Divine Mercy Craft and Activities

My husband and I have a special devotion to the Divine Mercy. I just love praying this chaplet. I try to pray it every day. The thought of our Lord showering all His grace, love and mercy on me and the whole world is just so beautiful and amazing. I love praying this prayer each evening with my children when they are little as I nurse them and then nightly as they transition to a big kid bed and then to help settle them as they grow into their preschool years.

It is just a devotion I love. It is simple and easy to learn my kids have learned the chaplet and its prayers at a young age. It seems easier to memorize then the rosary and requires less time so it is easier for them to pray it.

Excepts from St. Faustina’s Diary

“Say unceasingly this chaplet that I have taught you. Anyone who says it will receive great Mercy at the hour of death. Priests will recommend it to sinners as the last hope.
Even the most hardened sinner, if he recites this Chaplet even once, will receive grace from My Infinite Mercy.
I want the whole world to know My Infinite Mercy.
I want to give unimaginable graces to those who trust in My Mercy….”

“….When they say this Chaplet in the presence of the dying, I
will stand between My Father and the dying person not as the just
judge but as the Merciful Savior”.

When my daughter was preparing for her Holy First Communion we would go on Mother-Daughter dates and work on making her scrapbook. We would create pages together after each lesson, to help reinforce her learning as we went along. After we had gone through her preparation, we started to add pages with prayers and devotions. I had created this simple Divine Mercy craft when I was helping to teach a three and four year old catechism class. So we decided to incorporate it into her scrapbook too.

Divine Mercy Chaplet Craft:

What you will need:

Print out of Divine Mercy Colouring Page
Red & Blue Construction paper
Glue
Scissors
Coloured pens, Markers or Crayons
If available Gold marker or crayons

Step 1 – Print out of this wonderful Divine Mercy colouring page from the Oblates of Divine Mercy’s website

Step 2 – Cut out a red and a blue triangle. Helpful tip-First cut out the red triangle and then trace it on the blue paper so that they come out the same size.

Step 3 – Glue the Red Triangle on to Jesus’ Right and the Blue Triangle on to Jesus’ Left side.

Step 4 – Draw more rays of light coming from Jesus heart as well as add light around his head (gold, yellow & white work best)

Step 5 – Decorate as desired

There is also a great Divine Mercy word search and other colouring pages available at the Oblates of Divine Mercy’s website.

Learn how to make an easy Divine Mercy Chaplet with your child in my previous post

Blog, Crafts, Faith Building Resources, Feasts, Prayer

Feast of our Lady of the Rosary

Today we celebrate the feast of our Lady of the Rosary. The month of October is traditionally celebrated as the month of the Holy Rosary! So the craft below is perfect to use any day in the month of October or May or anytime you wish to help your child learn how to pray the rosary.

My son has really taken to the rosary during the past few weeks. He is happy to pray the rosary where ever he might be – in the car, in bed, etc. But he keeps forgetting which prayers to say on which beads. So I thought we could make this craft to put on the wall beside his bed so that he can look at it when he forgets what comes next and start to learn it by heart. I have been eagerly waiting to use these beautiful images of The Virgin Mary from Around the World since the first time I saw them at Shining Light Dolls! So I was very excited we finally were able to use them today!

Learning the Rosary Craft!
Here is a PDF Instruction Sheet you can print for the Rosary Craft

What you will need:

scissors
glue
3 pages printed out
markers, crayons or pencil crayons

Step 1 Print out this beautiful image of The Virgin Mary Around the World from Shining Light Dolls– copy the image and paste it into a word document then print it centered and at the top of your page.

Step 2 Select an image of Mary that you would like to use for the bottom portion of your craft – We used Our Lady of China but there are so many other beautiful options to use from Shining Light Dolls too. Again using word you want to paste or insert the image. I used four Mary’s per a page. So you could even choose a different image of Mary for each child.

Step 3 Print this cute Rosary Page from Pinterest or for the full document visit Teachers pay Teachers. I printed two per a page.

Step 4 – Cut the sheets and place them in each child’s spot so that each child has one of each sheet.

Step 5 – Explain the feast of the rosary, talk about the Mary that you selected to use and then discuss the rosary asking questions as you go.

Step 6 –
A) Explain the Sign of the cross, have your child colour it and underline the words the Sign of the Cross in the same colour.

B) Explain when you pray the Our Father – have your child select a new colour and colour the two hearts in this colour and then underline the words Our Father in this same colour.

C) Explain when you pray the Hail Mary- have your child select a new colour and colour the Hail Mary Beads in this colour and then underline the words Hail Mary in this same colour (I also wrote 3 & 10 to let them know the number of times it is said).

D) Explain when you pray the Glory Be- have your child select a new colour and draw a circle to show when this is done. Write the words Glory Be in this same colour or write them in Black and underline them in the colour if you prefer;)

Step 7 – Glue the Cute Craft Sheet and Mary image below the Image of Our Lady from Around the World.

If you have time pray a decade or the rosary with your child now to reinforce their learning!

Blog, Divine Mercy, Saints

St Faustina – Free Daily Email Reflections from her Diary.

This year I signed up for a great free email service the Divine Mercy Daily reflections from St. Faustina’s Diary. Many Catholic’s own the wonderful diary by St. Faustina. But upon speaking with people about the book I soon discovered that most people have not actually read the book from start to finish. I know a handful of people whom have actually read the whole book. I personally have tried a few times but have not yet accomplished this goal. So when a friend told me about theses daily emails I signed up for them. I am eager to finally read the entire diary in a year!

Each day I receive a nice short excerpt, as well as a prayer response. It is really a lovely addition to my daily routine.

If you have ever wanted to read St Faustina’s diary – I highly recommend that you sign up for this lovely free service from Flocknote!

Here is a sample of what you receive:

Day 57: Do Nothing on Your Own

Meditation:

Entrust everything to Me and do nothing on your own, and you will always have great freedom of spirit. No circumstances or events will ever be able to upset you. Set little store on what people say. Let everyone judge you as they like. Do not make excuses for yourself, it will do you no harm (Diary, 1685) .

My Prayer Response:

Lord Jesus, help me to entrust every thing to You and do nothing on my own, so I will always have great freedom of spirit.

*Diary passages with bolded words are Jesus speaking

Please visit Flocknotes to sign up for these inspiring daily emails at https://howdy.flocknote.com/divinemercydaily. Blesssings <

Blog, Crafts, Feasts, Prayer

Holy Guardian Angels Feast

Happy feast of the Holy Guardian Angels! Today we have a great opportunity to help our children develop a deeper relationship, understanding and appreciation of angels.

What is an Angel

An angel is a pure spirit created by God. The English word “angel” comes from the Greek angelos, which means ‘messenger’. For more information about angels see my previous post Feast of the Holy Angels.

My kids are super excited to have another tea party followed by crafts this afternoon. Each year for this special feast we have made lots of angels which we have used to decorate our home by hanging them off our dinning room light and displaying them on the wall.

Last year the kids made three to four angels each. They made St. Michael, St. Raphael, St. Gabriel and an angel to represent their guardian angel. They used a sword with St. Michael and came up with other symbols to represent the different angels. We then glued prayers onto some of the angels.

This craft is super easy to make and personalized as each child gets to trace and use their hands as the angels wings. The kids love tracing their hands hence why they each wanted to keep making more angels. I can’t think of a year when the kids only made one angel each. Here is my ANGEL Craft post with instructions.

Here are some prayers that you can include on the angels:

PRAYER TO your Guardian Angel

Angel of God,
my guardian dear,
To whom God’s love
commits me here,
Ever this day,
be at my side,
To light and guard,
Rule and guide. Amen.

PRAYER TO Saint Michael the Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

PRAYER TO Saint Gabriel

Blessed Saint Gabriel, Archangel We beseech you to intercede for us at the throne of divine mercy:
As you announced the mystery of the Incarnation to Mary,
so through your prayers may we receive strength of faith and courage of spirit,
and thus find favor with God and redemption through Christ Our Lord.
May we sing the praise of God our Savior with the angels and saints in heaven forever and ever. Amen.

Other Fun Crafts for the Feast of the Holy Angels:

List of sites with free printable or great easy ideas for crafts to do with kids on the feast of the angels:

Catholic Icing has 10 great ideas to help celebrate the Feast of the Guardian Angels

Cute Hand Print Angel Craft

Free Printable Angel for Preschools in Colour or Black & White

Easy Stand-up Angel

Nice Peppermint Angel Craft – Makes a nice Christmas gift too!

Nice Full Colour Old Fashion Stand-Up Angels

Blog, Crafts, Feasts, Saints

Happy Feast of St Therese!

Today is just such a beautiful and special day. It is a day to celebrate an incredible women and soul. One who inspires me continuously to strive to do everything with more love, more joy and more smiles. St. Therese may have lived for 24 years but her example and love will live on forever.

Feast days are always such a fun way to bring joy and love into your home. Whom doesn’t love to celebrate – especially children? So today after school we will pull out our fancy fine china tea cups, our beautiful teapot from my sister and a delicious baked good (still need to make this lol). We will gather around talk about St Therese beautiful life, her example and how we can show love more in all that we do. Then after enjoying our goodies we will make some new crafts that I found for us.

Celery Rose Painting

Who doesn’t love pinterest – at the click of a few buttons you find so much inspiration. I found this adorable simple and fun painting to make – you simply need white paper, green & paint for the roses (red, purple, pink, yellow, and/or blue) paint, celery, scissors, and your imagination. You could even use coloured construction paper and use white paint instead for white roses. We will have a lot of fun making different variations with this idea. It is also a great craft from preschoolers to adulthood.

Here are some of the paintings we made at our tea party today after school!

St Therese Greeting and Prayer Cards

I found wonderful website this week that I just have to share its called Shining Light Dolls. This wonderful website offers lots of free cute and colourful Catholic Saint and Mary printable. These images will come in handy throughout the year – with all saints day coming up, birthdays, feasts. My head is just whirling with ideas to use these cute images with.

In past years 0ne craft that the kids and I have enjoyed making on the feast of St Therese is greeting cards which we mail out to grandparents, great grandparents, godparents and some aunts. After finding this lovely image of St Therese I know we will have to send this beautiful image out without greeting cards to family members with a special love of St Therese. We will print the image, print out beautiful quotes by St Therese and then glue them on coloured paper and personalize the cards.

One of my favourite quotes is: Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing. Story of a Soul, Chapter VIII

If you looking for a cute or special gift for a baptism or birthday Shining Light Dolls have adorable little dolls, charms and prayers cards too!

Lovely St Therese Paper Doll

Another craft ideas is this adorable free St Therese paper doll. Paper Dali offers this free, cute printable, she even has a page of accessories with roses, a cross and the holy face of Jesus. I would recommend printing this on card stock if possible if not, I would colour the doll, then glue it to construction paper, let it dry and then cut out the doll so that it is stronger and lasts longer for your little girl!

St Therese Good Deed/Sacrifice Beads

A fun and wonderful activity to make for the feast of St. Therese, advent, lent, preparing for 1st Holy Communion, as a baptism gift or a catechism group activity is the St. Therese Good Deed/Sacrifice Beads. You can find instructions on how to Make the Good Deed/Sacrifice Beads here. What better way to teach the children how to offer up little acts of love throughout the day then by following little St. Therese own example as she did as a child. To the right is a picture of the beads used by St Therese when she was little. She used her beads faithfully each day as she prepared for her holy communion. What I love about St. Therese is that she offered Jesus the good too – ie she would eat her dinner and she would tell Jesus that the dessert was for him, she offered up her joy, not only her suffering. I think that this is an important step towards making your entire day and act of prayer and love as she strived to do daily.

Here is a link to an older post when we made a beautiful 3D Rose craft to celebrate the feast of St Therese.

If you have other craft ideas please share them in the comments below!