Christ the King Plans 2011

By Gae at Cherished Hearts at Home

The Feast of Christ the King ~
"that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father"
 Philippians 2: 10-11

Ideas to Celebrate~
On a  home made drawn crown , write all of the reasons that Jesus Christ is our King and Savior.
Another idea is to  make a special "Christ the King" banner out of paper, or a more permanent idea out of fabric and fabric paint to proclaim The Kingship of Jesus.

Definitely make some felt crowns following this simple tutorial. Honestly you can never have too many crowns in a home in my opinion, they can be used for anything but for today in memory of Christ The King.

This detailed colouring page was made for us by Eden  based on the original image above. We will definitely be colouring this one in, I hope you would like to use it too

Great colouring page
Colouring stained glass window look page 
We have made this before but from Jen - a Foldable Table or Altar Decoration
Family Procession idea from Catholic Culture

Make a King Cake ~ I know there are many super duper version of this however we simply make a bundt cake and ice it. The kids then decorate it with lollies as jewels.
Lots of fun, easy to make and yummy to eat!

Here are our ideas and activities from  past years

 PRAYER~
O Jesus Christ, I acknowledge you as universal King. All that has been made has been created for You. Exercise all Your rights over me. I renew my Baptismal Vows. I renounce Satan, his pomps and his works; I promise to live as a good Christian. And, in particular do I pledge myself to labor, to the best of my ability, for the triumph of the rights of God and of Your Church. Divine Heart of Jesus, to You do I offer my poor services, laboring that all hearts may acknowledge Your sacred kingship, and that thus the reign of Your peace be established throughout the whole universe. Amen. 


May you have a blessed and memorable feast day,

A Chocolate Church?

On November 9 we celebrate the dedication of a church. The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. Oft called the mother of our churches. 


The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the cathedral of Rome. Also called the Church of Holy Saviour or the Church of St. John Baptist, it was the baptism church of ancient Rome. It was built in the time of Constantine and was consecrated by Pope Sylvester in 324. This feast became a universal celebration in honour of the basilica called "the mother and mistress of all churches of Rome and the world" (omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput) as a sign of love for and union with the See of Peter.


Each year on that day, or near abouts, our family makes a chocolate church.


Yes, you heard it. A church structure made our of chocolate...KitKats or fun size bars or Top Deck. An elaborate structure. Or a simple one. Either way, it is fun to make and eat and remember.

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.

A Spanish dinner for St Teresa of Avila

St Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church.

 The Holy Father spoke of St Teresa " as a true teacher of Christian life for the faithful of every time. In our society, which all too often lacks spiritual values, St Teresa teaches us to be unflagging witnesses of God, of his presence and of his action. She teaches us truly to feel this thirst for God that exists in the depths of our hearts, this desire to see God, to seek God, to be in conversation with him and to be his friends."

 In honour of St Teresa, we planned a dinner from Spain. Tonight we made Vegetarian Paella and Nigella Lawson's Spanish Omelette.

 I have to admit to being a Nigella- wannabe. I love her recipes; reading her cookbooks is an escape....she doesn't just give a recipe but draws a cosy picture.

 But if you, like me, are Not-Quite-Nigella, then perhaps try this Five Minute Spanish (Potato) Omelette ..from another NQN, with a very popular foodie blog....

 And if you like meat, try some other paella recipes . We have made Easy Paella and also Easy Chicken Paella in previous years, in honour of this saint.

 Most of all, enjoy your cooking and eating together for, in St Teresa's words.."From silly devotions and from sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us"

Ice Cream!

October 12 is the feast day of Our Lady of the Pillar.

You can read more of this Marian apparition at St Maximilian Kolbe...the blog of the Militia of the Immaculata of Australia.

Our Lady appeared to St James the Apostle when he was in despair over few converts to Christianity. And his faithfulness in building a shrine in her honour was rewarded with the growth of Christianity in Spain.

A perfect day to remember St James with this dessert...Coupe St. Jaques. Literally, an ice cream cup for St James.

Fill parfait glasses with two or three different types of fruit, top with ice cream , pour over liqueur and syrup, and then top with whipped cream.

And say the litany of Our Lady!

If you want to make your own ice cream, here is a very simple recipe..and one that has never failed me.

Start with two cups whipping cream and one tin of sweetened condensed milk. Whip the cream to the stiff peaks stage. Add flavourings or add-ins to the condensed milk. Stir the condensed milk into the cream. Put in a covered container and freeze. I usually freeze overnight.

Simple and luscious.

Add-ins and flavourings? Chocolate chips, Nutella, nuts, peanut butter, coffee, vanilla, mashed banana or strawberries, dried fruit, glade cherries.....you name it!

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.?