A couple months ago we ordered the MagnifiKid, the weekly missal published by the makers of Magnificat. We have really been enjoying it and believe it was worth the cost.
Each month we get a packet of Missals for every Sunday and major feast days.
Each Missal includes:
— All the readings and the prayers of the Sunday Mass with explanations of the difficult words and the meaning of the rituals;
— A daily prayer adapted from the Liturgy of the Hours;
— Many suggestions on how to live the entire week with the Lord ;
— Various games, a comic, and activities to help children learn about Christian life and culture;
— A page intended for the parents with suggestions for family prayers.
For more information, to order or to browse a complete missal, visit Magnificat.net/magnifikid/.
Category Archives: catholic faith
MagnifiKid Missal
7 Quick Takes (7/13/12): Illness, Books, Family Beds & NFP
Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.
– 1 –
I’m Feeling Dauncy – I wasn’t sure if I was going to do QT today since I am a little under the weather. On Wednesday I was up all night with what I thought was food poisoning, even though no one else in the family was really sick and we all basically ate the same thing. Brian said there is a flu bug that is going around and maybe I caught it. I don’t know. I went for my walk this morning and I barely made 1.3 miles. I am still a bit queasy, have a head ache and ache a little. Not really sick but not my normal self either. I double checked my NFP chart…just in case but it is very unlikely. So maybe I do have a bug. Hopefully it is short lived.
– 2 –
Movie Date… without a date – Brian said I should get out of the house this weekend and just relax and go to the movies or something. (He knows how I love going to the movies.) I used to be phobic about going to places like the movies alone. I always wanted someone with me but ever since I was dying to see the Hunger Games last March, I went to the movies solo for the first time. I kinda loved it. I checked the movies playing at our local theater and all the movies I wanted to see aren’t playing anymore. How is that possible? They barely came out a few weeks ago. Well, I think it came down to either Magic Mike – not gonna happen – or Spiderman. So it may be me and Spidey this weekend.
– 3 –
Summer Reading – Last year I started reading the book Rachel’s Contrition and although I was enjoying it, I switched over to a Kindle and started reading my books on there. The book was not available as an e-book so it was forgotten on my bookshelf. I found it recently and decided to old-school it and read it in the evenings with a book light. I really enjoyed the story. It is sad but there is a lot of hope and I loved the way St. Therese was helping Rachel to heal and change her way of thinking. I’d find myself during the day thinking, “Remember what St. Therese was saying in that book? You should try having the same attitude, Bobbi.” I have to remind myself like that. I have spiritual ADD.
– 4 –
Circa: Feb 2010
I’m A Big Boy Now – The reason I have time to read in the evening for 10-15 minutes is because we’ve switched sleeping arrangements for the kids. Bella used to sleep in the same room with Andrew because he would get afraid to be alone at night. John-Paul and Matthew slept in our room. By the time one of our kids is over two years old, we move them out of our room. JP was at the age but we waited until summer to transition him since we anticipated crying, sleepless nights and didn’t want to deal with that on school nights. I am pleased to say that the transition has gone great. After night prayers, teeth brushing, and book reading JP and Andrew are tucked in and ready to knock off. I turn off the light but to ease them into sleep I stay in the room 10 minutes (and read with my book light.) Slowly, the time is decreasing until I kiss them goodnight and just leave.
– 5 –
WARNING: THIS IS A TMI – NFP TAKE SO SKIP IT IF THAT’S NOT YOUR THING. The other day Brian and I were laughing because when I talked about NFP in a previous post, I mentioned ways to get “in the mood” on green days. I now discovered a top way – transitioning out of the “family bed.” Having a sleeping baby in between you and your husband (literally) can dampen the mood. However, sleeping right next to my husband again has made any “prep time” unnecessary. I’m not saying a family bed is wrong, I am just saying the season after it is really, um, nice. I told Brian it is a good thing we have shared our bed these last twelve years or else we’d probably have 12 kids by now. Which makes me think…that queasiness I have been feeling…am I sure I’m not…no, I still don’t think I am.
– 6 –
Source: nfpandme.blogspot.com
A Guy’s View – Speaking of NFP, I read two NFP posts this week that I really enjoyed. The first is from Camp Patton: Natural Family Planning: A Husband’s Perspective by Michael Hahn (As in Scott Hahn’s son.) It was nice to get a guy’s perspective of NFP. The second post is from Stephanie at Littles Make the World Go Round. Check out her NFP posts where she tells the story of how she got off the pill and placed her trust and fertility into the hands of God.
– 7 –
Come, Holy Spirit – And speaking of controversial church teachings like the use of artificial contraception, here is an excellent article from Jen at Conversion Diary called A Conversation with My Gay Friend. To be honest with you, I struggle a great deal with church teaching about this subject but this is one of the best down to earth explanations I have read so far. Thankfully, in our faith journey you don’t have to completely understand (or completely agree with) a church teaching but you can humbly trust in the Church’s wisdom as you try to better understand and accept with both your head and your heart.
That’s it for today. Have a wonderful weekend!!
7 Quick Takes (5/25/12): Lice, A Pet Dies & Putting Life in Perspective
Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.
– 1 –
Lice Patrol – It has been a crazy, busy week here and a certain event made it even crazier. That is why I haven’t posted anything for days. I was going to skip today as well but I seriously need a little break to just relax and write. The first item of news is that we’ve been bitten by the lice bug. Just typing that is grossing me out and making my head itch.
On Wednesday evening we got an email from our school saying that we may have been exposed to someone with lice, so check our kids. I checked Bella and she had some white flakes in her hair and I thought perhaps it was just a bit of dandruff or dried hair product. I told her to take her shower and wash her hair then I’ll recheck. Meanwhile, I go online and look up more info on exactly what lice and nits look like. Then I hear Bella call me from the bathroom. She said her hair was itching and when she scratched she found this thing in her hair. There it was. The tiny, sesame seed sized lice. Nooooo!!!!! I then check the boys. Andrew and John-Paul are infected too. An even bigger Noooooooooooooo!!!!
– 2 –
I Can Do This – I sigh. Then I freak out. Then I calmly told myself, “Okay, I can handle this. It’s not the end of the world.” I texted Brian, who was at a late meeting, and asked him to stop at the store and buy some lice treatment when he was done. In the meantime, I thought about how I needed to wash all the sheets and bedding. As God’s providence may have it, the night before we had one kid with a bloody nose that soiled the sheets and two kids with potty accidents (including in my bed) so I had already stripped everyone’s beds and washed all the sheets and blankets, including my own. (I was never so happy someone peed in my bed!)
– 3 –
The Battle Begins – Finally, Brian came back from his meeting by 7:30 PM with the stuff I needed. I started with the boys. By 11:00 PM I had them treated, bathed and put to bed. Bella said she was still wide awake and it wasn’t too late to start her treatment. Brian went to bed and at 11:30 PM Bella and I started the countdown. Four stinkin hours later, we were finally done. (I think we watched the whole second season of Good Luck, Charlie.) I dragged myself to bed at 4:00 AM and was able to sleep 2 hours and 50 minutes until the Matthew was jumping on my head, ready for breakfast. Yep, it was going to be a loooooong day.
– 4 –
I’ve Still Got the Heebie-Jeebies – Two days later, things are looking much better. I am still washing the last of random throw pillows and stuffed animals and checking the kids’ heads obsessively but it seems like we are nearing the end. Although, all this lice stuff has me paranoid. If I see the kids scratching, I run over to check their heads. I ask Brian over and over to look through my hair and make sure nothing is there because I could swear I feel little critters running around my scalp. He checks and finds nothing. It doesn’t help that I’m a bit of a hypochondriac and I think it is rubbing off on the kids because they’ll run over to me saying, “My head itches here, Mama!” I inspect and double check until I find a bit of dry scalp. We then cheer and do a happy dance in honor of finding a speck of dandruff and not a bug.
– 5 –
Good bye, Dear Francis – All this lice drama overshadowed another sad event that took place earlier this week. We lost Bella’s pet fish Francis. I knew his end was near because his coloring was changing and he wasn’t eating well. After I told Bella and she had her cry, she told me that a weird thing happened. When she had her first fish Blueberry, she had a dream that she died. The next day, she did die. Earlier this week, she had a dream that Francis died. The next day, he did die. Creepy. I told her that if she has a dream that I die, do not tell me. On second thought, do tell me so I can say my goodbyes.
– 6 –
Putting Life in Perspective – This morning I was thinking about the crazy week we had and the inconveniences we were going through. The Holy Spirit kept whispering that word in my heart. “Inconveniences.” That’s all this really is. In the grand scheme of things, at worse it is a bit of a hassle. At best it is a funny blog post and a lesson learned. Then I couldn’t stop thinking about a local mom that used to have her daughter in the kids’ preschool. Her daughter is now 8 and she has a baby boy who is 1 ½. This mom was just diagnosed with extremely advanced colon cancer and only given a couple weeks to live, perhaps longer with treatment. I couldn’t believe it. My heart breaks for her and her family. All my little trials are nothing… nothing… compared to the cross this mom is carrying.
– 7 –
Join in Prayer – So join me and the next time you are about to lose it or complain about something, stop and thank God that you have such a little cross to carry in comparison to others. And please say a prayer for Kimberly and her family. Although I haven’t met this mom personally (my friends know her) I feel like I need to do something for her. I’ll see if I can cook a meal for the family or something but I know I can at least pray. I thought I could send her a spiritual bouquet of prayers. If you’d like to add your prayers for this fellow mom, just leave a comment or email me at rol@revolutionoflove.com by May 31and I’ll make up a card for her and send it.
That’s it for today. Have a wonderful weekend!!
Book Discussion: Style, Sex, and Substance (Chpt. 3)
For the next few Weigh-in Wednesdays I’ll be doing a book study of Hallie Lord’s Style, Sex, and Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter .
Previous posts:
Chapter 1 – “How I Fell Out of My Minivan and Found Myself” by Jen Fulwiler.
Chapter 2 – “Style: Balance, Beauty and You” by Hallie Lord
Book Discussion Part 3: Chapter 3 – “God and Godiva” by Karen Edmisten
Two Concerns – When I write about prayer and the spiritual life, I find it difficult because I never know where the other person is at spiritually speaking. There are some Catholics who will say grace before meals and perhaps a quick prayer in the morning and the night. Then there are some who go to daily Mass, pray a daily rosary, attend weekly adoration, read the Bible and the Breviary. There is not much I can tell them that they don’t already know. On the contrary, I am the one who can learn from them.
So when I first saw that Karen Edmisten’s chapter was about prayer, two thoughts immediately came to mind. First, I hope she is not over-my-head spiritual and I get lost when she starts talking about locutions and whatnot. The second concern was what can she say that I haven’t already read a hundred times? I sighed and opened up the chapter anyway.
God Speaks – Just as I was about to start reading, Matthew (my one year old) started banging his toy on our flat screen TV. I looked up and could see the color of the TV screen go white at the spot where he was banging. Quickly I turn off the TV and took the toy away knowing that it would do little good because it is a game he enjoys playing. I tell him no, take the object away and get him interested in something else. He waits for me to walk away and then he runs back to the TV and bangs it with any object he can find. As I am looking at him exasperated, I can hear that “God voice” in my heart says, “You know, Bobbi. You are just like little Matthew. I tell you something. You listen for a few minutes then you are off doing your own thing again. You may have heard all that prayer stuff many times before but are you actually listening and following it? Are you so proficient that you have nothing left to learn?” Touché.
I’m Hooked – I return to the book and dig into Chapter 3, knowing that God has his lessons for me. My second concern that Karen would be too lofty was alleviated when I read advice like this:
“Theoretically, the when of prayer is simpler than the what. We pick a time, and we commune with God, right? Eh, not so fast there, missy. In my experience, life rarely goes as planned. We all keep waiting for that golden, magical moment when life will settle down, and everything will shimmer and waft dreamily into place. Listen to me very carefully: Life doesn’t settle down. Not on this side of heaven. Still, there are a few things we can do to help our messy, unshimmery lives run a little more smoothly.”
Oh, yeah. That’s a woman after my own heart! Seriously, I feel like skipping my comments and just tell you to go read her chapter for yourself. It is concise, down to earth and spot on. I can’t explain it any better than she already did and the Holy Spirit may highlight something to you that is completely different from what he wanted me to hear. It is a great overview and you can get other material to delve deeper into the areas that most struck you. Regardless, I’ll go ahead and share a couple things that touched me the most.
But I Already Know That – One of Karen’s opening paragraph’s sums up the whole need for this chapter:
“But no matter what the temptations, the solution to conquering them is the same: grace and prayer, the sacraments, accountability, spiritual support from others, and ongoing discernment to keep our relationship with God flourishing.”
She goes on to say:
“We know what it is. We know we need to do it. And we agonize over fitting it in. But without prayer, we haven’t got a prayer.”
That’s right. We’ve all heard it. We all know it. But like the little toddler with his mischievous ways, there is always something to learn or be reminded.
Karen talks about various forms of prayer but I especially enjoyed when she said to “embrace your vocation or current state in life.” She continues:
“Whether you’re single, married, or discerning a call to religious life, deliriously happy or a confused mess, offer it up to God. Give him every moment. Prayers and pleas muttered throughout the day (God loves intimate muttering, I’m sure of it) are a great way to stay in touch with him.”
This reminded me of a time last year when my brother was really sick and almost dying. He was on my mind all the time but we lived far apart and I couldn’t be near him. Instead I turned to God. In a previous post about it, I wrote:
“…with my brother on my mind so much I have been constantly turning my heart to God to pray for him or to just talk to God about what happens to be on my mind. It is a reminder of how I should always be – going about my work but aware of God’s presence with me. I noticed that when I had to stop what I was doing to tend to another toddler crisis, instead of complaining or having a fit of impatience, I just sighed and thought, “I do this for love of you, my Lord.”
I still think of that today and try to remember it. Karen gave some beautiful examples of how we can keep that prayer going throughout the day to day activities in our lives.
Visual Aids – Karen shares:
“My friend Johnna, a mother of eight, stations strategic visual reminders around her house to help her focus on her calling. ‘When I’m in the midst of chaos,’ she said, ‘which is our house most of the time, I need to see that I am not alone.’ The corporal works of mercy are labeled in various rooms of the house. A homemade sign exhorting, ‘Feed the hungry’ is taped to a cupboard. ‘Give drink to the thirsty’ is above the kitchen sink, and ‘Clothe the naked’ graces the washing machine. The time-out chair beckons, ‘Visit the Imprisoned.'”
I love that idea! We have a very (as my mother-in-law calls it) “Catholic house” meaning that people can tell we are Catholic by all the icons, religious pictures, statues and prayer altar. (Hopefully our actions prove the fact. 😉 I am a very visual person so I like to keep an icon of Mary and baby Jesus on my kitchen window ledge and a cross on the kitchen wall and a crucifix and an icon of my patron saint (St. Anne) on my desk in front of my monitor so I always see it.
In fact, I loved the Works of Mercy idea so much that I made a 5×7 sign, printed it on cardstock and posted it to the cabinet above my washing machine. It is a perfect reminder as I am washing the tenth load of laundry that day.
Scheduling – Remember that first quote from Karen that I posted, that was from the section about making time for prayer. I am happy to say that I finally made it work with my confession time. I like to go to confession at the least once a month (more often when I am in need of extra grace.) It was always sort of hit and miss but now that Bella is old enough to come with me I had to make it a steady habit, for her as well as me. We decided to go every last Saturday of the month. It is on our calendar and Brian knows that he’ll babysit the boys while she and I go.
Just last Saturday (which was the last one of the month) I was already thinking, “Gosh, I have so many errands to do this Saturday. I want to get to Target first then head to Costco right at 9:30 AM when it opens… maybe I’ll just skip Confession and go next week (since confession also starts at 9:30 AM.) It’s not like I won’t go… I’m just waiting an extra week….” But I knew I couldn’t. Instead I rearranged my day so I could do to confession first then run my errands. Sure things were a little more hectic in the parking lot and crowded in the Costco aisles but my heart was able to take it since it was filled with grace. 🙂 And it was a small act of love I could offer to God. (Yes, I am so low on the spiritual totem pole that forgoing an early trip to Costco counts as a sacrifice. 😉
Accountability & Spiritual Friendships – That is an area I definitely need work on. I don’t have a formal spiritual director although I go to confession to the same priest who knows me and my family situation so he is able to guide me in my vocation. However, I don’t have female friends who I am really close to in order to discuss deeper, spiritual topics. I used to but it seems like since I was pregnant with Matthew we sort of fell out of touch. That is something I’ll have to rectify. I can talk more about that in the chapter about friendship.
Discernment – Karen briefly talks about the book Retreat with the Lord by Fr. John Hardon. The book offers simple steps for discernment based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. She gives bullet point categories of discernment that we should consider while praying. I found this really helpful since a mother’s life is full of prayer and discernment about herself, her family and those around her.
“My One Thing” – In the last section of Karen’s chapter she says:
“Though my life has been full of about-faces, since my conversion I can say one thing with confidence: I know who I am. Life is still messy, but I get that the goal in life is to will one thing: loving Jesus Christ.”
We should each have that one goal that is always at the forefront of our mind and at the center of our hearts in all that we do. As I mentioned in another previous post, lately my one goal has been to love Jesus and to be a comfort to him. I wrote:
“… I was at confession and the priest talked to me about being a comfort to Jesus. He told me to let my heart be a dwelling place that brings comfort to Christ… It is easy for me to call on Jesus and seek his help but something struck a nerve when the priest told me that I could console the heart of Christ. Since then I have often prayed, “Lord, may I never bring you grief, instead may I be a comfort to your heart.”
Sometimes I forget that but Karen’s chapter helped me to not only remember but it gave me practical means to put that into practice. So I guess I did have something to learn after all.
A special thanks to Karen for writing this chapter and sharing her wisdom and wit with us.
Flashback: St. Louis de Montfort, Pray for Us!
To celebrate the 9th Birthday of the RoL Blog, I am posting flashback posts from the first year of blogging. This was originally posted in 2003 on this day April 28, the feast of St. Louis de Montfort
Today is the feast day of St. Louis de Montford. Whenever I hear his name I think of my old parish priest and spiritual director Fr. Louis Marx. I met Fr. Marx in my early 20’s after my conversion and he was immensely instrumental in my deepening faith and spirituality.
I vividly remember on one New Year’s Eve service, I took his advice and made a general confession of all my sins. (And there were plenty from when I was far from God.) I was so ashamed I could barely get the words out in the confessional but he was kind, understanding and gave me the hope I needed to live my life anew. His deep faith and incredible reverence during the Mass spoke volumes without saying a word. I recall his counsel when I considered a religious vocation and just as he thought, it was not my vocation. Later he gave private classes to Brian and me as we prepared for our marriage.
It has been a few years since I’ve talked to Fr. Marx, having moved after I was married, yet he is still close to my heart. I owe him so much. He has been a true spiritual father to me and I love him like a spiritual daughter. It make me wonder if he knows how much he’s touched my life. I think this afternoon I will write him and tell him just that.
Let’s all say a prayer of thanksgiving for the wonderful priests in our lives that have made our lives richer and faith more alive!