Blog, Prayer

Happy to Announce our New Life Beads

We are happy to announce the launch today of our New Life Beads on the feast of the Holy Rosary and in the month of October when we remember those who have experienced a miscarriage or still born. These special beads are in honour of the gift of life. A portion of each sale will go towards supporting Pro-Life work.

These beads are especially close to our hearts as we lost of beautiful baby Joy Faustina before birth and know it was the prayers and support of our community and family that helped us get through that very difficult time with joy, hope and peace.

Life is the most precious gift and we recognize the importance of celebrating it from the moment of conception till death.

We hope these Life Beads will inspire and encourage others to do good works, acts of love, sacrifice and extra prayers in the name of our Lord.

Order you Life Beads here: Pre-Made Life Beads and Life Bead Kits

Blog, Great Books!

Before I Was Me – Book Review

I was given a copy of the book Before I Was Me to review by author Frank Fraser. I was excited to receive another book by this author as my kids and I have enjoyed reading some of his previous books The Bible Amigos. I have to be honest and tell you that this book exceeded any expectation that I had.

Once in a while a beautiful book comes into your life, one that you know you will treasure in your heart for all your life and one that you just have to give others too. This is one of those books, it is my new go to for baptism and birthday gifts.

I can’t say enough about this book the illustrations are incredible, they grab your attention and are just beautiful. The overall message and writing is very well articulated. Frank captures the wonderment of childhood, the love and gentleness of our heavenly father and packages it all in this wonderful children’s book.

There is a reason this book has a five star rating on Amazon – do you think it deserves five stars too? You can view this entire book for free at Sophia Press Before I Was Me and decide for yourself. But I am confident you will agree!

Blog, Crafts, Faith Building Resources, Lent & Easter

Colour in Kids Lent 2018 Calendar!

This is a little bit late, but after a discussion with a friend asking for Lenten suggestions for her kids to do; I realize that its never to late to start things in Lent. The important thing is that we try! So I thought I would share this beautiful free printable that kids can use this Lent from Ponder in my Heart. Each year they have a new colour in calendar so here is the one for 2018, my boys are enjoying it and I hope your kids will too .

Blog, Faith Building Resources, Saints

Printable Mother Teresa Inspiring Quotes!

I will be attending a Advent Ladies Potluck this week, besides bringing a dish to share, we were each asked to bring a gift with an inspiring quote to exchange. At first I thought I would make a nice tea mug with quote but after not being able to find the right markers to make the mug, I came up with a new idea. Instead I created a sheet of quotes by Mother Teresa. The sheet has 10 inspiring quotes by Mother Teresa and prints out on either business card paper or regular paper. I have included this Mother Teresa quotes page here for you to print as you like. I placed these quotes in the mug as well as a picture of Mother Teresa with one of my favorite quotes. I hope you can enjoy these quotes too!

Some of the quotes included are:
I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. Mother Teresa

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. – Mother Teresa

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. – Mother Teresa

Spread the love of God through your life but only use words when necessary. – Mother Teresa

A joyful heart is the normal result of a heart burning with love. She gives most who gives with joy. – Mother Teresa

I selected Mother Teresa as I was working on a different project the same day. Last Christmas Day we found out that we lost our baby, I was 10 weeks pregnant and it was very sad news. I was hosting Christmas that day. On that day my mother presented me with a beautiful gift, it was a hand drawn picture of Mother Teresa that my mother had commissioned an artist to draw for me. As soon as I saw the image two quotes came to mind:

I slept and dreamt that Life was Joy. I awoke and saw that
Life was Service. I acted and behold, Service was Joy! – R. Tagore

Give, but give until it hurts. -Mother Teresa

I decided in that moment that I would choose to live my life in service to others during these dark days in my life. I would look for each blessing I had and I would find my Joy in the Lord. It was very fitting as we named our baby Joy Faustina and in the very difficult days that followed (I miscarried for over two months with many emergency room trips). I learnt that true Joy comes from the Lord – no matter what is happening you can always find Joy if you pray, trust, and rest in the Lord.

The second important thing I learnt was that I had never given enough of myself to my community – to my friends in need – sure I might have offered help or brought a meal, but was that really all I could offer someone in a time of need. I learnt that to really love our neighbours you need to give, give till it hurts. Every small act of love or kindness some one did for my family during this time was such a blessing and it helped me carry on. But now that I know better when a friend is in need I will do all that I can – even if I am busy, tired, short on money or stressed – it matters not because their needs exceed my needs in that moment. As the body of Christ we are many parts and if we all work together in service to others and we help carry each others burdens with love – even the darkest times can be made lighter. Love in contagious, service shows our love, service truly brings joy and since God is love!

Here is the image that now hangs on my wall as a reminder of our beautiful Joy and that is we really want to love we must give, give our ourselves, our resources, our time, our prayer – but GIVE and keep giving till it hurts in service and love on a daily basis!

Blog, Faith Building Resources, Saints

Inspiring Quotes & Scripture

I just wanted to share some inspiring scriptures and quotes that have really helped to encourage me and inspire me during difficult times! These can be found mostly on pinterest!

“oh God, I thank You, ’cause You bring me to my knees
Back on my knees” – Lyrics from my favourite song Without you by For King and Country

What are some of your favourite scriptures or quotes ? Please share them in the comments below:)

Blog

Pray, Hope & Don’t Worry

After meeting with some lovely ladies today, I wanted to do a short posting about St. Padre Pio. It seems that this wonderful saint has touched the heart and lives of many people around me. An interesting point that was brought up was that they felt that St. Padre Pio found you. To say that when you needed him to intercede for you his words, holy cards or stories of him would continue to come into your life via one way or another. People whom have a devotion to him feel a special connection and have prayer requests that have been answered. Inspired by this I thought it would be nice to share some of his inspiring words.

Just before I do that I want to share the most powerful story I ever heard about this saint, from a friend. One that taught me a lot about how we are called to love, pray and hope – and let our heavenly Father be the judge of all through his mercy and love. For only God knows what truly lies within our hearts!

The was a women whom was in a church one day, she was bend over kneeling and crying her eyes out, you see her beloved husband had taken his own life. Her loss and his tragic death were just too much for her poor heart to bear. Father Pio was at the time saying confession, but suddenly she felt a presence beside her and then she heard the words, fear not there was time between the bridge and the water. Your husband is with God. When she looked up she saw Fr. Pio and was filled with great peace.

Some of St. Padre Pio’s Words of Faith:

Prayer is the best weapon we possess. It is the key that opens the heart of God.

Jesus will assist you and give you the grace to live a heavenly life and nothing whatever will be able to separate you from His love.

In all the events of life, you must recognize the Di 19c38169f83ddee204eb77d088f5dda6 vine will. Adore and bless it, especially in the things which are the hardest for you.

Humility and purity are the wings which carry us to God and make us almost divine.

In my greatest sufferings, it seems to me that I no longer have a mother on this earth, but a very compassionate one in Heaven.

Our Lord sends the crosses; we do not have to invent them.

Love Jesus, love Him very much, but to do this, be ready to love sacrifice more.

Charity is the measure by which Our Lord judges all things.

You must always humble yourself lovingly before God and before men, because God speaks only to those who are truly humble and He enriches them with His gifts.

Don’t allow any sadness to dwell in your soul, for sadness prevents the Holy Spirit from acting freely.

Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry

Blog, Divine Mercy, Faith Building Resources

Divine Mercy for Kids

With Divine Mercy Sunday approaching – I found two great Divine Mercy Resources for children that I just had to share.

The first is this lovely free Divine Mercy Chaplet for Kids video from EWTN

The second is this great Divine Mercy Chaplet craft from Rosary Mom that you can use to help teach your children the Chaplet. She adapted the Chaplet Craft from Making Music Praying Twice – Chaplet Lacing Craft so that it included the Eternal Father Prayer. But the Template at Making Music Praying Twice is lovely, you can just print the Simple Pattern and write the Eternal Father Prayer onto it and then print out the Pattern with Written Words and you have a complete chaplet.

For more Divine Mercy Resources see my previous posts:

How to make an easy Divine Mercy Chaplet

Divine Mercy Craft and Activities

Divine Mercy Colouring Pages

St. Faustina Daily Email Reflections from her Diary

Blog, Divine Mercy, Feasts, Prayer

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

“oh God, I thank You, ’cause You bring me to my knees Back on my knees” – Lyrics from my favourite song Without you by For King and Country