I am getting ready to teach some of my grandchildren this year and I always like to think of fun things we can do to decorate our “classroom” and to keep the children engaged while working with one of the other students. So I came up with this idea and thought I would share it with you…
These are pennant borders for the classroom that are simple and the kids can make themselves. What child doesn’t like to color? And when their coloring efforts are displayed in the classroom, how satisfying is that?
*Crayons or Pencil Crayons (We used pencil crayons)
*Scissors
*Hole Punch
*Ribbon
I used light cardstock to print the pennants out.
The children color them….
After they are colored, they cut them out on the triangular outline….
Punch out the holes for the ribbon…
Insert the ribbon through the holes and tie it. I left about 1 – 2 inches between each pennant….
You can switch these pennants up according to the season or to your tastes.
Mix and match as you like to make an interesting, colorful and fun pennant. And now you have a lovely homemade border for your schoolroom! Enjoy!
The education of your children is the result of the combined efforts of both parents. But in his youngest years, the child is almost exclusively under the mother’s guidance.
Your efforts are to produce effects that will have their final reckoning in eternity. Although your educational influence is of a nature entirely different from that of the father, your vocation as mother is equal in importance to your husband’s. -The Catholic Family Handbook, Fr. Lovasik https://amzn.to/2DbczVj (afflink)
The ideal wife gives comfort and encouragement when needed. She is wise with a woman’s intuition…
A beautiful and colorful 30~Day Journal! This journal is for the single lady who is in the interim before finding her vocation in life. At this very important crossroad in life, this journal can help with discipline, inspiration and encouragement. All of the quotes deal with a young lady’s time in life….whether it is courtship, religious vocations, modesty and just a better spiritual life in general. A form of Morning and Night Prayers that I have used personally through the years is included at the beginning of the Journal. This 30~day journal is a tool that will help the young woman to be disciplined in the next 30 days to write down positive, thankful thoughts. It will help her focus on the true and lovely by thinking about good memories, special moments, things and people she is grateful for, etc., as she awaits the time her vocation is made manifest to her. NOW is the time to improve our lives! Available here.
This booklet contains practical advice on the subjects of dating and choosing a spouse from the Catholic theological viewpoint. Father Lovasik points out clearly what one’s moral obligations are in this area, providing an invaluable aid to youthful readers. Additionally, he demonstrates that Catholic marriage is different from secular marriage and why it is important to choose a partner who is of the Catholic Faith if one would insure his or her personal happiness in marriage. With the rampant dangers to impurity today, with the lax moral standards of a large segment of our society, with divorce at epidemic levels, Clean Love in Courtship will be a welcome source of light and guidance to Catholics serious about their faith.A Frank, Yet Reverent Instruction on the Intimate Matters of Personal Life for Young Men. To our dear and noble Catholic youths who have preserved, or want to recover, their purity of heart, and are minded to retain it throughout life. For various reasons many good fathers of themselves are not able to give their sons this enlightenment on the mysteries of life properly and sufficiently. They may find this book helpful in the discharge of their parental responsibilities in so delicate a matter.
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I would like to address the subject of Catholic home schooling in the tradition of the Catholic Church, and my plan is to cover three areas of a large subject.
What has the Catholic Church considered as home schooling in the Church’s history? Secondly, why is home schooling necessary? And thirdly, how should home schooling be done most effectively?
The focus I would like to take is of home schooling as authentically Catholic. I would like to begin first with a general definition of Catholic home schooling, and then distinguish various kinds of home schooling in the Church’s history.
Catholic home schooling is the planned and organized teaching and training of children at home, for their peaceful and effective life in this world, and for their eternal salvation in the world to come.
I distinguish teaching from training, for I say that teaching addresses itself mainly to the mind, and training to the will; indeed, the training of the mind is in order to motivate the will.
We get our principles for authentic Catholic home schooling from Christ’s closing directive to His apostles: “To teach all nations” — that’s the mind — “to observe all that I have commanded you” — that’s with the will. Home schooling, therefore, addresses itself to the mind in order that the will might be motivated to do God’s will. It is the teaching and training of children at home that distinguishes it from teaching and training in formal school situations.
Having said that, we must immediately distinguish among the different forms that Catholic home schooling has taken over the centuries, depending on the conditions of the Church at any given time in her history.
The conditions are as follows: first in missionary times before the Church had been established in any particular country or locality; second, home schooling once the Church had been firmly established third, home schooling where the Church is strongly opposed; and finally, where the Church has been disestablished, especially by civil authority.
I will identify the Church’s condition in our country: the Church under opposition and not yet formally disestablished.
Home schooling in the United States is the necessary concomitant of a culture in which the Church is being opposed on every level of her existence and, as a consequence, given the widespread secularization in our country, home schooling is not only valuable or useful but it is absolutely necessary for the survival of the Catholic church in our country.
Home schooling, in our country, is that form of teaching and training of children at home in order to preserve the Catholic faith in the family, and to preserve the Catholic faith in our country.
Our second reflection is why. There are four principal reasons why Catholic home schooling is necessary. . . . Home schooling has been necessary in the Catholic Church since her foundation.
The necessity, therefore, is not the necessity that is the result of an emergency. No, Catholic home schooling is necessary — period. And one reason is that it was so widely neglected before. So many parents practically abdicated their own obligation to teach their own children, and then found out, sadly, their children were not being given a Catholic education.
How do we know that home schooling is necessary? First, we know it from divine revelation. The early Church is normative, not only on what we should believe as Catholics but on how we ought to learn our faith . . . and live it.
There were not established Catholic schools in the Roman Empire back in the first 300 years of the Church’s history. Except for parents becoming, believing, and being heroic Catholics in the early Church, nothing would have happened. The Church would have died out before the end of the first century.
CHURCH’S TEACHING AND HISTORY
There is no single aspect of religious instruction that, over the centuries, the Church has not more frequently, or more insistently, taught the faithful, than of the parents on how to provide for the religious, and, therefore, also human, education and upbringing of their offspring.
So true is this that it is the second and co-equal purpose for Christ instituting the Sacrament of Matrimony, for the procreation and the education of children. By whom? By the parents! That is why Christ instituted the Sacrament of Matrimony. So how do we know that home schooling is necessary? Because the Church has always taught it.
Where has the Church survived? Only and wherever — and this is historically provable — home schooling over the centuries by the Catholic parents has been taken so seriously that they considered it their most sacred duty, after having brought the children into the world physically, to parent them spiritually.
The necessity for home schooling is not only a natural necessity, it is a supernatural necessity. Have parents over the centuries, in all nations, from the dawn of human history, in every culture, had the obligation to teach and train their children?
Yes, the same ones who brought the children physically into the world have a natural obligation, binding in the natural law, to provide for the mental, moral, and social upbringing of their offspring. Yet since God became man, the necessity, and therefore the corresponding obligation, becomes supernatural.
What do we mean when we say that Catholic home schooling is a supernatural necessity? We mean that in God’s mysterious but infallible providence, He channels His grace from human beings who already possess that grace. It is a platitude to say that we cannot give what we do not have. Nobody would ever learn the alphabet. We would not know how to read or write, or even know how to eat.
We have to be taught everything we know. The real necessity for Catholic home schooling is not because we naturally need someone else to bring us into the world, nor to teach us what we need to know and do as human beings. Since the coming of Christ we are no longer mere human beings.
BECOMING CHANNELS OF GRACE
At baptism, we receive the life which is the very life of God shared by Him with His creatures. And just as no one give himself natural life, so no one receives or nurtures or develops or grows in that supernatural life that we receive at baptism.
The main reason for home schooling is that only those who have God’s grace are used by Him as channels of grace to others.
Over the centuries, our principal Jesuit apostolate has been teaching. And we are told, in the most uncompromising language, “You will be able to teach others, you will share with them, only what you are yourselves.”
No one else can teach the faith…except the person who has it. But possessing divine grace, beginning with the virtue of faith, is not only a condition, it is also the measure for the communication of grace. Weak-believing parents will be weak conduits of the grace of faith to their children. Strong-believing parents will be strong conduits of the grace of faith. This is not good psychology and it is not good example. This is Divine Revelation.
In the mysterious providence of God, this is the law: Only those who possess the supernatural life and the measure of the possession of faith, hope and charity will God use as the channels of His grace to their children.
LIVE OUR HOLY FAlTH
How are parents to provide for the Catholic home schooling for their children? First, the principal and most fundamental way is by living strong Catholic lives. All the academic verbiage and planned pedagogy are useless. Only persons who have God’s grace will He use as the channels of His grace to others, and no one, but no one, cheats here.
What then is the first way to be an effective home schooling parent while living a good Catholic life?
For Catholic parents to live good Catholic lives in our day requires heroic virtue. Only heroic parents will survive the massive, demonic secularization of materially super- developed countries like America.
And consequently, far from being surprised, parents should expect that home schooling will not be easy. Any home schooling in the U.S. which is easy today is not authentic Catholic home schooling. If it is easy, there is something wrong.
Today, Catholic parents must not only endure the cross, resign themselves to living the cross, but they are to choose the cross. In case no one has told you, when you chose home schooling, you chose a cross-ridden form of education.
This is the age of martyrs . . . and a martyr is one who suffers for the profession of his faith. There is red martyrdom and white martyrdom. There is bloody martyrdom and unbloody martyrdom.
You have to live a heroic Catholic life in America today. God will use you and provide you with the knowledge and the wisdom, providing you are living the authentically heroic Catholic life.
KNOW AND IMPART THE FAITH
Secondly, if you want to teach and train your children, you must know your faith. You must grasp and understand the faith. Read the 14th chapter of St. Matthew where Our Lord tells the parable of the sower sowing seeds.
Seeds fell on four kinds of ground. The first three kinds were unfruitful. As Jesus said, birds came along and picked up the seed, and nothing grew. The disciples asked Jesus for the meaning. The Lord explained that the seeds falling on the wayside are those persons who have received the Word of God into their hearts and fail to understand it, and therefore the evil one comes along and steals it from their hearts.
That is why America now has millions of ex-Catholics. They have never understood their faith.
I have strong encouragement from the Holy See to train parents. You are all welcome to learn your faith so that you grasp and understand your faith. Then God will use you to teach your children as a channel of faith. Teach, not only by rote memory, but to grasp the faith.
Many Catholics, before they finish college, discard their faith as a remnant of childhood. They don’t understand. I myself had 16 years of Jesuit education, and 15 more years before I started teaching. There are oceanic depths to our faith, and you must learn as much as you can, so that God will use you as an effective channel of grace so you can communicate your faith to your offspring.
TRUE SCHOOLING and THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE
Next, Catholic home schooling must be schooling. There must be organization, administration, a pattern, a schedule, and a program. Somebody has to be in charge. Mother and father must cooperate in the home schooling.
Home schooling must be sacramental. In other words, the Church that Christ founded is the Church of the Seven Sacraments, especially the Sacraments of Eucharist and Confession.
You, yourselves, should receive the sacraments of Holy Communion and Confession. Train your children to live a sacramental life.
Finally, to be authentically Catholic, home schooling must be prayerful. The single most fundamental thing you can teach your children, bar none, is to know the necessity and method of prayer.
You must pray yourselves. Without prayer, all the schooling in the world will not produce the effect which God wants home schooling to give, because home schooling is a communication of divine grace, from Christ to the parents to the children. And the principle way parents communicate from Christ to their children, the grace upon which those children will be saved, is prayer.
“Never be ashamed of your home or family because it is humble. People who look down on those whose home is humble and who lack social prominence are not worthy of the friendship of decent families. The most important things in life are character, honest work, humility, loyalty, friendliness, and love.” -Fr. Lovasik, Catholic Family Handbook http://amzn.to/2y7iaFI (afflink)
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To trust in God’s will is the “secret of happiness and content,” the one sure-fire way to attain serenity in this world and salvation in the next. Trustful Surrender simply and clearly answers questions that many Christians have regarding God’s will, the existence of evil, and the practice of trustful surrender, such as:
How can God will or allow evil? (pg. 11)
Why does God allow bad things to happen to innocent people? (pg. 23)
Why does God appear not to answer our prayers? (pg. 107)
What is Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence? (pg. 85) and many more…
This enriching classic will lay to rest many doubts and fears, and open the door to peace and acceptance of God’s will. TAN’s pocket-sized edition helps you to carry it wherever you go, to constantly remind yourself that God is guarding you, and He does not send you any joy too great to bear or any trial too difficult to overcome.
The Story of Sister Maria Teresa Quevedo. “For Him alone I have lived.” The Story of a Nun. Venerable Maria Teresa Quevedo 1930-1950. Maria Teresa Quevedo was a lively modern girl-a talented dancer, an expert swimmer, an outstanding tennis player, who devoted herself to generous works of sacrifice. Her life can be summed up by her own motto, “May all who look at me see you, O Mary.” This book is the first full-length biography of Maria Teresa Quevedo that has been written in English. Teresita, as she was called by her friends and family, was a Spanish girl who was born in 1930 and who died in 1950 at the age of twenty. Throughout her life, Teresita was an inspiration and a delight to everyone around her as she calmly strove to exemplify Christian virtue in her everyday life. Teresita tried to do everything perfectly. As a girl living with her parents, she was an obedient child. With her friends, she was not only respected but popular. As a sodalist, she gave evidence as being a born leader for Mary. As a tennis player, she was an expert. As captain of her basketball team, she consistently led the group to victory. At any young people’s gathering which she attended, she was the life of the party. When Teresita entered the Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity, she did so because she desired to become a saint and to devote all her life to Jesus and Mary. But, in her own words, she wished to become a “little saint, for I cannot do big things.” Teresita’s cause for canonization is now under examination in the Sacred Congregation of Rites. “You will find the story of this popular beautiful girl an inspiration. It is a happy biography . . . Don’t miss it.” -Herbert O’H Walker, S.J.
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We have one chance to live this life. Let’s not get distracted.
It is important to celebrate with your loved ones…regularly. And it is important to have traditions within the family circle.
Although this article is not talking about religious traditions necessarily, it IS talking about the beauty of lovely traditions we can pass on to our family in our every day life. Our children will naturally continue this legacy. And for we Catholics, rich in the traditions of the Faith, we can incorporate these religious traditions into our more “secular” traditions as well!
For instance, our tradition has been to have a day of celebration with the family once a week. We invite selective friends to celebrate with us. It usually lands on a Sunday which is a good day to celebrate, wouldn’t you say?
We start the evening off with the Family Rosary. Whether it is said outside among the delight of the flowers, or inside with our lovely home altar, there are a good swarm of us who together repeat the beloved prayers of Our Lady’s Rosary.
After the rosary and before we eat, I get my hand bell, and, with me chiming in the background, we say the Angelus, all genuflecting at “And the Word was made Flesh…”
After dinner, games are played, usually outdoors unless the weather doesn’t permit. Then everyone goes home and looks forward to….our next celebration! What a beautiful way to share with friends and family….fully Catholic, fully wholesome and with lots of laughter!
And now…two cents from Emilie Barnes…with pictures first of our last couple Sunday potlucks…
Let’s party,” say the commercials. And I say “amen!” Not to loudness and drinking and carousing, of course, but to the kind of celebrations that brighten our every days and flavor our special times with joy.
The beauty of home is comprised of so many things – order, order, serenity, creativity, warmth, welcome. But surely the spirit of celebration also adds its special touch – the abiding joy and contagious laughter that say, “I’m glad I’m here. I’m glad you’re here. And I’m really glad we’re in this together.”
Christians, especially, have reason to make the spirit of celebration a trademark of our lives.
What a wonderful reason to infuse our homes and our lives with joyful sounds, happy gatherings, and heartfelt smiles… the God-given, life-enhancing enhancing secret of celebration
Celebrating Laughter
Laughter is a definite part of any time of celebration – a gift of God that brightens good days and lightens rough ones. Laughter even has a healing quality to it. People have recovered from serious diseases by learning to laugh each day. Even more people have regained the courage to go on in painful circumstances when they were able to laugh.
Proverbs 17:22 says that a cheerful heart is good medicine. Laughter can draw others to you and lighten your load in life. When you begin to laugh at life and at yourself, you gain new perspective on your struggles. You begin to see a speck of light at the end of the tunnel.
A life without laughter quickly becomes a breeding ground for depression, physical illness, and a critical spirit. But a laughter-filled life unleashes the benefits of celebration.
Celebrating Tradition
“Again!” The toddler giggled with delight as I hid my face once more behind my hands. I giggled too, enjoying the moment of discovery – the instance when my new little granddaughter daughter first began celebrating tradition.
At its simplest level, isn’t that why traditions are begun? We experience something good and joyful and meaningful, and we want to do it again. And why not? Repeating our good experiences is one way we begin to learn, to make sense of our lives.
Think how hard our lives would be if we had to invent them all over again every day. Think of all the energy we would waste, all the mistakes we would repeat, all the remembered joy we would lose, all the loneliness we would feel, if we were forced to start from scratch without the ability to say to ourselves, “I like this; this is meaningful – let’s do it again.”
Tradition is so much more, though, than the simple urge to repeat a pleasant experience. Tradition helps us keep our feet on the ground. It helps us feel the connection between where we have been and where we are going, between those who have gone before us and those who follow after.
There’s such a comfort, such a sense of relationship, in saying, “This is the way we’ve always done it.” But there’s more. Tradition also helps us understand – and celebrate – who we are and to be thankful for the gift of life and for the people God used to give it to us.
Many wonderful traditions combined to make me who I am, and as I grow older I celebrate more and more my unique heritage.
My father, a Viennese chef, imparted an Old World appreciation for gracious living – fine food, beautiful preparation, and professional excellence (plus some wonderful recipes!).
My mother, the daughter of a tailor and the proprietor of a dress shop, taught me to appreciate beautiful fabrics, skillful tailoring, effective organization, and hard work – as well as the importance of making a welcoming home for those I love.
Growing up as the American child of an immigrant parent, I inhaled both Old World ambience and New World freedom and opportunity. And I married into wonderful traditions as well – those of a three-generation farm family from Texas.
Traditions are one way that knowledge is passed from generation to generation. They have filled our lives with many “rare and beautiful treasures” over the years, and we have tried to pass those treasures on to our children. We share and celebrate our special ways of doing things, many of which come from the traditions that shaped us.
Mrs. V talks to your children about obedience and how important it is! ….”Children, do you want to have a happy life? Do you want to go to heaven to see Jesus and Mary after your life here on earth? Then practice the virtue of obedience!”
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REVIEWS!!!
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“Oh it’s purely delightful to cuddle up with a cup of tea and my Finer Femininity Maglet. I LOVE IT! Can’t wait for the Christmas edition!!” -Elizabeth V.
“This book is very refreshing to read. It is very beautifully written and easy to read. This book encourages you that your efforts are worth it, enlightens you to do better in a positive way and gives you confidence that you can be good in a not-so-good world. If you want an all-around good book this is it. I look forward to each new publication!” -Emily
“Love it! this is something I will pick up over and over to read.” -Sarah
To the modern mind, the concept of poverty is often confused with destitution. But destitution emphatically is not the Gospel ideal. A love-filled sharing frugality is the message, and Happy Are You Poor explains the meaning of this beatitude lived and taught by Jesus himself. But isn’t simplicity in lifestyle meant only for nuns and priests? Are not all of us to enjoy the goodness and beauties of our magnificent creation? Are parents to be frugal with the children they love so much?
For over half a century, Catholic families have treasured the practical piety and homespun wisdom of Mary Reed Newland’s classic of domestic spirituality, The Year and Our Children. With this new edition, no longer will you have to search for worn, dusty copies to enjoy Newland’s faithful insights, gentle lessons, and delightful stories. They’re all here, and ready to be shared with your family or homeschooling group. Here, too, you’ll find all the prayers, crafts, family activities, litanies, and recipes that will help make your children ever-mindful of the beautiful rhythm of the Church calendar.
by Fr. Narciso Irala, S.J., Mental Efficiency Without Fatigue
ENTHUSIASM
If feelings have so great an influence in arousing and maintaining attention because of the interest they call forth, the same may be said even more forcefully of the emotions, since, according to many psychologists, emotions are only an intensification of feelings or sentiments.
Interest, which is such a help to mental work, is transformed into enthusiasm when it reaches the level of emotion, the whole organism being strongly involved. Then it produces a greater vitality and energy, a greater concentration of attention, a greater pleasure, a greater perseverance in effort.
It is proper to all emotions to limit the field of attention by cutting off any other thought in order to concentrate on the emotional focal point.
When someone is afraid of an impending evil, he can hardly think of anything else; the lover cannot avert his thoughts from the person he loves; on making a new discovery, the researcher feels such a thrill of joy and hope that his attention can hardly be drawn away.
When the adolescent, emerging from the egocentricity of childhood, discovers social, patriotic, or religious values, he sets himself an ideal outside of himself and greater than himself. He will then feel untold enthusiasm in the pursuit of his studies and, as a result, greater energy will help him attain this ideal.
It is the beginning of a new life, the dawn of a great day. Everything seems feasible because of his ideal. It is emotion which has thus entered into play.
Ideal = Emotion = Enthusiasm
This trio is all one or, rather, its members constitute the ideological and physiological causes with their psychic effect. There is another corresponding trio:
Concentration = Efficiency = Joy
Let Us Choose Our Ideal
Let us, then, set before ourselves a great objective for our whole lives, a goal toward which we can clearly and constantly aim. In pursuit of this great, clearly conceived ideal there will spontaneously develop an intense and enduring inclination—sensitive and, at the same time, spiritual—toward that goal which satisfies all our aspirations.
The emotional machinery will be set in motion within us, and in the developing of extraordinary energy each of the following will take part: the hypothalamus in our middle brain, the sympathetic nervous system, and the pituitary and suprarenal gland with their wealth of hormones.
That noble ideal will give unity, harmony, vigor, and a sense of fulfilment to our lives, increasing the physical and psychic perfection of our acts. Unity of thought and desire will put an end to parasitic ideas, will facilitate concentration, and will give to work and study the maximum pleasure and efficiency.
Working with but a single thought is not tiring; since it is agreeable, it also helps us rest. For this reason, an ideal which makes us think constantly of what we greatly desire is a source of peace and joy.
That is the reason why, in a nervous breakdown, an effort is made to discover the patient’s attractions or ideals in order to help him rest. This ideal should not be utopian, but suited to our aptitudes and personality; nor should it be at odds with our Supreme God, the last end of man, for in this case there will be a lack of unity which in the long run will be an evil.
The ideal should also be practical of attainment at every moment; in a word, it should help to make us live the present moment with unity and fullness. This gives true happiness.
Establish a Relationship between Our Ideal and Our Work
An undergraduate in Sao Paolo, Brazil, confided this problem to me. He had failed his Latin examination three times and hated the course. I asked him: ‘Have you any goal for your future life?’
`Yes,’ he answered, ‘I should like to be an orator and a writer. I want to help free my country from those villains who govern it only for their own benefit.’
`That is a wonderful ideal,’ I answered, ‘but don’t you see that the best models of oratory and poetry are to be found in Latin literature? Besides, Portuguese is a Romance language, and you will never discover all its treasures unless you know the language from which it is derived—Latin.’
When he began to connect the light and splendor of his golden ideal with this dreaded study of Latin, he not only became interested, but grew so enthusiastic about Latin that in the following examination he received a most respectable grade.
Every educator or speaker, once he knows what he is going to teach, should devote as much time as possible to find methods of arousing interest and enthusiasm in his listeners by appealing to their feelings and emotions.
For our own part, once we have discovered our ideal and have made it concrete, we should summarize it in a few words, so that we can keep it constantly in mind. In this manner, we shall find new life, strength, pleasure, constancy and efficiency.
And St. Francis De Sales says: “The measure of Divine Providence acting on us is the degree of confidence that we have in it.” This is where the problem lies. Many do not believe in Providence because they’ve never experienced it, but they’ve never experienced it because they’ve never jumped into the void and taken the leap of faith. They never give it the possibility to intervene. They calculate everything, anticipate everything, they seek to resolve everything by counting on themselves, instead of counting on God. -Fr. Jacques Philippe, Searching For and Maintaining Peace
What are the stages of courtship? What are the goals in it? How do we do this?
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Salvation and spiritual perfection should not be sought haphazardly; a strategy is needed to win the battle for our souls.
The Spiritual Combat, first published in 1589, provides timeless guidance in spiritual discipline. St. Francis de Sales (1576-1622) read from it himself every day and recommended it to everyone under his direction.
Vigorous, realistic and full of keen insight into human nature, The Spiritual Combat consists of short chapters based on the maxim that in the spiritual life one must either “fight or die”. Fr. Scupoli shows the Christian how to combat his passions and vices, especially impurity and sloth, in order to arrive at victory.
The Way of Trust and Love A Retreat Guided By St. Thérèse of Lisieux Jacques Philippe St. Thérèse of Lisieux sought a new way to Heaven: “a little way that is quite straight, quite short: a completely new little way.” Blessed with personal limitations that might have discouraged another, Thérèse believed God would not have given her a desire for holiness if He did not intend for her to achieve it. She learned to humbly accept herself as she was and trust completely in God’s love. First given as a retreat by renowned author Father Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love navigates excerpts of St. Thérèse’s writings phrase by phrase, extracting powerful, resonating insights. To Thérèse, the journey seemed “little” as she traveled it. A hundred and fifteen years after her death, the message of the young saint and Doctor of the Church has traveled around the world inspiring millions. With this newly translated study of her spirituality, many today will rediscover—or find for the first time—the relevance of “the little way,” in all seasons of life. Fr. Jacques Philippe is well-known for his books on prayer and spirituality. A member of the Community of the Beatitudes, he regularly preaches retreats in France and abroad. He also spends much of his time giving spiritual direction and working for the development of the Community in Asia and Oceania where he travels frequently.
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I like this article by Charlotte Siems, a mother of 12, as she answers the following question…
“I always try to keep in mind the fact that it will, and does, go by so fast. I really do try to enjoy it, but sometimes I’m better at doing that in theory and thought than in practice. Do you have any tips on how to apply this thought in a practical way?”
First of all, be assured that no one does it perfectly. In the midst of three little kids with stomach flu or washing the underwear of a resistant potty-trainer, it’s normal to feel that mothering is less than enjoyable. Almost everyone has thought, at one time or another, “Are these kids ever going to grow up?”
The problem comes when that is the controlling thought of your life. A constant stream of self-pity and avoiding responsibility just makes for a miserable Mom, and it’s not going to make the children grow up any faster. Pining away for the life you used to have or wishing away the diaper-changing years is foolish.
In addition, those thoughts turn into words. It’s a sad thing for a child to overhear his mother complain about him to another person. When the child hears “he’s my wild one” his little mind accepts that label and sets about being just that. Can you imagine the rejection a little girl feels when she hears that her Mom can’t wait until the kids go back to school? Speak life-giving words, not words of death and rejection and disdain.
As part of the mystery of life, we love those whom we serve. Sometimes the answer when it’s hard is to actually go the second mile. Rather than just throw the cereal bowls on the table, lay a cloth and light a candle. Beauty feeds your own soul and your children’s as well.
Part of serving those whom we love is to make a commitment to avoid complaining, negative words and a pained expression when you are serving your children. I know that I failed at this many times over the years and it’s a painful regret. Think about how you feel when someone is doing something for you with sighs and rolling eyes. It’s not very nice, is it? Too often we get aggravated about tasks that we must do because of another’s inability to do it for themselves—and that’s not their fault.
To a great extent, our ability to enjoy our children’s season of childhood depends on how well we take thoughts captive.
Our reactions to our family can be affected when we get dragged out and exhausted on the journey because we’re not caring for ourselves. I spent a lot of years very overweight and that reflected my belief that I was being noble for putting everyone else ahead of my basic needs. I also felt that I didn’t deserve to be cared for, but that’s another post entirely. I’m not advocating an attitude of “I have my rights” but many of us need a gentle reminder that reasonably caring for ourselves helps us care better for others.
This care not only includes food, hydration and rest, but exercise and personal growth as well. Motherhood has stretched me to the uttermost as a person, and I somehow made time to invest in my own education and training. I read books about home organization, cooking, marriage, homeschooling, home decorating and more—whatever area of my home or life that I was working on at the time. The internet has now opened limitless opportunities for learning.
Just make sure that whatever resources you choose, they influence you for good. If a certain blog or magazine or person makes you feel discontent and annoyed with your circumstances, run, don’t walk, to remove it from your life. Choose uplifting, encouraging and challenging–not harsh or guilt-producing—input, training and mentoring. Take care who and what you allow to influence you. Check the fruit of their life and method. Beware the teacher who read a book and is now trying to tell you how to do it!
Finally, make it easier on yourself whenever you can. Paper plates and disposable diapers can be lifesavers during a rough season. Put up gates in the doorways and rest on the couch while little ones play nearby. Stay home and let the kids get their naps. Consistently discipline your children, for that will definitely make your life easier (and theirs, too).
Rather than trying to escape home, set about learning how to make it the best, most homey place on earth for your family. We get more of what we focus on. You can choose to focus on “these kids are driving me crazy” or “how can I make this situation better?”
I didn’t name this post “Surviving Your Kids’ Childhood” because I don’t want you to think that way. Sure, we joke about it sometimes, but when your child is thirty years old you’ll wistfully remember these years as good ones.
Dr. Herbert Ratner, longtime pediatrician and La Leche League consultant, once said this about parenting:
“The years between 40 and 60 are just as long as the years between 20 and 40. What you do in the first twenty years will determine how happy you are in the second twenty years.”
Chin up, Mom. Find ways to help you keep the right perspective when your courage is flagging. Years from now you won’t wish that you had ignored your kids and yanked their diapers and hated every minute of having little ones. You’ll be glad you did what it took to do the hard things and stay faithful and give your children a happy and secure childhood.
“In truth, the family circle is the nursery of saints as of sane human beings. There the child finds the love, security and guidance which are his greatest needs. It is by loving and being loved that persons grow as persons. It is in the family that relationships are essentially personal and each person is valued as a person.” -Dominican Sister, Australia, 1955
We must realize that building back to traditional values starts, first, in ourselves and in our homes. Which, in turn, will affect our communities and society in general. And our dress is a powerful means to do just that! It IS like a billboard saying, “There is still something beautiful, noble and good in this world, and it is worth living for.”
Penal Rosaries! Penal rosaries and crucifixes have a wonderful story behind them. They were used during the times when religious objects were forbidden and it was illegal to be Catholic. Being caught with a rosary could mean imprisonment or worse. A penal rosary is a single decade with the crucifix on one end and, oftentimes, a ring on the other. When praying the penal rosary you would start with the ring on your thumb and the beads and crucifix of the rosary in your sleeve, as you moved on to the next decade you moved the ring to your next finger and so on and so forth. This allowed people to pray the rosary without the fear of being detected. Available here.
To the modern mind, the concept of poverty is often confused with destitution. But destitution emphatically is not the Gospel ideal. A love-filled sharing frugality is the message, and Happy Are You Poor explains the meaning of this beatitude lived and taught by Jesus himself. But isn’t simplicity in lifestyle meant only for nuns and priests? Are not all of us to enjoy the goodness and beauties of our magnificent creation? Are parents to be frugal with the children they love so much?
For over half a century, Catholic families have treasured the practical piety and homespun wisdom of Mary Reed Newland’s classic of domestic spirituality, The Year and Our Children. With this new edition, no longer will you have to search for worn, dusty copies to enjoy Newland’s faithful insights, gentle lessons, and delightful stories. They’re all here, and ready to be shared with your family or homeschooling group. Here, too, you’ll find all the prayers, crafts, family activities, litanies, and recipes that will help make your children ever-mindful of the beautiful rhythm of the Church calendar.
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The treatise on Patriotism in the writings of the greatest philosopher of all times, St. Thomas Aquinas, is to be found under the subject of “Piety.” This at first may strike as strange those who think of piety as pertaining only to love of God. But once it is remembered that love of neighbor is inseparable from love of God, it is seen that love of our fellow citizens is a form of piety.
In these days when so many subversive activities are at work, a reminder of the necessity of loving our country is very much to the point. Consciously or unconsciously our citizens are grouping themselves around the only two possible ultimate answers to the questions vexing our country.
The first answer is that the essence of Americanism is revolution; the second answer is that the essence of Americanism consists in the recognition of the sacredness of human personality.
First let us consider the revolutionary theory. The Communists, in their attempt to justify another revolution, are rewriting American history to suit the dialectics of Marx and Lenin. Their argument is this: America began with a revolution. . . .If they insist on appealing to the American Revolution we would remind them that it was a political revolution against a government across the sea, and not a civil war and class struggle against one another.
As an American you must be opposed to all dictators, Fascist, Nazi, or Communist. The Communist trick is to accuse all who are opposed to Communism of being Fascists. This is not true. Because I dislike Russian caviar it does not follow that I am mad about spaghetti or wiener-schnitzel. . . .The best way to keep Fascism out of American life is to keep out Communism. . . .
The essence of Americanism is not revolution, but the recognition of the sacredness of human personality and the inherent inalienable rights which every man possesses independently of the State. That is why, when our country began, our Founding Fathers were most anxious to find some basis for human rights, some foundation for human liberties, some guarantee of human personality which would be above the encroachment of tyranny and abuse.
But where find the basis for the right of a man to be his own master, captain of his own soul, free in his right to pursue his ultimate end with a free conscience? Where root and ground the right to own property as the extension of personality? Where find the rock of all liberties which would be strong enough to withstand governments and powers and states which would absorb them as the monarchies did, then, and as certain dictatorships do now?
For such a foundation the Fathers looked first to England. There the theory was advanced that our liberties and rights are rooted in Parliament. This theory they rejected on the ground that if Parliament gives rights and liberties, then the Parliament can take them away. Next they looked to France, where it was held that the liberties and rights of man are rooted in the will of the majority. The Fathers equally rejected this on the ground that if the rights of man are the gift of the majority, then the majority can take away the rights of the minority.
Where find the source of the liberties and the rights of man? On what stable foundation are they to be reared? What is their source? The answer they gave was the right one. They sought the foundations of man’s rights and liberties in something so sacred and so inalienable that no State, no Parliament, no Dictator, no human power could ever take them away, and so they rooted them in God. Hence our Declaration of Independence reads: all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. . .among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Note that the word used is “unalienable”; that means that these rights belong to the sacredness of human personality and are not the gift of the State or the Dictator, whether Fascist, Nazi, or Communist. In other words, man’s right to own private property, man’s right to educate his own family, man’s right to adore God according to the dictates of his conscience, come not from the Constitution, the Government, Parliament, or the will of the majority, but from God.
Therefore no power on earth may take them away. This is the essence of Americanism. Now, if the essence of Americanism is the sacredness of human personality as created by God, who is doing most to preserve that Americanism? The schools that never mention His name? The universities and colleges that dissolve the Deity into the latest ultimate of physics or biology? The professors who adjust their ethics to suit unethical lives?
The answer obviously is, that the forces that are building constructive Americanism are those that take practical cognizance of the existence of God. It is the non-religious schools which are out of the tradition of Americanism; they are on the defensive. In the beginning of our national life practically all of our schools and colleges were religious schools. It was assumed by our Constitution and by its spirit that they would be religious.
The reason was obvious. If human dignity and liberty come from God, then it follows that loss of faith in Him means loss of faith in those liberties which derive from Him. If we wish to have the light we must keep the sun; if we wish to keep our forests we must keep our trees; if we wish to keep our perfumes we must keep our flowers – and if we wish to keep our rights, then we must keep our God. It is just as vain to try to keep triangles without keeping three-sided figures, as to try to keep Liberty without the spirit which makes man independent of matter and therefore free.
We Catholics are taking religion so seriously in reference to our country that rather than see God perish out of our national life we conduct 7,929 elementary schools and 1,945 high schools, employing 58,903 and 16,784 teachers respectively. . . .and figuring on the basis of public school costs, we save the taxpayers of the country an immediate one billion dollar building program and, for maintenance, about $139,600,000 every year. Every cent of this money comes out of the pockets of Catholics, and why? Because we believe that the 2,102,889 children in Catholic elementary schools and 284,736 in Catholic high schools have a right to know the truth which makes them free.
In other words, we take very seriously the Declaration of Independence which derives the rights of man from God.
In conclusion, true Americanism is the belief in the freedom of man as a divine derivative. For that reason if we wish to keep pure Americanism we must keep our religion. To this is to be added the important fact that dictatorships, such as the Communistic, regard man only as a stomach to be fed by the State, or as a tool to amass wealth for the State. Put men on that level and they need no religion, any more than animals need religion, or a monkey wrench needs liturgy.
But to put them on that level is to de-personalize and mechanize them down to the very core of their being. A democracy needs religion, for it assumes that man has not only a stomach but also a soul which is the seat of his rights; and since that soul must be fed as well as the body, he must have religion. Democracy has to rely not on force, but on freedom and liberty. But freedom and liberty are inseparable from responsibility, and responsibility is inseparable from conscience, and conscience is inseparable from religion.
It is our solemn duty as Catholics, therefore, to be conscious of our duty to America, and to preserve its freedom by preserving its faith in God. . . .
But as we talk about patriotism, it might be well to remind ourselves that in a crisis like this even devotion to the stars and stripes is not enough to save us. We must look beyond them to other stars and stripes, namely the stars and stripes of Christ, by Whose stars we are illuminated and by whose stripes we are healed!
“America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance — it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded.”
“I have tried to show you , that you cannot become good and strong men and women, that is, men and women of character, unless you have Will-power, and further that you will be of little or no use to your country if you are weak-willed. It has been well said that ‘the only way to be a patriotic American is to do your best to become a perfect man.’ and a perfect man you will not be unless your Will is strong.”
An excerpt by Fr. E Boyd Barrett, 1917
Coloring pages for your children…
I Love My Country! Patriotic Aprons. Available here.
Bishop Fulton Sheen’s renowned and inspiring television series, Life Is Worth Living, was watched by millions of viewers from all walks of life and every religious belief. This book contains the full-length scripts of forty-four of those top-rated programs that drew thousands of letters weekly to Sheen from his viewers in response to the advice and insights he gave on his shows.Bishop Sheen’s writings, tapes and videos are as popular today as when he was alive. His timeless insights offered in this book give wise, personal and inspiring guidance on the problems affecting our lives in today’s world. His talks cover an amazing variety of subjects, from the character of the Irish to the handling of teen-agers. He discusses education, Christianity, relativity, and world affairs. He speaks about love, conscience, fear, motherhood, work. He tells amusing anecdotes, recites poetry, and ponders the fate of the free world as well as America’s destiny.Among his many best-selling books, none has greater universal appeal than Life Is Worth Living. It offers a stirring and challenging statement of Bishop Sheen’s whole philosophy of life and living. It is a book for everyone – of immediate concern to all people seeking understanding, belief, and purpose in these troubled times.
One of the greatest and best-loved spokesmen for the Catholic Faith here sets out the Churchs beautiful understanding of marriage in his trademark clear and entertaining style. Frankly and charitably, Sheen presents the causes of and solutions to common marital crises, and tells touching real-life stories of people whose lives were transformed through marriage. He emphasizes that our Blessed Lord is at the center of every successful and loving marriage. This is a perfect gift for engaged couples, or for married people as a fruitful occasion for self-examination. This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.
Home should not be just a place. Rather, it must be the place. All else should be “outside.”
Home should be the center of activities and interests. It was built for births, courtship, marriage, and death. It is maintained so that children might grow, trained by precept and example – so that they will develop spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, just as they do physically. -Fr. Lovasik
And a few notes…
Hubby got me a new air fryer and I have been enjoying it greatly. If you are interested here is a link. This is the one I would get if I started all over. Right now, I have a cheaper model and it works for me at the moment.
And here is a Youtube Channel where I learned a lot about it. I had hurt my back and was laid out so I had time to delve into it…
Here is the recipe for the Granola I make. It is lovely! I quadruple the batch and add different things (chia seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds). I really do add all those…it’s a wonder my kids don’t turn into chipmunks! Haha
Below is a gallery of our doing’s in the last two months. You can read the comments to get the narrative. And don’t forget to click on the first picture to view the gallery!
All hands on deck! Sean is getting his first haircut!
A few of my charming grandsons.
Agnes made a little birthday cake!
Since gas prices are high….a new lawnmower! Haha
I’ve been using my new air fryer a lot. Some delicious beignets to dip in the homemade jam!
My rolls turned out lovely in the air fryer!
Silicone muffin cups for the air fryer.
Air fryer banana muffins made in silicone muffin cups (thus the interesting shapes)!
Sean has a new friend. 🙂
The girls went on a jaunt to a tree place with the clergy.
It was such a hot day for it…but they survived!
Peter and Juliette having a swing!
Look at those mulberry feet!
We had a tornado close by and this was the wall cloud!
Quite awesome!
A little more tranquil scene of Kansas.
Vin has just finished haying….beautiful scenery!
Gin’s beautiful bouquet!
My first rose bouquet of the year…
Our centerpiece. St. Anne watches over me….
And Z grows goats…not flowers!
Jacob caught himself something! Ugh!
He also make a beautiful mulberry pie! Yum!
Mom (Gin) supervises Emma’s making of a mulberry pie.
Looking good!
Ahhhh….lovely and delicious looking!
Harvesting lots of lettuce…
And lots of mushrooms! These are chestnut mushrooms.
These are blue oyster mushrooms.
Speaking of mushrooms…here is hubby’s farmer’s market booth.
The girls enjoy seeing the people and selling the wares.
Gemma and Emma (Emma has a mushroom face painting)! The red and yellow mushrooms are for shade.
Jeanette with precious Esther.
Grandpa’s birthday!
The kids look on as he opens their special homemade gifts!
And Theresa’s gift to Dad…Dutch shoes with unique bouquets tucked in them.
Vincent’s booth is called “Little Dutch Farm.” Both his parents immigrated from Holland.
See the mushrooms? hehe
Praying the Family Rosary outside before a Sunday potluck…
Mike and Esther…awwww
Theresa and Sophia (nicknamed “Fifi”)
Old-fashioned ice cream parlor time for Vin and Gin’s family!
Emma wears cottonwood tree trimmings in her hair!
Juliette captures our hearts with her smile!
And Sean is in the doghouse today!
Gin’s beautiful dress that she made.
I gave Sean a hat for his first birthday. Mistake.
Morel mushrooms that the girls found while foraging!
Dom and Sarah found lots! They sell for $50/lb. at the Farmer’s Market!
Our grandsons, Edward and Antonio, built this for a customer!
Father is an excellent pianist! We enjoy the music!
Precious Esther!
Esther is growing…and very cute!
Jeanette’s little people decorate with rose petals…
All along the counters, too!
For a simple family breakfast after Sunday Mass!
Ordination outfits for Mike and Jeanette’s little people.
Ordinations
Visiting with good priests
First Blessing for Agnes
Cute little people!
Father Adams, Father Cunningham
Toby is pooped after ordinations!
Good times with good friends at the Ordinations.
Vincent and I lived it up while the kids were at the Pilgrmage.
Air fryer delectables!
And homemade Maple Walnut ice cream!
While the kids were at the Pilgrimage…I stayed home and had quiet evenings….HA!
The boys went to an all-day “conference” and practiced fencing!
I’ve been making a lot of homemade granola lately. Everyone loves it!
Gin and Grandson Ben’s beautiful pie!
Johnathan and Emma catch fish in the nearby pond!
Theresa’s new little one…Sophia!
A dear friend ordered in dinner for us after the baby was born!
Big Brother Brendan holds Sophia.
The kids are so happy….baby has finally arrived!
Devin with Sophia.
Theresa and Sophia
Theresa and Devin.
Baptism…Margy and Dave are Godparents
Entering the Church
Photos
We went and visited with dear friends from our favorite place…God’s Storehouse!
Grandson Brendan makes donuts.
They look delectable!
Lucky family!
Gemma with nieces.
Another Baptism!
David and Margy are once again Godparents.
Father Eichman brings little Adele Rose to be consecrated to Our Lady.
Churching of the Mother.
Dom and Sarah are happy!
Three Grandsons received their First Holy Communion this year! Such a wonderful day!
Theresa and Godson, Adrian.
Z and Isaac
Devin and Theresa with Nathan, Isaac and Adrian.
Gin and Me with Adrian and Nathan.
All the mothers…
Lots of goodies to celebrate the First Communions!
The simple things in life are the sweetest….
The gardener’s “french manicure”.
Haha
God bless you and thanks for stopping by the gallery! 🙂
So many feasts to learn about and to celebrate with our children! These feasts are coming up and we take note and pray to them in our needs. If they have special significance in your life, then do something singular on that day…or, at the very least, teach the saint to your children!
Since she was supposed to have been the mother of seven sons, and is invoked for the bearing of male children, it is a good thing for us that my birthday is July 11 instead of July 10, or no doubt we should not have even our one daughter. You can see the powerful influence of her octave, even so.
St. Christopher (July 25). Being such a big saint, he has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. He is the patron of archers, market carriers, fruit dealers, motorists, and Christopher David Newland, and is invoked against sudden death, storms, hail, toothache, impenitence at death, and, last of all, he is the patron of fullers, who are weavers – and, as I said, our town is full of weavers.
St. Anne (July 26)
My note: St. Anne is my patron saint and, besides Our Lady, she is the patron saint of Finer Femininity. I love her dearly. How could one not? The mother of Mary must have been so very special, with so many qualities that we women strive for in our vocations. Let’s turn to her in our needs. I know she is waiting to help!
St. Anne is very special with us because she found our present house and land when we were being evicted elsewhere.
She is the patroness of old-clothes dealers, seamstresses, laceworkers, housekeepers, carpenters, turners, cabinetmakers, stablemen, and broommakers, and she is invoked against poverty and to find lost objects.
Although the martyrology doesn’t say so, she must be the patroness of Grandmothers, and we love her for that because cause we could never get along without our grandmothers – and both have Ann in their names.
The children love to recall that if she was still there when the Christ Child learned to talk, He called her Grandmother. The nicest of her tradition that her name is Anne and her husband’s Joachim; and now and then a non-Catholic will challenge the source of the “St. Anne” who we say is the Virgin’s mother.
But our Lady had a mother and father, and they must have had names, and it is as suitable to call them the traditional names of Anne and Joachim as it is to call them anything else. It is only the name that is open to challenge. The role is not. Unless, of course, they wish to propose that the Blessed Virgin was miraculously produced without the conventional parents.
Even Catholics think that’s going too far. They stubbornly insist that she must have had parents; and they love her parents because they brought her into the world. We think the best way to celebrate in honor of St. Anne is to do something lovely for the grandmothers.
Little girls might dress their best dolls as the tiny Mary this day and lay them in flower-bedecked cradles. We borrow words in her praise from the Greek liturgy this day, to add to our night prayers:
Hail, spiritual bird, announcing the spring time of grace!
Hail, sheep, mother of the ewe lamb, who by a word, conceived the Word, the Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world!
Hail, blessed earth, whence sprang the branch that bore the divine Fruit!
O Anne, most blessed in God, grandmother of Christ our Lord, who didst give to the world a shining lamp, the mother of God; together with her intercede that great may be the mercy granted to our souls.
Let us cry to holy Anne with cymbals and psaltery. She brought forth the mountain of God and was borne up to the spiritual mountains, the tabernacles of Paradise.
St. Lawrence (August 10)
Now you remember him: he was roasted on a gridiron. Guess whom he is patron of? Cooks.
Let no one say that the Fathers who wrote the martyrology or assigned the patrons didn’t have a grand and grisly sense of humor.
He is also invoked against lumbago and fire (you’d better put his name on the fire extinguisher along with St. Florian’s) and for the protection of vineyards. He is also the patron of restaurateurs.
St. Raymond Nonnatus (August 31)
He is called “nonnatus” because he was not “born,” but delivered by Caesarian section. Since so many of our friends have their babies this way, we feel it is important to have his friendship.
His mother died at his birth but he ended up a cardinal and a saint; so you see, God does take care of His little ones.
He is the patron of midwives and is invoked for women at childbirth, birth, and for little children.
St. Giles, or Egidius (September 1)
He is invoked against cancer, sterility in women, the terrors of the night (anyone have nightmares at your house?), and madness, and is the patron of cripples and spur makers. (Incidentally, the Compline hymn is a beautiful going-to-bed song for children who have nightmares: “. . . far off let idle visions fly, no phantom of the night molest.”)
There is a famous legend of St. Giles and a doe that was his friend and lived in a cave with him by the banks of the Rhone in France. One day, while running through the woods, the doe was pursued by a pack of hounds and hunters.
She raced back to the cave and disappeared inside, and the hunter leading the pack shot an arrow after her.
A moment later, Giles appeared with the arrow in his knee and the blood flowing freely. The hunter was filled with remorse, introduced himself as the king, Flavius, and offered to bring the royal physicians to treat the poor knee.
“No,” said St. Giles, “it is quite all right with me if God has permitted me to be crippled like this. He probably has some reason.”
As indeed He had, for Giles, bearing his infirmity with sweet patience for the love of God, became the patron and friend of all who share such infirmities with him.
“Holy water is water blessed by a priest with solemn prayer, to beg God’s blessing on those who use it, and protection from the powers of darkness. Have some holy water in your home. A holy water font is part of the equipment of a complete Catholic home. Use this powerful sacramental to help you keep clear of sin, and strengthen your desire to serve God in the name of the holy sign of the cross. Amen.” – Fr. Arthur Tonne, 1950
Soap Gift Box!! Includes four spring Soaps, one wooden soap dish and a beeswax lip balm! 100% natural, handcrafted, beautiful!
In the words of this humble seventeenth-century lay Carmelite, “we must trust God once and for all and abandon ourselves to Him alone.” This difficult task necessarily requires perseverance and continual conversation with God in all activities great and small: “speaking humbly and talking lovingly with Him at all times, at every moment, without rule or system…” In reading these conversations, letters, and spiritual maxims, we learn the key to endless joy.
In short, this little spiritual classic — in its fresh, contemporary English translation — renders the simple wisdom of Brother Lawrence accessible to every Christian who yearns for the fullness of life….
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From Our Children’s Year of Grace by Therese Mueller, 1955
The field has been prepared (pre-Lent), the seed has been sown (Lent), we experienced the glorious resurrection of the dead grain (Easter), we witnessed its growing, and at the “fullness of maturity” the Spirit of the Lord came to it in the fruitfulness of pollen, (Pentecost).
Now we are patiently waiting and watching for the growing and ripening of the fruit, for the great day of harvesting with Christ in his glory.
Mother Church’s colors are green, as the fields and the meadows, strewn with the white flowers of virginity and the red ones of martyrdom.
Like the land-man Mother Church keeps on praying for sunshine and rain, for the best for the souls and bodies of her children, that they may ripen full and fair, worthy to be gathered into the eternal barns.
Sunday after Sunday she leads her children to the fountain of eternal life, so that they may eat and drink their daily need of grace and divine help toward the final goal.
Each Sunday is a “Little Easter,” a re-enactment of the great mystery of resurrection from death, of new life out of the supreme sacrifice.
With our brothers from the early days of the church we must stress, concentrate on the one highfeast, celebrated over and over again on “the first day of the week,” we must make it the center of our religious life as well as of our recreation (re-creation!!) in the spiritual as well as the physical sense.
To give ourselves, our life and love, our sorrow and cares, our soul and body, our wishes and fears into the hands of the Father– “through Christ our Lord”–that is what we are expected to do and in return we will be filled with the abundance of Christ’s grace and love and perfection.
We will be transformed over and over again into “other Christs,” we will be united with him, who gloriously overcame suffering and death, who is awaiting us to give us part in his glory, after we share his suffering here on earth.
As we make each Sunday a “little Easter,” let us give to each Saturday something of the spirit of “Holy Saturday”; an atmosphere of happy preparedness and peaceful expectation of the coming day of the Lord. That is a real family task and worthwhile to work for.
Whenever I am lonesome for the home of my childhood, it is the “air” of the “Sunday Eve” I am longing for; the smell of soap and wax and fresh linen, of a simple one dish meal mixed with the promising odor of the cake for the morrow, the tip-toeing through the “best rooms,” locked for us children during the week.
“Moses take off your shoes, the place you are standing on is holy” my father used to say, often with a smile we did not see–to us it was just too true. It was as if the whole house was alive with the expectation of something great and beautiful– almost as wonderful as the Sunday itself!
Let us try to “steal” some hours from the approaching Sunday to make our minds and soul ready, to “tune in” as the church bells of my home town did, spreading peace and happiness over the roofs of the old city–as Mother Church does, when she anticipates Sunday with the Vespers on Saturday evening.
It is up to us to create a new “Sunday cult,” an atmosphere in which our children will grow up to a deeper, more religious understanding of the day of the Lord.
A nation can be no stronger than its families are, and they can be at their best in the country. And when to this natural strength we add the crowning glory of the Catholic Faith, when we strive to bring Christ to the countryside, and the land to Christ, we are certainly exercising a great apostolate. -An Australian Dominican Sister, 1950’s, Painting by Eugenio Zampighi
AUDIOBOOK!
HOW TO BE HAPPY HOW TO BE HOLY (by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan) AUDIO! This is an excellent book published in the 1950’s. You will pray as you have never prayed before. Father Paul O’Sullivan teaches Christians a) how to pray. b) how to derive immense benefits from prayer. c) how to enjoy the deep consolations of prayer.
Let this journal help you along the way, Mothers! The girls will have 30 days of checklists, beautiful thoughts to inspire them for the day, some fun things…like drawing their day and other things to keep them focused.
This next 30 days will be invaluable to them…to learn life skills, to have the satisfaction of checking off the activities they finish, to learn to be thankful for the good things God has given us, to offer up their day for someone in need, etc.
This journal is for girls 8 (with the help of Mom) to 16 years of age.
It is a beautiful journal, full of color and loveliness! Your girls will treasure it and be able to look back on it for inspiration and encouragement!
In this joyful and charming book, Maria Von Trapp (from The Sound of Music) unveils for you the year-round Christian traditions she loved traditions that created for her large family a warm and inviting Catholic home and will do the same for yours.
Mary Reed Newland wrote numerous beloved books for Catholic families, but The Year and Our Children is her undisputed masterpiece. Read it, cherish it, share it, put it into practice and give your kids the gift of a fully lived faith, every day and in every season.
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“What are you going to do when you finish school?” “Oh, get some kind of a job, I guess.”
How many Catholic young men and women today give this vague and dreary answer to a question which should call forth intelligence and heroism, zeal and hope!
And how many of us who are now parents, even those of us who had good Catholic parents and a good Catholic education, look back regretfully on many dismal years spent in finding out what our lives were for, convinced as we were that since God had not given us a priestly or religious vocation, He had no special plans for us at all.
But it is part of our faith itself to believe that God has a special plan, a vocation, for everyone, and that means for each of our children. And it is part of our faith to believe that this plan of His for each child is an integral part of His plan for the whole human race, for the upbuilding of the whole mystical Body of Christ to its final perfection.
Surely, then, one of our main tasks as parents must be to give our children a positive and realistic idea of the Christian vocation as a whole, and of the various vocations, professions, and occupations by which that vocation may be carried out by Christ’s members. And we must also do everything in our power to equip our children to find out and to fulfill the part which God has given each of them in His great plan.
Obviously, all our home life, all our education and training should tend to give our children the great plan of the Christian vocation, “to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings…doing the truth in charity, to grow up in all things in Him who is the Head.”
But even if we teach our children the outlines of this great plan, even if we also show it to them in our daily living, our education may yet fail of its purpose if we do not give them some idea of the various ways in which this great plan actually is to be furthered by daily Christian life and work, of how it may be furthered not only by a man’s general ‘state in life,’ but by the works of that state and, in particular, by the work by which he earns his daily bread.
For unless God gives our children a clear and early vocation to the priesthood or religious life, the necessities of earning a living will face them as soon as their schooling is over.
And if we have not managed to show them how ‘real life’ and earning a living, in all its rightful forms, is meant to be part of the Christian vocation, the vision we have tried to give them of God’s plan may well prove to be more of a torment than a guide, more a cause of schizophrenia than of sanctity. And what a waste!
Let us begin, then, to give ourselves as clear an idea as possible of all the rightful forms of human work, of how each of these has been ‘Christ-ened’ by our Lord’s own example and by the grace He gives us to work in Him and for Him, and of how each is meant, in God’s plan to contribute to the building up of Christ’s Body and to the re- establishment of all things in Christ.
For if we ourselves can truly see how the work of a farmer, a storekeeper, a train-dispatcher, as well as that of a doctor or teacher or priest can be truly a share in Christ’s work, then we will be prepared to give our children an intelligent and comprehensive idea of real life and of the possibilities of their own future lives.
Moreover, if our children really possess the Christian idea of work, then they will be able, with God’s grace, to help make sense out of life for their fellows in high school or college, in their neighborhood or place of work, at that most trying and difficult age when one wants the best, but is learning to expect the worst.
What a marvelous opportunity for charity this would be, were more Catholic young people trained to take advantage of it!
If we consider human nature, then, in the light of Christian teaching, we see that God made men as incomplete creatures, needing each other’s services and many kinds of material and spiritual goods and services in order to exist and grow and perfect themselves. We see also that God made men to His image and likeness so that they could fulfill each other’s needs and their own.
As God is our Creator, He made men able to be makers: as He is Truth itself, He made men able to be teachers, communicating what they learn of His wisdom to each other. And as He is Goodness and Love, the end of all human wills, He made men able to rule and guide one another toward the ends of human life.
The work of mankind, then, consists in one way or another in making, teaching, and ruling, and, because of the very relation of men to God, in the work of uniting men to God, the work of priesthood.
Farmers, herdsmen, miners, builders, storekeepers, businessmen, all who work to make or produce or make available goods and services, are, obviously, makers, and many of them are also rulers of their enterprises and of those who work under them.
A doctor is a maker of health and a teacher, as his name implies, of how to become healthy. A lawyer is (or should be) a maker of peace and order and a teacher of how to achieve it. A writer is a teacher of some aspect of wisdom and a maker of the story or play or poem or article by which he communicates his vision to others.
Now all this four-fold work of mankind was planned by God in the beginning. But it has been, obviously, warped and thwarted and perverted in many ways by sin and sinfulness throughout human history, as it has been made arduous and difficult in punishment for original sin. But it has all now been redeemed and consecrated by Christ our Lord, so that men can now, in Him and through Him, work as befits God’s children.
Our Lord was anointed with the Oil of Gladness of the Holy Spirit at the very beginning of His human life, to be the Priest, the King and the Prophet of all mankind (see the Preface for the Feast of Christ the King and the ceremony for the Consecration of Holy Chrism).
And the great work which His Father gave Him to do of making us all into a Kingdom, included during His life on earth the ordinary human work of making tools and furniture at Nazareth, and of making stories and sermons in His public life.
Since, then, by Baptism and Confirmation, we share in our Lord’s life and His powers, His work and His purpose, we can in very truth work in Him, with Him and for Him. We can make the work by which we earn our daily bread a part of our Lord’s one great work of building up the Kingdom of God.
In the first place, as we all realize from the words of the Morning Offering, because of our share in Christ’s Priesthood as baptized and confirmed Christians, we can offer our lives and work and sufferings to God with Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass.
We were incorporated into Christ’s mystical Body by Baptism. Our vitality as members of that Body is increased as we grow in grace; we are living and useful members to the degree of our union with Christ in love.
According to the degree of this union, according to the measure in which our life is at the service of Christ’s life, our activity is somehow united with His so as to share in the value of His great work. The more perfectly Christian we are, then, the more whatever we do and suffer is united with His work and suffering, represented in the Mass, for the redemption of mankind.
In this way, all our work and suffering, whatever its other value, may be transformed into a positive contribution towards the greater vitality, growth and perfection of the whole mystical Body, the welfare of mankind and the glory of God.
“One secret of a sweet and happy Christian life is learning to live by the day. It is the long stretches that tire us. We think of life as a whole, running on for us. We cannot carry this load until we are three score and ten. We cannot fight this battle continually for half a century. But really there are no long stretches. Life does not come to us all at one time; it comes only a day at a time.” -My Prayer Book, Father Lasance http://amzn.to/2mwR5u6 (afflink)
Our first line of defense is the bond we must have with our husband. Besides our spiritual life, which gives us the grace to do so, we must put our relationship with our husband first. It is something we work on each day.
How do we do this? Many times it is just by a tweaking of the attitude, seeing things from a different perspective. It is by practicing the virtues….self-sacrifice, thankfulness, kindness, graciousness, etc.
The articles in this maglet will help you with these things. They are written by authors that are solid Catholics, as well as authors with old-fashioned values….
Celebrate the Faith with your kids all year round!
For over half a century, Catholic families have treasured the practical piety and homespun wisdom of Mary Reed Newland’s classic of domestic spirituality, The Year and Our Children. With this new edition, no longer will you have to search for worn, dusty copies to enjoy Newland’s faithful insights, gentle lessons, and delightful stories. They’re all here, and ready to be shared with your family or homeschooling group. Here, too, you ll find all the prayers, crafts, family activities, litanies, and recipes that will help make your children ever-mindful of the beautiful rhythm of the Church calendar.
Author Mary Reed Newland here draws on her own experiences as the mother of seven to show how the classic Christian principles of sanctity can be translated into terms easily applied to children even to the very young.
Because it’s rooted in experience, not in theory, nothing that Mrs. Newland suggests is impossible or extraordinary. In fact, as you reflect on your experiences with your own children, you’ll quickly agree that hers is an excellent commonsense approach to raising good Catholic children.
Let Mrs. Newland show you how to introduce even your littlest ones to God and develop in your growing children virtues such as:
The habit of regular prayer
Genuine love of the Rosary
A sense of the dignity of work
Devotion to Mary and the saints
A proper love for the things of this world and for the things of Heaven
Attentiveness at Mass
Love for the Eucharist
An understanding and love of purity
The ability to make good confessions
And dozens of other skills, habits, and virtues that every good Catholic child needs
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Patriotism
