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

I want to be like Mary, forgo my own plan, and follow God's plan instead

I love when God times something so perfectly that it becomes uber obvious and a wonderful teaching point just slaps me in the face (a gentle God-slap, of course).  

This past week was the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord (AKA when Mary said "yes" to God's will and became the mother of Jesus Christ).  This happened to coincide with my weekly bible study group's study of Mary.  (Walking With Purpose.  Woot woot!)  And so you could say I've got our Blessed Mother on the brain, and it made me think about how I want to be like her.


In Luke 1:38, Mary responds to the Angel Gabriel, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, May it be done to me according to your word." 

Cassie Pease Designs

 

Mary, a betrothed virgin, accepted God's will as her own, despite the very serious challenges that it would cause in her life, with her future husband, her family, and her community.  I'm sure like all of us, she had many plans for her future, none of which included raising the Son of God as her own and later watching him be put to death.  But Mary is eternally faithful and put her trust in the Lord, knowing that He knows best.

So this made me think of my own journey in faith and my need to focus on God's will.

I spent my teenage years trying to be perfect.  I thought, "If I have perfect hair and perfect clothes, if I'm a perfect athlete and student, if I'm perfectly kind and funny, if I'm perfect, people will love me and I'll be happy."  As an adult, I've often bought into our culture's ideals of being the perfect woman and having the perfect house, the perfect family, and the perfect stuff.   

Surprise!  None of that made me content with life, and striving for worldly perfection just left me feeling even more flawed.  Sure I was happy most of the time and I have loved my life, but I still felt like I was missing something vitally important.   

I've heard it explained that we all have a God-shaped hole.  There's even a song about it.  We try to fill that hole with different things:  money, relationships with people, careers, sex, material goods, traveling, you name it.  But the only thing that can fill the God-shaped hole is....(ding ding.  I'm sure you got it!) God!

All this time, I never asked what God's plan was for me.  I was living for myself and my will.  It has taken several years of growing my faith to get to a point where I'm wholeheartedly seeking to do God's will.  Only when I started to focus on doing what God wants, did I find the peace and joy that I had been searching for.

But of course, this is no easy task.  I can be selfish, impatient, sarcastic, and temperamental, among other things.  (I sound like a doll, don't I?)  I'm a sinner, and I will never be perfect.  But I strive to be holy, and I know that I will not achieve that by pursuing worldly pleasures: driving the perfect car, having the perfect house, the perfect hair, or the perfect children.  (Although, God, I think having awesome hair would sure help me evangelize ;). I will only grow holier by striving to discern and do God's will, and trusting that He will give me everything I need.  I want to be like Mary, forgo my own plan, and follow God's plan instead.  

However, I know that God's plan will challenge me to do things that I won't want to do, will make me uncomfortable and will require patience and persistence, of which I don't think I'm capable.  But 

Many who know me well, know that I am an anxious person, and I grew up terribly shy to the point that the only way to get me to speak in public or assert an opinion in a group was to make it a requirement or part of a grade.  I hid from my own 5th birthday party.  I quit basketball before my junior year because being 1 person on a 5 person team put too many eyes on me.  I needed at least 11 or 12 teammates to blend in.  And I was so excited when my wedding was over, not just because I was married (yay!) but because I would never have to be the center of attention like that ever again. (double yay!)

Now, here I am trying to shove my ideas down your throat share my faith and thoughts with anyone who will read them.  I am not a good writer (as I'm sure you've noticed) and it makes me nervous each time I click publish on a post.  But I feel called by God to share in any avenue He gives me, and I pray each day that I will slow down enough to listen to Him and let Him guide me in my actions and words.  This is merely one small example of how I have seen God working in my life.  

Once I started focusing on God's plan for my life, I began noticing the many ways that He is working on my concerns, desires, struggles, and strengths in a way that I could never understand, but that make perfect sense when they come to fruition.  He gives me everything I need to follow His plan, as long as I am open it.

I want to start each day asking God for guidance in doing His will in my life.  I love this prayer from the Walking With Purpose 101 book, Choosing the Better Part by Lisa Brenninkmeyer: 

"Lord, please help me recognize when You are interrupting my plans with Your own.  

Help me to yield to You this day instead of clinging to my own agenda.  

Help me to follow You with a generous heart."

I know that I will fail, as I have many times before.  Many.  Including today.  But fortunately I no longer live my life afraid of making mistakes.  I know that God will forgive me, and the only thing I need to worry about is always striving to know Him, love Him, and do His will.  He will take care of the rest.

Toby Mac on Facebook

P.S. - Mary rocks.