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.

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.

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.

Make a Mini-Mary Garden {Year 3}

We began celebrating the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima a day early this month by joining friends for a children's adoration hour followed by making our third annual mini-Mary gardens. 

Four families gathered together and about a dozen children planted gardens (even if we did not get photos of everyone.)

This year, the weather was not on our side, so we made our Mary Gardens inside. 

{Disclosure:  Some of the links below are affiliate ones.}


This year, for our gardens, we used:

• herbs and flowers.  (A friend brought us basil, Raspberry Dianthus, and Montego Yellow Snapdragon to use this year.  You could use traditional Mary Garden plants, too.)
  
  
  

  

• a variety of pots that are about 6 inches deep.  (This year, my children re-used the heavy, breakable pots we purchased at a local discount shop last year, because I forgot to order the 14-inch TerraBowl Planters like the ones friends used last year.)
  
  
  
  

  

• small statues of Mary.  (We could only find one of our Immaculate Heart of Mary Statue Favors from years past, so we used other statues we had around the house.  Our clever friend also brought popsicle sticks, scissors, glue, tape, and printouts of suns and Mother Mary images so children could add a Mary with a "dancing sun" to their pots in honor of Our Lady of Fatima.)
  
  
  

• potting soil

• hand trowels 

• glass gems
  
  

  

• shells

• other decorative items from nature or your craft bin (We added dried straw flowers to the mic this year, which were popular.)
  
  

  

Each of the children's gardens was unique and beautiful, and we are grateful to our friend for organizing our third annual planting!

A How-To and Prior Gardens

Read a how-to with step-by-step photos of the making of our first Mini-Mary Gardens.

Also, enjoy a peak our second annual Mini-Mary Gardens, which brought my daughter such delight as she nibbled into the first literal fruit of them - a delicious, red, ripe, strawberry!

You might also enjoy making Mary Baskets, using flowers and plants related to Our Lady.

It's truly easy (and fun!) to make these lovely, seasonal gardens in honor of Our Lady.  We'd love to see pictures of yours if you make one!

Get a FREE Printable Fatima Prayers Copywork Set!

In 1916, three shepherd children named Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta from Fatima, Portugal were visited by an angel that called himself the Angel of Peace and the Angel of Portugal.   Then, on, May 13, 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to same three children with an urgent message for the whole world.

Our Lady identified herself as Our Lady of the Rosary and urged the children to pray the rosary daily for peace in the world and to make sacrifices for sinners.

Our Lady continued to appear to Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta on the 13th of each month from May to October of 1917.  Over the course of  her visits, and in the several preceding visits by the angel, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta were taught a number of prayers.  These prayers are wonderful ones to memorize and pray as we offer up sacrifices throughout each day for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for the sins committed against God.

{Disclosure:  Some links which follow are affiliate ones.}

To help my children memorize the Fatima prayers - as well as to work on their handwriting - I have made copywork sheets of all the prayers found in the back of The Children of Fatima and Our Lady's Message to the World by Mary Fabyan Windeatt, which we are reading this week.  I am sharing the simple FREE PRINTABLE Fatima Prayer copywork sheets in case your children might benefit from them, too. 

In the set, I included both ejaculations and longer prayers:

 

I also made copies of each prayer in print and in cursive.

 

My hope is that in doing so, the set will be helpful across ages and abilities. 

Other Our Lady of Fatima Resources and Activities


My plan is to also center a good deal of our week's learning, review, and activities around the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima.  In case you're doing the same, I thought I'd also share some other resources and activities we'll enjoy this week:

We always enjoy listening to Holy Heroes CD's in our minivan, during chore time, or when we're playing with Legos and such.  Secrets from Heaven: The Story of the Children of Fatima will be perfect for this week. The audio is also available as a digital download/MP3.

My youngest got the darling Jesus and Mary hardcover for Easter and has been making his way through reading it with me.  We're going to read the sweet, 1960's version of the Story of Fatima as part of his lessons this week and will share it with his siblings, too.

We love CCC's animations here and will likely be watching The Day the Sun Danced: The True Story of Fatima again this week.

I am fairly certain that we will be making our now annual mini-Mary Gardens this week or next, which are a lovely way to honor Our Lady of Fatima's feast day, Mary's month of May, Mother's Day, or Saint Isadore the farmer's feast day, which is also coming up.

I am not sure yet if we will make simple paper Marian baskets to pass forward again this year, but I wanted to mention them here in case you are looking for an easy service idea for this week.
I've love to hear what your favorite Our Lady of Fatima resources, prayers, and traditions are. 

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Celebrate Our Lady of Fatima with Prayer

Yesterday, two of my children and I were able to participate in part of a Holy Hour while making a visit to view the International Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima and the relics nearby.
 

We had hoped to also attend a Mass and children's blessing with the relic of a piece of the holm-oak tree on which Our Blessed Mother appeared in Fatima and some relics of Jacinta and Francesco, but due to commitments in our own parish, we could not.  However, it is likely that we will be blessed with that experience another time, since the Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima is scheduled to visit other area churches in the future.

Visit with the Fatima Statue Yourself
 
If you'd like to visit with the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima yourself, check the schedule or request a visit for your local church, school conference, prayer group, or hospital chapel.  The beautiful Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima is currently scheduled to visit many locations throughout the United States in the current months, continuing its long tradition of doing so.
In fact, the statue has been traveling throughout the world for 70 years!

In 1947, blessed by Pope Pius the XII blessed the statue before it made its first pilgrimage in order to celebrate and commemorate the 30th anniversary of the apparition of the Blessed Mother to the children in Fatima.  Since then, the International Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima has spent time at the United Nations and also traveling throughout the world.


In the Massachusetts Area?  

If you'd like to enjoy a family-friendly event in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima, the 75th Anniversary of Family Rosary, and the 25th Anniversary of Servant of God Patrick Peyton's death, join Holy Cross Family Ministries on June 3 for a faith-inspired interactive skit, a shared meal, and powerful family prayer experiences.

We have enjoyed other family days of prayer at the Father Peyton Center and have no doubt the upcoming one will be great, too.  It is always a blessing to celebrate faith together as a family there.

Stay up to date on the Family Prayer: Strength and Unity event at the Holy Cross Family Ministries Facebook page.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.