Be Not Afraid!! October 22nd, Memorial of Blessed John Paul II

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.” John Paul II

October 22nd is the memorial of our beloved John Paul II.  It is amazing to me to think that a man who had  so much influence on me, especially as a teenager, is virtually unknown to my children.  That is why it is so important to make sure that we take the time to pass on the wisdom and wit of  Blessed John Paul II to our children, beginning with his declaration to, "Be not afraid!"  Here are two books to get you started: 

Maybe enjoy these books with a homemade Polish Soft Pretzel, or buy one while you are out at Target, just make sure you tell your children that it is in honor of John Paul the Great!

October 4th, Saint Francis

The first week of October is full of the feast days of so many popular saints, but perhaps none as popular as Saint Francis.  Francis is especially favored by children for his love of nature and animals, in fact, he is my son's favorite saint and confirmation name.  There are many, many good books on St. Francis, but here are couple of my favorites:

Saint Francis of Assisi, by Joyce Denham is the perfect picture book to introduce your little ones to Saint Francis.  This book has beautiful, joyful illustrations.

The Good Man of Assisi has incredible illustrations and will engage your older child with wonderful tales of this great saint!

You can find so many more books on St. Francis with a quick internet search.  I hope you will take the time to find one that is right for sharing with your kiddos.

A fun idea to honor St. Francis is to share St. Francis' Canticle of the Sun with your family and then make birdseed cookies to feed the birds that St. Francis so loved.  Here is a recipe from While Wearing Heels:

If none of these ideas work for your family this year, don't worry, just take a moment  to stop and pray the Prayer of St. Francis.  His words are especially poignant for parents as we try to live a selfless love in service of our families. Surely a quiet moment with these words will bring peace to your heart and help you love your family a little better today!

October 2nd, Memorial of the Guardian Angels

Each of us has a guardian angel to watch over us and help us along the path to Heaven.  October 2nd is a wonderful day to talk to your children about their guardian angels and to offer a simple thank you for all they do!  

Catholic Culture offers a great explanation of guardian angels for mom and dad to read, and Tommie DePaolo writes a sweet story that will help introduce angels to your child. 

 And what better treat to have while reading about angels than angel food cake?  Here is an easy recipe for Heavenly Angel Food Cake to top off your celebration--enjoy!

October 1, St. Therese of Liseux

October 1st is the feast in honor of this much loved and very popular saint.  St. Therese touches people of all ages with her "Little Way", which teaches us to find Jesus and do His work with love and sacrifice in every tiny detail of our lives. St. Therese taught that every sacrifice or act of love, no matter how small, is significant to Jesus.  Therese is an excellent saint for busy parents, for her Little Way blends so easily into a life filled with laundry, dishes, homework, runny noses, and soccer practice.  When we offer all of the sacrifices of our parenting to Jesus they become sacred and holy and His love strengthens us to get up and do it again tomorrow.

Therese is  known as the Little Flower and is often associated with roses, which makes it easy to honor her on her feast day. Following are ideas from the simple to elaborate, you choose what works best for your family. Just make sure you take time to put St. Therese's Little Way into practice and love the people God has placed in your path!

Honoring Therese can be as simple as placing roses on your table and sharing with your children a bit about the Little Flower.  If you have a bit more time, how about reading your child a story about St. Therese's life while enjoying a treat of these Pepperidge Farm cookies that resemble roses. Books from about St. Therese are available on Amazon and quite a few are even available in our Valley's library system. If they are not checked in here in Bakersfield, you still have time to transfer from other locations.

Another fairly easy idea is to sprinkle rose petals from your child's room to the breakfast table, where they will find heart shaped pancakes symbolizing Therese's great love.

For those who may be feeling more ambitious I Am Baker makes a beautiful rose cookie that is elegant and surprisingly easy.  I have actually made her rose cake that the cookies are based on and it wasn't too hard!  Either would be a beautiful act of love that can point your family to St. Therese on October 1st.

Another idea is to make chocolate roses and leave them for your children with love notes.  You can find the directions at Catholic Cuisine.

And lastly, if you would like to create a tea party for your family based on St Therese, check out this out the link below for some fabulously creative ideas!

My Kids LOVE This!!!

 

Seriously, my thirteen year-old and five-year old are bonkers over the Brick Bible!  We picked up the Old Testament and New Testament versions at Costco a long time ago and the boys have not lost interest yet. They read them every chance they get and even fight over them (not very holy behavior, but at least they are fighting over the Bible!)  I noticed today that they have some shorter versions on Amazon as well, such as David and Goliath and the Christmas Story.  Those would be perfect for little ones. The Brick Bible comes with the highest of recommendations from Sam and Will Neuman!

September 30th, St. Jerome

September 30th is the Feast of St. Jerome, who single-handedly translated the Bible into Latin.  There is also a wonderful legend that tells the story of St. Jerome's encounter with a lion that kids will love hearing.  In the past our family has enjoyed Margaret Hodges, St Jerome and the Lion.  This book is now out of print and quite expensive, but the Kern County library does have six available copies and it is worth the trip to check it out.

It would also be a fun idea to have your kids make bookmarks with their favorite bible verses or even a paper bag puppet of a lion.  You can click on the image for directions to make the puppet.

Whatever you choose, today is a wonderful time to take a few minutes to slow down and tell your children about the great St. Jerome.  Happy Feast!

September 29th, The Feast of the Archangels

September 29th is the traditional Feast of the Archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel.  This year the feast is not on the liturgical calendar because it falls on a Sunday, but there is no reason that we cannot still take the opportunity to teach our children about these great protectors.

Catholic Culture gives the following description of the Archangels:

Michael (Who is like God?) was the archangel who fought against Satan and all his evil angels, defending all the friends of God. He is the protector of all humanity from the snares of the devil. Gabriel (Strength of God) announced to Zachariah the forthcoming birth of John the Baptist, and to Mary, the birth of Jesus. His greeting to the Virgin, "Hail, full of grace," is one of the most familiar and frequent prayers of the Christian people. Raphael (Medicine of God) is the archangel who took care of Tobias on his journey.

In the past our family has observed this feast with making a simple devil's food cake.  We placed our statue of St. Michael, our defender against the devil, next to the cake and said the following prayer to St. Michael:

After the prayer, I give my three boys little plastic cocktail swords and let them stab the cake to symbolize St. Michael conquering the devil in battle.  It may seem like a silly thing but my boys love it!  I hope your kids do too!

September, 23rd the Feast of St. Padre Pio

“Pray, hope, and don’t worry! Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer. Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God’s heart. You must speak to Jesus not only with your lips but with your heart. In fact, on certain occasions, you should speak to Him only with your heart.”--St. Pio

St. Padre Pio, is a modern saint, with so many exceptional powers, that he is almost like a super hero!  My boys love to learn about the Capuchin friar who performed amazing miracles.

"On June 16, 2002, Pope John Paul II canonized in Rome Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, one of the greatest saints of all times. There are saints who have been known for healing; there are saints who could "read" souls; there are saints who were known for levitation; there were saints who bore the stigmata, or were seen in apparition, or who had the “odor of sanctity.” There are saints who could understand languages they didn't know. But Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, who died on September 23, 1968, had all these charisms, and more. In fact, not since St. Francis of Assisi has there been such a miracle-worker.

And as a matter of fact, Padre Pio was the first priest to bear the stigmata — the holy wounds of Christ — just like St. Francis of Assisi. Saint Pio is a man who healed literally thousands — while he was still alive; who could read souls — knowing in case after case exactly what a person in Confession had done; who was seen in dozens of cases in bilocation (appearing far from where he actually was). There were accounts that defy the belief of even the most ardent believer: a sighting of him at the Vatican, even though he never left the San Giovanni monastery; the transfiguration of his face into that of Jesus' during the Consecration; a worker named Giovanni Savino who lost an eye that later materialized under the bandages after Pio visited him in bilocation." Michaeljournal.org.  

An easy option to celebrate St Pio's feast day is to  tell the stories of Padre Pio  to your family over a cup of mocha cappucino. Cappucino received it's name because of the resemblance it bears in color to the Capuchin Friars robes.  This is a great mix that you can easily pick up at Costco.

 

 If you have more time and are feeling like truly celebrating, this is a wonderful cappuccino mousse trifle you can make.

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, Rich in Love is an excellent chapter book to share with your children if you wish to learn more about this great saint.  

You can find a link up of Padre Pio crafts at Catholic Icing, great ideas here that your little ones will enjoy!

September 21st, Feast of St. Matthew the Evangelist

St. Matthew was a tax collector, a deeply hated position among his fellow Jews.  He was a Jew working for the Roman Empire, by robbing his own people to benefit the enemy.  One day, while seated at a table with money he had collected, Jesus said to Matthew, "Follow me."  Matthew immediately rose up and followed Jesus, becoming one of his apostles and eventually writing the first gospel in the New Testament. Matthew's life reminds us that Jesus can use each and every one of us, right where we are to accomplish his work.  We don't have to wait until we think we are ready, Jesus is ready for us now, today, to bring about his kingdom on Earth.

 Here is a fun and easy idea for a Saturday morning feast, just make some silver dollar pancakes for breakfast!  Share with your children a little about St Matthew using the silver dollar pancakes to symbolize that he was a tax collector before being called by Jesus.  Enjoy your morning!

Pray for Peace September 7, 2013

Pope Francis has called for a Day of Fasting and Prayer for Peace in Syria, the Middle East, and the world to be held today, the vigil of the birth of Mary, Queen of Peace. The Holy Father reminds us that "peace is a precious gift, which must be promoted and protected" and that "all men and women of good will are bound by the task of pursuing peace."

We are anguished by the terrible suffering of the Syrian people and again affirm the need for dialogue and negotiation to resolve this conflict that has wrought so much devastation. The use of chemical weapons is particularly abhorrent and we urgently pray for the victims of such atrocities and for their loved ones. And we applaud the work done by those bringing humanitarian aid to people affected by this crisis and pray for their efforts to ease the suffering of our brothers and sisters.

As our nation's leaders contemplate military action, it is particularly appropriate and urgent that we in the United States embrace the Holy Father's call to pray and fast on September 7 for a peaceful end to the conflict in Syria and to violent conflicts everywhere. Pope Francis has exhorted "the international community to make every effort to promote clear proposals for peace, …a peace based on dialogue and negotiation, for the good of the entire Syrian people."

Last Friday, our Conference of Bishops reaffirmed an earlier message of the Holy Father "that the path of dialogue and negotiation between all components of Syrian society, with the support of the international community, is the only option to put an end to the conflict." We urged "the United States to work with other governments to obtain a ceasefire, initiate serious negotiations, provide impartial and neutral humanitarian assistance, and encourage building an inclusive society in Syria that protects the rights of all its citizens, including Christians and other minorities."

We ask all U.S. Catholics and people of goodwill to join us in witnessing to the hope we have in our hearts for peace for the Syrian people. May our prayers, fasting, and advocacy move our nation to promote a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Syria. And may Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us and the people of Syria.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan
President
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Bishop Richard E. Pates
Chairman, Committee on International Justice and Peace
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops