O+L+G Feast Day Link Up

Welcome to the 2010 O+L+G feast-day link up!

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone has planned for this special feast day. Share with us your crafts, recipes, favorite books, prayers, or reflections on Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Use the linky tool at the bottom of this post to add your post to the link up. Linking will continue through December 15. This will allow us to share some ideas before the Feast Day and then report on our celebrations after.

Here is our “Guadalupe” story. Originally posted a couple of years ago, it explains our personal connection to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The first year we were married, way back in 1986, my Mom gave us a beautiful wooden carved statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is very special to us and has always held a very special place in our home. In 2002 we discovered how special we are to her.

After months of unemployment it was getting harder and harder for this family of eight to make ends meet. My husband lost his job right after 9-11 and things were bad all over. But, every month something would come through. An unexpected freelance job, or a gift from a friend or relative would get us through one more month. But how long could this go on?

One day in the summer of 2002, my husband was in the front of our house checking the mail and a lady pulled into our driveway. I’ll have to explain a few things. We live on a fairly busy street and never hang out in front, and our driveway is very large and folks are always using it to turn around. We also have a metal sign covering our mailbox on the curb and we post messages on it using magnetic letters. Our sign is well known and folks are always amazed when they meet us and find out we live in the house with the mailbox sign. My husband watches as the lady gets out of her car. “What does she want?” he wonders.

She introduces herself and begins to comment on how she always reads the sign when she passes by. After some chit chat she launches into the real reason for stopping. One rainy day, exactly one month previous, she was passing our house. There was a bit of traffic and cars were moving slowly. She glanced at our house and saw a very large, two-story, image of Our Lady of Guadalupe right in front of our house, tucked in between two very large fir trees. She kept going and thought, “Wow, they have a really big banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe!” She was on her way to adoration and couldn’t stop thinking about the “banner.” That evening, on her way home, she again passed our house. No, there was no banner.

Now, she can’t stop thinking about this vision. What was Our Lady trying to tell her? One evening she goes to a prayer group and tells the others what she saw. After some discussion, someone in the prayer group told her, “I don’t think she appeared for you, but for them, the people in that house.” She immediately knew it was true. But how would she tell them?

So, exactly one month after seeing Our Lady of Guadalupe, she was passing by our house and there was my husband. I wasn’t home, so they exchanged phone numbers. When I got home, he began to tell me the story. “She didn’t seem like a nut,” he said. The phone rang, it was her. She went through the entire story with me. Goosebumps, awe, wonder. I cried. Our prayers were being heard. Our Lady of Guadalupe was taking care of us.

The lady was manager at a nearby restaurant/bakery where each night, bags of bread are thrown away. She began bringing us these large bags of bread. We kept a lot of it and passed on what we didn’t need to other homeschool families. Homeschoolers are a hungry bunch. Even when the dad is employed, a big bag of bread is greatly appreciated. The bread exchange went on for years and helped us get through some very slim times.

We pray with confidence: Our Lady of Guadalupe, continue to watch over us.

Our celebrations plans:

We will have finished our novena Saturday evening. Since our celebrations always revolve around food, I’m planning to make a giant batch of hot tamales. I’ll be using a recipe for Manuel’s Hot Tamales from Cooking Up a Storm, one of my favorite New Orleans cookbooks. There will be a dessert of some kind — I’m waiting for some ideas, hint, hint! There will be a Guadalupe craft and lots of Guadalupe decorating. You’ll just have to wait for the pics!

Favorite O+L+G links:

• Truths of the Image is a beautiful site by the Knights of Columbus. Be sure to click through to the “Guadalupe Story,” an artistically presented historical timeline of everything relating to the apparition and the tilma.
• Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaCrosse, Wisconsin is open for virtual visits.
• Secrets of the Image is the corresponding website for the book Our Lady of Guadalupe — Mother of the Civilization of Love by Carl Anderson and Eduardo Chavez. Read my  review of this wonderful book.
• Our Lady of Guadalupe: Protectress of the Unborn by Father Paul Marx, Founder of Human Life International.
• Paper Dali has the complete Guadalupan cast of characters in paper dolls. These paper dolls are so much fun!
• Sancta, devoted to the Patroness of the Americas, has images to download, special prayers, and a nice page on the life of St. Juan Diego.
• Women for Faith & Family has several prayers to Our Lady of Guadalupe and celebration ideas for the family.
• Send a special Guadalupe e-card.

Who likes to color?

• Start with the original. Download and print free high res copies of the original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
• Paper Dali’s Guadalupan cast makes for excellent coloring pages as well as paper dolls.
• Waltzing Matilda has a beautiful OLG coloring page.
• Catholic Heritage Curricula has a free how-to-draw printable activity using Our Lady of Guadalupe.
• Loyola Press has another free printable coloring page of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
• This bold decal also makes a very nice coloring page.

Don’t forget to check back for updates and be sure to visit all the participating blogs!

Feast Day Update:

We began our Feast Day celebration last night with a Mexican dinner celebrating Isabel’s 18th birthday. Tamales and a black bean and corn casserole were followed by birthday cake and cheescake. The tamales were delicious, the casserole was okay.

Here is the tamale recipe. I substituted ground turkey for the ground beef.

Hot Tamales

Sauce:

• 1 (8ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1/4 tspn ground cumin
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• salt
• pepper

Tamales:

• 1 tspns garlic powder
• 2 tspns cayenne
• 1/2 tspn black pepper
• 4 tspns salt
• 1/2 cup chili powder
• 1 (8ounce) can tomato sauce
• 4 medium onions
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 tspm ground cumin
• 3 lbs ground beef
• 1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
• 100 tamale papers

For the sauce: Combine tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder, and salt and pepper to taste in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside.

For the tamales: Combine everything except meat and cornmeal in a food processor till onions are chopped fine. In a large mixing bowl, combine tomato/spice mixture with meat. Mix well by hand.

Spread cornmeal in a shallow dish. Soak tamale papers in large bowl of water.

Roll about 1 tablespoon of meat mixture into oblong shape, then roll it in the cornmeal, and wrap in tamale paper. Very similar to rolling grape leaves. Continue till all meat is rolled.

Stack tamales in large pot. I used 2 pots. Cover with water and pour your prepared sauce over the tamales. Cover and simmer for 2 hours. Add water as needed to keep tamales covered.

This fed 8 people with about half the tamales left over. Enjoy!

Here’s a glimpse at our dining table set up for the feast day. The rose colored banner hangs in our entry way always.

I rescued this quite large statue from, of all places, Wal-Mart! She also is always in our entryway. For this special day she is arrounded by poinsettias and some poinsettia christmas lights. She will stay this way throught the Christmas season.

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1. Catholic Icing 2. Catholic Icing 3. Familia Católica 4. My Little Flower 5. Forever, For Always, No Matter What 6. Gae @ Cherished Hearts At Home 7. Familia Católica 8. A Pilgrimage with Our Lady 9. OLOG Feast Day Resources 10. My Little Flower 11. Vee @ Paper Dali 12. A Tea in Honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe 13. Painted Dolls, Picture Books & Puzzles! 14. Celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe and Juan Diego 15. Family of the Vine 16. Gae @ Cherished Hearts At Home 17. JOYfilled family – a child’s connection 18. priest’s wife 19. My Little Flower 20. Feast for Our Lady 21. Messenger of Our Lady – FREEBIE 22. Reasons for Chocolate 23. Gae @ Cherished Hearts At Home 2010