Ideas to celebrate the Liturgical Year of the Roman Catholic Church as a family and build your Domestic Church.
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The Annunciation of the Lord
The Annunciation of the Lord: March 25th
Behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Pure and lowly, humble and holy, delight in the Father's eyes. For the son she was chosen, the world waited frozen, as from her lips came her reply. "Yes," was her answer; no better word was spoken, for death would now be broken, by the Son she would bear and raise. Sing, let your heart ring, with praise for His mother, dear Mary, who's full of grace!
(Poem and oil pastel created by me)
"Hail, full of Grace! The Lord is with you." These were the words that the angel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary, as he shared God's plan for her to become the mother of God's son, and waited for her reply. With Mary's beautiful "yes," the fate and history of mankind was changed! No longer would death prevail. Jesus, God's only begotten Son— the Lamb of God— was to become the paschal sacrifice, establishing the New Covenant between God and humanity. "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women and Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." Thank you, dear Mother, for your wonderful "yes" to God's beautiful plan. As you and your family spend today celebrating, ponder upon these questions. When is a time that you've said "yes" to God? is there something he's asking you today and waiting for you to reply with a faith-filled "yes?" Below are the beautiful songs, "Gabriel's Message," by Matt Maher, and "Behold," by David Kauffman," that you and your family can listen to; to help you reflect on the beauty of today's feast day, our spiritual mother, and what God might be saying to you in your life. I hope you and your family have a blessed day celebrating our spiritual mother and God's amazing plan for salvation!
("Gabriels Message" by Matt Maher)
("Behold," by David Kauffman)
Celebrating Through Food:
To celebrate the Annunciation, my family makes cinnamon-sugar cookies using this delicious recipe from "Food.com." Since we make these on several Marian feast days, we've fondly dubbed them, "Mary Cookies." Making something sweet, smelling the sugared aroma wafting through the house, while the cookies bake, and then tasting the delicious confection, helps us reflect on the sweetness of our spiritual mother, and the love and beauty that radiates forth from her immaculate heart. When I make these cookies, I like to carve a cross on top of them with a toothpick or knife before I bake them.
For dinner, you can make "Mary Manicotti" (or in my case, stuffed jumbo shells, since I can never find manicotti shells at the grocery store), served with Texas toast and salad. I use the manicotti, or jumbo shells, stuffed with ricotta cheese, to represent that Mary was filled with grace, the Holy Spirit, and baby Jesus. The white color of the ricotta also symbolizes the Blessed Mother's purity. I use this yummy recipe from "Taste of Home."
Celebrating with a Prayer and Craft:
Pray the "Magnificat" together as a family and write or print it on white paper. Glue the paper with the prayer on construction paper of your choice and then decorate the boarder around the prayer with pictures related to Mary. You can draw the angel Gabriel, roses, symbolizing Mary's title: "The Mystical Rose," stars, symbolizing Mary's title: "Stella Maris—Star of the Sea," (Stella Maris is my favorite Marian title,) or any other pictures associate with Mary. Your children can then set their prayer cards on their nightstands and you can say the Magnificat together as a family before going to bed.
The Magnificat:
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name.
He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Saint Margaret Mary: Feast Day October 16th “Look upon yourself as a tree planted beside water, which bears its fruit in due season; the more it is shaken by the wind, the deeper it strikes its roots into the ground.” ~ Saint Margaret Mary ~ Faith is a gift—an undeserved and valuable grace granted by the Holy Spirit. Each of us has the capacity to seek The Way, The Truth, and The Life, for this longing has been inscribed within our hearts. Yet, in our free will, we have the choice and ability to ignore and turn from this divine call. Like the image of the tree Saint Margaret Mary describes above, if we seek Jesus and are rooted in our faith, nothing can shake us. Our water is the Church, and Jesus, in the Holy Eucharist, is who makes our roots deep and strong enabling us to withstand the winds of the world and produce good fruit in His name. Jesus offers us so many opportunities to find Him, and so many ways to live with Him in Heaven. In the 1600s, He appeared to Saint Mar...
Baptism of the Lord: The Last Day of Christmas “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11) Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. Since Jesus is God and, therefore, sinless and perfect, he didn’t need to be baptized, but by being baptized, he gave us a sacrament for adoption into his family—a means to become children of God. What makes the Sacrament of Baptism important? (1) Baptism claims us as children of God, forgiving us of our sins, (“I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”), it is the first sacrament of initiation into the Church and Her mission, and through Baptism, God gifts us with grace. What exactly is grace? The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it as: “Grace is favor, the free undeserved help that God gives us to respond to His call to become children of ...
Saints Joachim and Anne: Feast Day July 26th Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus had grandparents? When God the Son took on human flesh, he also paced himself within the dynamics of the human family. Although there is no specific reference in the Bible to the Blessed Virgin Mary’s parents by name, the Church celebrates Jesus' maternal grandparents under the names Saint Joachim and Saint Anne. It took a special father and mother to raise, care for, and help prepare the Blessed Virgin Mary for her future vocation and extraordinary relationship with God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and her saintly husband, Saint Joseph; and those special parents were no doubt saints themselves. Speaking of Saint Joseph, his parents would also have been grandparents of the Lord. Celebrating Jesus' grandparents today, reminds us that grandparents are the keepers and transmitters of family history and tradition, and are the patriarchs and matriarchs of families, holding generatio...
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