St James ther Greater-Apostle of Spain

Another beautiful day at home. July 25th is the feast of St James the greater. This saturday we had the preteens club online. Why not we do something about apostles?

                    St James was known as greater in comparing with other St James lesser. There are so many places in Gospel we see St James, come and follow me , I will make fishers of men. There the first disciples of Jesus, then during transfiguration, at the time of passion of Christ....St James along with his brother John the evangelist is called Sons of Thunder.

          Lot of things about the olden tradition of pilgrimage to Spain- Santiago de Compostella. Originally in 44 AD, St James after the ascension of Jesus, left to preach good new to Spain, as it says he reached up to the ends , the tip of spain, Santiago. He fulfilled what Jesus said- Go and preach the good news to the whole world, to the very ends of the earth. Santiago is a very olden pilgrimage shrine. Many go by walk / bike and basilica where the remains of St James is buried. Once St James was martyred, other disciples brought his remains back to Spain. Till 800 AD, ONE ot the hermit found out the remains of the saint and started people flowing to the place.I also got a dream to visit sometime in my life.


There are lot of beautiful incidents associated with St James, he was discouraged and returning to Jerusalem, Mary the mother of Jesus appeared to him, on a pillar, she encouraged him to be strong like a pillar and revealed to him what sort of death he was going to suffer in Jerusalem (Acts 12;2).


Our Lady of Pillar is still in Compostela, Feast is in October.

 As part of the group, children were taught some scripture passage, MY SHEEP LISTENS TO MY VOICE AND FOLLOW ME''.John 10 ;27..... Then we went through St James cross, what it is meant to the life of a pilgrim, the need to listen to God. Following that scavenger hunt of some of the items of a pilgrim was done. Picture appreciation of St James was done and how to identify St James as he was a patron of pilgrims, Spain. By looking at the picture of St James always carrying a gourd, a pilgrim staff with a hook to carry things, a shell on his cloak, hat and so on.





Children had a craft session to make a St James craft with empty toilet roll and asked to draw the parts, coloured and stick together.


                                        Crafts by Thrsu and myself to show children

                          Some of the crafts by children from the group

Last but not least, Last week I purchased madeleine tray to make some shell cakes which could be of special on this feast day. Shell is one the beautiful symbol, many of the pilgrims carry back as a souvenir after their pilgrimage and you always notice shell on the picture of St James the Greater.

                           Happy feast of St James the Greater

Lockdown Easing visits

Some of the visits we made this week, one of my friend and junior had a baby girl. Just made a shadow box, visited her.

                                Another travel to a friend who was celebrating his birthday.

In between Annu made some donuts, iced donuts and with chocolate fillings.

Harvesting Potatoes

This year, we have some potatoes , beans, courgettes ,tomatoes, raspberries and it is time now to harvest . Potatoes are flowering, Jocha dug soil and lifted the plants to remove potatoes and it was glad to see the fruits of the labour. Geo and Therese were happy, courgette,beans are getting ready to be plucked.

Since potatoes are the first fruits of this harvest  and roasted as  it was the feast of St Ann and Annu's feast day too. 

                                     Courgettes are getting ready too

Mini adventures

Another sunny day here, so thought to go to woodlands just to explore. This time we  followed a different trail in Chorlton woods. Through marshy areas, inside woods, dark surroundings,  chopped woods, damp areas, kept going aiming to visit the farm in the end  of the trail, from there we took a turn to a bit tricky curved path. Following the path we ended in a vast space, a place of beauty and calmness. So it a time to celebrate, kids were rolling in the green pasture, had piggybacks, we were so relaxed and had some time of chat and thanked God for His beautiful presence in our lives. That was truly amazing to reach a haven.

 

Ou Lady of Mount Carmel

It was the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In her appearance to St Simon Stock, Mary gave the scapular promise.'Whoever dies wearing the scapular shall not suffer eternal fire'. Our diocese's patron is Our Lady of Mount Carmel and attended the Holy Mass.

There is a beautiful image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at home and prepared some flapjacks decorated with scapula. A few years back , we were all enrolled to wear the scapula.

 

In reminding the Mount Carmel we went to peak district last year. This time we went to  explore woods and in the end we landed in the vast ground and it was so beautiful, a  place of calmness and beauty.

 

                            Our Lady of Mount Carmel pray for us.

Out in the woods

Little kiddos went out to woods for a walk with Jobychaya. I was hooked up in zoom . Unfortunately I couldn't make it. They walked a lot, picked another trail this time and visited a farm on one end of the woods.

End of School Year

Our School year just closed by last weekend.  This year went pass so hurriedly.  I could only imagine the beginning of the past academic year , 2019 Sept to 2020 July. In October for the half term, along with Thomas family, we had a caravan holiday with lots and lots of fun and infotainment.  Children enjoyed pools, activities, visiting St David cathedral and so on.

 Truly an amazing time though the trip ended with a tummy bug , Thersu and Geo took turns to diarrhoea and vomiting, lasted for a while. Thank God, all passed. Christmas was awesome time as usual, then we were aiming for holidays to India and time with parents and grand parents. All of us had a calming and refreshing time with our dear families, siblings.  Pandemic broke out slowly in different countries, back to UK. It took sometime to settle back with weather. By March, corona reached UK and many other places. Lockdown started and pretty much outdoor activities slowed down and stopped like athletes, circus, visits to museums, football club, national trust visits, libraries, piano lessons, Sundsy schools, Annu's Manchester college . Mock exams were done and finally this year closed with usual evaluations; distributing certificates, sweets, stationary items for summer break .