Begin a Rosary Cenacle

"What a cenacle?" a relative asked when we mentioned that we had plans to go to one this weekend.

"It's when we get together with other families, pray the Rosary, have a teaching, go to Confession if we wish, eat, play, hang out with the friars...like a potluck, but with a focus on faith and community," was my honest reply.

Later, it occurred to me that I did not actually know what the word cenacle meant. Throughout the past several years, I had been taking my family to small- and larger- group Rosary Cenacles with the wonderful Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, but had somehow missed whatever the formal definition for a cenacle is.

So, I did some research and discovered that the Cenacle is the room where Jesus and the 12 Disciples met for the Last Supper and from it has sprung the idea of modern Cenacles where Catholics come together to pray to Jesus through Mary. So, I guess I was not far off in the explanation I gave my relative, and, most certainly, I am blessed to be able to be a part of beautiful local cenacles where we pray the Rosary, have catechism, enjoy games and family activities, eat together, etc.

Perhaps you and yours could start or begin a cenacle near you, too.

Undoubtedly, it would please Our Lady, who, at Fatima in 1917, enjoined:

I am the Lady of the Rosary, I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and ask for pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more, for He is already too grievously offended by the sins of men. People must say the Rosary. Let them continue saying it every day.

It would also follow suit with Saint Padre Pio's wonderful recommendation:

Love the Madonna and pray the Rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today.

And, of course, it would prepare you and yours in a very important way!

At a church, in your home, in a community center, wherever, you could gather with others - and with a priest if possible - consider beginning a cenacle with purpose.

For more information and ideas:

• Keep family/children's cenacles simple, yet rich.

• Follow this format for formal cenacles.

• Read more about the cenacle concept and see a suggested format for one.
  

• Learn about Divine Mercy cenacles.

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.

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

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!

Enjoy Waffle Sundaes for Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary!

Busy days get the best of us at times, but days are rarely too busy to slip in celebrating the liturgical year with simple eats!

One way we have done so many years on September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is with waffle sundeas.

When all the kids and I were all eating gluten-free, casein -free, this was such a quick an easy treat.

I'd just run to the store and grab some gluten-free toaster waffles, a container of casein-free vanilla "ice cream",  some blueberries, and some "golden sweetness" (honey).

I'd toast the waffles and stack them up like a cake with a candle on top so the kids could sing "Happy Birthday" to Mama Mary.

I'd also set out a bowl of "ice cream" and one of blueberries (blue and white for Mary's colors). 

Some years I'd get cocowhip, too.

Then, after singing, the kids would build their sundeas, we'd chat about Mama Mary, and we'd pray a decade or more of the Rosary.

A delight for the kids and simple for me.

These days, not all the kdis are still eating gluten-free, casein-free, so sometimes we get real ice cream for some as a treat. Plus, now that my daughter likes to cook more, seh sometimes makes us belgium waffles instead of using the toster ones.  

Still easy for me. Still enjoyed by the kids. Still pausing to pray and celebrate in our domestic church even when life is busy.

Simple traditions are ones that last. Do you have any for the Feast of the Nativity of th Blessed Virgin Mary?

Impart to your servants, we pray, O Lord, the gift of heavenly grace, that the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin may bring deeper peace to those for whom the birth of her Son was the dawning of salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

~The Collect

Make a Mary Garden (& Enter a Contest, Too)

May is just around the corner.

So, I am already thinking about what we might do for our annual Mini Mary Gardens. I am also dreaming about finally putting together a full-size Mary Garden in our yard. 

Even if time, resources, and life do not line up for me to create a beautiful outdoor Mary Garden, though, I am excited at the possibility of inspiring my children in the creation of this years' Mini Mary Gardens by sharing with them news of  a contest the Museum of Family Prayer is running, which you might be interested in, too.

On the Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church (May 24), the Museum of Family Prayer will launch its 2nd Annual Mary Garden Contest!, which aims to  encourage gardeners and gardener wannabes to do something concrete to give witness to Christ our Life by creating beautiful spaces for personal meditation, family prayer, and observing the glorious natural wonder that God created.

Whereas traditional Mary Gardens have historically been enclosed gardens filled with flowers and herbs whose names connect to Our Lady which are planted around a statue of the Holy Virgin, the Museum of Family Prayer is opening the  proverbial field to include any space filled with plants and flowers where you and your family might go with Our Lady to focus on prayers, peace, and beauty.

A porch, a corner of an apartment, a spot in your yard...  Anywhere where you can grace your hearts and home with God's presence by creating your very own Mary Garden is fair game.

What a fun way to encourage some creative springtime planting fun and some summer-into-fall peaceful prayer.

Be sure to keep watch of the official contest page for forthcoming details. In the meantime, happy planning and planting.

Blessed Virgin, pray for us.

Host an American Needs Fatima Home Visit

Have you heard of America Needs Fatima's Fatima Home Visitation Program?

We had the blessing of being invited to share in a program that friends hosted at their house.

What a beautiful time!

A kind and knowledgeable custodian brought a beautiful statue of Our Lady to our friends' home and led us in an informative program before we all joined together to pray the Rosary and concluded the evening with refreshments and socialization.

As a part of the program the mother of the home ceremoniously crowned the statue of Our Lady as we sang a hymn in Mary's honor.

Then, the custodian offered a short, interactive / question-and-answer type history of the origin of the statue and Fatima story before showing a 20-minute or so video on the story of Fatima and Our Lady's message, which further brought home the relevance of Our Lady's prophesies in our modern lives.

After that, the custodian distributed special card envelopes where we could write petitions to be taken to Fatima, Portugal to be places at the exact spot Our Lady appeared. 

Then, each family present led a decade of the rosary before we enjoyed refreshments and socialization - and also could browse the religious materials that the custodian had brought.

Truly, it was a lovely event and I encourage you to look into hosting or attending a similar one.

If you'd like to host one, you can request to do so here.

Get FREE Printable Morning Glory Consecration Prayer (Short Version) Copywork in Cursive and Printing

Recently, I have found my memory clouded and my mouth stumbling as I go to make my Morning Glory Consecration, so I decided that to help me with (re)memorization, I would make a Printable Morning Glory Consecration Prayer (Short Version) Copywork set for myself.

I am sharing the FREE PRINTABLE set in case itFREE PRINTABLE set might help you, too.

As I typically do when making copywork sets, I have made this one with a print model:

...a cursive model...

...and a blank line sheet.

That way, your children children can choose to practice printing, cursive, or both if they use the set and you can use whichever is more comfortable for you.

I also included a blank sheet if you like to write without lines.

On the lined sheets, I used a double thick line at the bottom of each line to help children remember to ground their letters, I also used spaces between words on the model to help children remember to leave spaces between words as they copy.

I hope this simple Printable Morning Glory Consecration Prayer (Short Version) Copywork blesses your and yours as you work on practicing prayers and handwriting.

You can find more free, printable prayer copywork here!

Soul of Christ, sanctify us.

Ooo... A School of Mary!

If you are looking to learn more about Our Lady, you may want to begin following the School of Mary, a new series by Fr. Matthias M. Sasko of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.

Fr. Matthias and the other friars are truly wonderful spiritual fathers and brothers and I, personally, am grateful for their teaching through the years. I am also excited about this series, so wanted to share it in hopes that it may bless you, too.

In these crazy times we all need a little something to be uplifted by - especially when it is filled with truth and love.

Blessed Mother Mary, pray for us.

Enjoy Simple Eats as Your Recall the Miracle of the Sun

Looking for easy eats for celebrating in your domestic church this week?

I've got you covered!

October 13 marks the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun - a day that is super simple to celebrate with you family! 

Just whip up a "sun" with anything that you have in your fridge and cupboards, have a chat about the Miracle of the Sun, pray the Rosary together, and, if you wish, add in some themed reading, listening, watching, or copywork. (I shared a free copywork set here before.)

If you do not know much about the Miracle of the Sun, or if you just want a succinct reminder about the day to share with your children, Catholic365 offers one here:

And, if you'd like some ideas for simple, quick "sun" dishes, you might be inspired by out simple eats from last year.

{Disclosure: Some links which follow may be affiliate ones.}

After Mass, we toasted a quick-n-easy, casein-free nacho "sun" using Chi- Chi's tortilla chips and Daiya cheese, which we served with a side of salsa.

This "sun" may have been a bit overcooked, but it was festive when placed on an outside table covered in a blue - for Mary - tablecloth and set with Marian Apparitions peg dolls, candles, and a few of our Our Lady of Fatima resources.  

In fact, once we had prayed grace, my children happily devoured our nacho "sun" while chatting about Our Lady of Fatima and retelling the story of the Miracle of the Sun.

They also enjoyed a "dancing sun" which was quickly put together with apple slices, nectarine slices, and clementine segments.

Plus, our "sun juice" - Ceres 100% juice - went down easy, too.

Satisfied by our simple eats and fortified by faith-centered chatting, the children progressed with the day, which later included the blessing of participating in a Coast-to-Coast Rosary event.

While at the event, a rainbow randomly appeared.

Wow! Magnificent! God is so good and creates such glorious beauty for us.

I pray that your Miracle of the Sun day this year has delightful moments like ours did last year.

With simple eats and praying together as a family or with others, your domestic church, no doubt, will enjoy and be blessed.

If you'd like other ideas for celebrating this feast day and learning about Our Lady of Fatima, be sure to check out past Our Lady of Fatima posts.  

You might also enjoy some of the resources we've used for prior reading, listening, and watching elated to Our Lady of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun:

Source: Amazon

The Children Of Fatima: And Our Lady's Message to the World.

Source: Amazon

 Our Lady Came to Fatima

Source: Holy Heroes

Secrets from Heaven: The Story of the Children of Fatima, which is also available as a digital download/MP3.)

Source: Amazon

 the Story of Fatima in our copy of Jesus and Mary

Source: Amazon

 The Day the Sun Danced: The True Story of Fatima

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Enjoy Celebrating the Queenship of Mary

The Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary is August 22. 

This year, we won't be celebrating with a party with friends as we did last year, but I have been enjoying looking back at snapshots from that celebration and thought I would share some of them as inspiration for you to celebrate the Queenshp of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the children in your life.

If you like celebrating with easy eats any blue, red, and white foods can be symbolic of Mary.

Blue is a traditional color of royalty and also symbolic of heaven and the sky Red symbolizes Mary's love passion, devotion, and sacrifice. And, white symbolizes Mama Mary's purity. With these colors and the summer season in mins strawberries, blueberries, cherries, and/or raspberries with whipped cream, yogurt, nice cream, or ice cream, are a wonderful idea!

Cherry tomatoes - also in season - can be an easy addition to your feast table, too.

Watermelon crowns can also be easy and succulent for this summertime feast day celebration.

If you have littles, you might enjoy a fun little Marian Queenship song and game to the tune of Ring Around the Rosary from a cute little book called Joyful Noises.

If you prefer celebrating through play, you might play a version of Queenie, Queenie, Whose Got the Ball in a pool or in the yard. We adapted the rhyme to this:

Queenie, Queenie, who has the ball?
Someone big or someone small?
We know Jesus loves us all.

For more detailed ideas and links, see the post I shared last year when planning our party as well as an older post about an impromptu liturgical teatime.

Enjoy your feast day!

Mary, Queen of Heaven, pray for us.

O God, who made the Mother of your Son
to be our Mother and our Queen,
graciously grant that, sustained by her intercession,
we may attain in the heavenly Kingdom
the glory promised to your children.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
~The Collect