Winner! Catholic Daily Planner

The winner of the Catholic Daily Planner is 

Louise , who said...

This giveaway brought me tears of happiness! I would love to win the full-size coil-bound planner with #3LI cover, and the lesson and menu planning Add Ons. If possible, for ease of use, I would prefer not bound together. Nice to see you here Michele.

May 10, 2012 at 10:41 AM

Louise, I will forward your contact information to Michele:-)!

Now, for the rest of you (and there were a lot of you), remember these are one hot item and they sell out, so head over and order yours now.

Lord, Hear Our Prayer

The internet is a formidable force for bringing the comfort and consolation and hope of the Lord to all of us. It can be an incredibily powerful medium for community. There is an unfathomable resource for prayer here. We have on the 'net the privilege of praying for people and of being witness to the miracles brought forth when fervent, faith-fulled people pray for one another.

Let's be that community of hope and faith for one another.

But how about this idea? What if I pop in here every weekend, share Sunday's gospel and talk a wee bit about how we can live it and pray it in our homes? And then you tell me how we can pray for you that week? Deal?

{And please, do return and let us know how prayer is bearing fruit.}

Gospel

John 15: 9-17

Jesus said to his disciples:
"As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father"s commandments
and remain in his love."

"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you
and your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one's life for one's friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another."

Jesus said to his disciples:
"As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father"s commandments
and remain in his love."

"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you
and your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one's life for one's friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another."

~ Think ~

Mary is raised to the height of glory because she allowed God to bring her to the depths of humility. "Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled but whoever humbles himself shall be exalted"...

This mystery assures us of the final victory of Jesus and Mary and the Church. Because the Church is an image of Jesus and Mary, what happens to Jesus and Mary will happen to the whole Church. Mary is the Queen of Heaven and earth. "A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, on her head a crown of twelve stars." She will crush the head of the serpent with her heel: her humble children who obediently follow God’s will and cause Jesus, her Son, to reign in every heart. "They defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." This is the glory of humility and final victory! These two victories of Jesus and Mary must go hand in hand because they are one and the same.

Mary recognized her absolute nothingness without God that God may be absolutely everything to her. With Mary we humbly adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament by acknowledging our absolute dependency on Him. "He must increase, but I must decrease." The Eucharist is the living Source of all light, life and love. Here Jesus says: "I am the Vine, you are the branches: he that abides in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing." Every holy hour deepens our union with Him and bears much fruit. "So I gaze on You in the sanctuary to see Your strength and Your glory, for Your love is better than life."

~Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

~ Pray ~

Hail Mary, poor and humble Woman, Blessed by the Most High! Virgin of hope, dawn of a new era, We join in your song of praise, to celebrate the Lord’s mercy, to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom and the full liberation of humanity.

Hail Mary, lowly handmaid of the Lord, Glorious Mother of Christ! Faithful Virgin, holy dwelling-place of the Word, Teach us to persevere in listening to the Word, and to be docile to the voice of the Spirit, attentive to his promptings in the depths of our conscience and to his manifestations in the events of history.

Hail Mary, Woman of sorrows, Mother of the living! Virgin spouse beneath the Cross, the new Eve, Be our guide along the paths of the world. Teach us to experience and to spread the love of Christ, to stand with you before the innumerable crosses on which your Son is still crucified.

Hail Mary, woman of faith, First of the disciples! Virgin Mother of the Church, help us always to account for the hope that is in us, with trust in human goodness and the Father’s love. Teach us to build up the world beginning from within: in the depths of silence and prayer, in the joy of fraternal love, in the unique fruitfulness of the Cross.

Holy Mary, Mother of believers, Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Amen

~Blessed John Paul II

~ Act ~

It's Mother's Day. For many people, this is a day of pain and disappointment. Look for ways to bring the mercy of the Blessed Mother and her Son to those who might be sad today. Ask Mary to help you know with whom to walk and what to say and how to do it.

~ ~ ~  ~ ~ ~ 

How can we pray for each other this week?

Higgins Bend Song and Dance (and a recipe)

A new fishing pier just opened in our neighborhood. We haven't caught anything (yet), but it's definitely a favorite desitination. It was fun to go down there recently and read a favorite fish tale, Higgins Bend Song and Dance.

Higgins Bend Song and Dance is the silly story of outlandish efforts to catch an elusive catfish. The illustrations are big and boisterous and so is the story. It's the kind of book that would have bothered me when I was little because it is so not-true. But it delights my children because, well, I don't know why. What makes a child better equipped to enjoy flights of fancy?

Our fishing pier is on a lake, so we didn't go all out and do river things. But we did talk about the critters who live near our lake. I printed this picture of a great blue heron (our are pretty fabulous) and then read at this site. I clicked on anatomy and showed them the picture and asked them to label their coloring sheets. 

We talked about catfish, cheat sheet here. And then we tried our hands at drawing them. Drawings were watercolored. My intention was to do the actual watercoloring on the pier and use lake water, but it was too windy.

Finally, we made up our own tall tales. Again, the children are much better at that then I am. I think I struggle with willful suspension of disbelief.

That's about it for this book, here. Higgins Bend Song and Dance is a Five in a Row selection, so I'm sure there are all kinds of ideas out there if you want to make a whole week of it. We just did our little afternoon and then responded affirmatively to incessant requests for it at bedtime recently.

And I see a lot of fishing in my summertime future. 

Since I didn't get to a recipe earlier this week, how about fish now?

Baked Fish with Lemon and Capers

• 8 tilapia fillets
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 
• 2 Tablespoons butter, melted (we've discovered Kerrygold butter, oh my!)
• 3 or 4 cloves garlic , finely chopped
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh  parsley flakes
• 2 Tablespoons capers
• a generous dash of white wine, if you like
• pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease the pan with olive oil.
2. Rinse tilapia filets under cool water, and pat dry with paper towels.
3. Place fillets in baking dish. Pour lemon juice over fillets, then drizzle butter on top. Sprinkle with garlic, parsley, capers, wine, and pepper.
4. Bake until the fish is white and flakes when pulled apart with a fork, about 30 minutes.

I'm serving with roasted asparagus and a big salad.

 For more about our Storybook Year, read here. 

with needle & thREAD

Hello, sewing friends!

I welcome you to needle and thREAD. What have you been sewing lately? Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

    Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and theREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and theREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to theneedle & thREAD group at Flickr.

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-).

~ ~

I can't believe it's Thursday already. I thought I'd have so much more (sew much  more?) to share. I have one half-finished tunic and about a half dozen half-finished books, and another half dozen newly downloaded not-even-touched books. 

First, this blouse. Oh my! I do love it. Love the way the fabric feels, love the way it drapes, love the front. Love the colors. I even bought a pair of bermuda shorts to go with it. Love, love, love. But the back? Um. I blew it. And I tried and tried to figure out what was wrong--what those pattern directions meant--and I couldn't. Just couldn't. I spent hours, hours, hours reading and re-reading, taking out and doing again. I scoured the internet looking for just one person who had struggled with this pattern. No one.  I'm sure it was just me. And all the while, I was thinking and praying about a child of mine who has learning disabilities.  Every day is like this for him. Everything he struggles to learn. Ridiculously hard. And mostly lonely. Please, God, don't let me forget this.

At then end of the day (literally), I made a "design decision." I just covered up my mistake, made sure it wouldn't affect the usefulness, and moved on. It's a coping technique I've witnessed again and again in that child. Figure out a way around it. I hauled myself upstairs, aching and exhausted, and wondering if sewing was really in God's plan for me.

And waiting up there was a text from Sarah, directing me here.

I cried.  Really. I can't even begin to tell you how hard I struggled with that quilt, how many, many imperfections are there, but if you look closely at her photos, you can see them. Likely, you won't though, because you'll be utterly entranced with her baby, with God's creation. The uneven corner (I know it well--it's there) seems so ridiculously unimportant as I drink in those delicious toes. And that's how it is, isn't it?

We sew clothes to cover our bodies, but those bodies and our souls are His. The clothes will never be perfect. We sew quilts for our homes. The family that lives in that home? The most glorious, splendid art of human love? It's His. We bring beauty to His perfection and He makes it more beautiful. We are created in the image of the Creator and if we can keep our eyes on Him and do it all for His glory, no matter how we struggle and how flawed our product, He makes it all so good. 

I want to sew this blouse pattern again. I want to learn the right way to do it. But I'm grateful for the now and I will wear this shirt  one day-- after I tuck under all the bias for the hem and handsew the facing to the yoke. Did I mention I made that bias tape? I did. And I thought I was a rockstar sewer. Briefly.

 I will wear it, though maybe not too far from home;-). For now, though, I'm going to show you the back as well as the front, even though I could get away with editing out the flaws and never revealing a back view, because, hey, you're my friends and I'm not alone, even if no one in history has ever messed up this pattern.

(The color is truer here. I got tired of messing with iPhoto above)

As for half-finished books, I'm out of time. Those will wait until next week. Maybe they'll be finished then. But don't miss these, my not-even-started books. For years, Kim has been telling me about Grace Livingston Hill, sharing quotes and big thoughts. And, oh, how this is a writer after my own heart. Last night, Kim shared on Facebook that all of Grace Livingston Hill's books are available for free on Kindle. Don't wait! Download a bunch. We have a whole summer to read them together! Maybe Kim will chime in and tell us in which order to read them.

What have you been up to this week? Reading, sewing, embroidering? Do share:-)

Sponsor Introduction & Giveaway: Catholic Embroidery

I'm very pleased to introduce you to the good people at Catholic Embroidery. 

The story of this small business is one that reads with the light of grace.

Catholic Embroidery  was established by the Serafino Family in 2007 and is dedicated to providing Catholic items for both every day life and for the service of the Altar. Our family business strives to offer products that bring beautiful representations of our Faith into the homes and hearts of Catholics across the globe. To do this, we have worked with only the finest Catholic graphic artists to create exclusive signature embroidery designs that display the true beauty and symbolism of our Faith, and applying them to useful items (ie. aprons, handkerchiefs, afghans) to uplift Catholics in their daily lives. In our short history, we have been blessed to serve numerous families, parishes, religious orders, gift ships, Bishops and Cardinals, in the USA and Europe.

What started as a sewing hobby for the oldest daughter of our family has turned into an enterprise that we hope, will continue to provide a positive, Christ-centered vocation while offering to the public only the finest in Catholic art in the form of stitches.

 With needle and thread, they bring beauty and grace to all sorts of things. To begin to get to know the endless possiblities for needlework, look around the store. And then, to see it all come life, be sure to visit the blog. What lovely gifts for priests! What happy things to tuck away in hopechests or with which to bless new babies!

 The blog is designed to show customers the various applications of the extraordinary embroidery services. The design gallery on the main website features the signature Catholic designs  created and offered on all custom projects. These designs of choice are often accompanied by the customer's monogramming in initials, names, dates, and even saint's quotes and mottos. While Catholic Embroidery works on these custom projects on a regular basis, not all of them are on the new website. They welcome your ideas and  and always encourage customers to ask about an item they may not see or a project they might have in mind. For a look at some other custom designs, take a peek at these First Communion Handkerchiefs and Custom Book Covers. 

Working with other's items is also a common occurrence inthe shop, which has a history of fine embroidery on heirloom baptismal gowns, drapes, items for Bishops and Cardinals, home linens and decor, vestments, clothing, quilts, and so much more.

I don't think I'd feel like quite such a workhorse wearing an apron that reminds me that " a married woman must often leave God at the altar to find Him in her housework." I can only hope to look as cute in it as this woman who inspires us all as she clearly takes those words to heart.

The company warmly welcomes international orders. I smiled and thought of a friend I love when I saw this stack of aprons. I don't even know exactly what it says, but I have a hunch the one on top would suit her fine:-).

And you can be sure that when I pack a trunk next winter and send my boy off again, this time to the University of Virginia, I'll put these in amongst his linens. Sweet dreams, college boy. Stay true to your faith.

And for the new driver in my life? The one who made me promise never to tell about the thought process behind her "exciting" first drive home yesterday after getting her permit? A key fob. I think I might try to have it blessed.

~ ~ Giveaway Details ~ ~

Visit the blog and leave a comment or like Catholic Emboridery on Facebook and then come back and tell me you did:-). You'll be entered to win a snuggly blue Lilies of the Valley embroidered afghan, perfect for chilly porch evenings in May, cold morning soccer games, and nights on the beach all summer.

 

~ ~ and a Freebie, too~ ~

In the Heart of my Home readers will be offered free shipping on their orders through May 18th, using the code HEARTOFHOME.