On the feast All Saints

How shining and splendid are your gifts, O Lord
which you give us for our eternal well-being
Your glory shines radiantly in your saints, O God
In the honour and noble victory of the martyrs.
The white-robed company follow you,
bright with their abundant faith;
They scorned the wicked words of those with this world's power.
For you they sustained fierce beatings, chains, and torments,
they were drained by cruel punishments.
They bore their holy witness to you
who were grounded deep within their hearts;
they were sustained by patience and constancy.
Endowed with your everlasting grace,
may we rejoice forever
with the martyrs in our bright fatherland.
O Christ, in your goodness,
grant to us the gracious heavenly realms of eternal life.

To all that stop by and have visited with me and my family via this blog, have a wonderful and blessed All Saints Day!!!

All Ye Saints in Heaven, Pray for Us!

Saints of 2010

Today is catch up posting day...LOL it feels good to look at the pictures I'm gathering to post.  It's making a difficult time a bit easier. 

Our family of Saints ~

St. Lucy

St. Nicholas

Nuestra Virgen de Guadalupe

Mother Mary

I just loved how the veil looked as Rose was walking. 

Then I saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea,

 saying, "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads." And I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, out of every tribe of the sons of Israel, After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!"  And all the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,  saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen."  Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?" I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Rev 7:2-4, 9-14

All Saints Day

"The church in this great festival honours all the saints reigning together in glory; first, to give thanks to God for the graces and crowns of all his elect: secondly, to excite ourselves to a fervent imitation of their virtues by considering the holy example of so many faithful servants of God of all ages, sexes, and conditions, and by contemplating the inexpressible and eternal bliss which they already enjoy, and to which we are invited: thirdly, to implore the divine mercy through this multitude of powerful intercessors: fourthly, to repair any failures or sloth in not having duly honoured God in his saints on their particular festivals, and to glorify him in the saints which are unknown to us, or for which no particular festivals are appointed."

(source: EWTN) 

As we remember those who have gone before us we hope we did them just at our All Saints Day carnival this past Saturday.  For the past few years our kids have dressed up as their favorite known and unknown saints.  We celebrated with games, monologues and tons of food.

I present you the saints of 2010

left to right: Lucy as St. Lucy, Max as St. Nicholas, Rose as Nuestra Virgen de Guadalupe

and out in front is Princess as Our Blessed Mother Mary

Each family was to bring little gifts to give away at each of the games.  I opted to decorate sugar cookies and make little saints to give away at the "Spin a Saint Wheel"

above: St. Therese of Lisieux, Mother Mary, St. Lucy, St. Benedict, St. Padre Pio

below: St. Clare, Bl. Kateri, Bl. Mother Teresa, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Frances

At the carnival

 

My nephew as St. Padre Pio, and nieces as Bl. Kateri and St. Gianna Beretta Molla

(please keep the two older children in your prayers, we believe we may have a priest and a sister in our midst)

The games were built by one of the hostess of the carnival.  She had made them along with her mother for a parish event.  The pictures don't do them justice...they were so cool!

Spin a Saint

St. Joan of Arc and St. Martin de Tours ran the St. Therese Plinko game

The St. Patrick Snake Toss was run by some familiar faces and St. Joan of Arc

St. Elizabeth Drexel along with this young saint, who you'll have to forgive me I just can't remember the name...so sorry. 

This was finding Jonah in the whale's mouth

This little guy to the left, St. Alexander the Charcoal Worker is so precious he just melts your heart when you see him

We have two more games, just check out Noah's Ark...

We had parents get into the day's festivities with St. Joan of Arc to the left and St. Frances of Assisi to the right

And all for the Glory of God I present to you,

All the Saints of 2010

May the Church Triumphant continuously pray for us

and may we see them as our examples as we follow their trail to Heaven!

for All the Saints

It's a artist card swap for All the Saints!

Kimberlee hosted a Marian ATC Swap last may and most of my kids really got into it.  Kimberlee had stated then, that perhaps she would host this again in November; in celebration of All Saint's Day.  Well she is doing it.  All the details are over at her blog; Pondered in my Heart.

This is a great way to get to know the Church Triumphant and have some fun while celebrating.

All forms of media are welcomed from crayons to acrylics or any combination you'd like to try.  

This is for all ages too, from adults to the youngest in your house. 

 ATC'sTh ( 7gypsies 17635 Artist Trading Card Card Pack) are about the same size as a baseball trading card.  Last year we didn't buy the pre cut sized cards but, used sturdy cardstock cut to size instead.

So now, choose a few of your favorite saints.  Get to drawing, painting, or sketching.  Click on to Pondered in my Heart for the details and her address (for mailing them in).  Then be prepared for the gifts in return as you receive 5 beautifully made cards from around the U.S.A.

Have fun!