Category Archives: Prayers

Two Simple Steps for a Successful Day ~ New Podcast!

06 Friday Aug 2021

Posted by in by Leane Vdp, Organization Skills, Podcasts - Finer Femininity, Prayers, Praying

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NEW PODCAST!

Here is a simple outline to ensure we are carrying out our daily duties as best we can on this road we travel as Catholic women. This is my own list of what I deem the basics of a successful day. It is an ideal I strive for. You may have your own plan, and I hope you do. If this can help in any way, then I have accomplished my goal with this video.
Link to My Morning and Night Prayers.
Link to My Journals.

I have included the transcript for the video below:

I’m here to talk to you today about Two Simple Steps for a Successful Day.

I think that most ladies would like a simple outline that they can stick to each day to ensure we are carrying out our daily duties as best we can on this road we travel as Catholic women.

This is my own list of what I deem the basics of a successful day. It is an ideal I have strived for. I have successes, I have failures but at least I know this plan, it is burned into my mind so I can get back to it if I am floundering!

You may have your own plan, and I hope you do. If this can help in any way, then I have accomplished my goal with this video.

#1 ~ STAYING GROUNDED WITH PRAYER

#2 ~ STAYING GROUNDED WITH A LIST

#1 – Our Prayers. Starting with our morning prayers.

Our Morning Offering is one of the most important prayers of the day. Imagine a bunch of zeroes, let’s say 9 of them on a blackboard. How much are nine zeroes worth? One big fat zero.

Now put a one if front of them. Do they become a lot more valuable?  Yes they do. Kind of changes the picture, doesn’t it?

Our Morning Offering is like that one. All of a sudden, all our thoughts, words, actions, sufferings of the day have value. Before our Morning Offering, they are not worth as much. After our Morning Offering, they are so much more valuable.

All is used as an offering to Our Lord for our own happiness and salvation, and for those we love.

I know that we often hit the ground running…nursing a baby, helping our toddler, or our alarm didn’t’ go off and we are running to school or work late. Let’s make sure we get that Morning Offering in. It’s very important.

We should try to say our whole Morning Prayers….

And I will include a link in the comments below that may be able to help you with your Morning and Night Prayers…they are what I have said throughout the years.

You should have a few other simple time slots for prayers throughout the day. Not too much and not too long. But enough to keep us and our family grounded all day long.

I usually stop midday, 3:00 to say with whoever is at home at the time our Mercy Chaplet. You could do any prayer you wish here. Maybe a Litany?  Maybe the Holy Wounds Chaplet? I have a lovely book with many different chaplets in it. You could switch it up each day if you like.  Maybe a special prayer honoring our Lords crucifixion because the hour is 3:00?

When my kids were younger we would say the Mercy Chaplet…that took 5 minutes…then I set the timer for 15 minutes for quiet time.  Then I would give them 3 choices.

They could read a spiritual book. If they were young that would mean looking at the pictures of a children’s spiritual book.

They could pray.

They could rest. And yes, sometimes they fell asleep.

It was very valuable…that quiet time with the kids. Because we lose our taste for spiritual things if we do not nourish ourselves each day. And once again, this is building a great habit with your children they can carry on throughout their lives.

So we have our Morning Prayers, our Midday prayers…then our daily rosary and our night prayers. Daily Mass if we can.

So…number one…staying grounded with prayer. Let’s keep that prayer life alive and well!

Just a note…Make sure you say simple morning and night prayers with your little people so they get in the habit of this. This is very important!

I said my own morning and night prayers by myself…hopefully before the kids got up, but not necessarily. And then I would gather the little people who weren’t old enough to say their prayers yet, I would sit down and have them kneel before me and say their prayers with them. They were simple and eventually they memorized them and could say them on their own.

This got them in the habit of morning and night prayers. Because I have met Catholics who know the necessity of saying the daily rosary and they do that. But they find the morning and night prayers daunting…because they weren’t trained as youngsters! So do that for your children…

This is the basis of a successful day! We now have the grace to do what we need to do for the rest of the day. To make the right decisions. To get our work done, To deal with any crosses, etc.

#2. STAYING GROUNDED WITH A LIST.

Make a List!

I sure notice a difference when I get back to making my list! I accomplish so much more…and I don’t forget so many things. I get myself a lovely journal-type book and then I turn to it during the day when I am floundering and getting distracted with things I don’t need to get distracted with…not talking about my family. They are one big blessed distraction…a good one and one that needs attending to.

But you know those other distractions….the ones we could do without…or that make us put off our priorities…until later…and then we’re too tired.

Making your list the night before is helpful. But if you haven’t done that, snag a few moments as early as possible the next day to write your list.

I use shortcuts to write mine down, For instance, MPR is morning prayers, NPR is night prayers, MCHAP is mercy chaplet. This makes the list writing quicker. And since I know the basics well, I know what I am talking about.

Many of the other items I write the whole thing out. I have made the mistake of doing shortcuts on the other non-basic things on my list and when going back to it, I couldn’t remember what it was I was writing down.  J

This list, which is my #2 step of a successful day, will help you with your #1 step – Staying Grounded with Prayer…because you write down your spiritual items at the top….After all they are top priority!

Morning Prayers, 3:00 prayer, Rosary, Night Prayers.

And if I go to daily Mass, I will come home, write down daily Mass and then check it off. Check these spiritual items off when you are done.

If you have accomplished those by the end of the day, you have accomplished the most important work of the day…because these very prayers will give us the grace to accomplish the other duties of the day!

And even if it is one of those days and we get nothing else accomplished…because of a child being sick, an unexpected visitor, a fridge that needs tending to because it quit working, etc, we still have those prayers, that time with God. And He will bless that! And will help us to embrace these other things that throw us off-kilter!

As you think of things throughout the day, add them to your list. But don’t overwhelm yourself. Stick to the priorities and a few other items. For me, I put down even the little things…like take out garbage. Then I can check it off and it does give one a feeling of accomplishment and it energizes me!

The most important ones need to be checked off by the end of the day….like make dinner, do laundry, make lunches, check on mother, etc. Write them down!!

And for those ones you think of during the day and don’t get to… Transfer them to the next day!

To get into these habits….Prayers, List-Making…is very valuable.

I want to show you a couple of examples of my list. Here’s one day.

Something must have come up this day because I don’t have much checked off. Maybe I just got distracted. That’s ok…I don’t beat myself up for that. I especially like to get my spiritual part of the list done.

Most of my days don’t have the night prayers checked off because I forget to check them off in the evening. And sometimes I do forget!

Here’s another day.

Now this day looks better! I can walk away from that day and say, “Wow, I was able to get a lot done and it looks good to have all those check marks!” There were some things I didn’t get done and I will transfer those to the next day,.

These habits help us to train our will. Regularity, order…it is the making of a saint. The daily little things are the important ones! Saying those short prayers with your kids every day, morning and night, is teaching them invaluable lessons about regularity and good habit-making.

I want to remind you that in the comments I have a link to my morning and night prayers.

I also have a link down there for my journals. I think using a journal for while can be quite helpful.

I have an Advent Journal, Lenten Journal, a Gratitude Journal and then a 30 Day Journal for boys and one for the girls. Those last 2 are in color and quite lovely! And those will help those children to stay on track for 30 days and carry some of those habits with them throughout life!

These are very good tools to help us on this journey of getting our lives in order. The link for those are in the comments.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I am still on this journey. It is never perfect and life throws at us its curve balls. Sometimes we cause the curve balls! It’s not our failures that are the important thing…we are human, we will fail. It is how quickly we pick ourselves up!

So let’s remember the 2 basics of a successful day:

#1 Staying grounded with prayers

#2 Staying grounded with a list

Thank you for tuning in today. God bless you!

A mother should make it one of her important responsibilities to keep a clean and organized home. This is not always possible, especially at certain phases of child-bearing years, and she must be patient with circumstances and with herself. At the same time, it should be one of her priorities. -Finer Femininity 🌸

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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?”

Heart of Hearths – The Sacred Heart of Jesus

13 Sunday Jun 2021

Posted by in Catholic Home Life, Prayers

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by Solange Hertz

No one insisted more than St. Margaret Mary that devotion to the Sacred Heart must not be limited to individual piety, profound as this might be. Nor was Our Lord’s “burning thirst to be honored by men” to be restricted to worship in churches.

“He has much greater plans,” she wrote, “which can be put into effect only by His almighty power, which can accomplish whatever it wills. It seems to me He wishes to enter with pomp and magnificence into the homes of princes and kings, to be honored there to the extent He has been outraged.”

In other words, He wished to establish His loving rule over human society by being acknowledged as true Head of every family, from the highest one down. The divine request was supposedly transmitted at the time to King Louis XIV, but if so, nothing came of it.

The King continued on the disastrous course of secular glorification which eventually produced the French Revolution, and now Marxist tyranny. One by one the nations of the world have said, “We will not have this Man to reign over us!” (Luke 19:14).

The world has now reached the point that the very laws of nature are being ignored, if not outright repealed. Based on the false principle that power comes from below, a giant mechanism of organized disorder has been erected where the bond-woman Hagar habitually and by law dictates to her mistress Sarah. No one knows his proper place, because it can’t be found.

Money manipulators who should be the hired servants of politics and economics are in fact formulating government policies—and that on an international level. Schools are laying down the law to parents, the family itself now the puppet of the state designed by God to serve it. Publishers determine what authors shall write. Manufacturers condition the consumer to the goods they produce.

Agriculture, the sovereign human art, is indentured to industrial production, made to follow factory methods and objectives. The sovereignty of nations themselves is being absorbed into an artificial super-State organized on purely rational lines.

Needless to say, the members of Holy Mother Church, already weakened and divided by the “reforms” of the so-called Reformation, are falling prostrate before the scourges of the New Order, apparently powerless to rise and protest. How to establish the rule of the Sacred Heart in such contrived chaos?

As St. Margaret Mary saw long before the French Revolution, only God’s omnipotence can accomplish a task of this proportion. Exactly how He will do it is His secret, but do it He will.

“What are you afraid of?” He asked her. “I shall reign in spite of Satan and all opposition.”

If His past methods are any precedent, however, He will use as His instruments the same “little ones” in all ranks of society He has always used to confound the wise of this world. St. Margaret Mary in fact predicted this: “He gave me to understand,” she wrote to her Superior Mother de Saumaise, “that He does not need human power for that, because the devotion and reign of the Sacred Heart will be consolidated only by subjects poor and contemptible, amid contradictions, so that none of it can be attributed to human potential.”

As always, He will scatter the proud in the conceit of their heart, putting down the mighty from their seat and exalting the humble, filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty (Luke 1:51-53).

Until then they need only remain in His Sacred Heart, attentive to its every beat, careful to follow its manifest directives. He will tell them what to do, even though for the time being the fulfilment of His magnificent promises remains blocked by the malicious authority of the great ones of this world.

Things being as they are, about the only unit of temporal government left to us that can be brought under the sway of Christ is the private home. Furthermore, for some of us it may be the only place of worship we have left outside the privacy of our own souls. For which God be thanked, for that is exactly what a home is designed by God to be: a domestic economy over which God presides, where He is praised by its members.

If home is where the heart is, then the Christian home must be where the Sacred Heart is.

Rediscovering this truth may be one of the greatest blessings He means to draw from the wanton destruction of parishes and parliaments. It’s a beginning.

At home Christians can still share the “one heart” which God promised Jeremiah He would give His people, “and one way, that they may fear me all days: and that it may be well with them, and with their children after them” (32:39).

The Acts of the Apostles relate how “the multitude of believers had but on heart and one soul; neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but all things were common unto them” (4:32). This “one heart” of saints who lovingly share all they possess is today in open confrontation with the “one world” of androids intent on robbing one another of even the most elementary right to private ownership. There can be no co-existence between the two.

We cannot repeat too often that devotion to the Sacred Heart, promulgated from the very first as a devotion for the latter times, is now only beginning. What has been achieved so far is the merest preparation or predisposition for a fullness yet to be even suspected. It would be ridiculous to think our Lord hasn’t foreseen and provided for all the deprivations we are facing—the desecration of Churches, suppression of sacred images and sacramentals, the defections from the priesthood…

We have noted already that devotion to the Sacred Heart has established once and for all the primacy of the interior life. What it does for the individual in his own soul it is equally prepared to do for society, in the home. We start where we can.

Is there any reason why what our Lord requested of worldly monarchs can’t be accorded Him by lesser heads of families? Let those who preach “power to the people” beware of that power when it is brandished in the service of God! What is to prevent exposing and honoring the picture of the Sacred Heart in our homes—is only because “wherever this holy picture should be exposed to be honored He would lavish His graces and blessings”?

Better still, why not satisfy at home our Lord’s longing to be adored in the Blessed Sacrament? That Benediction has all but disappeared from the liturgy, or that the Church doors are locked, or that the Sacrament itself may no longer be reserved, can be seen to be no excuse at all when we look deeply into the matter.

One of the first to see this was the late Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who initiated the movement for Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the home. With truly prophetic insight he began preaching Eucharistic Adoration as a practice most proper to the home. Already in the late 1920’s he was signing up families for one hour a month of night adoration, at a time when the Real Presence was taken for granted in every Catholic church and expected to continue there until the end of the world.

Fr. Mateo may not have been so sure. He wrote, “We are in fact on the brink of an abyss of social corruption; the home already undermined in its very foundations by this upheaval of immorality; a good part of the portion of society which by right is considered the best, the most Christian, seriously affected by the contagion of unbridled sensuality… What is sadder still, the enemy has now penetrated into our own ranks; the wolf is encountered with unheard of cruelty in a full sheepfold. More, he is tolerated there, even encouraged by the cowardice of friends. This Satan and the world have without pity struck and scourged their God and their Lord. His very bones might be counted through His wounds, for there is no soundness in Him.

Urging reparation to the Sacred Heart, his practical suggestions for domestic adoration are very instructive: “In large families the adoration may be arranged in such a way that each member of the family watches in turn before a picture of the Sacred Heart. If the Sacred Heart has been enthroned in the home, then the adoration should take place before the enthroned picture of the Sacred Heart, around which lighted candles and flowers have been placed, if this is possible and practical…

The adoration should be made as far as possible on one’s knees, in a spirit of salutary penance… It should be throughout a Eucharistic Adoration, in spirit and in truth. It makes His Passion ours: “The same love which made Me suffer such extreme pains and affliction for the salvation of men, makes Me also suffer now in your heart, immortal and impassible as I am, by the intimate compassion with which it is penetrated for the salvation of my elect, in consideration of my afflictions and bitterness. Therefore in return for the compassion which you have had for my sufferings, I give you the whole fruit of my Passion and death, to insure your eternal beatitude.”

Spoken to St. Gertrude, these words make plain what meditation on the Sacred Heart is meant to lead to. Fr. Mateo suggested prayers for the following intentions during hours of home adoration: “our Holy Father and Pope, peace, the clergy, the members of your family who may have gone astray, those in their agony this night, the Social Reign of the Sacred Heart, particularly through the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the home. Oh, be true angels of Gethsemane in this nocturnal adoration, you who have an advantage over the angel from heaven, since you are able to suffer and to weep in union with the agonizing Heart of Jesus!”

Most significantly, Fr. Mateo urged adorers to begin their hour by uniting themselves in spirit with the priests who at that moment might be offering the Holy Sacrifice anywhere in the world. He wished them if possible to recite the Canon of the Mass in view of a spiritual Communion, all the while adoring, praising, petitioning and atoning “through Him, with Him and in Him.”

Aware of the importance of Fr. Mateo’s latter day apostolate, Popes Benedict XV, Pius XI and Pius XII each accorded the Apostolic Benediction to those engaging in it. In his enthusiasm Pope Pius XI dubbed it “the actualization of my Encyclical” Miserentissimus Redemptor, on the Sacred heart.

With such encouragement from the highest Authority, why not adore at home kneeling in spirit before our Lord’s true sacramental Presence in all Churches or places where It may still be found? Isn’t it this Real Presence that the image of the Sacred Heart is precisely meant to evoke in our homes? Wouldn’t our Lord intend to follow His Heart’s image personally into any place where it was lovingly exposed? If not, how could devotion to the Sacred Heart make any real sense?

Prayer to the Sacred Heart:

May all the words that  I speak be dipped in the Blood of Thy Sacred Heart, O Jesus, that they may be so many arrows to pierce the hearts of all who hear them with love for Thee. Amen. -The Precious Blood and Mother Prayerbook, Painting by Gregory Frank Harris

“It often struck me that if cleanliness is next to godliness, cheerfulness is a near relation. The cheerful are truly benefactors of the world in which we move…” – Fr. John Carr, C.SS.R.

 

 

 

 

 

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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Seven Days of Prayer to Our Lady for Your Marriage

17 Monday May 2021

Posted by in Loving Wife, Prayers

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Who knows the heart of a woman better than our Mother, Mary? She will help to heal all things through Her Son.

Monday:

Blessed Mother, help me to be a good wife today. Please help me to be kind, long-suffering and willing to bear all things. Please take my old habits, my erroneous ways of thinking and change them into patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Please help me to show my husband today that he is number one in my life, even if I do not feel it.

Tuesday:

Dear Blessed Mother, please help me to know myself, especially in regard to my husband. I pray that you will help me not to be unloving, critical, angry, resentful, disrespectful or unforgiving. Please help me to put all those aside and forgive him. Please help me to be an instrument of peace in our marriage today.

Wednesday:

Dear Blessed Mother, please help me to be my husband’s helpmate and companion, his friend and his support. Please help me to make my home a beautiful place for him to come home to. I pray that I can take care of myself and stay attractive to him. Please help me to be a creative and confident woman, one that he can be proud to say is his wife.

Thursday:

Blessed Mother, please help me to not expect so much of my husband. Please help me to seek your Son to fulfill areas of my life where my husband cannot. Please help me to accept him today just as he is and love him for who he is.

Friday:

Dear Blessed Mother, today I would like to especially pray for my husband and all his needs, spiritual, physical, financial and emotional. You know what they are so I leave that in your hands. I pray that he will be open to receive our Lord’s grace in order to be a strong and godly husband and father.

Saturday:

Blessed Mother please help my husband and I to be a team and to work together. Please bring unity between us so that we can labor together in harmony. May we become like-minded in our faith, towards one another and in raising our children.

Sunday:

Blessed Mother, please help my husband and I to be more and more committed to you and to your Holy Catholic Church. Please help us to grow in faith and to pass that faith onto our children. May it permeate every aspect of our life so there is no question Who we put first in our lives so our children see this and learn from it. Thank you for our Faith, may we never take it for granted.

Some are called to religious life, others to the priesthood and others to marriage. Marriage is not the state of life of “non-calls”! Marriage is a vocation, an invitation from God, a specific road of sanctification…the way that God has called that person to live holiness. ~ From o lar edifcado

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A wonderful book showing how the angels have visited people innumerable times in the past, how they do so today, and would do even more if we asked them. Also, how they prevent accidents, comfort us, help us, and protect us from the devils. Contains many beautiful stories about St. Michael, St. Raphael and St. Gabriel; plus, angel stories from St. Gemma Galgani, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. John Bosco, etc.

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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.

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On the Twelve Days of Christmas, My True Love Sent to Me & A Prayer….

30 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by in Prayers, Seasons, Seasons, Feast Days, etc.

≈ 1 Comment

Happy Sixth Day of Christmas! A few thoughts reminding us to celebrate Christmas in the remaining days that follow this wonderful Feast!

 

– by Mary Reed Newland in The Year and Our Children.

On the twelve days of Christmas my true love sent to me the feast of St. Stephen and the story of King Wenceslaus, the feasts of St. John the Evangelist and the Holy Innocents, the feasts of the Circumcision and the Holy Name of Jesus, and the feast of the Epiphany. And on through the feast of the Holy Family and the commemoration of the Baptism of Christ.

If you are loath to bid farewell to Christmas even then, you may continue it without interruption until Candlemas Day, February 2.

However you keep it, long or short, it is a far longer season for the Catholic child than the world understands.

For him festivity is not officially over with the last wrapping torn off the last gift, or the last nut retrieved from the last toe in the last stocking.

The Church would have us enjoy this season now that it is here, and celebrate the feasts that follow.

In order to indulge exhausted parents already drained of their grandest efforts for Christmas, try keeping Christmas-week feast days simply, using Christmas treats for desserts, and storytelling, reading aloud, and charades for entertainments.

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A Prayer for the Sixth Day of Christmas

 
Eggs are an almost universal symbol of new life. The “laying” geese, therefore, stand for the six days of creation (Gen. 1:31-2:2).
 
 

 A Prayer for the Sixth Day of Christmas, based on the prayer “His Priorities” in The Power of a Praying Wife:

Dear Blessed Mother, you are my example and my inspiration. Please help me to seek Our Lord first in everything I do. Please help me, as this New Year sets in, to set my priorities in perfect order.

Please help me to love my husband and put him before the other people and things in my life….before my children, my work, family, friends, activities and hobbies.

Please help me to strengthen the bond with him and let him know that he is a priority in my life. Please heal the the times I have caused my husband to doubt this.

Please show me how to prioritize everything so that whatever steals life away, or has no lasting purpose, I will have the grace to eradicate from my life.

I pray for my husband – that his priorities will be in perfect order, also. May he make you the King of his heart more each day. May he simplify his life so he will be able to place You first.

Please help him, also, to place me and our children in greater importance than his career, his friends and his activities.

May we both seek you FIRST and submit our all to You. When we do this, Lord, I know that the other pieces  of our lives will fit together perfectly.

Amen.

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Happy Sixth Day of Christmas! 💝❄️ Be kind to those who cross your path. If someone you meet today is cross or rude, if someone makes a mistake or shows contempt, give them the benefit of the doubt. You never know what is going on inside a person or what they are going through. Offer it up for that person. It is the most loving thing you can do. -Finer Femininity

The Catholic Church is a Church of Martyrs: Homily on the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Fr speaks about the Christmas song “the 12 days of Christmas” & the meaning behind the carol. For more please go to http://www.reginaprophetarum.org & please say 3 Hail Marys for the priest.

This Maglet (magazine/booklet) is for you…dear young (and not-so-young), Catholic, Feminine Soul. It is a compilation of traditional, valuable Catholic articles on the subjects that touch the hearts of serious-minded Catholic young ladies. There are articles on courtship, purity, singleness, vocation, prayer, confession, friends, tea parties, obedience, etc. This information is solid, written by orthodox Catholic writers (most of them gone to their eternal home) that cared about the proper formation of a young Catholic adult in a confused world. Take this information to heart and your journey through adulthood will be filled with many blessings! It is 40 pages, packed with information.

Available here.

Why do we call Christmas songs carols? And is the Christmas tree a pagan symbol? Were there really three kings? These questions and so many others are explored in a way that is scholarly and yet delightful to read. Enjoy learning about the history of the many Christmas traditions we celebrate in this country!

Why do we wear our best clothes on Sunday? What was the Holy Ghost Hole in medieval churches? How did a Belgian nun originate the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament? Where did the Halloween mask and the jack-o’-lantern come from?

Learn the answer to these questions, as well as the history behind our traditional celebration of Thanksgiving, in this gem of a book by Father Weiser.

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St. Andrew Novena Starts Today!

30 Monday Nov 2020

Posted by in Podcasts - Finer Femininity, Prayers, Seasons, Seasons, Feast Days, etc.

≈ 2 Comments

This Novena starts today, November 30th!  Many blessings abound!!

From The Rosary and Gifts

A Favorite Christmas Novena ~
The St Andrew Novena

The Christmas Novena, the St Andrew Novena  (November 30th – December 24th), is I believe, one of the most popular Catholic Advent prayers.

My family and I love to say this novena each year in preparation for Advent. We offer the intention as a family intention, one we wish to gain for the family as a whole, and also a private intention, one that each one of us would like to gain like a particular virtue or help in fighting against a vice.

Because the prayer is longer than nine (9) days, and not quite 27, it’s technically not a novena or a set of novenas, but, because it is prayed ‘novena style’, that is, repeatedly for a set amount of days, it is referred to as a novena.

In my family, we have found that we remember to say the novena best when we attach it to our daily Rosary. We set the slips of paper that we have written or printed the prayer out on next to our Rosary bowl. I do know other families say this novena with their grace before dinner while they light the candles as part of their Advent wreath prayers.

The prayer can be said at anytime during the day, but if you have a regular time the whole family is together like for the Rosary, morning/night prayers, or at meals, it might be a good idea to say the novena at a set, regular time.

Imagine a child who loves you…he is willing to do just about anything in his power to please you.

NOW imagine the Christ-Child. He too is willing to do just about anything for you. Everything is in His power to do and to give, as long as the petitioned favor isn’t contrary to what Our Lord deems necessary for your eternal salvation. This is an important caveat that I have trouble remembering! 😉

In this Advent season of preparing for Christ’s coming, the St Andrew Christmas Novena is a loving way to prepare ourselves and our families.

St Andrew holds the honor of being the first apostle to be called by Christ to follow Him.

This novena is a bit different in that it does not invoke the intervention or aid of the saint himself, but is adoring, glorifying the hour of Christ’s birth and seeking aid from God Himself!

The novena is begun on the Feast of Saint Andrew, November 30th, and is said thru Christmas Eve, December 24th.

**(If you start late, or if you miss a day do not be discouraged! Catch up by saying the extra prayers you missed along the way….Jesus will bless every effort!)

St Andrew Christmas Novena

Hail and Blessed be the hour and the moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold.  In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.

Recite 15 times per day. It is permitted to break it up and pray 5x’s in the morning, afternoon and evening, but for the sake of missing one of the times and forgetting, I prefer to say them all at once.

Prepare for Miracles!

This Advent Chaplet is to keep track of your 15 Christmas Novena prayers. It has a lovely brass crucifix, is durable and wire-wrapped to last for many Advents to come! Limited quantity. 🙂   Included is a laminated prayer card with the novena prayer on it. If you are interested click here.

Review: “Quality materials and workmanship. There will be no losing beads because the wire is beautifully woven in and around each bead itself. The box it came in had a handmade flower glued on it, inside a little ribboned gift bag with the prayer card. It could have been gifted as is. Shipped quickly.

An aside: This chaplet was quickly and accidentally adopted by my four year old because “It’s pretty so its prayers will be pretty.” Well, that isn’t quite the point but I love how little kids’ minds make connections. We prayed 15 Glory Be prayers that day, and the next day 15 little Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity.”

For those who have the Advent Journal, this is your November 30th page that has the heart that can be checked when you have said your novena for that day. Don’t forget!

“Children must be taught constantly from their tenderest years to have a real love and friendship for their Angels, to have boundless confidence in them. They must be accustomed to feel and realize the personal presence of their Angels, to call on them in all their fears and troubles.” -Fr. Paul O’Sullivan, All about the Angels

Leane and Theresa from Finer Femininity discuss the lovely Catholic customs and traditions in the home during the Advent and Christmas season…

A unique gift! Make a statement with these lovely and graceful handcrafted aprons….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.

  • 24 Windows to Open
  • Find a Picture & Corresponding Bible Text Behind Each Window
  • Glitter on the Front
  • A Great Family Tradition
  • 11″x14″

  • 24 Windows to Open
  • Find a Picture & Corresponding Bible Text Behind Each Window
  • Glitter on the Front
  • Sits Easily on a Tabletop or any Flat Surface
  • Folds Out to Over 18″x9″

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.

My Morning and Night Prayers – Sharing With You….

19 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by in by Leane Vdp, Prayers, Praying

≈ 5 Comments

A Throwback Thursday post….

I am going to share with you something close to my heart, rather personal, and that I do every day….

It is my Morning and Night prayers.

Someone wrote to me about a year ago and asked what I say for morning and night prayers and it made me think that not everyone has a guideline for this sort of thing.

Through the years and my own research…good prayer books, wise mentors, etc., I have come up with some basic prayers that I say for morning and night prayers that I think could be helpful to some.

Please know that this is just a guideline….the most important being the Morning Offering (in the morning) and the Examination of Conscience and Act of Contrition (in the evening). Everything else is optional, can be changed, tweaked, etc. Most of you already have your morning and night prayers in place, so you may just want to snag a couple of prayers or ideas….

A Note About the Morning Offering and the Evening Examen of Conscience:

Our Morning and Night Prayers are so important! They are like the Bookends that hold up the rest of the day. There are other prayers I/we as a family say each day, but these Morning and Night prayers are vital.

What about that Morning Offering? Why would you even make your bed or brush your teeth before saying it? Do you realize that when you say that offering you are giving everything you think, say and do in the day and offering it as a prayer and a sacrifice to be used for yours and your loved ones benefit? Next time, think before you decide to delve into your day’s work. Did I say my Morning Offering?? Even if you have to say the rest of your prayers a little later, get that Morning Offering in!

It’s like our priest says, if you write a bunch of 000’s on a board what does it equal? Nothing.

Now….put a 1 in front of them….kind of changes the value, doesn’t it?

And that is just what a Morning Offering does for us! It is the 1 before the 0’s!

What about at night….Do we take a moment to ask God’s forgiveness for those sins we may have committed that day or for things we should have done but didn’t (sins of omission)?

This is very important…it is a tallying up of the day and asking God’s forgiveness so we can gather strength for the next day. It also helps us when it comes time to go to Confession. If we keep up with this, we can think of our sins more clearly.

We also don’t know if we will die in the night. Things happen. We’ve seen it. We want to be prepared, right?

Just lately one of my girls said their night prayers are so loooong. I questioned her. She asks blessings for many people and feels like she has to name them all. Being a sensitive soul, she just can’t leave out ANYONE!

Now, I understand that…and I feel the same way. But I explained to her that she can mention the ones that are most in need at the time and ask Our Lady (who she is consecrated to) to take care of all the rest of her loved ones she cares for. That is what Our Lady does. She knows who to distribute these prayers to…for us! She knows more than we do!

So….the following are the prayers I say in the morning and in the evening.. They are just suggestions. It is important you do not take on too much but say them well. Quantity is not the important thing here.

MORNING PRAYERS

Traditional Morning Offering:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer Thee my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for the intentions of Thy Sacred Heart, the salvation of souls, reparation for sins, and in union of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our bishop, the apostleship of prayer and for those recommended by Our Holy Father the Pope for this month.

Prayer to St. Joseph: (over 1900 years old)

Oh St. Joseph whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires. Oh St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, our Lord; so that, having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer you my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of fathers. Oh St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach Him while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me, and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for us.
Amen.

Memorare:

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen.

Spiritual Communion…Read this post if you want to be inspired about this powerful prayer!

O My Jesus,
I believe that Thou art in the Blessed Sacrament.

I love Thee above all things,
and I long for Thee in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive Thee sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart. As though You have already come, I unite myself entirely to Thee. Never permit me to be separated from Thee.

(Take some time here to meditate. Just a minute or two.)

I add these personal petitions at this time, you could add a short list of your own:

For the gift of loving You above all things, to do Your will in all things, for a spirit of self-sacrifice, to be poor in spirit and detached from the things of this world, to love my husband as the Blessed Mother loved St. Joseph, for patience, humility, charity, faith, purity and final perseverance.

Come Holy Ghost Prayer: (very important, we need His wisdom and guidance throughout the day). Read The Holy Ghost, Our Greatest Friend to help you realize the importance of the Holy Ghost in your life.

Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth. … O God, Who didst instruct the hearts of Thy faithful by the light of the Holy Ghost,, grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise, and ever to rejoice in His consolation. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Eternal Rest Prayer: (for our dearly departed)

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them, May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

3 Hail Mary’s (To learn more about the 3 Hail Mary’s listen to this sermon.)

Now, say your 3 Hail Mary’s. You can offer them for purity, or for whatever. I have a special intention(s) for each of the three. Or you can just say the 3 Hail Marys. They are powerful…don’t forget them!

Morning Prayer:

O God we thank thee that Thou has protected us during the past night and has protected us from a sudden and unexpected death. Please give us Thy grace that we may not offend Thee this day but that we may faithfully do Thy holy Will in all things. Amen.

Prayer for those who will die this day:

O Most Merciful Jesus, lover of souls, I pray Thee by the agony of Thy most Sacred Heart and by the sorrows of Thy Immaculate Mother, cleanse in Thine own Blood, the sinners of the whole world who are in their agony and will die this day. Amen. Agonizing Heart of Jesus, have mercy on the dying.

St. Raphael, Pray for us.

(St. Raphael is the patron of happy meetings, he guides us in our vocations, he is the help of the sick and the protector of travelers.)

NIGHT PRAYERS

Act of Faith

O My God, I firmly believe that Thou art one God in Three Divine Persons, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I believe that Thy Divine Son became Man, and died for our sins, that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who canst neither deceive nor be deceived.

Act of Hope

O my God, relying on Thy almighty power and infinite mercy and promises, I
hope to obtain the pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and Life Everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.

Act of Charity

O my God, , I love Thee above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because Thou art all-good and worthy of all love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of Thee. I forgive all who have injured me, and ask pardon of all whom I have injured.

Examination of Conscience

Spend just a few moments recalling the sins you committed during the day….and also your omissions (the things you should’ve done but didn’t).

Act of Contrition

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

Other Prayers:

O God we thank Thee for all the benefits and blessings which Thou hast given us this day. We offer Thee the good that we have done with Thy grace and the hardships that we have sustained.

O Angel of God, to whose holy care I am committed, enlighten, defend and protect me this night from all sin and danger. Amen.

PRAYER FOR THE HOME

(I have married children and siblings I care about so when I say this prayer, I put “these habitations” in place of “this habitation”.)

Visit, We beseech Thee, O Lord, this habitation, and drive far from it all the snares of the enemy; let Thy holy angels dwell herein to preserve us in peace; and may Thy blessing be upon us forever. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer to Jesus, Mary and Joseph:

Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul. Jesus, Mary, Joseph, assist me in my last agony. Jesus, Mary, Joseph, let my soul depart in peace with you.

Prayer for Peace:

O God from whom are holy desires, just works and right counsels, give to Thy servants that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be disposed to obey Thy commandments and the fear of our enemies being removed, our times, by Thy protection, may be peaceful. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ Who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen.

Every morning, we may be tempted to put off our prayers until “later” or skip them altogether because we have much to do and action is where it is at. If we allow the devil to win in this very first struggle of the day, he will win many more of the battles throughout the day. Our Morning Prayers, whether they be said while nursing a baby or changing a diaper, need to be a priority and the very foundation of our daily life. -Finer Femininity

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Revised under Pope Pius XII, this official collection (raccolta) of the Church’s prayers and devotions was published in English in 1957. It includes a timely supplement of additional prayers for many urgent needs all of which were composed under the same pontiff. Many of the more commonly used prayers and devotions are followed by the Latin text, thus providing the perfect aid for teachers and parents anxious to keep the Church’s language both alive and spiritually efficacious. These eight hundred prayers touch practically every spiritual and physical need, and every personal and societal hope. They are the confidently suppliant voice of the Catholic Church in her maternal zeal, joy and agony, nobility and militancy.

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This unique book of powerful prayers and devotions, compiled by Joan Carroll Cruz, includes wonderful promises made by Our Lord or Our Lady, most of which were revealed to famous Saints, including: St. Faustina, St. Gertrude, and St. Catherine Laboure. Author Joan Carroll Cruz has carefully selected and compiled devotions to Our Lady, the Infant Jesus, Precious Blood, Sacred Heart, Divine Mercy, St. Michael, and more in one place so that your daily prayer can be more powerful and more fruitful than ever before.

Coronavirus Prayers….

12 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by in Prayers

≈ 11 Comments

Here’s a couple of very special prayers from that lovely little Prayer Book that you should already have: The Precious Blood and Mother.

They will protect you and your family against any plague and pestilence. Please pass them on!

A PRAYER IN TIME OF AFFLICTION, WARS, PESTILENCE, ETC.

[Francis John Bartholomew, a Passionist Monk of SS. John and Paul at Rome, a most holy man, who had frequent revelations, once saying Mass, thought of the scourges about to fall on the world — wars, famine, pestilence, etc., when the following prayer was revealed to him, and he was told that whosoever recited it, with devotion, would be preserved from all dangers, with which the whole world will be visited]:

PRAYER:

O Jesus, Divine Redeemer, be merciful to us and to the whole world. Amen. O Powerful God! O Holy God! O Immortal God! have pity on us, and all who are in the whole world. Amen. Pardon and mercy, O my Jesus, during these present dangers. Pour on us Thy most Precious Blood. Amen. O Eternal Father, be merciful to us. By the Blood of Jesus Christ, Thy only Son, be merciful to us, we beseech Thee. Amen, Amen. Amen.

O God, be appeased by the supplications we address to Thee, and through the intercession of the ever Blessed Virgin Mary, the glorious St. Joseph, and all the Saints, defend us from all dangers, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

***************************

DEVOTION TO ST. ROCH PRAYER AGAINST SICKNESS

Why St. Roch is a powerful patron against plagues from Aletia:

The plague disappeared everywhere he went.

During the 14th century there was a plague in Italy, and St. Roch came upon one of the towns most affected by it.According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, he “devoted himself to the plague-stricken, curing them with the sign of the cross. He next visited Cesena and other neighboring cities and then Rome. Everywhere the terrible scourge disappeared before his miraculous power.”

He eventually contracted the plague himself, but after retreating to the forest, he was also cured from the disease.

After his death, St. Roch’s intercession was invoked when a plague struck Germany in the 15th century.

In 1414, during the Council of Constance, the plague having broken out in that city, the Fathers of the Council ordered public prayers and processions in honor of the saint, and immediately the plague ceased.

Time and time again he was invoked during various medieval plagues and is why he is labeled a patron against plagues.

PRAYER:

O God, who didst promise St. Roch by an angel that all who had recourse to him should have nothing to fear from pestilence and contagious maladies, grant that through his intercession we may be preserved from all dangers both of soul and body, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

PRAYER IN TIME OF CONTAGION

Glorious St. Roch, present in our favor thy efficacious prayers to the throne of Divine Mercy, that we may not be affected by the scourge of contagion. Preserve us, by thy intercession, from the pestilence of the body; and above all, obtain for us deliverance from the more grievous maladies of the soul. Amen.

[Many cities have been speedily delivered from the plague by imploring the intercession of St. Roch; in particular, the City of Constance, during the General Council held there in 1414. St. Roch was born of a noble family in Montpelier, and making a pilgrimage of devotion to Rome, he devoted himself entirely to serving the sick during a raging pestilence. (Lives of the Saints).]

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“Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.” -Padre Pio

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This is a unique book of Catholic devotions for young 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, with a few questions and a prayer following each one, 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. Your children will be straining their necks to see the sweet pictures! Through these small stories, parents will sow seeds of our Holy Catholic Faith that will enrich their families all the years to come!

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New Podcast! Leane and Theresa Discuss Advent Customs & St. Andrew Novena Starts Today!

30 Saturday Nov 2019

Posted by in Podcasts - Finer Femininity, Prayers, Seasons, Seasons, Feast Days, etc.

≈ 5 Comments

Leane and Theresa from Finer Femininity discuss the lovely Catholic customs and traditions in the home during the Advent and Christmas season…

This Novena starts today, November 30th!  Many blessings abound!!

From The Rosary and Gifts

A Favorite Christmas Novena ~
The St Andrew Novena

The Christmas Novena, the St Andrew Novena  (November 30th – December 24th), is I believe, one of the most popular Catholic Advent prayers.

My family and I love to say this novena each year in preparation for Advent. We offer the intention as a family intention, one we wish to gain for the family as a whole, and also a private intention, one that each one of us would like to gain like a particular virtue or help in fighting against a vice.

Because the prayer is longer than nine (9) days, and not quite 27, it’s technically not a novena or a set of novenas, but, because it is prayed ‘novena style’, that is, repeatedly for a set amount of days, it is referred to as a novena.

In my family, we have found that we remember to say the novena best when we attach it to our daily Rosary. We set the slips of paper that we have written or printed the prayer out on next to our Rosary bowl. I do know other families say this novena with their grace before dinner while they light the candles as part of their Advent wreath prayers.

The prayer can be said at anytime during the day, but if you have a regular time the whole family is together like for the Rosary, morning/night prayers, or at meals, it might be a good idea to say the novena at a set, regular time.

Imagine a child who loves you…he is willing to do just about anything in his power to please you.

NOW imagine the Christ-Child. He too is willing to do just about anything for you. Everything is in His power to do and to give, as long as the petitioned favor isn’t contrary to what Our Lord deems necessary for your eternal salvation. This is an important caveat that I have trouble remembering! 😉

In this Advent season of preparing for Christ’s coming, the St Andrew Christmas Novena is a loving way to prepare ourselves and our families.

St Andrew holds the honor of being the first apostle to be called by Christ to follow Him.

This novena is a bit different in that it does not invoke the intervention or aid of the saint himself, but is adoring, glorifying the hour of Christ’s birth and seeking aid from God Himself!

The novena is begun on the Feast of Saint Andrew, November 30th, and is said thru Christmas Eve, December 24th.

**(If you start late, or if you miss a day do not be discouraged! Catch up by saying the extra prayers you missed along the way….Jesus will bless every effort!)

St Andrew Christmas Novena

Hail and Blessed be the hour and the moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold.  In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.

Recite 15 times per day. It is permitted to break it up and pray 5x’s in the morning, afternoon and evening, but for the sake of missing one of the times and forgetting, I prefer to say them all at once.

Prepare for Miracles!

This Advent Chaplet is to keep track of your 15 Christmas Novena prayers. It has a lovely brass crucifix, is durable and wire-wrapped to last for many Advents to come! Limited quantity. 🙂   Included is a laminated prayer card with the novena prayer on it. If you are interested click here.

Review: “Quality materials and workmanship. There will be no losing beads because the wire is beautifully woven in and around each bead itself. The box it came in had a handmade flower glued on it, inside a little ribboned gift bag with the prayer card. It could have been gifted as is. Shipped quickly.

An aside: This chaplet was quickly and accidentally adopted by my four year old because “It’s pretty so its prayers will be pretty.” Well, that isn’t quite the point but I love how little kids’ minds make connections. We prayed 15 Glory Be prayers that day, and the next day 15 little Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity.”

For those who have the Advent Journal, this is your November 30th page that has the heart that can be checked when you have said your novena for that day. Don’t forget!

“Children must be taught constantly from their tenderest years to have a real love and friendship for their Angels, to have boundless confidence in them. They must be accustomed to feel and realize the personal presence of their Angels, to call on them in all their fears and troubles.” -Fr. Paul O’Sullivan, All about the Angels

A unique gift! Make a statement with these lovely and graceful handcrafted aprons….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.

  • 24 Windows to Open
  • Find a Picture & Corresponding Bible Text Behind Each Window
  • Glitter on the Front
  • A Great Family Tradition
  • 11″x14″

  • 24 Windows to Open
  • Find a Picture & Corresponding Bible Text Behind Each Window
  • Glitter on the Front
  • Sits Easily on a Tabletop or any Flat Surface
  • Folds Out to Over 18″x9″

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.

 

Learning Life Lessons in the Oddest Places

11 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by in by Leane Vdp, FF Tidbits, Prayers

≈ 2 Comments

Throwback Thursday post….

It was one of those normal days…. housework, homeschooling, and the usual hubbub of grandchildren.

Vincent had been at work and came home late. He sat down at the table and we gave him his dinner that we had been keeping warm for him.

il_570xN.221050600

Painting by Norman Rockwell

That’s when he dropped the bombshell…”I picked up this guy in Topeka. He’s homeless and needs a place to stay until he gets something else”.

Now my husband is known for his charity. It exceeds the norm and the rest of us tremble when he comes up with his next venture in kindness. This was one of those trembling times.

I really struggle at times like this. I have my run-of-the-mill fears like any mother.

I know God expects us to go the extra mile. But what about my kids…..!!!???

I uncomfortably agree to (I will call him George) staying in the addition (which is attached to the house) for a couple of days. And so that is what he does.

George eventually finds his way to an apartment and hubby employs him. This guy has had a rough past, that is for sure. He traveled with a carnival and life was very, very messy. You really have to wonder if this is going to be the time when he really gives it all up.

Hubby is hopeful, I am skeptical….

In the meantime, we have some good times with George. He plays volleyball with us, eats with us and just chews the fat with all of us as we sit around visiting.

One day we were talking. I don’t know if he was telling us about his own relationship with his deceased wife or if we were just talking about relationships in general. Our friend said something that has resonated with me since then. It was very profound and has depths of meaning in it.

It could really be a motto for any husband or wife. He said, “When my wife and I were having an argument, and things were getting out of control, I would ask myself, ‘Whoa, George! Is this really that important? Besides…..Do I want to be RIGHT? Or do I want to be HAPPY?'”

I looked at him surprised. I had never heard it said that way. That was good. And it came from George….he just didn’t seem the type to utter such wisdom.

How often through the years we will have to live by this very motto that this poor, homeless man tried to live by in his better years.

It’s called overcoming our pride.

When we’re having one of our differences and he is really getting under our skin and we know our point of view makes more sense and we push it until it becomes a full-blown argument ….
We need to ask ourselves, “Do I want to be right? Or do I want to be happy?” 

When we’re upset, we can stew about stuff, give him the silent treatment and wait for him to apologize but really when it comes right down to it….we just want to be happy.

The differences we are experiencing don’t matter as much as loving one another…as keeping that friendliness and intimacy that is so important between husband and wife.

So we need to swallow our pride and apologize. Or if we have nothing to apologize for, just try to forget it and let him know you love him.

And things are so much better.

It is not worth it.  Let’s get over ourselves and learn some humility….

As for our friend, George, he stuck around for about 6 months. Vincent gave him his small truck and he got it impounded because he returned to his life of drinking. Last I heard he was evicted from his apartment and has moved on.

I will never forget him, though, every time I think of his life lesson.  Maybe say a prayer for George today…. God help him.

LITANY OF HUMILITY

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved…Deliver me, Jesus
From the desire of being extolled …
From the desire of being honored …
From the desire of being praised …
From the desire of being preferred to others…
From the desire of being consulted …
From the desire of being approved …
From the fear of being humiliated …
From the fear of being despised…
From the fear of suffering rebukes …
From the fear of being calumniated …
From the fear of being forgotten …
From the fear of being ridiculed …
From the fear of being wronged …
From the fear of being suspected …

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I …Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease …
That others may be chosen and I set aside …
That others may be praised and I unnoticed …
That others may be preferred to me in everything…
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

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“God designed men and women differently. This means your spouse communicates differently. With your man, try spending time just ‘being together’ without an agenda to talk or interact. As he does shoulder to shoulder activities with you, he experiences a special camaraderie and trust. He will relax and feel comfortable to talk about the deeper issues confronting him.”-Emmerson Eggerichs, Love and Respect

Painting by Gregory Frank Harris

Eternal Rest Grant Unto Them, O Lord….

Excellent sermon today to listen to while you are folding clothes, doing dishes or working on your homemade gifts!

Religious Pendant and Earring Sets…Wire-Wrapped, Handcrafted. These graceful Vintaj necklaces can be worn every day as a reminder of your devotion.

Get it blessed and you can use it also as a sacramental. Available here.

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A very valuable book for the guys plucked out of the past and reprinted. It was written in 1894 by Fr. Bernard O’Reilly and the words on the pages will stir the hearts of the men to rise to virtue and chivalry…. Beautifully and eloquently written!

A very beautiful book, worthy of our attention. In it, you will find many pearls of wisdom for a woman striving to be the heart of the home, an inspiration to all who cross her path. You will be inspired to reconsider the importance of your role of wife and mother! Written by Rev. Bernard O’Reilly in 1894, the treasures found within its pages ring true and remain timeless…

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Say Your Grace! – Meal Prayer

18 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by in Catholic Home Life, Prayers, Sacramentals

≈ 5 Comments

-Father Arthur Tonne, The Big Book of Sacramentals

“Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, distributed them to those reclining” – St. John, 6:11.

A Catholic Army chaplain of World War Two was relating some of his experiences. Speaking of starvation in war-torn Europe, he described what he saw in an American Army camp in France. Every day a group of boys and girls of all sizes and ages, but with one common longing for food, would search among the empty food cans thrown out from the Army kitchen.

With painstaking perseverance the children would scrape every speck of food from the cans. After they had gathered whatever they could find, each child placed his precious findings on the ground, knelt down, made the sign of the cross, and said a prayer before his miserable meal. Many of the soldiers were touched to tears. Continue reading →