic and try to answer Annie’s question.
When I recommend a Catholic Planner I always suggest either the Saints Calendar & 16-Month Planner published by TAN (I’ve been using this calendar for many years) or the Catholic Daily Planner by Michele Quigley (I just purchased my 3rd annual planner).
[UPDATE: You can visit TAN Books / Neumann Press via my new Affiliate link here! Thank you!]
Last year I was also given a review copy of the Holy Simplicity Planner (I blogged about it here.) but after discovering that the publisher practices *Sedevacantism and the planner follows the General Roman Calendar of 1954 (which is currently used by the Sedevantists and is not the current calendar used by Traditional Catholics in good standing with the Holy See) I removed the links from my blog and can no longer recommend the Holy Simplicity planner in good conscious.
*Sedevacantism (derived from the Latin words sedes or “seat”, and vacans or “vacant”) is the position, held by a minority of Traditionalist Catholics, that the present occupant of the papal see is not truly Pope and that, for lack of a valid Pope, the see has been vacant since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. A tiny number of these claim the vacancy actually goes back to the death of Pope Pius X in 1914. Sedevacantists believe that Paul VI (1963–1978), John Paul I (1978), John Paul II (1978–2005), Benedict XVI (2005–2013), and Francis (2013–present) have been neither true Catholics nor true Popes, by virtue of allegedly having espoused the heresy of Modernism, or of having otherwise denied or contradicted solemnly defined Catholic dogmas. Some of them classify John XXIII (1958–1963) also as a Modernist antipope. Source: Wikipedia
Saints Calendar: This Saints Calendar and Daily Planner – 2013 includes both the New or Novus Ordo Sundays and feast days, and the Traditional Sundays and feast days (as of 1962). These latter are observed when the Traditional Latin Mass is offered. The Novus Ordo Sundays and feast days, which date from 1970 or later whenever they differ from the Traditional ones, are designated: (New). The Traditional Sundays and feast days, most of which go back centuries, are designated: (Trad.). Also included here are any feast days which no longer appear on either the New or the Traditional calendar (as of 1962) – such as the feasts of St. Philomena, St. Dismas (the Good Thief), St. Tarcisius, St. Gemma Galgani and St. Dominic Savio; these Historical feasts are designated: (Hist.). It should be noted that there was some moving around of feast days even before the New Calendar was introduced in 1970. For example, St. Catherine of Sweden is shown in March 22 in a 1931 edition of Butler’s Lives of the Saints but on March 24 in a 1956 edition of the same work. In this calendar, the date in parentheses after the name of a Saint is the year of the Saint’s death.
Catholic Daily Planner: It is built on the standard guidelines of both the Roman Missal promulgated by Paul VI in 1970 used in the Ordinary Form of the Latin Rite and the Roman Missal promulgated by St. Pius V and reissued by Bl. John XXIII in 1962 used in the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite, as well as the particular calendar for the United States of America. It does not represent all possible variants.
- Saints Calendar & 16-Month Planner (for all Feast Day Celebrations and Plans – from TAN)
- Half-Sized Catholic Daily Planner (for all Appointments, School Plans, etc)
- Full-Sized Menu Planning Booklet (Menu Planning)
- Color-Coded Check Lists (Lesson Plans & Goals – Mom)
- Weekly Check Lists (Lesson Plans – Children – We’ve tried other lessons planners in the past, but always come back to our own modifiable weekly check lists.)
- Magnetic Saints Calendar (Feast Day Calendar Magnets for the children, based on the 1962 calendar)
I really don’t think you can go wrong with either the Saints Calendar or the Catholic Daily Planner. They are both excellent planners which I highly recommend! Hopefully the above descriptions will help you decide which is the best fit for you and your family.
Altar Boy Resources
{pretty, happy, funny, real}
Please Pray for the Soul of Neumann Press Founder
In your charity, please pray for the repose of the soul of Dennis McCoy, founder of The Neumann Press.
Our family has been so blessed by the books from Neumann Press – the precious baby records (reprints of the one my husband had from his own childhood!), traditional coloring books our children love, the gorgeous hardcover copy of Sermons of the Curé of Ars we read often at dinner, and so many other inspiring and beautiful Catholic books they have reprinted. We’ve slowly been collecting them all to share with our children.
May God reward him greatly for his dedicated service in promoting and spreading the Catholic faith!
Saint George and the Dragon :: A 3-D Sugar Cookie Story Quilt
Feliz Cumpleaños Chiquita :: A “Josefina” Birthday!
Usually I try to have a cake baked and decorated the night before, for the children to discover when they wake up in the morning, but Friday night Sean and I were out late (He had choir practice for our Latin Mass and I needed to run a few errands. Afterwards we went to every store in town trying to find a bike for the birthday girl.) so early Saturday morning we got up early, wrapped a few gifts, placed some flowers on the counter, along with a coffee cake and melon for breakfast. We then “woke up” the birthday girl singing Las Mañanitas! I purchased a beautiful Mañanitas CD from Sister Servants which we played all morning.
Shortcake had suggested incorporating a snake into our party, and Charlotte found me a recipe from Kraft for a Snake-Bite Calzone! Of course I needed “a five year old boy and a three year old girl” to help make a special lunch for the birthday girl! 😉 The prefect distraction for my two “helpers” while the girls finished painting their memory boxes!
The flower goes in the hands,
And in the hands it has spoken.
Guess who has it, guess who has it,
Or be taken for a fool!
The sea serpent we like to play
To have fun, to have fun.
Under the bridge all on a track,
Children in front go faster and faster.
If you don’t follow, you’ll stay back,
Back, back, back, back.
She also received a couple new outfits for summer, the set of Kit Books, the set of 4 American Girl movies, and her first very own bicycle!
Josefina’s Primroses in a Pouch Birthday Cake
Yesterday we celebrated Chiquita’s 8th Birthday! This year she requested a “Josefina” party theme… After a busy week, I was exhausted and still not feeling well on Friday so we actually picked up a “Caramel Tres Leches” cake at Costco as a back up to the cake I had originally planned on making. Thankfully Saturday morning I was starting to feel a little better and managed to pull together her requested theme!
Supplies:
- 2 – 9″ Round Cakes, baked and cooled
- 1 can Chocolate Frosting
- 1 can Milk Chocolate Frosting
- 1 can White Frosting
- 1 Werher’s Caramel Candy
- Yellow Citrus Gum Dropsy
- 5 Orange Gobstoppers or Sixlets
- Green Gum Drops or Spice Drops
- Green Apple Twizzler Pull-n-Peels
To create the sprig of yellow evening primroses I cut the yellow gumdrops in half to create the flower petals with an orange Gobstopper in the center. The stems were made with strips of Green Apple Twizzler Pull-N-Peels, and the leaves were made with green spice drops cut in half diagonally and then pinched into a leaf shape.
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