Honeybee's St. Joseph Art ~

This morning as I was flipping through my Liturgical Year Binder looking for a coloring picture of St. Joseph for Buck to color, I came across this craft I had filed from my Seton Art 1 book.  Honeybee and I decided we would give it a try.  It's a  pretty stained glass picture of St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church. 

She colored, cut out and glued St. Joseph and Jesus to black construction paper.  I showed her how to cut out the inside circles and we taped small pieces of colored tissue paper behind the openings.  She then happily taped it to the window.

Beautiful!

Tonight we are going to celebrate St. Joseph with Mass and a St. Joseph's Altar.  I'm planning on making St. Joseph's Sawdust to take to share.  It should be lots of fun!

Saint Frances of Rome

Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Frances of Rome. 

 There is a wonderful story about her in Around the Year - Once Upon a Time Saints.

Moms ~ I highly recommend reading this story.

  It's full of inspiration!!

Saint Frances of Rome ~

Pray For Us

Let It Be Done Unto Me

Finding Joy in Suffering For Christ

Today we celebrate the feast of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, who were martyred for their Christianity in the year 202.  As I was reading to the kids this morning from Saints and their Feast Days, I came across this list of scriptures that remind us to offer our sufferings for Christ in JOY.

We all have times in our lives where our crosses seem too heavy to bear.  As we approach Lent, let us all remember that Christ has done the heavy lifting for us.  Let us pray to have the faith of a mustard seed.

Blessings to you

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Galatians 6:14

But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Philippians 1:30

Yours is the same struggle as you saw in me and now hear about me.

Philippians 3:8-10

More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection and (the) sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death.

Philippians 4:13 

I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.

Colossians 3:4

When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.

1 Peter 1:6-7

In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 4:13

But rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly.

More Saint David's Day fun ~

Yesterday was one of those beautiful "real learning" type of days!

I take no credit for it!!!

It all began with morning prayers and reading about the Saint of the day.

I visited some of the links Waltzing Matilda had posted on Saint David and

God took it from there....

The little ones had a great time making Saint David and knight figures.

They accompanied me to the store and found leeks to cook for supper.

Snuggle Bug was a huge help chopping potatoes and bacon for the soup, which hubby said was delicious!

The House Cat found this poem and Snuggle Bug dictated it to her as she wrote it on this pretty paper. 

They also learned a lot from these Enchanted Learning sheets.

Buck colored this Welsh flag

The House Cat and Snuggle Bug worked on these

sheets and then we put the work into this lapbook.

I just LOVE these kinds of days!

On Saint David's Day

Check out DLTK's website for lots of Saint David's Day fun!

Enchanted Learning also has great info on Wales.

Visit Catholic Cuisine for fun in the kitchen!

It's also the perfect day to pick daffodils and tell Jesus we trust in Him!

Have a blessed day!

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Annunciation

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Annunciation, the day we celebrate the angel Gabriel's announcement of the Incarnation to Mary.

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David,
and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said,
"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."
Luke 1:27
"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb"
(Luke 1:42).

These are some things we will be working on:

Coloring page of The Annunciation

Art Study: Davinci Botticelli

Food: How about Angel Food Cake with Cool Whip (for Purity)?

The Angelus Try to pray three times today (morning, noon, night) Angel Bell Craft for the little ones. I found this information from Fish Eaters interesting.

The Angelus Domini, shortened to "the Angelus," is the ringing of the church bell -- in three groups of three chimes with a pause in between each group, followed by 9 consecutive strokes -- at 6AM, Noon, and 6PM roughly, and its associated prayers, which spring from the monastic practice of praying the tres orationes at Matins, Prime and Compline. While the monastics said their prayers at the sound of the Angelus Bell, the faithful would stop what they were doing and say 3 Hail Marys in honor of the Incarnation. Later, since at least A.D. 1612, verses were added to these Hail Marys such that we get the form of the Angelus we have today (see below). During Paschaltide (the Easter Season), the humbling Angelus prayer below is replaced with the more celebratory, joyous Regina Coeli prayer at the direction of Pope Benedict XIV in 1742.

I have always loved this painting. My grandparents were farmers and had this hanging in their kitchen. I didn't know until a few years ago that it was The Angelus.



Visit American Life League (ALL) for more ideas. I wish I would have ordered Life Is a Miracle sooner. Oh well, at least we'll have it for next year. :)


Have a blessed day!

A Beautiful Sight to Behold!

The ladies at our church did an AWESOME job preparing the St. Joseph Altar! It was truly breathtaking. I wanted to share a couple of pics with you all. I hope you had a blessed day!

Our St. Joseph Altar

We all worked together to make this beautiful little altar in honor of St. Joseph. We can't wait for dad to get home and see it! We are going to Mass tonight and are filled with anticipation to see the altar prepared by our parishioners. It's always beautiful! Hope your day is truly blessed by doing what St. Joseph would do - that is God's will in your life :)

The kids also enjoyed listening to The House Cat read this wonderful book while they colored.

Saint Joseph - Pray For Us

Happy St. Joseph's Day

We are working on making our own St. Joseph Altar. Hopefully I'll have it to post soon.

O Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.

O Saint Joseph, assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord; so that having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

O Saint Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. Amen

O Saint Joseph, hear my prayers and obtain my petitions. O Saint Joseph, pray for me. (Mention your intention)

Happy St. Patrick's Day