Gladdest Hours

Pentecost - Happy Birthday to Our Glorious Church!

We celebrated the last day of Easter today with the Feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the church!!  We all dressed in some form of red, orange or yellow for Mass, which is a pretty big stretch for Pete, since he's kind of a blue/green kind of guy.  Here are the girls with their Holy Spirit Flames over their heads: 

Fear of the Lord and Counsel are missing.  Fear was taking the picture and Counsel was locking up the house.  *grin*

Pete thought I was a nutball a couple years ago when I laminated these flames.  Laugh away, dear husband....they actually get a lot of use! 

And, yes, that IS a construction zone in the background.  Pete is on vacation this week, and he is enjoying his "time off" by building a new and improved and much larger front deck.  

And, here are our Holy Spirit Cupcakes with the cute little strawberry flames. Thank you Catholic Cuisine!

 

And, the table, waiting for us after Mass: 

Seven cupcakes for the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit, with 12 candles for the 12 apostles and 12 Fruits of the Holy Spirit.  

Happy Feast of Pentecost!

During the Octave of Easter.......

Alleluia!

Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!       ~Exultet

Easter blessings from our family to yours!

Palm Sunday

"Come, and as we make our way up to the Mount of Olives, let us go out to meet Christ, who is returning  today from Bethany, and of his own will makes haste towards his most venerable and revered passion,whereby he will bring to fulfillment the mystery of the salvation of mankind."         ~St. Andrew of Crete

Palm Sunday in ART: 

And, in Palm Sunday in our HOME: 

Blessings to everyone as we enter into Holy Week.  

Ash Wednesday

Lenten Reading Plan

I'm cleaning off my bookshelves and book baskets, putting everything away except for my designated books for Lent.  The shelves and baskets will be sparse.  Otherwise, I get distracted and start "perusing" the million books at my bedside and then it's all downhill from there.  

I remember reading several years ago about selecting a reading plan for Lent to fall into 3 categories: Something for the Mind, for the Heart, and for the Soul.   

*****************************************

For the Mind (something about Church History, the Sacraments, ethics, dogma, scholarly life of Jesus, or encyclicals).   I'll be listening to the audiotape of Lord Have Mercy: The Healing Power of Confession, by Scott Hahn and making my way through Pope Benedict's Encyclical SPE SALVI . 

Here are a couple other titles that have been on my list.  Maybe for future years?   A couple of these would probably be more "soul." (maybe)

• Jesus of Nazareth 
• The Passion of Jesus and its Hidden Meaning 
• Sermons of Saint Francis de Sales for Lent 
•  The Foot of the Cross 
• Any books by   William Thomas Walsh  -One of these years, I really want to FINISH one of these. 

 

For the Heart (biographies of the saints or stories reflective of Lent) I will be reading: 

• Helena by Evelyn Waugh- I've wanted to read this for several years!!
• The Secret Diary of Elisabeth LeSeur - I pick this book up every other year or so, and find it's perfect for Lent.  

Here are some others that I would like to read some year during Lent, or have read: 

• Blessed Marie of the Presentation - new book by Tan that I really want to read.  Maybe next year.  
• Lent: An Uncommon Love Story - Would love to see this book, but haven't yet.  By the same author as a favorite picture book The Jesus Garden.
• Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light .  I read this last year, and it was a perfect Lenten read.
• Saint Monica 
• St. Rita of Cascia 
• The Life of Blessed Margaret Costello .  This is one of my favorite saint books.  I've read it several times during Lent over the past few years.  
•  Madame Royale by Elena Vidal - A magnificent historical novel about the daughter of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI.  The role of suffering in Marie-Therese-Charlotte's life makes this an amazing Lenten read.  

For the Soul (spiritual reading from works of the saints or saintly writers, prayer books, religious poetry, of the life of our Lord)

• The King, Crucified and Risen by Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel
• Christians at the Cross  - I think one of the ladies at 4real recommended this, and my library has it.  
• In Conversation with God, Lent and Easter 
• Lent and Easter with Mary - I found this from the Paraclete Press website.   

Haven't read these, but they are going on my list for future years: 

• What Jesus Saw From the Cross 
• Small Surrenders
•  The School of Jesus Crucified 
• The Power of the Cross: Applying the Passion of Christ to Your Life 
• The Open Door: Entering the Sanctuary of Icons and Prayer 

• First Fruists of Prayer - A forty day journey through the Canon of St. Andrew.  Read this the past two years, and highly recommend it.   
•  Dolores Passion of Our Lord - have read parts of this, but never during Lent.  One of these years, Michelle will let me borrow her copy during Lent.  *hint*

  Other Prayer Books in my Basket: 

•  Ignatius Study Bible (Mark) 
•  Mother Love 
•  Praying with Saint Maria Faustina 
•   Thoughts and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary, Sept & Nov (focusing on Detachment, Love of Cross, Suffering) 
•  The Aquinas Prayer Book
• Prayer: the great means of grace   
• Suffering Prayer Leaflet 

In my PURSE:  

•  The Agony of Jesus 
•  Thoughts of the Cure of Ars 
•  Blue Pieta prayerbook 
• Devotion to the Sorrowful Mother

Cookbook Reading: 

• From a Monastery Kitchen 

Listening to: 

• Tenebrae of Good Friday 
• Passiontide at St. Paul's 
• Rachmaninoff: Vespers 

Some Movies I like to watch during Lent:  

• Babette's Feast
• Shawshank Redemption
•  Joan of Arc 
•  Molokia: the story of Fr. Damien 
•  The Passion of Joan of Arc 
•   Under the Sun of Satan
•  The Tree of Wooden Clogs 
•  Au Revoir Les Enfants 
•  The Ninth Day 
•  Monsieur Vincent 
•  Teresa de Jesus 
•  St. Teresa of Avila 
• The Passion of the Christ 

Now.......for the booklist for the girls and family!

He Has Risen, As He Said, ALLELUIA!

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad!

We attended an absolutely beautiful Mass yesterday morning.  Our neighbors, John, Julee and Jemma attended and sat next to us, which resulted in all three older girls immediately moving to sit next to them, which left me......(gasp!) childless during Mass, since Caroline stays with Pete, as there is hardly any LAP left on me these days.  Needless to say, I was a complete puddle of joyful tears by the end of the procession and was never even able to sing one single note of "Jesus Christ is Risen Today."  It's probably a good thing that I'm usually keeping tabs on little ones and am distracted, or Pete would never go to Mass with me if I bawled like that all the time! 

We had ten amazing altar servers, lots of incense, beautiful flowers, wonderful instruments and the beautiful choir singing the Mass of Sts. Peter and Paul.  The most glorious day in our liturgical year and it showed!   

We came home in the pouring rain, when Pete pronounced that "this is just drizzle."  So, we proceeded with the annual egg hunt in our yard.  Here is Caroline (2), Erika (5), Dorothy Jo (4), Jemma (6), and Madeleine (7):   

Obviously they could care less what the weather is like!    

Then we had brunch and the rest of the day whizzed right past.  We read some of our Easter books,  did our Resurrection presentation/play and ate some candy!  Oh yes, and I did lots of laundry from a couple of accidents the night before.   

If you have a few minutes and want to swoon, Diane is busy posting beautiful pictures from Assumption Grotto's (Detroit) Holy Week on Te Deum laudemus :

• Holy Week 2008
• Here are the posts from last year's Holy Week 2007

Happy Easter and Joyeuses Pâques!  May the Resurrection of Our Lord bring you much hope and joy during these fifty days of Easter! 

The Good Shepherd

Today we did The Good Shepherd presentation from Moira Farrell's Home Catechesis 3-5.  It's really a Lenten presentation, but since this is the Gospel reading for this Sunday, I thought we'd do it today.   

Yes, I know that's a cow and a goat, but we just PRETENDED.   Their names were Charlotte, Marie and Desiree. 

A Tupperware lid  and blocks make up the sheepfold. 

The Good Shepherd Statue was a gift for Dorothy Jo's Baptism from her Godparents, Mr. & Mrs. McIntyre. 

Felt pieces are used for the danger area, green pasture, and pool of water.   

 

The Good Shepherd going back for the lost sheep. 

They loved this Presentation, and so did I.  Later we did the Psalm refrain for Sunday for copywork.  "We are his people, the sheep of his flock." 

Jesus said:
"My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
No one can take them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,
and no one can take them out of the Father's hand.
The Father and I are one."   ~John 10:27-30

An Easter Wish

 

May the glad dawn

Of Easter morn

Bring joy to thee.

    ~~~~~

May the calm eve

Of Easter leave

A peace divine with thee.

    ~~~~~

May Easter night

On thine heart write,

O Christ, I live for thee.

      ~Annonymous

Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday, the first day in the Triduum, during Holy Week is one of my favorite days of the Liturgical Year.  It celebrates the Institution of the Eucharist and the Institution of the Priesthood .  I love Holy Thursday Mass.  To think that this was the very first celebration of the Eucharist.  I am overwhelmed with gratitude for all of our selfless priests.  And, then the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament that follows.  The Candelabres that surround the Monstrance.  The silence and darkness is just so humbling.  At no other time do I feel the profound effect of my sins on the shoulders of Jesus.  At no other time do I have the profound desire to completely prostrate myself.  I sit and stare at that Monstrance and try to atone for my sins and the sins of the world, weighing so heavily on Jesus. 

This year, hopefully, Erika and Madeleine will go with me to Adoration for awhile late Thursday night.  We did not do much last year for Holy Week.  Lots of books on the couch, talking and prayers, but nothing that involved cleaning, props, activities, food or going anywhere.  Caroline was 6 weeks old, and I do believe we had sandwiches for Easter Dinner.  This year will be different.  And, next year? Well, only time will tell.  That's the wonderful thing about the Liturgical Year ; it keeps repeating itself every 365 days.

Perhaps it will be crazy to take a 5 and 6-year-old out at 9:00 pm.  They are usually sound asleep by that time. 

Perhaps not. 

Last week, while reading some books to prepare for Palm Sunday, Erika (age 4.5) was looking at the picture of Jesus riding the donkey into Jerusalem.  She said, "Mom, I think Jesus' donkey is taking teeny, weeny steps."  (Making her thumb and pointer finger a half-centimeter apart.)

I replied, "Yes.  Maybe.  Why do you think so?"

" Because Jesus is very heavy," she said.

"Yes, but donkeys are quiet strong. They are very good workers and can carry a lot," I reasoned.  I wasn't quite sure where we were going with this one.

She said, "Well, donkeys are strong, but not THAT strong.  He is definitely taking teeny weeny steps, because Jesus has all of our sins on his shoulders and that is just WAY too heavy for a donkey.  So, I'm sure the donkey is taking teeny weeeny steps, and he may fall down any minute.  Poor donkey.  (sigh) and Poor Jesus." 

Hmm.  Perhaps not such a crazy idea.

      

Ukrainian Easter Eggs

This will be a trip down memory lane for my Mom, Dad, brothers and sisters. 

Remember decorating Ukrainian Easter Eggs at the Jerkovics?  With Sam, Joan, Petra and Jess?   And didn't Mrs. Korsen (sp?) do them too? 

Jenn had a post about her interest in Psansky, which made me think about our family experience with them as a young girl. 

There was a recent thread on the 4real boards .  And another on Easter Egg Traditions .

Of course, you can NEVER have enough picture books about Ukrainian Easter Eggs.  The girls LOVE The Egg Tree and Rechenka's Egg .   I just put a copy of The Bird's Gift and Easter Eggs for Anya on hold at the library, per Jenn and Maggie's recommendation.  And, I'll be waiting for Mary's review about This Was The Day once she receives it.    

Let the Paschal Haircuts Begin

No, I have never had "training" in how to cut hair.  I have never even read a book about it. 

However, since I can remember, I watched my mom cut our hair.  Where did she learn? 

Nobody knows. 

She was out in the boondocks with five kids under the age of 10, on 100 acres of Minnesota swampland, 8 miles to the nearest town of 4,000 people.   Haircuts were NOT what she was going to do on her trip to town!  When I was about 13 or so, I took over her job.  I loved cutting my siblings hair.   When I went to college and lived in the dorms, I overheard a couple of the guys talking about how they didn't want to spend their money on haircuts and it was kind of far to walk anyway, just for a haircut.  Lazy bones.   

I said, "I can cut hair."   

"You can?"  they replied, eyes big with wonder as if I just said that I could do the Ironman Triathlon.   

Voila!  My hair cutting career continued!   Word got around in Sutherland Hall that I would cut hair in the east basement study area (or on the south lawn, weather permitting) on the first Saturday of the month from 2-3 pm.  I got $5/haircut.  It only took me 10-15 minutes per cut, and I usually had more than 4 customers and ended up there for longer than an hour.  In December, I cut hair for THREE HOURS!  Everyone wanted to look nice for Christmas vacation.

When I studied in France, I WOULD NOT go to a "coiffeur" to get my hair cut.  There was no way I was trusting a French woman that I didn't know, who was probably going to make fun of the way I spoke French, to actually try to understand how I wanted my hair cut.  Besides, I didn't know the words for "layer" and "angle" in French.  My French sisters and mother offered to go with me.  NO WAY!  Instead I did the sides myself and then had my poor French mother cut the back per my (probably) horrible instructions.

Anywhoo......(I can't believe I just wrote all that about cutting hair).  One down, three to go.  Caroline doesn't count; she hardly has any hair.

   

St. Patrick's Day

Getting ready to watch the Irish Dancing on Saturday at St. Alphonsus' Annual St. Patrick's Day Breakfast:

Life is Good

• I am actually ready for Lent.  It has not snuck up on me as in years past.
• We are getting a new linoleum floor tomorrow.  At this time tomorrow, THIS....

 

...will be a thing of the past.  Soon forgotten.  Long-gone.  Non-existent.  I have waited with bated breath for FIVE years for this day.  Both of our mothers and my friend, Michelle will be VERY glad to hear this. Maybe this will have to be another post all its own.  How exciting would that be?

In light of the fact that we are only two days away from FORTY days of reflection on the Passion and Death of the Savior of Mankind, perhaps this is really quite inconsequential.  But, I JUST cannot HELP but to get a BIT giddy about this.  What a thing to celebrate on Mardi Gras! 

• To go along with the new kitchen floor, I bought a couple of new kitchen towels.  Oooooooo, Aaaaaaaah!!!  It's the little things that make a gal just oh-so-happy.
• And, last, but certainly not least, Michael D. O'Brien has a blog.  Whoo-hoo!

I mean, REALLY……can it GET any better than this?