First Confession Prep: An Act of Contrition {free printable}

Do you have a little one receiving Sacraments this year?  We do, two actually!  Our eldest is doing Confirmation and our second son is preparing for First Communion and First Confession this year!  I'm so excited for him, he's got all his prayers down except the Act of Contrition.  He is an auditory learner but with this one he just can't get it right.  SO, I made a pictograph poster for him to practice with.  Of course, I'm sharing it with my dear RLS friends! :)

A made a PDF file and a PowerPoint Presentation of it.  Enjoy and feel free to pass it around to others.

Click  HERE  for the Act of Contrition printable PDF.

Act of Contrition

Photo Collage Maker Review & Giveaway

Like my cover photo on my FB timeline? 

I made it using Photo Collage Maker and I wrote a review for it and I'm giving away 20 free licenses for it...if you have TONS of kiddie pictures and want a quick way to create neat projects like this one, go and sign up to win! :) Visit my review and giveaway on 3 Boys and a Dog.

     

40 Days of Prayer Campaign

Heard of Planned Parenthood's 40 Days of Prayer Campaign?  Yeah, let's all gather around and pray for what? abortion?  o.O

Check out my debut post on Catholic Sistas, a counter-campaign called 40 Days of Prayer for the Unity of ALL Women, born and unborn...with a free printable of prayer intentions....GO!

     

By Your Holy Cross

We adore you Christ, and we praise You,

because by your Holy Cross,

You have redeemed the world!

Source: dennisjoealoy.tumblr.com via Forever on Pinterest

     

Holy Thursday: Jesus Gives Us a Mandate

Yesterday, on Spy Wednesday, I said I wouldn't post today but I dawned on me today that Holy Thursday, or Maundy Thursday, was too important and special NOT to say something on Raising Little Saints.  "The feast of Maundy (or Holy) Thursday solemnly commemorates the institution of the Eucharist and is the oldest of the observances peculiar to Holy Week." (source: New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia). Do you know what the word "maundy" means?  In Latin, it means COMMAND or MANDATE.  So today is the day that we call the Thursday which the Lord left us a command.  What command would that be?  Well lets turn to Scripture for that:

 "If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is My flesh, for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us His flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day." (John 6)

"Jesus was only nine months in the womb of Mary, three hours on the Cross,
three days in the sepulcher, but He is always in the tabernacle.
Does our reverence before Him bear witness to this most blessed truth?"
Based on John 6, the words of Jesus Christ, Himself.

How does anyone not read this and realize the whole of our existence depends on this single pronouncement? It is not bread, it is not wine, it is your Creator, giving Himself to you gratuitously. Does any Christian that believes in Sola Scriptura not see that their belief system contradicts the Bible, and that in this passage God does not speak cavalierly?

His allegories, or parables, are for instruction. This is NOT an allegory. This is a very POINTED, blunt, take it or live it literal commandment. He went out of His way to make this point.

If He wishes the redemption of humanity for all the rest of time, this giving of His Body and Blood is not a symbol, and it wasn't just for His time. Those that believe in the Most Blessed Sacrament are the true fundamentalists, and we stake our very souls on this basic belief, that Jesus is Truth Incarnate.

He cannot deceive, nor be deceived. 

He redeems us all, in His Body, and His Blood. 

In this any Christian lives forever, or dies forever.

Agnus dei qui tollis peccata mundi,miserere nobis.
(Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.)

     

Spy Wednesday: Flowers, Blushing, Shame and Betrayal

Did you know today, the On the Wednesday of Holy Week, is called "Spy Wednesday"?  I had never heard of it until I saw friends on Facebook posting it here and there and everywhere.  So I started looking into it...so here's the gist of it. It is called Spy Wednesday because this is the day Judas conspired with the Temple leadership to hand Jesus over tot he Sanhedrin. He would accomplish his task the evening of the next day, but today he makes arrangements to hand Jesus over and is paid. Because Judas is thought to be sneaky, his actions conjured up the image of a spy. This is how the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 26: 14-25 recounts the events of today:

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?"  They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, "Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?" He said, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The teacher says, AMy appointed time draws near; in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples."'" The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,
and prepared the Passover. 

When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve.  And while they were eating, he said,
"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me." Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, "Surely it is not I, Lord?"  He said in reply, "He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me.  The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.  It would be better for that man if he had never been born."

Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?"
He answered, "You have said so."

So after that reading and talking some with the kids, we decided to pick four words that had meaning for this day, they selected:  flowers, blushing, betrayal, and shame.  We made this into a step-by-step art lesson using a picture of the tree Judas hung himself from, now known as the Judas Tree (or it's scientific name: )  We used our Draw-Write-Now book to start the tree off and then they each added something.  The details was either my 7 year old's idea (like seeing Calvary from afar) or making gray clouds because "God was probably really sad at Judas," as my five year old daughter suggested.  We used colored pencils, crayons, and markers to make it a mixed media project.  Here are their masterpieces:

Of course, the rope from the tree was the boy's idea and he even added Judas.
My daughter went with the rope idea, minus the dead guy.  Kids!  :D

A Closer look at them:

They did these with just a little guidance from me, not bad for ages seven and five huh? :D

While I won't be posting the remainder of the week, here is my post from last year's Holy Thursday,

A Six Year Old's Take on daVinci's The Last Supper.

And our Holy Week Journey from last year with a FREE printable!  :)

Have a blessed remainder of the week friends!