7 Quick Takes: Pope Pictures, Confirmation, Our Blessed Mother's Birthday, Tea Time, 9/11, and Etc.

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It's another Friday which means another opportunity to link up to 7 Quick Takes hosted by Kelly at This Ain't the Lyceum.   Here is this week's edition.

1

This past weekend, my 11 year old daughter and I went into our local Catholic bookstore to shop for my oldest daughter's Confirmation gift and we ran into the Pope...sorta!  I think the picture on the left looks more "real" than the one on the right.  :)

And I have to show you this painting of Pope Francis by my artist friend, Cameron Smith!  This is his latest masterpiece! Isn't it amazing and beautiful?  Cameron is so talented!  Be sure to check out his website and the different size prints available for purchase just in time for our Pope's visit to the United States in a few weeks! 

Pope Francis, Joyful Father 
Painted by Cameron Smith 

2

This is a photo we took at a yummy yogurt shop that we visited this past week after my daughter and I went to her Confirmation rehearsal.  My oldest daughter will receive the sacrament of Confirmation this Saturday, Sept. 12 at our parish.  What an exciting weekend it will be!

What is Confirmation?  Confirmation is a true sacrament instituted by Christ and different from baptism. It is administered by laying-on of hands and anointing with chrism accompanied by prayer. The chrism is blessed by the bishop and the bishop administers the sacrament. All baptized persons can and should be confirmed. The effect of the sacrament of confirmation is to give strength in faith and for the confession of faith and to impress an indelible character.

 3

 

These two gentlemen make my heart happy. 

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. -Proverbs 22:6

 4

On Sept. 8, our homeschool group met for morning Mass for our Blessed Mother's birthday.  After Mass we had our annual donut rosary, prayed a decade of the rosary, and sang "Happy Birthday to Mary!"  It was a joyous day, even if we neglected to set up one more decade of the donut rosary!  None of the moms or kids noticed that our rosary was not complete until after the picture was taken and the donuts were devoured.  Well, our Mother Mary knows it was the thought that counts! :) 

5

I like to call this photo "Studious Sisters".  :)  I snapped this photo this week as I was putting my youngest down for her afternoon nap.  My 7 year old was reading to my 2 year old as my 2 year was "reading" like her big sister.  

My 7 year old daughter wrote this message on the board, "I have a Mommy and a Daddy and I love them."  Melted my heart even as my 2 year old was screaming and mad because she couldn't write on the white board while my daughter asked me to take her picture of her wonderful sentence. :)

 6

We had our first "Tea Time" over 7 years ago when I was pregnant with Baby #4.  My goal is to have Tea Time each week where we read the upcoming Sunday's readings and discuss them. We have a special treat, drink from our tea cups in the dining room, light a candle and set the table with the liturgical color of the season (now green for Ordinary time) While the Scriptures are being read, my kids eat and some color pages from CatholicMom.com that go with the Gospel reading.  We haven't had Tea Time consistently because of life, but my kids have been asking for this special time each week for awhile so today was the first Tea Time for the 2015-2016 school year.

And we rarely have tea. Usually our Noah's Ark pitcher is filled with milk to go with the sweet treats. "Milk Time" just doesn't have the same ring to it as "Tea Time" so Tea Time it is. :) 

  7 

14 years ago today...I remember so many details of that day as so many do.  I plan to read the book  The Little Chapel That Stood, to my children today after we attend morning Mass to pray for all those who died and for the family and friends they left behind.  Reading this book has become our annual tradition to remember 9.11.  It is a beautifully written and illustrated book that I highly recommend for anyone with young children.  

Here is the product description from Amazon: 

Product Description

St. Paul's Chapel, dwarfed by the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center right across the street, stood strong after the "giants around it had come to a fall" in 9-11. Not a pane of glass had been broken. On 9-11 St.Pauls became a service dept immediately. Firemen hung their shoes on the old iron fence as they "pulled on their boots and raced to the Towers, climbing melting steel to flaming showers. Oh, what gallant men did we lose who never came back to get their shoes." 
This historic chapel was built in 1766. When George Washington was inaugurated the first president in New York City, he walked down Broadway to St. Paul's to offer his prayers for the new nation. Alexander Hamilton lies buried in the churchyard nearby.
 

Inside the book cover I have these two pictures taped that were taken when my boyfriend, now husband, went to New York to visit my grandparents in August 1993.   My grandparents lived in Bronx, NY, but Anthony and I went into the city and made it up to the top of the Twin Towers.   

Who knew that 8 years later on 9.11.01 these pictures would give me such a strange and sad feeling??  And that many years later I would be showing these photos to my children with such a heavy heart? 

We remember and pray today for all the lives that were lost on 9-11 in the air and on the ground in  NY, PA, and at the Pentagon.  We especially remember and pray for the victims' families and friends whose lives have been directly affected and have never been the same.  I can't imagine how so many must feel....

May God bless America!

This post is also linked to New Evangelists Monthly, October 2015, Issue #34