Summer

Summer 2010 Issue | Posted by Editor in Season

“A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.”

— St. Francis of Assisi

Feasts, Traditions … and Fun

June

1ST. JUSTIN MARTYR

St. Justin used his speaking skills to convert pagans to the faith. Look up a local Catholic speaker and try to attend a talk.

6 CORPUS CHRISTI

Read about the Eucharistic miracles of the world. Visit FaithandFamilyLIVE.com “Resources.”

20 FATHER’S DAY

Encourage Dad to check out FathersForGood.org

11 THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS

• The solemnity of the Sacred Heart is a moveable feast celebrated the first Friday after Corpus Christi Sunday.

Devotion to the Heart of Jesus, as a way to focus on his human and divine love for us, has been around since the Middle Ages. In the 17th century, Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary Ala-coque, revealing his heart and asking for devotion to his love as an antidote to the Jansenist heresy.

The Church finally recognized this devotion with a formal feast in 1765. On the feast of the Sacred Heart, add its beautiful Litany to your family prayers.

— Daria Sockey

12 THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

• The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is always the day after the feast of the Sacred Heart. On the feast of the Immaculate Heart, make a heart-shaped cake decorated appropriately with icing flowers, and while enjoying dessert, watch a movie about Fatima, such as The 13th Day (Ignatius Press), since devotion to the heart of Mary is a large part of the Fatima message.

For everything you would like to know about either of these feasts, visit FaithandFamilyLIVE.com “Resources.”

— Daria Sockey

Feasts, Traditions … and Fun

July

1 BLESSED JUNIPER OSERRA
He was largely responsible for the spread of the Church on the West Coast of the United States. Today pray for missionaries.

15 ST. BONAVENTURE

Ask your kids to make a sign with the saying, “Christ is both the way and the door.” Hang it on your door as a reminder.

26 ST. JOACHIMAND ST. ANNE
Call Grandma and Grandpa today.

4 INDEPENDENCE DAY

• “Freedom is not free.” As a family, take the time to write a letter, send cookies, or say special prayers for the soldiers currently defending our freedom.

Have a teenager? Today is a good day to explain the difference between liberty and license. “Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought” (Lord Acton). License is the ability to do whatever we like. Iron-ically, true freedom involves obedience to natural and divine law. “And the truth shall set you free.” Even our Founding Fathers understood true freedom when they created “one nation under God.”

Here are two comparisons:

License empowers you to drink yourself to oblivion every night; however, that same license makes you a slave to alcohol. You only feel “happy” when you have a good buzz going. Truly free individuals don’t need alcohol to be happy.

License allows us to eat however many Oreos we like; however, as a result, we crave sugar at all times. True liberty follows moderation, with the happy consequence that we can see a cookie and leave it there without torture.

Want to study more about freedom and license? Frank Sheed simply explains how freedom is tied to obedience in two of his books: Map of Life and Theology for Beginners.

— Maryan Vander Woude

28 ST.MARY MAGDALENE

• Despite her prominence in the Bible, many facts about this saint are disputed (like which biblical “Mary” referred to her, where she went after the Resurrec-tion, and where she died). Moreover, many legends surround her.

One legend comes from the Eastern Orthodox. Reportedly, Mary Magdalene met with the Emperor Tiberius. She gave him an egg, and proclaimed to him that “Christ is Risen!” Tiberius laughed and said a man could rise from the dead just as easily as the egg in her hand could turn red. Instantly, the egg did. The Orthodox, thus, have a custom to share red Easter eggs and also picture Mary Magdalene in their iconography with both a red egg and an alabaster jar.

To celebrate Mary Magdalene’s feast:

• Try Amy Welborn’s book: De-coding Mary
Magdalene: Truth, Legend or Lies

• Mary Magdalene dried feet with her hair,
so she is fittingly the patron saint of hair
dressers. If you have long hair, in honor of St.
Mary Magdalene, pursue donating some of your
hair to LocksOfLove.org

• Mary Magdalene reformed her life. Go to
confession and “expel some demons” from yours.

• Mary Magdalene sought the Lord early on the
Resurrection morning and met him in the flesh.
In Magdalene spirit, make an early morning holy
hour to do the same.

— Maryan Vander Woude

Feasts, Traditions … and Fun

August

More Faith and Family Days in AUGUST

6 THETRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD

Invite your friends on a hike today.

23 ST. ROSE OF LIMA

St. Rose would meditate in the garden. Pick summer blooms, and place them in a vase.

24 ST. BARTHOLOMEW

This martyr is depicted in Michelangelo’s Last Judgment holding his flayed skin. To learn more, visit FaithandFamilyLIVE.com “Resources.”

9 ST. TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS

• St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, born Edith Stein, a Jew in Germany in 1891, became a Carmelite nun. She was martyred at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942.
An extremely bright woman, she was an excellent scholar and brilliant teacher about whom John Paul II said, at her canonization:

“For a long time Edith Stein was a seeker. Her mind never tired of searching, and her heart always yearned for hope. She traveled the arduous path of philosophy with passionate enthusiasm. Eventually she was rewarded: She seized the truth. Or better: She was seized by it. Then she discovered that truth had a name: Jesus Christ. From that moment on, the incarnate Word was her One and All. Looking back as a Carmelite on this period of her life, she wrote to a Benedictine nun: ‘Whoever seeks the truth is seeking God, whether consciously or unconsciously.’”

Today is a good day to set some goals for the coming school year and to shop for school supplies. Remember it’s a feast day and celebrate with ice cream cones on the way home.

— Elizabeth Foss

15 THE ASSUMPTION

• The Assumption is a day we set aside with all due reverence to celebrate Mary’s assumption, body and soul, into heaven.

Feast Day Minted Berries

This day has long been a day of traditional blessings of fruits and herbs, so a sweet dessert of minted strawberries or berries nestled between a cloud of pudding and another of whipped cream seems an especially delightful feast day dessert.

6 ready-made mini graham cracker or pie

crust shells

1 cup sliced strawberries or berries

1 teaspoon dried mint or slightly more fresh

mint, finely chopped

3 tablespoons orange juice

1 teaspoon sugar

Small package instant vanilla pudding

(and two cups of milk, to make according

to directions)

1 cup whipping cream and one tablespoon

sugar

Stir the orange juice together with the mint, and toss with the strawberries. Refrigerate the berries while you assemble the rest of the pies. Make the vanilla pudding according to directions. Spoon the pudding into 6 mini pie crusts. Refrigerate half an hour. Meanwhile, whip the cream with one tablespoon of sugar. With a slotted spoon, arrange the minted strawberries on top of the pudding. Top each mini pie with a generous cloud of whipped cream.

— Elizabeth Foss

Your own faith and family traditions in August:

Homework: Share your own faith and family traditions with us.  Contact information, page 6.