Celebrating the Saints :: Our 2017 Costumes
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| Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Augustine, St. Francisco Marto, Our Lady of Fatima, St. Jacinta Marto, Sister Lucia Santos, St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. Francis Xavier – All Saints in Heaven, Pray for us! |
All Saints Guessing Jars {Trader Joe’s Edition}
The All Saints Guessing Jars are always a hit at our annual All Hallows’ Eve Parties. Each year the kids and I have so much fun looking for ways to connect yummy treats to saints and their symbols. Last year I had just found out that I was expecting our newest little one and I was super sick… I wasn’t able to host our annual party, but I still pulled together some games and activities for our family party including everyone’s favorite All Saints Guessing Jars using treats from Trader Joe’s!
Here’s a picture of what we used including: Cinnamon Schoolbook Cookies, Fleur de Sel Caramels, Animal Crackers, Chocolatey Cats Cookies, Pinks & Whites Flower Shaped Cookies, Coffee Rio, and Scandinavian Swimmers.
(I was just at Trader Joe’s a couple days ago and picked up some of their Petite Pumpkin Spice Cookies for one of this year’s jars. I think we’ll use them for St. Fiacre, patron of vegetable gardens! I’m also using Sun Drops for an Our Lady of Fatima themed jar!)
St. Joan of Arc, Patron of France :: Fleur de Sel Caramels
St. Therese of Lisieux, The Little Flower :: Pink & Whites (Flower Cookies)
St. Jerome and the Lion :: Chocolatey Cats Cookies
St. Madeline Sophie Barat, Patron of School Girls :: Schoolbook Cookies
St. Drogo, Patron of Coffee Shop Owners :: Coffee Rio Caramels
St. Brendan the Navigator, Patron of Seafarers :: Scandinavian Swimmers
Bargain Priced Books :: Holy Sacrifice of The Mass
For a few days last month St. Augustine Academy Press offered their recently republished Highway to Heaven Catechism series at 40% off! Book Six in the series wasn’t available yet, but it is now!
Produced by the Marquette University Institute of Catechetical Research under the editorship of Edward A. Fitzpatrick in the 1930’s, the Highway to Heaven series of Religion textbooks is a breath of fresh air. Unashamed love of the Catholic Faith is evident on every page.
Full of beautiful black and white illustrations, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the Sixth Grade text in the series. It studies the Traditional Latin Mass with particular attention toward helping young people learn to use the Missal.
Unlike the other books in this series, which we reproduced directly from the originals, we have retypeset this volume. This was because we needed to combine elements of two different editions: the original 1937 edition (which, like the rest of the series, used the unrevised Baltimore Catechism) and the 1949 edition (which added a chapter on the priesthood that was very much worth adding). In melding these two editions, we took the opportunity to improve the illustrations as well, which were mostly aged photographs.
Practical Problems in Religion
Visiting the Oregon Zoo on the Feast of St. Jerome
Silver Falls Park on Michaelmas
It was a long 4+ hour drive to get to where our teens were going to be confirmed. Since Confirmation was scheduled for 7pm, with Benediction following, we decided to turn the trip into a little vacation! It’s not easy finding affordable accommodations for a family of ten… We ended up booking two cabins at a (fairly) nearby state park to stay the first night following confirmation! It sounded like a good idea at the time (both cabins cost just a small portion of what hotel rooms would have cost) but I didn’t really consider that we’d have zero cell service while in the park, and that I’d be spending the night in a sleeping bag with the baby, and walking to the outdoor bathroom in the rain at night… The baby did great though and it was a fun and memorable “camping” trip for all of us!
(A little blurry… I balanced my camera on the cabin deck railing and set the timer!)
Sean and I were in one cabin with all the girls and the boys had the other cabin. The older boys slept in, but the little guys were up early and ready to explore!
After turning in the keys to the cabins, we headed over to the hiking trails to check out some of the waterfalls before driving further north to spend the weekend with friends before driving back home.
The waterfalls were gorgeous! However hiking 3 miles, carrying a 3 1/2 month old, after a difficult pregnancy/not being able to walk much at all, in the rain, was probably not the best idea… It was so worth it though and I some how made it back to the lodge for coffee, tea, and hot cocoa! 🙌🏻
Soldiers of Christ :: The Sacrament of Confirmation in the Extraordinary Form
On September 28th, 2017, our three teens received the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Extraordinary Form. It was so beautiful and inspiring to see these young men and women receive this final sacrament of initiation in the ancient rite (I’m pretty sure for the first time in over fifty years here in our diocese) and hope that it will be available when our younger children are ready for the sacrament as well. We are so grateful to Archbishop Sample for offering this option this year!
The bishop then strikes each lightly on the cheek, saying: “Pax tecum,” which means,”Peace be with thee.” This symbolizes that the Christian is now a soldier for Christ and must endure suffering and the persecution that comes from conflict with the world. If the candidates for Confirmation are numerous, chants or hymns may be sung. When all have been confirmed, the following is sung or recited as the bishop washes his hands.
New Picture Book for Our November Book Basket: The All Saints’ Day Party {Giveaway}
All Saints’ Day is just around the corner and I still haven’t decided if I’m up for trying to host our annual All Hallows’ Eve party – it may end up just being a small/family party this year – but I DO have a fun new book to add to our October and our November Book Baskets!
“Maggie and Max can’t wait for the All Saints’ Day party: there will be games and candles and treats . . . and costumes! There’s just one problem: they can’t decide which saint to dress up as . . . and the party is just a week away! The siblings turn to their friends and family for help, and get introduced to six saints, each of whom had his or her own way of being holy: St. Martin de Porres, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Joseph, St. Josephine Bakhita, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Which saint will they be? It’s a surprise–you’ll have to read the story to see! Join Maggie and Max as they learn about what it takes to be a saint…and how each of us is called to be one.”
You can preview the whole book over at Gracewatch Media. The All Saints’ Day Party is available in either paperback or hardcover from Amazon {aff link} and Gracewatch Media.
Gracewatch Media has generously offered to send one of my visitors here at Shower of Roses a copy of the hardcover edition of The All Saints’ Day Party!
You can find our complete list of saint books for the months of October and November here:
Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun
This year we celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Fatima apparitions and the Miracle of the Sun. Here are seven ways to commemorate this special anniversary with children:
1 – Picture Books
Here is the list of the books that are pictured on our book cart above:
- Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue
- Mother of God Coloring Book
- An Alphabet of the Altar
- Mary Most Holy Coloring Book
- Mary Holds My Hand: A Child’s Book of Rosary Meditations
- Mary Mother of Jesus
- Mary and the 50 States
- Our Lady Goes a-Maying
- Our Lady of Fatima Coloring Book (not pictured)
- Mary
- The Children of Fatima by Mary Fabyan Windeatt (Also Available from TAN)
- Our Lady Came to Fatima by Ruth Foxe Hume (Vision)
- Jacinta’s Story (OOP – purchased a used copy in very good condition)
- Most Beautiful Story Coloring Book
- Mary and the Little Shepherd’s of Fatima (arrived in an Easter Basket this year!)
- The Children of Fatima (OOP – purchased a used copy in very good condition)
- The Holy Rosary
- My First Pictures of Mary
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| The Rosary for Little Catholics (reprint of the original 1952 edition) |
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| The Children of Fatima |
2 – Coloring Pages
I love the beautiful coloring page from Catholic Playground: Our Lady of Fatima Coloring Page. It’s the one that we printed out to color this year.
3 – Our Lady’s Rosary Craft
When we made rosaries for a service project a few years ago, my friend Aleesa sent us extra supplies to make one for each of the kids to keep as well. After making thirty-five to giveaway we never did get to those extras… I pulled the supplies out to the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun! It was a perfect craft for the anniversary of the apparitions this year.
4 – Audio + Video
The Day the Sun Danced DVD – one of my own childhood favorites!
This film accurately portrays the story of Our Lady’s appearances to the three children in 1917. From the angel’s appearance to the Miracle of the Sun, the full story is so captivatingly presented that young viewers will want to watch it again and again.
Secrets from Heaven: The Story of the Children of Fatima (Glory Stories: Volume XIII) is available from Holy Heroes
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima DVD
Mary Machado, one of my contributors over at Catholic Cuisine, kindly took the time to compile all the past posts for easy reference! We decided to make her Spinning Sun Cake for our family celebration, spinning it on our Cake Turntable/Rotating Cake Stand.
6 – Favorite Dolls
Our Lady’s Rosary
My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee! I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love Thee. Amen.
The Rosary is a special prayer of the Blessed Virgin Mary that recalls events in the Life of Christ and of His Blessed Mother. The use of a string of Rosary beads helps to pray the Apostles Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father. On each large bead we say an Our Father and on each small bead a Hail Mary. The Our Father and ten Hail Mary’s is followed by the Glory Be and together referred to as a decade of the Rosary. While reciting these prayers, we think of Our Blessed Lord and look at Him through Our Blessed Mother’s eyes to understand Him with our heart. We should try our best to pray Our Lady’s Rosary, bringing our mind back to the mysteries if our mind wanders or we get distracted. Families that pray the rosary together daily are especially blessed by God.
In 1571, Pope St. Pius V urged all of Christendom to implore Our Lady by means of the rosary in defense against an advancing Moslem Turkish force that threatened the Mediterranean and the West. The outnumbered Christian fleet prevailed at the Battle of Lepanto and, attributing this victory to the praying of the Rosary, the Feast of the Holy Rosary was established the following year on October 7. Such importance is the value of the rosary in the life of the Christian that in 1858 Our Lady appeared 18 times to St. Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France each time holding a Rosary in her hands and imploring us to meditate on its mysteries, to help her save souls. Then in 1917, the Blessed Virgin appeared again to three shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal asking for penance and prayer, and for the Rosary to be said daily and devoutly for the peace of the world. At the last apparition on October 13, 1917 she said that she wanted to be called Our Lady of the Rosary while warning the faithful to amend their lives, ask pardon for their sins, and that “they must say the Rosary.”
Supplies For Each Rosary:
- Pre knotted string
- 53 Hail Mary beads
- 6 Our Father beads
- Crucifix
- Copper rose center bead (or other bead of choice)
- Small beads for on either size of the Our Father beads
- Small bead to connect the crucifix
Directions:
1. Take the pre-knotted string and start by threading a small bead, an Our Father bead, then another small bead, followed by 3 Hail Mary beads, then once again with a small bead, Our Father bead, and another small bead.
2. Add the rose center bead followed by 10 Hail Mary beads. Then a small bead, Our Father bead, small bead, and 10 Hail Mary beads again. Repeat this pattern until you have all 5 decades on the string.
3. Now take the string end and feed it back through the copper rose center bead. Pull until tight. Split the string and tie a few knots around the center string.
4. Add the small clear bead and crucifix to the other end of the string and feed the string end through the small bead. Tie off like the center.
5. After you have tied all the knots trim the strings to about ¼-½”.
6. Have an adult take a lighter and melt the trimmed ends.
7. As Our Lady of Fatima instructed Sister Lucia, “Continue to pray the Rosary every day.”
{It’s taken a few years to get around to sharing the pictures from this craft/service project, but on the feast of the Immaculate Conception in December of 2014, we spent the afternoon (and late into the night!) assembling thirty-five rosaries (five each – the older boys and I helped the younger ones finish theirs) to send to children at an orphanage in Nigeria for Christmas that year. This project was coordinated by my friend Aleesa and her business donated all the supplies. Aleesa’s pastor was from Nigeria, going back for Christmas, and had requested 70 rosaries to give to all the children.}
Four Months
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