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Last year I took a closer look at the Liturgical candle that was in our church. While the candle was beautiful and ornate, I couldn’t help but notice the inverted cross. In recent times, the upside down cross is used as an anti-Christian symbol. It is meant to turn the tables on Jesus’ victory and show the devil’s victory. In reality, this upside-down cross is actually a very old symbol that goes back to Saint Peter, the first pope, who was crucified as Jesus was but upside down. Peter was fleeing the growing persecution in Rome and along the way meets Jesus. He asks our Lord, “Quo vadis (Where are you going?)” His reply is a gentle rebuke: “I am going to Rome to be crucified again.” Peter understood what Jesus meant. Turning around, he returned to the city to later be crucified, as Jesus had previously, but for Peter it would be upside down. So just as the cross is the symbol of Jesus’ death and triumph, so too the upside down cross is about Peter’s death. There is even a church in Rome called “Domine Quo Vadis” which is dedicated to this meeting! Since then, the Catholic church has used this upside down cross to refer to either Peter himself or subsequent popes after him. Another symbol of the pope is keys. The origin of the keys goes back to when Jesus made Peter the first pope. This found in Matthew 16:13-19: When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” To understand the importance of what a key meant, you’ll have to go back a little further to the book of Isaiah 15:15, 19-25. This is the part of the Bible which Jesus was actually making a reference to: “Thus says the Lord, the GOD of hosts: Up, go to that official, Shebna, master of the palace,(say) I will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station. On that day I will summon my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah I will clothe him with your robe, gird him with your sash, confer on him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; what he opens, no one will shut, what he shuts, no one will open. I will fix him as a peg in a firm place, a seat of honor for his ancestral house; On him shall hang all the glory of his ancestral house: descendants and offspring, all the little dishes, from bowls to jugs. On that day, says the LORD of hosts, the peg fixed in a firm place shall give way, break off and fall, and the weight that hung on it shall be done away with; for the LORD has spoken.” Each year, the church celebrates the feast of The Chair of St. Peter on Feb. 22nd. In fact, cathedra is the Latin word for “chair”. Cathedral comes from this word because that was where the Bishop’s chair was. However, while there is a true piece of furniture by that name, the significance of this feast is about the role of pope. The Lord knew that we would always need to have a father in charge of the Christian family on earth; someone to shepherd and guide us. The chair of St. Peter is about the role of pope, his authority, and his mission to help protect and care for the church. Ultimately, it is about the pope being a father (which is what the word “pope” means). Beyond any one pope in particular, we celebrate that we have had an unbroken line of popes back to the first pope, Peter. By God’s love and grace, we always have had a father for the church militant here on earth. Happy Father’s day! Written by Jonathan Lawrence – A cradle Catholic, a husband, and a father of 9 children. He enjoys teaching his children about the stories in the Holy Bible and is happy to share a little with you.

The days get away from me and I can never seem to find a free minute to post here on the blog, but today I’m posting a quick and simple project that my 5-year-old loved! We have been learning about animals – God’s amazing creatures – so Caleb created this cute little world of animals craft! And it was a great craft to make on St. Francis of Assisi’s feast day! 😉 ABC Learning Letters: G and W “G” is for God! “W”  is for World! To make this you will need: Stock paper or light cardboard or paper plate crayons – green, blue and dark brown small animal stickers scissors How to create it: Draw a circle on your paper/cardboard. If your animal stickers are larger make your circle larger and small animal stickers = small circle. Have the child draw a cross in the middle of the circle and color it brown. Then they can make outlines of land areas with a green crayon. They can then fill in the land with green and the water with blue. Now they can cut the circle out. Have them add the land animal stickers to the green area and water animals to the blue area. That’s it! So fun and easy! My little guy loved it! Hope you and your kids love it too! ~JenMarie

My oldest son, Jacob created an adorable bouquet of flowers for me! These flowers are made from plastic Easter eggs. The eggs give this colorful bunch of flowers a cute pop! ———————————— Supplies used: colored construction paper stiff cardboard – cereal box cardboard will work plastic Easter eggs (bottom half only) green pipe cleaners – AKA: chenille stems glue stick hot glue (adult supervision is required for younger children) pencil scissors ————————————— How to make them: Use a pencil and half-eggs to create a symmetrical flower shape on the colored construction paper. With a glue stick, glue the colored paper flower onto the stiff cardboard. Glue another sheet of the same color to the back of the cardboard – sandwiching the cardboard between the colored paper. Cut out the flower shape. Hot glue the egg-bottom to the center of the flower. Add hot glue only to the inside edge of the egg. Twist 3 or 4 green pipe cleaners (chenille) together to make a strong stem. Hot glue one end of the pipe cleaner stem to the back-center of the flower. That’s it! Now make a few more to create a bouquet! Front of egg flower craft. Back of egg flower craft project. This activity is a great way to recycle old plastic Easter eggs! The kids can make these crafts for Mother’s Day or for Our Lady! Enjoy!

Here is a cute, easy craft that my 4-year-old, Caleb, just LOVED!! He has been helping me to create these displays and has been giving me all of his thoughts on what he felt should be improved upon! Now it’s been given his seal of approval and is ready to go! And believe me, Caleb is my worst critic! This file is for purchase in our shop. Click Here to visit our shop and purchase it! Perfect for all ages! Caleb enjoyed coloring these, as well as, cutting them out and creating the displays! The cutting lines are extra wide so little hands can easily cut right into the dark, thick, edges. Little ones may need help folding the tomb display, but it’s easy enough to fold and create for most children, ages 6 and up. How to use these displays: After assembling the displays, place them in a nice spot but hide the 2 Jesus and angel figures. On Good Friday, sometime after 3:00 PM – but before dark, * “roll-away” the stone and place the wrapped “Jesus” into the tomb. The wrapped Jesus will remain in the tomb on Holy Saturday. The night before Easter, Mom or Dad may “roll-away” the stone and take out the wrapped Jesus. Add the Resurrected Jesus and the Angel to the area in front of the tomb. This will be a fun surprise for the kids on Easter Morning! *If it works better for the family, the kids can replace the wrapped Jesus with the Resurrected Jesus Sunday Morning. *Why bury Jesus after 3:00 PM but before dark? The Bible tells us that Jesus died at 3:00 pm and the Jewish Sabbath started at sundown on Friday night. So Jesus’ followers would have buried him after 3:00 but before the Sabbath began since they were not allowed to work on the Sabbath. Jesus was buried in a hurry, that’s why the women came back Sunday morning with spices to anoint Jesus! They were unable to anoint his body Friday night. This file is for purchase in our shop. Click  Here to visit our shop and purchase it! Hope you enjoy it! ~JenMarie

Looking for Catholic-themed valentines for St. Valentine’s day? Gotcha covered! I’ve created a cute set of valentines that I think you are going to love! Each of these card designs were lovingly made to honor Our Lord in the Divine Mercy. They are meant to remind the receiver of Jesus’ love and mercy.  Some of them also include a Bible verse to help reinforce Jesus’ love of us or how we should love Him. I had designed these for use on St. Valentine’s day, but I removed the hearts from 5 of the 6 styles so they can also be used at other times of the year, too! Plus, many Catholic boys prefer to use the non-heartsy valentines! 😉 This download has two ways to use these! Print 8 flat cards on one page to give to a large group of receivers! Or print the folded card styles! These are perfect cards for mailing or to give to close friends, family or even your parish priest! These are especially great for this year because this is the Jubilee Year of Mercy! This file is for purchase in our shop. Click  Here to visit our shop and purchase it! Hope you love them! ~JenMarie Parents/Personal Use: Your purchase allows your immediate family to give these cards as loving messages to other family members and friends. The file and printing rights do not extend past your immediate family. Teachers: These can be used to make crafts with a single class. You may also give them as loving messages to students.

I have admired those DIY fill-it-up clear plastic Christmas balls for a few years. But me being me, I like to add a bit of Catholic focus on all our Christmas crafts. So when we made these ball, we added a double sided picture of the Nativity or other religious picture to the inside! Figuring out a way to add the image took a bit of testing and thinking, but I did figure out a way to do it.  We glued two images of the same size onto a popsicle stick. They were glued onto it back-to-back. When the glue is dry, gently fold the image and push it into the ball. After that, we unfolded the picture. Voila! Beautiful Christmas ornament fit for the season! We had a lot of fun filling these balls and adding the religious pictures! The possibilities are endless!! About the plastic balls: For those who don’t know about the clear plastic Christmas ball, they are very simple Christmas balls that are made with clear plastic. The top of the ball comes off and the ball can be filled with anything that your heart desires – well, it does need to fit into the small hole in the top! We bought our ornaments at the Dollar Tree – 2 for a dollar – like those pictured here. Ours are about 2.5 inches wide with a half inch opening at the top.   These ornaments come in many shapes and sizes. I have also seen them at Wal-Mart, AC Moore, and Hobby Lobby. When buying your plastic balls make sure the opening is larger than a popsicle sticks widest side, otherwise the balls are not going to work. About the images we used: Many of the images we used were Nativity stickers. They worked very well. Some of the images were small pictures which we cut from old cards or mission mail. What did we put inside the ornaments? Here is a list of items we added to the inside: raffia (for hay) – cut-up in small 1 inch pieces (or smaller) small sprigs of fake evergreen branches sequins in many shapes:– round– stars– snowflakes-hearts fake snow dust glitter in many colors: gold, silver, blue, red, etc. sand small stones any other small item we found and liked How did we make them? After getting the plastic balls and finding images that fit the size of our balls, we dug through our craft boxes and pulled out anything that we thought might work or fit into the balls. (see list above). Find a cup or lid that will hold your ball in place so it won\’t roll around as you fill it. Now begin to add your hay, snow, greens or any other crafty items you think look nice.  If you are adding tiny items like fake snow or glitter then you may want to use a funnel. If you don’t have a funnel, then roll-up a piece of paper to form a funnel and staple it together. Now add your tiny items. Add only enough snow/hay/greens to cover the area below the picture. Now take a popsicle stick and place it down into the ball – straight up and down – make sure it is touching the bottom of the ball. Make a mark on the stick at the point where the popsicle stick extends out of the ball’s opening. Now remove the stick and cut just below that mark with a knife or cutters. Cut out your images – make sure they are the same size. Cover the back of one image with glue, then place the popsicle stick in the middle of the image. Be sure to leave enough room above the image so the stick can extend into the ball\’s neck. Now add glue to the second image and place it back-to-back on the first image – sandwiching the stick in between the two images.  Many of our images were stickers, which we stuck back-to-back on the popsicle stick. NOTE: We still added glue when using the stickers, because stickers will not stay stuck together if they are stored in a hot or humid area – such as an attic or a basement. Because we store our Christmas decorations in an attic, I wanted to be sure that these stay stuck together, so we could enjoy them for years to come. Your image on the popsicle stick should look similar to the one pictured above. It should have an image on both sides. Now gently and loosely fold the image so it can be slid into the ball. Once you have the image totally in the ball, try to fold the image open by flipping it around and gently pulling it back up the neck of the ball opposite the fold so it will stay open. You can also use another popsicle stick to flatten out the fold. When the image is opened, nestle the bottom end of the stick into your sand, hay, greens, etc. Now, put the top back on the bottle and hang it up! Finished ornaments to inspire! Here are a few of the ornaments which we created. This might help inspire you if you want to create these! The more we created them the more ideas we came up with! So not all our ornaments are pictured here. I\’m sure you can find some adorable items to add in your Christmas balls with Baby Jesus! In the ornament above, the image sits among little fake evergreen clippings, fake snow, tinsel clippings, glitter and a tiny fake candy cane. This sweet ornament is filled with fake snow and loads of multi colored glitter and sequins. This ball was in honor of the F east of the Holy Innocents . The image depicts the Flight into Egypt. The ball holds sand, small stones, a little silver glitter and small silver stars. This ornament is filled with small strips of raffia – hay for the stable. It also has a little bit of silver and blue glitter, as well as, large blue star sequins. The above ornament is simple yet beautiful! It’s filled with fake snow and blue glitter. This ornament was very difficult to get a picture of. It is only filled with fine textured glitter: silver and gold as well as a little bit of blue. It really is very pretty in real life, but the picture does not do it justice! This is another snow filled ball. It does have larger sequins which are not visible in the picture as well as silver glitter. This adorable ball is filled with more fake snow, blue glitter and gold star sequins that are not very visible in the image. What would you add to your Christmas ball ornaments!? If you have another idea, tell me about it in the comments below! I’d love to hear your thoughts! ~JenMarie

Hi, everyone! How is your Advent going? I hope well! Ours is just as busy as always! I had promised to post about our Little Flowers Girl’s Club meetings. We have had three meetings now and I still haven’t posted any of them! Well, I’m going to jump to our third meeting and post about it since it was all centered around Our Lady of Guadalupe. I thought you might be more interested in seeing this now than in a month – just because it’s Our Lady’s Feast day! Our meeting started out with a adorable on-the-spot play of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe. No prep or planning, just a fun spontaneous acting. The play was acted out by our club’s oldest member who was Our Lady of Guadalupe. The other parts were done by some of the Little Flowers’ older siblings. A simple story was read and the kids just acted out what was being read. They had no practice, nor did they read the story beforehand. It made for a funny and easy activity! The Little Flowers all LOVED it! I prepared the costumes before the meeting. The only fancy costume was Our Lady’s. This is the costume which I created as an All Saint’s Day costume for Rebekah a few years ago. See it HERE . Juan Diego’s Costume was just a sombrero and a raggy piece of material for his tilma. The other costumes were simple robes, and pieces of cloth. It was a very simplistic activity, but boy did they all enjoy it!  I printed out an image of Our Lady to put on the tilma. I stuck velcro on the back of the image so it would cling to the material that we used for the tilma. Then during the play, Our Lady secretly placed it on Juan’s tilma as she “arranged” the roses. Surprise! There it was when Juan showed the roses to the bishop! After the play the girls made the Liturgical Ornament of Our Lady of Guadalupe . This took a little prep-time, but it was well worth it! My mother and Elizabeth helped to cut the pieces out. We laid them out to be sure we had all the pieces for each one and then I bagged them up in little baggies so I could easily pass them out to the girls. Note the coffee cup in the picture!! Totally need that! So don’t forget it! I did decide to add the gold and red glitter fabric paint to Mary’s veil and the sun before the meeting. I thought about having the girls do this themselves but I thought it would be less stressful for the moms if this was done beforehand. All of the Little Flowers’ had a great time making these! They all turned out so beautifully! After that, we all had a snack and had a great time talking and playing together. Perfect party and meeting! Have a blessed Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!! ~JenMarie

When my oldest two daughters were about 7 years old, my sister, a few other ladies, and I organized a Little Flowers Girls Club at our parish. Oh, we had such fun! But over the course of time the members all fell away for various reasons and the club meetings happened less often. Eventually they stopped all together.  My girls really enjoyed those meeting so as my younger girls grew to the right age I longed to join another Little Flowers Club with them. I had recently discovered two groups within an hour of our home however both had meeting times that just wouldn’t work. I was so upset. While I was still struggling with whether or not I should try to join one of these groups, I was approached by my cousins, who asked if I was interested in helping them organize a new group. (They were having the same problems as me.) I jumped at the chance! 🙂 So that means I’ll be posting about our Little Flowers activities which we will be doing! Yay!! How cool is that! What is a Little Flowers Girls’ Club? Before I continue, I want to give a little background on this wonderful Catholic club! It’s designed for girls ages 5 and up. While it’s similar in design to Girl Scouts, it’s made for Catholic girls. It’s meant to be a mother and daughter club. The girls are able to get together and learn about saints and virtues from the moms! I know some groups have a single leader and don’t include the mothers, and that’s okay, but I love how this program encourages the mother/parent to work with the girls to earn the badge. It’s a wonderful bonding challenge for the mothers and daughters! This is not a religion course, but it teaches girls about the saints and virtues. It reinforces prayer, kind actions, and good manners. When the girls are able to see other girls who are attempting to grow in faith, it encourages them as they travel on their journey of faith! Visit Behold Publications to learn more: HERE So as we begin our new Little Flowers Girls’ Club adventure, I thought I’d take the time to share the items I bought to help us take the first few steps. This is just a little information for anyone who is thinking of buying some of these items or starting a new LF group, too. Vests and Sashes Of course the girls all needed a vest or a sash. I had bought sashes for my older two girls – many years ago at our first LF club. Rachel and Rebekah had often complained that the sashes didn’t stay in place, so I thought I’d go ahead and try the vests this time. The vests seem fine for my smaller girls. perhaps a little bulky, but my younger girls are small in stature.  On the other hand, Elizabeth (11 years old) thought the vest was too tight.  She has a hard time taking it off. I may decide to buy her a large sash to replace the vest. She tried on her older sisters’ sashes (They are the large deluxe) and that fit her well. Since I have 3 (possibly 4) girls with matching vests. I wanted to be able to tell which vest belonged to whom. So I added a decorative button to the inside bottom corner of the vest. My daughters picked out a button they liked from my button jar and I sewed it on.  Now we can easily avoid a mix-up! 🙂 When my older two daughters had matching sashes I ironed their names on the inside of the sash with iron-on letters. That worked well, too! The Books: First, I bought a for each of my girls. This book is the Member’s guide so the girls can follow along and see what saints and virtues they will be learning about. It also gives the list of requirements that the girls can complete to earn the badges. Using a permanent marker, we wrote the name of the owner on the bottom outside cover, so we could easily tell who owns the book. Since my sister already owned the (from our previous LF club), we did not order this book. But I highly recommend that at least one mom-member of the club has the book to help guide the group. My sister already owned the from our previous LF Club, too. While we did use this to help inspire us years ago, we did not use it a lot. This was mainly because we created crafts of our own which were not in this book. If you are not a crafty person and have no idea what to do, then you may want to buy this book for the group to share. I also ordered the book. This seems like a handy book to help us with all sorts of ceremonies – from badge ceremonies to May Crownings! I’m sure I’ll be making use of this! I decided to purchase the book because (as some of my followers may recall) we have a Marian Tea party at our house every May. So I thought our club could join us this coming May! I thought perhaps this book might have some ideas to help us along! I’ll let you know when we start planning for this! The book seems to be a cute book with sweet stories to help the girls understand the virtues. While I’m not sure exactly how we plan to use this book yet, I’m sure it will fit in nicely some how. I’ll let you know how we decide to use it! ●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬●✿●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬● Well, this is our start to this new Little Flowers adventure!! I know my girls are looking forward to it! Hope you will enjoy the upcoming Little Flowers Club posts! I hope they will be useful for those who are planning Little Flower meets, as well as, those who are just looking for fun activities to do and/or create! God’s Blessing! ~JenMarie

Sept. 23 is the feast day of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. Here are a few copywork pages you might like to use after discussing this wonderful saint! I created 6 different sheets with 2 different quotes.  The levels range from early writing to cursive writing. So you can choose the learning levels you need. The two quotes are: “The devil is capable of confusing the most brilliant mind.” – St. Pio  “Don’t allow any sadness to dwell in your soul, for sadness prevents the Holy Spirit from acting freely.” – St. Pio St. Pio was such an amazing man. These two quotes are so down-to-earth and give us such a great perspective on our need to stay alert and God-centered  during our lives. We need to keep joy in our hearts and we need to be humble. Without joy and humility the devil will win over us.  Joy and humility do not come easy. They are a mindset that we must work hard to gain – during every moment  of each day. In order to gain them we must realize that God is in control and His plan will always be the right way – We must TRUST at all times .   – Be still and know I am God. –Psalm 46 Download This Work Sheet Here: May God bless your day with His joy and peace! ~Jen-Marie

Earlier this summer my older teen daughters had their cousins over for a sleepover. The girls were looking for a craft to do, so we quickly whipped together a simple- yet useful – project. These are upcycled boxes covered in Catholic images from old cards, magazines, and catalogs! To make these you will need: boxes – We used cardboard craft boxes ($1.00 at AC Moore), but you could also use paper mache boxes or wooden boxes. images from, old cards, religious mail, religious catalogs, etc. scissors mod-podge paint brush Just cut out a bunch of images and arrange the images on the box. After you are happy with your design, use mod-podge to the back of the images and attach them to the box. After the glue has dried decoupaged the boxes – covered the images with a few thin layers of mod-podge to make them smooth and strong enough to withstand use. Allow the mod-podge to dry between coats. The girls created lots of different faith-centered designs! Some of the decorations they even added to the inside of the box lid. Our boxes were bought at AC Moore. Most craft stores have lots of boxes to choose from. You could upcycle tissue boxes, cereal boxes, and other boxes, too! Cover them with paper first if needed. Happy Catholic crafting!! God bless you all with joy! ~Jen-Marie

Several years ago I posted about the Paddle-to-the-Sea Literature Study which I created for my older children. My older kids enjoyed reading  so much that I want to read this book with a few of my younger kids this school year. So I thought it might be a great time to sit down and update the file! Not only did I update the pages with a better map and more detailed information, but I also added an activity page for each chapter which includes questions to answer and activities to do. These pages also have loads of images and ideas that focus on the chapter’s topics! This literature study is a companion to the book:  by Holling Clancy Holling, which is a wonderful book that teaches kids about the Great Lakes area and all the amazing business, cities, and sites that lie around the Great Lakes during the early 1900’s! The journey is seen through the eyes of Paddle, a little hand-carved wooden Indian in a canoe. As you journey with Paddle you will fall in love with this story and cheer him on as he travels to the ocean! The literature study  is a 35-page ebook for children – grade levels 4 to 6. This study is meant to help children follow what happens to Paddle and record what Paddle passes while he takes his long journey. As you read the book, you will discuss the areas he is in, how long it took him to get there, and what season it is. Then glue the images to the appropriate spot on the map. The children will also create a map key that tells what each image symbolizes. They will create a story timeline to show the season and year in which the events happened. This file is for purchase in our shop. Click  Here to visit our shop and purchase it! (Example of a finished map) Teachers, use the teacher-examples to help you teach the student(s) how to complete the map and key-timeline.  Both examples are provided in a separate teacher’s PDF. The map on the inside cover of your  book as well as an atlas is also a wonderful help when completing this study. Note: The Paddle-to-the-Sea book is not included in this study. This 35-page literature study includes: • A Blank Map of the Great Lakes area • Blank Map Key and Timeline for the children to fill-out • Images to Add to the Map • Examples for Teachers • A Question and Activity Page for Each Chapter • Maps of the Gulf Stream and Europe Note: The Paddle-to-the-Sea book is not included in this study. The pages will help you focus on different topics of each chapter.  These will include geography, writing props, thinking questions, art activities, and science and history topics.  Some pages require research; others are creative activities. It’s a variety of ways to learn! Is this a Catholic literature study? Two of the lessons in the study do have Christian topics. So while the study doesn’t focus on the Catholic faith it does have some Christian content. (Discusses the 4th Commandment and the Apostles) Happy Reading!! ~JenMarie This file is for purchase in our shop. Click  Here to visit our shop and purchase it!

Last Saturday we were able to attend a one day retreat with Matthew Leonard .  Admittedly, I really had not heard of him before. I had heard that he was on EWTN  and that he worked with Dr. Scott Hahn at the Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology . But that was it. So while I expected a good talk by Matt, I thought it might be kind of “ho hum”. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Matthew’s talks were captivating, enjoyable, and extremely useful for the day to day struggles that all people of faith have. He is not only a very talented speaker, he is surprisingly down-to-earth. I was even fortunate enough to actually eat lunch with him! If you ever have an opportunity to hear him speak or attend a conference where he is a presenter, it will be time well spent! St. Isadore of Seville said, “Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us. … If a man wants to be always in God’s company, he must pray regularly and read regularly. When we pray, we talk to God; when we read, God talks to us. “ Making a concerted effort to read can be hard for some of us. Not only does it take time, it requires QUIET time! Getting quiet time in a house filled with 3 teens, 2 tweens, and 4 children can be about as hard as pushing a snowball up hill with your nose! So I’ve been trying to at least make an effort to to go to these spiritually enriching events as often as I can. Our parish has been hosting events to help its parishioners to grow in faith. Pete from The Catholic Book Blogger has been a huge role in organizing these events.  Pete has been able to schedule some awesome authors to visit our parish and help the Catholics in our area. Through his help we have not only heard Matt Leonard , but also, Mike Aquilina , Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle , and even Scott Hahn ! These authors have all given amazing talks that have help us grow in faith! I was amazed at how much I’ve learned from these events. All of the speakers had talks that each focused on different aspects of life. They gave informative ways to live your faith in simple meaningful ways.  They not only show us ways to grow closer to God, they also taught ways to grow closer to our fellow men! Today I want to urge you  to go to these types of events in your area. Many dioceses occasionally have speakers, adult classes, or retreats. I do realize that it can be very hard to pull yourself away from daily life and take the time to go, but the blessings that you will receive will outweigh whatever else you would have gained had you not gone.  Get out there and let God speak to you through these priests, authors, and other speakers! May God bless you with joy! ~JenMarie and Jonathan