The winner will receive these lovely items to add to your Lenten/Book collection!
Just leave a comment here on this post and your name will be added to the “hat”! Winner will be announced next Tuesday, Feb. 6th!
You will get…
The Lenten Way of the Cross Picturesque and Prayer-Filled Cards with Coilbinder ~ Family/Children Activity!
Also, this wonderful book, An Easy Way to Become a Saint by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan!
A very optimistic book showing how an “ordinary” Catholic can become a great saint without ever doing anything “extraordinary”–just by using the many opportunities for holiness that to most people lie hidden in each day. Written with an assurance of success that is totally convincing and infectious. Many easy but infallible means of reaching great sanctity.
💙💙💙💙💙💙Leave a comment on this post to sign up!💙💙💙💙💙💙
Even so, O Woman, within that world which is your home and kingdom, your face is to light up and brighten and beautify all things, and your heart is to be the source of that vital fire and strength without which the father can be no true father, the brother no true brother, the sister no true sister, since all have to learn from you how to love, how to labor lovingly, how to be forgetful of self, and mindful only of the welfare of others. -Fr. Bernard O’Reilly, 1894
NEW! 🤍Old World Veil and Capelet. A beautiful twist on the normal chapel veil. Ties with a ribbon in front..made from chiffon and lace. Available here.
The entire collection of twelve Books of Saints St. Joseph Picture Books, packaged in a handsome and sturdy slipcase….
Treasury of Novenas contains over 40 popular Novenas specifically arranged in accord with the Liturgical Year on the Feasts of Jesus, Mary, and many favorite Saints. By acclaimed author Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D., this book has a rich, gold-stamped brown Dura-Lux cover and is an excellent collection of Novenas for private devotion.
This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.
After our first gathering around the Advent light, and the singing of the first Advent hymn, an air of expectancy spreads over the family group; now comes the moment when the mother goes around with a bowl in which are the little cards with the names of the new saints.
Everybody draws a card and puts it in his missal. This saint will be invoked every morning after Morning Prayer. Everyone is supposed to look up and study the life story of his new friend, and sometime during the coming year he will tell the family all about it.
As there are so many of us, we come to know about different saints every year. Sometimes this calls for considerable research on the part of the unfortunate one who has drawn St. Eustachius, for instance, or St. Bibiana.
But the custom has become very dear to us, and every year it seems as if the family circle were enlarged by all those new brothers and sisters entering in and becoming known and loved by all.
And then comes another exciting moment. Once more the mother appears with the bowl, which she passes around. This time the pieces of paper contain the names of the members of the family and are neatly rolled up, because the drawing has to be done in great secrecy.
The person whose name one has drawn is now in one’s special care. From this day until Christmas, one has to do as many little favors for him or her as one can. One has to provide at least one surprise every single day—but without ever being found out.
This creates a wonderful atmosphere of joyful suspense, kindness, and thoughtfulness.
Perhaps you will find that somebody has made your bed or shined your shoes or has informed you, in a disguised handwriting on a holy card, that “a rosary has been said for you today” or a number of sacrifices have been offered up.
This new relationship is called “Christkindl” (Christ Child) in the old country, where children believe that the Christmas tree and the gifts under it are brought down by the Christ Child himself.
The beautiful thing about this particular custom is that the relationship is a reciprocal one. The person whose name I have drawn and who is under my care becomes for me the helpless little Christ Child in the manger; and as I am performing these many little acts of love and consideration for someone in the family I am really doing them for the Infant of Bethlehem, according to the word, “And he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me.”
That is why this particular person turns into “my Christkindl.” At the same time I am the “Christkindl” also for the one I am caring for because I want to imitate the Holy Child and render all those little services in the same spirit as He did in that small house of Nazareth, when as a child He served His Mother and His foster father with a similar love and devotion.
Many times throughout these weeks can be heard such exclamations as, “I have a wonderful Christkindl this year!” or, “Goodness, I forgot to do something for my Christkindl and it is already suppertime!”
It is a delightful custom, which creates much of the true Christmas spirit and ought to be spread far and wide.
And there is still one very important thing to do for Advent. According to Austrian custom, every member of the family writes a letter to the Holy Child mentioning his resolutions for the weeks of Advent and listing all his wishes for gifts. This “Christkindl Brief” (letter to the Holy Child) is put on the window sill, from whence the Guardian Angel will take it up to heaven to read it aloud to the Holy Child.
To make small children (and older ones, too) aware of the happy expectancy of Advent, there is a special Advent calendar which clever hands can make at home.
It might be a house with windows for each day of Advent; every morning the child opens another window, behind which appears a star, an angel, or some other picture appropriate to the season.
On the 23rd, all windows are open, but the big entrance door still is closed. That is opened on Christmas Eve, when it reveals the Holy Child in the manger, or a Christmas tree.
All kinds of variations on this theme are possible, such as the Jacob’s Ladder shown on our illustration, which leads step by step to the day of Christ’s birth. All such little aids make Christmas more wonderful and “special” to a child, and preparing them adds to our own Christmas joy.
{Advent Calendar: Take piece of cardboard; cut out clouds, leaving them attached at one point so that they can fold out. Cut spaces in ladder as on insert so that they can fold down. Take transparent paper same size as cardboard. Paint and draw pictures of stars, angels, toys, etc. on spots behind clouds and ladder steps. For top cloud, put Christmas tree or Christ Child in crib. Paste this on back of calendar. Each day another cloud or ladder step should be opened, until Christmas Eve is reached on top of ladder.}
“Where on earth shall we find Jesus but in the arms of Mary! Was it not she who gave us the Eucharist? It was her consent to the Incarnation of the Word that inaugurated the great mystery of reparation to God and union with us which Jesus accomplished during His mortal life, and that he continues in the Eucharist.” -St. Peter Julian Eymard,
Advent Journal Printable~Daily Checklist~Spiritual Christmas Crib~St. Andrew Novena~Advent Wreath Prayers~Blessing of Christmas Tree & More!
Review: (Thank you Annamaria!)
Love the Advent Journal. A wonderful way to keep my heart, soul and mind on the way toward Christmas …. In fact I am always looking at all the journals put together by Meadows of Grace. Unfortunately I never thought I would be able to purchase this because for Australian customers the postage costs more than than the journal!!!! So I am so grateful and delighted that Leane offers a printable version, so very happy to join with so many others following the journey toward Christmas. God bless you abundantly Leane😘❤️
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.
Delicious Christmas teas…. I love this brand of tea! What a great Christmas gift idea!
This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.
This atmosphere of “hurry up, let’s go” does not provide the necessary leisure in which to anticipate and celebrate a feast. But as soon as people stop celebrating they really do not live any more–they are being lived, as it were…
“After our first gathering around the Advent light, and the singing of the first Advent hymn, an air of expectancy spreads over the family group; now comes the moment when the mother goes around with a bowl in which are the little cards with the names of the new saints….”
Advent Giveaway!
And Now…
I’d like to offer you a Book Giveaway!!
The winner will receive these lovely books to add to your book collection!
Just leave a comment here on this post and your name will be added to the “hat”! Winner will be announced next Wednesday, November 23rd!
You will get…
Advent & Christmas Package!
Advent Christmas Cheerful Chats for Catholic Children and Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas!
Advent & Christmas Cheerful Chats for Catholic Children:
This is a unique book of Advent and Christmas stories and devotions for Catholic children. There is nothing routine and formal about these stories. They are interesting, full of warmth and dipped right out of life. These anecdotes will help children know about God, as each one unfolds a truth about the saints, the Church, the virtues, etc.
These are short faith-filled stories, within the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Each story is followed by a few questions, a prayer, and a short poem enabling the moral of each story to sink into the minds of your little ones.
The stories are only a page long so tired mothers, who still want to give that “tucking in” time a special touch, or pause a brief moment during their busy day to gather her children around her, can feel good about bringing the realities of our faith to the minds of her children in a childlike, (though not childish), way.
There is a small poem and a picture at the end of each story. Through these small stories, parents will sow seeds of our Holy Catholic Faith that will enrich their families!
Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas with Your Family:
These are short faith-filled stories, within the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Each story is followed by a few questions, a prayer, and a short poem enabling the moral of each story to sink into the minds of your little ones.
The stories are only a page long so tired mothers, who still want to give that “tucking in” time a special touch, or pause a brief moment during their busy day to gather her children around her, can feel good about bringing the realities of our faith to the minds of her children in a childlike, (though not childish), way.
There is a small poem and a picture at the end of each story. Through these small stories, parents will sow seeds of our Holy Catholic Faith that will enrich their families!
“For the families who begin to suspect that they have let their lives get too complicated with worldly cares, too much involved in secular values, too materialistic, living through the year with the Church is the stabilizer, the way to keep to first things first.
And for the families who conceal behind their front doors some hardship or cross, whether a suffering shared or inflicted or borne, the tempo of life in Christ as He leads the Church at prayer through the year is calming, enriching; it brings wisdom, sheds light, gives courage.” -Mary Reed Newland
Doilies by Rosie! These are beautiful, lacy, handmade doilies made with size 10 crochet cotton. They have been blocked and starched and are ready to decorate and accent your home decor.
“The quality & workmanship of this crocheted doily is superb! And the beauty even more so–I am so happy to be able to purchase a handmade doily just as lovely as my grandma used to make…”
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.
This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.
First Book: Advent & Christmas Cheerful Chats for Catholic Children
This is a unique book of Advent and Christmas stories and devotions for Catholic children. There is nothing routine and formal about these stories. They are interesting, full of warmth and dipped right out of life. These anecdotes will help children know about God, as each one unfolds a truth about the saints, the Church, the virtues, etc.
These are short faith-filled stories, within the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Each story is followed by a few questions, a prayer, and a short poem enabling the moral of each story to sink into the minds of your little ones.
The stories are only a page long so tired mothers, who still want to give that “tucking in” time a special touch, or pause a brief moment during their busy day to gather her children around her, can feel good about bringing the realities of our faith to the minds of her children in a childlike, (though not childish), way.
There is a small poem and a picture at the end of each story. Through these small stories, parents will sow seeds of our Holy Catholic Faith that will enrich their families!
Second Book: Celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas with Your Family
This practice of doing the Twelve Days of Christmas can change your family’s Liturgical holiday life!
Why? Because it will help you make the Christmas Season festive after Christmas has arrived for those twelve specific days (with Epiphany as the 13th Day of Christmas). Knowing you have prepared for this season of Yuletide when it actually arrives will encourage you to focus on Advent more thoroughly so that once you reach the climax of that Penitential season..Christmas…you will be prepared to truly celebrate this amazing time of the Church’s Liturgical Calendar!
Each day has an activity and a lovely coloring page dedicated to it. The activities are simple and doable.
At the beginning of the book there is a checklist for the supplies so that you can gather them throughout the Advent Season. Then you will have everything ready to make the Twelve (actually thirteen, including Epiphany) Days of Christmas special!
So, when all the songs have stopped on the radio, the decorations taken down, the tree thrown out and red hearts begin to appear as everyone anxiously awaits Valentine’s Day, you and your family will be joyfully giving the Baby Jesus His proper welcome into this world!
BOOK GIVEAWAY!!
And Now…
I’d like to offer you a Book Giveaway!!
The winner will receive these lovely books to add to your book collection!
The first volume of the The Integrity Series, My Life with Thomas Aquinas, is this publisher’s most popular book on everyday American family living. The chapters included are:
*Why Aren’t Americans Contemplative? *The Age of Lay Sanctity *Job Hunting and Vocation *A Christian Abnormal Psychology *About Television *Contemporary American Protestantism *The Science of Temptation *Catholic Action and Responsibility *Christian Vocation Guidance *The Pertinence of Penance *The Catholic Press Today *Optimism
~ True Womanhood Maglet (Magazine/Booklet)
CONTENTS
Travelers – True Womanhood The Snug Safety of God’s Love Before Embarking Is Order in Your Life Just Around the Corner? The Kingdom of God is Within You Character Building – Beautiful Girlhood The Hail Mary of a Protestant The Wife Desired is an Inspiration to Her Husband Learning Life Lessons in the Oddest Places Family, Fun and Festive Fall How to Instill Obedience Purity in Company-Keeping Accept Him As He Is Meekness Ten Rules to Being Happy Parents Have You Prayed to St. Gomer Lately? Seven Days of Prayer for Your Marriage Sunday Morning Stories – The Two Tears Recipe – Spicy Chai Tea Reflections on the Holy Family Smorgasbord ‘n’ Smidgens
Just leave a comment here, and your name will be added! It is always great to hear from you. 🙂
I will announce the winner next Thursday, October 6th!
“There is also the question of time. Where do we find the time to participate in the Church’s liturgical year with our children? Like these other questions, the answer is, we can find it if we plan for it. We can find it quite easily by looking to see where we waste it. Not wasting it is not easy, because the habits of time-wasting, although they are harmless, are hard to break – as I know from experience. Mothers have this struggle all to themselves. It involves such things as the radio (now internet) habit, coffee breaks, long telephone conversations, chatting with neighbors, a heavy involvement in outside activities. Somewhere most American women CAN “find time” to devote to the enriching of their families’ spiritual life. The joyous discovery is that once we have struggled and found the time, tasted and seen how sweet are these pursuits together, we begin to gauge all our doings so that there will be time – because we are convinced there must be.” -Mary Reed Newland
Package Special! The Catholic Boy’s and Girl’s Traditional 30-Day Journals! Let’s keep our youth engaged in the Faith! Let’s teach them how to be organized, how to prioritize, how to keep on top of, first, the Spiritual things in their lives, and then the other daily duties that God requires of them… Available here.
The role of fatherhood — Catholic fatherhood — has been diminished in three ways. First, it has become smaller. Fewer things are defined as a father’s distinctive work. Secondly, fatherhood has been devalued. Third, and most important, fatherhood has been decultured – stripped of any authoritative social content or definition.
The question is, “What do fathers do?” The tragedy of our society is that it can’t answer the question and neither can most Catholics. Forward – thinking Integrity Magazine gives answers:
• Men, Mary, and Manliness
• The Family Has Lost Its Head
• Economics of the Catholic Family
• Afraid to Marry?
• Glorifying the Daily Grind
• The Heroism of the Big Family
• Bringing the Church into Work
• Forward to the Land.
• Holiness for Men
• The Confirmed Hero
• What Is a Grown-up?
• The Father in the Home
• A Man’s Work
• Our Work Can Help Us to Pray
• Money, Money, Money!
• The State, Our Common Good
Archbishop Sheen knew that no matter what our circumstances may be, the deadliest enemy we face is armed not with a gun but with temptation. In dangerous, uncertain times like ours, the Devil lures us quickly into lust, anger, hatred, and despair. Fulton Sheens Wartime Prayer Book will help keep you from these vices so that you, too, can put on the armor of God and triumph over evil in our day.
This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.
Thank you all for your kind and encouraging comments on the Apron Giveaway Post! They mean a lot! ❤️❤️❤️
AND NOW, THE WINNER IS….
CONGRATULATIONS, STEPHANIE! I have sent you an email!
I have read this book more than once. It is delightful. And it is now reprinted! (I paid $50 back in the day for my copy…there are some books that are just worth it!)
It is not just for those aspiring to become a nun. It has so many lovely spiritual lessons within the book! Available here.
This book is an autobiography written by Mother Catherine Thomas and published in 1957. It tells of her journey as a normal, happy young lady who enjoyed life in its wholesomeness.
She chooses Carmel and eventually becomes the Mother Superior. It tells of her spiritual journey and is charmingly candid and human.
It is good reading for young and old.
These reviews sum it up well:
“My Beloved: the Story of a Carmelite Nun is an American Carmelite classic about a young woman, Cecilia Walsh, who answers the call of God and so enters a Carmelite Monastery in New York (later moving to a new foundation in Oklahoma).
This is her autobiography. She reveals many things about the hidden life of Carmel… the simplest things often wondered about. She speaks of the work, recreation, prayers, meal times, silence, ceremonies, vows, the Rules and Constitutions and much more of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns.
She is very detailed in writing. She does all of this while recounting her own struggles and successes physically, mentally, and spiritually as a postulant, novice, and finally professed sister. It is an absolute delight to read because she is so intimate, simple, and even comical in her writing. It is interesting and captivating… I couldn’t put it down. I read practically straight through it in one setting. It has wonderful wisdom for lay as well as religious, and I would recommend it to both as well as those not of the Catholic faith.”
“Great personal account of one ordinary girl’s journey into the Carmelite order, a very readable and interesting blend of autobiography and theology. Inspiring reading for the vocationally discerning, but a fascinating story for anyone else interested in Catholicism.“
“It has excellent spiritual advice for those who are considering consecrated life and also for the laity. I loved it very much and it helped me a lot to grow spiritually as a lay woman. :)”
A few pictures from the older version of the book (click on first picture to view gallery):
A reporter interviewing Mother Catherine
A nun arranging one of the original barrack cells on the day of the move.
Mother Catherine writing in the barn loft.
A nun milking the monastery cow.
“The love of parents is made manifest only through sacrifice, respect for the human nature of their children, companionship and a deep interest in the studies, the work, the play and the progress of their children. It does not injure the children by coddling them; it does not stunt them by unreasonable severity in its demands and punishments.” -Fr. Donald Miller, C.SS.R., 1950’s
A little encouragement in your search for modest blouses for the hot weather along with a little tutorial on shortening and hemming your blouse sleeves...
In With God in Russia, Ciszek reflects on his daily life as a prisoner, the labor he endured while working in the mines and on construction gangs, his unwavering faith in God, and his firm devotion to his vows and vocation. Enduring brutal conditions, Ciszek risked his life to offer spiritual guidance to fellow prisoners who could easily have exposed him for their own gains. He chronicles these experiences with grace, humility, and candor, from his secret work leading mass and hearing confessions within the prison grounds, to his participation in a major gulag uprising, to his own “resurrection”—his eventual release in a prisoner exchange in October 1963 which astonished all who had feared he was dead.
Powerful and inspirational, With God in Russia captures the heroic patience, endurance, and religious conviction of a man whose life embodied the Christian ideals that sustained him…..
Captured by a Russian army during World War II and convicted of being a “Vatican spy,” Jesuit Father Walter J. Ciszek spent 23 agonizing years in Soviet prisons and the labor camps of Siberia. Only through an utter reliance on God’s will did he manage to endure the extreme hardship. He tells of the courage he found in prayer–a courage that eased the loneliness, the pain, the frustration, the anguish, the fears, the despair. For, as Ciszek relates, the solace of spiritual contemplation gave him an inner serenity upon which he was able to draw amidst the “arrogance of evil” that surrounded him. Ciszek learns to accept the inhuman work in the infamous Siberian salt mines as a labor pleasing to God. And through that experience, he was able to turn the adverse forces of circumstance into a source of positive value and a means of drawing closer to the compassionate and never-forsaking Divine Spirit.
He Leadeth Me is a book to inspire all Christians to greater faith and trust in God–even in their darkest hour. As the author asks, “What can ultimately trouble the soul that accepts every moment of every day as a gift from the hands of God and strives always to do his will?” This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.
Catholic Mother Goose ~ Jack and Jill, Sing a Song of Sixpence, The Rats are in the Monastery, etc.
Join me as we read some delightful poems from Catholic Mother Goose….highlighting the beautiful traditions of our Faith. The Children will be reminded of such things as the sacramentals, the timeless truths of the Catholic Religion, the Works of Mercy, etc.
What a fun and easy way to turn those little minds to what is most important in their lives….their Catholic Faith!
Today, I’d like to offer you a Spring Giveaway!!
The winner will receive this lovely, fully lined Apron made by Gin!
Aprons tell a beautiful story…..a story of love and sacrifice….of baking bread and mopping floors, of planting seeds and household chores. Sadly, many women have tossed the aprons aside and donned their business attire. Wear your apron with joy….it is a symbol of Femininity….”Finer” Femininity! 🌺 💗
Just leave a comment here, and your name will be added! It is always so great to hear from you. 🙂
I will announce the winner next Thursday, June 26th!
To see more of Gin’s aprons for sale visit our Etsy Shop here.
“Let not your imperfections discourage you; your God does not despise you because you are imperfect and infirm; on the contrary, He loves you because you desire to cure your ills. He will come to your assistance and make you more perfect than you would have dared to hope, and adorned by His own hand, your beauty will be unequaled, like His own goodness.” Divine Intimacy
Beautiful Our Lady Wire Wrapped Rosaries! Lovely, Durable. Each link is handmade and wrapped around itself to ensure quality. Available here.
Here is a complete guide to mature, responsible, even noble behavior in our complex modern society. Written in the 1930s by a wise Jesuit priest and steeped in the wisdom of the ages, these pages teach the timeless principles that have led countless souls to true success and lasting happiness.
Without condescension, Fr. Garesché shows how to maintain a healthy mind, resist temptations, grow temperate, practice fortitude, think kindly of others, and choose worthwhile amusements. He even explains how to accept criticism graciously and how to develop the kind of confidence that is not rooted in pride, but is the necessary foundation for any life that will be productive and holy. Once you assimilate the wisdom here, you’ll know how to find genuine success the success that transcends money, fame, and pleasure.
Fr. Garesché shows you how to become an apostle for Christ in myriad ways, not only at home among your family and friends, but even at work. Youll learn how to talk about religion with your friends as naturally as you discuss sports or current events. He even gives you tips on how you can bear witness to your faith in Jesus Christ not just in what you say, but in what you do.
This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.
🌼🌼Hello there! Today I am going to announce the winner of the FF Easter Giveaway, but first I would like to share some pictures to brighten your day or maybe give you some inspiration.🌼🌼
God hides His blessings in our crosses. Below are some pictures of the new adventure of Mushrooms and Micro-Greens that hubby has begun since he has had to deal with a crippled leg throughout the winter.
His leg is slowly improving. He has been going to weekly Physical Therapy for 8 weeks now. His leg could only bend at 45 degree angle when he started. It is now at 113 degrees and he can do a full revolution of the bike pedal for the first time! It is still sore, swollen and he limps…but we are getting there!
Back to ‘Shrooms, etc. Vincent is excellent at growing things and he is loving his new venture. There are many medicinal benefits to mushrooms and they are delicious. So he is selling them at the Farmer’s Market and doing quite well with them! Also his micro-greens which are power-packed with nutrients!
Micro-Greens….broccoli, sunflower, pea, etc.
Angelo tending the booth. “Little “Dutch Farm” because both of Vincent’s parents immigrated from Holland. 😀
Blue Oyster Mushroom
Hannah and Gemma look after the Booth one Saturday.
Who can resist those smiling faces!
Yum! Deep-Fried Mushrooms!
A photo of Gin. You wouldn’t think she has 10 children!
Here is her craft room….well, one corner of it. All her material awaits the sewing machine to be transformed into something beautiful!
Gin is showing off her Easter dress that she made.
She loves Vintage items so here are the buttons she uses on her Easter dress!
Her bath salt corner
Lovely Bath Salts available on our Etsy Shop!
Theresa’s children all dressed in blue for the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary!
Many flowers surround our Lady as we do the Consecration led by Father.
All sizes of people bring flowers up to Our Lady….quite moving!
Everyone prays in front of Our Lady…
We hosted a “Young Adult Night” at our home. It was alot of fun with games and a bonfire.
Lots of good young men and women!
Lent proceeds and we put our spring doily under the newly bloomed daffodils!
Adrian passed his First Communion test and is excited to be among those to receive Our Lord for the first time in May!
Gin’s birthday and she isn’t as long-winded as she needed to be to blow out all the candles!
Finishing it off!
Opening gifts…
Haha…Little David, Gin’s youngest.
April “Rosie’s Posie’s” with the nieces. Crochet lesson first….
Daisy Maisy-Heads! 🌼🌼
Jeanette’s newborn, Esther Therese! 6lbs, 2 oz.
Grandma
Rosie, Godmother.
Sisters loving their sweet little baby!
A new saint!
Angelo is Godfather.
Jeanette, Mommy.
Sweet Family.
Mike, Jeanette & Esther
And now….
CONGRATULATIONS JOAN! I HAVE SENT YOU AN EMAIL!
We must take great care to be encouragers of our children. They will only be with us for a short time. What kind of legacy do we want to leave for our children? ….One of hope, love and inspiration or one of negativity and criticism? Take those moments today to listen to them, to smile at them and to see the wonderful good inside of them. Let’s start the habit today of seeing the positive in our children!
Beautiful Our Lady Wire Wrapped Rosary! Lovely, Durable… Each link is handmade and wrapped around itself to ensure quality. Available here.
A must-read for the married and those considering marriage! This guidebook to finding a happy marriage, keeping a happy marriage, and raising happy children has been out of print for over 50 years…until now! From the master of the spiritual life, Raoul Plus, S.J., it contains loads of practical and spiritual advice on family life. Have you been looking for a handbook on marriage and raising children that is based on truth? You’ve found it!
The saints assure us that simplicity is the virtue most likely to draw us closer to God and make us more like Him.
No wonder Jesus praised the little children and the pure of heart! In them, He recognized the goodness that arises from an untroubled simplicity of life, a simplicity which in the saints is completely focused on its true center, God.
That’s easy to know, simple to say, but hard to achieve.
For our lives are complicated and our personalities too. (We even make our prayers and devotions more complicated than they need be!)
In these pages, Fr. Raoul Plus provides a remedy for the even the most tangled lives.
This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.
The winner will receive this lovely book to add to your book collection!
Raising Your Children
Confusion prevails about the job of bringing up children. Integrity magazine, a post-WWII journal by lay Catholics for living an integral Catholic life, has been sifted for insightful articles on every aspect of raising children:
Teaching Children to Pray
Purity and the Young Child
Creative Activity
The Dating System
Crisis of Faith in Youth
The Vocation of Parents
Marriage for Keeps
and MUCH more all in short easy to read article-chapters.
Beautiful Lacy Veil
This “Sheer Rose” Veil can be worn as a chapel veil or as a lacy scarf! What a beautiful color for Easter and spring! 🌺🌺🌷🌷
Just leave a comment here, and your name will be added! It is always great to hear from you.I will announce the winner next Tuesday, April 11th!
Quotable Quotes
Teach your children to show great respect to the clergy. Mary, Queen of the Clergy, pray for us. (Picture of Pope Pius XII)
“Religious have no need of particular friendships, but those living in the world need them as a mutual strength and aid in the many difficult passages that have to be crossed.
For those who live in the midst of the world and yet strive for true virtue, it is necessary to ally themselves to one another by a holy and sacred friendship through which they stimulate, assist and encourage each other toward good.Those who walk on level ground do not need to hold hands, but those who climb steep and slippery roads need to hold on to each other in order to progress more securely.” -St. Francis de Sales, Friendship http://amzn.to/2oamBi4 (afflink)
“In establishing your home, adopt the characteristics of the holy house of Nazareth. In proportion as you do so, you will have fashioned for yourselves a replica of the happiest home that ever was on earth.” -Fr. Lovasik, Catholic Family Handbook http://amzn.to/2pUoQE9 (afflink)
“At the hour of death the Holy Masses you have heard devoutly will be your greatest consolation.”
(Illustration: Angelo von Courten,1848 – 1925)
“The very presence of a woman who knows how to combine an enlightened piety with mildness, tact, and thoughtful sympathy, is a constant sermon; she speaks by her very silence, she instills convictions without argument, she attracts souls without wounding susceptibilities; and both in her own house and in her dealings with men and things, which must necessarily be often rude and painful, she plays the part of the soft cotton wool we put between precious but fragile vases to prevent their mutually injuring each other.” – Monseigneur Landriot, Archbishop of Rheims, 1872 -Loreto Publications http://www.loretopubs.org/sins-of-the-tongue-or-jealousy-in-womans-life.html
“Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself…do not be disheartened by your imperfections, but always rise up with fresh courage.”
― St. Francis de Sales
“This art of housekeeping is not learned in a day; those of us who have been engaged in it for years are constantly finding out how little we know, and how far we are, after all, from perfection. It requires a clever woman to keep house; and as I said before there is ample scope, even within the four walls of a house (a sphere which some affect to despise), for the exercise of originality, organizing power, administrative ability. And to the majority of women I would fain believe it is the most interesting and satisfactory of all feminine occupations.” -Annie S. Swan http://amzn.to/2mSz6gA Courtship and Marriage And the Gentle Art of Home-Making (afflink)
“Modern mothers have been relying on psychology books to interpret child behavior for so long now that if all the psychology books were burned to a crisp, few mothers could relax with the conviction that God’s love, the maternal instinct, and divine grace could take their place. What we all — little or big — want is God; if we do not realize it, however, we choose many ignoble things in His place. And if we want to teach children to be good with a goodness that’s lasting, we must teach them to be good for the love of God.”
Mary Reed Newland, How to Raise Good Catholic Children, 1954 http://amzn.to/2qCq6Md (afflink)
At any rate, she has by nature the power, the art, and the disposition to please, to soothe, to charm, and to captivate. It is a wonderful power; and we see daily women exerting it in a wonderful way. Why will not women who are truly good, or who sincerely strive to be so, not make it the chief study of their lives to find out and acquire the sovereign art of making their influence as healthful, as cheering, as blissful as the sunlight and the warmth are to their homes? – Rev Bernard O’Reilly, True Womanhood, 1894 http://amzn.to/2mPm81e (afflink)
“Boys and girls must be taught as tiny tots to love modesty. Even though they are too young to sin, they can and ought to be impressed with the beauty of modesty. Training in modesty is pre-eminently the function of the home, to be begun from earliest childhood.” -Archbishop Meyer of Milwaukee, Dressing With Dignity, Colleen Hammond http://amzn.to/2qpQB6H (afflink)
One who, in order to please God, perseveres in prayer although he finds no consolation in it, but rather repugnance, gives Him a beautiful proof of true love. –Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, Divine Intimacy
Package Special! The Catholic Boy’s and Girl’s Traditional 30-Day Journals! Let’s keep our youth engaged in the Faith! Let’s teach them how to be organized, how to prioritize, how to keep on top of, first, the Spiritual things in their lives, and then the other daily duties that God requires of them… 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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Today, I’d like to offer you a Pre-Lenten Giveaway!!
The winner will receive these lovely books to add to your book collection!
You will get…
~Motherhood and Family…Gleaned from the INTEGRITY magazine series in the 1950’s, the 16 chapters of Motherhood and Family can be summarized in the following lines.
Get out of the way while God sanctifies your child through danger and suffering. Avoid the discouragement of reforming your husband according to your ideas of (feminine) holiness. Multiply the spiritual goods coming from homebirth and breastfeeding. Debunk worldly notions of love and romance for your growing girls. Use the watchwords of common sense and courage to help your family. Invite poverty to be a necessary part of your Family Rule. Serve the Church, family, and parish as a single woman. Understand the similarities between marriage and consecrated religious life which advance holiness. Prepare for the end of active motherhood and the beginning of a gracious old age.
Motherhood and Family is the book for girls, young ladies, and women of all ages who look to enjoy the privilege of being a woman, or who are prayerfully desiring to discover it or to recover it.
Lent is that special season wherein we teach our children the value of sacrifice and of discipline. This journal will lay out some simple activities in which your children will be doing their sacrifices and will have a tangible means of “counting” them for Jesus. You, Mom, will have a place to put a check mark if that the activity is remembered and completed for the day.
This journal also includes a place for you to check off whether you are fulfilling your own personal resolutions…your Spiritual Reading, your Family Rosary, etc. It makes it more palpable if you can check it off at the end of the day….there’s just something about putting pen to paper when an accomplishment has been fulfilled! My hope is that this journal may help you stay focused on making this Lent fruitful for your own soul and the souls of those little people entrusted to your care!
Just leave a comment here, and your name will be added! It is always great to hear from you.I will announce the winner next Friday, February 25th!
It IS interesting, isn’t it, how, in the last decades, women are made to feel as if they are being “losers”, “nobodys” if they are dedicated to the home..They are not using their talents if they aren’t out working in the world.
Truly, I find that illogical. How many talents does it make to run a pleasant home, raise good children, have a healthy relationship with someone you rub shoulders with night and day? That, in itself, is a full-time job…not to mention if some are homeschooling, seeking out healthy alternatives, helping with their parish life, etc., etc.
No, it takes a brave, committed, responsible, hard-working adult to do what it takes to raise a Godly family in today’s society. -Finer Femininity, Painting by Alfred Rodriguez www.finerfem.com
Oh Queen, my Mother, I give you my whole self. And to show my devotion to you, I offer to you my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my whole being. Wherefore, as I am your own, keep me, defend me, as your property and possession. By holding your hand, you lead me to your Son, and I have the surest and easiest path to heaven.
If we could get people to work together without jealousy, it would help God’s work immensely. . . .
Are there any against whom I feel tempted to bear a grudge? Any of whose misfortunes I feel a little pleasure in hearing? Why am I willing to listen to conversation disparaging to someone else? Can I cleanse my soul of touchiness and jealousy? How can I become more and more unselfish, and efface myself?
Let me put aside considerations of my own satisfaction. . . . Ask Our Lord in Holy Communion to free you from touchiness and jealousy. -Fr. Daniel Considine, 1950’s
Home is the place where a man should appear at his best. He who is bearish at home and polite only abroad is no true gentleman; indeed, he who can not be considerate to those of his own household will never really be courteous to strangers. There is no better training for healthy and pleasant intercourse with the outer world than a bright and cheerful demeanor at home. It is in a man’s home that his real character is seen; as he appears there, so he is really elsewhere, however skillfully he may for the time conceal his true nature. -Fr. Lovasik, Painting by Alfredo Rodriguez
“The very presence of a woman who knows how to combine an enlightened piety with mildness, tact, and thoughtful sympathy, is a constant sermon; she speaks by her very silence, she instills convictions without argument, she attracts souls without wounding susceptibilities; and both in her own house and in her dealings with men and things, which must necessarily be often rude and painful, she plays the part of the soft cotton wool we put between precious but fragile vases to prevent their mutually injuring each other.” – Monseigneur Landriot, Archbishop of Rheims, 1872 -Loreto Publications
In a happy home, parents often hold firm against other allurements which tempt them to put the needs of their children in an inferior place. Such allurements include the desire for an overly active social life, the constant pursuit of pleasure in the form of commercial entertainment and the exclusive choice of hobbies (golf, cards, dancing clubs, etc.) from which children are excluded. -Fr. George Kelly, 1950’s
“The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin…If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the Rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors.” – Pope Pius XI
In happy families, father and mother occupy a position of equality, but there is no misunderstanding that he is the head. The importance of the mother is an accepted fact. She is the heart of the family–the custodian of love and warmth, the first comforter and educator of the children. In according her a just status, however, we must not weaken the father’s traditional position. -Fr. George Kelly, 1950’s
“If the wife makes the first effort at reconciliation, her humility will make it difficult for the husband to nurse his pride. Pride cannot face up to humility. It is shamed out of existence. – Fr. Leo Kinsella http://amzn.to/2iF5UJR (afflink)
Alice von Hildebrand – “St. Francis de Sales tells us that pious women should be well-dressed, but this doesn’t mean they must become slaves of fashion. There’s a way of dressing which is attractive, even elegant, but at the same time modest and simple. More importantly, attractiveness shouldn’t be reserved for guests and those you meet outside the home, while you ‘let yourself go’ when you’re at home. The moment a couple marries, they should begin to try always to be at their best for each other, physically (and above all) spiritually.” The Privilege of Being a Woman, http://amzn.to/2p2Oyrr (afflink)
“A mother holds her baby in her arms, looks up to God, and knows that she, by months of suffering and patience, has co-operated with Him in making and bringing into the world a little body housing a priceless soul. A father stands above his new-born son resting in the arms of his wife, and knows as he picks him up and weighs him tenderly that he has shared with God the Father His very fatherhood; for this mite of humanity, immortal in destiny, is truly his son. Mother and father together have co-operated with God in the astonishing creation of a human being.” -Fr. Daniel A. Lord, 1950’s
If you really want to be a penitent soul –both penitent and cheerful – you must above all stick to your daily periods of prayer, which should be fervent, generous and not cut short. And you must make sure that those minutes of prayer are not done only when you feel the need, but at fixed times, whenever it is possible. Don’t neglect these details. If you subject yourself to this daily worship of God, I can assure you that you will always be happy. -St. Josemaria
Make a statement with one of these lovely and graceful handcrafted apron….fully lined….made with care.
Aprons tell a beautiful story…..a story of love and sacrifice….of baking bread and mopping floors, of planting seeds and household chores. Sadly, many women have tossed the aprons aside and donned their business attire.
Wear your apron with joy….it is a symbol of Femininity….”Finer” Femininity! 🌺 💗 Available here.
The role of fatherhood — Catholic fatherhood — has been diminished in three ways. First, it has become smaller. Fewer things are defined as a father’s distinctive work. Secondly, fatherhood has been devalued. Third, and most important, fatherhood has been decultured – stripped of any authoritative social content or definition.
The question is, “What do fathers do?” The tragedy of our society is that it can’t answer the question and neither can most Catholics. Forward – thinking Integrity Magazine gives answers:
• Men, Mary, and Manliness • The Family Has Lost Its Head • Economics of the Catholic Family • Afraid to Marry? • Glorifying the Daily Grind • The Heroism of the Big Family • Bringing the Church into Work • Forward to the Land. • Holiness for Men • The Confirmed Hero • What Is a Grown-up? • The Father in the Home • A Man’s Work • Our Work Can Help Us to Pray • Money, Money, Money! • The State, Our Common Good
Archbishop Sheen knew that no matter what our circumstances may be, the deadliest enemy we face is armed not with a gun but with temptation. In dangerous, uncertain times like ours, the Devil lures us quickly into lust, anger, hatred, and despair. Fulton Sheens Wartime Prayer Book will help keep you from these vices so that you, too, can put on the armor of God and triumph over evil in our day.
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I meant to get this out yesterday but, well…busy time of the year!!
Thank you all for your lovely and encouraging words on the Giveaway post. May the rest of your Advent be filled with preparation, trust and hope!!
The Winner of the Finer Femininity Christmas Giveaway is…
Congratulations Josephine! I have been having some issues with my email program which means I can’t find your email. Could you please send me your address? Thank you!
vinceandleane@earthlink.net
Would you be so kind as to say a prayer? It is for my husband, Vincent, who is suffering from spinal stenosis (as I have mentioned in previous posts), which in turn is pressing on his sciatic nerve. He is in pain each day and for one who detests taking any kind of drug…well, he is on a steady diet and has been for weeks!
We are going in for a consultation on plans for a MISS (Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery) but you have to be a candidate for this type of surgery…in other words the damage has to be where this type of surgery will work.
He has not been able to work for weeks…(though he does plenty around here)! But there are many things he cannot do so going out to work is not possible. He definitely can’t drive! He is young, 58, so we are hoping that something will work for him.
Anyway, prayers are much appreciated!
As an aside, I pray for all of you. If you have any particular prayer request that you would like to share here as a comment, it will be taken with me as an intention to each daily Mass this coming 4th Week of Advent!
Doilies by Rosie! These are beautiful, lacy, handmade doilies made with size 10 crochet cotton. They have been blocked and starched and are ready to decorate and accent your home decor.
Congratulations Josephine! I have been having some issues with my email program which means I can’t find your email. Could you please send me your address? Thank you!
