Happy Feast of the Annunciation!

A Blessed Feast of the Annunciation! I don't have much time for blogging right now, but I thought it would be a good time to share a post I wrote about the Incarnation for Melanie's Blog Series on the Creed:

"Was Incarnate of the Virgin Mary"

It's May!

I really love these videos (I think the 3rd one is new this year.)...

And a Great Sign Appeared in Heaven...

DSC_1073, originally uploaded by Chez VH.

This lovely statue of Our Lady is from Mission Santa Ines in Solvang, California. According to the Mission Website, it's a statue of "Our Lady of the Rosary, an excellent Mexican Baroque period sculpture from the mid-18th century."

Help of Christians

I really love visiting Holy Hill (the affectionate official nickname for the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady Help of Christians). Sometimes it seems like the most peaceful place in the world is the lovely shrine chapel filled with votive candles and stained glass images of Our Lady.

In researching a little info on the tradition of Our Lady Help of Christians, I found this fascinating story relating to the institution of the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians in the Catholic Encyclopedia (Wow, and sometimes we're tempted to think that we live in the worst of times!):

The feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, was instituted by Pius VII. By order of Napoleon, Pius VII was arrested, 5 July, 1808, and detained a prisoner for three years at Savona, and then at Fontainebleau. In January, 1814, after the battle of Leipzig, he was brought back to Savona and set free, 17 March, on the eve of the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, the Patroness of Savona. The journey to Rome was a veritable triumphal march. The pontiff, attributing the victory of the Church after so much agony and distress to the Blessed Virgin, visited many of her sanctuaries on the way and crowned her images (e.g. the "Madonna del Monte" at Cesena, "della Misericordia" at Treja, "della Colonne" and "della Tempestà" at Tolentino). The people crowded the streets to catch a glimpse of the venerable pontiff who had so bravely withstood the threats of Napoleon. He entered Rome, 24 May, 1814, and was enthusiastically welcomed (McCaffrey, "History of the Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Cent.", 1909, I, 52). To commemorate his own sufferings and those of the Church during his exile he extended the feast of the Seven Dolours of Mary (third Sunday in September) to the universal Church, 18 Sept., 1814. When Napoleon left Elba and returned to Paris, Murat was about to march through the Papal States from Naples; Pius VII fled to Savona (22 March, 1815), where he crowned the image of Our Lady of Mercy, 10 May, 1815.

After the Congress of Vienna and the battle of Waterloo he returned to Rome, 7 July, 1815. To give thanks to God and Our Lady he (15 Sept., 1815) instituted for the Papal States the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, to be celebrated, 24 May, the anniversary of his first return. The Dioceses of Tuscany adopted it, 12 Feb., 1816; it has spread nearly over the entire Latin Church, but is not contained in the universal calendar. The hymns of the Office were composed by Brandimarte (Chevalier, "Repert. Hymnolog.", II, 495). This feast is the patronal feast of Australasia, a double of the first class with an octave (Ordo Australasiae, 1888), and in accordance with a vow (1891) is celebrated with great splendour in the churches of the Fathers of the Foreign Missions of Paris. It has attained special celebrity since St. Don Bosco, founder of the Salesian Congregation, 9 June, 868, dedicated to Our Lady, Help of Christians, the mother church of his congregation at Turin.

It seems that every time I visit (and for various reasons, I've been doing a lot of visiting this Fall), I have some heart-breaking prayer request to bring to Our Lady and entrust to her care. Lighting a candle is such a tangible thing (even if small) that I know it helps me to be able to do *something*. It seems to me that Our Lady Help of Christians is the perfect one to entrust our cares and troubles to - especially when we're discouraged.

Today I needed to meet with my spiritual advisor and remembered that they were celebrating the 40 Hours Devotion today and throughout the weekend. Due to the enthusiasm of the older kids, I decided to brave having all them with me and have them wait for me in front of the Blessed Sacrament. They did really well - and they had a long wait! We packed a bag of books and rosaries and holy cards and I "bribed" them with getting to light a candle for a special intention if they behaved nicely (they each picked really good intentions all on their own - I love it that they regularly remember their special intentions at bed-time prayers - one for the soldiers in Iraq, one for an end to abortion, one for their cousin Ruben, etc. ) which is a special treat for them. (By the way, I also bribed them with chocolate from the gift shop - our normal after-Mass treat when we go to Holy Hill for Sunday Mass). Naturally, such a feat wouldn't be possible without two teenagers to help pull things off and a certain amount of grace from above. :)

P.S. The photo is of one of the windows from the Shrine Chapel. You can click on it to view a bigger version.

The Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Here's a useful repeat from last year. :)


Happy Feast Day!

Here are some links of interest for the day:

Domestic Church's page on Our Lady of Guadalupe

Website on Our Lady of Guadalupe (be sure to read the part about her eyes)

Catholic Encyclopedia Entry on the Shrine of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe from EWTN (very informative!)

"A Tea in Honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe"

Ideas for Celebration from O Night Divine

It's so nice to be able to say Saint Juan Diego now, isn't it? (Even though he's been canonized for several years, it still seems new to me). I love how we commemorate the spectacular events of 1531 over the course of several days - between his feast on December 9th and her Solemnity today. UPDATE: By the way, sorry for the multiple updates. I was doubting my information in calling this a Solemnity, but my sister found the above link on EWTN which seems to confirm it. If anyone has further information, I'd love to hear about it.

Today we're planning to go to Mass, attempt to sing a song we learned at a Spanish Mass a few weeks back (with a little procession), read one of our favorite books, bake a dessert out of Josefina's cookbook and eat Mexican food in honor of the day.

Here's one of our all-time favorite dishes (no guarantee of authenticity). I'm afraid I don't tend to measure anything out - this recipe is a little different every time - it also depends on what I can find fresh at the grocery store.

Taco Salad:

Ground Beef
Canned Black Beans
Taco Seasonings (I use a seasoning packet)
Chile Peppers (here's a helpful "heat" index - see note following list)
sweet or red onions
fresh garlic
sliced mushrooms (I like baby bellas)
sliced black olives
avocado
fresh diced tomatoes
Lettuce (we like red leaf)
sour cream
grated cheddar cheese
salsa (recipes can be found here)
tortilla chips and/or tortillas

Note about peppers: I'm pretty new to cooking with chile peppers. I think I was a little nervous about it - since I'm not big on HOT peppers (at least for a Californian) - but I shouldn't have been. I found the poblano peppers delicious in the meat mixture, but too mild (even for me) in the salsa.

Brown ground beef with garlic, onion, peppers and taco seasonings to taste. Drain fat, add beans and cook until thoroughly heated.

I sometimes make two batches of meat - regular and "grande" (particularly useful for a large family gathering where not everyone will appreciate the fancier version). Regular - shown above. Grande - set aside part of the meat mixture and add mushrooms and olives to cook along with the beans.

This is best served buffet style (be sure to keep the meat hot, however, as all the other items are cold). Some assembly required: Prepare a bed of lettuce. Top with meat and bean mix, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, sour cream and salsa. Sprinkle crushed tortilla chips on top. Also works quite well wrapped in a tortilla.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, patroness of the unborn, pray for us!

90th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun

Fatima
Originally uploaded by CGoulao

I found this interesting old photo on flickr. It appears to be the gathering from one of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, though it doesn't mention which month it is (it does mention the May apparition, but certainly the May one didn't have such a crowd!).

I think these apparitions have a special place in our family for a number of reasons.

a) My grandmother was Portuguese (spoke Portuguese, worked as as translator for a time and called Portugal "The Old Country" - when showing us old pictures, she always called her aunts "Tia", etc.) She visited Fatima numerous times.

b) I grew up near Our Lady of Peace Church in Santa Clara, California, which has held annual pilgrimages commemorating each of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima for many decades. We were "regulars" at these events for years.

c) My husband visited Fatima with a tour by Fr. Fox when he was in high school.

I'm not generally a huge fan of Wikipedia, but I thought their page on the Miracle of the Sun quite interesting on the whole.

Back to Teen Catechism

We had our first discussion tonight and it's nice to be getting back into the swing of things. Everyone did pretty well even though I had all the kids in tow (since John is out of town). We started with our once-a-month movie night (I was planning on showing some DVDs on occasion - but the idea became more of a necessity as two families can't make it once a month - so we'll let them catch up later.

We watched Steve Ray's Footprints of God on Mary. Also instituted a timeline/glossary notebook that will also be used for our co-op Roman culture class. Should be interesting.

Everyone really enjoyed the DVD and I think it was the first time I got to see it all the way through. It's so interesting to see all these wonderful sites on location and I have to admit that Steve does have a way of making many of his points memorable (perhaps to a fault at times - LOL).

One thing that struck me while watching (and stopping for some occasional, very short discussions) was how these locations, these old churches commemorating events in the life of Christ and His Blessed Mother are part of that beautiful, but too-often-shunned-and-misunderstood tradition that has been passed down to us through the millennia. So we have written tradition, oral tradition and tradition-in-stone? :)

Oh yes, and we also celebrated our first discussion of the year and the 90th anniversary of one of the apparitions of Fatima (part of the reason why we chose the Mary DVD to start with) with some delicious lemon bars and cookie bars made by Ria.

I'm really looking forward to finally getting back to Jesus of Nazareth next week.

May Crowning and More

IMG_5030
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

I've been too busy to do much blogging lately. (And I make no apologies for that!)

We had our last co-op of the year yesterday (and Margaret's last co-op before she goes off to Wyoming Catholic College in a few months) along with our annual May Crowning. This always brings tears to my eyes. Our musical mom plays the piano (we sang "Bring Flowers of the Fairest" and "Immaculate Mary") while everyone else processed around singing and carrying flowers (following the First Communicants from that year - we've never had more than one girl in this category - who wears her First Communion dress and gets to crown Mary). After Mary is crowned, everyone else places their flowers in the awaiting vases. I love the collections of flowers from everyone's yards - lots of lilacs and wildflowers.

It was a beautiful day for classes - which was good because there was a dead mouse in the basement (it stunk!) and the upstairs was fairly dirty, so most of the classes were scattered around the yard.

After co-op many of the teens stayed for some pizza while waiting for our last Latin Club meeting of the year which was held at our house a few hours later. The beautiful day was also beneficial here because the team skits (always a big part of the meetings) were held out-of-doors which seemed quite idyllic. (Look for some photos on the group website in the near future).

I've finished the 3rd chapter of Jesus of Nazareth, but won't get to blog on it until after I get some Love2learn Moments recorded this afternoon.

For those who come here searching Google for information on May Crownings, here are a few links with ideas, pictures, etc. relating to May Crownings:

Pictures and Details about a Homeschool May Crowning from "Under Her Starry Mantle"

History and Traditions of May Crownings

Lots of Information, Prayers, etc. for May Crownings

May Crowning photos at Cottage Blessings

Marian Meme

Margaret Mary tagged me for the Marian Meme.

Favorite Image of Our Lady: Our Lady of Guadalupe

Favorite Marian Feast: The Queenship of Mary (also our anniversary)

Favorite Marian Hymn: Regina Caeli in its various manifestations. Here are a few online samples: simple chant version (with a nice video) another chant version, there's a four-part version that I absolutely love, but I can't remember the composer and wasn't able to find it in a brief search online and I also like the version sung in the movie The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima.

Favorite Place(s) of Pilgrimage: (that I've actually been to!) - The Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady Help of Christians (Holy Hill) and Our Lady of Peace Shrine

Favorite Devotion: The Memorare

Consider yourself tagged if you're so inclined.

Hello, I'm Back

The girls and I returned home yesterday morning (after a rather grueling red-eye flight). We had a lovely visit to Thomas Aquinas College and chilly Southern California. Highlights of the trip for me included finishing The Everlasting Man on the flight out. It only took about 14 months. :) For me it was a good book to savor slowly. Perhaps I'll catch up on blogging the book one of these days.

It was really nice to return to my Alma Mater for a few days. I had a nice visit with my nephew and his girlfriend, met several children and siblings of online friends and enjoyed hopping in and out of numerous classes with "my" high school students. The girls' favorite class was a Senior Lab class taught by Kristen's brother, who invited them to join in the class experiments with static electricity.

I was surprised at how comforting it was to return to the beautiful mountains for a short time. I understand better now why Our Lord, St. Francis of Assisi, Pope John Paul II and many others would go to the mountains for rest and reflection.

On the way back to the airport, on a very cold night, we managed to dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean (the sand was even colder than the water) and practically run through the Icon exhibit at the Getty (we brushed off the sand first, LOL). We had 25 minutes before the Museum closed. One of the docents teased us that we were doing what they call the "tennis tour" - bouncing our heads back and forth as we quickly moved through. We had just enough time to look at each icon for a moment or two and read the name of the Saint or event portrayed and how old it was. It was beautiful and memorable regardless - be sure to visit if you have the opportunity!

By "coincidence" the Friday night lecture we attended at TAC added an extra dimension to the Icon exhibit. The lecture was on "The Dormition of Mary" (I hope I explain these details correctly) - a name given by the Eastern Church to the event of Mary's Assumption into heaven. Fr. Brian Daley of Notre Dame explained Church teaching and tradition on this event, including beliefs about whether Our Lady "fell asleep" and then was assumed or physically died first. He showed us an Eastern icon of the Dormition of Mary (here's an example - not the specific one he used)and explained some of the symbolism. This made it easy to pick out several representations of the Dormition of Mary within the exhibit. Neat connections!

It was a real pleasure to share these experiences with young people (including Margaret - the other two aren't doing any blogging yet) who are so enthusiastic about Faith, culture and life.

John was a real trooper with tonsillitis running through the house during my absence (fortunately Frank was mostly better before I left and Kate didn't start getting sick until I was back - the older kids are a little easier to manage). None of the kids have been spared this round, which is rather surprising because the oldest two often don't get sick when the others do.

The Loveliness of Motherhood Fair...

is being hosted today at Castle of the Immaculate in honor of today's great Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.

Happy New Year!

Visiting Our Lady Around the House

A few weeks back the kids and I came up with a Marian litany to include (some of) the various pictures and statues of our Lady that we have in our home. It was intended to be for a procession with some special intentions and a song at each picture, though we've only done that full procession once so far. What we've ended up doing is adding each of these names of Mary to our night-time litany of patron saints. Kate has become so attached to this that if we say it instead of singing it, she starts crying (she is rather tired by the time we say nighttime prayers) and she's much happier if we walk around the house to greet Mary by re-visiting the Litany on the way up to bed. This is a good thing!

Here is our Litany. I had to fudge the names a little since the pictures don't all formally match up with a special title of Our Lady. I'm including the songs and intentions we wrote up for each picture even though we haven't done those very often. Most of these are pictures from the Internet (with links to their sources). I thought this might be an appropriate post for the feast of St. John since he took Our Lady into his care.

By the way, for anyone who might have questions about devotions to Mary and what Catholics believe in this regard, please see this page which answers a whole host of these and related questions.

Our Lady of the Annuciation

We pray that more people will say yes to God.

Song: Gabriel's Message







Our Lady of Fatima

We pray for devotion to Our Lady and for the repentance of sinners. We pray in reparation for offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Song: Immaculate Mary (Fatima version)






Our Lady of Good Counsel

We pray for teachers and parents.

Song: Alma Redemptoris Mater







Our Lady Seat of Wisdom

We pray for students and all who need truth.

Song: Hail Holy Queen







Our Lady of Lourdes

We pray for devotion to the Immaculate Conception and for all who are sick or disabled.

Song: Immaculate Mary






Our Lady of Guadalupe

We pray for the unborn, for refugees and immigrants and for all who are oppresed or in danger.

Song: Santa Maria del Camino






Mother Thrice Admirable

We pray for faith in young people.

We don't have this picture hanging anywhere in our home yet. The girls really wanted to include her because of their involvement in the Schoenstatt movement through some local girls' groups. They also know some special songs associated with her that I don't know yet.




Our Lady of Perpetual Help

We pray for the suffering and the dying, for soldiers, for those in prison and any who find themselves in difficult circumstances.

Song: Hail Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star

Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Happy Feast Day!

Here are some links of interest for the day:

Domestic Church's page on Our Lady of Guadalupe

Website on Our Lady of Guadalupe (be sure to read the part about her eyes)

Catholic Encyclopedia Entry on the Shrine of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe from EWTN (very informative!)

"A Tea in Honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe"

Ideas for Celebration from O Night Divine

It's so nice to be able to say Saint Juan Diego now, isn't it? (Even though he's been canonized for several years, it still seems new to me). I love how we commemorate the spectacular events of 1531 over the course of several days - between his feast on December 9th and her Solemnity today. UPDATE: By the way, sorry for the multiple updates. I was doubting my information in calling this a Solemnity, but my sister found the above link on EWTN which seems to confirm it. If anyone has further information, I'd love to hear about it.

Today we're planning to go to Mass, attempt to sing a song we learned at a Spanish Mass a few weeks back (with a little procession), read one of our favorite books, bake a dessert out of Josefina's cookbook and eat Mexican food in honor of the day.

Here's one of our all-time favorite dishes (no guarantee of authenticity). I'm afraid I don't tend to measure anything out - this recipe is a little different every time - it also depends on what I can find fresh at the grocery store.

Taco Salad:

Ground Beef
Canned Black Beans
Taco Seasonings (I use a seasoning packet)
Chile Peppers (here's a helpful "heat" index - see note following list)
sweet or red onions
fresh garlic
sliced mushrooms (I like baby bellas)
sliced black olives
avocado
fresh diced tomatoes
Lettuce (we like red leaf)
sour cream
grated cheddar cheese
salsa (recipes can be found here)
tortilla chips and/or tortillas

Note about peppers: I'm pretty new to cooking with chile peppers. I think I was a little nervous about it - since I'm not big on HOT peppers (at least for a Californian) - but I shouldn't have been. I found the poblano peppers delicious in the meat mixture, but too mild (even for me) in the salsa.

Brown ground beef with garlic, onion, peppers and taco seasonings to taste. Drain fat, add beans and cook until thoroughly heated.

I sometimes make two batches of meat - regular and "grande" (particularly useful for a large family gathering where not everyone will appreciate the fancier version). Regular - shown above. Grande - set aside part of the meat mixture and add mushrooms and olives to cook along with the beans.

This is best served buffet style (be sure to keep the meat hot, however, as all the other items are cold). Some assembly required: Prepare a bed of lettuce. Top with meat and bean mix, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, sour cream and salsa. Sprinkle crushed tortilla chips on top. Also works quite well wrapped in a tortilla.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, patroness of the unborn, pray for us!

Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception!

A beautiful, but busy day for us. It's kind of funny how things worked out. John and Ria went to 6:30 Mass this morning since Ria had classes during our planned 8:30 am Mass. But then, we couldn't quite get everyone out the door in time (let's just say it was 8:30 and a certain little girl was still wearing clothes completely inappropriate for 10 degree weather!). So I took the kids to 7:00 Mass tonight - which was just beautiful! Great music and one of the best homilies I've ever heard at our parish - this visiting priest has a beautiful devotion to Our Lady and a friendly, engaging demeanor (great combination!). We discovered that he is the chaplain of a local Carmelite monastery and that he says a daily Mass once a week at our parish. Happiness!

Did I mention that we had great music? Church music at our parish has really been depressing me lately so this was such a nice change. Sing of Mary, Ave Maria (very decent soloist), that Magnificat by John Michael Talbot (beautiful words, if not my favorite hymn) and Immaculate Mary. And they actually rang the bells! I haven't heard the bells in SO long.

By the way, I wanted to apologize for all the craziness on bloglines and all today. We finally got switch to the new Blogger today - it took hours (quite a load of blogs we had to move)! I have to admit that I'm pretty impressed with the Google team - this is pretty complex stuff and everything seems to have transferred beautifully.

Off to get some sleep before our big Latin Club Christmas Party tomorrow. There's been quite a flurry of pre-cleaning and pre-decorating so far, but we're also getting a crew of helpers sometime tomorrow morning (and believe me, we can use the help!).

Marian Songs for Advent

Revised and updated in November 2009 (particularly with YouTube videos) from my original post in 2006.

It seems to me that it would be appropriate to emphasize Our Lady during Advent and hymns about her fiat and her pregnancy are most appropriate. (I did notice that "Castle of the Immaculate" has a post about a Marian theme for Advent). Here are a few of our favorite songs (still hope to find a few more resources to make these more accessible, I'll add them when/if I find them)...

Maria Walks Amid the Thorn

Lyrics and a midi file can be found here.

Beautiful listening:





The Angel Gabriel

Lyrics and a midi file can be found here.



This is the version Sting performed about 20 years ago which re-popularized the song. I like the music, but not so much the video:



A more traditional rendition:




Alma Redemptoris Mater
(Marian antiphon for Advent)

Click to enlarge the music to this chant:
Here's a decent way to learn the traditional chant:



Palestrina's gorgeous polyphonic version:



More about Marian antiphons here

You may find this article from First Things interesting and relevant.

Waiting for Christmas

It seems that the most significant aspect of our Advent celebrations is to hold back the tide of music, lights, presents and parties so that we can make a distinction between preparing for and celebrating Christmas. It's so much more enjoyable and special (and less stressful - really!) that way. Here's a little tour of what Advent looks like in our house, with a little room for natural variations from year to year.

(By the way, our favorite book about Advent is Advent and Christmas in the Christian Family by Teresa Zepeda and Laurie Navar Gill - we bought this when Ria was two years old and it's had a big impact)

Pre-Advent Projects:

Long before Advent starts, we get ready for one of our favorite Christmas projects which, unfortunately, we missed out on this year. Sometime in October, our parish has sign-up sheets for their "giving tree". We sign up a pregnancy help center in Milwaukee (almost) every year for several car seats, several port-a-cribs and a variety of baby clothes, diaper bags, etc. We pick these up the first week of December (they're all wrapped and decorated) and John delivers them to the very grateful volunteers in downtown Milwaukee. This is the first year we've missed it since we started doing it about five years ago. :(

On the other side of things (also before Advent starts) we generally pick an ornament from the giving tree as one of our projects. We generally pick a "food needed" ornament for a family around the size of our own. We do a big shopping trip both at the local grocery store and Sam's Club and let the kids pick out some things (including lots of practical, but also some fun and celebratory foods).

The past two years we've put together the local public Library's "Holiday Tree" too. Though this hasn't been particularly religious in nature, it's still a small bow in the direction of Christmas, it's a worthwhile work of service and it's been an opportunity for some in our community to get to know some homeschoolers. It's also turned into an opportunity to suggest some worthwhile books to the library.

First Sunday of Advent:

I don't think I've ever purchased my Advent candles more than two or three days before the first day of Advent. Usually one of our local grocery or discount stores will have some sort of purple and pink candles that will do. This year we have "pillar" candles with pink and purple ribbons (it was either that or really compromise on what constituted purple and pink).

One of my favorite things about Advent is that, because of the Advent wreath, we almost always eat dinner around the dining room table instead of around the kitchen counter (as we usually do). We have an artificial wreath (an inexpensive wreath wrapped around with additional greenery and little bunches of holly) and two different pairs of glass candlesticks - one set is taller than the other). We also keep a candle snuffer by the wreath and the kids scrupulously take turns snuffing out the candles after dinner. Before we eat, we light the appropriate number of candles and sing a verse or two of O Come, O Come Emmanuel (usually a verse in English and a verse in Latin, if I remember right - these details tend to be "dictated" by the kids).

In the beginning of Advent we usually start reading from the Old Testament a little each night at dinner, loosely basing it on the Jesse Tree readings. Our Jesse Trees have varied from year to year. Last year we put up our Christmas tree quite early since John was heading to Taiwan right in the middle of Advent. For awhile at least, the kids each made an ornament for each of the Jesse Tree readings and put them on the Christmas tree. This year, I'm hoping to find some small wooden blocks to try something like Alice's idea, but without the tree in the background. I think it would work well for us to build the blocks up into pyramids on the mantle - perhaps more representative of "roots" than a "tree". We don't usually manage to keep the readings up as faithfully as the Advent wreath - especially since John seems to have to travel every Advent. Still, it's always worth trying again!

My father-in-law made each of his children's families a beautiful nearly-life-sized manger a number of years ago. A baby doll plays the role of Baby Jesus on Christmas morning. Throughout Advent, the children place pieces of yellow construction paper "straw" in the manger when they do a good deed of some sort (finishing their school, going to Mass, helping one of their siblings, etc. all count). That way, on Christmas, Jesus has a nice soft bed to lie in.

Often, but not always, we make advent chains out of purple and pink paper - one for each day of Advent - a chain for each child. These are hung around the room and the kids love to watch them get smaller and smaller as they get closer to Christmas. Some years I've written little "Advent tasks" on each one - a prayer to say, a good work to do, etc. Unfortunately, last year, most of them fell off the wall (haven't found a great way to secure them) and were eaten by the dog (last year was our first Christmas with a dog and she presented a number of challenges).

Christmas Cards:

I love it that the Christmas season has become a traditional time to keep in touch with friends and family. I love Christmas cards and hearing from old friends. We string our cards on colored-yarn across a large doorway and hang all the photos on our fridge. I get Christmas Cards out most years, but don't usually make it all the way through my "list".

St. Andrew's Day (November 30):

This falls before the first Sunday of Advent this year. We like the Christmas novena which begins on this day.

St. Nicholas Day (December 6):

In the Milwaukee area, the tradition has endured for generations to celebrate St. Nicholas Day by hanging stockings on St. Nicholas Eve. Neighbors, friends and people out on the street are actually preparing for this in common. It's kind of neat! Our kids generally leave a Christmas wish list in their stocking, along with a list of what they will try to do to prepare for Baby Jesus' Birthday. We like to emphasize the traditional roots of Santa Claus through "old-fashioned" Santa decorations, stories, and some neat Santa paper dolls from Dover Publications.

We also take out our Nativity set stable (this was handmade by my husband out of scrap wood from a discarded futon bed a number of years ago) with some animals and shepherds for St. Nicholas Day. Mary and Joseph appear on the other side of the house, beginning their journey. We have a Roman Soldier reading a proclamation near their starting point. The whole family joins in the process of moving Mary and Joseph appropriately around the house throughout the season. Unfortunately, they do "lose their way" on occasion.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8):

Holy Day of Obligation and usually a day to celebrate with a cake, at least. We have some lovely Marian children's books I like to take out at this time too, such as Tomie de Paola's Mary the Mother of God. We've recently welcomed a large statue of Our Lady of Fatima into our home. I'm hoping to start a new tradition of a little Marian procession (with singing of course) for Marian feast days.

Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12):

This is a particularly special day we always remember (partly because of our California roots, I suppose). We try to make it to Mass and we always read Tomie de Paola's The Lady of Guadalupe. We have a large picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the living room. My sister-in-law brought it back from Mexico a number of years ago and John built a hand-made frame for it.

St. Lucy's Feast Day (Decmeber 13):

We've only officially made St. Lucy's Day Buns once (though it was particularly memorable). Rumor has it that plans are afoot for some real baking again this year. We've certainly got enough girls (and lovers-of-baking) to manage it.

Christmas Decorations:

Somewhere in the middle of Advent, depending somewhat on the weather, we start decorating the house (a little inside and a little outside) with Christmas lights. The deck railing in back and some smaller trees in front are the main projects to tackle. Last year (the first year we had roses, which we take inside each winter) we decorated the rose bushes with lights and a few bulbs.

Our "standard" day to get a Christmas tree is on the third Sunday of Advent. We try not to do it early, but don't want to make things too much of a rush on Christmas eve, so we just hold off pretty much as long as we can. We always get a live tree (though they are significantly drier and less expensive by this point). Once John puts the tree up (oops, we need a new stand this year - he accidentally melted it in the fire pit in back last year) and I put up the lights, we let the kids at it, one category of ornaments at a time. First, plain red bulbs (and try to spread them out), then candycanes (no, you can't eat any yet!), cardboard angel ornaments (actually quite pretty) then various homemade and purchased ornaments of all sorts. 99% of our ornaments are unbreakable, and it's really nice. The kids LOVE helping and it really works out pretty well.

Books and Music:

Most of our favorite books are listed here.

We make an effort to sing Advent songs throughout Advent, but also take out our Christmas CDs somewhere in the middle of the season. Here are a few of our favorite Christmas albums:

The Bells of Dublin (The Chieftains)
Handel's Messiah
Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite (my kids also love the movie version with Macaulay Culkin as the Nutcracker)
The Christmas Song (Nat King Cole)
Kings College Choir: O Come All Ye Faithful (Musical Heritage Society)

This year, a friend of mine and I are "adopting" the Christmas Eve over-flow mass in our parish gym. We sang for this last year and realized that it was sadly neglected. There is only one Mass down there and decorations were sadly minimal (two poinsettia plants and two very sad-looking Christmas trees). I'll be bringing a team of our co-op teens over to help decorate a few days before and hope to secure a number of trees inexpensively beforehand (I think live ones - very much on the dry side by that point, but suitable for one night's use - might be the ticket). As it happens, since we've been doing the Library tree too, we were able secure some of their discarded ornaments - including dozens and dozens of bulbs. The library has switched over to all unbreakable bulbs (so nice with little ones running around), but these should be very suitable for our needs.

I expect to be adding to this over the coming weeks.

Great Gift Ideas for Homeschoolers

Melissa Wiley is putting together a mini-carnival on gift ideas for homeschoolers. Check it out at the Lilting House.

So Much Going On...

I haven't had time to blog about a lot of things we've been up to lately. A week ago Friday we had our second teen discussion night. This month's book was Refuting the Attack on Mary by Father Mateo (published by Catholic Answers). This is a fascinating book, even though it gets a bit challenging in the second and third chapters (it gets a little easier again after that). Fr. Mateo argues against the writings of a particular Protestant organization that was attacking Catholic teaching on Mary. He covers topics like the Assumption, Mary's Perpetual Virginity and her unique motherhood for all mankind as shown in her relationship with St. John the Evangelist. One of the most interesting things he shows is that this anti-Mary position is not something that is traditionally Protestant. He shows through the writings of Martin Luther and others that a devotion to Mary isn't reserved only for Catholics. What a neat way to reach out and "open doors" to others. Lots of memorable tidbits and good humor round out a nicely concise text.

By the way, I discovered you can read some of the book on the Catholic Answers website. Here is the first chapter.

The discussion was quite a bit different from our Phantom Tollbooth one partly because there were so many people. We had six teens for that first discussion and one extra mom listening in. This time there were more like 13 teens and 5 moms participating. We didn't stick to the text quite as much but had some great discussions. The teens are going to follow up by summarizing a chapter each on their not-yet-regularly-active blog.

Tonight we had our first Shakespeare reading in over a year. We did Hamlet. Everyone who wanted to had a part (many had two) and it was a lot of fun. John and I were the gravediggers. Ria was Rosencranz (or was it Guildenstern?) and Gus was the Doctor of Divinity. Grandpa VH was the ghost (great sound effects!). Boy, it's a long play though.

Somewhere in between all that we've been remodeling our bookshelves. Today John picked up six massive bookcases that were being discarded from the company library (circa 1965!). Most were magazine shelving in a former life. They sport a wood veneer with huge doors on which you can rest a magazine or, of course, a picture book (that lift up to reach the cavernous shelves hidden behind). I think it will be a neat way to display (and strew) favorite books for the little ones as well as identifying the general subject area for each shelf. They're pretty imposing edifices, though. I think they may take some getting used to. Also, the shelves are so big that we ended up losing a few shelves in the process (our old cheap-o need-to-be-nailed-together variety were absolutely packed with shelves (and books!); I may or may not get around to posting before and after pictures at some point.) Oh yeah, the clincher was that these old monsters were being sold for $5 apiece. Who could resist?

Refuting the Attack on Mary and the Simpsons

We're studying Refuting the Attack on Mary by Father Mateo (published by Catholic Answers) for tonight's teen discussion. The book is responding to The Christian Research Journals attacks on Catholic belief regarding Mary.

One particular segment could have inspired the Simpsons' Heaven spoof that follows...

Now we come to the blunt accusation that Catholics are sinners and idolaters because of our devotion to Mary...John de Satge - much of whose work I admire - also mourns "the impression which Anglo-Saxons gain from visits to Catholic churches during holidays in Latin countries or in Ireland." As CRI complains of our "excessive devotion," de Satge winces at our "debased devotion" in paintings, hymns, and prayers, which he suggests are "sentimental."...On the whole, I would say to you, that if Latin sentiment seems treacly sentimentality to you, that is your problem. It is not ours. I believe that Protestantism itself unavoidably shows its Northern European origins. We can respect these, but dourness and a stiff upper lip are simply not our Catholic style. Why should they be? To supercilious and racist remarks about the Catholic Irish and the Catholic peoples of Southern Europe and Latin America, I say, give me a break!

Link to video here (takes too long to load otherwise)

Company and a Rosary for Priests

We've had a relative visiting for the past few days. She comes for a few days or a week every month or two and we enjoy her company. She's blind and has been working, one or two classes at a time, on getting her high school diploma through a correspondence school for the blind. Usually when she comes over, she has a school thing she needs help with and we enjoy the challenge of explaining something to her without benefit of illustration on paper (this is especially tricky with Math). The kids usually get caught up in whatever the "lesson" is and it turns out to be a great teaching moment. With Math, we learned that the kids' Montessori-type manipulatives are great for explaining Math concepts to her.

Anyway, this visit, it wasn't a school problem, but a, um, prayer challenge. Someone had given her a set of intentions for priests to pray with each mystery of the Rosary. It was a little on the old side, too long for her to work on memorizing, and didn't include the Luminous Mysteries. So, together, we rewrote it and added appropriate intentions for the Luminous Mysteries. I thought I'd share that here in case anyone is interested (I thought it was a neat concept)...

The Joyful Mysteries

The Annunciation

For future priests, especially those in the womb.

The Visitation

For priests who help the sick and the dying.

The Birth of Our Lord

The priests may promote a culture of Life.

The Presentation in the Temple

For older priests and priests who are suffering.

The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple

For young priests and priests who teach the faith to children.

The Luminous Mysteries

Baptism of Our Lord

For young men who are called to the priesthood that they accept their vocation.

Wedding Feast at Cana

That families will foster religious vocations.

Proclamation of the Kingdom

That priests truly represent Christ on Earth.

Transfiguration

That priests help bring us closer to God.

Institution of the Eucharist

That priests have a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament

The Sorrowful Mysteries

The Agony in the Garden

For priests who are suffering or who are fallen away from the Church.

The Scourging at the Pillar

For priests who are oppressed or persecuted.

The Crowning with Thorns

For priests and bishops to stay true to the Church.

The Carrying of the Cross

For the Holy Father

The Crucifixion

That priests take Mary into their hearts like St. John did.

The Glorious Mysteries

The Resurrection

For hope for priests who are discouraged.

The Ascension

For missionary priests.

The Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Mary

That we may have priests who are enthusiastic and on fire with the Holy Spirit.

The Assumption

That priests may spread a devotion to Mary.

The Crowning of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven and Earth

For priests to be faithful and joyful with Mary as their guide.