Hands on Activity for Feast of the Sacred Heart

I've been brainstorming a hands-on way to teach my daughter about the Sacred Heart devotion. Although we could just read Father Lovasik's excellent book "The Promises of the Sacred Heart," I wanted to do a bit more.  So I dug around in my craft cabinet and found these items:

Small plastic heart boxes (purchased last February from my Dollar Tree), pink and red construction paper, and glue glitter pens in red, pink and gold, black permanent marker (not shown).

I decided to use the little boxes as a way to teach my daughter about the 12 promises.  I cut out little paper hearts that would fit inside the boxes.

Using Father Lovasik's book as a guide, I wrote a promise on each of the paper hearts.

Then I tucked each one inside a plastic heart box.

I took the cover of each box and wrote a corresponding number on it with a gold glitter glue pen.

I now have 12 boxes, each with one of the promises of the Sacred Heart.

How we will use the plastic hearts:
I will have my daughter select the heart with the "1" on it and open it. Inside, she will read the brief passage about the applicable promise (a great way to encourage her to read).  I will then turn to the matching page in the Father Lovasik book and read his meditation/prayer.  We can discuss each one, if she wishes, or just spend some time in silent prayer after the meditation.

We will be using these over the next few days in preparation for the Feast of the Sacred Heart (Sunday, July 1).  Can't wait to start!

Now you have a reason to buy those adorable plastic heart boxes at the Dollar Tree next February!

Favorite Find: Feast Day Learning Boxes

I've been fascinated by the Orthodox Christian faith since 2006, when my husband and I were in St. Petersburg, Russia on one of  trips to adopt our Russian daughter.  While there, we visited several Russian Orthodox churches and were able to experience Divine Liturgy.  The incense, the bells, the chanting and the reverence reminded me of my childhood Roman Catholic Church. Our pastor, Monsignor Lapinski, was slow to adapt to the changes of Vatican II, so I grew up with many of the church's older traditions. Church was an "other worldly" place; almost like a touch of heaven on earth.  You could not find that environment or ambiance anywhere else. The sole purpose of the Mass was to worship and glorify God, not to be entertained or amused or even "fed." (Not that there is anything wrong with being "fed" by the Word of God, but it seems that many people have lost their way -- they are most worried about what they will get out of Mass, not what they can give to God.)

The beauty of the Orthodox church and the reverence of the Divine Liturgy really touched my soul.  I decided that although we would raise our daughter as a Roman Catholic, I would try to expose her to the Orthodox faith occasionally.  It only seems right, since she spent her toddler years in a children's home sponsored by the Russian Orthodox church, and she was baptized in the Russian Orthodox faith.

Several months ago I discovered The Crafty Contemplative blog. Written by an Orthodox woman named Amy, the blog gives a wonderful insight into some of the feasts and traditions of the Orthodox faith. It's interesting to compare the similarities and differences between our two faiths.

I also discovered that Amy has a side business called Orthodox Christian Craft Supply. She specializes in "hands on learning for all ages."  She has put together a variety of inexpensive craft kits to help kids learn about their Orthodox faith.  (For my Roman Catholic friends: many of these can be adapted!) 

I purchased three of her "learning boxes" for these feast days: Ascension, Pentecost and the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.  Thought I'd share a bit about the Saints. Peter and Paul box since their feast day is celebrated tomorrow (Wednesday, June 29).

Basically, the learning box includes a study guide and craft materials to make several different hands on projects related to the items in the study guide.  Amy's kits are wonderful -- they include everything you will need for the projects, except glue.  Each project is packaged in its own little plastic bag, too.  No need to sort through the materials and figure out which items go with which projects!  Here are some pictures of the Saints Peter and Paul kit contents:

Can you believe this kit only cost $8?  It would cost me alot more if I had to run around town to find all the components myself.  

The Saints Peter and Paul box has five different projects.  Each project is specifically detailed in the included study guide. The study guide gives you a Sacred Scripture passage to read with your children, then a meditation, then simple instructions for completing the related craft project. The five projects in the Saints Peter and Paul learning box include:

Project 1: Saints Peter and Paul -- read passages in Luke about Peter, then create little figures of the saints with the included wooden pegs.

Project 2: Rooster -- read about Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, then create a miniature 3-D rooster picture

Project 3: Great Light -- read about the early church in Corinthians then create a small sun

Project 4: Scroll -- discover how we can learn more about God in the Scriptures and create a small scroll

Project 5: Church -- create a small wooden church. (The church is an Orthodox one with the signature onion dome, but I think it could be adapted.) 

All of the completed items can be stored in the box, which can be used at home (perhaps on a home altar or in a prayer corner?).  Alternatively, the box is easy to transport to church, to keep little ones occupied in an appropriate way during Mass.

We have just started putting together our kit, so it probably won't be done by tomorrow.  So I'll share a photo of the finished kit from the Christian Orthodox Craft Supply website:

Isn't it an amazing little learning box?  I can't wait to finish ours and will post photos when we are done!

Stations of Light Prayer Gems

Back in April, I gave a brief tutorial on a prayer aid that I developed for my children, the Stations of the Cross prayer gems.  (You can re-visit that tutorial here.)  I've updated that prayer aid a bit, and adapted it to help my kids learn the Stations of Light. 

The Stations of Light,which are also called the "Via Lucis," or "Way of Light," or "The Stations of the Ressurection."  They are a relatively new devotion in the Catholic Church. It was first observed in Rome in 1990.

Like the Station of the Cross, it has 14 steps.  However, these steps focus on the appearances of Jesus and the miracles that occurred after He rose from the dead.  When this is prayed as a group, a paschal candle is carried instead of a cross.  It can be prayed anytime during the year but is especially appropriate between Easter Sunday and Pentecost.  You can find out more about each of the various stations at the Our Sunday Visitor website here.   You can also find out more about the devotion here at the Archdiocese of Detroit website.

I wanted to teach this beautiful meditation to my children, so I created some prayer stones similar to the ones I made for the Stations of the Cross, but using images that represent the various Stations of Light.  You can use the icon-type images on the Archdiocese of Detroit website (listed above).  I found some beautiful full color images on The Bookworm. 

After downloading the images, I pasted them into Microsoft Publisher to resize them to the appropriate size to fit my clear glass gems.   I printed them out, sprayed them with a light coating of hairspray (to prevent bleeding or smearing of the images), then attached them to the back of the gems with Mod Podge.  I then sealed the back of the images with a couple of coats of Mode Podge.

I also printed out a set of cards to use with the prayer gems.  I punched a hole in the upper left hand corner of the images and thread them onto a reclosable ring.

I used a cloth bag to store my Stations of the Cross gems, but wanted to try something different. I purchased a "Craftmates Lockables" 14-compartment box on sale at Joann's Fabrics and Crafts. The glass gems fit perfectly in the compartments. I glued a picture to each compartment and numbered them from I to XIV.  (A good way to help your children learn their Roman numerals at the same time!) Now we can meditate on each station while looking at the cards and putting the prayer gems in their appropriate compartments.

Here are a few photos of my Stations of the Resurrection prayer gems and their storage container:

These prayer gems are so easy to make and would be a perfect craft for a vacation bible school.  I can imagine using them to teach the rosary or almost any other prayer.  It's just a matter of finding the right images.  

Dancing Sun Cookies for Feast of Our Lady of Fatima

I was looking for a simple dessert that my daughter and I could whip up yesterday and serve at dinner to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.  I love the "Miracle of the Sun" cake posted by Anne on the Catholic Cuisine blog, but I knew that I needed something even simpler since we would only have about 30-45 minutes to create our dessert. Instead, I opted to embellish some plain vanilla cookies to make our  "Dancing Sun" dessert. Best of all, the most time consuming part of this project was the 15 minutes it took for the icing to dry on the cookies!

We used the following items to create our cookies: Vanilla wafers, white frosting, food coloring pens in red, orange and yellow; and decorating sugars in red, orange and yellow. Food coloring pens are often available in the cake decorating aisle of grocery stores or hobby stores. 

I originally planned just to use the food coloring pens to decorate the plain, unfrosted cookies, but the food coloring did not show up very brightly on the cookies, as you can see in this photo:

So, I decided to frost the cookies and then apply the designs. However, my daughter begged to use the colored sugars too.  So we decided to experiment with various techniques using the frosting.  I drew swirly designs (with frosting) on some of the cookies, then sprinkled then with the colored sugars.  My daughter frosted the whole cookie, then added dashes of orange, red and yellow sprinkles.  This is what they looked like:

Finally, we covered some of the cookies with white frosting and then let the frosting dry.  After it dried, we used the food color markers to create a swirly design with a red marker, then filled in the outline with the yellow and orange markers.  It was quite simple to do and the results are actually prettier than I can capture with my camera.  These two photos will give you an idea of the finished cookie:

I still have decorating sugars left, so I'm thinking about creating something similar for Pentecost featuring a "Holy Spirit" flame design.  And I bet the red decorating sugars and food coloring marker will come in handy for the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus...

First Communion Decorations and Favors

I searched "high and low" on the Internet for decoration and favor ideas for my daughter's First Communion.  Unfortunately, there isn't much out there!  I didn't want to go overboard, just add some little touches to make the day extra special for her, since this is the first time we have thrown a party for her. It is also her first party with her grandparents and godparents, since they live out of state and can't be here for her birthday or other special occasions.

First, for the color scheme:  I thought I could pick up a color scheme from the paper accessories. I knew that party stores often carry paper plates and cups printed with first communion themes.  However, I wasn't thrilled with the printed paper supplies at my local party store.  They were mostly white with silver crosses and gold chalices.  Those images didn't seem to reflect the joy of this special day, at least to me.  I decided to borrow two colors from the image on my daughter's first communion cake. (It is an image of a little girl standing in front of a stained glass window; you can see a photo of it here).  My daughter's favorite color is pink, so I borrowed pink and yellow from the cake image.

I didn't plan on doing favors, but my daughter saw bags of Jordan almonds at the party store several weeks ago and asked if we could try them sometime. So I purchased a couple of bags and pulled out all the white, pink and yellow almonds. She helped me pour them in little pink bags. We added a tag that said "Maria's First Communion" with the date of the big event.  (The tags duplicate the image found on her cake.)

I also made stickers of the image on the cake and attached them to plain pink and yellow paper cups.  I made yellow and pink paper napkin rings with the image on it, too.

We ate buffet style outside, so the tables were decorated with pink or yellow table cloths.  Of course, there were pink and yellow plastic spoons, forks and knives.

I wanted to add just a couple of small decorations inside near the buffet serving table.  Inspired by Lacey's "Alleluia" banner on her Catholic Icing blog, I created a paper banner that said "Happy First Communion."  It was very easy to do, yet the results looked elegant!  Simply print out the letters from the Martha Stewart website and cut them out.  I printed them on yellow card stock paper and then glued each letter to a larger circle of pink cardstock paper.  I punched two holes in each letter and then strung them to a length of narrow pink ribbon.  Here is the finished result:

I also made a little banner (with the image from my daughter's cake) to hang on our piano, which is also in the dining room where we served the buffet food:

I think any of these concepts could be adapted for any child's First Communion.  Basically, if you can obtain a .jpeg image of your cake top, you can use it to create stickers, banners, favor bags a variety of other party accessories.  If your cake decorator or party store can't provide a .jpeg image, you could take a photo of the finished cake and use that to embellish your decorations.

Another idea:  if you are taking photos of your First Communicant several days before the big day, you could pick out one of those photos and print it on sticker paper to make decorations, napkin rings, embellish paper products, etc. 

Just another alternative to the silver and gold cross and chalice themes usually found on pre-printed party supplies!

I'm sharing this idea on Lacey's First Friday Link-up.  Looking for more ways to celebrate First Communion or the Month of Mary?  Check out this link:

First Communion Cake and Cookies

My daughter's First Communion went a week ago Saturday. Here she is, all decked out in her pretty white dress and veil:

I used the cookie cutters that I mentioned in this blog post to make these cookies. They turned out far better than I expected!  I saved time by using Pillsbury sugar cookie dough mix instead of making the dough from scratch. I also used Pillsbury canned icing and Wilton's decorator frosting in a tube.  

For her cake, I baked a small sheet cake and decorated it with an edible image I purchased on Ebay from Rebecca's Edible Cake Images. I also purchased some gum paste flowers from another Ebay vendor, Michele's Gifts for You.  I put the gum paste flowers in the corner of the cake. I decorated the borders of the cake with Wilton frosting tubes.  I am not a cake decorator but I received many compliments on the cake. The edible cake image and the gum paste flowers gave the cake a professional look. 



First Communion Menu Ideas

My daughter is making her First Communion this Saturday, so I'm in the midst of planning the at-home celebration after the big event at church.  I want to keep it simple (so the focus remains on the church) but I still need to plan a nice meal since we have grandparents and godparents coming from out of town for the weekend.

I'm sure there are other moms also planning an after-the-event brunch, luncheon or dinner, so thought I'd share some of the meal-planning ideas and links I found while searching the Internet:

Frugal Catholic Mommy
Love her idea of serving hot sides like taco bites ("Scoops" tortilla chips filled with taco meat, salsa, etc.)
She also shares a recipe for pepperoni rolls.

Food Network:  Pretty Butterfly Sandwich
Perhaps shape bread dough to look like a chalice instead of a butterfly?

That article reminds me of the Sicilian custom of serving breads sculpted into the shape of chalices and other religious symbols for St. Joseph's Day. You can read about the tradition on Evann's Virtual St. Joseph blog.  Saveur has an article on shaping St. Joseph's bread. Jennifer shares a photo of bread shaped like a chalice and grapes on her blog Family in Feast and Feria.

The GardenWeb forum has some great ideas for simple, nice meals that can quickly be prepared after you arrive home from church. Many of the post-ers on that forum recommended making a variety of salads and sandwiches ahead of time, then just pulling them out of the refrigerator when you come home. This really appeals to me, since I won't feel like spending the rest of the day in the kitchen cooking!

Angie's menu on her Many Little Blessings blog sounds delicious and just perfect for a spring day.

On her Catholic Icing blog, Lacy shares an idea for a "Wine Cup O Jello."   Basically, red jello is poured into plastic wine cups. When it is firm, add a slice of marshmallow on the top to resemble the white host.  I know the young guests at the dinner will love this, so we will definitely be doing it!

Lacy has other First Communion food and cake ideas here.

This ThriftyFun forum has some good meal and party ideas.

Catholic Cuisine has some ideas for decorating a sheet cake. It has more ideas here.

It is a bit challenging to find ideas for a simple yet meaningful First Communion luncheon or dinner. I'll try to take photos of our meal and cake and do a follow up post to help other moms who might be looking for ideas.