Garden of the Good Shepherd ~ Week 1
Last year my children absolutely loved celebrating the Fifty Days of Easter with “The Garden of the Good Shepherd: A Sticker Calendar to Count the Fifty Days of Easter
!”We started late last year, so I’ve been working on coming up with a few ideas for this week’s special activities to go along with our readings each day. (You can check out Charlotte’s creative list, from last year, here.)
The theme for the first week is:
“The Good Shepherd’s Pasture.”
I added the bible versus to read, in case any of you would like to join in, but don’t have the Garden of the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd : Read John 10:14-15
- Easter Sunday!! CELEBRATE!!!
The Shepherd’s Crook: Read Psalm 23:1-6
- Candy Cane’s served with Hot Cocoa
- Read The Legend of the Candy Cane
or watch the DVD
- Another idea would be to make a Candy Cane Coffee Cake, but I am just not up to baking again today! 😉
The Sheepfold : Read John 10:1-6
- Make “God’s Sheep” (Popcorn) for a snack.
~ God’s Sheep ~“We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him all our sin. Isaiah 53:6”
Air-pop the popcorn and serve it warm, if possible. Butter, if desired, can be melted in a saucepan on the stove. Popcorn is white and fluffy, like sheep, and when air-popped, sometimes a piece of popcorn comes flying out of the popper and flies across the room, like a lost sheep. Remind the children that, like sheep, we wander astray sometimes.
The Gate of the Sheepfold : Read John 10:7-10
- Make the Heaven’s Gate Collage Craft.
- Watch The Secret Garden
The Ewe and the Ram : Read John 21:15-17
- Make this Ram Craft.
- Add a few Schleich Animals
(a Ram & Ewe) to our collection .
The Lamb : Read John 1:35
(Some of these ideas could also work for The Sheepfold or The Ewe and the Ram.)
- Stop by and visit the Lamb of God at the adoration chapel or attend Mass.
- Serve Lamb for dinner or Lamb of God Rolls.
- Make a Lamb Cake or Lamb Cupcakes.
- The Hershey’s Lamb with Kisses would be super cute and could be refilled next year.
- I purchased a package of Lindt Candy Lambs — it came with 5, perfect!
The Wolf : Read John 10:11-12
- Read the story of St. Francis and the Wolf found in Legends of Saints and Beasts by Ann Marie Jauss.
- Make Wolf Paw Cookies
No Greater Love
The Divine Mercy Novena Begins Today
My Grandfather, who recently passed away, had a very special devotion to the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and (in addition to his many rosaries) he prayed it daily. I remember when I was still a child, my Grandpa telling me all about Sister Faustina (she had not yet been canonized), and teaching me how to pray this Chaplet. On the day that Grandpa died, my mom made it down to see him just in time to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet with him at 3:00pm — the Hour of Great Mercy.
Jesus said to Sister Faustina:
“Say unceasingly this chaplet that I have taught you. Anyone who says it will receive great Mercy at the hour of death. Priests will recommend it to sinners as the last hope. Even the most hardened sinner, if he recites this Chaplet even once, will receive grace from My Infinite Mercy. I want the whole world to know My Infinite Mercy. I want to give unimaginable graces to those who trust in My Mercy….”
“….When they say this Chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person not as the just judge but as the Merciful Savior”.
Jesus asked St. Faustina, that the Feast of the Divine Mercy–which is the Sunday following Easter–be preceded by a Novena of Chaplets to the Divine Mercy which would begin on Good Friday. There is a special intention for each day of the novena. (I’ll be praying especially for you Grandpa!)
In her diary, St. Faustina wrote that Jesus told her:
“On each day of the novena you will bring to My Heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy… On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls. By this novena I will grant every possible grace to souls.” (Diary 1209, 796)
How to Pray the Divine Mercy ChapletStart: the Crucifix
1. Make the Sign of the Cross.
Optional opening prayer:
“You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us.
(3 times) O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fountain of Mercy for us, I trust in You!”
1. Pray the Our Father.
2. Pray the Hail Mary.
3. Recite the Apostles’ Creed.On the large bead before each of the five decades (set of ten prayers):
“Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.”
On each small “Hail Mary” bead:
“For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”
After five decades, conclude by saying three times:
“Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” (This prayer is based on the Trisagion of the Eastern tradition.)
Optional concluding prayers:
“Eternal God, in Whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself. Amen.”
If you don’t have your rosary handy, you can click here, and pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet at the computer!
A Lenten Tea on Holy Thursday
Thanks to Alice’s amazing creativity, my children and I enjoyed a lovely and symbolic Lenten Tea this afternoon!
I thought they were delicious!
We all really enjoyed this Lenten Tea. My boys kept wishing that daddy could have been home to join us!
Visit Cottage Blessings for the Bible readings, recipes and shopping list!
Shower of Photos 2009 :: Day 9
Resurrection Rolls
Each year my children and I make Resurrection Cookies on Holy Saturday. Last year I saw a few different recipes for “Resurrection Rolls” or “Empty Tomb Rolls” which I thought would be fun to do this year too! I couldn’t remember where I first saw the recipe posted until Jamie just linked back to her post from last year, and I saw my comment! Seeing that confirmed that I really need to find a better way of “remembering” posts that I want to use in the future!! (Starring them in Google Reader is just not enough since I rarely find the time to look back through the starred posts.)
Anyhow, since we will be at Baseball and a Birthday Party most of Holy Saturday, we made the rolls today. I posted the recipe at Catholic Cuisine last week, but I thought I’d take a second to share it here (with pictures!) as well:
What you will need:
- 1 package Crescent Rolls, divided into triangles
- Butter, melted
- 8 large Marshmallows
- Cinnamon/Sugar mixture
- 8 squares of foil, sprayed with cooking spray
- Cookie Sheet
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Give each child a triangle of crescent rolls. The crescent roll represents the cloth that Jesus was wrapped in.
Give each child a marshmallow. This represents Jesus.
Have the child dip the marshmallow in melted butter. This represents the oils of embalming.
Next, have the child dip the buttered marshmallow in the cinnamon and sugar. This represents the spices used to anoint the body.
Demonstrate how to wrap up the coated marshmallow tightly in the crescent roll (not like a typical crescent roll up…but bring the sides up and seal the marshmallow inside). This represents the wrapping of Jesus’ body after His death.
Place on a cookie sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. (Ours took 15 minutes.) The oven represents the tomb–pretend that it has been three days!
While waiting for the rolls to bake, we read the story of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection from our Picture Bible, and added the Jesus Tree symbol to our tree for today. Tomorrow I’ll pull out the Resurrection Eggs
When the rolls have cooled slightly, the children can open their rolls (cloth) and discover that Jesus is no longer there, HE IS RISEN!
This one was our favorite (made by Rascal, all by himself!):
The rolls will be hollow because the marshmallow melted.
Well, our rolls broke open while in the oven! It was so cute when I pulled them out and all my children’s mouths dropped open, and then they asked “WHERE DID THE MARSHMALLOWS GO!!!” I asked if they had any ideas? Rascal got all excited and said, “I KNOW!! The Marshmallow was Jesus and he rises from the dead on Easter!!! Now the roll looks like an Empty Tomb!”
This was such fun!! I am sure we will be making these again. In fact, if my children have anything to do with it, we won’t be waiting until next Lent, either! They are already asking if they can make them again!
Coloring the Stations of the Cross
Since we have not had an opportunity to make our own Stations of the Cross (I just love the sets that were made by Ruth, Angela, and Kimberlee!), my children asked today if they could at least color the Stations and line them up on our mantel.
While they colored, we listened to The Passion for Children, and then I read a few stories to catch us up on our Jesus Tree. I was amazed at their dedication, and in no time they had all 14 completed!
Shower of Photos 2009 :: Day 8
*I never did have a chance to take any photos yesterday… At least I uploaded one to my Daybook. Does that count? Even though I didn’t take the picture, it does make me smile! 😉
Here are a few (more) pictures I took of Chiquita today. The lighting is awful in our school room, but these were taken at the best time of day (late morning). I also ventured out of my comfort zone and played around with the manual settings some more. I also shut the flash off, and it really did improve the colors! (Thanks Jen!)
And this year’s winner is…
Congratulations!!
$535.00
to give to the Hadley Hope Fund.
May God reward you all for your generosity!!
Easter Hope Challenge Ends Today
Today is the last day of the Easter Hope Challenge!
There is still time to add an egg (or two) to the basket, with your name inside for the raffle for a lovely Easter Basket, by donating any amount large or small!
Currently we have $440.00 to give to the Hadley’s. Only 6 donations of $10 would bump it up to $500.00 to be used for medical expenses and to accelerate ethical scientific research for a cure for all afflicted with Niemann-Pick Type C Disease, particularly for Peyton and Kayla Hadley.
The paypal donation button is located in my right sidebar. All donations are Tax Deductible! I’ll be back later today (we are off to do the drawing right now!) to do the drawing and post the raffle winner!
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