So this is one of those posts that I started back in February and planned to post before the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, but apparently didn't have time.  But how convenient that I just found it and we are two days from celebrating St. Bernadette Soubirous!  So killing two birds with one stone. Or something like that...

My family actually did celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes on February 11, so I will share some of the things we did, as well as some other ideas.  

Read 

I've really been working to build our library of Catholic saints, so I have several good books with information about St. Bernadette. We read Our Lady of Lourdes by Father Lovasik. It's expensive on Amazon, but I got it from a local Catholic gift shop for $1.99.


We also have the Loyola Kids Book of Saints, which is an awesome compilation of well-known saints and their stories, including St. Bernadette.  You could buy the e-book version if you had to have it in time. 

A few other children's books about St. Bernadette and Lourdes, that might be worth checking out can be found here, here, and here.

Watch

We watch Bernadette, The Princess of Lourdes from CCC, which tells the story of Our Lady appearing to Bernadette.  It is a very cute 30 minute movie.  A friend from church lent us their copy, and my girls love it!  You might be able to find a copy in your church's library, or you can buy one from the CCC for the next couple days 50% off!

Our family also watched The Song of Bernadette that we got on DVD from Netflix, which is a black and white telling of the story made in 1943.  It is very well done, and my girls both watched it with us and enjoyed it.  Plus Vincent Price plays the pompous, Atheist prosecutor who tries to break Bernadette's spirits.  You can't really beat that.  So good.

Color

Our Lady of Lourdes coloring page
Catholic Playground

Each of the kiddos (my girls and nephew) colored one of these lovely Our Lady of Lourdes coloring pages from from Catholic Playground.

Make

Grace (5) made an Our Lady of Lourdes holy water font for her room.  It was pretty cute to see how excited she was to have her own holy water font.  Love it!  So we used this idea from Cottage Blessings as inspiration, and this is what Grace made.

I bought the wood plaque for $1 at the craft store, the brackets to nail into the back (which are found in the framing section), modge podge, a foam brush, and a bag of mosaic tiles (these were a little expensive, but I wanted something that would look nice, not junky).  The picture of Our Lady of Lourdes I found online, printed, and we modge-podged it to the wood.  I like the idea of using a clear plastic shot glass to hold the water, but I couldn't really find anything that would work at the craft store, so we went with half of a plastic Easter egg.  Warning, many plastic eggs have holes in them, so be sure to find one without a hole!  

Pray

This is a perfect feast day to pray a family rosary, just as St. Bernadette prayed the rosary with Mary.  Our Lady of Lourdes is also known for healing, so pray some intentions for those you know who are sick or in need of healing.  You could also pray the Our Lady of Lourdes novena.

Eat

Since Lourdes, where Bernadette lived and the apparitions took place, is in France, we listened to the traditional French Pandora music station as we ate a French dish called Chicken Chasseur.  There are lots of options though, like eating food that is white or blue, since Our Lady of Lourdes was wearing a white robe with a blue sash.  Maybe blueberry crepes with white whipped cream?  You know, I'd eat that for the sake of a feast day.  

Now I saved the best for last.  Because this is fantastic.  Wait for it....

Rice Crispy Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto
Catholic Cuisine

Yeah, you saw that right.  A rice crispy treat grotto.  With Mary.  This was by the far the easiest, most delicious, most kid-enthusiastic thing we did.  And no mine was not this fancy with colored leaves.  When the rice crispy and marshmallow delicious mix was still warm, I molded it into a grotto.  And then I placed the Mary from our play Nativity set into it.  Boom.

Now that we did all that for the Feast in February, I've got to come up with some quick ideas for St. Bernadette's feast day this week.

If you have any ideas, let me know in the comments below!

-Jessica

Catholic Family Meeting {Prep for Sunday, January 11} - Baptism of the Lord!

Christmas is almost officially over.  Although I've often heard the Christmas season is finished after the Epiphany, it's still liturgically Christmas until after this Sunday's Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  

I plan on reflecting with my family about the Christmas season and ways to bring the joy of Christmas into our daily lives for the rest of the year.

During Advent, there were a couple week's that focused on John the Baptist.  In this Sunday's gospel reading, we see John baptize Jesus in the Jordan River.  There are lots of fun and simple ways to enjoy this feast with our families, and several are included in this week's family meeting slideshow:

Celebrating the Real Season of Christmas {December 25 and after}

Culturally, the Christmas season seems to die down a couple days after December 25.  Christmas music is no longer on the radio.  Christmas decorations are taken down, and stores relocate Christmas items to the clearance section.  This makes perfect sense in a world where we start celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  

But for those of us who have been focusing on the waiting and expectation of Christmas during Advent, it's important that the real Christmas season gets it's due.  The Church's Christmas season technically lasts until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which is January 11 this year.  

We have been listening to some Christmas music and taking part in many of Christmas traditions, but I really want the Church's Christmas season to really be celebrated.  

To help us celebrate, I plan on continuing with Christmas music, visiting a local lights display, and eating special treats.  We will also be leaving our tree up for the next couple of weeks. 

In addition, there are some important feast days during the Christmas season that can be fun to celebrate.  Below is a list of the feast days and simple ideas for observing them.
  

Dec. 25 - Christmas

I'm sure you have PLENTY of ideas for celebrating Christmas day, so we'll move on...

Dec. 26 - Feast of St. Stephen (first martyr)

• Boxing Day, a British tradition celebrated on St. Stephen's Day, is a day to open the poor "boxes" and give to the needy.  As a family, gather items or money to give to the poor or prepare a gift for someone in need.
• Read or sing "Good King Wenceslas", which is about the real St. Wenceslaus, who went out to do good deeds on St. Stephen's Day

• Prepare a food characteristic of St. Stephen's Day, like the ones listed here in the blue sidebar.

Dec. 27 - Feast of St. John the Evangelist

• Read the gospel of John (written by St. John).
• John was the apostle that Jesus most loved.  He is often pictured near or next to Jesus, like at the Last Supper, the Transfiguration, and Jesus' crucifixion.  Have the kids hunt for John in biblical pictures.

• Drink wine or make hot spiced wine, as it is said St. John drank poisoned wine without getting sick and that wine offered on his feast day is blessed.
• An eagle is the symbol of St. John.  Go bird watching and look out for eagles.

Dec. 28 (Sunday) - Feast of the Holy Family

• Prep for mass with our family meeting slideshow
• Have a family get-together or family outing
• Eat Lebanese food like Mary would have prepared for Joseph and Jesus.

Dec. 29 -  St. Thomas Becket

• Have an English tea party and discuss St. Thomas' life, complete with English tea and treats, like crackers, cookies, cheese, and fruits.
• Bake sword and mitre cookies, with a simple sugar cookie recipe.  Or you could cut sandwiches into swords with mitres.
• Adults can watch Becket, which is streaming on Netflix!

Dec. 31 - St. Sylvester

• Make Sylvester Punch, an Austrian tradition of spiced wine/tea
• Give thanks for the past year and
• Celebrate the New Year

Jan. 1 - Mary, Mother of God

• Attend mass (it's a holy day of obligation)
• Pray a rosary together.
• Make a simple Blessed Brownie with a fleur-de-lis (a symbol of Mary) on top with icing or powdered sugar
• Visit the Statue of Mary at church

Jan. 3 - Most Holy Name of Jesus

• Color a poster for Jesus' name, like this one:

Free Printable
Real Life at Home

• Make cookies (or brownies, cake, etc), and cut them into J's or use icing to write Jesus's name on them.
• Pray the Litany of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

I'm hoping to plan more for the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord.  Have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year!