A Slice of Smith Life: Pope Francis

Showing posts with label Pope Francis. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Pope Francis Visits the U.S.! (and we visit Pope Francis via our computer)

10:57 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

I wish this post was about my trip to see Pope Francis in person during the World Meeting of Families, but our family didn't make the trip, though we discussed it awhile ago as a possibility. We were so excited and had so much fun when Pope Francis was elected on March 13, 2013 so a trip to see him in person would have been so exciting!

This post is really just a way for me to document that this historic visit from our beloved Pope Francis happened and post some photos I took while we watched all the his travels on our computer.

We recently ran into the Pope at my local Catholic bookstore

If you would like to read about some bloggers' experiences and see some fantastic photos of those who were blessed enough to make the trip to see Pope Francis, then live vicariously through these bloggers' posts like I did. What great memories for all!

Chris at Campfires and Cleats saw the Pope in NY! Read all about it here: Papa Rocks The Garden! Join Us in The Big Apple As We Relive Pope Francis' Historic Visit

Monica at Equipping Catholic Families was a vendor at the World Meeting of Families where she sold her awesome Super Saints decks. Read more here:
Unpacking from World Meeting of Families by Monica at Equipping Catholic Families

Lacy at Catholic Icing gave a talk and had a wonderful experience as well! She documented her memorable moments here: The Story of My Trip to World Meeting of Families in Photos

Leila at Little Catholic Bubble didn't go to see the Pope, but she has a wonderful post about her favorite highlights of the Pope's visit here: My Personal Favorites from Pope Francis' Visit to America!

Before the World Meeting of Families began, it was fun to commemorate Pope Francis' visit with this fun poster and St. Francis DVD from CCC of America.

We mostly saw and heard the Pope's visit through our computer using EWTN's live streaming, which was a great way to "see" our Pope since EWTN translated the Pope's messages into English when needed and had great commentary.

Here are some photos I took while we watched and listened:

Since we didn't get to see and hear everything from our computer during the Pope's visit, I'm grateful for this link: Read the Full Texts of All of Pope Francis' Addresses During His Visit to the U.S.

Be sure to watch the USCCB videos of the Pope's 2015 visit to the U.S.

Thank you Pope Francis for your visit, leadership and prayers! We continue to pray for you!

Labels:Pope Francis | 1 comments

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

A Fun Pope Francis Poster and a Great St. Francis DVD

11:36 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

This post contains affiliate links.

Pope Francis arrived in the United States for the World Meeting of Families (in case you haven't heard!?!) and our family did talk about traveling to witness this historic event in person. But, then we thought seriously about the time and money investment (and the amount of people) and we decided to stay and watch the Pope on TV/computer from the comforts of our home and of course, pray diligently for our Pope Francis and all those traveling for the grand events. This is the closest I'll ever get to Pope Francis, but then again, miracles do happen, so maybe, just maybe I'll get to see the Pope in person one day! Our family was so excited to watch when Pope Francis was elected in March 2013 so I wanted to celebrate Pope Francis' US arrival in a special way.

Going to my local Catholic bookstore and snapping a photo with the Pope is one way to celebrate Pope Francis' arrival to the United States. Another fun way to celebrate Pope Francis is to use the Love is Our Mission-Pope Francis Commemorative Poster and watch Saint Francis, The Knight of Assisi DVD with the family. Both of these fun resources were created by CCC of America .

Have you heard of CCC of America? If not, you have now and I'm sure this company will be a family favorite for you too! CCC of America and their award-winning animated "Saints and Heroes" series has been a part of our family's life for about 15 years now! My children have watched all the engaging videos for so many years over and over again! In fact, it was these videos from CCC of America that was a catalyst for me becoming more enthusiastic and intentional with celebrating the liturgical year with my children.

Image from CCC of America Catalog

On Sunday, September 20th, just before Pope Francis was scheduled to arrive in the United States, our family took photos with our Pope Francis poster and watched the Saint Francis, The Knight of Assisi DVD that CCC of America sent me for review.

I also loved getting a personal thank you note from CCC of America in my package. This simple gesture from a family-friendly business is another way CCC of America sets themselves apart from other companies.

Here are a few photos of my 4 older children looking like Pope Francis:

For more fun photos with the poster be sure to visit CCC of America' Facebook page.

On the back of the poster are some fun activities and facts to read with your children. My 7 year old daughter enjoyed helping Francis of Assisi find his way to Dan Damiano with the path in the top left corner. There's also a fun word search, geography, and facts about Saint Francis, including his feast day, which is celebrated on October 4th.

We then watched the Saint Francis, The Knight of Assisi DVD as a family and all of us enjoyed it, parents and the children, including my 2 year old daughter!

If you aren't familiar with the story of Saint Francis, you can learn about Francis of Assisi's fascinating and inspiring life along with your children with CCC of America's animated DVD that is engaging and informative.

Each of my children had this to say about the movie when it was done...

"I enjoyed seeing how he went from thinking of himself to thinking of others and serving them." -daughter, age 15

"I liked how he answered God's call to rebuild the Church." -son, age 13

"I liked the part in the movie where Francis saved the little girl from the mad dog." -daughter, age 11

"I liked how he was rich and then became a poor peasant to help others." -daughter, age 7

As a parent, I enjoy that the DVD teaches about the life of Francis of Assisi in a way that appeals to children and adults alike. It kept our entire family entertained for the full 30 minutes. (Well, maybe the 2 year old was a bit distracted for parts of it :) ) The animated DVD does a wonderful job showing how Francis grew up in a very wealthy family, but then answered God's call to sell all his possessions to rebuild the Church and help those in need.

I highly recommend the Love is Our Mission-Pope Francis Commemorative Poster and Saint Francis, The Knight of Assisi DVD to add to your collection of great Catholic resources for the entire family!

For other great Pope Francis resources be sure to check out Kristen's blog post at Drawn2BCreative where she includes several Pope Francis links, including her Pope Francis paper doll and several links to various activities and coloring pages to celebrate Pope Francis and this memorable week!

Be sure to visit Real Life Rosary who has a beautiful limited edition rosary available and a PDF Meditation Book to commemorate the World Meeting of Families.

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!

Pope Francis, Joyful Father
Painted by Cameron Smith

Have a blessed week Pope Francis and all those traveling for this historic week!

Labels:feast day,Pope Francis | 0 comments

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday and Canonization of Two Popes!

3:49 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Today is one of those days that our home, our domestic church, and our universal Church will remember like the day that Pope Francis was chosen.

This day is historic in so many faith-filled ways and I wanted our family to celebrate it and remember it.

Today is an historic day of 4 Popes. As stated in the link, "Never before have a reigning pope and a retired pope celebrated Mass together in public."

Today we celebrate the canonization of two Popes. Jessica over at Shower of Roses has a great list of 7 ways to commemorate this joyous day with children.

HERE is a link to miraculous stories by two women who were healed through the intercession of these two popes. Fascinating for sure!

Saint John XXII and Saint John Paul II, pray for us.

Photo Credit: John Christenson

Since the canonization Mass in Rome was in the middle of the night our time, here is the Mass on YouTube:

HERE is Pope Francis' beautiful homily from the canonization Mass.|

I showed my family this parody that we all thought was clever and entertaining:

One of our favorite images of (now Saint) John Paul II is this PENCIL drawing by Cameron Smith, who is not related to me, but he and his wife are our 5th child's Godparents. Does this not look like a photograph to you??? Amazing talent and such sweet, faith-filled friends of our family!

Image and prints found here: http://www.smithcatholicart.com/

For lunch we had some Papa John's..Holy Servants, Holy Vicars pizza! I found the image of the "Papa Johns" floating in Facebook news feeds and I printed it out and taped it on top of our boxes.

Today is also Divine Mercy Sunday. Find out more about Divine Mercy devotion HERE. In this list of 21 Awesome Fact You Didn't Know about JP2, on fact #7 it tells the connection between JP2 and Sister Faustina and the devotion to the Divine Mercy image.

Photo Credit: CatholicVote.org

We also had some fruit from our "Divine Mercy fruit platter" filled with raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries.

And for dessert we colored Divine Mercy images that I printed out on card stock and put on top of our Divine Mercy "Sundaes". Thank you Lacy at Catholic Icing for this fun and festive idea!

After our dessert, my husband led our family in The Chaplet of The Divine Mercy.

It has been a blessed day filled with a deeper love and understanding of Christ's universal Church and Jesus' infinite love and mercy!

Labels:Canonization,Divine Mercy Sunday,Pope Francis,Pope John Paul II | 5 comments

Thursday, March 14, 2013

HABEMUS PAPAM! In My Own Words/Photos/Videos

8:28 AM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

OK so I'll admit it...I LOVED watching the events of the Conclave unfold before our very eyes! (Conclave originates from the Latin expression cum clave, "with a key," emphasizing seclusion and the need for a key to enter a meeting).

I'll also admit that it's not too often you can blame the election of a new Pope for being distracted from your regular homeschool studies and routines! :)

Really the exciting events of this historic time in the Catholic Church began with the farewell to Pope Benedict XVI which I posted about HERE and then leading up to the start of the Conclave I posted links and resources HERE.

Our family doesn't have cable so my Cupcakes and I were glued to the computer watching EWTN Live starting on Tuesday, March 12 when the events of the Conclave began. If I remember correctly this was the first time television cameras were allowed inside the Sistine Chapel while the Cardinals prepared their hearts, minds, and souls to take on the incredible burden of electing the 265th successor to St. Peter, our first Pope. I can't imagine voting for the Bishop of Rome who will be the leader of 1.2 billion souls.

For the words of the oath at the start of the conclave go HERE. After senior Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re read aloud a formula of the oath, each cardinal elector, according to the order of precedence, then took the oath according to the following formula:
"And I, N. Cardinal N., do so promise, pledge and swear. Placing his hand on the Gospels, he will add: So help me God and these Holy Gospels which I touch with my hand."

Look who we happened to see on our computer screen taking the Conclave oath of secrecy! In the picture is Jean-Louis Tauran from France who was the cardinal we "adopted" and prayed for throughout the conclave. We were so excited to see "our" Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran taking the oath, especially since we were watching our computer screen at different moments in between our school work!

After each cardinal elector took their oath, we watched on television the doors to the Sistine Chapel close.

photo credit: koat.com

And the Swiss Guards were now guarding 115 Cardinals while they voted.

photo credit: ibtimes.co.uk

As so many assumed and expected, after the first day of voting there was black smoke = no Pope. Here is a picture I took as you can see two of my cupcakes look on at the black smoke billowing out of the smokestack. Even though the smoke was black we were all excited to see the smoke!

Then it was early at 6:30 AM (Eastern) on Wednesday, March 13, that I saw on Facebook news feeds that Black Smoke #2 came out of the smokestack and I reported the updates to my cupcakes when they woke up for the day.

So Wednesday morning I heard reports that the next burning of the ballots would be sometime around noon (Eastern) so we did some lessons and then we anxiously awaited for the results on our computer on EWTN Live. We were watching with the world and my son was especially amazed that so many people could wait sooooo long and in the rain too!

The most "Pope-ular" smokestack in the world and this bird knew it too! Even he was waiting with great anticipation!

Sometime early afternoon, I was upstairs teaching some of my cupcakes and my son yelled from the downstairs computer, "White smoke!" and we all ran downstairs to see this...

We were all cheering with the world and very excited to witness this historic day!

Habemus Papam! We have a Pope!

In the photo on the left where it says "Viva il Papa" (Italian for "Long live the Pope!") you can see our Pope Party supplies that my kids colored thanks to Jennifer at Catholic Inspired and also in front of my computer is the Habemus Papam copywork sheets from Holly at Three-Sided Wheel.

Then we anxiously awaited the announcement of our new Pope. My cupcakes and I were glued to the computer all afternoon and I even rescheduled my cupcake's piano lessons at the last minute so we wouldn't miss anything!

OK, now I know I was really into all the excitement because when the cardinal came out to the balcony to declare the new Pope's name, I was thinking the cardinal himself was our new Pope! Duh!

Above is a quick video I took with my i-Phone that I shortened. I had to cut out the parts where I was thinking Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran was our new French Pope. You do hear me say, "That's the POPE we prayed for!" when I meant to say Cardinal. :) O and ignore my son's "Boo!" sounds. Silly boy!

I was definitely caught up in the moment and excited that we got to see the Cardinal we "adopted" and prayed for AGAIN on TV! My cupcakes had to tell me "Mom, that's the cardinal we prayed for, but that's not our new Pope! He's only announcing our new Pope's name!" What would I do without them? I'll just blame it on my preggo hormones! And I even read an article prior to the event that stated Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran would announce the Pope's name.

So we now knew the name of our new Pope, but I had no idea about him. We waited for him to come onto the balcony and we were all curious to see what he looked like and we couldn't wait to learn more about him.

It was so fun to anticipate this moment with my cupcakes! I hope they will always remember this special day!

We were all just trying to take it all in knowing that we were experiencing history in the making!

We all listened intently to Pope Francis' first words which we didn't understand, but we were listening to the commentators translate some of them. HERE are his first words in English.

I loved that he prayed for our Bishop Emeritus Benedict XVI first, then before Pope Francis gave his first papal blessing he asked that we all pray for him. What a solemn and special moment to see this crowd silently pray for our new Pope as the entire world joined in also.

"And now I would like to give the blessing. But first I want to ask you a favour. Before the Bishop blesses the people I ask that you would pray to the Lord to bless me – the prayer of the people for their Bishop. Let us say this prayer – your prayer for me – in silence."

[The Protodeacon announced that all those who received the blessing, either in person or by radio, television or by the new means of communication receive the plenary indulgence in the form established by the Church. He prayed that Almighty God protect and guard the Pope so that he may lead the Church for many years to come, and that he would grant peace to the Church throughout the world.]

[Immediately afterwards Pope Francis gave his first blessing Urbi et Orbi – To the City and to the World.]
"I will now give my blessing to you and to the whole world, to all men and women of good will."

First Urbi et Orbi – To the City and to the World

One of the first things that my 8 year old daughter observed when Pope Francis first came out to the balcony was that she didn't think he looked too happy. I told her that he was probably very overwhelmed being elected to lead billions of people and he was probably just trying to take in the moment. After his first papal blessing, I caught Pope Francis, former Cardinal-Archbishop of Buenos Aires, with a beautiful smile on his face. :)

I didn't know much about our new Pope but the more I learn about him, the more I like him!

I've been finding out more about him through news media and social media. Here's some things about him we found interesting. (see links below) My cupcakes thought it was especially interesting that he has only one lung and he chose his name after Saint Francis of Assisi.

9 things you should know about Pope Francis

10 Facts about Pope Francis

Here's a status from the Catholic Church Facebook page that I found intriguing:

"Pope Francis is known for personal humility, doctrinal conservatism and a commitment to social justice. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he had the option to live in a palace but chose a simple apartment heated by a small stove. He gave up a limousine for the bus, and cooks his own meals."

My first impression of Pope Francis is "I like him!" and our family can't wait to get to know him better. We will continue to pray for him as he continues to guide our Holy Church with the help of the Holy Spirit!