Padre Pio

The Padre Pio dvd

Recently I have watched a great dvd of a Miracle worker. St Pio of Pietrelcrina. He is a remarkable modern day saint.
I purchased the dvd late last year at a homeschool camp, and left it on the shelf. Umm.. Why..? I wonder now. I was a fairly real portrayal of his life.
Recently I gave a small Pauline book to my Mum about St Padre' Pio, as she hasn't kept up with some of these 'modern day saint'. I will be passing this dvd on as well.
He was chosen by God for some amazing work and his Stigmata is well talked and queried.
I first learnt of him through the Disciples of Jesus, and have enjoyed discussing his life with Dermot & our children.

We are all watching this dvd in small portions throught this week as part of our Religion, Geography, History etc..
Pietrelicina is a small town in Italy, 2 hours drive from Sorrento. He was named Francesco after St Francis of Assisi. He received his gifts as a small child and announced at a young age that he wished to be a Friar.
He lived as a persecuted Priest due to his Stigmata,The gift of bilocation, wonderful confessor and the ability to have exactly thr right word of counsel. The church was sceptical about this, and it needed to be. He understood this, and offered his suffering through the crucified Lord.
Blessed John Paul II met with Padre' Pio and asked for prayers before he was even a Bishop.

He spend most of his days at a town known as San Giovanni Rotonda. It is the second visited pilgrim sight after Our Lady of Guadalupe.
We celebrate Padre Pios' feast day September 23rd. He dies in 1968 and was canonised in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.

St Pio of Pietrelcina Pray for us.

The Feasts of Halloween, All Saints and All Souls

Last week while in hospital with Trahaearn my friend Erinasked me if she could use one of my old posts about All Saints day for the  Australian Catholic Families Blog, I said sure no problem and assumed all was well.

It wasn't until I came home and started to look at my own blog to plan our own celebrations that I couldn't find a post on any of these three feast days that I began to wonder what was wrong. I knew we had celebrated these days over the last few years as well as pre blogging days and 'why can't I find the posts on this?"

The reason why was that, um, well,  I never actually posted them and I found them partially done in drafts. Oh dear how I hate my drafts, so many posts I part;y do and then leave some never to be published at at all.

So although we have celebrated All Hallows Eve today - commonly know as Halloween I wish to share these past photos of how we have celebrated in our home.
We have no parish parties here or home school groups to join in with for these and so essentially ours are 'home made feasts' in our Domestic Church

We have a wonderful opportunity  on this special three days to celebrate the Liturgical season of All Hallow Eve, All Saints and All Souls day this year and we will gradually do so with out trying to do too much.

So with out further ado  what I would like to share is some of our older photos of our feasts of these days and the celebration we have at home.
The reason we celebrate this at home is we have never lived where it was celebrated within the Church as a parish or had other homeschooling celebrate with us.
So over the years we have clelbrated many of these traditions with in the context of our family circle.

When instituting these traditions into our family, before blogging was a big thing on the Internet. I gleamed most of our ideas from the 4real message board and Catholic Culture.
I have a folders full of ideas I have printed out of Liturgical and seasonal ideas to do with our family, along with lots of handwritten notes over time.

As our ideas had to be home based one of the most influential  articles in how we spend these days was on Catholic Culture but written by Jennifer Miller and I will go into more depth as we cover the feast days per post. 

AS you will see the children look a whole lot younger and our little Arwen does not even feature as she was  a babe in arms or a 'thought in the mind of God' still.

These photos are of our dressing up for All Saints Day and the 'party' we had at home. They continue for a while down the page

This is our procession for All Souls Day and our subsequent bonfire for it

Home made graves for the remembering the souls of the departed.

An earlier year again with a combination of All Saints and All Souls Day

Another year-we celebrated in typical  Halloween fashion. 

We carved our first ever Pumpkin Moonshine (finding a pumpkin the right shape is harder down under as it is Spring not Autumn season)

We also had a new party complete with Paper Bag Pinata

Rather than Apple Bobbing we had Cheese Nibbling

Braedon has always been a comic and wonderful actor for these type of events.

Decorating our home for appropriate events is a huge must do for our family

Well with this blast from the past published finally I hope to write up today's events in another post and share our fairly easy day of celebrating  All Hallows Eve together.

Blessings to you and your homes,
Gae.


Enjoy more of Gae's posts at Cherished Hearts at Home including Celebrating Halloween 2011

Cooking with the saints...this week

A busy week of saints and cooking.

For how better to remind ourselves, our children, our families, of the saints and the feast days, than by reading, praying, attending Mass, talking...and eating together.

Building memories of the liturgical year... building a sense of the faith, a sensus fidei , a connection with the saints.

October 17... St Ignatius of Antioch...who wrote. " I am the wheat of Christ"... And we made whole wheat pancakes.

October 18.... St Luke....and jam tarts. Why tarts for St Luke? Traditionally in England, this feast falls in the midst of the Banbary festival and autumn Banbary (fruit ie fig and raisin) tarts are served.

October 19... St Peter of Alcantara, who, among other things, was the spiritual director of St Teresa of Avila. Avila Potatoes.

October 21.... Blessed Charles I of Austria ... And Austrian Coffee Cake for dessert.

October 22..... Blessed Pope John Paul II. A perfect day to try Polish recipes....Sweet Polish Cherry Cake?

October 23...... The Franciscan St John of Capestrano, who travelled with St Bernardine of Sienna, encouraging devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus. This saint is often depicted with angels in the background. A delicious ending to the week of saints and of cooking...Self-Frosting Angel Cake.

Monastery Bread for St Bruno

St Bruno , with the encouragement of Bishop St Hugh of Greenoble, founded the Carthusian order of monks , their monastery being at Chartreuse.

I have been fascinated by monastery cookbooks in my time..simple meals to feed a large number of people with minimal fuss or cost.

Some of my favourites?

Well, I own this one....Twelve Months of Monastery Soups. Delicious soup recipes for wintry family dinners.

And what comes to mind, to eat with a monastery soup? Monastery bread, of course!

Simple, rustic, crusty bread.

On the feast of St Bruno, or some time this weekend, why not bake bread?

Here is a simple recipe for rustic, hearty, no knead bread....

No-Knead Bread

3 cups bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 3/4 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, ( overnight!) at warm room temperature.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel with flour; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 200 degrees. Put a heavy pot (I have used Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover and bake 30 minutes, then remove cover and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack. And let it cool a bit before slicing!

Eat and enjoy, in honour of St Bruno.

Feast Of St Therese of Liseux or the Little Flower

Monday, 3 October 2011

Feast Of St Therese of Liseux or the Little Flower

She is the Saint of the little ways. I have learnt through parenting and particularly its the little ways that we see grace and Gods love.

We had grand plans for this feast day. Brid had been given a St Therese statue by her Grandma last Christmas- they share the same Patron Saint. This all came unstuck once we realised that a retreat for teen girls was on this weekend.

So before we left for our journey to join this retreat, we hurriedly place St Therese on the family dining table were flowers were waiting for her.

As St Therese is also celebrated in the old calendar on 3rd October, we will be enjoying her feast day then. .....

I first heard of her through a friend many years ago. I read her book ‘The story of a Soul’, and the story really didn’t capture my attention. Some time later, Brid chose her as her confirmation Saint. She had many saints chosen so she prayed and asked the Saint wanting to be her Confirmation Saint to make it known to her. Brid decided to do a novena to St Therese, and nearly everyday she received a flower or a rose. On the last day, a person in a shop handed her a bunch of roses. Brid knew St Therese was the Saint for her.

So happily she added this name to her given names on her confirmation day and constantly asks for her intercession.

Recently I read a lovely inspiring book. A little way of homeschooling – Suzie Andres. St Therese again.
Is she trying to tell me something, is this a message for me. Everywhere I go, she is there, present, waiting for me. I feel totally surrounded by her.
So today on her feast day, I took myself to Mass and I found myself attending Adoration and Benediction afterward. It was a very peaceful and calming experience.

All day I was thinking, “I wonder how Brid is celebrating this feast day? What is Mum doing? How are the girls and the Sisters getting on? Are they enjoying each others company.

Brid dressed up as St Therese at a Saints Party, aged 9

How did you celebrate St Therese of Liseux’ feast day.?