On August 15th, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary.  For more information and history about what this feast day is about, be sure to read my post at Peanut Butter & Grace blog titled, Celebrate the Assumption with Some History and Crafts. (I am now one of many contributing writers at Peanut Butter & Grace.  If you aren't familiar with them, be sure to visit their site and "Like" and follow Peanut Butter & Grace Facebook page.)

Here's how we celebrated the Assumption this year:


Our family went to morning Mass (and not only because it was a Holy Day of Obligation) and it was wonderful that my husband was able to attend with us and get to work a little late.  We sang beautiful Marian hymns and as always, it was a gift to receive the Eucharist at Mass and pray as a family and parish community.


After Mass our family headed over to Duck Donuts for a feast day treat.  Yes, those are maple glazed donuts with real bacon on top that my son chose to eat. Our dozen donuts didn't last long!


Then my younger 3 daughters did an Assumption craft with a printout from Holy Heroes.  I even got in on the fun this time and made my own picture.  Can you guess which one is mine? ;)


To close I wanted to share this absolutely beautiful and encouraging post from Ginny at Not So Formulaic titled 15 Marian Quotes Perfect for Catholic Mothers.  Thank you Ginny for this wonderful list of wisdom and inspiration!  I especially like the quote from St. Therese of Lisieux! :)


It was another beautiful, blessed feast day in the Church and the best part about it was that I was able to spend it with my family as we honored our Blessed Mother.








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Last week on September 8, our family and homeschool group celebrated the Nativity of our Blessed Mother, or Mary's birthday!  We don't actually know the exact date of Mary's birthday, but September 8 was chosen by the Church as her birthday because 9 months prior on December 8, the Church celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Conception, when Mary was conceived without Original Sin.

As we have done for several years now, we celebrate Mary's birthday with a doughnut rosary which is eaten after we say a decade of the rosary and sing "Happy Birthday to Mary".  A friend also brought some blue cupcakes to represent the "Our Father" prayers on top of the doughnuts.  Several families met at a local park this year for the celebration after we attended daily Mass.


In years' past our homeschool group made our edible rosaries for this celebration out of small and large cupcakes as in 2009:

This past Monday on August 15, the Catholic Church celebrated the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.  What's this beautiful feast day all about you may ask?   EWTN has this brief history of this oldest feast day of Our Lady.

In this video, Scott Hahn tells how he explained this feast day to a non-Catholic Christian friend in a quick 8 minutes or so.  Well worth your time to watch and listen to what Hahn has to say about Our Blessed Mother and it just may give you more insight into the Church's teaching on the feast of the Assumption of Mary!  I know it did for me!

In 1950, the Assumption dogma was announced by Pope Pius XII, which means that this teaching has always been believed and taught through the centuries since the time of Jesus on earth, but it was in 1950 that the dogma was "officially" declared in the Church.  The video below shows the Assumption proclamation in Rome, Italy.  700,000 people came to fill St. Peter's Square to witness this sacred, historic day!




To celebrate the feast of the Assumption this year, we went to a beautiful morning Mass at our parish where our priest wore white vestments (to symbolize our Blessed Mother's purity) and we sang heavenly Marian hymns.

Here is a photo I took of my children after Mass standing in front of the new Sacred Heart of Jesus statue in our parish' side garden that is a welcomed site as you enter the front of our church.  Since our homeschool is named Sacred Heart Academy, this statue and what it symbolizes holds a special place in our family's heart.


When we got home from Mass, three of my children did a simple craft to help explain the Assumption of Mary.  I got the idea and free printable from Real Life at Home.  My younger children enjoyed making the craft and I think they did a beautiful job! 


Our family loves celebrating the liturgical year and I have documented our feast day and Saint celebrations through the years on my A Slice of Liturgical Life page.  I hope that if you visit the page you will also see that Catholicism is filled with beautiful treasures of truth, goodness and beauty.  For me, Catholicism is a bottomless treasure chest because the more I learn about the Catholic faith the more I realize I don't know and want to learn more!
 
It is my hope and prayer that by doing fun and simple crafts like this Assumption one, that seeds will be planted in my children's hearts so that as they grow older they will continue to embrace our beautiful Catholic faith and always strive to know, love and serve God more intimately and joyfully! 

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Happy New Year! It's hard to believe Christmas 2015 is quickly coming to a close, but as I have mentioned before we are still celebrating the Christmas season.

When does Christmas really end?  It seems this is up for discussion as each Christmas rolls around each year.  If you want to find out more information about the real end of the Christmas season, Christmas to Candlemas: When is the Real End of the Christmas Season? by Jennifer Gregory Miller, is an informative and interesting post to read.


In the middle of the Christmas season is January 1st, the start of a new year and on January 1st, the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. 

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I caught my 16 month old daughter staring at our Advent wreath when we first set it out on our kitchen table and she was singing "Happy Birthday to you!" over and over again. :)   I told her soon we will be singing "Happy Birthday to Jesus!"  (and yes, she is a climber and she climbs on our kitchen picnic table benches all the time and sometimes she gets on top of table! Yikes!)  

So we have begun our second week of Advent with the lighting of the second violet candle, which symbolizes faith.  Our Advent wreath has artificial greenery around the gold base that holds our candles.  The greenery was my husband's deceased grandmother's and there are many spots on it "decorated" with melted wax, but we have kept our simple, "messy" wreath as another way to remember our loved one.   If you want to read more about the meaning of the Advent wreath click HERE.

We continue to enjoy our Advent traditions and we also enjoy celebrating the many special feast days during the Advent season.

I blogged about 7 simple ways we celebrate Saint Nicholas' feast day and this past Saturday, December 6, Saint Nicholas left some goodies in our shoes. 


"Saint Nick" brought:  candy canes, chocolate gold coins, clementines, Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend (great book!) , Lucia: Saint of Light (so we can read for St. Lucy's feast day on Dec. 13),  Shining Light Dolls: Saint Nicholas and Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The "Wandering Wise Men" checked out the gifts in the morning too. 

There are several feast days this week that we are celebrating.  I hope to post about all of them this week, but today is a big one so it gets a post all its own. :) 

Monday, December 8, Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception

This is the day in the liturgical calendar that we celebrate when Mary was conceived without original sin in Saint Anne's womb.  Many are mistaken and think this is the day Jesus was conceived in Mary's womb, but that is not correct.  It is 9 months from today, September 8, when we celebrate our Blessed Mother's birthday in the Church. 

Today our "Wandering Wisemen" stood in front of a beautiful statue that I inherited from my maternal grandmother before she passed away.

In year's past I have had my children color Lacy's coloring page from Catholic Icing that shows St. Anne cradling Mary in her womb.   

Picture drawn by Lacy at Catholic Icing Colored by my oldest daughter

BERNADETTE - THE PRINCESS OF LOURDES
It’s February 11, 1858. Three girls from Lourdes, France, gather firewood in front of a grotto. Suddenly one of them, Bernadette Soubirous, 14, drops to her knees, gazes ecstatically at something beautiful only she can see, and starts to pray. Soon the town buzzes: Has Bernadette, poor, sickly, and always behind in school, really seen a Lady from Heaven? The police chief is angry, the pastor busy, and the crowd amused, but Bernadette is calm and brave. Then a spring bubbles up from nowhere and withered arms and sightless eyes are cured. At last, the Lady tells Bernadette her name: “I am The Immaculate Conception.”
BERNADETTE, THE PRINCESS OF LOURDES, is the exciting true story of a visit by the Queen of Heaven that left all the world a source of health for body and soul.

For dinner, thanks to Kendra's suggestions at Catholic All Year and Monica's suggestions at Equipping Catholic Families, we plan to have a "white" dinner to symbolize Mary's purity.  On the menu is chicken alfredo (bought from Costco), salad and white ranch, and vanilla ice cream. :)  Then it's off to Mass tonight as it is a Holy Day of Obligation.

Here is a short video with Father Barron talking about Saint Bernadette and the Immaculate Conception while visiting Lourdes, France:



May you have a blessed feast day of the Immaculate Conception!

Other feast days this week are Dec. 9 (Saint Juan Diego), Dec. 12 (Our Lady of Guadalupe) and Dec. 13 (Saint Lucy).  Posts coming soon!

This post is linked to CatholicMom.com Advent Wreath Link-Up 2014 


This post is linked to Catholic Inspired Wandering Wise Men Link-Up

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This past Saturday, my 2 older children and the baby and I and other pro-lifers, stood prayerfully at the corner of a busy street where an entrance to an abortion clinic was located.  We prayed the Joyful Mysteries and other prayers to ask for Our Lady's intercession for our country and our world.  My son and his friend held one of the banners from America Needs Fatima.  It was a hot, but beautiful day, as God sent a cool breeze every now and then and even a beautiful monarch butterfly landed on the dozen roses that were in a vase in front of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima.  

This past weekend's peaceful and blessed prayer vigil was a wonderful way to prepare to celebrate today's feast day, our Lady of Fatima and the miracle of the sun.  

To continue my "A Slice of Liturgical Life" posts for October,  I'm very excited to celebrate October 13, with the  Miracle of the Sun fruit platter with my children. I first saw this festive and healthy idea at Tiffany's blog post HERE at Family At The Foot of the Cross and loved it!  The miracle of the sun is a fascinating and wonderful part of Our Lady of Fatima's feast day.

Our Lady of Fatima's feast day is celebrated on May 13 and you can read HERE  how our Blessed Mother first appeared to three children on May 13, 1917 near the town of Fatima, in Portugal.

One of the children, Lucia, asked the woman (who appeared to the children holding a rosary), "Who are you? What do you want?"  She answered, " I am from heaven.  Come hear on the thirteenth of each month for five months.  On October 13, I will give a sign that will make everyone believe."   

On October 13, 1917, 70,000 people came to witness the miracle that Mary had promised.   The rain suddenly stopped and Mary appeared to the children.  The clouds parted and the sun came out.  The crowds saw the sun spinning and shooting out flames with all the colors of the rainbow.

The platter has all the colors in the rainbow in the correct order: Red (watermelon or you could use strawberry slices), Orange (oranges), Yellow (pineapple), Green (grapes), Blue (blueberries), Violet (grapes) 

We will enjoy our spinning sun fruit platter as we watch the DVD, "The Day the Sun Danced~The True Story of Fatima" produced by CCC of America.  This is a great children's animation movie about this miraculous story! We love all of CCC of America's DVDs that share our beautiful faith!


I loved this spinning sun drawing idea from Jennifer at Catholic Inspired!  I would love to get to this if I have the time.

Lacy's Miracle of the Sun Spinner craft at Catholic Icing looks like another fun way to celebrate this special day!

May your day be blessed!





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Today, March 25, is the Feast of the Annunciation, which celebrates "the actual Incarnation of Our Savior--the Word made flesh in the womb of His mother, Mary."

9 months from today is December 25 when we celebrate when the Word made flesh is born into the world!  I love my Catholic faith because Marian feast days are celebrated throughout the liturgical calendar, which helps our family focus on the sacred in this secular world throughout the year, not just at Christmas time, when Mary is usually discussed.  

Jennifer over at Catholic Inspired always inspires our family to live and learn our Catholic faith with fun, simple, and faith-filled activities!

She recently posted THIS great coloring activity to celebrate this special Marian feast day and after I downloaded and printed it out, my children enjoyed coloring it in and listing names on the image of the families and people we are keeping in prayer.

Below are pictures of our finished products:


After we read about the Feast of the Annunciation during our "Couch Catechism" time this morning in the Saints for Young Readers for Every Day book (that we LOVE !!!), I thought I would have my children practice some handwriting by adding the Bible verse Luke 1:38 to their coloring activity, which is the part of the annunciation story where Mary follows God's will, despite the fear and doubts she may have had upon hearing the angel's message.  


I just traced and cut out a rectangle after I printed out Jennifer's activity so my children would have a space to write the Bible verse, then cut slits at the bottom of each side panel in order to fold it and have it stand up.

May you have a blessed Marian Feast Day!