Our Lenten Journey Day Three

Here is the next virtue we studied.When Lent is complete the boys will keep their meditations in their holy card album.I'm hoping this will emphasize that we are not individual Christians but part of the Church as are these ones who have walked the path before us. We were never intended to walk alone.

                                                 Today ask St Therese of Liseux to pray

                                              to our Lord to give you the strength

                                                 and enthusiasm to grow in your faith.

                                            If you are bored or lonely or sad today

                                                   begin by thanking God for this.

                                          Next ask him to show you where

                                                    you can use yourself in giving to others.

                                            Perhaps there is an extra chore you

                                                  can do, maybe it is a kind word, and

                                              then it could be as simple as giving

                                                         someone the gift of your smile.

                                              Remember to thank God for your

                                                         feeling because it helped you to

                                              think outside yourself.

Our Lenten Journey Day Two

Today the boys had the following to meditate and act on:

Think of the Holy family as they made their escape from pharaoh into Egypt. They needed to obey God quickly and without asking why or do I have to. As children God tells us to honor our father and mother. Think about how you can do this today.

This is a link to our Lenten focus last year

Our Lenten Journey

Each days the boys and I are focusing on one habit or virtue we can practice that day. Although each morning we will learn about a new virtue the "trick" will be to continue to practice all the preceding ones throughout these forty days!!

We started on Ash Wednesday with controlling our temper.I always remember Msg. Aitchen saying at the beginning of Lent that it was not what went into the mouth that God was so concerned with as what came out of it...and how one of the most difficult but world changing practices we could take on in Lent was "not complaining".

To relate temper control to the "nitty gritty" for two siblings who share a room we talked about the negative effect of bickering versus the positive result of silence.I had printed out a little meditation for the boys to pin above their bed and to think on throughout Lent.

Here it is below:

Why is it important to learn to control our temper?

Do you sometimes have trouble controlling yours?

St Francis de Sales had a terrible temper ask him

to pray to God for help for you to control your

temper. Today keep “your tempers” calm,

kind and gentle .

St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) is an inspiring example of someone who overcame his anger. Renowned particularly for his gentleness and endless patience, he confided that he actually had a terrible temper. He gives a very good answer to those who cite the anger of Christ as justification for their own. “Jesus,” says Francis, “was God, and always in perfect control of his actions. I'm neither. Once I let my anger go, I lose control. It is like a small fire which becomes a conflagration. Once started, there is no stopping it. Hatred of sin soon turns into hatred of the sinner; righteous indignation quickly loses its mask, revealing the self love lurking beneath. So even if notionally legitimate, anger in my case is sure to do more harm than good. Francis' personal decision and invariable advice was: never, under any circumstances, to give way to anger. Jesus on the cross should be our model. There, he was meek and forgiving: yet precisely there he defeated the devil, and destroyed his enemies, sin, and death.”

ASH WEDNESDAY

Almighty and eternal God, who didst grant the

Remedy of thy pardon to the Ninivites doing penance

in ashes and sackcloth, mercifully grant that we

may so imitate them in our attitude that like them

we may obtain goodness. Through our Lord. Amen

 

I like it how as a homeschool mum you can learn right alongside your children. Did you know the Ninivans were Gentiles and that was why Jonah was aghast at God expecting him a Jew to go to them. Here is a quote from “The Year and our Children” by Mary Reed Newland.

“We have a soft spot for the Ninivites because they were Gentiles, and Jonah refused to warn them of God’s anger over their sins because of his scorn of the Gentiles. The purpose of God’s command which Jonah disobeyed with dire consequences was to teach the Jews that even though they were the Chosen Ones’  they were not to despise Gentiles.

The Ninivites are a type of ourselves and the above prayer of blessing asks that we may be given the grace to imitate in our customs the spirit of their forty days fast in sackcloth and ashes which is a type of lent."

The Priest says as he makes the sign of the cross on our forehead, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  It recalls how Adam came from dirt that God formed into man.  That admonishment is not an insult but a blessing.  It’s a reminder that we came from the love of God.

A point of View

I found this u-tube on this blog. I found it very moving to hear this from the father's view-point. Can we ever say too much about abortion and the pain it inflicts? Are there times when we can actually make people 'tune off' to all the suffering.These are open ended questions, feel free to comment. In the mean time listen to the music.(Note: you will have to pause the side-bar music first!)

More on our African study

We have an African bulletin board in our living room. I purchased a piece of fabric and covered the board to coordinate the pictures we were going to put on it. My good friend Mary found a calendar of African Women and we collected other pictures from travel brochures and "the web" and above you can see the result. Below are the boys water colour representations of a thorn tree. Now I just need to find somewhere to pin them up. Maybe if I cut down the frame....!

In the beginning...geography , and all that!

I am very pleased with this Bible Story book. Although not written by the same author it puts me in mind of this book in its style.

Its illustrations are bright and colourful. Yes they are cartoony but to be honest I have not been all that impressed with “realism” in children’s Bible illustrations and neither have my children!

Here are some of the pages in the Bible.I saw this idea on someone’s blog about drawing the days of creation in number form and illustrating each day on each number. I thought it would be a fun nemonic and a good way to combine our faith studies with our geography focus for the year which happens to be the continents.





And here are some quotes from the first story in this  Bible:

On the fourth day God gave us the gifts of the great lights.
“Hello stars!’ God said. “Hello moon! Hello sun!”And whizzing into the darkness came fiery globes.
Spinning around and around;
whirling orange and purple and golden planets.
“You’re good,” God said.
And they were.

But God saved the best for last. From the beginning, God had a shining dream in his heart. He would make people to share his Forever Happiness. They would be his children, and the world would be their perfect home.
…all the stars and the mountains and oceans and galaxies and everything were nothing compared to how much God loved his children. He would move heaven and earth to be near them. Always. Whatever it cost him, he would always love them. And so it was that the wonderful love story began…

African study

I have just found this really great site! I've always liked National Geographic for its great pictures but some of the articles are questionable for my 11yo + 7yo to read so I was thrilled to see there is a site for kids! Now if you subscribe to the printed magazine or have seen a copy of it could you comment please on its quality etc

A movie

Went to see Slumdog millionaire with my friend Mary yesterday, just as the cool change was coming in. Recommended by ds(19). Terrific movie...you've got to see it.Here are some reviews rather than me re-invent the wheel(because I'm still getting used to that coool change!)

"Locates the lamplight of human desire, and proves that it burns all across the world, no matter circumstance, ethnicity or religion..."

"Dickens would undoubtedly have approved: after all, his stories invariably had happy endings. "

"Digs into India's gritty depths, where it juxtaposes squalor, exploitation and corruption with humanity's fight to overcome it. Elements are predictable, but the movie never is slight, in large part due to its superb cast."

"Whoever thought that a movie that begins with torture would turn out to be an anthem to friendship and joy?"

Just another thought!

Ironic isn't it. Our Lady of Guadalupe turn this man's heart to your Son!

To think on

Dd started at her senior college today . Her Classical  Studies teacher said in his introduction to the course that he was a practicing Atheist, thank god but even so it was important for him to let go of his belief system when studying the classics….good for him! (and I do thank God!)

 On a different slant(or is it) in our reading of “The Last Battle” this morning:

 “You see,” said Aslan.”They will not let us help them. …Their prison is only in their minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.”