Odds and Ends

Happy All Hallows Eve! I will be out trick or treating with a few pirates and some prairie girls. Hope those of you who trick or treat have an enjoyable afternoon. This year it appears as if the weather is going to cooperate: sunny and mid 60s!

The organizing freak inside of me has to share this great idea I found on heblogssheblogs. It is a great way to organize and keep track of all of the things you have to do. Instead of keeping a bunch of to-do lists, the author said she started writing things she needed to do on the back of old business cards she had. Every morning she looks through the stack of cards and picks out a few that she can accomplish that day. Once done, she throws them out. Too bad I don't have any old business cards lying around...

Tomorrow begins November (already?). One thing we've done in the past years is to take a blank calendar page for the month and write the name of a deceased friend or family on each day of the month. I hang the calendar in the kitchen and each day we pray for and offer up sacrifices for that person. It is a neat way to remember the special people in your life who are no longer with you. It is also fun to tell the little kids about these people that they never met.

God Bless!

The Front Fell Off

Okay, here is a bit of almost-end-of-the-week humor. What with all of the seriousness in the world right now, we all could use a good laugh. Besides, laughing has been proven to be good for your health. Anyhow, enjoy this video. If you need to find a reason why it is on a homeschooling blog, lets just say that you could use it for a lesson in how to give a convincing speech which, in reality, doesn't make any sense!



God Bless!

40 Hours of Eucharistic Devotion

Last night we went to the closing ceremonies of the 40 Hours of Eucharistic Devotion at a local parish. As you can see from the above picture, this is a beautiful church. In case you've never been to something like this, I thought I'd bring along my camera so I could share the beauty of it with you.

Eucharistic adoration began after the Saturday evening Mass. It then continued during the day on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, with a service and Benediction each evening. As I said yesterday, the homilist was a retired Bishop from Michigan. He spoke again last night and had another good sermon on Jesus in the Eucharist. He was quite lively about it, too!

After the reading, the Gospel and the homily, there was Holy Communion and then a Eucharistic procession around the church. Any children that were present, as well as about 10 other priests, got to join in the procession.

I find that there are very few things in this world that compare to the beauty of Benediction. There is something quite incredible about the priest holding Jesus up in the monstrance and blessing the people. Sorry, but I just couldn't bring myself to fumble with my camera during that moment.

So, for your pleasure, here are some pictures of last night's event. Here is Father getting ready to incense the monstrance.

This was right before the procession began.

I loved the way this picture turned out!

This was the end of the procession. Aren't his vestments beautiful?

I sat there last night in all of this beauty thinking of those horrid YouTube videos showing the desecration of the Eucharist and my heart was breaking. Jesus Christ, have mercy on us, for we are nothing but sinners!

God Bless!

The Eucharist

Last night we were at Benediction for a 40 hours of Adoration that a parish in our area is having. The homilist for the evening was a retired bishop from Michigan. He gave a wonderful homily about Jesus in the Eucharist and how the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith.

There was one thing he said, however, that really struck me. You know how it is when you have that "WOW" moment and your eyes can see something that they've never seen before? He was talking about how the Bible is very important for us and a very important part of the Catholic faith, but that it is not the only thing we have. He said that we have the Eucharist, too, and it is the Eucharist that helps us to live out what the Bible commands. Without the Eucharist, it is so much harder to carry out the commands that Jesus has left us in the Bible.

The Bishop then when on to talk about the Last Supper and it occurred to me that Jesus did not leave us the Bible at the Last Supper, nor did He leave it to us while He was dying on the cross. The two important things He left us in the last hours of His life were His own Body and Blood, and His Mother. What are the two things that Protestants have thrown out? The Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist, and His Mother. Maybe some of you have thought about this before, but it was a new way of thinking about it for me. What a shame that they have turned their backs on the two last things given to us by Christ before He died.

In these last few days before the election, and in the midst of all of the distressing things going on in the world, let us turn to Jesus in the Eucharist for our comfort, our support and our joy. We will find all of these things there if we go to Him.

God Bless!

All Saints Day Party

Yesterday our homeschool group had its annual Saints Day Party. We did it a bit early this year because this coming weekend is another Miles Christi silent retreat for some of the dads in our group and we didn't want them to miss any of the fun!

Every year we have our saints procession.

After that, each family gets to introduce themselves and tell what saints they are, we have a living rosary, a big pot luck dinner and games for all the kids. This year one of the families introduced something new that I thought was really neat and so I'm passing it on for anyone who has yet to have their saints party.

We were introduced to the tradition of "souling". From what I have gathered this is an ancient tradition and there are various ways that people used to go about doing this. The way that we did it was to have each family write down the names of deceased family and friends on individual slips of paper. Then, the moms each sat down in a line with their slips of paper and some candy or holy cards or whatever they wanted to hand out. All of the "saints" processed through the line and each mom would put a slip of paper and a treat into their bag. The kids were told that each time they ate a piece of candy or took out a treat, they had to say a prayer for one of the people whose names were in their bag. While this was happening, there was a souling song playing in the background. The words to the chorus are:

  A soul, a soul, a soul cake
Please, good missus, a soul cake
An apple, a pear, a plum or a cherry
Any good thing to make us all merry
One for Peter, two for Paul
Three for Him who made us all

We came home with quite a stack of people to pray for.  It should keep us
very busy for the month of November.  It really was a nice addition to our
yearly event.

Also, as a reminder, today starts the last nine days leading up to, and
including, the election, so now would be a good time to start a novena
or a fast.  I am aware of one group who will be doing a nine day bread
and water fast through election day.  There are also many prayer vigils,
holy hours and public rosaries going on during this time.  Let us storm
heaven so that God's Will will be done for our country.

God Bless!

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Instead of a recipe today, I've decided to offer you a movie review.

Last night as part of our unit study on elections, we watched the movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" with Jimmy Stewart. Wow. This is definitely a classic because even though it was made in 1939, it is very timely for today. With all the media coverage over the upcoming election, watching this moving was like living it.

In case you've never seen the movie, I have included this clip to give you a taste of what the movie is like.



What a speech! What we need in this country are a few more Mr. Smiths. There probably are some out there, we just never get to hear much about them. I believe we are also using the homeschooling movement to raise up some more of them.

We were able to get the movie through our library, so it shouldn't be that hard to find. Looking for something to do this evening? Find this movie, pop some popcorn and enjoy!

God Bless!

Election Videos Worth Watching

Once again I was going to skip posting today because nothing had entered my brain yet to post about. As I always do when I sit down at the computer, I checked my email. Lo-and-behold, there were two videos that I think are definitely worth watching. Please watch them and share them with people who are still on the fence about this election. And remember, continue to pray for God's will to be done.






God Bless!