The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King

After the work of making homemade sugar cookies and fighting for candy with two three year olds, I was told that the Lolly Pop cake is better ;-) It certainly is less work! However, we had fun making the crown cake for the crew at home and crown cookies for the children in Level 3.

I have to say, it seems that the Year of Faith just started last week, so it's hard to believe it is drawing to a close!! I am not really ready to close that door just yet! Here is a snippet of Pope Francis' homily to mark the occasion: Be sure to pop on over to the Vatican

HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS

Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 24 November 2013

Today’s solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, the crowning of the liturgical year, also marks the conclusion of the Year of Faith opened by Pope Benedict XVI, to whom our thoughts now turn with affection and gratitude for this gift which he has given us. By this providential initiative, he gave us an opportunity to rediscover the beauty of the journey of faith begun on the day of our Baptism, which made us children of God and brothers and sisters in the Church. A journey which has as its ultimate end our full encounter with God, and throughout which the Holy Spirit purifies us, lifts us up and sanctifies us, so that we may enter into the happiness for which our hearts long.

Be sure to pop on over to the Vatican to read this short homily in its entirety :-) The Holy Father reminds us that not only is Christ the center of the history of humanity, but also the center of our individual history. These words reminded me of our Level 3 Plan of God work...

Have a blessed Thanksgiving Feast everyone!

~ Beate


"O Jesus, come back into our society, our family life, our souls and reign there as our peaceful Sovereign. Enlighten with the splendor of faith and the charity of Your tender heart the souls of those who work for the good of the people, for Your poor. Impart to them Your own spirit, a spirit of discipline, order and gentleness, preserving the flame of enthusiasm ever alight in their hearts... May that day come very soon, when we shall see You restored to the center of civic life, borne on the shoulders of Your joyful people."- Pope John XXIII

The Feast of Christ the King...

..is this Sunday! In the past we've celebrated by making a Bundt cake and decorating it with crushed Jolly Rancher candies. This year, I found a cute idea for a Cookie Crown Cake which I think we will adapt and try. If it turns out, I'll post a picture ;-)

This week we will spend some time looking at the history of this Feast - when, why, and who? Hopefully this will inspire some great dinner table discussion!

Have a blessed week,

Beate

Ordinary Time is drawing to a close...

...and I am beginning to prepare for Advent! But before that happens, I wanted to link to the November post from last year which is here.

Also, today is the feast of St. Margaret of Scotland, my youngest daughter's patron and tomorrow is the feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, the patron saint of bakers and my oldest daughter's confirmation saint.

Both these royal saints were born in Hungary and had a great affinity for the poor. I think we will make a simple Hungarian goulash in their honor.

~ Beate

"Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, not even if your whole world seems upset. If you find that you have wandered away from the shelter of God, lead your heart back to Him quietly and simply."
~ St. Francis de Sales

All Souls, etc...

I have a blog in my Feedly reader that gives food ideas for the various feast and saint days. They are really nice, but I have to keep things simple or they won't happen ;-) Our book Saints at the Dinner Table was passed on to a foody priest, who is surely using it more often than we did!

The plan for today is to set up the prayer table for November with photos of family members and friends who have gone before us. Perhaps as a way to remind us to pray for them, I will utilize some of their favorite recipes throughout this month. I know when I'm gone, I am going to appreciate everyone's prayers! Another thought is to take put out a different item throughout the month - a pair of socks my Oma knitted, my Dad's handmade cowboy boots, my husbands baptismal cap - to remind us of his mom who shopped for it and our babes born into Heaven - you get the idea.

The feast day of Charles Borromeo is tomorrow - his book is still in the basket so I will pull it for a read-a-loud. His story is fascinating, as is the time period in which he lived.

To be continued.....

Happy All Saints Day!

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robesand were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying:

“Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”

Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”

I answered, “Sir, you know.”
And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 7:9-14

Coming soon....

All Hallow's Eve, All Saints and All Souls!

In honor of All Saints Day, Father Alberic has asked the RE children to dress up as their favorite saint and process in before the 11:00 am Mass on November 3.  That was a nice reminder for me to stop ignoring the wonderful friends we have in Heaven. Life has been stressful this year, and the strain is showing in our relationships - what better role models could I possibly call on?

So how do we make the saints a bigger part of our lives? In our home, we "strew." That means I'll pull saint books out and leave them in various places.

The bookbasket has a couple of picture books and
Footsteps of a Giant, an intersting book about
Charles Borromeo.

 



Next to the bed, a couple of books that have short stories, making for good read-a-louds right before bedtime.

In the bookcase, I've pulled some of my own favorites
out into the forefront. I'm hoping the teens will choose
to peruse some of these.
Maybe I'll finish The Four Teresas, which I put away
last year in favor of Walking with God ;-)

On the seasonal table, I put The Big Book of Women Saints
- it has some nice and really short biographies of saints who
are not so well known. The Book of the Twelve Apostles,
is one we read out of periodically but have yet to finish.















Picture books are by far my favorite, and most successful, way of strewing. They have visual appeal, are easy to pick up and read in one sitting, and often lead to further research.

We also revisit why we pray for the dead - 2 Maccabees 12:39-45 - and why we ask the saints to pray for us - Rev. 5:8


If you are curious about the custom of the upcoming holiday, Father Barron hosts Father Steve Grunow on his blog in order to present some insight into Catholicism and Halloween.

An excerpt from Mary Reed Newland's book The Year and Our Children can be found here and offers a suggestion for a fun Halloween party.

Personally, we've done All Saints parties, celebrated the modern notion of Halloween and nothing at all ;-) However, the kids love the idea of dressing up and are confirmed candy addicts, so it is really something they look forward to.

September is here!

I've been so busy with Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and the atria, that I haven't had a chance to think about our little blogs. We're in the midst of our long Ordinary Time - hopefully I can manage to come up with some ideas of life in the Domestic Church in the next couple of weeks. As it is, our family is busy praying for peace and enjoying the Holy Father's catechesis. One of the things that drew me to the internet many years ago was the Vatican website, and it is still a place I visit often. Following Archbishop Gustavo's visit to St. Thomas, I looked up the text of the World Youth day homily the Archbishop was referring to in his own homily and I found it here. It doesn't take very long to read and is beautifully insightful - it definitely spoke to me both as a parent and catechist.

Beate