Introducing Our Mysteries of the Rosary Peg Dolls and our November Liturgical Shelf

October whizzed by before I made time for my children and myself to swap out our September liturgical shelf with an October one.

Thus, my daughter and I found ourselves combining inspiration from October's devotion to the Holy Rosary and November's devotion to the Holy Souls when making our November display.

For the display, we chose a white cloth to remind us of the purification souls must go through before enjoying the bliss of being in union with God in the glory of heaven.

Marian Devotions


On one side of the display, we kept the paschal candle our friends made for us this year and placed an Our Lady of the Rosary peg doll which we received in a Marian swap and had meant to put up in October. 

On the other side, we kept a blessed white candle another friend gave us for Candlemas place and put a vignette of our Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and St. Catherine Laboure in front of it, since Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal will be celebrated on the 27th of this month.

Betwixt these two Marian ends, we set up our main display to remind us to pray Rosaries and special prayers for the dearly departed throughout November. 

Introducing Our Mysteries of the Rosary Peg Dolls


Our Rosary reminders includes, of course, rosary beads. They also include peg dolls that we received in a swap a while back which represent each mystery of the Holy Rosary.

The Joyful Mysteries dolls include:

• a Mary doll with an angel modge podged to it

• a St. Anne doll with John leaping in her womb

• a small-sized Jesus doll with a line sketch of the Nativity painted on it

• a doll with Mary painted on one side, Jesus in the middle, and Joseph with doves on the other side

• a Mama Mary and Child Jesus doll set

The Glorious Mysteries dolls include:

• a John the Baptist doll

• a Jesus with wine doll

• a apostle with the Word doll

• a golden (transfiguration) Jesus doll

• a Jesus doll with bread and wine, plus a modge podged image of the Last Supper

The Sorrowful Mysteries dolls include:

• a beautiful Agony in the Garden set with a kneeling Jesus sweating blood, a small rock and an angel

• a bound and scourged Jesus (the red scourging is on his back)

• a Jesus crowned with thorns (which has gone missing so is not pictured)

• a Jesus carrying a cross

• a Jesus on a cross

The Luminous Mysteries ones include:

• a risen Jesus

• an ascending Jesus

• an apostle receiving the Holy Spirit

• a Mary with clouds and stars (for the Assumption)

• a crowned Mary

Holy Souls Calendar Pages

Behind these dolls, we placed the All Souls calendar pages that we made in our AMP club last month. 

On three of these calendars, we have pre-written names of our own dearly departed as well as names of the beloved deceased of friends, relatives, and blog followers who have asked us to pray so that we can remember to specifically pray for these souls this month. 

The fourth calendar page remains mostly blank, because one child of mine asked to write names after praying and not as a reminder to pray.

Still to Come

Later this week, since some of us have forgotten the words to the St. Gertrude Prayer for Holy Souls, we plans to redo our copywork of this prayer and to slip it between the wall and our Our Lady of the Rosary pegdoll for easy reading access. 


(In the past, we have also done copywork of The Eternal Rest prayer, but do not need to redo this since we have all long since memorized this prayer and pray it faithfully upon passing cemeteries when we are driving around as well as when we hear of people passing.)

It's Working

We have just put our November liturgical shelf display together display, and it is already actively focusing us on both last month's devotion to the Holy Rosary and this month's devotion to praying for Holy Souls.  

In fact, just before leaving for a walking Rosary to a local cemetery this afternoon, we checked our calendars for the names of the deceased we would pray for along the way.

Then, as is our custom from the 1st through 8th of November when we got to the cemetery, we prayed for special indulgences for Holy Souls in Purgatory before selecting random souls to pray for. his tradition has become a meaningful and beautiful one for us, and I encourage you to consider making it customary for your family, too!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.  

Make a September Prayer Shelf: Our Lady of Sorrows

The month of September is dedicated to the Seven Sorrows of Mary, so my daughter helped me put together a simple visual display to help focus our prayers in the coming weeks.

For the base of our display, I considered using a green cloth, since green is the color of Ordinary Time which is the liturgical season we are currently in. However, my daughter suggested we use dark blue in honor or Mary's traditional color of blue, but in a more somber hue.

That's when the real vs. ideal mode I so often work in kicked in.  Ideal would be a lovely dark blue silk.  Real is that the only dark blue cloth we could find in our home was an old bed sheet. Folded, it worked.

Then, my daughter and I went through several images and prayer aid booklets, and she asked if we could print an image from the Catholic Company website, which she "framed" with cardstock and placed on one of our mini-easels.  

I, then, decided to print out a free Devotion of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary pdf from the Fatima Center to go on our other mini-easel.  This pdf has beautiful prayers, images, and more in it to help us focus this month.

Near one of our easels, we placed the two candles we have decided to keep out all year - a Paschal candle a friend made and gifted us and a blessed white pillar candle from another friend. 

Then, in the middle of our display, we placed a blue candle (for Mary's color).  On one side of this candle, we put a Marian peg doll of Our Lady of Sorrows atop a red origami box stand (recycled from last month's display).

On the other side, we placed the heart box my daughter made last month, but, pierced it with seven cocktail swords.  Inside the box, we wanted to place our laminated Seven Sorrows of Mary 3-part cards, but, since we could not find them, we simply printed and cut a new batch without lamination.  (Again, real vs. ideal.  We always seem to make do with the real here.)

Our simple Seven Sorrows of Mary display will serve as a practical visual reminder for us all month, connecting our family with the current season of the the Church year and directing us toward Jesus, as each of Mary's Seven Sorrows points directly toward a Biblical event in Jesus' life.

We'd love to hear about your favorite Seven Sorrows of Mary images, prayers, and traditions. Please do share about them in a comment here or on our Facebook page.

We'd also appreciate if your continued prayers for a baby we know that has had two unexpected heart surgeries within the past month and is still in recovery.

O God, who willed that,

when you Son was lifted high on the Cross,

his Mother should stand close by

and share his suffering,

grant that Your Church,

participating with the Virgin Mary

in the Passion of Christ

may merit a share in his Resurrection.
Who lived and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

Also, dear God,
please offer extra measures of strength

and abundant blessings 

to baby Alex and his family.
Unite their suffering 

with that of Jesus on the Cross

and turn their their suffering into joy.  

May strength, healing, hope, and love be theirs.
Amen.

Thank you for praying this prayer adapted from the Collect with us!

If you'd like more ideas for Our Lady of Sorrows, check out:

Plans to Honor Our Lady of Sorrows through Art, Music, and a Poet-Tea

Honoring Our Lady of Sorrows with a Poet-Tea and Art

Seven Sorrows of Mary 3-Part Cards (A Free Printable - Now Updated)

You might also like to see our other liturgical shelves.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Prayer Aids

The month of August is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so my daughter helped me set up our August liturgical shelf with an aim to focus our prayers this month.

On the base of our display, we chose to use a blue tablecloth with white lace over it, since Mary is traditionally depicted in blue and white.  (Blue for royalty and heaven; white for purity.)  My daughter, however, also thought we needed red for Mary's Immaculate Heart.  So, she got to work with cardstock, cutting out a red heart and attaching it to a handmade origama box.

Initially, we were going to use the box to hold some sort of small  item each time we prayed, much like we did with the small chalice in our July liturgical shelf, but, then, we realized that the box is the perfect size for prayer cards.  So, it became our prayer card holder.  

If you make something similar, though, you could easily place a flower petal, bead, or small object in the box every time your offered a prayer to Mary and her Immaculate Heart.

{Some links in this post are affiliate ones.}

Some prayers you could use,might be the ones found on the prayer cards we are using: The Golden Prayer, An Offering to Mary, and the Consecration to Mary.

Statues and images also help focus our prayers, so one one side of our prayer card holder, we placed our Immaculate Heart of Mary statue.  (Long-time readers my recognize the statue as she has been in our mini Mary gardens, Assumption celebration tables, and more.)

On the other side of our prayer card holder, we put our peg doll of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. (We got this in a Marian swap we did.)

Then, we balanced the corners of our shelf with two mini displays, too.

On one side, my daughter placed a favorite card with an image of our Lady and Our Lord on a wooden easel (almost like this one) and surrounded it with blue and white candles.

On the other side, I put our read together for the month: St. Louis De Montfort: The Story of Our Lady's Slave and surrounded it with a homemade Paschal candle and an Immaculate Heart of Mary prayer candle.  We also put some rosaries there for easy reach!

All of the prayer aids on our August feast table, we hope, will help us focus our prayer and turn our own hearts towards virtues and live for Jesus, as Mary's heart is always turned.   

We'd love to see pictures of your August liturgical shelf, feast table, or prayer corner and also to hear about your favorite books, images prayers, etc. related to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Please do share them in a comment here or on our Facebook page.

We'd also appreciate if you'd pray with us for a baby we know that had unexpected heart surgery within the past few weeks and may need another surgery if a miracle of healing does not occur. 

Thank you for praying with us!

O Most Blessed Mother, 

heart of love, heart of mercy, 

ever listening, caring, consoling, 

hear our prayer. 

As your children, 

we implore your intercession 

with Jesus your Son. 

Receive with understanding and compassion,

the petitions we place before you today,

especially for the healing 

of the heart of a baby named Alex. 

We are comforted 

in knowing your heart is ever open 

to those who ask for your prayer.

We trust to your gentle care and intercession,
those whom we love and who are sick
or lonely or hurting. 

Help all of us, Holy Mother, 

to bear our burdens in this life

until we may share eternal life 

and peace with God forever.
Amen 

When Christ Consoles through A Child and a Liturgical Shelf

Have you ever had a day when you're just emotionally off?  You know, the kind of day when someone seems to have turned the faucets in your eyes onto "leak at a moment's notice"? 

I had just that sort of day the other day, and, oddly, our July liturgical shelf  helped move me from sadness to smiles.

At one point during my "off" day, my daughter noticed silent tears slipping from my eyes and came to give me a concerned hug.  I thanked her and reassured her that nothing had happened to anyone, that I was not sad nor angry with her or her brothers, and that Mommy just woke with many emotions and needed to release them.

My daughter accepted that, gave me another hug, and, then, sat down quietly next to me, where she sang happily in an attempt, I am sure, to keep her empathetic self cheerful and to cheer me as well. 

A moment later, my daughter glanced at our July liturgical shelf, called to her brothers, and asked them to help her.  

Together, they began praying An Offering of the Precious Blood for Souls.  I joined them through my tears, and, as they each took a small, tear-shaped piece of tissue paper "blood" to place in the chalice at Jesus' feet, a grateful smile caught a tear that slipped down my cheek.

Christ offered such a sacrifice for all of us and continually offers each us consolation... mercy... hope.

Following Him, we can offer up our own struggles, no matter what they are.

I know this, of course, but, while stewing in my sadness the other day, I had forgotten to turn my sorrow into something beautiful and worthwhile by offering it up.

Then, Christ sent my children to remind me.

Little did I know a few days prior when my children and I had put together our simple July liturgical shelf as a way of teaching them about our faith that it would become a vehicle for Christ to reach me during a moment of sadness.

He truly works in wonderful ways.

I pray His ways reach you during your next moment of sadness, too.

Planning Our July Liturgical Shelf

July 1?  How is it already July first? 

I am not sure how the second half of this calendar year is upon us already.  I am also not sure how so many months have passed since my family has properly set up our liturgical shelf with one of our Marian peg dolls and items to help focus us on the monthly devotion.

Thus, as I head to bed tonight, I am brainstorming how my children and I might decorate our liturgical shelf this week.  I thought I would share my thoughts in case you, too, would like to prepare a liturgical shelf, feast table, prayer corner, or home altar space, too.

Since July is the Month of the Precious Blood, we will layer our shelf with a white cloth atop a red runner cloth.  From a symbolic point of view, the red cloth, of course, will remind us of the Precious Blood of Jesus,while the white will remind us of His pure love for us.

From a more practical standpoint, the white cloth will allow red cardstock cut into tear-shaped droplets to be visible, since the children and I will be making these to use a la a simple, yet beautiful idea shared by Anne at Under Her Starry Mantle.

The droplets will radiate out from one corner o the shelf, where we will place a chalice under a statue of Jesus as Anne did or a crucifix as Jennifer from Wildflowers and Marbles did.  Red cloth will run from the statue or crucifix to the chalice, symbolic of the Precious Blood.

We will also place this prayer on a stand:

An

Offering
Of the Precious
Blood for Souls

O my God, I beg of Thee in
union with the Immaculate Heart
of Mary, through the merits of the
Precious Blood offered Thee in every
Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,
to grant that this day one mortal sin may be
averted, one soul in doubt may be converted to
the truth, one soul about to die in sin may receive
the grace of repentance and a happy death, and
the deliverance of that soul in purgatory which is
nearest Heaven. I wish by this offering to console
the Heart Of Jesus in agony for the souls lost
through the Teaching of error against the
true Church of Christ Jesus,
Our Lord. Amen

At the other corner of our shelf, we will place our Our Lady of Mt. Carmel peg doll.

Near the doll, will go a brown scapular and a copy of the Brown Scapular Coloring Book, which, I hope, we will end up re-reading together throughout the month.

Image: Amazon

If I can find where I last placed them, we will also out our copies of Garment of Grace...

Image: Amazon

... and Garment of Grace (children's version)

Image: Amazon

I would love to hear your favorite prayers, images, and book titles for the Month of the Precious Blood and Our lady of Mt. Carmel.

Year of Consecrated Life Corner

On and off for years, the kids and I have set up feast tables (and shelves) in our home.  However, we have fallen out of consistency with doing so, and, this fall, I would like that to change.  Thus, today I got to rounding up resources as inspiration for part of our September table and thought I'd share my findings.

Inspired by the fantastic feast tables shared on Wildflowers and Marbles, I have decided I would like three parts to our September liturgical table: one corner for the Year of Consecration, one corner for the monthly dedication and intentions, and the center for more temporary things.

The Year of Consecrated Life
Even though we are months and months into the Year of Consecration, I have yet to focus on it much with my children.  So, inspired by the objectives set out in Pope Francis' apostolic letter.  I will be consulting with the kids about what they want to include on a corner of  our shelf dedicated to it.

Some things I am considering are:

• a scrapbook page holder with images of some of the September saints who were priests and nuns to help us "look back at the past with gratitude"
• a print out of the Year of Consecrated Life logo
• a print out of Pope Francis' prayer for vocations
• some sort of craft based on the Prayer for Vocations on Loyola Press' website.
• wooden letters that say NOW, to remind us "to live the present with passion"
• letters that say "yes" to remind us to "embrace the future with hope"
• a wrapped gift, to remind us to "be aware of the gift (we ourselves) have received".

 
Of course, we likely will not include all of these things and we may also substitute other ideas, too.  (I'd love to hear yours!)  My goal is simply to introduce the the "Year of Consecrated Life" to the children as a focus.

How have you been sharing the Year of Consecrated Life with the children in your life?

Can You Enjoy Faith Formation through Food?

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Yesterday, we celebrated our third annual St. Anne Name Day "Tea".

As I looked back at photos from our first Name Day tea...

and our second...

...I realized that the spread of food and variety of activities we have included in our tradition of celebrating Name Days has become increasingly simplified.

That's okay by me.  No every celebration has to be an elaborate one.

What's even more okay by me is the fact that yesterday my children made fabulous symbolic connections with the simple spread of food I did manage to lay out for our al fresco St. Anne celebration.

Edible Symbolism

After praying over our "tea", the children dug in, of course, to their favorite treat first:  coconut milk ice cream!  As they did so, I asked them why they thought I might have chosen to include such a food on the menu (outside of the fact that they love it).

Why, because it is sweet, as is the love God has for us and the love he had for St. Anne.

And so our conversation unfolded, with the children's ideas and mine developing into symbolic connections between our teatime menu, St. Anne and our faith.

Highlights of that chat follow...

Why strawberries and zucchini?

Well, what is on the outside of strawberries?

Seeds!

These remind us of the gospel that we have heard about seed in rocky places, sandy soil and fertile soil.   St. Anne's heart was fertile ground.  Faith grew and she was blessed with St. Mary.  St. Mary, in turn, was blessed with Jesus.  And Jesus blesses us all.

Plus, those berries are red and St. Anne is traditionally depicted in red and green.

And why the zucchini?

Well, sure, it is green.  But does anyone know where we got it?

Nope.  Not from a store.  Rather, it was gifted to us through the generosity of a friend sharing her garden surplus.  So, in essence, we are being physically nourished by kindness that was extended to us by another, much like our Lord's kindness in offering himself nourishes us spiritually.

And do you know that zucchini grow like crazy at this time of year?  

It most certainly does.  So much so that people cannot wait to share their abundance sometimes.  

Isn't God's love like that?  Shouldn't we be thrilled when it grows in us and we can share our blessings with others, much like St. Anne shared the blessing of St. Mary with the world and St. Mary, in turn, shared the blessing of her son, Jesus, who was a gift from our Father...

And what about the GFCF crackers, hummus and guacamole?

Yes, the crackers and hummus are earth-colored and Jesus came to earth to be with us.... Yes, the guacamole is green, a traditional color of St. Anne.  Any other ideas?

I had wanted to get round crackers, but the store was out of them.  What do round crackers sometimes remind us of?  

The Eucharist!  That's right.  The Bread of... Life!

Yes, Jesus is the Bread of Life and St. Anne is his grandmother.

And what are raspberries?

Yes, red... and sweet...  and, absolutely:  They are a fruit!  To remind us of the Fruit if of the Spirit!  St. Anne was faithful and patient and...  so full of the Fruits of the Spirit!

And how about that spinach?  

Sure, it is baby spinach and St. Anne had baby Mary.  

It is also a super nutritious green.  Greens eaten every day can work to keep us healthy and to protect our bodies.

What keeps us healthy and protects us spiritually?  

The Eucharist!  Prayer!  Absolutely.  And St. Anne surely prayed, trusting God.  Her prayers were answered when she conceived Mary...

Thus it was that a simple spread of food prompted an extended chat about various aspects of our faith and of the story of St. Anne.

Our celebration this year was layered with Faith Formation through food... and a bit of fun thrown in, too.

Such as Nina decorating my space at the table with beads and fake flowers since, as she let me know, it was my special Name Day and I should have a special place.

Also, the children coloring after I read them the story of St. Anne from Story Library of the Saints. 

Plus, of course, there was prayer!

In fact, I admit that I got a bit teary eyed as I read a variety of prayers aloud while the children continued to color.  For some reason, the words below just overwhelmed me, in a good way:

Parents' Prayer to St. Anne
We call upon you, dear St. Anne, for help in bringing up our family in good and godly ways. Teach us to trust God our Father as we rear the precious heritage entrusted to us. May His will prevail in our lives and His providence defend us. These blessings we ask for all families in our neighborhood, our country, and our world. Amen 

The succinct phrases of the prayer encapsulated so much of what's been in my heart and in my head lately.  

St. Anne, pray for us!

Seeking More St. Anne Celebration Ideas?

Please find links and details about other options for plant-strong celebratory fare, handmade decorations and easy activities at Our First Annual St. Anne's Liturgical Tea.

  

Put together an easy St. Anne costume by switching out the blue cloth for a green one in a costume like Nina put together for an All Saints' Day party last year.

  

Or, don a do one up with two large tee shirts and a tablecloth, plus a girl dollie, like Nina wore to a party a couple years ago.

What other ideas do you have for celebrating St. Anne or enjoying faith formation through food?

 
Please feel free to share about them in comment here or on our Training Happy Hearts Facebook page.  If you leave a link to an idea, I will pin it on the Training Happy Hearts: A Call to Faith Formation in Young Children Pinterest board.