My camera is broken but Kimberlee has pictures of her Sacred Heart project.
In addition to using the paper hearts for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, Kimberlee suggests keeping the hearts around the house as a prayer reminder for July, the Month of the Precious Blood.

Another idea is to hang the hearts as a garland or a 3D String of Hearts.

Sacred Heart

Cutting and pasting some ideas from Mary Vitamin

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Visionary of the Sacred Heart
“One Friday, during holy Mass, I felt a great desire to honor the sufferings of my crucified Spouse. He told me lovingly that He desired me, every Friday, to adore Him Thirty-three times upon the Cross, the throne of His mercy. I was to prostrate myself humbly at His feet, and try to remain there in the dispositions of the Blessed Virgin during His Passion.”


Activity for children: Children can cut 33 paper hearts. Brainstorm prayer ideas to be written on hearts. Eleven ideas are sufficient. Place hearts in a small basket in front of an image of the Sacred Heart. Encourage children to pick a heart and make a prayer.

Brainstorm ideas from the Glories of Mary by St. Alphonsus di Liguori

~Saint Antoninus, "while other martyrs suffered by sacrificing their own lives, the Blessed Virgin suffered by sacrificing her Son's life, a life that she loved far more than her own.
~"Whoever then was present on the Mount of Calvary," says Saint John Chrysostom, "might see two altars, on which two great sacrifices were consummated; the one in the body of Jesus, the other in the heart of Mary."
~Mary heard her Son exclaim, "I thirst," but she could not even give Him a drop of water to refresh Him in that great thirst. She could only say, as Saint Vincent Ferrer remarks, "My Son, I have only the water of tears.
~Jesus meek and humble of heart make my heart like unto thine.
~Yesterday’s MV from St. John Eudes

Bl. Zelie Martin - Repost

Last year I read The Mother of the Little Flower
Zelie Martin (1831-1877)By: Celine Martin (St. Therese s Sister).

In this book, Celine remembers the virtues shown by her mother.
I made a running list of qualities which stuck with me after reading.

Zelie Martin

• had a great love for purity.
• showed extra concern for modesty. She ensured that the girls’ dresses reached below the knee.
• wanted to see her children pray, pray at a young age, and pray often.
• did not spoil the children. They didn’t get away with bad behavior.
• regularly encouraged her children to sacrifice. One memorable example from the book includes the use of sacrifice beads. Zelie said to her daughters, “You’ll win a jewel for your crown if you give that up now.”
• demonstrated personal holiness and prayerfulness.
• practiced obedience to her husband, who she regarded as head of the family.
• Spoke of heaven often.
• would not excuse herself from the Church’s regulations regarding fasting even though she was very ill.
• was suspicious of being too happy in this life. She thought it was a bad sign when things went very well because this is a valley of tears.
• abhorred detraction especially mentioning the faults of priests. (Sounds similar to St. Francis)
• prayed intensely for her children to have vocations to the religious life but wouldn’t say the prayer out loud. She didn’t want to exert overt pressure.
• demonstrated a love for the poor in tangible ways (gave food to the hungry, visited the sick, and reached out to the most needy.)
• went on pilgrimage to Lourdes for healing but returned in worse shape than ever. Yet, her faith in God and love of the Blessed Virgin Mary was undiminished.
• died a holy death, bearing her sufferings with great courage.

Mobile Update in photos

I found some paper-style-Easter grass which went unused this holiday. I've begun to wrap the inner core of the mobile (the three hangers) with the special paper. It's sticking very well with a light application of Mod Podge glue. (Time consuming--floral tape might go quicker but I don't have any.)

Fine beading wire gives an airy appearance to the mobile. This site recommends working from the bottom of your mobile for the greatest success.

Grabbing one of the arrows, I made various attempts to make my mobile steady. The picture shows two shapes hanging from the arrow. It works but I think I'll stick to one shape hanging from the center of each arrow. (Wood pieces provided easy shapes to trace.) On one side of the cloud I'll write the vice combated by the gift written on the arrow. On the other side I'll write the meaning of the gift.

I chuckled this morning after I realized the arrow with all the mistakes says "knowledge." ha ha

To hang the arrow in a straight line, a hole in the front and end of the arrow with the wire creating a triangular shape. I needed to reinforce the tip of the arrow with another piece of colored paper. This also gave me a chance to embedd the fine wire between the two pieces of cardstock. Mod Podge did the trick.

(The wind is blowing as I write this post and seeing the two shapes move in the wind is very attractive. I might leave the two. We'll see how it all comes out.)

Waking up to seven arrows on the mantle left a dramatic impression on the children. The arrows provoked questions from the children giving me a great opportunity for my lesson.

Getting ready for the Ascension and Pentecost

Picking up with our simple idea for The Year of St. Paul, I selected the word "wisdom" from St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Written in blue paper letters with a bit of sparkle, I placed the word upon our family room mantle.

I spoke to the children:
This week at the Mass for the Ascension, listen for the word “wisdom” in the second reading from St. Paul. Wisdom is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Listen for this word at Mass and try to tell me what St. Paul says about wisdom.

This Friday we will begin our novena in preparation for Pentecost. After the Ascension, the disciples gathered around Mary in the upper Room. They were fearful as they waited for the promised Advocate. Mary kept their hearts steady as they waited. (Show picture of the Third Glorious Mystery) This is the first nine days of prayer beginning the tradition of the novena. Novena comes from the Latin word novem which means nine.

Pentecost Novena


We spent a bit of the morning getting our novena prayer organized. My seven year old used a paper cutter to trim the prayers to fit onto oversized, colored index cards. Using a glue stick, my five year old, adhered the prayers to the cards. The three year old decorated the cards with a sticker. I punched a hole in the corner of the cards and gathered them together with a binder ring. The collection is sitting on the mantle waiting for Friday.

On almost every day of the novena, the prayers focus on a particular gift of the Holy Spirit. I hope to bring depth to the prayers by creating mobile highlighting the seven gifts, their meaning and the vice each combats.

A source book I consult often is Our Quest for Happiness Book I. Part of a great high school religion series, I rarely venture past the Freshman book. It’s content is exceptionally rich. For this lesson, I came across this great sentence:

“We can also think of the seven gifts as seven fiery darts to be used against the seven deadly sins.”
368

The idea of a fiery-dart-mobile popped into my head. The Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit symbolized by yellow arrows .

I thought the mobile could be built as the week progresses. Add an arrow, discuss the meaning of the gift and the vice combated on each day of the Novena. By Pentecost, there should be a collection of dangling paper from old hangers in the family room. (Sounds great!)


Foolishness -->wisdom
Dullness --> understanding
Rashness --> counsel
Cowardice --> fortitude
Ignorance -->knowledge
Hardness of heart -->piety
Pride -->fear of the Lord

I wanted to post the idea early in order to give readers a chance to get started on the idea. (I've tried since Monday to blog.) I’ll post pictures of my progress. Let me know if you try this with your family.

Twitter Resources

Have you ever seen a five year old react to an invitation to bake cookies? I'm having a very similar response to Tweets for Our Lady. It's been great fun reading some new resources and dusting off some of my old ones as I look for little things to say about Our Heavenly Mother.


Dictionary of Mary is a new book for me. It's an interesting book with entries ranging from Papal documents, apparitions, symbols of Our Lady and more.


Available as a used book, Shrines of Our Lady spans the globe from Australia to Canada with information about the Shrines dedicated to Our Blessed Mother.




Marian Shrines of France and Marian Shrines of Italy are two books published by the Franciscans of the Immaculate. They are more than guide books because of the rich spirituality that the Friars impart to everything they touch.







Most often I turn to the calendar in the glossary of The Essential Mary Handbook for a Tweet for Mary.

I also check these online calendars in the hope of discovering an interesting tidbit to use at Twitter:
Marian Shrines by Fr. Hardon
Mary Links Calendar
Feasts of Our Lady throughout the Year
Women for Faith and Family's web page on Marian Feast days

These links came from the 4Real thread Blessed Mother Notebook which has loads of information.


Finally these two dependable guide books by Kevin J. Wright, Catholic Shrines of Western Europe and Catholic Shrines of Eastern Europe, contain many entries on the Marian shrines in Europe.

Flowers for Mother's Day

My mother's day present was a nature walk with my family where I collected photos of blooming wildflowers.

Using my National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers (the best of all my wildflower books) after the walk, I've attempted to put names to my pictures. This first picture is of Golden Alexanders. (Leave me a comment if I've misidentified any plant. I love to learn.)

A tiny white flower pokes it way through the dried leaves.

Basal leaves grow together at the base of the flower.
There are three toothed and scalloped.

I guess the flower is Goldthread also known as Canker Root. Interestingly, the colonialists chewed on canker root to help soothe their gums.

Wild strawberry grew in many places along the trail.







This very tall wildflower had a small cluster of flowers.
Do you think it's Arrowroot?






The best photo I had of a Starflower.

I recognized this flower from last year. The star shaped pattern of the leaves was easy to spot even if the name escaped me during the walk.





Can't seem to identify these flowers. Any suggestions?
I've crossed out Rockcress (lyre leaf, smooth and hairy.)







??







It's always a pleasure to come across the happy and dainty wood violet -- especially when it is among its friends.






However much I love wildflowers, I have to say, the loveliest flowers along the path were my own children.

Thank you for giving me the gift of Motherhood.

Tweets for Our Lady

Join Mary Vitamin on Twitter for a short tweet on the love of Mary, the Mary Vitamin resolution, Marianizing the day, a message on the Blessed Mother’s titles or the Blessed Virgin’s connection to Scripture.

You'll find this new feature listed on the right sidebar of my blog.

While praying the Breviary a few weeks ago I had the thought…
Mary Vitamin should Twitter.

At that time, I didn’t know what Twitter was. I had only heard of it through Lissa Wiley’s blog Here in the Bonny Glen. (Now I notice Twitter’s Little-Blue-Bird everywhere.)

When the idea returned again in prayer I decided it was time to find out more about Twitter. If I’m mistaken and Our Lady did not make this request, I can at least offer myself as a fool for the Immaculate.

To those readers who like me are unfamiliar with the service, Twitter offers an internet platform to answer the question,

What are you doing?

One has to be pithy – you’re only given 140 characters to answer the question. I have found it a pleasant linguistic challenge to stay within the limit. The concise format is also well suited to my increasingly full days. With a home at Twitter, you don’t have to say anything, you can use the service to follow your friends, favorite bloggers or media personalities.

In an effort to Marianize everything I plan to change the question to:

What am I doing …for the Immaculate today?

Ideally I would like to have a Marian calendar to make a Tweet about the current Feast of Our Lady. However, there are many different calendars and I’m not sure I can match up a prayer/thought to correspond to the calendar … yet. (Maybe next year) Right now I’ll stick to the Mary Vitamin group resolution and Our Lady’s promptings.

If you are a Twitterer consider following me at: Mary Vitamin Twitter

Thanks for following and spreading devotion to Our Lady!

Thanks to Signing Time

We can sign...
grumpy






and silly.

May Altar

Flowers, stars, and titles decorate our family’s May altar.

This month we’re delving into the titles of Our Lady which we received as part of the Epiphany celebration with the Franciscans of the Immaculate. Each year on Epiphany we receive a number of patron saints and one special title of Mary.

It is remarkable how the Holy Spirit speaks to us through these seemingly random selections. The first year I attended the Epiphany celebration, I had such a powerful experience with my patron saints, they spoke so loudly from God, that I could no longer look at fortune cookies from the Chinese restaurant the same way. (Sounds funny -- But true!)

On strips of yellow cardstock, I placed these titles of Mary:

Our Lady of Svata Hora (very thorough article)
Our Lady of Mariazell
Our Lady of Akita
Our Lady of Pompeii
Our Lady of Einseideln

The Immaculate Conception

Vessel of Honor
Mirror of Justice
Virgin Most Prudent
Mother of Our Creator

Saintly Supplements

Saintly Supplements are a series of posts fostering mental prayer with children (Mary Vitamin for children.) I discovered these meditations worked well with my family when I read them to the children before praying the family Rosary. We covered three supplements a week.

There are two sets. One is based on Our Lady's apparition at Fatima and well suited for use during May. The second set focuses on the Sacred Heart of Jesus and His apparition to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Consider saving this set for June.

The posts can also be accessed by clicking on the Saintly Supplements label at the end of each post. Printable versions are stored in the Mary Vitamin Yahoogroup file section. (Button on the sidebar takes you to the group site.)

(Thanks Anne for the Saintly Supplements photo)

Introductory Post - Explains the Saintly Supplement format

Our Lady of Fatima Series

St. Michael Teaches the Children of Fatima -- Day One

St. Michael Teaches the Children of Fatima -- Day Two

St. Michael Teaches the Children of Fatima -- Day Three

Fatima and Sacrifice

Sacrifice Involves Members of Our Own Household

The Precious Blood and a Spiritual Communion

Heaven and Sanctity

In the Presence of God

Why Do We Pray the Rosary Daily?

Our Mission From God (Take Us to Heaven)

Our Lady Will Be With You Always

Sacred Heart series with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Getting to Know St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

The Lord Hears Your Prayer

Resting on the Lord's Bosom

Give Him Your Heart

Saintly Supplements photo credit: Anne at Under Her Starry Mantle

updating a skirt

First, baby needs to be happy.







Gather the necessary equipment.







Nowadays essential means extra spectacles.










Acts of the Apostles on tape.
(Love the Bible in the laundry room.)




Fold the floral skirt, beginning from the hem, into five equal rows.
Pin profusely.
Iron with a vengeance.


(Favorite part for me -- I love ironing.)


I made three bobbins but I didn't even come close to needing them. One would have been enough.


When I began sewing the first row, I worried that the pins in the other rows would jam. But, they were fine.

The skirt measured 34 inches when I started. It is now a 28 inch skirt with the modern flair of a skirt from Gap.





Before:

After:

My 9 year old son was using my computer to fill his iPod. He asked,

"Mom, can I listen to The Iliad?"

I responded,

"Sure but you might like The Odyssey a little better. It's full of adventures while The Iliad is heavy on battle scenes."

"I'll stick with The Iliad. I need innards"

Cedar Waxwings

As we left the library today, we noticed a flock of cedar waxwings scavenging their lunch from the roof of a pick-up truck.

There were about twenty birds moving about quickly. It was an unusual sighting of a secretive bird. My daughter recognized the birds by their song and snapped a few pictures.

I don't think the birds were eating something which fell from the tree in the library parking lot. The waxwings were interested in only one car. I wonder what attracted the birds to this truck? Where was it parked previously?
(Click the pictures to see the bird's distinctive facial mask.)

First Year with Hope

Effortless bonding
As though catapulted together
Prepared in advance by the Lord
By the work of the supernatural and of nature




Knowing Hope from the beginning
On the same page
The same experiences











Recognizing her in-the-womb behavior when she was out of the womb
The hiccups
The gift of mother’s milk








The trust shown in the softness of her hug
The light of love in her face
The full depth of her gaze unbroken by fear
The freedom with which she learns new things
In my arms, safe, loved, secure, she is free
to reach out
to discover






Learning to roll over at 5 months
Sitting and crawling at 7 months
Walking at 10
Running and climbing stairs at a year –
All on time -- with no delays
What great joy!



The gift of life without trauma
The joy of family life without rehabilitation

The Lord’s generous gift to me and my family:
the birth of Hope