It's Time to Begin the Seven Sundays of St. Joseph

Here we are, seven Sundays prior to St. Joseph's feast day.

It's a prime day to begin the Seven Sundays Devotion - a long-standing tradition of the Church in preparation for the feast of St. Joseph on March 19.

The devotion honors the seven joys and seven sorrows that St. Joseph experienced as husband of the Mother of God, faithful guardian of Christ, and head of the holy family.

To pray the devotion, attend Mass and receive Holy Communion in a state of grace and pray the prayers in honor of the seven joys and seven sorrows of St. Joseph.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

Read This Pro-Life Poem

The other night, a child came out to me and asked if I would like to hear a poem. Then, the child began to read the newly penned A Baby's Prayer, A Little Dear.

As the child read delivered the poem - simply and powerfully - tears formed in my eyes.

I asked the child if I could share it and was told, "yes", so am doing do here.

Perhaps the poem will speak to someone's heart.

A Baby's Prayer, A Little Dear

 

A baby's cry, a cry for life in the darkness, begging for life, for rights, begging for love, for care, begging, BEGGING for Mommy to hear.

 

A hardened heart, an unwilling ear, trying, TRYING not to hear, trying, trying not to care.

I don't have the money. I don't have the time.

A hurried decision. A lie for a life. A life for a lie.

 

Please, please, don't make me die.

I'm a child, sweet at heart. I'll love you and care. I won't tear YOU apart.

I know labor's hard, but I beg you from my little heart, from my little hands clasped imploring, from my little brain trying in vain to see how your big brain can think it right to make my world an eternal night...

 

But I know from my little heart with its little beat, you'll do what is right, you'll let me seek that glorious light of life and love. You'll let me share my little joys. You'll help me with my little toys. And you'll let me bring YOU my joy, MY light. I pray as though you might.

 

Hear me, Mommy, hear my prayer.

Don't destroy. Let us share our love - our joy.

It is evident that God has spoken to my child's heart about the beauty and joy of life.

Please join us in praying for the legal protection of the preborn.

Did You Miss Any of our Top 10 Faith Post in 2020?

Happy 2021!  I hope your year has started with many blessings.

Ours sure has. Some challenges, too, of course. But, many blessings as well.

One such blessing is the promise of the year ahead and all the opportunities there may be to live, learn, and celebrate our faith - and to share some of what we do here in case it helps you.

The other day, as I was looking back in order to plan forward for upcoming liturgical living, I realized I had never checked in to see what my most popular sharings of 2020 were.

Upon doing so, I quickly saw that among our most-visited posts were a combination of faith-related and review /giveaway ones. That made total sense, since, again in 2020, that is mostly what I found time to share.

In case you missed any of the Top 10 Faith Posts from 2020 - or just want to revisit a favorite post for inspiration or its free printable, I collected a linked list here for you.

I pray that as you scroll through our Top 10 Faith Posts, you will find inspiration to continue to live and grow in faith with your family in 2021. 

Top 10 Faith Posts of 2020

~10~

Perhaps the Lenten art, music, and poetry ideas that I prepared and shared for our AMP club last year can help you as you plan forward for this year's Lent.

~9~

We enjoyed celebrating St. Angela of Merici on Jnuary 27 with easy eats and conversation. 

Now is a good time to put simple eats on your grocery list in preparation for celebrating St. Angela of Merici this year!

~8~

Free printable copywork and journaling sets are helpful on saint days and any day.

If you missed our one for St. Bonaventure, get it here.

~7~

Celebrating Mama Mary and gardening are both worthwhile endeavors. Combining the two can be a fruitful delight. Perhaps, you might consider making an edible Mini-Mary Garden this year.

~6~

Pizza toasts are popular eats in my home. Retelling the story of the Passion as we make them makes them into liturgical living eats. Perhaps you'd like to do the same this Lent.

~5~

I got a message requesting the creating of an Act of Faith Copywork set and was happy to create and share one. 

Now, this year, my kids will be using this free handwriting printable to help prepare for their confirmation. Maybe yours can, too.

~4~

Saint Valentine's day will be here before we know it. Perhaps you' enjoy going on the same Nature Scavenger Hunt we did. Get a free printable hunt sheet.

~3~

Our Lady never lets us down. 

Help your children learn the short Memorare prayer so they can fly to her whenever there's a need!

~2~

It surprised me to discover that my request to join me in praying for wayward children became such a popular post. 

It broke my parenting heart to be in a position to make such a request, and I continue to appreciate and offer prayers to St. Augustine, St. Monica, and St. Ambrose on behalf of my child, myself and you and yours, if you need them, too.

I am confident our prayers are heard and, in the end, all will be well!

~1~

Prayer is such a vital part of life - formulaic and spontaneous.

It appears many appreciated the free Apostles Creed prayer copywork set I made. I pray that using it helped your children grow in handwriting skills and succinct, solid understanding of our faith!

If there are other Catholic prayers, quotes, or material you'd like me to create and share as free printable copywork and journaling sets, just ask. I am always happy to help as I can!

In fact, please never be shy about making any requests for content you'd like to see here! Like many folks who share online, I have more ideas in my head than focus and time to share about them all. So, I like to tailor what we share about here to what you'd most like to see. I can only do that if you let us know.

Please leave a comment here, let me know via social media, or just tell me next time you see me (since some followers here actually know me in real life, too!)  We love feedback! 

Oh, and if you'd like to browse past Top 10 collections, find them here.

May God bless you a yours 2021 unfolds.

Wonderful Reads to Start the New Year With

What better way is there to start the New Year than with some quality books? 

I'd love to hear what you and yours are reading.

This post does contain affiliate links, I will receive a commission for products you buy through my referral link at no extra cost to you.

Here, among the books we've been curling up with are:

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. This classic has taken a place in our nightly read together pile and is perfect for it! Chapters are relatively short, yet meaty, and give us plenty to think about. 

If you've never read this book with your tweens and teens, I highly recommend it, and, if you'd like ideas for discussion points, be sure to pop over to the C.S. Lewis Institute to find free PDF reading guide for the book.

My eldest - who sadly is eschewing most things Catholic/faith-related right now unless "forced" into participation, received the book The Eighth Arrow by J. Augustine Wetta, O.S.B. for Christmas.

I have not had a chance to browse the books since he has it squirreled away in his room where he stays up until the wee hours each night reading.

Score! He likes the book! 

And I like that it is by a priest - J. Augustine Wetta O.S.B - who wrote another good book that we read as a nightly read together some months ago upon a recommendation and loan from a friend.

My eldest son did not take to Humility Rules as well as he is taking to The Eighth Arrow since Humility Rules is more overtly faith-related. Still, on the whole, Humility Rules was a fruitful read for my children and me.

Plus, my children all enjoyed the humorous illustrations in the book. Thus, I don't hesitate to recommend the book as a solo read or group one to you and yours.

Finally, in my personal reading pile is a book recommended to me by a wise and holy local priest: The Temperament God Gave You. I have only just begun the book, but am already appreciating it. 

I would love to hear what you and your have been reading!

Woah! ONE Resource for the Entire Family with Every Subject for Every Grade {A SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review}

Disclosure: I received this product free through the Homeschool Review Crew.

This post contains affiliate links, I will receive a commission for products you buy through my referral link at no extra cost to you.

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The kids and I cuddled up and watched, enjoying a peaceful ending to a busy day. My kids said:

The cartoon we watched was fun, too. A man taught a town about Baby Jesus.

The cartoon had a nice meaning.

Another case in point: During a 1:1 time with one of my children, I noticed his multiplication fact recall was flagging. So, I quickly went to the printable game section of SchoolhouseTeachers.com, found one that would help him practice, and printed it out. 

In minutes, we were playing, and he had so much fun that, later in the day, he asked, "Can we play another one?" 

So, I printed more and using a mix of luck, strategy, and skill, he got stronger with multiplication while we had some fun together!

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The printable games were awesome and fun. I liked the math ones. They made it so I could practice multiplication. My favorite was the one we colored the four squares for.

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Get a FREE No-Rehearsals-Needed Christmas and Epiphany Play Script

Oh what blessings and fun we had celebrating the Epiphany.

Mass. A reception. Picking saints for the year. Carols. A blessing of chalk and water so we can continue the Epiphany tradition of chalking our doors... And a partially narrated-partially improvised play.

The play was especially fun this year.

Some local priests asked me if I would lead a play, but, given everyone's Christmastime commitments and other hurdles, doing a traditional pageant with rehearsals was not going to work. Plus, we wanted to include anyone who showed up for the reception and wanted to participate.

So, I wrote a a no-rehearsals-needed script which took the form of a narration that could be used as a base for improvised scenes. Then, I simply laid out costume pieces and simple props in a "backstage" area, invited anyone who wanted to participate to come close to the stage area, and began.

Children and adults alike joined in on stage with quick readings from cue cards and improvised pantomime and dialogue.

The entire audience joined in at times with background pantomime and dialogue as well as song.

And the play was a wonderful success with everyone's good-natured participation.

In case you ever have a need for such a play for your family, classroom, or community, I am sharing a free copy of the narration I wrote for it here. I pray this Christmas and Epiphany Narrated and Improvised Play script can bring you delight.

Have a wonderfully blessed Epiphany!