New Saints to Help us in 2021

Happy New Year!

I have no grand illusions that 2021 is going to be drastically different or less crazy than 2020, but I do have hope that this new year can still be full of blessings and ever draw my family nearer to the Lord.

  

One way our family tries to draw nearer to God at the start of each new year is to draw a saint name for each person in our family.  We can call upon our special saint to intercede for us throughout the year, and try to learn more about that saint and strive to emulate their virtues.  We had 2 families join us this year for a New Year's celebration, and they also drew saint names, so that was fun to share our tradition with them.  We first learned of this tradition from the diary of St. Faustina because her convent had the beautiful tradition of drawing saint names each year.  

Here is our list of saints for 2021:

Paul:  St. Therese of Lisieux (I have to admit I'm a bit jealous that he got St. Therese because she is one of my favorite saints, but I'm glad my husband gets the opportunity to befriend her in a special way this year.)

Maria:  St. Elizabeth of Portugal (This St. Elizabeth was the niece of the more famous St. Elizabeth of Hungary.  She was a very pious queen who was given the nickname "Peacemaker" because she helped prevent a couple of wars within her family and miraculously kept peace in her marriage even though her husband was a shmuck---ie: unfaithful and had many illegitimate children.  Legend says that her faithfulness and piety eventually brought about his conversion towards the end of his life.  I can already tell she is more saintly than I'll ever be because I would have left the shmuck long before that!  I am quite sure that I have drawn this saint before, so perhaps God knows I need her intercession... Maybe she will help me stop judging all the shmucks in this world and help bring about their conversion instead?) :)  :)  :)

Joseph:  St. Ignatius of Loyola (This saint seems perfect for Joseph since both Joseph and Ignatius are goal-driven men who suffered injuries that slowed them down, changed their plans, and helped them grow in holiness.  Ignatius wanted to be a renowned soldier but got so wounded in battle that he had to give up that dream and spent his recovery time reading about the saints.  This eventually led him to his true calling of starting a religious order called the Society of Jesus.  Joseph also suffered an injury his senior year of high school that drastically changed his plans, but God used it to help him grow in holiness.  May St. Ignatius help Joseph to always keep his eyes fixed on Jesus and to trust that God's plans are always better than our own.)

Michael:  St. Valerian (This saint was a very early martyr of the Church and may have been the husband of St. Cecelia.  Legend says that St. Cecelia did not want to get married because she wanted to live a life of chastity, but her parents forced her betrothal to Valerian.  On their wedding night, St. Cecelia told Valerian that God wanted her to remain a pure virgin and that God sent an angel to protect her virginity.  Valerian asked to see the angel, but she told him he wouldn't be able to see it unless he became a Christian.  So Valerian met with a priest who explained the Christian faith to him in such a powerful way that he asked to be baptized.  He was then able to see the angel next to his pure wife and they both took a vow of chastity.  A short time later they were both martyred, along with Valerian's brother Tiburtius.  The head Roman executioner named Maximus was converted by the faith of these two martyr brothers, and he was martyred as well.  I pray that St. Valerian helps Michael become stronger in his faith and able to bravely share his faith with others like Valerian did).

Dominic:  St. Gabriel the Archangel (May this angelic saint, who is the great messenger from God in the Bible, help my son Dominic to be holy and to spread the message of the Gospel in our world that needs that message more than ever!)

Nathanael:  St. Prisca (This is a saint that I had to research because I had never heard of her.  She is one of the very early child martyrs of the church.  She was likely born to a Christian family during the reign of Claudius II and bravely refused to renounce her Christianity as a teenager.  One legend says that she was taken to the arena to be killed by lions, but the lions simply licked her feet.  But sadly, they beheaded her after the failed assasination-by-lion-attempt.  Legend tells us that after her martyrdom a giant eagle protected her body from scavengers until Christians came to give her a proper Christian burial.  I pray that Nathanael learns to stand up for his Catholic faith in all circumstances just like St. Prisca.)

Isaiah:  Joan of Arc (This young French peasant girl, who had visions of St. Michael, St. Margaret, and St. Catherine, who bravely went into battle as a teenager because she felt it was God's holy will, and who was unjustly condemned to death, is certainly going to be a powerful intercessor for our youngest son!  Isaiah already has Joan's simple yet profound faith in God.  May he become a saint like her and meet her face to face someday.)

Blessings on your New Year, and let me know if you want me to draw a saint name for you :)

Totus Tuus,

~Maria

when failure weighs heavy

Perfectionists like me take failure hard.  But it is good for us.  It keeps us humble.  It reminds us that only God is perfect.  And within the suffering of failure, there is merit (that is, if we remember to offer up the suffering and unite it to Jesus' suffering!) :)  I'm not so sure I always do so well at the offering it up part!  But this quote that I recently came across in St. Faustina's diary inspires me to not take failure so hard, because succeeding at a task is not what is important to God--it's the suffering, not the succeeding, that has merit!  How freeing that is!  Perhaps this quote will encourage all of you perfectionists out there too!

"It is not for the success of a work, but for the suffering, that I give reward." 

(Jesus' words to Faustina, diary entry #90)

And here's a real failure story for you too, in case it helps you feel better to know you're not alone in your failures... :)

Last summer I was inspired with an idea for our school's Kindergarten auction project.  I love to quilt, and my baby was going to be a Kindergartener, which meant I would have tons of free time to quilt since all of my kids would be in school.  So I offered to make a quilt using the school uniform fabric and the cute faces of the Kindergarteners printed on photo fabric.  I worked my buns off for 4 months, spending countless hours agonizing over every detail like a true perfectionist.  I followed the directions to the tee regarding the photo fabric because I had never made a photo quilt before.  I had fun but I was also very stressed out.  I finally finished it.  I washed it...  And I ruined it.  Yes, I ruined it in the wash.  I didn't even use any detergent!  The photo fabric was supposed to be "color-fast," but when I pulled it out of the wash the photos were faded and wrinkly.  It looked horrible.  There was nothing I could do.  I had to accept the experience as a teachable moment, an opportunity for humility, and move on with plan B for the auction quickly.  Thankfully, I was able to design and order an adorable fleece blanket from a company online using the cute Kindergartener's photos that I had taken, and it turned about beautifully!  It was not as awesome as I had planned, it was not a hand-made quilt using the cute uniform fabric, but it was still beautiful and snuggly and made the family that bought it happy (I hope).  And I trust that God had a reason for how things turned out, and that He used every ounce of my suffering for some good purpose.  (I'm not sure if I'll ever try to make a photo quilt again though...or ever offer to make an auction project.  There's only so much suffering that a perfectionist can take!)  :}  But all in all, it was a good experience for me.  It stretched me and reminded me to say "Praise the Lord anyway!" when things don't turn out the way I had hoped.  For  His ways are always perfect, and He will use our failures and sufferings for great good, even though we might not see it or understand it right away.

Here's a photo of the quilt prior to me ruining it in the wash...

And here's a picture of the cute blanket that became the final auction project:

New Year Musings, Resolutions, and More...

Wow, we are already 26 days into a New Year!  I love the beginning of a new year because it feels like a fresh start, kind of like going to the Sacrament of Confession, where you walk out of the confessional with renewed hope, a clean slate, and a desire to start over and make things better.

This year I made the resolution to try to pray both the rosary and the chaplet of Divine Mercy sometime throughout the day, and also to exercise for at least 20 minutes per day.  I try to do the rosary first thing in the morning, usually with my children when I drive them into school, and the chaplet I reserve for the 3:00 hour (the hour Jesus Himself said was the hour of mercy when He opens His heart to pour special graces on those who ask for them in memory of the hour in which he died for us).  Again, I pray this with my children if I'm the one who picks them up from school, or I do it by myself at home if Joseph brings the kids home.  It truly warms my mother's heart that even when Joseph is the one who takes the kids to and from school, they are in the habit of  praying the rosary and the chaplet to begin and end their school day.  If that's the only good habit I've taught my kids, then that is enough for me! :)

The year 2019 has certainly started less tumultuous than 2018 began.  2018 was our year that turned upside down when our son Dominic went to the hospital for a bone infection and came out of the hospital with a serious case of PTSD and recurring panic attacks.  He is still in counseling to manage his anxiety and panic attacks.  He has healed tremendously---but not completely.  The panic attacks now are rare, but still very real.  Perhaps this will be his lifelong cross, but I am hopeful that 2019 will bring much hope and healing for him.  I humbly ask for your continued prayers for him and our family.

2019 will be a big year for Joseph as he starts to look into colleges, take ACT and SAT tests, apply for scholarships, and discern his future.  I ask for your prayers upon him as well.

I am confident that the saints we picked (or did they pick us?) this year will help us grow in holiness too, so that is a consolation and a blessing.  I love being Catholic and having this opportunity to have holy intercessors to help us in our daily lives.  Here are our saints for 2019:

• Paul:  St. Christopher Magallanes (one of the martyred priests during the Cristeros War in the 1920s)
• Maria:  St. John the Baptist
• Joseph:  St. Bartholomew (one of the disciples, also knows as Nathanael in the gospels)
• Michael:  St. Benjamin (deacon and martyr in Persia in the 400s)
• Dominic:  St. Cunegundes (holy empress of Rome who gave most of her wealth to the poor and became a nun after King Henry's death)
• Nathanael:  St. Bernardine of Siena (joyful and enthusiastic Franciscan preacher of the 1400s)
• Isaiah:  St. Saturninus (bishop of France and early martyr of the Church)

I also pick a word of the year for myself, using a randomized word search on the internet, and this year my word is:
CARE.  I do feel that God is calling me to reach out more to other people, to be the hands and feet of Christ and show His loving "care" to all those He places in my life.  I hope, with His grace, to do better at that this year.  Perhaps God also gave me this word to remind me of how much He cares for me, even when I fail over and over again.  I have always struggled with believing that God loves me unconditionally and isn't disappointed in me for my sins and imperfections.  So this year I will try to adopt St. Therese's spirituality of having childlike trust in God's fatherly love and His infinite mercy for me and for the whole world.

Lastly, some of you might be encouraged by the January message from Medjugorje, which I thought was a beautiful call to holiness and conversion for the whole world for the new year.  May it touch your heart and may you and I spread this message through our words and actions this year:


January 25, 2019 message to Marija, one of the visionaries in Medjugorje:

"Dear children! Today, as a mother, I am calling you to conversion. This time is for you, little children, a time of silence and prayer. Therefore, in the warmth of your heart, may a grain of hope and faith grow and you, little children, will from day to day feel the need to pray more. Your life will become orderly and responsible. You will comprehend, little children, that you are passing here on earth and you will feel the need to be closer to God, and with love you will witness the experience of your encounter with God, which you will share with others. I am with you and am praying for you but I cannot without your 'yes'. Thank you for having responded to my call."​​

Happy Feast Day of St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta!

Here are 2 great quotes from St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta to help you choose JOY  and LOVE today!  :) 

For more great quotes, you can find her top 20 quotes here:  https://www.goalcast.com/2017/04/10/top-20-most-inspiring-mother-teresa-quotes/

"Joy is a net of love by which you catch souls."

"Spread love everywhere you go.  Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier."

~St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta~

New Year, New Saints, New Photos

Happy New Year everyone!  Our family has a fun New Year's tradition of picking patron saints instead of resolutions for the New Year, a tradition we borrowed from St. Faustina's convent.  I read about this tradition of picking a special saint to get to know and to ask for their special intercession throughout the year in The Diary of St. Faustina, and it has become a fun and meaningful tradition for our family.  Every day on our way to school we say a rosary, followed by each person calling out the name of their saint that they picked on New Year's day.  It never fails to make me smile when I hear my boys (especially the little ones with their sweet voices) call out their saint, and then we all say "Pray for us!"  It's a fun and holy way to start each day and to start our New Year.  Let me know if you'd like me to draw a name for you.

Here are the saint names we picked (or perhaps I should say God picked them for us because He knew we would need the intercession of this particular saint for a reason):

Paul:  St. Elphage
Maria:  St. Rita and St. Blaise (yes, I needed two saints...it's a long story)  :)
Joseph:  St. Bernard
Michael:  St. Apollonia
Dominic:  St. Gemma Galgani
Nathanael:  St. James the Greater
Isaiah:  St. George

I also have a personal tradition of picking out a "word" for the New Year to meditate on and try to live out during the year.  I think it was Ann Voskamp that got me started with this tradition.  I think that Ann prays for a special word to come to her in prayer or be revealed to her somehow, but this year I decided to use Jennifer Fulwiler's "word of the New Year generator" :)  You just click a button and a word is given to you!  Kinda fun :)  The reason I like it is because if I try to pray and think of the word that God wants to give me, I'm always over-analyzing and second-guessing myself to determine if this is really my word, or if I just thought of it myself and wanted that word subconsciously.  I know, I know.  I drive myself crazy with how I over-think everything...imagine how my poor husband must feel!  :}  So anyway, the word generator is a better choice for people like me, and here is my word of the year:

FALL

Yes, it's the word "Fall."  At first I was like, wait...what??? That word made no sense to me and I didn't like it.  And I was tempted to pick a new word...  But I stopped myself and tried to ponder what God might want me to embrace spiritually with this random word.  And the first thing that came to my mind was St. Therese.  I had recently read about how St. Therese tried not to ever get discouraged when she "fell" into a particular sin or weakness, but rather trusted like a child in her Father's mercy and simply asked Him to pick her back up again.  She trusted completely that He would run to her, pick her up, and quickly forgive her and keep loving her---no matter how many times she fell.  Just like a tiny child trying to climb up some stairs and falls over and over again, the daddy would keep picking the child up, encouraging her to try again, assuring her that he will always be there for her if she falls.  That's how it is with us in the spiritual life.  We keep trying to climb the stairway of perfection to please God, but we keep falling.  And God keeps picking us back up, encouraging us to try again, and is deeply pleased (not disappointed) when we ask Him for the graces we need to climb the stairs and the mercy we need when we fall (which is bound to happen to all of us no matter how hard we try).  So, with that analogy in mind, I think the word "fall" is perfect for my soul this year.  I have a tendency to easily get discouraged when I fall, beating myself up interiorly, worrying about how I must have disappointed the Lord, rather than trusting in His boundless mercy. 

So that's my goal for 2018: 
to TRUST in God's goodness and mercy when I FALL... 
and to NOT GET DISCOURAGED.  

Pray for me!  :)

And last, but not least, here are some new pictures of our wild and crazy family :)  We had a sweet photographer named Crystal Nance take our photos.  She did a great job and was so patient with us regarding scheduling conflicts, editing, etc.  The photos are a concrete reminder to me how quickly our kids are growing!  Joseph and Michael look like young men already, and even my baby looks so grown up (especially in the photo where he is standing with his hands in his pockets).  All the photos remind me just how blessed I am to have such a holy and handsome husband to provide for us, 5 holy, healthy, and handsome boys, and this gorgeous property to live on.  Thank you, God, for all these blessings and even the ones I do not see!

Saintly Celebration

Happy Belated All Saints Day!

Our crazy Catholic family continued our Halloween tradition of celebrating the saints with a bunch of our Catholic friends rather than trick-or-treating.  Once again it did not disappoint.  Unfortunately, I was too busy bouncing from game to game and visiting with friends the night of the party, that I kinda forgot to take pictures... Oops.  But at least I was able to capture a few of the highlights of our Fall fun these past couple of weeks...

Isaiah was daddy's big "helper" scooping the seeds out of his white pumpkin.

He didn't care too much for the messy work, but he was a great cheerleader! :)

Dominic had fun making a Christian fish symbol on his "Saint-O-Lantern"

Natey was proud to be able to carve his own pumpkin all by himself this year! 

He is getting so big!  He will turn 7 this week...GASP!

Isaiah--proud of his finished Saint-O-Lantern!

He is ready to put a candle inside to see how cool it looks with light shining from within...

Oooooh.

They all look so pretty with candles inside.

A good reminder for us to let our inner-light (the Holy Spirit) shine for this dark world to see!

Dominic was the bravest boy dealing with the messy pulp.

It is a messy job...but so worth it once they are cooked with salt and butter...YUM!

I also tried a recipe this year with cinnamon and sugar, but I think our family still preferred the traditional salty recipe.

Another big event last week was Nathanael's All Saints program at school.

All the kids dressed up as a favorite saint and had to give a short speech about their saint.

After the speeches, the whole class sang a saint song.

Here is Natey (oops, I mean St. Juan Diego) with his amigo St. Sebastian.

Saints Padre Pio, Juan Diego, and John Paul II.

(Our two older saints must have been bi-locating or levitating at the time of this photo) :)

Padre Pio looks like he's up to something.

JPII looks like he must be thinking of serious church matters.

Juan Diego looks muy sweeto y santo.

Our Lady with her sweet Juanito.

Padre Pio sure seems to be handling the stigmata well.

I wish I could learn to "offer up my suffering" with a smile :)

A handsome AND holy pope :)

Natey and Dominic re-enacting the story of Juan Diego meeting the bishop.

Kids playing the "St. Therese game" where they drop roses from heaven.

The pinata at the end of the evening is always the biggest "hit" :)

There was plenty of candy for everyone, and hopefully fun had by all!

Although for me, what was sweeter than candy 

was praying and singing with our friends around the campfire.  

We will definitely keep that as part of our annual tradition from now on.  

I was thankful for nice weather the day of our party...  

The day after our party the snow began to fall.

We got 6 to 10 inches!!!  

What St. Joseph, Spring, and my spouse all have in common...

What do St. Joseph, the 1st day of Spring, and my sweet spouse all have in common?
...I'm thankful for all three of them!!! :)

Today I am feeling grateful for my Catholic faith...  To have holy friends like St. Joseph to intercede for us, helping us in all our needs, and ultimately helping us to join them in heaven someday.  I am also feeling grateful for a holy husband who strives to imitate St. Joseph.  A husband who loves Jesus and His Blessed Mother, who has always protected my purity, guarded our family from evil, and guided us towards holiness---not perfectly, but certainly perseveringly---and that's what counts.

Thank you, God, for holy St. Joseph and my holy husband, Paul!
And thank you, God, for Spring weather!
How good it feels to be outdoors with sunshine on my face again!

This prayer is among the earliest prayers to St. Joseph, (from around A.D. 50!!!) and also one of the best known.  Let's pray it together for the special intentions we hold deep in our hearts, and also for all the men in our lives, that they become more like St. Joseph, strong and holy leaders of their families!  We certainly need more men like St. Joseph in this world!

Oh St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.

Oh St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your divine son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, our Lord; so that having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

Oh St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while he reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss his fine head for me, and ask him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for us. Amen

Happy Feast of St. Joseph, 

and Happy first day of Spring!

  Both are worth celebrating!  

It's a Feast Day, 

so go ahead and feast a little bit!!!  :)

Special Feast Days Call For Special Recipes

This weekend is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes, our heavenly mother who is the patron saint of all those suffering from illness of any kind.  I believe that through her powerful intercession, we can confidently place into her hands all of our intentions and all of our illnesses of body, mind, or soul, trusting that she will bring them to her Son, the Divine Physician, for miraculous healing.  The love that radiated from Our Lady’s face when she appeared to St. Bernadette caused the French maiden to cry tears of joy. May Our Lady wrap all of us in that same radiant love, so that we, too, may experience tears of joy and be open to all of the healing graces God wants to pour into our hearts today—and every day.

Awhile back, I was asked to write an article about the story of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette.  So, on this special feast day, I will share the story with you, for I believe it can still can speak to our hearts in the 21st century if we take time to ponder its message.

Bernadette Soubirous was a 14-year-old girl of poor health, poor status, and poor education when her ordinary life was touched by the extraordinary.  Bernadette lived in Lourdes, France and had a difficult childhood.  Her family was so poor that they were forced to live in the town's damp and abandoned prison, which the townsfolk fittingly nicknamed "The Dungeon."  Her father, Francois, lost his job as the town miller and spent most of his life doing odd jobs that did not pay well.  This meant that Louise, Bernadette's mother, had to work extra hard to support her 4 children, and Bernadette, as the oldest child, did much of the work raising her younger siblings while her parents tried to make ends meet.  During these difficult times, it is said that Bernadette served joyfully and obediently, rather than focusing on her own woes.  

On February 11, 1858, while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend, "the beautiful lady," as Bernadette called Our Lady for many months, first appeared to her in the rocky grotto called Massabielle.  She was dressed in a shining white gown with a blue sash around her waist and two yellow roses resting upon her bare feet.  It is interesting to note that this grotto was once a pagan worship site, and later, it was the town’s landfill!   Why would God choose such a spot for His heavenly mother to appear? Perhaps the appearance of the sinless Blessed Virgin at that spot would remind people that “God can make all things new,” that His merciful love, and that of His mother's, can remove the idols in our life and transform the garbage in our souls into something beautiful and holy.

Surprisingly, it was not until the 16^th apparition that “the beautiful lady” finally told Bernadette who she was, saying: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”  Bernadette was not well educated, nor well catechized; she had never heard the phrase before and knew not what it meant, which helped convince the local priest that she was telling the truth.  In fact, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception had only been declared 4 years prior, and it was not a title known by most Catholics at the time, but it certainly became well-known after these heavenly visitations in Lourdes.

On the 9th apparition, Our Lady requested that Bernadette eat some of the grass growing in the grotto and to wash in the spring.  Bernadette obeyed without question.  However, there was no spring nearby, so she began to dig where the Blessed Mother indicated the spring should be.  A puddle of muddy water appeared, and Bernadette rubbed the mud all over her face, causing the hundreds of spectators to laugh and conclude that she was crazy.  Their opinion quickly changed, however, when the muddy puddle turned into a flowing spring, which continues to flow today and has caused many miraculous cures.

After Bernadette's 18^th—and final—apparition, Bernadette chose the hidden life of the convent.  During one apparition Our Lady had told Bernadette:  “I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next.”  These words came true for Bernadette.  Her young life, both before and after the apparitions, was filled with hardship.  Many of the nuns in her convent treated her harshly for a variety of reasons:  some did not believe that Bernadette saw the Blessed Virgin, some were simply jealous of her for receiving such a special grace, and some felt they needed to protect her from vainglory.  Bernadette carried the heavy cross of their cruelty with sublime patience and humility.  She was also given the cross of a cancerous tumor on her knee.  She suffered so serenely that her fellow nuns did not think she was very ill.  One day, a nun who came to visit her asked her unkindly, "What are you doing in bed, you lazy little thing?” Bernadette's reply was, "I am doing my job.  I must be a victim."  She accepted suffering as God’s will for her—her “job”—and she trusted that He would use it for the good of her soul or the souls of others.  As she lay dying in her bed, Bernadette pressed a crucifix to her chest and cried, "All this is good for Heaven!"   Love is what gave her the strength to do her “job” so joyfully, as she beautifully explained:  “I will spend every moment loving.  For one who loves does not notice her trials, or perhaps more accurately, she learns to love them.”  Bernadette’s last words were, "Blessed Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, a poor sinner, a poor sinner!"  How happy she must have been to see “the beautiful lady" again, this time welcoming her to heaven, fulfilling the promise that she would finally find true happiness.  She died at age 35, and when her body was exhumed many years later, it was found to be perfectly incorrupt.

St. Bernadette’s story still has so much to teach us Catholic women today.  Even though she had the honor of Our Lady appearing to her, her “job” was to suffer for the salvation of souls.  Her story reminds us to ask ourselves, what is our “job,” what is God calling us to do for His Kingdom?  Perhaps your “job” is to offer up the mundane duty of changing dirty diapers…  Perhaps it is to serenely suffer a physical illness to save souls like St. Bernadette…  Perhaps it is to show forgiveness and unconditional love to your spouse to show the world what true Christ-like love looks like.  Perhaps it is to plant seeds of God’s love at your workplace and get ridiculed for it.  Yes, perhaps the “jobs” that God gives us might cause us some suffering, but by uniting our pain with Jesus’ Passion, we will grow closer to Him and perhaps save a soul or two like our little saint from Lourdes.  So, whatever your “job” is, ask St. Bernadette to intercede for you to help you live it out with courage and love like she did, all for the greater glory of God!  

Here is a fun recipe to make for the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes to remind you of the beautiful roses that rested upon Our Lady's feet when she appeared to St. Bernadette.  I try to make these on most of the Marian Feast days, as well as on St. Elizabeth's Feast Day and St. Therese.  Our family loves them, and I hope yours does too!

Sweet Roll Dough

1 pkg. dry yeast
½ c. warm water
1/2 c. lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)
1/3 c. butter, margarine or shortening
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
3 ½ to 4 c. flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in milk sugar, butter, salt, egg, and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place until double, about 1 ½ hours.

Cinnamon Filling
2 T. butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. cinnamon 

Mix until all sugar and cinnamon is moistened. 

Make 4 small balls (golf ball size) of dough and roll them out into 3 1/2 inch diameter circles. Overlap dough circles as shown. Sprinkle some of the cinnamon sugar mixture across middle, leaving curved edges clear. 

Roll circles up into rolls as shown. You should end up with rolled dough with both ends fluted. Cut roll in half. 

Place dough in greased muffin tins. Cut/flat end should be down and the pretty, fluted/curved end up. 

Let rise until double (30-40 minutes). Bake in 350 degree oven 12-15 minutes. 

I found this recipe at the Catholic Cuisine website:  http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2015/07/st-elizabeth-rose-bread.html

Saints and Resolutions for 2017

Our family is continuing the tradition of choosing a patron saint to be our special intercessor for the new year.   A friend of mine who has a special devotion to St. Faustina first told me about this beautiful tradition a few years ago when she shared the following excerpt from Faustina's diary:

"Jesus likes to intervene in the smallest details of our life, and He often fulfills secret wishes of mine that I sometimes hide from Him, although I know that from Him nothing can be hidden.  There is a custom among [the sisters in our convent] of drawing by lot, on New Year's Day, for special patrons for ourselves for the whole year.  In the morning during meditation, there arose within me a secret desire that the Eucharistic Jesus be my special patron for this year also, as in the past.  But hiding this desire from my Beloved, I spoke to Him about everything else but that.  When the sisters gathered for breakfast, we blessed ourselves and began drawing our patrons.  When I approached the holy cards on which the names of the patrons were written, without hesitation I took one, but I didn't read the name immediately as I wanted to mortify myself for a few minutes.  Suddenly, I heard a voice in my soul:  I am your patron.  Read.  I looked at once at the inscription and read, "Patron for the Year 1935--the most Blessed Eucharist."  My heart lept with joy, and I slipped quietly away from the sisters and went for a short visit before the Blessed Sacrament, where I poured out my heart.  (entry 360)


So, here are the saints God chose for us this year:

Paul:  St. Aloysius Gonzaga
Maria:  St. Elizabeth of Portugal
Joseph:  St. Bernadino Realino
Michael:  St. Barbara
Dominic:  St. Charles Lwagna
Nathanael:  St. Anthony
Isaiah:  St. Juan Diego

All you holy saints...pray for us!  Pray that our family grows closer to Jesus this year and helps others to do so too!

I have also continued the tradition that I learned from Ann Voskamp to pray for a "word" to be my New Year's resolution---a word that the Lord wants me to adopt as my motto for the year to help draw me closer to His heart.  So on New Year's Day we went to Mass and I asked the Lord what word He was placing on my heart, and the word that popped into my head was "Peace."  But I wasn't totally sure (because I'm scrupulous and second-guess everything), so I kept searching for another sign for confirmation.  As I listened to the Mass readings, I head the familiar words that my parents used to pray over me as they tucked me in bed at night,  "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord let His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord look upon you with kindness and give you PEACE."  There it was again!  The Lord wants to give me the peace this year that I so desperately desire.  Peace like a child being tucked in by her loving parents, secure in being loved and taken care of.  Peace that I have somehow lost as I have let the world's worries distract my childlike trust that I once had.  I pray that the Holy Spirit will help me find that peace again this year and help me to focus on what is true:   that I can be at peace in ALL circumstances because I am still very much loved and being taken care of by a trustworthy God.

Let me know if you want me and my kids to draw a saint name for you!  :)  Just reply to this post or send me an email (pmhurlbert@gmail.com).

St. Gertrude the Great's Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

The month of November is dedicated to the memory of the Holy Souls, and their feast day is today, (November 2nd.) Tradition holds that St. Gertrude the Great was told by Our Lord that the prayer below, when piously recited, would release 1,000 souls from purgatory. St. Gertrude the Great was a 13th century German nun, writer, and mystic who was graced with many heavenly visions, and it is recounted that Jesus showed her a vast number of souls entering heaven from purgatory as a result of her faithful recitation of this prayer.

I would like to try to memorize this prayer and include it in my daily prayers during November, but at the very least, I will pray it today and perhaps some of you would like to as well for your departed family members or friends.

 “Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, for those in my own home and in my family. Amen.”

Celebrating All the Saints

Happy Feast of the Eve of the Holy Day, or Happy Halloween!  

We continued our tradition of focusing on the saints rather than the secular by having an All Saints Day party with our saintliest friends :)  Actually, all of us in attendance were big sinners, but thankfully we have a God Who is big on mercy!  And that's what our party is all about...remembering the lives of sinners turned into saints through God's mercy, and praying that we too can follow in their footsteps and join them in heaven someday.  As Pope Francis says,

"To be saints is not a privilege for the few,

but a vocation for everyone." 

Here are the highlights from the party:

St. Michael the Archangel eating roasted pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin seeds roasted with butter, garlic salt, and seasoning salt are one of my favorite traditions of this time of the year...yum.

Our three littlest saints:

Isaiah as St. Michael

Nathanael as St. Padre Pio

Dominic as St. Pope John Paul II

Our saint-o-lanterns...

The big boys didn't dress up this year, but they helped us carve the saint-o-lanterns,

and they also helped with the party games.

My friend Marika made this JPII costume and gave it to us when her son grew out of it.

It's probably the best saint costume we've ever had...

Thank you, Marika!

This shows one of the new saint games we did this year...

I explained to the kids the words of St. Paul in the Bible that to become a saint you have to

run the race and persevere to the end, even when life gets hard.

Then my son Joseph led the kids on a race around our property...

...The kids had to through some rocks...

...and then climb over some logs and to the top of the biggest boulders on our property where they were rewarded with some candy.  I can't wait to see the prize that awaits each of us after we finish our earthly race and reach heaven at last!

We also played some indoor games like "Throw the halo around the saint"...

...and "The St. Therese game" where the kids had to drop roses from heaven (just like St. Therese continues to do) and get them to land in the basket with St. Therese's picture in it.

As always, the grand finale was the pinata.

We start with the littlest saints...

...even the angels like to battle the pinata...

...and the saintly little girls were some of the best sluggers...

...But St. Benedict gets the prize for breaking the pinata open.

There was plenty of candy for all the little saints

so that I don't think any of them will miss trick-or-treating too much.

But, no matter how you celebrate this week,

I pray that you take a moment to remember the holy saints 

who have given us such great examples to follow

and who will intercede for us to help us run the race well!