Mercy Minutes

Mercy Minutes - Daily Gems from the Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalski.

This little book, coveniently small enough to be easily carried in a purse, is packed with inspirational and spiritual guidance. It is set up for everyday of the year and also includes passages from St. Maria Faustina Kowalski's diary. It is easy to read and meditate on as well as full of spiritually rich words!

I loved the themes which help guide your spiritual life and able to transform you. Some of my favorite themes are Confession, God's will, trusting Him, and God's mercifulness for us! This is a great book to own for anyone looking to deepen their love for the Lord and increase their Faith in Him. Truly a must have!

Catholic Parent Know-How: Faith Filled Summer Activities - A Review

Some of our readers may have noticed that I added a logo on the right side of this blog when I became official "Product Reviewers for the Catholic Company." Every so often, as I receive new material, you will see posts on books/items from their company of which I will write a review for. Feel free to comment or ask any questions, should you have them.

Catholic Parent Know-How: Faith Filled Summer Activities

As this is my first review, and we were about to start our home school year, I started small and selected a small magazine/pamphlet type of item to review. This is entitled Catholic Parent Know-How: Faith Filled Summer Activities. Truly when I received it and saw that it was only eight pages long, I thought it was just a skim of activities you could do in the summer and then add religion. Boy was I wrong! Those eight pages were packed with ideas all based on celebrating the beauty of our faith during the hot summer months.

This soft-cover booklet, is designed and written much in the style of any magazine. Begining with a letter from the author, Ken Ogorek, with an introduction to this booklet. The eight pages are packed with ideas on how to incorporate prayer life into the fun activities you will do during the summer months with your children. It discusses topics like vacations, family reunions, and trips, as well as quiet time at home. It truly gives you a different perspective of how Catholics should relax in the hot summer months but not in their active faith life.

I was extremely impressed when I came to page five entitled, "How Smart Am I?" Here the author discusses Dr. Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (M. I.). This takes me back to the years I taught Kindergarten at a local public school in Florida. The school had adopted the usage of the M. I. in lesson plans and in the classroom. In a nutshell it exlains how everyone is gifted or smart in one or more things. For example, some people are Mathematical, while others are more linguistic. For more info on this, Google it since it is really interesting. When you include this in your lesson plans, you target every type of child in the classroom. The author was targeting these multiple intelligences and designed eight faith filled summer activities, one for each! I was impressed!!!! To say the least.

Yet, my favorite article is found on page seven, entitled "What Will the Neighbors Think?" This article was directed at celebrating August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgen Mary into Heaven as a family! The author gives bold suggestions such as blue decoratios, wearing blue, and praying a family rosary in honor of our Blessed Mother! It was great!

This is the type of booklet that you would find as you are exiting out the door of your Church. If you see "Catholic Parent Know-How" don't pass it up, there are a couple more written by this same author. If you click on the picture of this booklet, it will take you to the Catholic Company page. You may also order them there, but they come in packs of 10 (so you could share with your family and friends).

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Catholic Parent -Faith-Filled Summer -Pkg 10.

And the winners are....

1) Domestic Church: Room by Room

The winner is Marie who left a comment and has a blog "Domestically Catholic" (how appropriate)....please e-mail me with your full name and address so we can mail you your new autographed book!








2) Grace Cafe

The winner is Jacqueline who is a follower of our blog! please e-mail me with your full name and address so we can mail you your new book (autographed, of course).


A very special thank you to Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle for her beautiful work in these two great books. Also for your generosity in donating these two books for our readers. God bless you!

You can still get your hands on these and other of her great books by visiting her website: http://web.mac.com/dcooperoboyle/Site/Books.html



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Catholic wife and mother of five, author, journalist, speaker, reviewer, catechist, Lay Missionary of Charity (Mother Teresa's Order) and lover of nature. Widely published and deeply experienced in both family life and religious life, Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle counted Blessed Teresa of Calcutta among her personal friends. She maintains numerous Web sites and has founded several Catholic apostolates and ministries. For more information on this wonderful Catholic author, please visit here. For a daily dose of inspiration, visit Donna's blog at http://viewdomesticchurch.blogspot.com/.

Embracing Motherhood

Can't take credit for the title of this post as it is borrowed from a blog we featured two weeks ago with this title! (to visit this blog, click on the image above). Motherhood, it has changed my life! I became a mommy over 12 years ago when I took a home pregnancy test and found out that in my womb a tiny baby was growing and developing! My whole world changed! My plans for my future changed as well! I've been blessed with this experience several times since this first event. The outcome, four little angels on Earth, two little ones in heaven! Looking forward to more children is exciting! I love the look on my DH's face when I give him the news, the children as well! The one I always worry about is my eldest who will be 12 next February. I've always been careful about preparing him for the next baby especially because he is seven, eight, and ten years older than his siblings.

To my surprise, last Sunday right before going up for Communion, he leans over and whispers, "Mami, I want you to have another baby!". I was shocked, mainly because I wasn't expecting this plus our youngest is only 13 months old. As I looked around us, I noticed there was a new born baby in sight and this must have triggered this thought in his sweet mind! Although, our youngest is only 13 months old when compared to the new born he looks old, lol! So I asked him, after Mass, "where did that come from?" and "our little one is still a baby". His answer, "it's not the same, he's walking, talking-some, expressing himself and showing his personality! While new babies are so quiet and sweet and yummy to hold and have an amazing smell!" I wanted to cry from the excitement! He loves babies and misses the joy of a new one. In thinking about this, he has prayed and hoped for all of his siblings. I remember him wanting one since he was very small, and every time he prayed, BINGO! God does hear prayers of our children! While I'm not here to announce that we are expecting, just yet...I wanted to share this sweet moment I had with my son. LOL!

With this in mind, I want to remind you that we are wrapping things up for this month's topic on the Domestic Church. Tomorrow is the last day to enter your chance to win one of Donna-Marie Cooper O'Doyle's books, Grace Cafe and Domestic Church: Room by Room.

Last Chance!
Want to know how to win one of her fantastic books? It's simple... do one or more of the following:

1. Leave a comment after this post, a similar experience you have had with your children and their love for more children in your Domestic Church.
   
2. Post a picture of your kids with a new baby!
3. Subscribe to our RSS feed (see the button above on the left).
4. Blog about this topic and link back to this blog. Remember to come back and leave a comment with your link to get credit for your post on "Embracing Motherhood".
5. Add yourself to our "Follow Us" section.

Each of the above options will give you an entry per item you do, so you have four chances of entering! At the end of the month, we will post the two winners. It's that easy!

So Mamas, start commenting, posting, blogging, adding, etc.! to get your hands on these great books!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Catholic wife and mother of five, author, journalist, speaker, reviewer, catechist, Lay Missionary of Charity (Mother Teresa's Order) and lover of nature. Widely published and deeply experienced in both family life and religious life, Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle counted Blessed Teresa of Calcutta among her personal friends. She maintains numerous Web sites and has founded several Catholic apostolates and ministries. For more information on this wonderful Catholic author, please visit here. For a daily dose of inspiration, visit Donna's blog at http://viewdomesticchurch.blogspot.com/.

For a review of the Domestic Church book, check out this Catholic Blogging Homeschooling Mama's site.

Politics: Just not my cup of tea!

The political one in my family is my DH, by far. I'm just not political at all! I find it all so redundant! I don't know if it has anything to do with my childhood? My father was in the military in another country, and was killed in a war (more like tortured and then killed). Maybe, this is why I don't care much about politics. I don't trust politicians, I'm not Republican, nor Democrat...mainly because I don't agree with either party's ideology.

There are some hot buttons regarding politics that irk me. For example, this whole thing about punishing our people for protecting our country. First there was the border patrols out in Texas, I believe. They were imprisoned for protecting our border. Now this whole situation in Guantanamo and the "rights" of terrorists! I find this ludicrous! Since when do we punish those who protect our nation? What stirred this post? The following political cartoon by Michael Ramirez:
Our world, our American nation has been turned upside down! In politics, ethics, morals, etc.! Why? We forget that when one person's right begin, this is when someone else's ends. In this thirst for equality we have lost perspective as to what is morally and ethically correct. It is a sad state for our nation and we MUST ALL unite and pray for our leaders (we need miracles) and our nation as a whole!

As We Commence a New School Year...

Back to School Prayers...

"Father of all mercies

We ask that you would bless the youngest and littlest of learners,

the most helpless and powerless of persons,

with Your infinite and loving mercy,

granting them the strength to learn, concentrate,

and act appropriately towards their teacher and fellow students (their siblings).

We also ask that You would watch over them,

at our homeschool and at play,

and grant them proper direction so that they may learn

of Your wonderful virtues.

We ask this in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ."

Amen

This Week's Featured Mama Blog

Here we will feature a Catholic Homeschooling Mama's blog that we think has fantastic ideas in many different areas: faith, family, home education, planning, healthy living, and more! For now, they will be posted/featured in no specific order. So without further adieu, here's this week's Featured Mama Blog: My Domestic Church

(click on the image above to visit this featured blog)

If there is a blog that you follow, and you'd like us to feature, please e-mail me a link: raisinglittlesaints {at} gmail {dot} com or leave a comment below. Come again next week for another neat Catholic Mama to visit. Thank you to all the "Mamas" who have sent me links to wonderful blogs. Please, be patient with me and I will post them as soon as possible...just keep them coming! Thank you and God bless you!

Pax Christi,

Breaking News: Bishops Present Coming Missal Changes

Bishops Present Coming Missal Changes

Web Site Aims to Familiarize Catholics With New Text

WASHINGTON, D.C., AUG. 21, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The U.S. bishops'
conference launched a Web site that aims to educate Catholics about
the changes in the Mass that are coming with the new Roman missal
translation.

A press release from the conference announced today that this site
includes background on the liturgical texts, sample wording from the
newly translated missal, and answers to frequently asked questions.

The conference's Committee on Divine Worship expressed the hope that
this will be a central resource for those responsible for implementing
the text.

The committee chairman, Bishop Arthur Serratelli of Paterson, New
Jersey, said in an online introduction to the site: "In the years
since Vatican II we have learned a lot about the use of the vernacular
in the liturgy and the new texts reflect this new understanding."

He continued: "The new texts are understandable, dignified and accurate.

"They not only strive to make the meaning of the text accessible for
the listener, but they also strive to unearth the biblical and
theological richness of the Latin text."

Over the past five years, representatives of the bishops' conferences
from various English-speaking countries have been working on the
translation of the new version of the Roman Missal, issued by Pope
John Paul II during the Jubilee Year 2000.

This November, the last sections will be reviewed and voted on by the
U.S. conference, and will then be sent to the Vatican for the
authoritative approval and permission to use.

The Web site stated that this final approval of the complete text is
anticipated in early 2010.

Bishop Serratelli stated, "We have a great opportunity during this
period not only to learn about the changes, not only to learn about
the revised texts, but also to deepen our own understanding of the
liturgy itself."

He added, "We encourage priests, deacons, religious, liturgical
ministers, all the faithful to avail themselves of the information
that we are making available."

The conference is offering a draft text of the new translation, which
cannot be used liturgically but aims to familiarize priests and
faithful with the forthcoming changes.

The Web site underlines the hope "that when the time comes to use the
texts in the celebration of the Mass, priests will be properly
trained, the faithful will have an understanding and appreciation of
what is being prayed, and musical settings of the liturgical texts
will be readily available."

--- --- ---

On the Net:

Web site: www.usccb.org/romanmissal

Prayers for the Fidelity in a Mother's Vocation

"Dear God, give me the grace to appreciate the dignity of motherhood, which Thou hast been pleased to bestow upon me, and to fulfill its duties according to Thy Will. By my prayers and good example, may I lead my husband and my children closer to Thy Sacred Heart. Make me a devoted wife to my husband and a good mother to my children after the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Almighty God, I thank Thee for the blessed care and protection with which Thou hast embraced my family. I humbly submit to Thy decrees and resign myself to Thy Pivine Providence. I grasp Thy guiding hand, and I shall never follow my own ways lest they lead me astray. Thy good pleasure shall be my happiness; Thy commandments shall be my only rule of conduct. Thy Will shall be my will, and Thy service shall be the object of all my desires.

Lord, grant me peace of mind because of my trust in Thy Providence, an unwavering and cheerful courage founded on my faith in Thy tremendous love, faithfulness to duty resulting from a constant awareness of Thy presence, and a firm hope of eternal reward.

Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I implore Thy blessing upon my family that we all may serve Thee faithfully in this life and deserve to be reunited in the eternal happiness of Thy heavenly Kingdom. Amen.

Gotta Share! "Celebrating 99 Days of Life"

A pro-life story you have to hear/see!



They were featured on the Today Show:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/31522948#31522948

They now have a little girl who is about 8 months old AND, the couple just found out they are having another baby due in February, 2010!!! What a beautiful story!

Domestic Church: Room by Room - Family Altars

This month, we have been discussing how our homes are our Domestic Church. In my quest for new ideas to bring into our home, I virtually met up at Faith and Family Connect, with Catholic author, Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle. She has written several books on this topic and we spoke about my desire to spread the news of her wonderful book entitled, The Domestic Church: Room by Room. At the end of August, we will raffle off two of her books to two different Catholic Mamas.

One will be the aforementioned title and the other is her book, Grace Cafe: Serving Up Recipes for Faithful Mothering. I will give you details on how to sign up for the giveaway at the end of this post. ;)

My family's decision to homeschool (after many months of prayer), was only made possible because the Lord willed it. In turn, our lives have changed tremendously for the best. We are a more united and prayerful family than we were a year ago. As I reflected on this past year, I realized we grew stronger as a couple and as a family and it had to do with two things, one, opening our lives more to the Lord, and two, creating a Domestic Church within our home.

So how do you create a domestic church, you may ask? Lets begin, room by room and see the appearance of our homes. As I think of this a little further...and pray tons, I realized that our home was missing something. We have the Sacramentals all over the house, rosaries, crucifixes, etc., and yes, we are missing statues! but, that's not what I was searching for. We are missing a central location for prayer. When I taught in Catholic schools (my pre-homeschooling life) all of the classrooms had something in common - no matter what grade and that was a prayer table or classroom altar. So, this is what our home (and homeschool) is missing, a Family Altar! The next question would be, where? What better place than the center of our home, the mantle of our fireplace! This is the place I would I love to create our Family Altar. It is my nature to jump right to it and get it all done! But as my tech guy (my DH, that is) and I prayed about it, we thought it would be great if this was our first homeschool Religion project! So I'm looking for ideas....I found this wonderful site with tons of ideas:

"In contradistinction to the typical home which has a television set as its centerpiece, the focal point of a Catholic home should be the family altar -- a place where the family can gather to offer up their prayers to the Most Holy Trinity and to ask the Saints to pray for them. Morning Offerings, family Rosaries, prayers for special intentions, family novenas, Lectio Divina, etc., can all be made here.

Family altars, ideally, should be on the Eastern wall of a home, in the same orientation as church buildings. The altar can be as simple or as elaborate as one desires, but should be beautiful and conducive to contemplation. A few key items to be placed on or around the altar table are:

Crucifix
Sacred Scripture (Douay-Rheims)
Missal(s)
icons (statues and/or two-dimensional)
a Holy Water font
a cellar of blessed salt
charcoal incense burner
Rosaries
vigil candles, candles blessed at Candlemas (to burn on All Saints Day and in times of trouble), and Baptismal candles (for use at weddings and during Unction)

Other things one might want to consider are the Breviary or the Little Office of Our Lady, Holy Cards, flowers, prie-dieux, the names of dead family members printed on beautiful parchment so we may be reminded to pray for them (having their funeral holy cards there would be nice, too), pictures of the Stations of the Cross or the Mysteries of the Rosary, something with which to play sacred music and Gregorian chant, sick call sets, palm branches from Palm Sunday, certificate of a papal blessing, etc."

If you visit the wonderful folks at fisheaters.com, you can see more ideas beyond the Family Altar as well on this very same topic of creating a Domestic Church. A great site! I also searched the web and found some pictures and examples of Family Altars. I can't wait to get started, with my family, on ours. If you already have a Family Altar, I'd love to see a picture of yours! Do share!


So, want to know how to win one of her fantastic books? It's simple... do one or more of the following:

1. Leave a comment after this post, on what we'd find on your FAMILY ALTAR and why they are so important in your Domestic Church. (if this is new to you, comment on if this is something you'd consider doing with your own family).
   
2. Post a picture of your Family Altar (if you have one already).
3. Subscribe to our RSS feed (see the button above on the left).
4. Blog about this topic and link back to this blog. Remember to come back and leave a comment with your link to get credit for your post on "Family Altars".
5. Add yourself to our "Follow Us" section.

Each of the above options will give you an entry per item you do, so you have four chances of entering! At the end of the month, we will post the two winners. It's that easy!

So Mamas, start commenting, posting, blogging, adding, etc.! to get your hands on these great books!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Widely published and deeply experienced in both family life and religious life, Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle counted Blessed Teresa of Calcutta among her personal friends. She maintains numerous Web sites and has founded several Catholic apostolates and ministries. For more information on this wonderful Catholic author, please visit here. For a daily dose of inspiration, visit Donna's blog at http://viewdomesticchurch.blogspot.com/.

For a review of the Domestic Church book, check out this Catholic Blogging Homeschooling Mama's site.

This Week's Featured Mama Blog

Here we will feature a Catholic Homeschooling Mama's blog that we think has fantastic ideas in many different areas: faith, family, home education, planning, healthy living, and more! For now, they will be posted/featured in no specific order. So without further adieu, here's this week's Featured Mama Blog: Embracing Motherhood

(click on the image above to visit this featured blog)

If there is a blog that you follow, and you'd like us to feature, please e-mail me a link: raisinglittlesaints {at} gmail {dot} com or leave a comment below. Come again next week for another neat Catholic Mama to visit. Thank you to all the "Mamas" who have sent me links to wonderful blogs. Please, be patient with me and I will post them as soon as possible...just keep them coming! Thank you and God bless you!

Pax Christi,

Catholic Resources

Just wanted to share some wonderful resources I've found along the way as I've surfed the WWW. Just click on the picture to access their sites. If you have a Catholic site to add to this, please e-mail me at raisinglittlesaints {at} gmail {dot} com. Enjoy!:

Catholic Homeschool Support

Soft Saints

Live your Faith, Order your Life!




Catholic Homeschool Store



Catholic Culture Store



Sacred Heart Books and Gifts



Faith Filled Days