Just a Thought...

The Story is familiar.  The Last Supper.

But did you realize that Jesus was fully aware of Judas' betrayal?  Why have i never thought of that before?  He knew what Judas was doing like He knew about Peter's denials, and even about His own death.

They sat near each other in the upper room.  Shared bread and conversation.  Jesus even told the Apostles one of them would betray Him and Judas just sat there while the others looked around astonished wondering who...even wondering if it was them self.  Peter motioned for John to ask Jesus who it was.  John leans over like you would to your friend in the middle of any loud event,  he leans over and asks "Who?" 

Jesus tells him 'the next person to dip their bread in this bowl will be the one.'  Can you even begin to imagine the pain Judas caused Jesus?  Its not like an enemy, or some unknown person, he is one of the Apostles.  One of Jesus' good friends.  Yet Jesus repeatedly spoke to Judas about it, asking him why.  Its bad enough after the fact, but to know before hand that a friend will betray your trust and friendship must have been horrible.

Free Holy Heros Coloring Book...and more!

Holy Heroes has a free 17 page St. Joseph Coloring book just for you!

Right on time for St. Joseph's Feast Day (March 19th) you can now get your little ones (and not so little ones) started on the right foot.  Color the pages over the course of a week, or have everyone color one or two different ones.  Either way they not only teach us about St. Joseph but also about the life of Our Lord.

As we prepare for this Feast Day i would also like to mention that Jennifer over at Homespun Love  blogged about A Virtual St. Joseph's Altar a couple of days ago. If you check out their craft pages you'll find a 3D altar your family can make as well as a chocolate crown of thorns. 

In years past we have done the salt dough crown but have never had much success.  This little gem looks more realistic and could have many uses in the weeks to come.

Preparing for Lent - Part 2

So where were we?

What is Lent? 
Why i even tried to tackle this question is beyond me ... i have spent some time researching about Lent being more than just 'preparing for Easter.'

Diving in i found that Lent is to prepare ourselves for the sacraments of Christian initiation. 
Here is where my search led me....

Catholic Online states 'Preparation for Baptism and for renewing baptismal commitment lies at the heart of the season.'  (this was the first thing i found)

So how do we incorporate that into the whole season?  Many families focus on Baptism during Holy Week, but to spend the entire season learning about and preparing for THE Baptism is a mighty tall order. 
I have never really looked at Lent that way before...but it makes perfect sense.

#1227 According to the Apostle Paul, the believer enters through Baptism into communion with Christ's death, is buried with him, and rises with him:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.(Rom 6:3-4; cf. Col 2:12)

The baptized have "put on Christ."Gal (3:27) Through the Holy Spirit, Baptism is a bath that purifies, justifies, and sanctifies.(CE 1Cor 6:11; 12:13)

But then we remember that Baptism is the first sacrament of Christian initiation. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "The sacraments of Christian initiation - Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist - lay the foundation of every Christian life.  'The sharing in the divine nature given to men through the grace of Christ bears a certain likeness to the origin, development, and nourishing of natural life.  The faithful are born anew by Baptism, strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation, and receive in the Eucharist the food of eternal life.  By means of these sacraments of Christian initiation, they thus receive in increasing measure the treasures of the divine life and advance toward the perfection of charity." (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1212)

So i read further through the Catechism. If  you do so you see that Lent is actually about preparing for all three sacraments

The Eucharist:
#1366 The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit:

[Christ], our Lord and God, was once and for all to offer himself to God the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with his death, at the Last Supper "on the night when he was betrayed," [he wanted] to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as the nature of man demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for all on the cross would be re-presented, its memory perpetuated until the end of the world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of the sins we daily commit. (Council of Trent (1562): DS 1740; cf. 1 Cor 11:23; Heb 7:24, 27)

Confirmation:
#1287 This fullness of the Spirit was not to remain uniquely the Messiah's, but was to be communicated to the whole messianic people. (Cf. Ezek 36:25-27; Joel 3:1-2) On several occasions Christ promised this outpouring of the Spirit, (Cf. Lk 12:12; Jn 3:5-8; 7:37-39; 16:7-15; Acts 1:8) a promise which he fulfilled first on Easter Sunday and then more strikingly at Pentecost. (Cf. Jn 20:22; Acts 2:1-14) Filled with the Holy Spirit the apostles began to proclaim "the mighty works of God," and Peter declared this outpouring of the Spirit to be the sign of the messianic age. (Acts 2:11; Cf. 2:17-18) Those who believed in the apostolic preaching and were baptized received the gift of the Holy Spirit in their turn. (Cf. Acts 2:38)

Phew!  Through prayer, fasting and alms giving we prepare our hearts and souls to receive these sacraments in light of Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension, as well as Pentecost.

Do you teach your children about this every year?  What resources are out there to help us do so?

Recently i found a great free resource at That Resource Site. Its called A Little Lesson on Via Dolorosa - The Road to Sorrows.

It begins all the way back with Adam and Eve.  From there it moves to Mary's yes, and then on through the life of our Lord.

There is beautiful art work, and pages appropriately placed for both journaling and lapbooking.  There are no directions on how to use these extra pages but they are placed where in the reading you would use them. (that is my only issue with this beautiful tool - some of us have enough going on to want to be told 'this is how you do it')

For those of you more interested in a complete lapbook, Faith Folders for Catholics has several for sale that would be appropriate for the Lenten season.

Preparing for Lent

There are so many options out there to help guide our children through the Lenten Season.  Do you have any special traditions in your family?  We have really never found that ONE thing that stuck with us through the years (yet) but it has not been from lack of trying! 

One of my favorites was the last year we were in the farm house.  We have a good size cork board that i covered with paper and we made a lenten calendar following the directions given at These Forty Days.

This is from These Forty Days - i cannot find our picture!

Isn't it beautiful?  We have a little plastic Caterpillar that sat on our board and each day the kids punched a hole in a leaf to show his journey.  The kids love calendars!  So i guess there is one thing that we do every year....i stand corrected! (it has only been these past few years but you gotta start somewhere)

This year we are still not in our own place so i have been thinking of ways to have a calendar without impinging upon the rest of the household.  Lacy, over at Catholic Icing, just blogged about lenten activities including a lapbook. 



This Lapbook comes from Homeschool Goodies

I love the idea - it gets things out of the common area of the house (though really the only area we have alone are our 2 bed rooms) and puts things in the hands of the kids.  One problem though - the big guys might not be as excited about this activity as the little ones ...so the thinking continues.....

A poster might work if i keep it small and replace our daily calendar with it in the school area.  I think i would like to add feast days that fall in the season as well as maybe a weekly activity for the family - whether prayer, fasting, or alms giving.

Growing up we always gave something up - didn't you?.  Once we had kids of our own that was our first thought, but as we grow in our faith as adults we have begun to understand the true reason for the lenten season.  We started looking at not necessarily giving up for Lent so much as giving up for good...a much harder, but truly lenten, plan.  We have tried but failed at many things too.  But it has all been a learning process - and will continue to be so for the rest of our life. 

Our hope is that our children will understand far better than we ever had and that they will carry this knowledge with them once they leave home. 

There are many confusing, though seemingly wonderful, lenten activities to help your children keep track of the season.  One year, long ago, we used a Noah's Ark activity that took us through the entire season.  After that the little kids kept thinking Noah had something to really do with Lent.  It prefigures or typifies the season but it is not what Lent is about.

So what is Lent? 
This is getting a bit long....i think i'll continue that thought in the next post...

Any ideas for a March give away?  I'd like to keep it in line with the season, should it be handmade or a book?  What would you be interested in?  Maybe a school item? .... guess i need to come up with something soon!  Tomorrow is March 1st! (and the birthday of our own little Ladybug!)