Basking in the Easter Joy

Resurrection by Matthias Grünewald from Isenheim Altarpiece.

Of all the resurrection art, this is my favorite depiction of Christ rising. It’s because of the light shining right through Christ. Christ IS the light, Christ our Light. It makes me think of the theory of the imprinting of the Shroud of Turin, that there was some magnificent light, almost like a nuclear blast that would imprint that image. And this painting puts that into perspective.

I didn’t plan on waiting until Thursday in the Octave of Easter to post, but here I am. Frankly, Holy Week does wear me out….I mentioned that in my Holy Week Preparation post. Now we are in the Easter Season! He is alive! Jesus has conquered sin and death! There is less frenzy and more of recalling and enjoying. I wrote a post on ways to spread the rejoicing over 50 days at Catholic Culture. I know this must be a general feeling of relaxing, because my stats have gone way on views.

Podcast recommendation

As we are gearing up for Holy Week and Easter, I wanted to recommend The Lanky Guys podcast, The Word on the Hill, particularly this week’s podcast on Palm Sunday.

The podcasts are focused on giving insights to the Sunday readings. Their description:

The Lanky Guys (Fr. Peter Mussett and Scott Powell) are two utterly brilliant and charmingly witty Catholic theologians who host the wildly popular podcast, The Word on the Hill, which attempts to tie together all of the readings from the Sunday Mass.

They generally run 45 minutes, so I start listening in small segments before Sunday. It really deepens my prayer having this food for thought on the readings.

Two thumbs up recommendation!

Four More Days….

…until Holy Week. I’m not ready, but then I never am. I look at where I have failed this Lent. I have been very weak. But, as my spiritual director reminds me, there is always room to begin again, and this last week can be marked with great intense work.

Still, I am the little child who climbs into Jesus’ lap. I tell Him how he knows how weak I am. I can’t do any of this on my own. I ask him to please carry me and walk me through all the hard things of my day.

I just wrote a long piece at Catholic Culture: Holy Week Preparation. It’s long. Did I mention it’s long? But it’s good for me to write it all out to understand why I’m always tired at Easter. It’s a lot. Even if I were to only do the Liturgical Preparation and attend the liturgies, I think we would still be tired.

This week I tested my oldest son on some of his allergens. He is allergic to eggs, wheat and dairy, with dairy being his worst. He is near the age where he should be starting to outgrow the allergens.

Report:

• He tried bread that had eggs, and he had no reaction.
• He tried two saltines and had a delayed reaction (itchy mouth).
• We had pancakes that included eggs and no reaction.

He was disappointed the wheat didn’t work, but I was so proud of him because he didn’t throw a fit or cry, but very grown-up.

Our final test on the egg will be eating them straight. He’s eager to try.

He couldn’t stop talking about the pancakes. He was just thrilled. And I’m thrilled, too.

And why do I put this on a Holy Week post? Because I am hoping to find some recipes that are wheat and dairy free, but can use eggs. You don’t know hard it is to make baked goods without eggs. It’s just a crumbly mess.

I dislike testing recipes in Holy Week, but I think it’s the best way. If you have any suggestions for recipes, please let me know. I think in particular I’m looking for Hot Cross Buns. The recipe can have sugar, it can be with almond meal or other paleo flours or other flours, it also can contain oat flour. I can substitute milk with almond milk. Butter I usually substitute with coconut oil.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Holy Week and Easter

Palm Sunday is four days away. You could probably tell by my posts that I’m finalizing our plans for Holy Week and Easter. I have updated my top bar with Lent and Easter. Somehow all my Easter posts were missing.

I have also added a new category, Printables. I have not linked all my posts yet, but it might be helpful to have that category, and then subcategories depending on the liturgical season.

It is still a work in progress in updating my blog, but I have promised myself to not take on any new project until Holy Week is a distant memory.

Below is a compilation of my Holy Week and Easter related posts.

Various Posts for Reading, Planning, Triduum

• Holy Week Preparation (at Catholic Culture)
• My Little Holy Week Prayerbook to use with Dollar Tree Santos stickers.
• Preparing for Easter Through the Old Testament — picture book ideas for Holy Week.
• That Lenten Planning Post
• Our Lenten Plans, 2011, includes our Holy Week reading.
• Lessons from Jonah
• Jonah Project for Holy Week
• Palm Sunday
• Stations of the Cross Cards
• Stations of the Cross for Children
• The Triduum of Holy Week, quote from This House of Brede.
• Holy Thursday in the Home
• Holy Week and Easter 2007

EASTER

Easter Eggs

• Picture Books and other Reading on Easter Eggs/Pysanky
• Pysanky
• An Egg is a Thing of Beauty
• Pysanky Progress

Easter Vigil

• Easter Vigil Preparation
• The Easter Vigil
• Easter Vigil (from Catholic Culture)
• The Liturgy of Light (used in CGS atrium)

Prayers

• Via Lucis — Way of Light
• Via Lucis — Way of Light Cards
• Prayers and Hymns for the Easter Season, includes both display and booklet

Crafts

• Easter Banner to color
• Easter Goodies
• Easter Round-Up
• Fifty Days of Rejoicing
• Quick Paschal Candle, 2012 and 2013
• Quick Paschal Candle 2014

Recipes

• Holy Week posts at my food blog
• Easter Recipes
• Many more at Catholic Cuisine, some that I posted.

Prayers and Hymns for the Easter Season is similar to my Lent for Children Daily Display, O Antiphon Prayer Companion, and Christmas Prayer Companion which incorporates our favorite liturgical tools, an easel binder (or this one which is more expensive, but more durable and expandable) which we use daily at the table to highlight different thoughts for the liturgical seasons or feasts. The Easter season “Daily Display” which has a page for the week with Sunday’s Gospel (this is Year A) and artwork and antiphon and prayers for the week. The antiphon can be used before any prayer of the day, and the family prayers can either be used for morning and/or evening prayers, or meal prayers. The section in parentheses is for meal times. The artwork is full-color art images.

Easter Season Display Year A 2014

The second is a little booklet with black and white images, the prayers from the daily display, plus the Collect Prayers from the Sunday Masses, and also the lyrics to some key Easter hymns. This is paginated to print double-sided, and then fold and staple into a booklet. This is for everyone to be able to read along during family prayers. Print the first two pages on cardstock for a nice cover.

Easter Season Booklet Year A 2014

 

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I share my printables for free and I hope you enjoy them. A small donation of a few dollars can help me continue to create and share my work for free. Thank you for your generosity!

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Jonah and Holy Week (re-post)

One of the favorite activities we do at Holy Week is the Jonah Project. This is a repost which includes printable forms of the Jonah. My original post on this tradition is here: Lessons from Jonah.

A tradition in our house has become Lessons from Jonah during Holy Week, which was inspired by Mary Reed Newland from her The Year and Our Children. Her original instructions can be read online here and here.

Quick Paschal Candle 2014

This is an update to last year’s Quick Paschal Candle design.

Make your own paschal candle for home. Use a simple tall white glass candle (available at most grocery stores) or a tall 3″ x 9″ pillar candle. Another possibility would be a tall (8″) beeswax candle in imitation of the beeswax candle used at church.

Paschal Candle 2014

This is a .pdf version of the candle design. Print in color, and cut, leaving the amount you need to wrap around the candle. Either tape, or cover with Contact paper or clear tape or use ModgePodge over the image to apply to the candle, or print on sticker paper or decal adhesive film. Make sure to extinguish the candle when it gets close to the paper.

To the right and below are .jpg versions of the candle image. Click on it to view the full image and save to your computer. Adjust the printer to landscape and whatever size you need the image to print, since there are smaller and larger candles to cover.

An alternative image can be found here.
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I share my printables for free and I hope you enjoy them. A small donation of a few dollars can help me continue to create and share my work for free. Thank you for your generosity!

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Quick Paschal Candle 2013

This is an update to last year’s Quick Paschal Candle design. Also note you can find another beautiful version by Juan José, thanks to Evann at Homeschool Goodies, even more beautiful than mine.

PaschalCandle2013
This is a .pdf version of the candle design. Print in color, and cut, leaving the amount you need to wrap around the candle. Either tape, or cover with Contact paper or use ModgePodge over the image to apply to the candle. Make sure to extinguish the candle when it gets close to the paper.

Below is the .jpg file of the image below. Click on it to view the full image and save to your computer. Adjust the printer to landscape and whatever size you need the image to print, since there are smaller and larger candles to cover.

 

 

 

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I share my printables for free and I hope you enjoy them. A small donation of a few dollars can help me continue to create and share my work for free. Thank you for your generosity!

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Pysanky Progress

I woke up with orange and yellow stained hands. My boys have red and yellow and orange hands.

No, we have no disease. We are enjoying our Ukrainian egg work for Holy Week.

Yesterday we invited my sister and her family to join us in making pysanky. I had shared my beautiful local farm eggs. In addition, we now have some goose eggs which are a delight! I think I’m going to get some duck eggs to add to the assortment. The boys are enjoying the variety of eggs. We are enjoying a little nature rabbit trail reading Birds’ Eggs, comparing the variety.

When working with the younger children, there has to be some freedom to allow creativity and familiarity with the process and tools. We watch the Instructional Video to help them understand. The process is different than coloring eggs with food dyes. These dyes are permanent and put on in stages. To create an egg you think of the final product, then you have to think backwards. There is some trickiness which I have not mastered in the steps of the dyes and the interaction of colors. Green and blue are exceptions and will muddy the color so special steps are needed if this color is incorporated. And if the process is confusing to me and other adults, think how it is with the children!

My oldest son gets frustrated because he is a perfectionist. This is something to learn patience. I’m giving suggestions on trying to divide the egg (which I will help) and do small designs within the divisions. The Ukrainian designs are beautiful but difficult, especially with a child who doesn’t have good hand coordination.

When the boys are working I can’t really expect to get anything accomplished on my eggs. We’re working with open flames and permanent dyes. At times I get flustered with the “chaos”, so this is a good way to learn patience. After the boys are in bed, DH and I work on our eggs in quiet. It’s wonderful meditative work.

So without further ado, our current gallery (including my sister’s family’s eggs), including my first goose egg (lots of bad dyes and awful symmetry, but so much fun). The boys and I will work more after lunch.

 

A Blessed Easter!!!

The Lord is risen, He is risen, indeed!

This is the day the Lord has made, Alleluia!
Let us rejoice and be glad, Alleluia!

We attended our parish Easter Vigil last night — 100 people came into the Church last night. The Mass was really beautiful and moving, so much so I was moved to tears of joy. After the Alleluia and Gospel, my oldest turned to me and said “Mom, I’m just so happy!” and gave me a huge hug. He expressed exactly what I was feeling!

I have updated the Prayers for the Easter Season to reflect the readings for this Year B. Not all images were updated, but a few. I also added the Collect prayers from Sunday to the Prayer booklet.

A reminder that the first file is similar to my Lent for Children Daily Display, O Antiphon Prayer Companion, and Christmas Prayer Companion which incorporates our favorite liturgical tools, an easel binder (or this one which is more expensive, but more durable and expandable) which we use daily at the table to highlight different thoughts for the liturgical seasons or feasts. The Easter season “Daily Display” which has a page for the week with Sunday’s Gospel (for Year B, 2012) and artwork and antiphon and prayers for the week. The antiphon can be used before any prayer of the day, and the family prayers can either be used for morning and/or evening prayers, or meal prayers. The section in parentheses is for meal times. The artwork is full-color art images.

Easter Season Prayers, Year B, 2012

The second is a little booklet with black and white images, the prayers from the daily display, plus the Collect Prayers from the Sunday Masses, and also the lyrics to some key Easter hymns. This is paginated to print double-sided, and then fold and staple into a booklet. This is for everyone to be able to read along during family prayers. The first two pages on cardstock for a nice cover.
Easter Season Booklet Year B 2012

And clipping from this post, a reminder of other Easter posts:

Easter — Eggs, Vigil, Crafts

• Easter Eggs/Pysanky
• Easter Vigil Preparation
• The Easter Vigil
• Easter Banner to color
• Easter Goodies
• Easter Round-Up
• Fifty Days of Rejoicing
• Via Lucia — Way of Light
• Quick Paschal Candle

Recipes

• Holy Week posts at my food blog
• Easter Recipes
• Many more at Catholic Cuisine, some that I posted.

Thoughts for Good Friday: Children and Quiet

(I hit post too soon.)

I really enjoyed this post by Maryellen St. Cyr: A Time for Quiet. I think it’s a good reflection to read during the Triduum.

Her description of Good Friday in her home with her mother is exactly what we did in our family. The quiet was hard at times, but it stretched us.

But I also agree with her wholeheartedly on having quiet throughout the year, to include it in our areas of education. It seems this is an area of “Masterly Inactivity” and allowing the Holy Spirit to teach.

I personally do not like constant background noise. I like to shut off the radio and TV and just have family noise. One of my favorite sounds is hearing my boys playing happily together. One of my least favorite noises is when they are not playing happily together.

I do try to provide what we call “quiet time” during the day. We all retreat to our bedrooms, the older to read, and the younger to nap. I do my spiritual reading and prayer sometimes nap myself.

I haven’t been aware of quiet time through the rest of the day, but I see how it does fit in our day. My son builds Legos almost all the time, but usually in quiet. He’s pondering big creative thoughts.

During the warmer months we love to sit on our porch and eat our meals and enjoy the sounds of nature, which makes us naturally be more quiet. On nature study outings I do encourage more quiet to observe, to listen, and to enjoy. Sounds of voices and preoccupation with other things makes us lose the time of nature.

I will have to think more on ways to incorporate quiet during our days.

How do you incorporate quiet?