Saints Peter Claver and Robert Bellarmine

Saints Peter Claver and Robert Bellarmine: Feast Days Sept. 9th & 17th

Today, September 10th, I decided to make homemade blueberry muffins with my daughter using a recipe a friend of mine had shared with me. As we were getting our ingredients together, my daughter asked, "Mommy, what saint are we making these for?" I looked at her, and not having planned anything for a saint today, replied: "Well, I don't know, but let me check our liturgical calendar and if there's a saint listed for today we will make our muffins for them."

After consulting our calendar, I learned that today, September 10th did not have a saint listed, but a week from today, September 17th, is the feast day of Saint Robert Bellarmine, who was a Jesuit cardinal and is a Doctor of the Church. Looking at yesterday's date, I discovered that September 9th is the feast day of Saint Peter Claver, a Jesuit priest who ministered and served the people brought against their will as slaves from Africa to South America. My daughter and I then decided that our breakfast muffins would have the theme: "Muffins with the Jesuits." As my children and I ate muffins, I shared with them the information I'd learned about both saints. Since I didn't have a lot of time to plan an activity to help my children learn about these two saints, I drew two pictures for them to color: (1) A picture of a stethoscope with a cross on it for Saint Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church, and (2) a picture of shackles for Saint Robert Claver, Patron Saint of Slaves. Next year, I plan on coming up with a better craft and will post an update here. What I learned from today though, is that it is possible to incorporate food and activities to celebrate the saints even without a lot of planning.

Comments

Make a Rosary Garden—Planting Flowers and the Seeds of Prayer

Make a Rosary Garden—Planting Flowers and the Seeds of Prayer: On the lawn outside of my family's parish, there is a stepping-stone Marian-Rosary garden. Often, after attending daily Mass, on warm or non rainy days, my children love to run around the rosary stones, encircling the statue of Mary, and sit upon the garden's benches. The days when they would run around, only able to exclaim the words, "Hail, Mary! Hail, Mary! Hail Mary!" for each stone, are precious treasured memories I hold within my heart. When we entered the pandemic shutdown, in the spring of 2020, I didn't realize just how much I missed the rosary garden tradition my children and I had after Mass. When my husband and I scheduled confession with our pastor, twelve days into the shutdown, we took turns waiting with our children and letting them play and pray in the rosary garden, while we participated in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I'd always desired to make a Mary/Rosary garden in our ba...

Invite Your Parish Priest Over for Dinner:

Invite Your Parish Priest Over for Dinner: Four months after moving into our new house, my husband and I decided to invite our parish priest over for dinner and to bless our new home. We still had piles of unpacked boxes, our toddlers were bouncing off the walls with excitement, and my husband and I were a little nervous. Was our home clean enough? Would we be able to engage in good conversations with our guest? When the doorbell rang, our children raced to the door, and began bouncing around, welcoming Father inside. During dinner, we found that the conversations flowed easily. We shared stories about where we grew up, our families, and various other details as we got to know one another outside of church. We laughed as our daughter spilled the beans that my husband and I were expecting our third child, and when we shared our due date, our priest began enthusiastically sharing all sorts of common, as well as some crazy sounding, saint names for days on and near our due date. Afte...

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Feast Day: Nov. 17th Saint Elizabeth of Hungary has always held a special place in my heart since she is my confirmation saint. If I'm being honest, when I was reading about saints back in the eighth grade, trying to choose which saint I wanted to take as my patron, my requirements were as follows: (1) She couldn't die a horrible death, (2) She was married with kids, (3) and her life was pretty good allowing her to serve God and others through the blessings she'd been given. In hindsight, my list of "requirements" was probably a little superficial, but now as an adult I focus more on the virtues and saintly qualities of Saint Elizabeth, and find inspiration in how she lived. She was humble, a kind and loving wife and mother, and very generous to the poor. She also made plenty of time to pray and grow in her relationship with the Lord. On her wedding day, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, who was a princess, did not wear a crown. Instead she s...

Just a Catholic Mom

Search This Blog