Advent In Our Home

Advent In Our Home...
1. Introduced the Theme: Watch, Prepare and Wait
We hung up the sign I made in a word document.  I printed it, laminated it and then ran purple ribbon through it. 

2. We placed our Advent Wreath in the middle of our dining room table where we eat dinner every night.  We blessed our Advent wreath.  If your candles are not staying in place melt them into place...Branden had that idea this year!  Great Idea!  Advent Wreath Daily Readings and Prayers can be found at www.churchyear.net/adventwreath.html 

3. We created a purple chain that has quotes from Saints on each day.  I got all of my quotes from EWTN's daily readings and copy and pasted them into a word document.  I printed it and then the kids pasted the paper on purple construction paper and then we cut each strip.  Then we stapled each strip together.  We will read one each day of Advent.  Before Tristan could read I just put numbers in each.  I will probably do Bible verses one year or maybe parts of the Catechism etc...
4. I took our big chalkboard I use for entertaining the little kids while I teach and we are using that to track our Advent Giving Mission.  Every day the kids look for ways to be extraordinarily good or helpful or look for ways to serve someone.  Every day after we read the quote of the day from our chain we paste it to the board and then that evening we talk about the things of the day.  An example is when we were in Walmart a woman dropped her bracelet and Tristan ran to go and get it and give it to the woman.  He saw it and acted. 

Fast and Feast Prayer

This is one of my favorites for the past ten years or so.  I love to look at it everyday during Lent and pick one to focus on on.  I should do it all year, but Lent is a great reminder to hunt down my wripped and stained piece of paper with this and two other prayers on it that I photocopied together 10 years ago.  (I will post the others as well because they are my other two favorite prayers. 

Lord Help Me To...
Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ dwelling within them.
Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of all life.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
Fast from worry; feast on trust.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.
Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from hostility; feast on nonviolence.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.
Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.
Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.
Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.
Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.

Stations of the Cross Activities

Family Friendly Stations of the Cross

This will happen every Friday during Lent in the Old Church at St. Philip.  The schedule is listed below for your reference.  We will be using a Stations of the Cross that is very appropriate for children.  I am also attaching a little home project for all of you just in case you want to make a bag with items that correspond to the stations.  You can use these at home and bring them with you.  Ours are in ziploc bags and it is nothing fancy, but the kids love it.  Also on Good Friday the kids who want to participate will have the opportunity to do a live Stations of the Cross and dress us.  I think this will be held at a local nursing home as it was last year.  Pictures are attached as well.  Please pass along the email to anyone who might want to participate in any of the above.  The church is reserved for the following times listed below. 

March 11 - 5:30 - 6:30PM

March 18 - 5:30 - 6:30PM

March 25 - 5:30 - 6:30PM

April 1 is First Friday and we have adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the Old Church, so you will need to use the NEW CHURCH from 5:30 to 6:30. 

April 8 - 5:00 - 7:30PM  Live Sations and this is a very family friendly event.  Pancakes start at 5:00, Stations are at 7:30PM.

April 15 - 5:30 - 6:30PM

April 22 - Good Friday - Live Performance to be announced. 

 THE HOME PROJECT

First Station: Jesus is Condemned to Death - Rope

Second Station: Jesus takes his Cross - Wooden Cross

Third Station: Jesus Falls for the first time - Bandaid

Fourth Station: Jesus meets his mother - small statue of Mary (bookstore)

Fifth Station - Simon helps Jesus carry His cross - Red Heart

Sixth Station: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus - Piece of Cloth (can make image of Christ)

Seventh Station: Jesus falls the second time - Bandaid

Eighth Station: Jesus meets the weeping women - Tissue

Ninth Station: Jesus falls for the third time - Bandaid

Tenth Station: Jesus' clothes are taken away - Purple Cloth

Eleventh Station: Jesus is nailed to the cross - Large Nail

Twelfth Station: Jesus dies on the cross - small crucifix/or a small spear

Thirteenth Station: Jesus is taken down from the cross - Pieta Holy Card (bookstore)

Fourteenth Station: Jesus is put in the tomb - Rock/Stone

 A CHILD'S GUIDE TO THE STATIONS

 

 LAST YEARS STATIONS AT THE NURSING HOME

The vehicle changes but the message stays the same

After reading an article I was really impressed with how the Church recognizes the need to meet people where they are and if it is through social networks then that is where we go.  The vehicle changes, but the message stays the same and we have to be willing to let that vehicle change. 


"Faith, in fact, always penetrates, enriches, exalts and invigorates culture, while culture in turn offers faith a vehicle for expression -- namely its language."  Church leaders must be aided in becoming able to "interpret and speak the new language of the mass media" for their pastoral work. 
"Just as Jesus was able to effectively communicate God's word with parables involving pastures and sheep, the church needs to discover modern day metaphors that will capture the attention and hearts of today's tech-savvy men and women." Communication needs to be "truly human" and based on spiritual values and meaning.  Christians can help the digital realm by "opening up new horizons of meaning and values that the digital culture is not able to indicate or represent by itself."  "That would mitigate some of the risks present in today's digital communication such as the loss of inner reflection, superficial relationships, wallowing in emotionalism, and the prevalence of persuasive opinions over the truth." 

The most popular social networks right now are Twitter, Facebook and blogging hybrids such as Tumblr and Posterous.  Right here and now there is a mission.  Different than we would have ever imagined years ago, but in our day and age there is a mission within these social networks and it is a mission field that needs to be filled.  The message is the same we are just jumping into a new vehicle meeting people right where they are. 



Article:
Authentically proclaim Gospel in tech-savy world by Carol Glatz and quotes from Pope Benedict  

 

Save Baby Joseph

"The social role of families is called upon to find expression also in the form of political intervention: Families should be the first to take steps to see that the laws and institutions of the state not only do not offend, but support and positively defend the rights and duties of the family. Along these lines families should grow in awareness of being "protagonists" of what is known as "family politics" and assume responsibility for transforming society; otherwise families will be the first victims of the evils that they have done no more than note with indifference."

I thought this story was worth sharing and I am sure many of you have heard about it.  Below is a letter written by Fr. Frank Pavone and then under that is a link to an article that is very good.  

Save Baby Joseph!
February 26, 2011
There's an 18-month-old baby boy in Canada who is about to be put to death by the Canadian government.  I'm writing to you today so that you can help Priests For Life save this baby's life if possible.  Here's the situation … The baby, who is known as Baby Joseph, is suffering from a critical condition that requires him to have a breathing tube in order to stay alive.  However, the Canadian government has decided that they don't want to spend any more money on Baby Joseph to keep him alive.  And, to everyone's horror, the government won't even let Baby Joseph go home with his parents. His parents need to obtain better health care for Baby Joseph by bringing him to the United States where a hospital -- preferably a Catholic hospital where the baby will NOT be euthanized.
My experience in the case of Terri Schiavo back in 2005 showed me how devastating it is when a person -- no matter how young or how old -- is put to death by the "health care" system that pretends to help the sick, the poor, the indigent, the elderly, and those with terminal illnesses.  In reality, the government "health care" system doesn't want to spend money on anyone if they can't make money on that patient.  Therefore, since the Canadian government -- because of their system of rationing health care -- is determined to put Baby Joseph to death by removing his breathing tube, we at Priests For Life are stepping up to the plate and offering to bring Baby Joseph to the United States so that he can receive better health care and possibly survive his illness rather than being put to death because of rationed health care.  You see, the Canadian government is refusing to let Baby Joseph's parents take care of him. His parents don't want him to die. They already had one child die from a similar illness, and they don't want it to happen again.  But because of the Canadian government's system of "socialized" health care, Baby Joseph is in danger. They won't take care of him. Therefore, we have to.
 The first thing I urge you to do is contact the officials in the Canadian government who are holding Baby Joseph's life in their hands. All you have to do is click here and your message will be sent immediately to these Canadian officials to implore them to release Baby Joseph back to his parents so that he can get the proper health care he needs and not be put to death in the painful, inhumane method of removing his breathing tube.  The second thing you need to do is pray for Baby Joseph and his parents for a sensitive solution to this problem.  And then, third, please forward this alert to everyone on your email list!  I will keep you updated on our progress in this crucial fight to save Baby Joseph. Please keep reading these alerts and forwarding them to all your friends and family members so that the word can get out about the injustices inflicted upon little children by the Culture of Death.

Blessings,
Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life

This is the article below.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/canada/Father+dying+Windsor+baby+says+hospital+treating+like+criminal/4328772/story.html

Christmas Gift Away

 "The Christian family is thus called upon to offer everyone a witness of generous and disinterested dedication to social matters through a "preferential option" for the poor and disadvantaged. Therefore, advancing in its following of the Lord by special love for all the poor, it must have special concern for the hungry, the poor, the old, the sick, drug victims and those who have no family."  The family is thus, the place of origin and the most effective means for humanizing and personalizing society."

Mission family - changing the world lead us to this idea.
For Christmas day we had a specific gift away budget.  We set aside a certain amount of money that we wanted to give away that day.  This is the big gift away idea we did on Christmas.  On Christmas day we packed bags of goodies from the dollar store.  I went and bought the items this year by myself because kids + dollar tree = wild-whiny-wanting children.  We had the kids pack the bags.  In the bags we had bottled waters, different kinds of snacks, hygiene items and we added to each bag something to keep each person warm.  We collected all of our extra blankets, scarves, gloves and hats and when we were coming up to each person I would add a warm object to their bag that I thought they may need by looking at them.  We also had the idea because it was so cold to get hot chocolates to pass out.  Everyone loved this!  We were able to bless many with these little gifts and they were so appreciative.  Next time we may just go downtown on a cold day and just do hot chocolates.  I really think they just loved being thought of.  Each person we stopped to bless with a gift the kids would sing a couple Christmas carols to each of them.  This was awesome!  The smiles on the faces of these men and women were so beautiful.  To love them was such a blessing for our family.  We met one man by the name of Richard that we actually gave a ride to the homeless shelter.  He became homeless three years ago after being in a bad car accident.  This man was in so much pain with a broken back and neck that had not been treated or healed properly.   We found him walking around downtown trying to make his way to the homeless shelter.  We noticed how slowly he was moving and how much pain he was in from a distance.  We got him to the shelter in time to get a warm place for the night!  He was so thankful!  He was from Florida and has no family left.  It is hard to believe when you have so many loving family and friends around that there are people out there who have no one. 

Simplicity of Love

We have dance parties quite often with the kids and our six year old loves the song by Mike's Chair - Changing the World...I love it too!  Well this song became our family motto in December.  As we were feeling God move in our hearts to love and give more to those around us.  Every morning we would wake up and say to the kids how are we going to change the world today.  Then we would play the song to pump us up.  Well me being the extremist I am is thinking big huge things like moving to another country to do missions.  On a day to day basis I would mention ideas to the kids like going to the nursing home, going to homeless shelters etc...God has a funny way of using these kiddos to put me in my place and teach me very big lessons in such a simple way.  The simple life is one of the greatest gifts our kids bring to us.
So here is how my lesson in loving unfolds.  We were at the local ice skating rink.  We had just finished our learn to skate practice for our four and six year old.  As we are walking out our six year old sees a girl with a big bag dragging it along the floor behind her.  He goes behind the bag and picks it up and helps her to her chair.  He comes back over and very nonchalantly says I just changed the world.  WOW so simple, but so powerful and this is what began it all.  How to change the world in small ways that make a big impact in one persons life right here and right now.  Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, whatever limitations you may feel you have...you can change the world.  As families I believe we are called to an even greater mission because in the family there is a lot of love circulating around.   For love to grow you have to give it away.  We can choose to be a selfish family or a selfless family.  We are going to blog about the simple ways we can be a mission family here in the city of Nashville, TN.  With our ever growing family there is lots of love to share we just need to find out how to share it.