Therese made her First Reconciliation tonight. (Can you see the post Sacrament glow on her?)
Adam and I took on 16 spiritual children this year teaching her class at our parish. We have been working with them since mid-September to prepare them for this day. It was so awesome to see the kids just beaming and glowing in God’s grace, love and mercy. Next we start working on First Communion.
We know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who have been called according to his decree. Those whom he foreknew he predestined to share the image of his Son, that the Son might be the first-born of many brothers. Those he predestined he likewise called; those he called he also justified; and those he justified he in turn glorified. What shall we say after that? If God is for us, who can be against us? Is it possible that he who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for the sake of us all will not grant us all things besides? (Rom 8: 28-32)
We are honored and blessed to welcome a new God son to our spiritual family! Corbin was baptized this afternoon and became a son of God and brother in Christ.
A few weeks ago we started one of Jeff Cavin’s Great Adventure Bible Studies with some of our friends. We’re doing the 24 week Bible Timeline: The Story of Salvation. The study will take us through the 14 narrative books of the bible to learn the story of salvation history and our role in it. In April we attended the one day workshop at St. John Neumann with Jeff Cavins. We were hooked and knew it was something we had to do and something we want to share with our children.
It’s fabulous! The timing of the study was perfect with our start of school because I have the children doing the Great Adventure for kids. Every week Adam and I are studying certain chapters, I read to the children the big stories and there are four coloring pages for each of the 12 time periods. It’s the first thing we do in school each morning after prayer and the kids LOVE it.
Tonight we finished the first time period, The Early World (Gen Ch. 1-11). Some things that resonated with me were:
The kids just finished a week of Vacation Bible School. The theme was “Circus of Stars.” It is a K4J (Kids for Jesus) Catholic VBS program. They learned about St. John Bosco, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John Vianny, and Blessed Mother Mary. Their mission this month is to balance work, play, rest and prayer. The kids were encouraged to pray a decade of the rosary at home. Fulton did really well praying with Adam or I every day. I’m very proud of him.
All in all they loved it! Although at the program for the parents on Friday, Fulton was not a fan of getting up in front of everyone and singing with his class. (Deja vu from last year.) Actually, very few kids were into that.
My kids love pancakes and you know I’m all about making fun food. So after going to mass, we enjoyed pancakes for the celebrations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus yesterday and the Immaculate Heart of Mary today!
I liked my pancakes with some homemade blueberry jam that I made this week.
Here was our Sacred Heart fruit salad dessert last night.
O, Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
You don’t have to tell my kids twice to adorn our statue of the Blessed Mother with flowers. We enjoyed our May crowning with roses from one of our rose bushes. Muffin did the the honor of crowning Mary as the youngest walking child!
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
I’m always looking for new and fun ways to bring the scripture to our kids through the liturgical year. Our “Garden of the Good Shepherd” calendar arrived today! I love, love, love, LOVE it! Illustrated by our favorite, Tomie dePaola, and written with scripture, reflection, and songs by Peter Mazar for the 50 days of Easter! The stickers are reusable which means the little fingers will just need to be careful. It won’t take our kids long to catch up to tomorrow’s readings.
The next best part of this is that Catholic Cuisine has recipes for a Good Shepherd Garden Party each week! I can’t tell you how giddy and excited I am right now!
Happy Easter to you all!
The Gretencord family spent the Triduum with the Ceys in Houston and attended the Easter Vigil mass at their parish. I know, we were very daring taking all four kids to the longest (and late) service known to our faith. They did quite well as can be expected – Gianna passed out after the second reading, Therese was content to hold a candle despite suffering a small burn from the hot wax, and Fulton only bumped his head once on the pew.
If you know Fulton as well as we do, he is a ball of energy and joy. You can tell he was bottling it up as best as he could during the mass. As we were exiting the church he let out this loud shout and with the biggest smile gave the tightest hug to the priest standing at the door. A woman standing nearby just burst out laughing and said “He totally has made my Easter day!”
Thank you Fulton for showing us what true joy really is.
The Sisters of Mary are blogging. They’re awesome!
My friend Lauren lent me copy of “America’s Bishop: The Life and Times of Fulton J. Sheen,” by Thomas C. Reeves. In it, Reeves is talking about Sheen’s mother and he quotes a passage from Sheen’s Way to Inner Peace:
The best influences in life are undeliberate, unconscious; when no one is watching, or when reaction to the good deed was never sought. Such is the long-range influence of a mother in a home; fulfilling of daily duties with love and a spirit of self-sacrifice leaves an imprint on children that deepens with the years.”
