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by | Dec 29, 2022

Another Anniversary…

My husband has been blessed with ALL three of his brothers being called to serve Our Lord as priests. Only his sister (the oldest in the family) and my husband were called to the married life. It is pretty awesome to have them all for brother-in-laws. They are such great role models for my children. Speaking of children, with three priests out of their five children, my in-laws are not lacking for grandchildren. They have nine so far!

Today is the 2nd Anniversary of the second son in the family’s ordination.

Happy Anniversary Father!!

This brother-in-law’s favorite saint is Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. I couldn’t agree more!!! St. Therese wrote a beautiful prayer for priests. Please say this prayer today for Father! God Bless!

O Jesus, eternal Priest, keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart, where none may touch them. Keep unstained their anointed hands, which daily touch Your Sacred Body. Keep unsullied their lips, daily purpled with your Precious Blood. Keep pure and unearthly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood. Let Your holy love surround them and shield them from the world’s contagion. Bless their labors with abundant fruit and may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here and in heaven their beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen.

Today…

…our oldest son will receive his First Holy Communion. Please remember him in your prayers!

He has been preparing for this day for a long time, and is so very excited!

It may be awhile before I am able to share some photos, so here are a few video stills of Captain and Rascal serving The Holy Mass & Benediction!












(Thanks to our good friend for the photos!)

Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ, save me. Blood of Christ, inebriate me. Water from Christ’s side, wash me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me. O good Jesus, hear me. Within Thy wounds hide me. Suffer me not to be separated from Thee. From the malicious enemy defend me. In the hour of my death call me. And bid me come unto Thee, that I may praise Thee with Thy saints and with Thy angels forever and ever. Amen.

Don’t forget to tune in…

…to EWTN to watch the Fraternity of Saint Peter Priestly Ordinations, May 30th, at 11Am Eastern/8AM Pacific.

His Eminence Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, will confer the Priestly ordinations. His Excellency, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz will be sitting in choir.

Please keep the following ordinandi in your prayers as they ascend to the altar of Our Lord:

~ Rev. Mr. Dennis Gordon, FSSP

~ Rev. Mr. Jared McCambridge, FSSP

~ Rev. Mr. Jonathan Romanoski, FSSP

~ Rev. Mr. Justin Nolan, FSSP

Prayer for Priests
by John Joseph, Cardinal Carberry

O Jesus, our great High Priest, hear my humble prayers on behalf of your priest, Father [N].

Give him a deep faith, a bright and firm hope, and a burning love which will ever increase in the course of his priestly life.

In his loneliness, comfort him. In his sorrows, strengthen him. In his frustrations, point out to him that it is through suffering that the soul is purified, and show him that he is needed by the Church, he is needed by souls, he is needed for the work of redemption.

O loving Mother Mary, Mother of Priests, take to your heart your son who is close to you because of his priestly ordination, and because of the power which he has received to carry on the work of Christ in a world which needs him so much.

Be his comfort, be his joy, be his strength, and especially help him to live and to defend the ideals of consecrated celibacy. Amen.

Altar-ation

This is so cool!

“FSSP transform a modernistic free-standing altar into a very beautiful High Altar. The church that this took place in is in France and is now operated by the Fraternity of St. Peter. The complete time for this “Altar-ation” was just about 15 minutes!”

NFP vs. Contraception VII

Yeah!! They have done it again! Here is another “short commercial comparing NFP and Contraception directed, written, acted, and edited by Catholic seminarians.”

I posted a few of my favorites from this series last year, but you can view them all here!

P.S. Gotta love Bloggers new schedule post feature! 😉

“My Trip Journal”


I had so much fun putting together Trip Journal’s for the children!

If you have any summer trips coming up, this is a fun and easy way give them something to do during the drive, as well as provide a nice keepsake of the trip!

I started with downloading and printing out the Trip Journal template from Simply Charlotte Mason. A big THANK YOU to Elizabeth for sending me over there the other day. I had been planning on making a notebook for the trip, but finding this trip journal really simplified the process for me!

The Trip Journal includes the following sections:

  • The Route We Took: For this section, I printed out various State Coloring Pages online for each state that we will be visiting. I also included a few pages from this great coloring book.
  • Neighbors We Saw: In this section I included an Outline Map of the United States. As the children see license plates, or meet people, from various states they can color in the correct state on the map! This will be great reinforcement, since we have been studying States & Capitals this year.
  • My Trip Journal: I printed out Geography Notebooking Pages from here and here, and then added them to the journal.
  • My Trip Budget: I only included this section in Captain’s journal. Rather than give Captain a reward with his accumulated “Reward Certificates”, his tutor cashed them in for a bit of spending money! He is SO excited! He will report back to her after the trip on how it was spent. 🙂
  • The Trip in Pictures: Here I inserted a number of blank pages to add pictures to when we get back, in addition to little mementos from the trip!

To finish it off I printed a cover page in Word titled “My Trip Journal” on card stock, and let the kids color/decorate it however they wanted. I then took the books to Staples to be spiral bound. “That was easy!” An easy way to lose two hours of precious packing time as I waited for them to unjam the pages from their machine!! (I nearly died when I walked back in and saw one employee yanking on the machine, and the other yanking on all my hard work! Captain’s Trip Journal!) In the end they turned out nice though, the binding looks great, and the kids can’t wait to get started on them…

“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So get on your way!”- Dr. Suess

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend
and Corpus Christi Sunday!

13 things I am looking forward to this month!

13 Things that I am looking forward to this month!
(It’s going to be hard to limit it to thirteen!)

  1. I am looking forward to my brother in laws ordination to the priesthood. If you’d like, you can watch it on EWTN May 30th at 11:00 AM Eastern/8:00 AM Pacific! I’m so excited!!
  2. I am looking forward to receiving those wonderful First Blessings, which contain plenary indulgences, from the newly ordained priests!
  3. I am looking forward to the newly ordained Father’s First Mass…(this is going to be confusing, THREE Father [last name]’s in the Family!!!!)
  4. I am looking forward to Captain’s First Holy Communion! We begin a novena in preparation TODAY!!!
  5. I am looking forward to visiting with the Carmelite Nuns! I love them so much, they are all so sweet! (OK… Here’s a quick story about the nuns. During our first visit with them, May 23rd 2004, on the occasion of Fathers First Mass, Twinkle Toes was only 10 months old, and Mother Superior let me send her back through the turn (a device in cloistered monasteries and convents that shields the visitor from the monk or nun, but permits one to pass notes or small objects in and out). It was so cute! Normally, you or I would not be aloud inside the walls of a cloistered convent, under the penalty of excommunication, without the permission of the bishop, but an infant cannot commit mortal sin, and is therefore excluded from this! They passed her around for about 20-30 minutes on the other side of the grill, where I could see her, and then I went back to the turn to get her back. I knocked to let them know I was waiting, and then I just heard giggling. A couple minutes later, it started to turn and sitting inside was TT’s shoes! They had kept my baby, and sent me back her shoes. Eventually they sent her back to me! Anyhow, that was her first visit to the Carmel… I wonder if someday she will feel called back?)
  6. I am looking forward to taking the kids to the Zoo!
  7. I am looking forward to seeing all my in-laws, and my kids being able to play with their cousins… ALL my kids cousins live out of state!
  8. I am looking forward to Snuggles being able to meet his Grandparents!
  9. I am looking forward to seeing the boys faces light up when they get to see the bones of a Tyrannosaurus Rex at a Natural History Museum!
  10. I am looking forward to spending time at my hubby’s childhood home and parish.
  11. I am looking forward to visiting my Grandparents, my children’s GREAT-Grandparents!
  12. I am looking forward to eating out, and not having to do many dishes!
  13. And last of all, I am looking forward to taking lots of pictures to share with you all next month!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here
and View More Thursday Thirteen Participants here.

In the meantime, I am going to be busy, so my blogging is going to be non-existent lighten up for awhile.

Speaking of lightening up, the song used in this video is from one of my favorite singers, Marie Bellet. I can so relate with her music! I posted an actual music video of hers awhile back in this post

“Well I don’t know who started this, and I don’t even care… But the pressures getting to me and I got to get some air…” Just listen to the song!

Seeing this video made me disappointed that we will be missing our local Family Camp with the Fathers of Mercy. They are such wonderful priests! Ah! So much to do, and just not enough time ~ hopefully next year…

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my hubby’s oldest brother’s 4th Anniversary of his ordination to the holy priesthood! He was ordained on the Feast of his favorite saint no less, Saint Rita of Cascia.

Happy Anniversary
Father!

To celebrate the feast of St. Rita, the children and I will be reading a brief story about her from the Picture Book of Saints, while we enjoy a tea in her honor.

I hope you all have a blessed day!

Most gracious Heavenly Father, We thank you for our faithful priests and bishops, whose spiritual fatherhood and example of fidelity, self-sacrifice, and devotion is so vital to the faith of your people.

May our spiritual fathers be guided by the examples of Saints Peter and Paul, all the Apostles and their saintly successors. Give them valiant faith in the face of confusion and conflict, hope in time of trouble and sorrow, and steadfast love for you, for their families, and for all your people throughout the world. May the light of your Truth shine through their lives and their good works.

Assist all spiritual fathers, that through your Grace they may steadily grow in holiness and in knowledge and understanding of your Truth. May they generously impart this knowledge to those who rely on them. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Saint Rita of Cascia ~ Pray for us!

Deo Grátias!

Thanks be to God!

Today my hubby had his follow up appointment, and, for now, everything is fine!!! I was so happy to hear that the biopsy came back benign! There is one spot that the doctor wants to watch, so he will need to go back, next year, for yet another colonoscopy. At least they will be keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t turn into anything serious.

Thank you all for your prayers!

O Lord my Savior and my Master, I, Thine unprofitable servant, with fear and trembling give thanks unto Thy loving goodness for all Thy benefits which Thou hast poured so abundantly upon me, Thy servant. I fall down in adoration before Thee and offer Thee, O god, my praises; with fervor I cry to Thee: O God,deliver me henceforth from all adversities and mercifully fulfill in me such of my desires as may be expedient for me. Hear me, I entreat Thee, and have mercy, for Thou art the Hope of all the ends of the earth, and unto Thee, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be ascribed glory, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.


Our Family

Sean & Jessica, Captain-25, Ranger-23, Twinkle Toes-22, Chiquita-20, Snuggles-18, Rose-15, Bud-13, Grace-8 and Joy-6 (blog nicknames)

A Little About Me

Hi! I'm Jessica, a Roman Catholic wife and home educating mother to our nine children. I was home educated myself, along with my eleven younger siblings. I have a special devotion to St. Therese, through whom I have been given much help and many blessings--the beautiful "Shower of Roses" that she has sent my way! Here I will record a few of the blessings I treasure. Please remember that what you see here is just a little glimpse at our lives, so please say a prayer for us, as we continue to strive for holiness.

My Other Blog: Catholic Cuisine

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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.


Our Family

Sean & Jessica, Captain-25, Ranger-23, Twinkle Toes-22, Chiquita-20, Snuggles-18, Rose-15, Bud-13, Grace-8 and Joy-6 (blog nicknames)

A Little About Me

Hi! I'm Jessica, a Roman Catholic wife and home educating mother to our nine children. I was home educated myself, along with my eleven younger siblings. I have a special devotion to St. Therese, through whom I have been given much help and many blessings--the beautiful "Shower of Roses" that she has sent my way! Here I will record a few of the blessings I treasure. Please remember that what you see here is just a little glimpse at our lives, so please say a prayer for us, as we continue to strive for holiness.

My Other Blog: Catholic Cuisine

Please Visit My Sponsors…

This Week's Popular Posts

Shower of Roses Affiliate Links

All About Spelling
All About Reading
All About Reading Giveaways
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Our Advent & Christmas Books

Shower of Roses Gift Guides

Looking for Something?

looking-back

  • 2026 (1)
  • 2025 (31)
  • 2024 (41)
  • 2023 (30)
  • 2022 (48)
  • 2021 (48)
  • 2020 (57)
  • 2019 (61)
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  • 2016 (148)
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  • 2014 (227)
  • 2013 (238)
  • 2012 (308)
  • 2011 (297)
  • 2010 (313)
  • 2009 (486)
  • 2008 (564)
  • 2007 (148)

Posts About:

Shower of Roses Alphabet of Saints

A Papal Unit Study & Lap Book

Shower of Roses Easter Gift Guides



All Saints Party Printables

All original photographs and written material are ©2007-2025 Shower of Roses. I'd love for you to link back to me, but please do not copy or take content from this blog without permission. Click here for my Copyright Terms & Conditions. Thank you for visiting!