The Anunciation of the Lord

We celebrate the Feast of Annunciation on March 25th- the day on which angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was going to be the mother of the world's redeemer. This is exactly nine months before Christ's birth on December 25th.  Church calendar makes it sense, infact when on mary's third month , Elizabeth was indeed on her sixth month of pregnancy, have a look after three months which falls in June, turn the calendar to see what happens then.

Painting of Anunciation

      

    Anunciation craft

Munnu tried to draw the anunciation painting.

In some parts of the world celebrate it as Lady day. The Lady refers to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The incarnation changes everything. In the middle year, civil year began these time. When the word takes flesh in Virgin Mary., the human history takes a new beginning. The old name for the feast is Lady day. From  the book of feast and season, it says the devotion to Mary in the middle ages was responsible for forming many attitudes and manners towards women in Christian Europe through Mary , like men taking off hat when see a Lady, offering a seat to her in a bus or train, opening  a door for her, when she enters.

Today at noon, you are meant to stop from what you are doing for just a couple of minutes and say angelus  to recall the incarnation and thank God for it. Some churches still ring out angelus bell. March 25th is called Waffle day in Sweden. Why not try and have some toasted waffle with cream and jam. There are lot of ideas you can borrow for today from aslice of smith life.Please have a look into beautiful anunciation craft in catholicinspired blog.

Below are the ten ways to celebrate the Solemnity:

At home , we made pizza made with olives  onion, mozzarella, pepper.

It is a good day to learn the song...''Angel Gabriel...''

Mothering Sunday

The celebration of Mother's day began hundreds of year ago when on fourth Sunday of Lent families visited their Mother church, pausing from strict fasting to offer gifts and give thanks. It turned into Mothering sunday to show affection and gratitude to moms.

Also it is known as Laetare Sunday like Gaudete Sunday, taking a break. It is also known as Rose sunday or mothering sunday. We are reminded that salvation at hand, Christ will rise from dead to deliver us from sin and season of penance will be over soon. It is a time to visit their mother churches were you baptised or confirmed, or visit your own church. This is very impossible at the current situation, however you can pray for your church today.Epistle reading speaks not of Jews, those who come to Christ regardless of ancestry , are the inheritors of  Abraham's promise (Gal 4; 22-)

It is the spring equinox when Sun shines directly on equator, and the length of days and night are equal.

Spring bulb flowers like daffodils are given to mothers and making Simnel cake is a tradition to celebrate the Mothering Sunday though it is  of late Easter too.

          Simnel Cake

1 cup margarine, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
4 eggs
1 3/4 cups self-rising flour
1 1/3 cups golden raisins
1 cup dried currants
2/3 cup candied cherries, rinsed, dried and quartered
1/4 cup candied mixed fruit peel, chopped
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons mixed spice
1 pound almond paste
2 tablespoons apricot jam
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8 inch springform pan. Line the bottom and sides of pan with greased parchment paper. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the flour. Stir in the golden raisins, currants, candied cherries, mixed fruit, lemon zest and mixed spice. Pour 1/2 of batter into prepared pan.

Divide almond paste into 3 equal portions. Roll out 1/3 of the almond paste to an 8 inch circle. Place the circle of almond paste on the cake batter in pan. Cover with remaining cake batter. Bake in the preheated oven for 2 1/2 hours, or until evenly brown and firm to the touch. If the cake is browning too quickly, cover with foil after an hour of baking. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Set oven to broil. When the cake has cooled, brush the top with warmed apricot jam. Roll out 1/3 of the almond paste into an 8 inch circle and place on top of cake.

Divide the remaining 1/3 of almond paste into 11 pieces and roll into balls. These represent the 12 Apostles minus Judas. Brush the almond paste on top of cake with beaten egg. Arrange the 11 balls around the outside edge on the top of cake. Brush the balls lightly with egg. Place cake under the broiler for 8 to 10 minutes, or until almond paste is golden brown.

Some ideas for children to make Cards for their mothers and provide them with some little treats when they get up.

Children made some cookies last night, just as a time pass .

  Happy Mothering Sunday.

Free Resources

During the time of COVID 19 outbreak, many are self isolating and closure of schools happening . A lot of people around  are doing good works through online too, magnificat is one of the beautiful magazine of daily prayers and H.mass, providing online complimentary free version to help people these tough days, not able to attend H Mass.

There is magnifikid(kids version) available for free download for this month and next, which is very good for children aged 6-12.

Another thing is to encourage everyone to do prayer of spiritual communion. Many saints practised this a day. 

Formed is onestop for all catholic media resources; watch movie, podcasts and so on,, they are giving out free subscription for 40 days and make sure cancel before it, if you want to subscribe free.

Children along with adults can be encouraged to do examination of conscience before finishes the day or in bed. Acronym BAKER can help to do examen.    

   B- Blessings. Praising and Thanking God.  

   A- Ask. Ask Holy Spirit to enlighten you, recognise your sins.     

   K- Kill. It was our sins killed and crucified Lord. Search for commissions and                           omissions.   

  E- Embrace God's forgiveness. Be sorry for sin and Jesus to embrace you with the rays of His mercy.  

   R- Resolution. Look ahead to the next day, anticipating potential pitfalls and opportunities.(This is taken from Fr Gaitley- from consoling the Heart of Jesus).

Feast of St Joseph

St Joseph is the patron of  family, vocations, workers, happy death.Tradition tells St Joseph must have died in the presence of Our Lord and Mary.

 Since COVID 19 has put a damper on feast day plans, it is celebrated  with social distancing style, we had some resources from realifeathome blog, children listened to the story,  did word search, prepared some tools out of dough.

    Thank God so we could attend H mass as one of the last days before all public worship get cancelled. Children prepared a card for appa as it is the day of fathers.

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 There is a tradition of preparing three tier table, representing Holy family or Holy trinity.

St Joseph's Day is a big feast for Italians. Through the intercession of St Joseph, saved Sicilians from a big drought. During this hard time, we also pray very specially for Italy . Another thing is we can reach out to people in need  and I tried to call some of our neighnours to ensure any help needed .Thanks for all technologies.

St Jiseph is depicted in the picture holding baby Jesus in his arms.

Happy Feast of St Joseph.

St Patrick'sday

Today is the feast of St Patrick, used to be a week with Irish dance and celebration in our St John's community. Due to the current situation going around, we are confined at home by learning Irish steps, read story of St Patrick, some activities and food( jelly made with the help of Geo).

St Patrick was a Roman citizen and captured by celts and made a slave for six years. In his captivity he turned to God. He tells us; "The love of God and His fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith and my soul was roused..." Pstrick had a message from God in a dream and he was told to flee and in the end united with his family. He became a priest later and back in Ireland.

One of the keys to his holiness is his deep humility. In his book called confession, he speaks about his sinfulness...I was like a stone lying in mud and mighty lifted me up...

Children are learning some Irish dance steps and Geo along with Theresu putting their best effort to learn.

'Christ beside me....

Practised the song of Patrick...' Christ at my right hand...

Since it is the day of wearing of the green, I tried to incorporate some green in the meal and children worn green as part of the feast.

          

  Happy Feast of St Patrick

15th Birthday

Day before yesterday we spent time celebrating Annu's 15th birthday. There was no theme and it was a small party with a few close friends of Annu and didn't prepare at hand. All came out very well and had a beautiful day. Thomas girls decorated coffee cake and Thank God for our wonderful girl who completed fifteen years.

Birthday girl requested coffee cake and some gifts , coffee mug and a throw.

Big girls and boys went out to Mac to have food together and were happy been together.After cutting cake , little kids have some birthday treats and it was a great day. 

Lenten journey

Season of Lent is upon us.The time of lent is always a time of extra steps to pray, fasting, good deeds...Making an effort to be kind and gentle to others and within family. Some of our lenten traditions are the Strove Tuesday or Pancake day, the preparing phase before it commence. Prepared chocolate pancakes this year.

Following day is the Ash Wednesday and it was the day JY awakening commenced in Shefield.Getting ready for ash and awakening.

Some of the activities during the season is preparing stations of the cross with children and it was great to see colours and prepared booklet.Prepared  the Lenten calendar and both younger ones are very keen to follow small prayers and kind deeds.

Mini stations of the cross frames were made with the help of real life at home blog, incredible and stuck the picture on a thick cardstock and decorated. Theresu and Geo were very enthusiastic to do stations by lighting the candles around the lounge on each stations.

The little ones are quite keen to some lenten art works. Ideas taken from applesandabc. First of all a cross was made with painter's tape and painted with different colours.

Finally it turned out well and Theresu wrote 'I love you Jesus' and it came from her itself and the one next to her is from Geo.