Zazzle for the Confirmation Gift Win!

What do you do when you want to give many of your child's friends a token for their Confirmation but know they all have plenty of rosaries, saint cards, medals, and more?

How about designing an oversized commemorative bookmark that can be used in their Bible, missal, journal, or wherever? That's what we did for my son's friends this year.

And what can you do for your child's confirmation sponsor?

We designed a personalized card for my son's to give along with a gift.

While we were at it, I designed a commemorative card for my son...

...and one for my godchild...

I also found a mug for my godchild to use every day to remind her of her Confirmation saint.

Plus, I made a commemorative baseball for my son, which I shared about already last week with 3 Gift Ideas for when a Child Chooses an Obscure Confirmation Saint.

All this was courtesy of Zazzle - my new go-to place for personalized gifts.

If you'd like to try them, too, you can click through this referral link to get 30% off all products in your first $25 or more order. 

I'd also suggest ordering early, because even with expedited shipping, some pieces of your order can get delayed. (This happened to us, but Zazzle made things right.)

I truly appreciated being able to find and design unique Confirmation gifts and cards with Zazzle! I think you may as well.

3 Gift Ideas when a Child Chooses an Obscure Confirmation Saint

{Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.}

What do you get a boy who chooses an obscure saint for his Confirmation and already has a Bible, multiple rosaries, saint statues, saint books, and more?

That was a question around here when my son chose St. Peter Yu Tae-Chol as his Confirmation saint.

As we considered what gifts we might give him to commemorate his Confirmation, we were stymied.

He already had the one book I could find that shares St. peter Yu Tae-Chol's story: Radiate: More Stories of Daring Saints.

And, in searching for gifts, we only found one St. Peter Yu Tae-Chol item - a cute little wooden block by Almond Toys, a gift my parents ordered for my son.

Thus we had to get creative, and...

1 - A Medal with a Sport or Activity Your Child Likes

My folks decided to just get a baseball player medal for my son and to have it blessed. Why? So he could remember something he was enjoying and getting stronger with around the same time as his Confirmation.

My son loved the gift and wears it regularly!

2 - A Journal with a Related Quote

Meanwhile, I decided to go with a Be Strong & Courageous journal, because my son's patron saint was, indeed strong and courageous and I figured the Scripture passage would remind him of his saint's fortitude and intercession whenever he looked at it.

3 - An Unconventional Zazzle Design

Stuck for another idea, I happened upon baseballs at Zazzle and decided to design one for our son to remind him to always hit the mark of following Christ and, in doing so, to soar with the Spirit.

He absolutely loved it!

What are some of your favorite gifts to give confirmandi with obscure saints?

Happy Confirmation Day!

 Happy Pentecost - and, here, Confirmation day!

For oh so many reasons, preparing for my youngest's confirmation this year was a challenge, but the day itself - what a blessing! 

The Confirmation, held after High Mass, was beautiful.

Grammy, Grampy, Godmum, and cousin were all able to come for it.

Then, we celebrated with the parish at an extended "Coffee and..."

After that, friends gathered in a backyard celebration...

... where some of our priests and and a seminarian stopped by and, towards the end of the celebration, led us in a Rosary.

The day was truly replete with the blessings of faith, family, and friendship.

Please join me in praying that all the newly confirmed remain strong in the Spirit! 

I Love Learning about New to Me Saints - St. Peter Yu Tae-Chol, A Fabulous Confirmation Saint

My youngest son has been preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation this year, and, finally picked his patron saint - St. Peter Yu Tae-chol.

"Who is that?" you might ask. I know I did when my son came to me and told me he'd settled on this particular saint. {Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.}

Then, my son went on to explain that he had read about St. Peter Yu Tae-chol in Radiate: More Stories of Daring Saints and liked him.

Upon hearing this and noting that St. Peter Yu Tae-chol was the last saint discussed in the book, I wondered if my son had just picked the last saint he read about, so I asked him to think and pray more to be sure this saint is the one calling to him. He did, and, in the end, came back and confirmed St. Peter Yu Tae-chol would be his saint. At this point, having prayed often and much myself over the last year to whatever saint was calling my son to make himself apparent, and having researched St. Peter Yu Tae-chol a bit more myself, I happily embraced my son's choice, confident that St. Peter Yu Tae-chol picked my son as much as my son picked him. So it was that my son and I sat down one day and as a combined English and faith lessons, worked on notetaking and essay writing so he could write the brief essay on his chosen saint that our priest requested.
The following is what he turned in, which I share with excitement wondering if St. Peter Yu Tae-chol might call out to you and yours as well.

 To Live and Die a Christian

like St. Peter Yu Tae-chol 

    I have chosen St. Peter Yu Tae-chol as my confirmation saint because he respected his non-Christian family members and others while still refusing to deny Christ. He was also brave up until his death as the youngest Korean martyr canonized by St. John Paul II in 1984. When Peter was a young boy, his father Augustine taught him about the faith and Peter became Catholic against his mother’s wishes. Although Peter’s mother and sisters were not Catholic, he still treated them with respect and obeyed his mother in all things except when it came down to his religious practices. This is relevant to me because some of my immediate and extended family, plus some of my friends, do not believe in Christ while others do believe in Him, but don’t believe in the Catholic faith. St. Peter Yu Tae-chol is an inspiration to me about how to respect these people while still staying strong in my beliefs. I would like him to intercede for me with this.

    The other main reason I chose St. Peter Yu Tae-chol is because of his bravery. When Peter was a young teenager, his father Augustine was imprisoned for his faith. Peter’s mother strongly encouraged Peter to deny his faith so he would not be thrown into jail, too. Refusing to deny his faith, though, Peter turned himself in. While in prison, he was tortured 14 times, lashed six times, and clubbed 45 times. Through all of this, he stayed strong and brave. At one point, a guard threatened to put a hot coal on Peter’s tongue if he continued to refuse to deny his faith. Boldly, Peter opened his mouth. The guard was shocked and did not carry through on his threat. Another time, even though Peter was the youngest among the imprisoned Christians, he urged and encouraged others,  including priests and bishops, to remain faithful. He even said to one older prisoner, “You are a catechist and a grown man. I am only a boy; it is you who ought to be exhorting me to suffer courageously; how comes it that we have changed places? Return yourself, and die for Jesus Christ.” Soon after that, Peter’s father was beheaded and, then, on October 31, 1839 Peter was martyred through strangulation. Peter lived his short life with fortitude and faith.

At Confirmation, we become warriors for Christ. Like St. Peter Yu Tae-chol, I am young and want to be a soldier for Christ with qualities like Peter had. I would like to stay strong among non-Christian family and friends and live and die a Christian. (I am not sure I want to be martyred though.)

I just love it! What a perfect saint for my son and a good candidate for other young people who need to stand strong, yet respectful in the face of non-believers. If you know anything else about St. Peter Yu Tae-chol, I'd love to hear about it! Tell me, so I can share it with my son. I'd also love to hear who you or your children have picked as a Confirmation Saint and why.

Choosing a Confirmation Sponsor

Do you have a child readying for Confirmation? Has your child picked a sponsor? If not, perhaps the questions I have prepared for my son can help your child, too.

My youngest has been preparing for Confirmation lately and, among other things, has been thinking hard about who to ask to be his Confirmation sponsor.

 Our priest encourages Confirmandi to select a sponsor who is of their same sex, is not their Godparent, does not live with them, and who will take the responsibility seriously.

With that in mind, my son and I talked about the primary responsibility of a sponsor, which is to provide a candidate prayerful support and guidance in his or her Christian walk and to “take care that the confirmed person behaves as a true witness of Christ and faithfully fulfills the obligations inherent in this sacrament” (Canon 892).

We also talked about how, even though many do not realize it, being a sponsor is a lifelong commitment, since a sponsor takes on the role of a spiritual parent who “brings the candidate to receive the sacrament, presents him to the minister for the anointing, and will later help him to fulfill his baptismal promises faithfully under the influence of the Holy Spirit” (Rite of Confirmation 5). Somehow, I did not realize this when I was confirmed and wanted to be sure my son did.

So, as he continues to think about who his sponsor might be, I've encouraged him to ask himself five questions:
 

1. Who do  I know who is an enthusiastic, committed Catholic that lives a life of faith and will want to help me to do so? 

2.  Who is someone who would be willing to pray regularly for me and with me? 

3.  Who do  I have a good relationship with now and who can  I see supporting and encouraging me in the future in person and via letters, emails, calls, etc.?

4. Will the person  I have in mind be able to be there on my Confirmation day?   

 5. Will he guide me into a more personal relationship with the Lord and to a deeper familiarity “with the Holy Spirit—his actions, his gifts, and his biddings—in order to be more capable of assuming the apostolic responsibilities of Christian life” (CCC 1309)? 

Additionally, I have asked my son to think about who he would actually be willing to approach and ask to be his sponsor, because, when it all comes down to it, this is his walk of faith, not mine, and he needs to do the asking.

I cannot wait to see who he picks, and I hope the questions I have shared help you and yours when it comes time to pick Confirmation sponsors.

Get A Complimentary Printable Act of Hope Copywork Set

Happy Palm Sunday!

This week, after I posted a complimentary Act of Hope copywork printable, a reader reached out to ask me if I might complete our the Act of Faith and Act of Hope sets I had shared with an Act of Charity one.

I was happy to oblige and, so, today, am sharing forward a complimentary Act of Charity copywork printable for her, her children who are working on memorizing it for Confirmation preparation, and anyone else who might be blessed by it.

As with most of my free copywork sets, the Act of Charity copywork set includes a cursive model:

A print model:

And a blank line sheet:

That way, your children can choose to practice their printing, cursive, or both as they work to memorize this prayer.

Also, as usual, to help children who have difficulty with "grounding" their letters when writing, there is a double thick line at the bottom of each line on the blank sheet, and, for those who often forget to space their words, there are spaces between words on the model as a visual reminder.

I pray that this simple Act of Charity copywork set blesses your and yours.

If you have other requests, jut let me know.

You can find more free, printable prayer copywork here!

May our Lord continually to build within each of is the virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

Get a Complimentary Act of Hope Copywork Set

A couple years ago, someone asked me to make a complimentary Act of Faith copywork printable , and I was happy to oblige.

More, recently, I was prompted to trade out the words to make an Act of Hope set and was happy to do so.

Here it is for anyone who is working on memorizing it for Confirmation preparation as well as anyone else who might be blessed by it.

As with most of my free copywork sets, the Act of Hope copywork set includes a cursive model:

A print model:

And a blank line sheet:

That way, your children can choose to practice their printing, cursive, or both.

Also, to help children remember to "ground" their letters, there is a double thick line at the bottom of each line on the blank sheet.  Plus, there are spaces between words on the model to prompt children to leave spaces between words as they copy.

I pray that this simple Act of Hope copywork set blesses your and yours.

If you have other requests, jut let me know.

You can find more free, printable prayer copywork here!

May you always be blessed with hope!

Print a FREE Gifts of the Holy Spirit Memory Game

We've got another child preparing for Confirmation here, so, in order to help solidify the Gifts of the Holy Ghost in his mind, I whipped up a super simple printable card game that can be played in three different tried-and-true ways.

1. Concentration/Memory
(for 1 or more players)

Lay the cards words down in even rows. Then, turn two cards over to reveal what their words say. If the cards match - for example, “Fear of the Lord…” and “… fills us with a dread of sin”, keep the match, and go again. If they don’t, turn the cards back over and pass onto the next turn. If playing solo, the game ends when you have matched all cards. If playing with more players, whoever has the most card pairs at the end wins.


2. Go Fish

(for 2 or more players; if there are many players, use more sets of cards)

Lay all the cards face down as “fish in a pond”. Then, each player take three cards. Player 1 ask another play, “Do you have ____?” naming what is needed to complete the pair - so, for example, if holding “...fills us with a dread of sin”, Player 1 would ask, “Do you have Fear of the Lord? If the player asked has the card requested, the card is given to Player 1, who lays the match down. If not, the player says, “No. Go fish!”” and Player 1 takes a face down card from the “fish pond”. The next person then takes a turn asking. Play continues until all cards are matched, and the player with the most matches wins.


3. The Slap Game

(for 3 or more players)

Lay the cards that name the Gifts of the Holy Spirit face up so that the words show. Give the corresponding pairs to the caller, who draws one card and makes it a question, for example, “What fills us with a dread of sin?” In response, players compete to be the first to slap the corresponding card, for example “Fear of the Lord”. Whoever slaps the correct card gets to keep it. Then, a new clue is given by the caller. The game ends when all cards have been slapped, and whoever has the most cards at the end gets to be the next caller.

When making the cards, I purposefully went for function over eye appeal in order to save printer ink and so that my son - and anyone who chooses to print a set of cards out - can easily personalize the cards.

If you'd like to download and print your own set of Gifts of the Holy Ghost Matching Cards, click here.

You can find other complimentary printables by scrolling here.

May your child enjoy using these free cards to solidify the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in his or her mind.

Spirit of God, Thank You

Spirit of God,

Thank you for granting our daughter and all confirmands

The Gift of Wisdom

so that she may see the world through Your eyes, 

exercising the virtue of charity;

The Gift of Understanding

that she may understand more clearly 

the mysteries of faith;

The Gift of Counsel

that she may make difficult decisions with prudence

and avoid the deceits of the devil

The Gift of Fortitude

that she may have the strength and courage

to live in the faith despite difficulties and disappointments;

The Gift of Knowledge

that she may discover Your will in all things;

The Gift of Piety

to be able to express her special love 

and commitment to You always;

And the Gift of Fear of the Lord

- the right kind of fear - 

that fills her with dread of sin 

 and causes her pause often 

to wonder and revere your Love.

Amen.