Saint Valentine

Here is your printable daily Saint of the Day coloring page using the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar of 1954. Today's saint is Saint Valentine. (Scroll down for the printable coloring page)  Reposted from last year.

SAINT VALENTINE
Priest and Martyr, simple feast
(†270)
St.Valentine (Valentino) was a Roman priest who performed marriages in spite of Claudius II's law against such (Claudius believed that marriage was distracting to his soldiers, so outlawed it to them for a time). Fr. Valentine was martyred in A.D. 270 on the Flammian way, and at the site of his martyrdom, Julius I built a popular basilica. Various dates are given for the martyrdom: 269, 270, or 273.

Other than this, little is known. Because two other St. Valentines share this Feast day ("Valentine" was an extremely common name for Christians as it has the same root as the word "valor"), often their stories are confused, but it is the Roman priest-martyr whom we honor during the liturgy.

The relics of St. Valentine -- at least a great majority of them -- are, interestingly enough, in the Whitefriar Church associated with the Calced Carmelites in Dublin, Ireland. They were excavated from the Cemetery of St. Hippolytus, on the Triburtine Way in Rome in 1835 and were then given to Fr. Spratt, an Irish Carmelite, by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836. The relics, "together with a small vessel tinged with his blood," were deposited "in a wooden case covered with painted paper, well closed, tied with a red silk ribbon and sealed with our seals and we have so delivered and consigned to him, and we have granted unto him power in the Lord, to the end that he may retain to himself, give to others, transmit beyond the city (Rome) and in any church, oratory or chapel, to expose and place the said blessed holy body for the public veneration of the faithful without, however, an Office and Mass, conformably to the decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, promulgated on the 11th day of August 1691," as the letter accompanying the relics reads. On this Feast Day, his relics are carried in procession, and a special Mass is offered for young people and lovers.
Customs
Because of his Nuptial Masses, he became the patron of lovers, the affianced, and married couples, and fortuitous to the priest's association with romance is the belief that halfway through the month of February, birds choose their mates, hence St. Valentine's association with birds, especially lovebirds and doves. Chaucer mentions this belief in his "Parliament of Foules":

For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.

Also fortuitous is the fact that red is both the color of Martrys and the color associated with love. Red roses are also a symbol of both martyrom and love, and had also always been associated with the Roman godess of love, Venus.

Venus' son, Cupid ("Eros" in Greek), god of love, was originally depicted as a very handsome young man, but now as a winged putto bearing a bow and arrow with which to smite hearts with love. His image, along with the image of hearts he has pierced with his arrows, are ubiquitous symbols of romantic love on this day.

To send a very Catholic valentine to someone you love, how about using a paraphrase of today's Collect as the basis for the text?
Grant, I beseech Thee, O almighty God, that (Name of loved one), who celebrates the heavenly birthday of blessed Valentine, Thy Martyr, may by his intercession be delivered from all the evils that threaten (him/her). Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end....with all the personal, mushy stuff at the bottom! For a romantic card for a spouse, some of the poetry found in Solomon's Canticle of Canticles -- a Book which uses marital love as a metaphor for God's love for His Church -- cannot be surpassed for inspiration.

Source: Fisheaters
2.14- Saint Valentine

Saint Blaise

Here is your printable daily Saint of the Day coloring page using the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar of 1954. Today's saint is Saint Blaise.

Saint Blaise (†316) Bishop and Martyr, simple feast Patron of wild animals and throat ailments.

I did a post on this last year with coloing pages.  Click on the link above or here to take you to it! 


Enjoy and God Bless!

Smashing November Calendar

So, you may (or may not have) noticed that I haven't been around the whole month of October.  That month has just blurred by and even now, November is proving to be a blur as well.

Our 4, now 5 month old son was hospitalized for 3 weeks with a serious MSSA Staph infection that proved to be too close of a call for us.  It also caused meningitis.  There were some complications along the way and it was just hard.  It was hard to watch, to deal, to live day to day and be scared.  And it was hard staying day after day in the PICU watching other families go through the same thing.  In short... it is all a blur now.  I dont even know how I dealt with it mentally.  I think something just comes over you and God somehow gives you the strength that you didn't know you had.  When there is no choice, there is no choice but to deal. 

Our little man is still on IV antibiotics for now.  There are loads of follow up procedures and meetings with immunologists and hematologists and infectious disease doctors.  There are physical therapy assessments to go through and oh.... "normal" life to accomplish at the same time.  So we have missed a few weeks of homeschooling and the kids have been very good, patient and loving.

We are back in the swing of things this week.  Back in the (new) groove I guess.  There is less sleep all around but by some miracle, I still make it through the day by the grace of God.  I think I'd keel over otherwise!

Anyway, I came back to my computer and I still had my old October desktop calendar on.  I just couldn't believe that October was GONE.  It's November already.  Time for family gatherings and shopping for Christmas.  Time to change out the closets and bring out the coats and scarves.  Time for hot stews for dinner and turning the heat on at night.  Time is just blurring past me lately and I just need it all to stop for a moment. Rewind, pause... go back!  Alas, we must go on.

The Original

Now enough talking... this post was about November Calendars.
Smashing's November desktop calendars are here and I LOVE THEM!  Here is my choice for this month:

But here were some of my other favorites:

Head over to Smashing and grab yours!

And remember, enjoy each day, minute and second with the ones you love.  In the Thanksgiving spirit, don't take anything for granted.  Not even dirty diapers.  I've never been so grateful to hear a crying baby in my life!
Happy November ya'll.

S

Poetry Memorization: The Land of Counterpane

This is  a lovely poem by Robert Louis Stevenson that we are using this week for 3rd grade Poetry Memorization.  To have a PDF version and a coloring page, click here.

Minnie Dibdin Spooner - The Land of Counterpane - The Golden Staircase - 1906

  

The Land of Counterpane

by Robert Louis Stevenson

When I was sick and lay a-bed,

I had two pillows at my head,

And all my toys beside me lay

To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so

I watched my leaden soldiers go,

With different uniforms and drills,

Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets

All up and down among the sheets;

Or brought my trees and houses out,

And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still

That sits upon the pillow-hill,

And sees before him, dale and plain,

The pleasant land of counterpane.

Jessie Willcox Smith - The Land of Counterpane 1863-1935

How I Homeschool: Schedule and Details

Here is the updated Homeschooling Schedule as well as details into how I go through my day.  I do keep this paper with me as I am newer to homeschooling and it's not second nature yet.  It keeps me and all 5 kids on track!  It's so easy to forget the time and what we are all doing if the younger ones need help or if you're potty training a 2 year old!  I am flexible though. We have library days and Saturday is kept clear in case we need to catch up on a thing or two (or if we decide on having a field trip in the middle of the week!)

The first and 3rd grader have about 10 subjects each and they have been doing great so far.  This keeps thing in line and they have plenty of play time to keep from getting tired or burning out.
Updated Weekly Homeschool Schedule

  Weekly Homeschool Schedule Details

Lord Help Us Clip Art

When I find some beautiful Catholic images, I will post them here for you to use as clip art for free.  These make wonderful coloring pages for your little ones, decorations for letterheads or even greeting cards.  Use your creativity and enjoy these vintage graphics!

As far as I am aware, anything that is published from 1923-1977 without a copyright notice in the US is public domain.  I am choosing images from within those guidelines.  SO, Enjoy!

+AMDG+

The Seven Sorrows
of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Church twice commemorates the sorrows of its heavenly Mother. The Friday of Passion week, since the 15^th century, has also been dedicated by the universal Church to Her Compassion. Why is this so? To understand this double liturgy, we must know that Mary is also the Mother of the Mystical Body. The present feast was instituted by Pius VII after his return from his captivity and exile, which lasted from 1809 to 1814. Christ no longer suffers, and for Our Lady also, all suffering as we understand it has ceased. Nonetheless, the prophet Jeremias in his Lamentations, asks: “To whom shall You be compared, O Virgin? Your affliction is like the ocean.” A mother who is happy in her home weeps just the same over the sorrows of her children. The statues and pictures of Mary all over Europe wept before the Revolution in France, and Her statues weep again today, in many places. The Passion of Christ continues in His elect, in particular in His Vicar on earth, from whom He does not separate Himself, and against whom the force of hell is deployed unceasingly. The mysterious compassion of the Mother is forever acquired for the Mystical Body of Her Son, which must reproduce the divine death in its human nature, elevated above its natural condition by the superhuman power of grace.

Mary’s great sorrows began at the prediction of Simeon that a sword would transpierce Her heart. Soon afterwards, She was obliged to flee with the newborn Infant, already object of a fatal search. She lost Him in the temple for three inexpressibly painful days; She met Him on the road to Calvary, and the sight indeed pierced Her heart. She saw Him die, heard His final cry, and witnessed the opening of His side with the effusion of His last drops of blood, mingled with water; She received in Her arms the inert body of the most beautiful of the sons of men. Finally, She was obliged to depose Him in a tomb, leave Him there and return with Her adopted son, John, to a deicidal Jerusalem.

The Queen of Martyrs has never ceased to encourage Her children on earth to bear their own crosses, which complement the Passion of Christ. He suffered first the ordinary contradictions of life; for three years He was taunted and regarded as a menace by those who should have recognized Him and His mission. He knew hunger, cold and fatigue; He slept so heavily in a boat amid a tempest, that we can only suppose He was exhausted. He knew what it was to be abandoned in need and to lose, to the empire of various passions, followers He had called His. Christ is our forerunner in all human sorrows and difficulties. Mary, as His Mother, offered to God with Him all the afflictions of His earthly life, and She continues to offer those of the Church, for its sanctification, for the souls in Purgatory and the salvation of souls.

Source: L’année liturgique, by Dom Guéranger (Mame et Fils: Tours,1919), “La Passion, La Semaine Sainte,” Vol. 6, translation. O.D.M. Magnificat

Lyrics for "Stabat Mater Dolorosa" 

in the beginning of this post. via Fisheaters

	English Version:
1. Stabat mater dolorosa juxta Crucem lacrimosa, dum pendebat Filius. 2. Cuyus animam gementem, contristatam et dolentem, pertransivit gladius. 3. O quam tristis et afflicta fuit illa benedicta Mater Unigeniti. 4. Quae moerebat et dolebat, Pia Mater cum videbat Nati poenas incliti. 5. Quis est homo qui non fleret, Matrem Christi si videret in tanto supplicio? 6. Quis non posset contristari, Christi Matrem contemplari dolentem cum Filio? 7. Pro peccatis suae gentis vidit Jesum in tormentis et flagellis subditum. 8. Vidit suum dulcem natum moriendo desolatum, dum emisit spiritum. 9. Eia Mater, fons amoris, me sentire vim doloris fac, ut tecum lugeam. 10. Fac ut ardeat cor meum in amando Christum Deum, ut sibi complaceam. 11. Sancta mater, istud agas, crucifixi fige plagas cordi meo valide. 12. Tui nati vulnerati, tam dignati pro me pati, poenas mecum divide. 13. Fac me tecum pie flere, crucifixo condolere, donec ego vixero. 14. Iuxta crucem tecum stare, et me tibi sociare in planctu desidero. 15. Virgo virginum praeclara, mihi iam non sis amara: fac me tecum plangere. 16. Fac ut portem Christi mortem, passionis fac consortem, et plagas recolere. 17. Fac me plagis vulnerari, fac me cruce inebriari, et cruore Filii. 18. Flammis ne urar succensus per te Virgo, sim defensus in die judicii 19. Christe, cum sit hinc exire, da per matrem me venire ad palmam victoriae. 20. Quando corpus morietur, fac ut animae donetur Paradisi gloria. Amen.		1. At the cross her station keeping, Stood the mournful Mother weeping, Close to Jesus to the last. 2. Through her heart, His sorrow sharing, All His bitter anguish bearing, Now at length the sword had pass'd. 3. Oh, how sad and sore distress'd Was that Mother highly blest Of the sole-begotten One! 4. Christ above in torment hangs; She beneath beholds the pangs Of her dying glorious Son. 5. Is there one who would not weep, Whelm'd in miseries so deep Christ's dear Mother to behold? 6. Can the human heart refrain From partaking in her pain, In that Mother's pain untold? 7. Bruis'd, derided, curs'd, defil'd, She beheld her tender child All with bloody scourges rent. 8. For the sins of His own nation, Saw Him hang in desolation, Till His spirit forth He sent. 9. O thou Mother! fount of love! Touch my spirit from above; Make my heart with thine accord. 10. Make me feel as thou hast felt; Make my soul to glow and melt With the love of Christ our Lord. 11. Holy Mother! pierce me through; In my heart each wound renew Of my Saviour crucified. 12. Let me share with thee His pain, Who for all my sins was slain, Who for me in torments died. 13. Let me mingle tears with thee, Mourning Him who mourn'd for me, All the days that I may live. 14. By the cross with thee to stay, There with thee to weep and pray, Is all I ask of thee to give. 15. Virgin of all virgins best, Listen to my fond request Let me share thy grief divine. 16. Let me, to my latest breath, In my body bear the death Of that dying Son of thine. 17. Wounded with His every wound, Steep my soul till it hath swoon'd In His very blood away. 18. Be to me, O Virgin, nigh, Lest in flames I burn and die, In His awful Judgment day. 19. Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence, Be Thy Mother my defence, Be Thy cross my victory. 20. While my body here decays, May my soul Thy goodness praise, Safe in Paradise with Thee. Amen.