Count Down to Christmas with a Works of Mercy Chain

Happy New (Liturgical) Year!

If life has thrown you some unexpected curve balls lately and you feel as unprepared for Advent this year as I do, perhaps the simple freebie I am offering today can help.

Let Our 2023 Advent Chain Help Your Family Live the Works of Mercy This Advent

We just took the first link down from our annual Advent chain tonight, so I thought I would share the Advent Chain printable we made for it here in case you're looking for some quick inspiration for an easy way to count down to Christmas while keeping your family's hearts focused on sharing Christ's love through Works of Mercy.

To use the printable as we do, just print the document out. Then, color or paint all of the backsides of the strips violet, except for the final one that says "Celebrate! Christ has come!" which is the Christmas strip and left white. (Alternately, print on purple paper.)

After that, cut the pages into strips and use tape or staples to make a looped paper chain. 

Hang the chain up and - viola! - you and yours are ready to count down to Christmas while focusing on the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

Alternatively, you could browse the document for ideas for making a count-down chain tailored to your family or put the strips out with a Giving Manger  (which I reviewed previously) or homemade Sacrifice Manger (like the one pictured in 6 Things to Do Before Christmas).

Know You're Not Alone If You're Just Starting to get Ready for Advent Even If Advent Has Already Begun

And if you don't have an Advent Wreath set out next to Advent reading, Jesse Ornaments ready to go, or any of your personal Advent traditions rolling out yet, take heart! You are not alone.

Until tonight, the only thing we had out was a St. Andrew Christmas Novena Prayer Rebus Bookmark that we made years ago and just happened to find yesterday when cleaning, and currently, besides the addition of our annual Advent Chain, that remains true.

For you see, last week that old saying that life is what happens when you're making other plans became a reality here again.

A week ago today, I had plans to be well-prepared for Advent by last night. As a part of my plans, since family has been making paper Advent chains in order to count down to Christmas for years now, I had asked my youngest child to start listing Works of Mercy ideas that he would like us to include in our 2023 chain in his binder so that we might make them into a chain later in the week.

Then, the week happened and with it came a major car repair, a printer issue, a plumbing issue, an urgent care visit, an internet outage, another car repair, a roof replacement, and more.

Yes. All of this. In one week. 

So, before I knew it, Advent was upon us, and, instead of being prepared and starting Advent with morning Mass and traditions, my husband and I decided to celebrate the onset of Advent by giving everyone in our household the gift of waking up naturally and going to a noon Mass.

On the way to and from Mass, we prayed the Rosary, and - having been prompted by the aforementioned Christmas Novena bookmark that reappeared yesterday - we caught up on our Novena, too.

Then, the first day of Advent unfolded for us, without many of our New (Liturgical) Year except for praying the Christmas Novena and getting our simple Advent Chain ready.

And that's okay. Totally okay. 

Christ did not come to us in the manger because we were perfect. He does not come to us in the Eucharist because we are perfect. And He won't be coming to us again because of our earthly perfection.

In fact, Christ comes to us in our mess and our brokenness. He meets where we are at. He loves us. He gives us so much grace and mercy and asks us simply to love Him and let Him save us.

That's incredible. That's what this season is about: waiting in joyful anticipation for Christ's coming. 

The only thing we really need to journey well through Advent is a heart, mind, and soul turned toward Christ, awaiting Him.  

I'd love to hear how you're doing this Advent. If you have prayer intentions you would like others and me to pray for, please feel free to leave them in a comment. If you want to share some of your own family's traditions for journeying through Advent, feel free to share that, too. 

May God bless you with a joyful Advent.

Try Our St. Joseph's Sawdust Pasta

 

For years now, my children have enjoyed St. Joseph's "Sawdust" Pasta at our St. Joseph Table events.

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Yesterday, as we shared some at a potluck for the feast day, a friend asked me for the recipe, which made me realize I had never shared it here for easy-access. So, I am doing so now.

• 2 bags of your favorite gluten-free  linguine or spaghetti (We typically use the Sam Mills, which can be found at a local-to-us discount store, but can also be purchased on Amazon)
• water
• 1/2 cup soy-free Earth Balance
• 6-8 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4-1/2 cup raw local honey (depending on how sweet you like things)
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley (can use fresh if desired)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, minced
• crushed gluten-free, casein-free crackers - or GFCF bread crumbs (As much as you like)

1. Cook the pasta according to the directions. Then, drain.

2. Meanwhile, sauté garlic in Earth Balance.

3. Stir in honey and herbs.

4. Pour over drained pasta, stir together, and sprinkle with "sawdust" (crushed crackers or breadcrumbs).

We hope you enjoy this dish as much as we do.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

Try This SOS-Free Vegan Irish Stew!

Our whole household has been sick this week, so I have not been out to a store and will be making our St. Patrick's Day meal from our pantry and fridge.

As a part of it, I will make a simple salt-oil-and-sugar-free vegan Irish stew.

If you'd like to make something similar, here's the recipe:

1 onion, diced
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of GF flour
3 cans white potatoes, chopped
4-6 carrots, sliced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups water
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon marjoram
1 can green beans
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
a generous splash liquid amino acids

1. Put just enough water in the bottom of a large pot to cover the bottom. Add diced onions and minced garlic. Cook for several minutes until starting to become translucent.

2. Sprinkle flour on onion-garlic mix and stir in.

3. Add potatoes, carrots, tomato paste, water, and herbs. Cook until carrots are as soft as you like them.

4. Add green beans, vinegar, and amino acids. Stir in.

You can eat this stew freshly made, or let it sit for a bit for the flavors to mix together and deepen. Any canned ingredients can be swapped out for fresh or frozen and vice versa. You can also add other vegetables if you like. It's quite a forgiving recipe and one my entire family likes despite it being vegan, salt-, oil-, and -sugar-free (which *I* love, but my family sometimes balks at.)

St. Patrick, pray for us.

 

A Simple Way to Involve Older Children in Almsgiving This Lent (or Anytime!)

When I asked my youngest what he thought we should add to our Pray-Fast-Give chain this year for fasting, one of his first answers was, "Buy food to put it in bags for the homeless."

I knew right away why he had said it.

Last Sunday, as we were on our way home from Mass, we pulled up at a stoplight where a homeless gentleman was standing. It was cold, and we had a blanket in the car, so we handed it out the window to the man, but, sadly, did not have any food, warm socks, or other things on hand to gift him.

So it is that, as a part of our Lenten practices, we are hoping to repeat a Works of Mercy effort that some of our homeschool friends and us got together for during Advent: Making Blessing Bags!

To make the bags, each family that was participated shared what they would be bringing using this helpful how-to as a guide for what the homeless might find helpful or not.

Then, upon arrival at the host house, we set up a "buffet" table of sorts with piles of 25 of each item.

Younger children went in another room and made hand drawn cards and pictures to include in the bags, while older children and parents each stood behind a pile and we passed a bag from one to another, filling it assembly-line style.

It took less than an hour to assemble all the bags, inclusive of the time it took to reassemble the few bags which had zippers break or were just not closing due to the way that space-taking items such as a bottle of water, thick socks, and foot warmers had been put in amongst smaller items.

So, making Blessing Bags truly proved to be a simple project that brought us together as a homeschool community to prepare to help our larger community.

We hope to have another Blessing Bag get together this Lent and encourage you to try it with family or friends.

Among the things in ours, were all the things pictured below, plus tuna and crackers and water.

We pray this idea inspires you in your almsgiving and would appreicate hearing your ideas, too!

6 Questions to Help Prepare for Lenten Fasting

Fasting.

How do you get your tweens and teens to want to fast?

With only one older child here who seems to "get" Lenten fasting and two who now tend, sadly, to fight fasting more and more each year, I have been thinking about how to approach this part of our Lenten practice this year.

I decided that I will start with six reflective questions, see what my family's private and shared answers are, and, then, go from there as we choose fasting ideas for our Pray-Fast-Give chain and personal Lenten practices.

Perhaps the questions will help lead your and yours into more meaningful fasting this Lent, too.

1. Are there habits that we engage in that are destructive to our spiritual health?
2. Which areas of our lives feels unbalanced?
3. What causes discord in our family or disorder in our days?
4. To what are we devoting too much time or not enough?
5. To what materials things are we too attached?
   
6. Where do we think God is asking to to grow or to let go in order to better love Him and others?

My hope is that in reflecting upon and discussing these questions, my children will find plenty of purposeful fodder for fasting during our Lenten journeys.

How do you approach ideas for fasting with your growing children? I would love to hear about it!

May God draw each of us closer to Him as we enter into Lent and place increased focus on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (service and Works of Mercy.).\

20 Prayer Ideas for Lent

Okay, I admit it: I have not even gotten all of our Christmas books and nativity sets put away and, yet, Lent is almost here.

With the way our life's been rolling, I don't think we'll embrace many of the traditions and customs which we have for Lent in prior years. I do, know, however, that I will attempt to keep my family focused daily on the three pillars of Lent - prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Thus, I sat down and quickly brainstormed ideas to suggest to my children for for personal Lenten prayer practices as well as for our collective pray-fast-give chain this year. Although most of these are no-brainers, I am sharing them here in case they might inspire you in deciding what to focus on or add to your own Lenten journey with prayer

1. Attend Mass daily whenever possible.
2. Make a spiritual communion together on days when we cannot get to Mass.
3. Make frequent confessions.
4. Get to Adoration.
5. Spend extra time reading Scripture.
6. Get back to praying the Rosary together more often (as opposed to Mom praying it on her own.)
   
7. Read The Creed in Slow Motion together.
8. Attend all or part of a local Lenten mission.
9. Pray the Stations of the Cross.
10. Make a special prayer notebook and list all of the people in our lives that need prayers. Pray for them daily, and add someone new daily.
11. Return to doing a guided examen at nights.
12. Pray the Jesus Prayer throughout each day.
13. Reflect daily on which of the seven capital sins we have been slave to and pray for an increase in its corresponding virtue.
14. Pray together every time we get into our vehicle, not just the first time each day.
15. Pick someone new each day to offer our challenges and sacrifices for.
16. Pay special attention to the intercessions at daily Mass and choose one to pray for especially throughout the day.
17. Go to bed five to ten minutes early and spend extra time chatting with God.
18. Spend an extra five minutes a day in Spiritual Reading.
19. Notice what world event pops up on our screens at the start of each day and pray specifically for the people involved.
20. Spend several minutes in silence each day inviting the Lord to speak to our hearts,

I would love to hear some of the ways you'll be adding extra prayers into your Lenten journey.

Enjoy Simple Eats with Our Lady of Lourdes

French toast is super easy to make - even if your gluten-free like some of us. So, it has become one of our go-to's for celebrating the liturgical year at home on Feburary 11, the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Why French toast? Because Our Lady appeared in Lourdes, France.

And, of course, one of our toppings is always Our Lady's blue(berries).

We also sometimes serve something yellow - such as defrosted frozen mango chunks or chunked pineapple to remind us of the yellow roses at the feet of the apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes.

And to drink? Water, of course, which reminds us of the miraculous and healing spring in Lourdes.

For decoration at the table, we typically put out our Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette peg dolls from our Marian apparation set.

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Then, if our day is not too jam-packed, besides praying and recalling the story of Our Lady of Lourdes, we revisit a variety of stories or movies, which include:

The Saints Chronicles, Collection 3

Source: Amazon

Bernadette: Our Lady's Little Servant.

Source: Amazon

 Saint Bernadette Soubirous: And Our Lady of Lourdes.

Source: Amazon

Saint Bernadette: the Little Girl of Lourdes.  

Source: Amazon

Our Lady of Lourdes Coloring Book

Source: Amazon

Bernadette, Princess of Lourdes

The Song of Bernadette

If you're celebrating, too, you might consider having an Our Lady of Lourdes Poet-Tea like we did in the past.

Source: Training Happy Hearts

Some years, we even get fancier with our eats, such as they year we hosted an Our Lady of Lourdes Poet-Tea.

We also sometimes play our All Saints Day Build-a-Grotto for Mary game!

Always, we are blessed by our simple eats with the saints.

Perhaps you can enjoy similar simple eats and blessings!

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!

Feast with St. Paul Miki on Feburary 6th

Want a tasty idea for a meal with the saints? 

Make or order Japanese-inspired food.

February 6 is the Memorial of Saint Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs, who was born in Japan, educated at a Jesuit college, known for his eloquent preaching, and, sadly, crucified with twenty-five other Catholis during the presecution of Christians in Japan in the late 1500's.

If you are unfamiliar with this saint, this brief video can be a good one to watch:

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Last year, before and during our St. Paul Miki dinner, we watched this video, read about Saint Paul Miki and Charles Lwanga in Once Upon a Time Saints, prayed grace, prayed in thanksgiving for the courageous faith of martyrs and the way they often inspire others in faith, and prayed for all those persecuted for faith around the world.

A red tablecloth reminded us of the martyrs...

... and we laid our food out in a cross shape to remind us of how the martyrs met their death.

Our plates and chopsticks were a hodge podge of authentic Japanese ones from my time in Japan years ago. And all of our food was Japanese-inspired - and happily devoured!

Perhaps you and yours can enjoy celebrating the liturgical year at home with a similar saint day inspired meal this year!

St. Paul Miki and Companions, pray for us!

Easy Eats with St. John Bosco

What's for dinner on January 31? 

Italian food!

January 31st is the Memorial of St. John Bosco, and a great day to whip up some easy eats for celebrating the liturgical year at home by focusing on the saints.

You might go green, white, and red to remind you of the flag of St. John Bosco's homeland, Italy. 

We did this a couple years back with a simple dinner of gluten-free pasta,  sauce,  salad greens, tofu balls for our vegetarians, and meatballs for the rest. (The balls reminiscent of St. John Bosco being the Patron Saint of Jugglers.)

Or, like we did last year, you could go with chickpeas instead of tofu balls as "juggling balls".

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To decorate the table, the wonderful Boy Saints for Little Ones - reviewed here - can provide a focal point.

Or, the Encyclopedia of Peg Saints - reviewed here - can be a focal point and offer fodder for a quick oral game of St. John Bosco trivia.

After grace, the Picture Book of Saints can offer a prayer and short bio to share. Or, you can enjoy a longer story about St. John Bosco in the Loyola Kids Book of Saints.

Then,  if you like a movie after dinner - as we sometimes do - Formed has one about St John Bosco.

Simple eats, stories, prayers, a movie...observing St. John Bosco's feast day at home can be filled with delights.

St. John Bosco, pray for us.