All Saints Day

Saintly Festivties

November 1, 2014 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: All Saints Day, Costumes, GFG Leave a Comment

Our Parish held their Annual All Saints Eve Party. It is a great joy for us to celebrate in anticipation for the blessed feast day.

This is the great family feast of the Mystical Body in its final triumph. The unnumbered and nameless multitude of saints, “out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues,” are our brothers and sisters in Christ at home with our Redeemer-Brother. Their sainthood is the fulfillment of living the eight Beatitudes. They are the great Christian heroes. “Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love Him” (I Cor. 2:9).

JOYfilledfamily Saint Line-up

(Missing – San Gennaro) St. Florian, St. John Bosco, St. Kateri, and St. Olga

St. Florian

Patron: against battle, against drowning, against fire, against flood, barrel-makers, brewers, chimney sweeps, coopers, drowning victims, fire prevention, firefighters, harvests, soap-boilers, Austria, Poland, and Chur, Switzerland.

St. Olga

She was the first Rus’ ruler to convert to Christianity. Olga was one of the first people of Rus’ to be proclaimed a saint, for her efforts to spread the Christian religion in the country.

St. John Bosco

Patron: Apprentices; boys; editors; Mexican young people; laborers; schoolchildren; students; young people.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha

Patron: Ecologists; ecology; environment; environmentalism; environmentalists; exiles; loss of parents; people in exile; people ridiculed for their piety

St. Gennaro

Patron: patron of Naples, Italy; blood banks; volcanic eruption

How to Make a Priest Biretta {Picture Version}

October 28, 2014 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: All Saints Day, Costumes, Crafts, St. John Bosco 6 Comments

Papi had his heart set on being St. John Bosco for All Saints’ Day. I guess he didn’t get the memo that mama was out on pregnancy leave. He rallied the troops and collected money for me to take a trip to the nearby fabric store, at 8 pm no less. It took me another week to muster up the energy to begin my costume making ~~sweat shop~~ boutique. That week was last week, two weeks before the beautiful feast day celebrations. Praise God, I’m ahead of schedule.

I desired to piece together his cassock costume in the wee hours of the night so I could have uninterrupted sewing bliss but he had other plans. He urged me to get moving so he could sew his cassock. By sewing I mean pressing the foot pedal and supervising my fabric feeding. The cassock was completed within minutes. It has plenty of room for improvement but has been given the seven year old stamp of approval. Papi was so giddy with his work that he allowed me to start the biretta the following day. Such a generous boy is he.

Good thing Melody finally got around to sharing her biretta making tricks. (Love ya, Melody.) I had planned on making birettas for the boys’ Christmas presents and was excited to use the pattern and tutorial that she provided. (I can now check off birettas from the Christmas list.) I stared at the pattern for a good part of the day then finally built up the courage to get to work. My courage faded after step 3. Turns out that the pattern was not intended for placenta brain. I contacted Melody out of desperation and she walked me through the process. She also talked me off the cliff on numerous occasions.

It’s far more simple than you realize….Focus. Reread my last instruction. It’s not as hard as it seems…Yes! that’s it!…Maybe put it down and finish tomorrow. You sound crafted out…It looks great, btw.

Praise God for fellow mamas waist deep in the trenches who seek to counsel the doubtful.

Here is my photo tutorial for the DIY Biretta for the simple minded mamas. Be sure to check Blossoming Joy’s post, How to Make a Priest Biretta for All Saints’ Day, for a full description, link to the biretta pattern, and link to the pom pom tutorial.

Biretta

The biretta is a tri-cornered or square-shaped hat with silk trim, tuft (except for the birette of seminarians and cardinals) and three raised wings, called “horns,” on top at three corners (the side of the hat without the horn is worn on the left side of the head). It is made of scarlet silk for cardinals, violet silk for bishops, and black merlino for priests, deacons, and seminarians. ~ Fisheaters

Presto!

Now mama can get some rest.

All Hallows’ Day

November 1, 2013 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: 10 October, 10 October Saints, All Hallow's Eve, All Saints Day 5 Comments

This is a Holy Day of Obligation on which we celebrate the Church Triumphant — all the Saints in Heaven, canonized or unknown.

We were blessed to attend our parish festivities for All Hallow’s Eve, in preparation for All Saints’ Day.

St. Joseph the Carpenter led the way. Papi came up with his own saint and costume. It worked out nicely since his Nina gave him a wooden tool box to construct. He used Sweetie’s robe from her Martha costume.

Lil’ man celebrated his first All Saint’s’ Day.

Mass was followed by a Procession and Litany of Saints.

Everyone gathered under the tent for the Parade of Saints and Guess My Saint Contest.

There were plenty of activities and treats for the lil’ saints.

Dragonfly San Giorgio was a fisher of men.

The Catacombs was one of our favorite activities. A family who moved from out of state created this great activity. They used their moving boxes to make up the Catacombs, box maze. Each pilgrim was sent through the Catacombs with a glow stick.

Sweetie and her friend were unplanned twinsies, St. Therese.

Sparkles St. Bernadette was in good company with St. Therese and St. Zeta.

The evening ended with Fr. M’s Campfire Story.

ORATE PRO NOBIS

~~~

Thanks to all the families who offered their time, talent, and resources for this blessed event that helps our children keep their eyes on our goal –- HEAVEN.

~~~

All Saints’ Day Parties from the Past:

No Tricks or Treats

October 28, 2013 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: 11 November Saints, All Saints Day Leave a Comment

(re-post from 2012)

My family is blessed to be able to spend All Hallows Eve celebrating the Saints with friends and Priests in our parish community.

I usually make a cute sign out of scrapbook materials to evangelize and let all would be trick-or-treaters aware that we do not have goodies.

Here is the sign that I will be posting (again) this year.

~~~

Feast of All Saints

November 1st

Why has the Church instituted this festival?

To give praise to God in His saints, and to pay to the saints themselves the honor which they merit for having made it the work of their earthly life to promote the honor of God.

To impress vividly upon our minds that we are members of that holy Catholic Church which believes in the communion of saints, that is, in the communion of all true Christians, who belong to the Church triumphant in heaven, to the Church suffering in purgatory, or to the Church militant upon earth; but, more particularly, to cause us earnestly to consider the communion of the saints in heaven with us, who are yet battling on earth.

To exhort us to raise our eyes and hearts, especially on this day, to heaven, where before the throne of God is gathered the innumerable multitude of saints of all countries, times, nationalities and ranks of life, who have faithfully followed Christ and left us glorious examples of virtues, which we ought to imitate. This we can do, for the saints, too, were weak men, who fought and conquered only by the grace of God, which will not be denied to us.

To honor those saints, for whom during the year there is no special festival appointed by the Church. Finally, that in consideration of so many intercessors God may grant us perfect reconciliation, may permit us to share in their merits, and may grant us the grace to enjoy with them, one day, the bliss of heaven.

Pope Boniface IV first suggested the celebration of this festival, when in 610 he ordered that the Pantheon, a pagan temple at Rome, dedicated to all the gods, should be converted into a Christian church, and the relics of the saints, dispersed through the different Roman cemeteries, taken up and placed therein. He then dedicated the Church to the honor of the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, and thus for the first time celebrated the Festival of All Saints, directing that it should be observed in Rome every year. Pope Gregory IV extended this feast to the whole Catholic Church, and appointed the 1st of November as the day of it’s celebration.

~taken from “The Church’s Year” by Fr. Leonard Goffine

All Saints’ Day Party

November 2, 2012 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: 10 October, 11 November, 11 November Saints, All Saints Day, GFG 1 Comment

we were blessed to be able to attend this year’s parish festivities.

only the littles dressed up this year but all were excited.

sparkles was ruth.

sweetie was martha.

dragonfly was st. george. here he is waiting for the parade of saints.

papi was st. michael. there was no convincing him that angel wings are for boys, too.

also, it turns out that dressing at home beats dressing up elsewhere.

both papi and dragon barely made it through the litany of saints with costumes on. here they are, ten minutes into the parade of saints, sans costumes. we did manage to keep their pants on.