The month of July is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. Pope Pius IX in 1849 established the Feast of the Precious Blood of Jesus on the first Sunday of July. Later on the whole month was dedicated to it. It is important for us to inform and teach our children about how Precious is the Blood of our Lord and how our Lord poured out His blood for each of us. Let us look at some of the ways we can make this month special for our kids.
Prayer to the Precious Blood of Jesus:
We could include associated prayers during our family prayer time like the Prayer or the Litany to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus.
Craft :
Draw the blessed Sacrament picture on a paper with drops of blood reminding us of Jesus and His blood which He shed for us. We also made a chalice with blood flowing from the side of Jesus to symbolize the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for us. (Check pictures below).
Activity:
Participate in the Holy Mass whenever possible during the month. You can as a family honour the Precious Blood of Jesus at every Consecration. Also take out some time to learn and pray the Anima Christi prayer together as a family.
Food reminders about His Precious Blood:
Red is the symbolic colour of the month. So, get together some fruits which are red in colour like watermelons or strawberries. Eat them as it is or make a red juice and drink it.
Hope you all have a holy and prayerful July. If you wish to make the month more exciting do celebrate Grandparents Day with us.
Feast of St. Anne & St. Joachim
Thanks to the contributions from Rosmin Francis Stanny.
St. Anthony of Padua was a powerful Franciscan preacher and teacher. He is the patron saint of lost and stolen articles, typically portrayed holding the child Jesus—or a lily—or a book—or all three—in his arms. Many people give alms of bread in thanksgiving to God for blessings received through the prayers of St. Anthony. The Church celebrates his feast on June 13.
Listed below are some activities we can do with our kids to explain and show them the significance of this feast.
We can do activities like a scavenger hunt, treasure hunt, hot or cold by hiding a toy. Basically something which involves ‘finding’ to remind us that St. Antony of Padua is the patron saint of lost things. Kids love the anticipation. You could also try painting small flower pots and planting a lily or basil plant is also fun. We tried an Outdoor Scavenger hunt around our locality. A printable of the scavenger hunt can be found in the St. Anthony worksheets
St. Anthony Craft ideas
St. Anthony of Padua was very close to nature and animals, he would even preach to the fish. You can draw some fish and colour or cut them out on coloured paper. Draw St. Anthony near the sea shore and the sea in blue. They can then paste the fish. Another option could be making some origami fish and if you need something more simpler try some magic with permanent markers and water.
Food
The symbolic colour for St. Anthony of Padua is brown. Get chocolate glazed donut, or just bake any cake/buns and let the kids pour chocolate glaze on it. Or make fish cupcakes! Decorate the topping with different colours to look like fish-eyes and mouth. We just got some chocolate glazed donuts and buns.
Do connect with us to share more meaningful ideas to celebrate the feast of St. Anthony of Padua. In order to get our children more acquainted with liturgical living do visit the feasts celebrated in the month of June like
June is the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Encouraging devotion to the Sacred Heart among our children is something beautiful we can do, so they are aware of the unconditional love Jesus and God our Father has for us. We can talk to even the youngest of children about making amends to the wounded heart of Jesus through prayer, and about His great love for us.
Here are some activities that can be done.
Explaining through a puzzle
Children learn most effectively through play. So what better way than to explain the significance of every part of the Sacred Heart of Jesus a puzzle. We begin by first making the sheet explaining the different components of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The heart: Jesus’ real heart as a sign of his Divine Love.
The Wound: The wound from the lance that pierced Jesus’ heart, the blood of Jesus shed for us all.
The Cross: A cross sits in the top of the heart to signify that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, just because he loves us.
Crown of thorns: The crown of thorns that was fixed to Jesus’ head, the pain that he went through for us.
Fire flames: Represents the awesome power of God’s Love and the heart of Jesus burning in love for us.
God’s light: Shines from the Sacred Heart of Jesus his son, whom he sent on the earth for our sake.
We could laminate the explanation sheet. I drew on a simple paper and then laminated it. For puzzle a step extra after drawing we need to cut the puzzle pieces then laminate them and then cut again after lamination being aware of the lamination borders.
Cake pop with Sacred Heart
The heart here is a cake pop. Here is how I made the cake pop. To make this we need a cake little smashed, chocolate bar and mould. Melt the chocolate bar and pour the melted chocolate in the moulds to form a coating, keep it to cool for at least 1 hour after which fill the mould with cake up to half of its edge and cool again for 5mins, then pour the melted chocolate again (you may have to melt more chocolate) to cover the cake and finish the coat, cool for more 1 hour and it’s ready. The cross and thorns are made of Nutella, the fire of flames and God’s light is made of orange peels. We used a toothpick to symbolise the Arrow and we pierced the heart which broke a bit as it’s hollow and filled with cake inside (the cake inside could be red in colour to symbolise the blood of Jesus).
Edible Art inspired by the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Since food is such an integral part of all our festivities and celebrations we could make use of whatever is available in our pantry or our fridge to make some fun edible craft with our children. We could use any red colour fruit or vegetable (watermelon, strawberry, red capsicum etc) symbolising the Sacred Heart of Jesus, orange colour (oranges, carrots, orange capsicum, papayas etc) for flames and anything brown for the thorns and cross. Here we ended up making a fruit platter comprising of strawberries, oranges and choco sticks. Also ended up with a sacred heart inspired cake topped with some pink coloured sprinkles and carrot sticks.
Mask with embroidered image
Do something creative with our children to help them remember that we are covered by precious blood of Jesus. This could be a great activity for older children if they do hand embroidery on plain masks. For younger ones they could paint on the fabric.
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and the 12 promises of Jesus
Sharing about the rich heritage of our Church through the life of our saints is also a way to keep them closer to their faith. Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and revealed to her how He desired souls to foster devotion to His Sacred Heart. He had chosen her to spread this devotion, and made twelve specific promises to those who would practice this devotion. To learn more about the life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque click here
The 12 Promises of the Sacred Heart as given by our Lord to St. Margaret Mary
I will give them all the graces necessary for their state in life.
I will give peace in their families.
I will console them in all their troubles.
They shall find in My Heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of death.
I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
Tepid souls shall become fervent.
Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.
I will bless the homes in which the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and honoured.
I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
Those who propagate this devotion shall have their name written in My Heart, and it shall never be effaced.
The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under My displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments; My Heart shall be their assured refuge at the last hour.
Some simple prayers
“O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in Thee.”
“Dear Sacred Heart of Jesus, I love You so much and I give You my heart. Help me to love God and everyone around me like you did. Also help me to love myself as a child of God. AMEN.”
Or else, better let your child make one by themselves.
What else can you do to celebrate the feast? Would be wonderful to see the things you do to teach your kids about the Sacred Heart.
“There is nothing more man needs than Divine Mercy – that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights to the holiness of God.” ~ St. John Paul II
Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated on the first Sunday following Easter. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate with our kids and teach them about God’s love, forgiveness, and mercy.
Here are some ideas for things to do with your kids on Divine Mercy Sunday.
1. Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet together, if possible at 3 pm, the hour of Divine Mercy. Display images of the Divine Mercy in your home and tell your kids about the importance of the image. The red rays represent the blood of Jesus and the blue represents the water that is coming from the pierced heart of Jesus.
2. Make a Divine Mercy Chaplet with kids. Use beads and pipe cleaners or just string! You can also use construction paper. While you are crafting, continue to talk to your kids about the importance of Divine Mercy Sunday.
3.Make special Divine Mercy Sundaes using ice cream and red and blue sprinkles! You could also make heart-shaped pancakes and use strawberries and blueberries to decorate them.
4. Here’s a cake we decorated with red and blue
How are you going to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday with your kids?
April is devoted to the Holy Eucharist
Check out ideas to celebrate Saints in April:
St. George St. Zita
Thanks to contributions from Rosmin Francis Stanny.
