Plan a St. Brigid and St. Verdiana Art, Music, and a Poet-Tea

February first is the Memorial of Saint Brigid of Ireland and also that of Saint Verdiana (although some calendars have Saint Verdiana's day listed as February 16th.)  It is also a day that our AMP It Up club is scheduled to meet.  Thus, I am planning another saint-based Poet-Tea, filled with faith, food, friendship, art, music, and poetry.

If you'd like to include saint-centered snacks and arts immersion on the St. Brigid's and St. Verdiana's feast day, I thought I'd share our Poet-Tea plans.

A St. Brigid and St. Verdiana Poet-Tea Setting and Menu
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Our poet-tea table will be decorated with:

• a white tablecloth (for the purity of the saint' love for God) layered with a blue fabric with golden "stars" on it (since St. Brigid's mantle is sometimes depicted as blue with stars).

• a green candle (to remind us that we are in Ordinary Time) and a white candle (also to remind us of the purity of the saints' love for God).

• several books depicting Saint Brigid and Saint Verdiana including:
  

 

Saint Bridget and the Fox and Saint Verdiana and the Snakes in Amazing Saints & their Awesome Animals

Saint Brigid  in Saints Lives and Illuminations

Brigid's Cloak: An Ancient Irish Story

Saint Brigid and the Cows

•  a St. Brigid cross (if I have time to fashion one) and some dry beans to remind us of how St. Verdiana, with her charitable heart,  gave away all her beans to the poor).

• a globe, so we can locate Ireland (for St. Brigid) and Italy (for St. Verdiana).
• perhaps some snake and cow figurines (since snakes play into St. Verdiana's stories and cows into St. Brigid's)

The food and drink we will serve s still being decided, but will likely include some of the following:

• bread, water, and herbs (because St. Verdiana's diet consisted of eating bread and water once a day, and, sometimes, eating herbs or vegetables.)
• beans (because Verdiana gave beans to the poor.)
• apples (because apples play into one of the tales of St. Brigid's miracles and charity.)
• coconut milk (because there are a number of tales and traditions related to St. Brigid and milk, but my children are cow-milk-free kids and one of our guests has both nut and soy allergies, so coconut milk is our only milk alternative)
• oat bread (adapted from traditional St. Brigid's oat cakes)
• blueberry jam (because it is traditional to eat on St. Brigid's day.)
• an "Italian Flag" fruit plate and an "Irish Flag" vegetable plate (because St. Verdiana was Italian and St. Brigid was Irish.)

Whatever the fare ends up being, I know, we'll pray pray grace, some spontaneous prayers, and a Traditional Catholic Prayer to Saint Brigid before digging into it and chatting more about the lives of Saint Brigid and Saint Verdiana, who were both known for their charity.

Poetry

We will revisit the poem The Giveaway, a long-time St. Brigid Day favorite of mine using a pdf from Clondalkin Village Parish.  Then, after reading about Saint Verdiana, I will ask the children to try their hand at writing a poem, inspired by The Giveaway, about Verdiana.

Music

Bridging from poetry to music, we will take a peak at the lyrics of the Hymn to Saint Brigid as we listen to it sung on a Youtube video:

We will also sing along to We Sing a Song to Saint Brigid.

Art

This file comes from Wellcome Images, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom. Refer to Wellcome blog post (archive).

Finally, for art, we will notice how the illustrations in Saint Brigid and the Cows use hatching and how an engraving of St. Verdiana by Bartolozzi uses stippling, much like his other artwork did as demonstrated in the detail below:

Then, we'll explore hatching and stippling using simple exercises like this one:

Or, perhaps, by creating our own simple line drawings of items and creatures that remind us of Saint Brigid's or Saint Verdiana's story, and, then, adding value to our drawings through hatching or stippling.

More

Find loads of ideas, resources, and links for lessons inspired by Saint. Brigid and Verdiana as well as plans for a luncheon.

Enjoy some ideas for simple stories and notebooking -including a link to a free online story, take a peak at plans for a simple Saint Brigid Feast day for younger children, or flashback to how we celebrated one year when my children were wee ones.

Browse through Poet-Tea plans and photos for other liturgical celebrations.

Saint Brigid, pray for us.  Saint Verdiana, pray for us.

Celebrate Corpus Christi with Art, Music, and a Poet-Tea

Happy Feast of Corpus Christi!  

This floating feast day was instituted in 1264 and is currently celebrated either on the Thursday or Sunday after Trinity Sunday, depending on your location.  This day, also called the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, was inspired by a Eucharistic miracle and a vision of an Augustinian nun from Belgium named St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon and honors the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Corpus Christi procession, BL Harley 7026, f. 13 (England, c.1400-c.1410

Traditionally, Eucharistic processions are held on this day, with rose petals strewn in the path of the Sacrament. Some people also decorate their homes with candles in windows, as well as with floral wreaths, greenery, and banners. 

At our home, this year, Corpus Christi Thursday also was celebrated with a Poet-Tea.

A Feast of Corpus Christi Setting and Menu

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Since our final AMP It Up club meeting of the year fell on Corpus Christi Thursday, I suggested to the other family that would be coming that focus our Art, Music, and Poetry explorations on the liturgical celebration of Corpus Christi with a simple Poet-Tea.  Thus, for Corpus Christi, our simple poet-tea table was decorated with:
 

• a white tablecloth (for purity)

• two white pillar candles (to represent altar candles)

• a mini chalice and paten from our miniature Mass kit (to represent the Body and Blood of Christ.  You could also use a simple stemmed glass and small plate, parts of a life-size Mass Kit, or a Father Leopold Celebrated Mass custom Lego Kit.)

Had I had time to go out and get roses, I might have also strewn our table with petals and, for fun, even set up a peg doll or Lego procession.  Perhaps next year...

Since the morning before our AMP club gathering was busy, however, I kept things super simple, including the symbolic drinks and foods that were minimal, meaningful, yet tasty:

• grape juice (representing wine which transforms into the Blood of Christ. Any red or purple juice, or even real wine, could, of course, also work)

• gluten-free Glutino crackers (representing the bread which transforms into the Body of Christ. Any round cracker, wafer candy, bread loaf, or even unconsecrated communion wafers - sometimes used by parents whose children need to practice for First Holy Communion - could work.)

• grapes (again, reminding us of wine)

• So Delicious casein-free vanilla "ice cream" cut into rounds with crosses pressed into them (to cool us off and remind us of the host and my children's First Holy Communion celebration desserts)

Our Outdoor Poet-Tea for Corpus Christi

Once our friends arrived for our Corpus Christi poet-tea, we gathered at our celebratory table set under the shade of a tree, and I asked the children what the foods laid out on it might remind them of.  They answered, "The Last Supper!", "the Eucharist," "First Holy Communion," "the Fruit of the Spirit," and "the Holy Trinity".  With this, I bridged into asking the children if they knew what solemnity is celebrated by the Church either 10 days after Pentecost or on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday - Corpus Christi!

I, then, asked the children to guess what the words "Corpus Christi" might mean, whereupon they suggested "the Body of Christ".

Using an infrographic downloaded from CBCPNews, we, then, chatted about the history and significance of the Corpus Christi, before gathering around my laptop to watch a brief video about Corpus Christi from Britannica Kids.

After sharing a few more thoughts about the day - and about Eucharistic miracles, which the children were quite interested in, we prayed grace and enjoyed our tea fare.While the children enjoyed some time to play and chat, we cleared the food and drink and placed paper and art supplies on the table.  Then, when we called the children back from their break, I explained that while I was preparing for our gathering, I had looked poetry written especially for Corpus Christi or about the Body and Blood of Christ. In doing so, I had found fun, medieval riddle poems at a Clerk of Oxford which were originally from BL Royal 17 A XVI:

It seems white and is red;
It is alive, and seems dead;
It is flesh, and seems bread;
It is one, and seems two; [i.e. to be composed of many parts]
It is God's body, and no mo. [nothing else]

 and DIMEV:

It seemeth white and it is red;
It is alive and seemeth dead;
It is flesh and seemeth bread;
And is true God in his Godhead.

The children got a kick out of looking at these poems written in old-style language and also enjoyed hearing me read their modern translations aloud.  We chatted about what each line of the riddles might refer to based on the children's understanding of the Mystery go the Blessed Eucharist.

BL Royal 2 B XIII, f.22 (London, c.1508)

We also talked about how old Bibles and books were often illuminated.

I, then, explained that Corpus Christi inspires more modern poetry, too.  As examples, I shared two sonnets from Malcom Guilte: Love's Choice (about the Sacrament itself) and This Table (about the communion table).  In these poems, we noted rich words and phrases that brought sensations to mind and emotions to heart.

After that, I reminded the children that portions of Bible itself are considered poetry and shared how I had found an interesting concrete-poem style image of a Bible verse online at My Catholic Faith Ministries:

My Catholic Faith Ministries

The children thought this image was "so cool", and I agreed! 

I, then, recalled our past discussion about how hymns and songs are often simply poetry set to music.  I explained that there are a number of such musical poems related to the Body and Blood of Christ, some of which they might know from Mass, Adoration, and other experiences. 






I had considered sharing musical excerpts of such songs or reading their lyrics as poetry using the article Corpus Christi: Our Debt to St. Thomas Aquinas from Catholic Exhange and Catholic Culture's Corpus Christi Hymn section, but I could tell the children were getting antsy.  Thus, I decided to simply play the Corpus Christi Sequence Hymn of St. Thomas Aquinas from YouTube as background while the children worked on their own poetic and artistic creations.

I suggested to the children that they use the simple supplies set on the table -- paper, pencils, colored pencils, Color Sticks, and Thin Stix -- to meet one of three challenges:

(1)  Design a concrete poem inspired by Corpus Christi using your own words or words from the Bible.  Then, decorate the border of it.

(2)  Write any style poem you wish about Corpus Christi and, then, illuminate a portion of it.

(3) Write any style of poem you wish inspired by the Eucharist, and, then, make a separate illustration - perhaps a still-life using our candles, chalice, and paten.

Before turning on the Youtube music and having the children get down to creating, I offered them one last bit of inspiration by quickly chatting about the symbolism, using this excerpt from Catholic Culture as a resource:

"The usual symbol for the Holy Eucharist is a chalice, with a host rising out of it.

The chalice is shown with a hexagonal base, as a rule, symbolizing the Six Attributes of the Deity (power, wisdom, majesty, mercy, justice and love), and with a richly wrought stem of gold, studded with precious stones. The host is shown as the typical circular wafer, upon which may be imprinted the letters I. N. R. I., from which proceed rays of light, symbolical of the Real Presence, the substantial presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine.

An altar, upon which is set a cross, two or more candles in their tall candlesticks, a chalice and a ciborium, is another symbol often seen."

The children then set to work creating while listening to the music from my laptop.  (Of course, YouTube has plenty of other Corpus Christi hymns, talks, etc. some of which contain beautiful art images, that we might have enjoyed if we were not outside enjoying the beautiful weather!)

Finally, the children shared their creations with one another...

and went off to play again.

Our Corpus Christi Poet-Tea proved a lovely closing gathering for our AMP It Up club year, allowing us to celebrate three things we value: faith, friendship, and the arts.  We do hope to enjoy more such gathering next fall through spring and, that by sharing about this one, we inspire you with your own celebrations and learning.

Happy Corpus Christi!
 

O Lord Jesus Christ, You who have given us Your precious Body and Blood to be our meat and drink, grant that through frequent reception of You in the Holy Eucharist, I may be strengthened in mind and body to do Your holy will. Amen.

Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, have mercy on us.


{Short Novena prayer from Catholicism.About.Com}

Please do share your own Corpus Christi traditions, prayers, recipes, resources, and ideas with us!  We love discovering new ways to live the liturgical year in our domestic church.

Enjoy a St. Patrick's Day with Art, Music, and a Poet-Tea

Would you like to add a little art, music, poetry, food and fun to your St. Patrick's Day this year? 

Then, you may wish to take a peak at how we enjoyed a St. Patrick's Day Poet-Tea with friends last year.:
 
"AMP"ing Up the Liturgical Year

First, for those who are unfamiliar with our A.M.P. It Up Club endeavors, a quick synopsis:

Since 2015, some friends and I have been getting out children together for a once-to-twice a month club to "amp up" our focus on art, music, and poetry in our lives.  Typically, at our meetings we:

• recite (and sometimes write verses of) poetry.
• briefly study composers, compositions, music styles, or instruments.
• experiment with different styles of artwork, sometimes after completing quick picture studies.

We also tie our meetings to the liturgical year at times, since all of us are Catholic and enjoy celebrating together. That's exactly what we did for St. Patrick's feast day!
 
The Setting

We kept our setting fairly simple:

• an off-white tablecloth (because the lacy, white tablecloth I wanted to use, reminiscent of Irish lace needed to be laundered after a just-us celebration earlier in the day)

• green and blue candles (because the color green is now associated with St. Patrick's day, but St. Patrick was often depicted in blue in earlier art)

• several Irish-themed knick knacks (just for fun since we had them out already)

• a shamrock candle holder that my niece had welded and given us as a gift (to remind us of the legend that St. Patrick used shamrocks to teach about the Trinity)

• Prayers to My Favorite Saints (so we could view the illustration of St. Patrick in in and read the prayer) 

• a print out about Celtic crosses (so we could explain them to the children)

A St. Patrick's Day Poet-Tea

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To begin our Poet-Tea, we prayed grace and chatted about what we knew about St. Patrick the Saint and other St. Patrick's day traditions and lore using the food on our table as a starting point.  The fare included:

 Green Matcha Donuts (going with the Irish green theme)

 Potato Hashbrowns (because Ireland is known for its potatoes)

 A Potato-and-More Frittata with "Shamrock" Garnish (because we all need a little protein!)

 An "Irish Flag" Veggie Tray

 Traditional Irish Stew

 A Fruit Rainbow (for the leprechaun legends)

 Green Smoothies(for Ireland's green)  "Liquid Gold" Juice (for the leprechaun legends again), Chocolate Silk (just because we like it) and Irish tea

 More Potato Hash (for Ireland's potatoes)

Leprechaun Gold Juice Wigglers (because my children love juice wigglers)

Oatmeal (because some of mine loves "Irish" oatmeal)

I also drew the children's attention to the illustration and text about St. Patrick in Prayers to My Favorite Saints and led them in further prayer. 

As the children began to eat, for the poetry portion of our Poet-Tea, I read them St. Patrick's Breastplate and some Irish Blessings, (but only a few, so we could all enjoy just eating and chatting together.)  

Then, while we cleaned up the tea, those who wished to took turns playing with our green bodysock (which my children always ask me to pull out at this time of year!)

After that, I offered the children their choice of copywork of Irish blessings or St. Patrick's Breastplate (found FREE at Proverbs 22:6 Academy!) to do for a brief time and encouraged those who wished to pen their own Irish-style blessings.

Music Appreciation and Games

After a short period for copywork, we knew the children were ready to move and groove, so I played some traditional Irish music while the kids danced.  

We talked a bit about what types of instruments we heard in the music and played a bit of "dance freeze".

Then, I asked if anyone could tell me about St. Patrick and the bells and shared a bit from one of our favorite seasonal picture books, St. Patrick and the Three Brave Mice, before taking everyone outside to play our old favorite Snake Freeze,which is always a hit. 

The children so enjoyed playing sneaky snakes.

Running up to steal the bell..

Trying not to be heard...

 

And catching one another...

The Mamas did, too!  So many laughs were had by all.

Imaginative Landscapes Artwork

Once we everyone had had turns at our game, we gathered together to do a picture study about landscapes in my ARTistic Pursuits Elementary Book One.  

Then, we browsed some of the beautiful landscapes illustrations in Ann Tompert's Saint Patrick and other seasonal picture books I had in our book basket before setting to work using pencils, Cray-Pas and Crayola Oil Pastels to create our own imagined landscapes. 

Some of the children went with the Saint Patrick's Ireland theme for their artwork and others did not.  See:

 

All enjoyed our time together observing Saint Patrick's Day with art, music, poetry and more.  In fact, once the children completed their artwork, they were not quite ready to stop celebrating...

Indeed, they decided it was time for a parade.

 
Some Final Fun

In years past, my children have enjoyed many Irish and St. Patrick's day themed picture books, including:

Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland

St. Patrick's Day in the Morning

The Last Snake in Ireland

Thus, little family traditions of having our bells and drums out around St. Patrick's day and parading around with them have sprung up.  This year, these traditions were shared with friends in our own little noisy parade.

More St. Patrick's Day Ideas

If you'd like other ideas for celebrating St. Patrick's Day, you may wish to click on through to some of these:

• Feast, Learn, and Enjoy Sensory Activities for Saint Patrick's Feast Day

   

• Planning a Sense-able St. Patrick’s Day Tea and Playdate

• A Sensory-Friendly St. Patrick’s Day Story and Play Time 

• Throw the Snakes Out of Ireland (get your FREE Printable challenge sheet)
  
  he Kennedy Adventures Shamrock Sandwiches How-To 

• The Kennedy Adventures Irish Frosties recipe

• The Kennedy Adventures collection of St. Patrick's Day Snacks

• Life, Love and Sacred Art's adorable FREE printable St. Patrick Coloring Page

• Fun ideas at A Slice of Smith Life

 I'd love to hear about how YOU celebrate St. Patrick's Day or approach art, music, and poetry. 

St. Patrick, pray for us!

This post was shared at the 40 Days of Seeking Him Link up