Ideas for Celebrating the Feast of St. Matthew
It has been so long since I’ve put together one of these posts! This past week I noticed that I didn’t have any ideas in the archives here or over at Catholic Cuisine for the feast of St. Matthew, and it’s been on my mind ever since. My husband is still out of town, and the baby happens to be asleep at the moment, so I thought I’d share some of my thoughts and ideas with you all. I hope you have a very happy feast day (and happy birthday to my mom)!
September 21st
Feast of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist
Patron: Accountants; bankers; bookkeepers; customs officers; security guards; stock brokers; tax collectors; Salerno, Italy.
Symbols: Angel holding a pen or inkwell; bag of coins; loose coins; halberd; inkwell; king; lance; man holding money; man holding money box and/or glasses; money bag; money box; purse; spear; sword; winged man; young man; book; man sitting at a desk.
excerpt from Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year
Matthew was a tax-collector in the city of Capharnaum, where Jesus was living. He was a Jew but he was working for the Romans, who had conquered the Jews. For this reason, his countrymen disliked him. They would not have anything to do with these “publicans”, as tax collectors like Matthew were called.
But Jesus did not feel that way about Matthew. One day, He saw him sitting in his office and He said, “Follow Me.” At once, Matthew got up and left his money and his position to follow Our Lord, Who seemed so holy and king-like. He gave a big supper for Jesus and invited other Publicans like himself to meet Jesus and listen to Him teach. When some people criticized Our Lord for eating with sinners, Jesus answered, “They who are well do not need the doctor; the sick do. I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”
When Jesus went back to Heaven, St. Matthew stayed in Palestine for some time to preach about Our Lord. He also wrote his Gospel, which is the story of Jesus and what He taught. In his Gospel, St. Matthew showed his countrymen that Jesus is the Messias whom the Prophets had said would come to save us.
After preaching the Gospel to many people, St. Matthew ended his life as a glorious martyr for the Faith.
If my parents ask me to do something, I will obey promptly, without asking them any questions or giving any excuses.
Picture Books
The Apostles of Jesus by Father Lovasik
Great Men of the New Testament by Rev. Jude Winkler
Food Suggestions
From My Nameday: Come for Dessert: “Dessert and decorations. The traditional book cake inscribed with the words “Verbum Dei manet in aeternum” (God’s Word lasts forever) would teach children that the Gospel of the inspired evangelist will continue forever upon the earth. Gold coins are suitable for Matthew’s feast or for his cake decoration. The coins are really discs of chocolate wrapped in gold foil; they can be found at almost any candy store.”
I thought Silver Dollar Pancakes would be fun and easy, plus they tie in perfectly to the “coin” theme since these pancakes got their name for being the same size as a silver dollar. I posted our “St. Matthew’s Silver Dollar Pancakes” over at Catholic Cuisine.
Gold Chocolate Coins are another perfect treat for this feast day! You can just share a bag of the coins with your family, insert chocolate coins into a cake (like I did for our Twelfth Night Rum Cake), or even top your favorite cupcakes with a chocolate coin.
Tuck a bag of Gold Chocolate Coins or maybe a Payday Candy Bar into your husband’s or child’s lunch box with the prayer to St. Matthew attached.
St. Matthew is symbolized by a “money box or purse.” These St. Nicholas Purse Cookies would also make an fun and yummy treat for this feast day!
Since St. Matthew also wrote on of the books in the bible, you could make our Fig Newton “Bible Cookies.” (They also look really cute with little bookmark’s added.)
Coloring Pages
St. Matthew the Tax Collector
colored by Captain
St. Matthew the Evangelist
colored by Rascal
Matthew (by Catholic Artworks, for those that own the CDs)
colored by Twinkle Toes
Extra Activities
Church Windows would be a fun game to play on this feast day! In this game, players repair and build church windows depicting the apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each card is a pane and each window is made of 3 panes – head, middle and feet. 2-4 players can all play together and it is recommended for ages 6 & up.
Catholic Culture also offers a few additional suggestions, including: “Do something for the needy: money for missions, donations of clothing or toys, canned goods drive, etc.”
Read or Listen to some of the Gospel of Matthew on the Truth and Life Dramatized Audio Bible. (We’ll be doing this on our long drive to town.)
Copywork
A CHILD’S GOSPEL NIGHT PRAYER
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on.
Before I lay me down to sleep,
I give my soul to Christ to keep.
Four corners to my bed,
Four angels there aspread,
Two to foot and two to head,
And four to carry me when I’m dead.
I go by sea, I go by land;
The Lord made me with His right hand.
Prayer to St. Matthew
God of mercy, You chose a tax collector, St. Matthew, to share the dignity of the apostles. By his example and prayers, help us to follow Christ and remain faithful in Your service. We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
St. Matthew the Apostle, Pray for Us!
{pretty, happy, funny, real}
{pretty}
Science experiments make my kids very happy! One thing we tried this past week, during this year’s study of Swimming Creatures, was blowing up a balloon inside a bottle, sealing the bottle, and then putting mom a lot of weight on the opposite end of the bottle to see how the balloon shrinks due to the air pressure. Apparently this is what happens to our lungs when we go deep under water. We recorded our observations in the each journal.
The personal fans didn’t work so good, so we pulled out a couple hair dryers (I happened to have an extra that was in a bag to donate, we dropped it off yesterday!) for the experiment above, but other than that I have been so thankful for the Zoology 2 Lab Kit! It really makes all the difference between completing all of the fun activities and “just skipping that part.”
Wordless Wednesday
A Shower of Roses {Announcing the Giveaway Winner!}
Of course we had to have our own little “Rose” choose the winner, and she was more than happy to do so as soon as she woke up.
Little Flowers Bingo: Flowers & Gems {and other Printables!}
I thought it would be fun to play Bingo at Our Little Flowers Mother-Daughter Tea Party this year. Instead of using the All Saints Bingo Cards I made last year for the All Saints Party we hosted, I made Bingo Cards using all the Flowers and Gems from the four Wreaths of Little Flowers.
The final two games we played during our Tea Party were a A-Z Quest of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from That Resource Site, and a Wreath IV Saints & Gifts Word Search, which I made real quick the night before the party. Note to self: Make sure to proof read the Word Search next time! I had everyone looking for two “Catherine’s” and the generator I used decided I only needed to use it once! Oops! I’ve removed the second from the word list in the download. 🙂
Tea Party Games :: A Cupcake Jigsaw Puzzle Race!
You all know that my family loves puzzles, right? So of course I had to find a way to tie them into Our Little Flowers Girl’s Club Mother-Daughter Tea Party this year! 😉 When a friend of mine mentioned some small “Cupcake” games & puzzles she had seen at Barnes & Noble they sounded perfect!
I ended up purchasing a 4 pack of 60 Piece Puzzles and two 100 piece puzzles, since I couldn’t decide whether to break the group into 3-4 teams or 2 teams, for a “Cupcake Puzzle Race.” When I gave the girls the option, they all wanted to go with Mothers versus Daughters! I gave them first pick of the two 100 piece puzzles and they choose the white cupcake with the pink flower on top.
*Only a couple of the puzzles are currently available on Barnes & Noble online, and Amazon doesn’t seem to have these particular cupcake puzzles either, but they do have a few other options. I especially love these little Nature Puzzles.
I put the moms at our train coffee table and set a card table up for the girls. With a “Ready, Set, Go!” we started the race! It was very close, but us moms did end up winning!
{this moment}
Tea Party Games :: She Loves It… She Loves It Not!
When I was brainstorming ideas for this year’s Mother-Daughter Tea Party, I thought it would be fun to revisit one of the games from our very first Little Flowers Tea Party now that the girls are all older! This ended up being the first game we played after everyone had arrived, while the servers filled the trays for our first course.
Directions:
All you need is a daisy, or any other flower with lots of petals. The first player plucks off a petal as she shares something that her mother or daughter loves. The next player shares something her mother or daughter loves — not! The flower continues around the circle with mothers talking about their daughters, and daughters talking about their mothers, until the flower runs out of petals.
Apparently I love taking pictures, flowers, my girls, and children… And I do not love messy bedrooms, “us fighting”, and dirty floors. Sounds about right! 😉
{pretty, happy, funny, real}
Yesterday morning my husband was sent on an out-of-state fire assignment! He will be working as a Radio Operator this time, which should keep him out of hazardous working conditions. It will be a tough couple weeks (if they keep him for the full 14 days) for both of us, but we are so very grateful for the extra work and overtime! I’m just praying life doesn’t get even half as crazy as it did the last time he was out of town! 😉
{pretty}
At our last Little Flowers meeting the girls all made Spiritual Bouquet cards to give to their mothers during our tea party. While I was setting the table I happened to notice Chiquita’s (age 7) card and her little list of prayers she had been offering, without any reminders on my part to complete the assignment. It made me so happy to see that my she (actually both my girls!) had been praying for me! Both cards are such a treasure!
I really don’t like it when my kitchen counters are covered with stuff! I usually avoid (for the most part) taking any pictures of these messes, which happen especially when I am trying to do too many things at once. Last Friday night was definitely one of those times… Groceries and mail still needed to be put away, flowers needed to be arranged, various items all over the place to set the table, remnants of my cake decorating, and half decorated pretzel rods, and more… Thankfully it didn’t take too long to clean up and looked beautiful in the morning!
Our Little Flowers Girls’ Club Mother-Daughter Tea Party
This past Saturday I hosted our annual Little Flowers Girls’ Club Mother-Daughter Tea Party following our completion of Wreath IV. I’ll admit that, after an extra busy back-to-school week, I was pretty overwhelmed after Mass Friday morning just thinking about everything that still needed to be done, but it all came together beautifully!
One of my dear friends invited my boys over for the afternoon, so that my husband and I could pick up flowers and all the other last minute things I needed from town. She also loaned me some gloves and a pretty hat to wear, along with her tub of extra hats and gloves for anyone else that wasn’t able to find some for the party. Another friend went home and polished her beautiful silver tea set for us to borrow, since I wasn’t able to find one at any of the local thrift stores or even the department stores!
Thankfully I had also saved all the decorations from last year’s Tea Themed Birthday Party, and I even was able to use that pretty pink Birthday Banner since we scheduled our tea for September 8th, the feast of the Nativity of Mary!
As always, I assigned each of the Little Flowers a menu item to bring for our Three-Course Tea. In between each course I planned games for all the Mothers & Daughters to play, while we gave the servers (a couple of the girls’ older sisters) time to refill the tiered platters. I’ll post about all of this year’s party games later… In the meantime here are some pictures from the Tea!
Red Rose Tea served with Cream and Sugar
Cucumber Sandwiches with Goat Cheese & Bacon
Pillow Mints &
Wreath IV Gemstones
(aka Jolly Ranchers – and my creative husband gets the credit for this idea!)
~ Party Favors ~
As much as I am ready for a break, I think I am really going to miss leading Little Flowers this coming year! My girls will be moving on to the Little Women Hospitality Program, though we do plan to continue having an annual Mother-Daughter Tea Party! I need to try and enjoy the break, since it won’t be long before our little Rose is ready to learn more about the various Virtues and work her way through the four Wreaths of Little Flowers!
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