Footprints on the Fridge

It's Almost Advent: Preparing our Hearts

Clearly the most important component of the Advent season is the preparation of our own hearts for the celebration of the birth of our Saviour.  The preparations we'll be doing on the homefront mimic what is happening in our hearts--we are tidying, decluttering, straightening things out, and hopefully Christmas will find the halls of our hearts decked with joy and hope and their will be room in our inns for the newborn King.

I haven't mentioned our Liturgical Tree here in quite a while, but it's spent all of Ordinary Time adding blooms to its branches, each bloom representing a gift or fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Throughout Advent, those blooms will begin to bear fruit--pink and purple plums will take the place of the little flowers, and we will discuss one of the corporal or spiritual works of mercy as we place each one.  From Christmas until Epiphany, we will harvest that fruit through our own good works, so that we have a gift to present to the King on Twelfth Night.

Our daily prayer rhythm will focus on the traditions of Advent.  In morning prayer, we will place our Jesse Tree ornaments and read the corresponding scriptures.  At lunch and tea times, we will use the book S is for Star: A Christmas Alphabet (more on that in my post on preparing our minds this advent.) Evening prayer will center on our advent wreath.  We'll also make a paper chain for our tree with purple and pink links to count down the days of Advent.  The inside of each link will contain a special prayer intention for that evening for which we will pray.  On Christmas Eve, when the links are all gone, we'll replace the chain with popcorn and cranberry strings. 

I'm trying a new concept for Advent wreath this year.  I was taken with this image of a waldorf-style Advent spiral and sweet Mary on her donkey marking the journey.  I am going to try this type of idea with something that will look more like the advent wreaths my kids have been familiar with in past years.  I'm creating the spiral out of floral foam and covering it with greenery.  We'll place small candles (birthday candles if necessary) in to mark each of the days of Advent, using purple and pink appropriately.  Each week of Advent, we'll focus on one Scripture story of the Advent season, creating small wooden and felt figures along the way to mark the journey, much like our Serendipity Wee Felt Saints.

• First Week of Advent stories: the Annunciation and the angel appearing to Joseph (figures: Mary and an Angel)
• Second Week of Advent stories: the Visitation and story of John the Baptist's birth (figures: Elizabeth and Mary)
• Third Week of Advent stories:  the census and trip to Bethlehem, no room at the inn (figures: Mary and Jospeh, donkey, wooden cave placed in center of spiral)
• Fourth Week of Advent stories: the birth of Jesus, visit of the Shepherds, visit of the Kings (figures: manger and baby Jesus)

We'll also celebrate some of the lovely traditions of saints' feast days that fall within Advent.  Of course, our basketful of Catholic Mosaic picture books will provide ample inpsirational reading, especially on these feast days, but we'll also celebrate in some other special ways that have become treasured Advent traditions in our home.

• St. Nicholas Day (December 6): We fill our stockings on this day with gold coin chocolates, nuts in their shells, clementines, and candy canes.  Each child receives a new book for the Advent/Christmas book basket and there's a few new family games for wintry nights.  We have lots of favorite read-alouds for this feast including Demi's Legend of St. Nicholas, The True Story of Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend, and my personal Christmas favorite, The Miracle of St. Nicholas.  In addition, we have a beautiful Russian icon egg with St. Nicholas on it that gets placed on the mantle for this feast.  I'm keeping tea times simple--candy cane tea or hot chocolate with candy cane stirrers and iced ginger snaps.
• St. Lucia's Day (December 13): Since we have no St. Lucia's in this family and an overabundance of star boys, I'll serve cafe au lait and cinnamon rolls at the kitchen table, covered with a white cloth with a red ribbon down its center and sprinkled with star confetti.  I hope to make a little display with our St. Lucy statue and a copycat version of Dawn's sweet star boys and maybe even one of try my hand at a tiny St. Lucia doll, although I know it won't compare to these.
• St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadelupe (December 9 and 12):  We'll celebrate these feasts together some time in the middle of that week with a Mexican feast and maybe a visit to the mission base.  We'll decorate with roses and blue cloths and make paper stars for our tree.  Again, some of our favorite picture books surface for this celebration, including Tomie de Paola favorites, The Lady of Guadelupe and The Legend of the Poinsettia, as well as The Night of Las Posadas.  We'll add these statues to our advent mantle as well and then wait for the saints on Christmas to join them!

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with this mega-post!  I did little to no Advent journaling last year and I really wanted to create a good record for myself this year.  I'll be referring to this post myself in the morning when I make my craft store shopping list.  It's a lot to write out, but it's not as overwhelming in the practical aspects--we're talking a Jesse Tree, an advent wreath, a paper chain, some felt circles we'll call plums, lots of good picture books and three simple feast day celebrations here.  I love that this rhythm slows down the season for us, allows us to savor it.  Maybe it adds work to a busy season, but in my experience, it actually slows down the season and gives me time to focus on leading little hearts to the little Saviour.  If that's the case, there are plenty of other things I'd rather not get to than skipping this.  This, in my heart, is where the path to heaven is at its most beautiful.

Growth in the Spirit

You haven't heard an update on our Liturgical Tree in quite a while....and here's why--We made the changes for Pentecost and then settled into the rush of solemnities that followed so quickly behind it as well as the special call to honor our Blessed Mother in Her month. After Pentecost, the kids found the tree covered in 16 pink buds.  The dove rested in his the nest we had built as we waited for Him and the blue bird that symbolizes Mary perched in our branches throughout May.  We left the tree this way and feasted with the church throughout May.  In June, we settled into the gentler rhythm of ordinary time and marked it by moving the sun across our frame to the middle.  The dove and its nest as well as the little blue bird disappeared, leaving us with a tree covered in buds. 

Quinn was away for the past three weeks and begged that I not let anything happen to the three while he was gone, so we begin our plans for Ordinary Time officially this week.

Each of those pink buds will blossom into a white flower with the pink as its center.  They represent the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.   We will focus on spiritual growth during ordinary time by cultivating the presence of these graces in our lives.

I am going to pull copywork for Quinn and explanations for each of the gifts from this article which I found really helpful.  Once a week at morning prayer, a flower will bud and we'll discuss the gift it represents.  Each night at evening prayer, we'll talk further about ways in which we find this gift present in our lives, times we might most need it, and what efforts we can make to cultivate it.  The younger kids be decorating the letters G-R-O-W-T-H to stretch across our Liturgical Line (a ribbon "clothesline" stretched across our mantle). 

When we have covered the Gifts of the Spirit, we will move on to the Fruits of the Spirit.  To my delight, my new student and teacher planners (thanks, Gran Gran), which I find a new reason to love each time I touch them, have lessons on the fruits of the Spirit detailed out in them for me!  So we'll follow those as our buds flower over the weeks of ordinary time. 

Once our buds have opened, we'll find them bearing their fruit (apples) which will represent the virtues. 

I'm still fleshing out the Advent plans in my mind, but my thought is to build a ladder up the tree with each rung representing a special thing we have done to prepare our hearts for our Saviour.  We'll spend the Christmas season harvesting our fruit to present to the Newborn King at Epiphany.  We'll focus on the virtue of charity in those weeks, and harvest an apple for each act we perform.  In Lent, there was caterpillar that represented Jesus and then in Easter, a butterfly.  We had our dove for Pentecost and our blue bird for May.  She'll reappear as we mark the Marian feasts of the year, and the caterpillar and butterfly will visit on the feast of Transfiguration.  I'm hoping to make birds to mark the saints feast days: a red one for martyrs, a white one for virgins, etc....and I am mulling special symbols for advent and Christmas. 

As I flesh out my weekly presentations, I'll try to come back and share them here.  It's not too late to make your own Liturgical Tree and travel with us as we celebrate the richness of our faith.  Do join us, we are really enjoying this path!

Liturgical Tree: Pentecost and Ordinary Time

Here is a look at the Liturgical Tree right now.  Its Easter buds are almost all opened to leaves, and a little blue bird has perched herself in the branches to remind us that May is Mary's month.

Our Easter butterfly left us on Ascension and we began to build a nest for his successor.  We have added a brown twig and a bit of wool each day this week.

Pentecost Plans:

Our dove will appear in our nest and our tree will hold sixteen pink blossoms (one for each of the seven gifts and nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.)

I am basing my menu on ideas on these ideas shared by my favorite ladies.

We are having a grilled meat assortment (whatever is on sale!) and watching those tongues of fire as we grill!

Red salad: red potatoes, red cabbage, red onion, and spicy mayo.  It'll match the red shirts we'll all wear to Mass.

Fruits of the Spirit salad: I usually just find nine different fruits that will work, cut them up with some pound cake cubed up and then serve it with a little whipped cream on top.

In the evening will have Pentecost Sundaes (a tradition that was born last week when on the spur of the moment I brainstormed an Ascension Sundae--crushed Oreos on the bottom to represent the earth, heavenly hash ice cream, a cloud of whipped cream, and a Golden Oreo on top to represent Jesus' crown of victory).  Pentecost Sundaes will have vanilla ice cream, strawberry syrup, a whipped cream cloud, nut sprinkles (some people in the crowd thought the apostles were just that!), and strawberry (looks like a tongue of fire) dipped in melted Dove chocolate.

As we move into Ordinary Time, the sun in the corner of our Liturgical tree will begin to move across the frame to note the changing season.  Green grass will grow on the ground, representing the color of the season, and each of those pink buds wills open into a pink and white apple blossom.

As each flower opens, we will discuss one of the gifts or fruits of the Spirit and how it is present in our lives.

If we do one each week, it will take us to September, perfect timing for our blossoms to bear that favorite Fall fruit--apples.  More on that later!

Have a happy Mother's day everyone!

The Liturgical Tree: Ascension and Pentecost

Here is what our Liturgical Tree is looking like these days.  It has sprouted a new leaf for every day of the Easter season.  As we approach Ascension and Pentecost, it is getting ready to undergo some changes.  On Thursday, the butterfly that appeared on Easter Sunday as a symbol of the Risen Christ will fly away.  From that day until Pentecost, we will build a nest, adding felt twigs and bits of wool roving throughout each day to symbolize our waiting for the Advocate Christ promises to send us.  On Pentecost Sunday, a dove will come to nest there. 

The boys are loving the tree and anticipating the changes in the upcoming weeks.  They often ask what will happen next or what will happen on such and such a feast.  I fell a little behind, but I hope to make birds to sit on the branches for saints feast days, a white one for virgins, red for martyrs, blue for Marian feasts.

I'll post plans for ordinary time next week with photos of this week's changes.  Hope you're enjoying following along!

Alleluia! He is Risen!

The Triduum Tree

Here is what has been happening on our mantle during the days of the Triduum:

On Holy Thursday, we used this pitcher and towel to wash one another's feet.

And watched our caterpillar climb to the limb of our tree. 

On Good Friday, this we added this Crown of Thorns bread to our mantle:

As we made it, I asked the boys to touch the tooth picks to their heads to feel the prick, then to imagine the pain that Jesus felt as the thorns pierced His head.  Then we talked about how our sins cause Jesus pain and how we want to win the crown of glory one day.  Tomorrow the boys will find the thorns removed and the crown filled with jelly bean "jewels."

And our caterpillar disappeared into his cocoon, just as Jesus appears to be no longer with us, it seems our caterpillar has gone away.  But he is here, and he is undergoing an amazing transformation(Can you spot the cocoon?):

And we spent some time this afternoon making wee felt saints.  Nap time for the little ones went by quickly, so we only got through three, but we are quite proud of them, and will continue to work on our collection.

Here are St. Anne and a wee little Mary at her side:

And St. Bernadette:

And lovely St. Cecilia and her harp:

If you want to join us as our tree springs to life through Easter, here is what will be happening the next week:

On Easter Sunday, a butterfly will emerge from the cocoon and the tree's limbs will be covered with 50 small sprouts, which will bud into leaves one at a time throughout the Easter season.  We'll look for signs of new life in the natural world, and replace our evening Examination of Conscience with a meditation on signs on new life in our souls (I'll post it here for you Monday.)

The purple bow on the tree's trunk will be replaced with a white one.

On Mercy Sunday, red and white rain drops will fall on the tree and we'll discuss how God's mercy is as necessary to our spiritual growth as water is to plants.

More plans to come, stick with us as our tree and our hearts experience the beautiful, full rhythm of the church's seasons.