It’s Movie Time! Here's what we're watching, but just because it's here, doesn't always mean it was good!
Prayer for the beatification and canonization of John Paul II
God our Father, you reward all who believe in you. May your servant, John Paul our Pope, vicar of Peter and Shepherd of your Church, who faithfully administered the mysteries of your forgiveness and love on earth, rejoice with you for ever in heaven. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen!
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July 2nd, 2009
Let’s get patriotic!
For the adults:
What’s Right With America
My top ten list of patriotic movies.
For the kids:
Cut a five-pointed star in one snip. Even I had fun with this one!!
American flag timeline from 1776 to 2007 with images and brief historical notes.
Make this cool parade stick to wave and enjoy, parade or not.
Try this patriotic windsock. For a smaller variation, we have used toilet paper rolls and ribbons or crepe paper instead of the stiffer construction paper. Another variation is to add a pointed top to your windsock to turn it into a patriotic rocket.
Coloring pages:
American flag
Fireworks
Revolutionary War
Have fun and Happy 4th!
July 1st, 2009
For what it’s worth, here are my top ten patriotic movies for celebrating the Fourth of July:
The Patriot
Yankee Doodle Dandy
We Were Soldiers
Rocky
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Independence Day
The Music Man
The Right Stuff
Oklahoma!
Operation Petticoat
Now, what’s your favorite? If it’s not on the list, leave it as a comment below.
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July 1st, 2009
Signs & Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols
by Mike Aquilina
illustrated by Lea Marie Ravotti
Our Sunday Visitor ©2008
ISBN 978-1-59276-450-1
The early Christian Church survived hostility and persecution by using a variety of symbols to share their beliefs and stealthly decorate their tombs and places of worship. Simple, yet very special, these artistic creations became a symbolic language that was a silent witness to the faith of our early Christian ancestors.
Our key to understanding the early-Christian use of symbols can be summed up in a single word: typology.
Typology is the discernment of “typical” patterns of God’s activity throughout salvation history.
In Signs & Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols, Aquilina presents in-depth analysis of 25 ancient Christian symbols:
Fish • Orant • Shepherd • Vine • Philosopher • Phoenix • Dolphin • Peacock • Milk • Lamp • Moses • Plow • Vessels • Lamb • Dove • Bread and Sheaves • Crown • Banquet • Lighthouse • Ankh • Cross • Anchor • Ships and Boats • Labarum (Chi-Rho) • Alpha and Omega
By referencing ancient and modern Church documents, he explains the connection between pagan, Jewish, and Christian symbols.
A symbology is a system of symbols, a kind of language. And a language, even a visual language. sets a kind of boundary for a people or a nation. It includes the natives (baptized) and excludes the aliens (pagans). Recovering a common Christian language, we can recover a sense of the nearness or our ancestors, the immediacy of the family we call the Communion of Saints.
This is a beautiful little book. The design, typography, and illustrations are exquisite, light, and graceful. However, it is not light reading. To fully comprehend the meaning of each symbol, take it one chapter at a time. An understanding of these ancient symbols will bring us closer to our Christian roots, and in turn, closer to our Risen Lord.
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 Signs and Mysteries.
July 1st, 2009
General: That the Christians of the Middle East may live their faith in full freedom and be an instrument of peace and reconciliation.
Mission: That the Church may be the seed and nucleus of a humanity reconciled and reunited in God’s one and only family, thanks to the testimony of all the faithful in every country in the world.
June 30th, 2009
Catholic Culture is holding a nine-day novena of rosaries, July 2 to July 10, for the intention that President Obama be profoundly influenced by his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI on July 10, 2009.
Sign up for a time slot.
June 29th, 2009
Today is the double Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. It is also the close of the Pauline Year.
Visit EWTN to learn more about these two great saints:
Almighty God, whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul glorified you by their martyrdom: Grant that your Church, instructed by their teaching and example, and knit together in unity by your Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one foundation, which is Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
June 27th, 2009
Monday is the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, and the last day of the Pauline Year. It is also a very special day for 34 new Archbishops. So, I share with you Pallium — taken from the tomb of St. Peter.
Be sure to check out all the great Catholic blog posts at this week’s Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival.
Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival is a weekly opportunity to share our best posts with the wider Catholic blogging community. To participate, create a post on your blog titled Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival. In that post, highlight and link to one or more of your posts from this week and provide a link to this post. Then go to the host blog and use Mr. Linky to link to your post.
June 26th, 2009
Thursday was Ida’s 19th birthday! Say, cheesecake!
June 26th, 2009
Monday is the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, and the last day of the Pauline Year. It is also a very special day for 34 new Archbishops, including our own Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, who will be in Rome to receive the pallium from Pope Benedict XVI.
According to the Ceremonial of Bishops:
An Archbishop’s PALLIUM is a symbol of unity and a token of communion with the Apostolic See. When conferring the pallium, the words of the Holy Father will be: “As a symbol of your authority as metropolitan archbishop, we confer on you the pallium, taken from the tomb of Peter to wear within the limits of your ecclesiastical province. May this pallium be a symbol of unity and a sign of your communion with the Apostolic See, a bond of love, and an incentive to courage. On the day of the coming and manifestation of our great God and chief shepherd, Jesus Christ, may you and the flock entrusted to you be clothed in immortality and glory.
Fish Eaters has a great page explaining liturgical vestments including the the various items of special significance to bishops.
On Monday, June 29, the St. Louis Review will provide daily coverage of Archbishop Carlson’s reception of the pallium.
EWTN will broadcast the Pallium Mass live, on-air and online, at 3 a.m. CDT and a rebroadcast at 10 a.m. CDT.
Show here is the back of the prayer card being distributed at Archbishop Carlson’s Regional Masses. The Pauline Year now comes to a close and the Year of the Priest has already begun. Let us pray for all our new shepherds.
June 25th, 2009
Over a year ago, I read a very interesting article in Smithsonian magazine on the Ark of the Covenant. Keepers of the Lost Ark? reported that Christians in Ethiopia have lthe ark of the covenant.
World Net Daily reported this week:
The patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia says he will announce to the world Friday the unveiling of the Ark of the Covenant, perhaps the world’s most prized archaeological and spiritual artifact, which he says has been hidden away in a church in his country for millennia, according to the Italian news agency Adnkronos.
Abuna Pauolos, in Italy for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI this week, told the news agency, “Soon the world will be able to admire the Ark of the Covenant described in the Bible as the container of the tablets of the law that God delivered to Moses and the center of searches and studies
for centuries.”
read ‘Ark of the Covenant’ about to be unveiled?
IsraelNationalNews.com reports: Ethiopian Church Leader to Announce Holy-Ark Unveiling
UPDATE 6-27-2009: This looked like good info when I posted it, but 3 days later there has been no recorded announcement by the patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia, and no news from the Vatican. C’est la vie!
June 23rd, 2009
This is from Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life:
Year for Priests: Join Our Spiritual Bouquet and Tell Us Your Stories
Pope Benedict XVI has declared a “Year for Priests” which began on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 19, 2009 and concludes on June 19, 2010.
At Priests for Life, we focus on how priests are, by definition, heralds of the Gospel of Life. By saying mass, the priest brings us the victory of life over death. He carries out his ministry in the person of Christ, who is the Resurrection and the Life. The priest teaches the way of life that gives priority to the poor and vulnerable – and none are more vulnerable than the unborn. The priest is called to mobilize and lead the faithful to work to build the Culture of Life. In the sacrament of Penance, the priest heals the wounds of the culture of death.
Priests need our prayers and encouragement each day. Now you can assure them that they have yours, so they can be strong and faithful. We are preparing a massive spiritual bouquet, to be presented this Fall to all the priests in the country. We invite you to use the form below to indicate what prayers and sacrifices you will be able to make for them.
We also invite you to share a story with us about a Priest that has been important in your life. Let us know how he has encouraged you or been a blessing in your life or the lives of your loved ones.
Following are some suggested spiritual bouquets you can offer the priests of the country:
- A specific number of rosaries, chaplets, holy hours, or Masses;
- A specific number of days of fasting or abstaining from some particular food or activity;
- An offering of the sufferings or sacrifices you make in your daily life or work, for a particular week or month or other period of time;
- An offering of the merits of a particular type of charitable or apostolic work that you perfom.
Thank you for your support!
Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life
June 21st, 2009
Go outside and play, and have a Happy Father’s Day!
June 21st, 2009
I would like to share three posts with you this week:
Be sure to check out all the great Catholic blog posts at this week’s Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival.
Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival is a weekly opportunity to share our best posts with the wider Catholic blogging community. To participate, create a post on your blog titled Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival. In that post, highlight and link to one or more of your posts from this week and provide a link to this post. Then go to the host blog and use Mr. Linky to link to your post.
June 20th, 2009
In this Jubilee Year of the Priest, I will be praying for all priests, but I also I plan to remember in my prayers several priests who have touched my life and family in very special ways and are no longer with us. They are:
Rev. Bernard Tonnar, S.J. — 1912-1996
Fr. Tonnnar was a close friend of our family. He baptized me, was my math professor in college, and concelebrated at our wedding. He also baptized Isabel, heard Ria’s first confession, and gave her First Holy Communion.
Rev. Michael Alchediak, S.J. — ?-1994
I met Fr. Mike while still in college. He needed a designer for some Jesuit publications and I got the job. Fr. Mike was the main celebrant at our wedding, and was charitable enough to hear our confessions — and it had been a very long time — the day before our wedding. He set us on a good course.
Rev. Kevin D. Horrigan — ?-2004
In addition to his many other duties, Fr. Horrigan served as the first Spiritual Director of the St. Louis Catholic Homeschool Association. At a 2002 mothers’ meeting, Fr. Horrigan told us, “Homeschoolers are the future of the Church and from you will come the bulk of future vocations. This is precisely because you are imparting the faith to your children – that is your vocation!”
Rev. John H. Miller, C.S.C., S.T.D. — 1925-2006
Fr. Miller hired me to redesign the Social Justice Review website. I was hired based on the recommendation of a Carmelite sister, but mainly because I was a “New Orleans girl.” That was enough for him and we were instantly connected.
Rev. John Quilligan — ?-2008
We met Fr. Quilligan in 1995 when we were moving to St. Louis from New Orleans. He was the pastor at my Dad’s church – the one my Dad had never been to. There was a reason we met. Six months later when my Dad was dying, I called on Fr. Quilligan. It was Fr. Quiliigan who brought my Dad back to the Church, and just in the knick of time. We kept in touch with Christmas cards, and this year we found out Fr. Quilligan had passed away.
Another memorable quote from Fr. Horrigan on the 2002 Feast of All Souls:
It is a privilege as well as an obligation to remember and pray for those who have gone before us, those to whom we owe so much. If our prayers are efficacious, they are freed from Purgatory, they gain heaven and will intercede for us. This is a marvelous act of charity as well as an act of reparation for our sins. Do so daily and God will reward you a hundred-fold.
With that quote in mind, I ask you to join me during this Year of Priests in remembering and praying for our deceased priests:
O God, Thou didst raise Thy servant, N., to the sacred priesthood of Jesus Christ, according to the Order of Melchisedech, giving him the sublime power to offer the Eternal Sacrifice, to bring the Body and Blood of Thy Son Jesus Christ down upon the altar, and to absolve the sins of men in Thine own Holy Name. We beseech Thee to reward his faithfulness and to forget his faults, admitting him speedily into Thy Holy Presence, there to enjoy forever the recompense of his labors. This we ask through Jesus Christ Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
June 20th, 2009
Do you have a Wonder Kid? We have six. This is the story of a father who learns to temper discipline with love. It is written by my husband.
Happy Father’s Day!
June 19th, 2009
The Year of the Priest logo, when printed, makes an excellent coloring page for today’s Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Today is also the opening of the Year of the Priest, so its appropriate on all levels. Enjoy!
June 19th, 2009
Today, on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we begin the Year of the Priest. World Day of Prayer for Priests has planned four Masses that will be celebrated at 3 p.m. local time in each of four different time zones. Masses will be celebrated in Sydney, Austrailia; Kerela, India; Knock Shrine, Ireland; and New York City.
The World Day of Prayer for Priests web site is produced by a group of committed Catholic Communication /Advertising laypeople. It is their prayer that this site will facilitate the World Day of Prayer for Priests, and serve as a gateway to a deeper understanding of the priesthood of Christ as exercised by our priests, a priesthood in which, by virtue of our baptism, we all share.
The site features prayers for priests, a children’s section, and even e-cards to send to your favorite priests.
World Day of Prayer for Priests will be added to my Links for the Year of the Priest.
Letter of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Proclaiming a Year for Priests on the 150th Anniversary of the death of Saint John Vianney, the Curé of Ars.
Dear Brother Priests,
On the forthcoming Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Friday 19 June 2009 – a day traditionally devoted to prayer for the sanctification of the clergy –, I have decided to inaugurate a “Year for Priests” in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the “dies natalis” of John Mary Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests worldwide. This Year, meant to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a more forceful and incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world, will conclude on the same Solemnity in 2010. The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus”, the saintly Curé of Ars would often say. This touching expression makes us reflect, first of all, with heartfelt gratitude on the immense gift which priests represent, not only for the Church, but also for humanity itself. I think of all those priests who quietly present Christ’s words and actions each day to the faithful and to the whole world, striving to be one with the Lord in their thoughts and their will, their sentiments and their style of life. How can I not pay tribute to their apostolic labours, their tireless and hidden service, their universal charity? And how can I not praise the courageous fidelity of so many priests who, even amid difficulties and incomprehension, remain faithful to their vocation as “friends of Christ”, whom he has called by name, chosen and sent?
Read Pope Benedict’s letter in its entirety.
June 18th, 2009
Our most favorite neighborhood restaurant is closing on Saturday.
Casablance is located in Bridgeton on Lindbergh. It has been there forever.
Proprietors, Sue and Abby, are usually there to welcome you, but only till Saturday, when Casablanca closes its doors forever.
We don’t even need a menu as we always order the gyros with fries. Best in town!
We all went last week and again tonight. My oldest daughter will try to get there tomorrow and my husband will be there wth a buddy of his. We’re really going to miss Casablanca!
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July - Month of the Precious Blood Welcome to ThankEvann's Homeschool Goodies! Although this site does contain links to secular sites, it is the webmaster's goal to provide homeschool information that is faithful to our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI and his successors, to all bishops in union with him, and to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
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