A wonderful explanation of devotion to Mary!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Happy St Nicholas Day!
All powerful God,
you made St. Nicholas a bishop and leader of the church
to inspire your people with his teaching and example.
May we give fitting honor to his memory
and always have the assistance of his prayers.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever—and ever. Amen.
The kids and I are celebrating the day with hot cocoa, speculaas cookies, special books, and the Veggie Tales story of the saint. When they wake up from naps later, daddy will be home and there will be special treats tucked in their stockings!
you made St. Nicholas a bishop and leader of the church
to inspire your people with his teaching and example.
May we give fitting honor to his memory
and always have the assistance of his prayers.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever—and ever. Amen.
The kids and I are celebrating the day with hot cocoa, speculaas cookies, special books, and the Veggie Tales story of the saint. When they wake up from naps later, daddy will be home and there will be special treats tucked in their stockings!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Our Jesse Tree - Revisited
Things have been really busy here lately (hence the absence of posts,) but I did manage to put together a new plan for our Jesse Tree this year.
Last year we simply used our regular sized tree, strung it with purple lights, and hung our ornaments on it each night. It was simple... in theory. In actuality, the kids took down the ornaments over, and over, and over. Every day. I also noticed that since all the ornaments were the same size and shape with the same background color, they were too similar for any of them to be eye catching. So my plans for this year were to address those two problems.
I started by making a tree out of stiffened felt, using hot glue to attach the pieces together. It's approximately 3 feet tall and will be hung on our oversized bulliten board in the playroom ... out of reach of tiny hands.
Next came the ornaments. I couldn't use the same ones as last year so I set about looking for a new (printable) set. I found some gorgeous printouts at Catholic Artworks, (though they don't seem to be offering free downloads anymore, you can still purchase a full set.) I was able to download about 14 ornaments from their site, each with a front and back image and brief description. I still had several days to fill in so I made some of my own ornaments simply using pictures from Google images and adding the reading at the bottom. I also knew I wanted to have ornaments for the O Antiphons, but since I couldn't find anything ready to print, I designed some dual sided ones using these beautiful images.
I printed all the ornaments in color, laminated them, and used a hole punch at the top to be able to hang them. (I will use rounded push pins on the felt tree but could easily pull some ribbon through if I wanted to hang them on a real tree.)
I snapped this image as I was making sure all of the ornaments would fit, making last minute adjustments to the tree pieces before gluing anything. It's from my phone's camera so the quality isn't very good, but you can get the idea. The star on top has the Chi Rho symbol in it, making it the final ornament hung on Christmas Day.
JESSE TREE SCRIPTURES AND ORNAMENTS
December 1 ~ Creation: Gen. 1:1-31; 2:1-4 Symbol: earth
December 2 ~ Adam and Eve: Gen. 2:7-9, 18-24
December 3 ~ Fall of Man: Gen. 3:1-7 and 23-24 Symbol: apple
December 4 ~ Noah: Gen. 6:5-8, 13-22; 7:17, 23, 24; 8:1, 6-22
December 5 ~ Abraham: Gen. 12:1-3
December 6 ~ Isaac: Gen. 22:1-14
December 7 ~ Jacob: Gen. 25:1-34; 28:10-15
December 8 ~ Joseph: Gen. 37:23-28; 45:3-15
December 9 ~ Moses: Ex. 2:1-10
December 10 ~ Samuel: 1 Sam. 3:1-18 Symbol: lamp
December 11~ Jesse: 1 Sam. 16:1-13
December 12 ~ David: 1 Sam. 17:12-51
December 13 ~ Solomon: 1 Kings 3:5-14, 16-28 Symbol: scales of justice
December 14 ~ Joseph: Matt. 1:18-25
December 15 ~ Mary: Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38
December 16 ~ John the Baptist: Mark 1:1-8 Symbol: shell with water
December 17 ~ O Sapientia : O Wisdom
December 18 ~ O Adonai : O Lord
December 19 ~ O Radix Jesse : O Root of Jesse
December 20 ~ O Clavis David : O Key of David
December 21 ~ O Oriens : O Rising Dawn
December 22 ~ O Rex Gentium : O King of Nations
December 23 ~ O Emmanuel : O God-With-Us
December 24 ~ The Birth of Jesus (infant Jesus)…Luke 2:1-20
December 25 ~ Christ Our Lord (Chi Rho star)…John 1:1-18
Last year we simply used our regular sized tree, strung it with purple lights, and hung our ornaments on it each night. It was simple... in theory. In actuality, the kids took down the ornaments over, and over, and over. Every day. I also noticed that since all the ornaments were the same size and shape with the same background color, they were too similar for any of them to be eye catching. So my plans for this year were to address those two problems.
I started by making a tree out of stiffened felt, using hot glue to attach the pieces together. It's approximately 3 feet tall and will be hung on our oversized bulliten board in the playroom ... out of reach of tiny hands.
Next came the ornaments. I couldn't use the same ones as last year so I set about looking for a new (printable) set. I found some gorgeous printouts at Catholic Artworks, (though they don't seem to be offering free downloads anymore, you can still purchase a full set.) I was able to download about 14 ornaments from their site, each with a front and back image and brief description. I still had several days to fill in so I made some of my own ornaments simply using pictures from Google images and adding the reading at the bottom. I also knew I wanted to have ornaments for the O Antiphons, but since I couldn't find anything ready to print, I designed some dual sided ones using these beautiful images.
I snapped this image as I was making sure all of the ornaments would fit, making last minute adjustments to the tree pieces before gluing anything. It's from my phone's camera so the quality isn't very good, but you can get the idea. The star on top has the Chi Rho symbol in it, making it the final ornament hung on Christmas Day.
I love that this layout will allow for easier viewing of all the ornaments.
JESSE TREE SCRIPTURES AND ORNAMENTS
December 1 ~ Creation: Gen. 1:1-31; 2:1-4 Symbol: earth
December 2 ~ Adam and Eve: Gen. 2:7-9, 18-24
December 3 ~ Fall of Man: Gen. 3:1-7 and 23-24 Symbol: apple
December 4 ~ Noah: Gen. 6:5-8, 13-22; 7:17, 23, 24; 8:1, 6-22
December 5 ~ Abraham: Gen. 12:1-3
December 6 ~ Isaac: Gen. 22:1-14
December 7 ~ Jacob: Gen. 25:1-34; 28:10-15
December 8 ~ Joseph: Gen. 37:23-28; 45:3-15
December 9 ~ Moses: Ex. 2:1-10
December 10 ~ Samuel: 1 Sam. 3:1-18 Symbol: lamp
December 11~ Jesse: 1 Sam. 16:1-13
December 12 ~ David: 1 Sam. 17:12-51
December 13 ~ Solomon: 1 Kings 3:5-14, 16-28 Symbol: scales of justice
December 14 ~ Joseph: Matt. 1:18-25
December 15 ~ Mary: Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38
December 16 ~ John the Baptist: Mark 1:1-8 Symbol: shell with water
December 17 ~ O Sapientia : O Wisdom
December 18 ~ O Adonai : O Lord
December 19 ~ O Radix Jesse : O Root of Jesse
December 20 ~ O Clavis David : O Key of David
December 21 ~ O Oriens : O Rising Dawn
December 22 ~ O Rex Gentium : O King of Nations
December 23 ~ O Emmanuel : O God-With-Us
December 24 ~ The Birth of Jesus (infant Jesus)…Luke 2:1-20
December 25 ~ Christ Our Lord (Chi Rho star)…John 1:1-18
Sunday, November 14, 2010
This Day God Gives Me
A beautiful way to begin our day! (lyrics below)
This day God gives me strength of high heaven,
sun and moon shining, flame in my hearth,
flashing of lightning, wind in its swiftness,
deeps of the ocean, firmness of earth.
This day God sends me strength as my guardian,
might to uphold me, wisdom as guide.
Your eyes are watchful, Your ears are listening,
Your lips are speaking, friend at my side.
God’s way is my way, God’s shield is round me,
God’s host defends me, saving from ill.
Angels of heaven, drive from me always
all that would harm me, stand by me still.
Rising, I thank Thee, mighty and strong One,
King of creation, Giver of rest.
Firmly confessing God in three Persons,
Oneness of Godhead, Trinity blest.
Firmly confessing God in three Persons,
Oneness of Godhead, Trinity blest.
This day God gives me strength of high heaven,
sun and moon shining, flame in my hearth,
flashing of lightning, wind in its swiftness,
deeps of the ocean, firmness of earth.
This day God sends me strength as my guardian,
might to uphold me, wisdom as guide.
Your eyes are watchful, Your ears are listening,
Your lips are speaking, friend at my side.
God’s way is my way, God’s shield is round me,
God’s host defends me, saving from ill.
Angels of heaven, drive from me always
all that would harm me, stand by me still.
Rising, I thank Thee, mighty and strong One,
King of creation, Giver of rest.
Firmly confessing God in three Persons,
Oneness of Godhead, Trinity blest.
Firmly confessing God in three Persons,
Oneness of Godhead, Trinity blest.
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