… and these Thy gifts …

• Sunday
  Luke 2:15-16
  ¹⁵ When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
• Monday
  Luke 2:17-18
  ¹⁷ And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; ¹⁸ and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
• Tuesday
  Luke 2:19
  ¹⁹But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.
• Wednesday
  Luke 2:20
  ²⁰ And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
• Thursday
  Luke 2:21
  ²¹And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
• Friday
  Matthew 2:1-2
  ¹ Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, ²“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.”
• Saturday
  Matthew 2:3-6
  ³ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴ and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet: ⁶ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.’”

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1. Tell your sister(s)/brother(s) what you like best about him/her.
2. Be kind to someone who is hard to get along with.
3. Tell someone the story of when Jesus was born.
4. Give everyone in your family a hug!
5. Say a prayer for the poor, the hungry and the homeless.
6. Clean your room without being asked.
7. Put a dollar of your own money in the Church collection.
8. Write a Christmas letter to a faraway aunt/uncle.
9. Help Mom with a chore.
10. Go through your closet and gather what you can donate to charity.
11. Write a Christmas letter to a soldier who is overseas.
12. Call up your grandparents just to say hello.
13. Read an Advent story to or with your sibling.
14. Ask Mama Mary to prepare your heart for Jesus’ coming.
15. Smile and be cheerful today.
16. Talk about the REAL meaning of Christmas at dinnertime.
17. Pray for the sick.
18. Ask Dad for a chore you can do.
19. Help Mom wrap gifts.
20. Pray for the souls in purgatory.
21. Write a list of all the things/events/people you are thankful for this year.
22. Write a thank you note to Dad for everything he does for us.
23. Play for 30 minutes with a younger sibling, without arguing or fighting.
24. Sing Christmas carols while helping decorate the tree.
25. Start the day with a prayer of thanks to Jesus for coming to save us.

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Printing these out today to put into our advent calendar boxes.

• Sunday
  Isaiah 7:14
  Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.

  Micah 5:2
  But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.

• Monday
  Matthew 1:18-24
  ¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; ¹⁹ and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away. ²⁰ But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; ²¹ she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ²³ “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel” (which means, God with us). ²⁴ When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, ²⁵ but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.

  Luke 1:26-33
  ²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” ²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

• Tuesday
  Luke 2:1-5
  ¹ In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. ² This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³ And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. ⁴ And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵ to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
• Wednesday
  Luke 2:6-7
  ⁶ And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. ⁷ And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
• Thursday
  Luke 2:8-9
  ⁸ And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.
• Friday
  Luke 2:10-12
  ¹⁰ And the angel said to them, “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; ¹¹ for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
• Saturday
  Luke 2:13-14
  ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!”

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“Our hearts were made for Thee, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in Thee.”
“Sero te amavi pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova!” (Late have I loved thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new!)

Lots of reading and activities here.

Today, we are remembering St. Augustine. Yesterday, it was his mother’s memorial. These are two of my favorite saint stories — the mother who prayed unceasingly for her wayward son, soooo unwaveringly faithful, that he turned away from sin and became a saint. Here’s what St. Augustine had to say about his own mother. How can a parent not be inspired?

I keep wondering what St. Augustine and St. Monica and all the rest of them are saying up there in heaven after his words have been severely misused by those down here.

And for those of us who are just that wee bit crazy about Latin, here’s a very timely lesson (w00t! This will take us several weeks to dig into!) from Context, Pelosi. from Aliens in this World. Gotta say though, if Pelosi reads Latin, I can’t help but be mighty impressed. But then again, as the Spartans said, *IF*.

We are lucky enough to be the owners of a couple of older volumes by St. Augustine, found at a book sale, they used to belong to a priest! DD-17 has been reading parts of Confessions for her Theology of the Body class, so this is great timing. Especially since she’s graduating at the end of the week, she’ll have PLENTY of time to delve into more of St. A’s works.

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A Blessed Easter to all of you!!!

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Good friend e-mailed last night and asked what Lent looks like in our home, and I realized I hadn’t gotten around to putting our plans here. And since putting stuff here helps us with accountability….

what we do, or at least try to do, in no particular order:

- purple tablecloth at the dinner table
- grapevine wreath on the cocktail table
- little wreaths for the kids, spiked with toothpicks — the kids (and this year, mom too) take out the toothpicks and replace with flowers — the thorns/toothpicks=our sins; the flowers = reparation, sacrifice, mortification, growth in virtue; so by Easter hopefully puro flowers na
- reading/discussing/small activities/crafts for lenten season saints, like st. valentine
- daily Mass, though we’ve been failing lately esp. with the cold front and me getting sick, we’ll start back again on Monday
- daily Rosary
- stations of the cross every Friday, usually at home, with “homemade” stations (coloring activity from 2004, “housed” in popsicle stick frames) — we also use the prayers from the Fourniers’ book, which we cut out and laminated
- meditative readings for kids and adults (i’m using In Conversation with God, and we’re trying to reread Hidden Power of Kindness, Bong got a booklet of meditations at church last weekend so he’s following that)
- major purging of rooms/closets for donations/getting rid of “stuff”
- trying to practice silence (my major failing) at home, trying to keep peace and harmony at all times (ha! we wish)
- if aisa feels like it this year we might do some pysanky (ukrainian easter eggs) — she took a pysanky class a few years ago and taught us how — i’d love to learn how to make this
- aisa sings at choir, so Holy Week there’s Tenebrae, then the Triduum…. somehow we didn’t have these in BF at our parish — what a loss.
- mostly we follow suggestions in the book by the Fourniers — samples here: Domestic Church + Catholic Culture + Catholic Mom; we don’t try to do EVERYTHING, but try to add one or two things every year.
- I also printed out new rosary and stations of the Cross cards from Kathryn’s website
- and a Lenten calendar from Julie — the pages say “2007″, but they’re downloadable, editable pages, so all you’ll have to do is change dates and the year. An awesome resource!

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Today is the Feast day of the First Christian Martyr (Proto Martyr), Saint Stephen, for whom I am named. He’s actually my mom’s saint as today is her birthday, but when I was born they chose his name for me.

The Stoning of St. Stephen by Pietro da Cortona

Read about St. Stephen here

St. Stephen’s Day Night Prayers

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