Advent Saint Learning - St Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe Fun!

Happy Feast Day St Juan Diego!  We have never celebrated this feast day in our home before, but we love adding new saints to our liturgical living and celebrations and are having LOTS of fun with this one.  First, we took time to read the Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who's feast day is actually December 12th.  Because their stories intertwine we are learning about and celebrating them both throughout this week! 

 

 

Yesterday we followed the message in our Saint Mail for this month and we went for a long walk to think about how Saint Juan Diego felt when he walked 15 miles each way to mass.  We have a park 1 mi from our house that the kids love going to, but with three little kids under 5 years old I have to admit that we usually drive!  Well, yesterday we decided to be in the spirit of Juan Diego and walk to the park, even in December.  We bundled up, my sons grabbed their bike, scooter and our stroller and were on our way.  I had called my husband to see if he would meet us at the park to drive us home on his way from work since I figured after a mile walk and playing at the park the kids would all be tired.  Well, he said yes that he could meet us and then unfortunately he got held up at work. 



On our walk to the park

 

Playing at the park

I decided to take it as a moment to say "yes" to God and take it as a learning experience for me and a teaching moment for the kids and walk that mile back home.  Well our 18month old was fine riding in the stroller, about 5 blocks in our 3 year old put his scooter into the stroller and rode the rest of the way singing Christmas songs for everyone in the neighborhood to hear, but our almost 5 year old had his bike.  There was no way I was going to be able to push the stroller with all of the kids and all of their equipment so we had a talk that he was going to have to ride his bike home.  He was such a superstar!  It was getting close to dinner time, it was getting cold and dark, and he was definitely getting tired but he did it and rode his bike the entire way home!  We talked about St Juan Diego and how he (and lots of people) had to walk a long way to get anywhere and that he would walk really far just to go to mass.  Our oldest said "he must really love Jesus Mommy!" 

 

On our walk

Then today we worked on our Advent Saint Dolls from CatholicIcing.com and made St Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe.  We have already made St Andrew, St Nicholas and St Anne for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and we are just loving them!  They are so darn cute and we are really enjoying putting them all together on our Advent tree! 

 

 

We also said our daily decade of the rosary with the Toddler Rosary Kit of Roses from Veronika's Workshop that we keep in our little Oratory.  We always enjoy using these, but it was a lot of fun today to talk about how when St Juan Diego opened his cloak that roses came out and the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was revealed.  One of my husband's co-workers made home-made Tomales as a gift which we are going to have for dinner tonight to continue our celebration!

 

God you are so gracious to give us such wonderful examples such as Saint Juan Diego.  We pray that we may be as devoted to the Mass as he was.  We pray that when You ask anything of us we always say yes.  Saint Juan Diego pray for us!  Amen

 

*Prayer from Saint Mail



May it be Done According to Your Word

I have always had a deep love and respect for Mary, and that has truly grown over this past year when I completed my Marian Consecration this past year reading 33 Days to Morning Glory and as I study Mary: A Biblical Walk with the Blessed Mother with my book club.  I especially love days like today when we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and praise that she not only carried out a life without sin but that she was conceived without sin and always chosen for God's special plan. 

Mary Mother of God

I love the Gospel today from Luke 1:38:  Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word."  I reflect often on that "may it be done to me according to your word".  How many times does God ask me to do something and I say "maybe" or "next week" or even doubt God thinking, "I'm not sure that is what you REALLY want me to do God!"  But, then there's Mary and her response " may it be done to me according to your word." 

What Mary was asked to do was very controversial in her times.  It was against her morals and values to be pregnant during a betrothal, and she knew that she would be ridiculed and judged.  Yet, she still said "yes"!  I know that God also asks me to do things that are out of my comfort zone, that might be controversial, but that he is still asking me to say yes!

God is asking me to disrupt my life, to trust him, and to answer his call.  As this Advent continues I want to try every day to really listen in prayer to what God is asking of me and calling me to, reflect, and then say "yes".  Not yes in 2 weeks or, as soon as I finish this activity, but yes, God I trust in you and may it be done according to your word. 

Mary and Jesus at the Cloisters

Learning to Love - 5 Love Languages

One thing that comes up a lot in conversations during this time of the year is spending time with family.  There are lots of different types of families, and lots of people coming together to blend, love and support each other.  Sometimes that brings great joy and sometimes that brings a lot of struggles!  I told my mother - in - law at Thanksgiving that this was the first holiday celebration since I got married back in 2007 that I was not kind of sad that we were not celebrating with my own family of orgin.  It certainly was not because I like my family less than I did before, because my family is a wonderful blessing in my life!  It is more that I have come to enrich my relationships with my in-laws and appreciate them as family, just like my own!  I think especially during this time of year with so many celebrations that it is a wonderful time to focus on family and strengthening our relationships.


My family at Thanksgiving

One book that has really helped me personally in my relationships with others is called The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman.  In his book he talks about how we all speak different love languages including: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service and Physical Touch.  Take the time to go to The 5 Love Languages website to take the quiz and learn what your love languages are!

It is not better or worse to have and use a different love language, it just makes us all different and unique.  The most important thing when interacting with others is not only knowing what your own personal love language is but also what the love language is of the other person.  So often we try to love others with the same love language that we use most for ourselves and that is often when conflict can arise.  It is not because we are not trying to love that person, it is just they may not be receiving it as the love you are intending!  Also, sometimes our love languages can change with time, so always make sure to continue examine these for yourself and continue the conversation with those you love!

Let me give you an example!  My top two love languages are words of affirmation and acts of service.  Early on in my marriage I would try to love my husband by telling him nice things and doing nice things for him.  That is how I like to receive love, so why wouldn't he want that as well, I thought!  He would appreciate when I would compliment him or make him a special dinner, but it wouldn't usually get the response that I would expect, and I would get disappointed.  Then he and I read this book and learned our love languages and things changed.  I realized that his love language is physical touch and making sure to give him a loving embrace when he gets home from work or giving him a back rub after a long day is totally the way that he feels most loved by me!  In turn he has realized that he can give me a hug (which I like), but since my first love language is not physical touch that I will feel much more loved when he does something as simply as making our bed in the morning!  Being a stay at home mom with three little kids I make a lot of beds, by him doing that act of service in the morning I know that he is thinking of me and trying to take one thing off my list for the day.  I appreciate it so much and feel SO loved!

This can definitely extend beyond a spousal relationship to relationships with your children, extended family and friends.  Gary Chapman also wrote this great book about the 5 Love Languages of Children!  One thing I have learned in having three children is that they all have very different personalities and I do best when I parent them all in ways that show kindness and empathy to their own personalities.  Our oldest son appreciates words of affirmation and loves to hear praise and know that he is doing a good job, especially when it comes to homeschooling!  Our middle son is like his daddy and his love language is physical touch.  When he gets mad or upset he isn't the child to try to rationalize with or explain a lesson right away, instead he needs to cuddle, get a back rub or kisses.  If I would try to just talk to him with words of affirmation he would probably get more upset in the moment, he doesn't want words, he just wants to cuddle!  Our youngest son is all about quality time, he doesn't mind if I'm singing to him, playing, cuddling, or reading stories as long as we are together!  When he's in a bad mood I know I need to just spend a little extra time giving him a little more of me!  It's all about understanding those love languages!

So, as you celebrate the holidays with your spouse, children, family and friends please pick up this book, or go to the website and learn about the love languages of yourself and others!  As it says in 1 Peter 4:8; "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over all."

An Imperfect Stable - An Advent Reflection

This past Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent our children were on a funny sleeping schedule (our youngest has been waking up at 4am and thus exhausted and ready for a nap again by 8am), there was no Sunday school due to Thanksgiving the previous week, and so my husband and I decided that we were just going to split up mass times to try to make the best of the situation for everyone in the family.  I don't really like doing this and will admit I made a bit of a stink.  The funny thing about that is, I know God has plans for me, for my marriage and for my family.  I also know that when I trust in those plans the results are usually better than I could have planned myself!  Because my husband and I split up mass times with different kids, my husband went to a different church than we usually go to.  When he was at this other parish church he heard that there was going to be a talk on Advent by one of our very favorite Jesuits, Father Larry Gillick from our alma mater Creighton University.  So, we called up my mom to see if she could watch the kids for an hour (thanks mom) and went on a lovely date night to Fr. Gillick's advent talk.  Maybe we missed mass together as a family that first Sunday of Advent, but I think God knew that my husband and I both needed to hear that talk!

Father Gillick's talk on Advent discussed so much but the biggest thing that I took away from it was that we are the imperfect stable, waiting for the coming of Christ.  God is already here, he is here in our community, in our lives, but it is up to us to determine if, when and how we are going to let him into our lives.  God had a plan, he always does.  God knew that Jesus would be born in a manger, not a gleaming room in the inn and that was for a reason.  We might say that manger was not fit for a King, surrounded by barn animals, cold, dirty, but honestly that is what we look like most days right?  I know that I am far from perfect, but amazingly God still chooses to come to my inn and love me.  Even with my faults and imperfections God chose to come for me and you, and chooses that again and again.  Every time I go astray he is just waiting there with open arms.  I am that imperfect stable.

We sing the song "O Come O Come Emmanuel".  This song has a lot of tradition and history, but God is already here and we should be singing "O Come O Come (insert your name!)"  We are the ones who need to come to Him.  Advent is the time to be ok with our emptiness and longing.  We live in a world where we don't have to wait for anything, we don't have to have unknown.  We have fast food, weather reports, smart phones, texting, so many things in our lives that scream "You don't have to wait!"  But God wants us to feel that longing so that we can appreciate Jesus and truly be in relationship with him come Christmas Day! 

Think about the image of the Advent wreath and how throughout Advent we take time to light the four candles but in the middle of that wreath is a hole, is emptiness.  It is not until Christmas Day when we insert the Christ Candle that the hole and emptiness is filled.  We need to take this time during Advent to let that emptiness be there, to experience that longing, and to be grateful for that longing.  When we can do that we will find that longing within ourselves to give to God what he is asking of us, which is faith.

 

So even though there has been Christmas music playing since before Halloween and even though Santa came to our community mall before Thanksgiving, let's take this Advent to experience the longing of Jesus.  We need to let there be some reality in the brokenness of where Jesus was born in that stable.  We want the stable for our King to be nice and pretty, but the stable in our own lives are not always that way.  God isn't asking us to get a housekeeper though, or to try to portray this "perfect" life.  He is asking us to come to him, to be in Eucharistic communion with him through the sacraments.  That's why he gave us the Catholic Church!  He is asking for us to come to him in reconciliation and for us to admit our own brokenness.  There are a lot of occupancies (or sins) living in the inn in our own lives that prevent Jesus from truly entering into our hearts.  Jesus will come in truth though, and the truth of each of us is that we are that imperfect stable.  Once we can let Jesus come to our truth, it is then, and only then that we come to the freedom to experience God's true gift of love within our relationships and community. 

 

The true gift of Jesus is to make us in Christ a gift to others.  Jesus is the one who takes away the shame of the stable, he makes that emptiness into the gift of the tabernacle!  The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "No one can approach God here except by kneeling before the manger and adoring him hidden in the weakness of a newborn child"  (CCC 563).  This Advent I pray that we may be humble enough to be longing for Jesus, and kneel before the manger even knowing we are an imperfect stable. 

The Nativity


Advent Link Up: Week TWO! ~ Catholic Bloggers Network

7QT-Advent Edition

I'm participating in my first 7 Quick Takes Friday newly hosted by Kelly from This Ain't The Lyceum!  It's a fun way to recap the week and talk about some fun and random thoughts and activities!   

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St Andrew's Feast Day

We celebrated St Andrew's feast day on Sunday November 30th and had a blast learning more about St Andrew and beginning Advent!  We made the adorable St Andrew craft from CatholicIcing.com, said our prayer for the Advent wreath, started the St Andrew's novena, had a yummy fish dinner and open our first of our Advent storybooks!

Opening our Advent books (and yes it was Packer's Sunday as well!)

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Advent Homeschooling

We are taking a nice break from our regular homeschool lessons with Seton to relax this Advent!  We went to the library and got a huge stash of books, turned on the fire, snuggled up on the couch and wasted almost 2 hours in holy leisure reading with the kids (I think that's a record for the longest time we ever sat and all read together)!  That's what I call enjoyment!

 

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Instagram Fun

Having just joined the blogging world, I decided to also dive into Instagram as "ChildrenoftheChurch!  I am starting by participating in CatholicSistas Advent Photo Challenge!  It has been so much fun! 



 

 

 

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Time flying by - Preserving Memories

 

I don't know about you, but sometimes doing crafts with little ones is EXHAUSTING!  I have tried making it easier on myself by really organizing our homeschool room and all of our craft activities, but it still takes some major energy on my part sometimes!  This canvas is something we made last Christmas which was one of those exhausting crafts but now I am SO glad that we did it as I was so excited when I pulled it out of our Advent/Christmas boxes!  Our baby was only 6 months old and preserving those sweet baby hands and feet are so precious!  I know it will be a treasured piece in our home for years to come!





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Advent Reflections - A Date Night

 

We just moved back to our hometown after my husband finished his one year medical fellowship this past July.  After 4 crazy years of medical school, 3 years of residency and 1 year of fellowship we are really trying to set our marriage as a priority and really set aside specific time for it!  We have been trying to go out on more dates, we took a trip away from the kids (which we hadn't done in YEARS) and we when we can't get out we try to have date nights at home!  This past week we went on a fantastic date night listening to a talk about Advent from one of our favorite Jesuits, Father Larry Gillick, from our alma mater Creighton University.  Stay tuned for a post ALL about his amazing talk!

The Beautiful Advent wreath at our church!





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A Christmas Concert

Our middle son Connor is taking the Littler Explorer's class at the Omaha Homeschool Learning Center.  The learning center is great resource here in our community for homeschool families where we can take our children one day a week for extra activities and classes.  It has been wonderful for our family as our oldest son is taking Tae-kwon-do and our middle son is taking a Little Explorer's class which is basically just basic preschool story and play time!  It has been great to help him socialize and interact better with others his own age! 

Last night they had their open house and Connor's class sang "Away in a Manger" and "We Wish you a Merry Christmas".  He has been practicing every day for weeks and was so excited.  He is the clown and dramatic one of our family so this was right up his alley!  He was simply adorable and I was a proud, proud momma!

Seriously, he is the cutest kid!

Singing "We Wish you a Merry Christmas"

"Away in a Manger"

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Getting ready for St Nicholas's Feast Day

We are having so much fun learning about Advent and St Nicholas this week!  We have been doing different activities all week learning about St Nicholas, reading our books, we wrote our letters that we leave out to Jesus on the eve of St Nicholas's feast day, and have been watching the St Nicholas movie with Veggie Tales and CCC's Nicholas: The Boy Who Became Santa!  Our boys are so excited to put their shoes out tonight and to go to their St Nicholas party tomorrow with our homeschool co-op!

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My Advent Reading List

One thing I have always loved to do is read!  I was totally one of those people who would plow through a book in one setting, so let me tell you when I had kids it was a big change to not have as much free time for leisure reading.  Well, now that our oldest child is almost 5 years old I think I have finally figured out how to add some quality reading back into my life! 

First of all, I have joined book clubs!  One of my dear friends started a women's book club many years ago and thankfully the group has stayed together over the years and we have read through many books and studies!  We currently are reading Mary:  A Biblical Walk with the Blessed Mother.  It is a fantastic study, which I especially am loving that we are doing over the Advent season to help me reflect on the nativity.  I also am participating in Well Read Mom which is a wonderful book club that has groups that meet all around the United States who all read the same books at the same time.  This year is the "Year of the Spouse" and I am really enjoying it and learning many graces.

This Advent I have started my own reading and reflections which has really helped me focus in prayer during this blessed season.  Our youngest children wake up early (usually around 5am), and I have learned to get quiet toys and activities for them so that I can take some time to have a cup of coffee and take time for myself to read and pray.  This Advent I am reading:

1.  Blessed is She Advent Journal:  This is a beautiful journal that gives you the daily readings, which I am following along in our subscription to Give Us This Day!  It also gives reflection questions and ample space for journaling and personal reflection. 

 

2.  Joy to the World:  How Christ's Coming Changed Everything (and still does) by Scott Hahn

 

I love Scott and Kimberly Hahn's books and have read many of them so when I saw this book was published I knew I had to get my hands on it!  Thankfully it has not disappointed me and I am loving it!  An excerpt from the book says:

 

"The family is the key to Christmas.  The family is the key to Christianity. ... The truth of Christmas begins with a family.  The events turned historically on the decisions of a husband and father, a wife and mother.  We know of these events only because that mother pondered them in her heart and chose to share them with her son's disciples" (Luke 2:19, 51). 

 

Scott Hahn does such a fantastic job in all of his books bringing the stories that we know back to the facts in the Bible.  He discusses the genealogy of Christ, the roles and lives of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and angels and even an amazing part about the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple! 

 

I am also thrilled that Scott and Kimberly Hahn are having a Joy to the World Livestream this Friday December 5th at 4pm ET/ 1pm PT.  Come listen (I will be there!!!)

 



3.  A Eucharistic Christmas: Advent Meditations on the Presence of Christ:  I have been reading this book during my evening prayers and I love that unlike most Advent studies that this book continues for the entire Advent and Christmas season through Epiphany on January 6th.  It includes beautiful reflections, mediations and prayers brining the Nativity together with understanding that Jesus is still just as available to us today in the Eucharist.  Also, I know already just a few days into reading this book that it is going to make me fall in love with going to Adoration and bring a whole new closeness to my relationship with Jesus. 

My "Place" - The Prayer Garden

Do you have "the place" in your life?  That special place that just allows you to take a deep breath, relax and amazingly everything gets a little better?  I would love to say that place is when I am in mass, but with three little ones, it is still sometimes a stressful experience.  Thankfully our parish St Robert's has the most beautiful prayer garden, and in this place, I am in peace, our children are in peace, and God is THERE! 

 

Everything about it is amazing!  First of all it is gated, so with little ones I have no fear of them getting away if they are exploring or I am taking some quiet time in my own prayer.  During the summer they have beautiful plants and flowers, and now in the winter they just laced the evergreen trees with beautiful white glowing lights!  They also have different spaces with benches to pray before the crucifix or the beautiful statue of Mary.  They also have an outside stations of the cross which I know we will use a lot during Lent this next year!

 

I cannot even tell you how many times we have gone there since we joined the parish this summer when we moved back to our hometown!  When I have had a stressful morning at the grocery store we stop by before going home, when we are ending a nice day we stop by before or after dinner.  One thing that I love about homeschooling is that we can change things up with our daily schedule and location for learning.  There were many beautiful days this fall that we would just pack up a few books and head over to the prayer garden!  We would say our daily decade of the rosary and then read for a while.  Every Sunday after mass we cannot leave without our children wanting to go visit the prayer garden!  With no direction from my husband or I they run down there, go to the statue of Mary and start praying the Hail Mary.  We always all leave more calm, and more connected with God and each other. 

 

 

It has truly become "my place" and after I go I always find myself more patient, caring, calm, and ready to connect with my family.  After taking a special trip to the prayer garden tonight to see the new lights after dinner we were all ready to snuggle up on the couch for a fun movie night and popcorn!