Day 5: Mary Hidden in Advent-Abraham

   
  Please remember that I am posting the lessons one day in advance of the day we actually do them. So, for example, tomorrow, December 5th, we will do the lesson on Abraham that follows.  I hope next year to start right on the First Sunday of Advent, so I will be developing 33 or 34 lessons.  This year, we will need to skip a few, but I'll make a note on the days I think are most expendable.  Praying that your Advent is continuing to be joyful and holy!
 
Day 5:  Abraham

     Read The Jesse Tree pp. 20-22.  Hang ornament (stars).
     God makes a covenant with Abraham, telling him that he will bless all nations through him and that he will make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.  Abraham believes God.  God blesses Abraham with a son, Isaac.

     Scripture reference:  Genesis 18:1-15 (birth of Isaac)

     Comment:  Abraham is known as our father in faith, because it was through his faith that the Savior would come for all nations and peoples.  Abraham believed in God's promise and it was fulfilled.  Likewise, and in an even greater way, Mary believed in God's promise and became our Mother in faith. Her faith and trust in God led her to answer the angel, "Let it be done to me according to God's Word."  When she said this the Holy Spirit came upon her and Jesus Christ entered into her womb.  She is His Mother and through Him she is our Mother, too.  

Related Title:  Mary, Mother of the Church

     She is our mother—the mother of our life [Jesus], the mother of our redemption [Jesus], the mother of our light [Jesus]. As the apostle [St. Paul] says of our Lord, “He became for us, by God’s power, our wisdom and justice, our holiness and redemption.” [Mary] then, as mother of Christ, is the mother of our wisdom and justice, of our holiness and redemption. She is more our mother than the mother of our flesh. Our birth from her is better, for from her is born our holiness, our wisdom, our justice, our sanctification, our redemption.   St. Aelred of Rievaulx

Prayer from the Association of the Miraculous Medal

O Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church to you we recommend ourselves and the entire Church.
Guide and assist our Holy Father and our Bishops in their apostolic mission, and aid all who help them in their work.
Mother of the Church!
Enlighten the People of God along the paths of faith, hope and love! You were given to us as a mother by your Divine Son at the moment of his redeeming death.
Remember us your children, support our prayers to God.
Preserve our Faith, strengthen our Hope, increase our Charity.

Read more about the title Mary, Mother of the Church here.
Fr. Andrew Apostoli writes about Mary, the New Eve and Mary, Mother of the Church in this article, from which the above quote from St. Aelred is excerpted.

Day 4: Mary Hidden in Advent-Noah

     When teaching the Faith to children, the best approach I have found is little and often.  Just 10-15 minutes a day to light a candle, say a few prayers, read a short Jesse tree story, hang an ornament, and then make a few comments about Our Lady is all I do.  Sometimes, though, it takes longer as questions are asked and answered....this is where a child makes the Faith his or her own.


Day 4:  Noah and the Flood
     Read The Jesse Tree pp. 16-19.  Hang ornament (rainbow).
     A cataclysmic flood destroys all mankind.  Only faithful Noah and his family are saved by hiding in a large wooden ark along with many animals.  God promises that He will never again destroy the earth with a flood.

     Scripture reference: Genesis 7:6-9:17

     Comment:  As Noah took refuge in the ark when judgement came to the earth, so also we take refuge in Mary.  She intercedes for us before the Father and she brings us safely to the Son.  Her prayers keep us from sin and strengthen us in temptation.

Related Title:  Mary, Refuge of Sinners

     "There is certainly nothing contrary to faith in this, but the reverse. It is quite in accordance with the sentiments of the Church, which, in its public and approved prayers, teaches us continually to have recourse to this divine Mother, and to invoke her as the "health of the weak, the refuge of sinners, the help of Christians, and as our life and hope."  St. Alphonsus Liguori

Prayer to Mary, Refuge of Sinners by St. Alphonsus Liguori

     O most holy and pure Virgin! O my Mother! You who are the Mother of my Lord, the Queen of the world, the advocate and refuge of sinners! I, a most wretched sinner, now come to you. I honor you, great Queen, and give you humble thanks for the many favors which have come to me in the past through your intercession. I love you, Lady most worthy of all love, and by the love which I bear you, I promise ever in the future to honor you, and to do what lies in me to win others to your love. Receive me as your servant, and cover me with the mantle of your protection, you who are the Mother of mercy! And since you have so much power with God, implore him to deliver me from all temptations, and to give me the grace ever to overcome them. Pray for me that I may love Christ in this world as you love him, and intercede for me that I may have the grace of a good death. O my Mother! by your love for God I beseech you to be at all times my helper, but above all at the last moment of my life. Cease not your supplications until you see me safe in heaven, there for countless ages to bless you and, your holy company, to worship and adore your Son, for ever and ever. Amen.

More lovely reading on Our Lady can be found (for free!) at The Glories of Mary (scroll down). 

Day 3: Mary Hidden in Advent-The Fall

     You may have noticed that we are taking three days to complete the first story about Adam and Eve.   I am going along using the ornaments I already had on hand. Since I had one for Creation, one for Adam and Eve, and a separate one for the Fall, I divided the chapter on Creation into three lessons.  You could combine them if you wanted to, using just the Creation symbol and Mary, Queen of the Universe (or Queen of Creation) as your Marian title.  Also, I didn't begin the Jesse Tree this year until Dec. 1 because we were out of town.  It is preferable to begin the First Sunday of Advent, so extending this first chapter out a few days will make that possible next year.

Day 3:  The Fall

     Read pp. 13-15  in The Jesse Tree. Hang up the ornament (apple).
     Today we hear the sad story of Adam and Eve's fall from grace.

     Scripture reference: Genesis 3:1-24

     Comment:  Eve disobeyed God when she succumbed to temptation and ate the fruit which God had forbidden her not to eat.  Not only that, but she also tempted Adam to sin.  Their sin lost the grace God had given them, which should have been passed on to us, their descendants.  Now we are born without that grace.  This is called original sin.  Mary obeyed God and brought forth our Savior, Jesus Christ, who now restores this grace to us in the Sacrament of Baptism.

Related Title:  Mary, the New Eve

   "The knot of Eve's disobedience was loosened by Mary's obedience. The bonds fastened by the virgin Eve through disbelief were untied by the virgin Mary through faith."  St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies

As a thoughtful expression for mothers-to-be, prayer cards personalized with the name of an expectant mother and statues of “Mary the New Eve” are provided through St. Anthony’s Guild.
  

MARY THE NEW EVE 
O Mary, the new Eve,
You bore the Lord Jesus in your womb
with love beyond all telling.
Hear our prayers especially
for expectant mothers.
May their longing and expectations be
fulfilled with the same joy you
had that first Christmas.
Help us, your children,
to be committed to protecting and
nurturing all life as God first asked of us
when he created all things.
In the spirit of St. Francis, may we see
all creation, weak and powerful,
small and majestic, frail and strong,
human and non-human as
our brothers and sisters.
Blessed are you, for you have
shared your blessings with us,
and are the model of faithful love.
Amen.

+With ecclesiastical approval
 Copyright © 2010 St. Anthony’s Guild. All rights reserved.

 Want to read more about Mary, the New Eve?  John Paul II speaks about her in his general audience of September 18,1996 and Rev. Matthew Mauriello summarizes the teachings of the Church Fathers and Popes in this post.  For the scholars out there, Cardinal Newman comments at length on Mary as the New Eve , including many quotes from the Fathers of the Church.

Day 2: Mary Hidden in Advent-Adam and Eve

     I want to emphasize that adding these Marian thoughts to the regular Jesse Tree devotions should be very simple.  Just a few comments, maybe a short prayer.  This is why my "comments" section is so short, just enough to give a few thoughts we might share simply with our children.  Our Lady always brings us to Jesus, her Son, and I do think she would like the focus to remain on Him.  Considering her place in the plan of salvation, though, will deepen our love for her, for Jesus, and for God and His good, perfect, and acceptable Will.

Day 2:  The Creation of Adam and Eve
             Read The Jesse Tree pp. 13 to second divide.  Hang ornament  (Adam/Eve)

            Scripture reference: Genesis 2:1-25

           Comment:  Eve was a virgin created without sin and she was to be the mother of all living.    Mary was conceived without sin and perpetually virgin; she was ordained to be the true Mother of all Christians.  Mary lives within the Heart of the Blessed Trinity as a perfect rose lives in Paradise.

          Related title of Mary:  Mystical Rose

              

                "How did Mary become the Rosa Mystica, the choice, delicate, perfect flower of God's spiritual creation? It was by being born, nurtured and sheltered in the mystical garden or Paradise of God. Scripture makes use of the figure of a garden, when it would speak of heaven and its blessed inhabitants."  Cardinal John Henry Newman

Prayer to Maria Rosa Mystica:

Mystical Rose, be Thou blessed, Mother of Divine Grace. Thou has given to the whole mankind Thy Divine Son, Jesus Christ, the Author of Grace.

Mystical Rose, be Thou ever blessed! Thy Divine Son, when dying upon the cross, obtained grace for us, and Thou didst cooperate with Him in this, when the sword pierced Thy Soul.

Mystical Rose, be Thou ever blessed! Thou wert chosen by the Heavenly Father to be the Mistress of His Treasures, stewardess and distributor of all His graces.

Mystical Rose, our Mother! Turn your loving eyes upon the millions of human kind. We beg Thee, we implore Thee, we beseech Thee, let all obtain the grace of God through holy baptism, the sacrament of reconciliation and all other sacraments.

Mystical Rose, Mother of Divine Grace, let us attain to the house of the Heavenly Father, for we are all Thy children and the children of God. Look upon my soul, which through sin is so poor and unworthy.

Mystical Rose, Thou givest to whom Thou willest. I trust in Thee; I open my heart to Thee. Let Thy light irradiate my soul. Make Thy Motherly love, with its measureless and pitiful power; cause my indifferent heart to glow. Fill me with Thy joy, Thy humility and Thy peace!

Mystical Rose, Thou acceptest that Thou art a mother with a special care for all those children who most require Thy help. And so I seek Thy help in all my bodily and spiritual needs. Very particularly, I beg Thee for the following graces (here mention your requests).

Mystical Rose, Thou art the Mother of Jesus Christ and the Mother of Divine Grace. Thou art the Mother of Mercy and the Mother of Life. Thou art our kind Mother and our hope. Enclose me in Thy Immaculate Heart and hear my prayer.

Amen

Mystical Rose, pray to Jesus for us (3)


For more beautiful reading for Mom on Mary, the Mystical Rose, enjoy the full text of Cardinal Newman's Rosa Mystica at the lovely Loreto Rosary website.  Just scroll down for the text "Mary is the Rosa Mystica by Cardinal Newman, regarding the Annunciation.

Day 1: Mary Hidden in Advent-Creation

Creation by Lewis Bowman

     I have wanted for quite a while to develop a series of lessons relating Our Lady to the stories of salvation history as told through the devotion of a Jesse Tree.  As we go through Advent this year, I will post the very short! daily lessons we are doing here, along with links for further reading for Mom, Dad, or older students.
      Our spine will be The Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean.  We also are using several felt ornaments from this Jesse Tree kit, but we will also be making some others to correlate with the stories in the book.  I'll post pictures of our homemade ornaments as I make them.  I'll also link to a pdf file with a summary of the daily stories, the Scripture reference, the Marian title, and a few comments when I finish this series.

Day 1:  Introduction and Creation
     Read pp. 10-12   of The Jesse Tree.  Hang up the ornament (the sun).
     This first day recounts the Creation of the world at the beginning of time.

     Scripture reference:  Genesis 1:1-31

    Comment:  From the beginning of creation, God had always in mind its goal and final end.  He knew that His Son, Jesus Christ, would come to be the Redeemer of Creation and its King.  He knew, too, that Mary, the Mother of God, would become the Queen-Mother of all creation.

 


     Related Title of Mary:  Queen of Creation

     "[On] 22 August, the Church observed the memorial of the Queenship of Mary. The Mass used is that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of All Creation: In 1954 the feast of the Queenship of Mary was instituted by Pius XII, to be celebrated on 31 May. In 1969 Paul VI, promulgating the new General Roman Calendar, appropriately transferred the feast to 22 August, the octave of the Assumption. The royal dignity of our Lady is part of the mystery of her full glorification and perfect conformity with her Son, the King of all the ages. In the words of the Second Vatican Council, "the Immaculate Virgin.... when she had completed her earthly life, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven and exalted as the queen of all creation, so that she might be more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords (see Revelation 19:16) and victor over sin and death" (LG, no. 59).
Source: Excerpts from the introductory commentary to the Mass, Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Volume 1, Sacramentary, Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1992, p. 218.

Collect:
Father,
you have given us the mother of your Son
to be our queen and mother.
With the support of her prayers
may we come to share the glory of your children
in the kingdom of heaven.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

And for more, visit Women for Faith and Family.  
Here you can read some short comments by Pope Benedict XVI on our relationship to creation.
 

St. Andrew

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.

(It is piously believed that whoever recites the above prayer fifteen times a day from the feast of St. Andrew (30th November) until Christmas will obtain what is asked.)
Imprimatur
+MICHAEL AUGUSTINE, Archbishop of New York New York, February 6, 1897 www.Roman-Catholic-Catechism.com

Some Additional Felt Ornaments

     I wanted to post a  picture of some additional felt ornaments I made to go with our Mary Hidden in Advent Jesse Tree lessons.  Pictured are the burning bush (Moses), an ear of corn (Ruth, and yes, I do realize that the corn is anachronistic, but oh, well!), chalice (Joseph in Egypt).  The children and I made them with scrap felt, a few beads and Tacky glue.  You can use your own scraps and your imagination!  Have fun!  I do think the Jesse Tree Kit actually has a burning bush, but for some unknowable reason we only had half of our ornaments here in Delaware, so we are making the missing ones as we go along.

ETA:  I made a different kind of Mary ornament today than I demonstrated below.  I got the idea from
this craft tutorial at D. Blumchen.  I just used what I had on hand, which was one small tinsel style pipecleaner and kitchen tin foil, but I like the idea:

     I think next time I'm at Michael's, I'll get a few more tinsel pipecleaners and some glitter and sequins.  This was fun to make!

A Photo to Share

The Value of Sameness

   

   New! Improved!  Revised!   The constant flux of our society...nothing remains static in this world of ours.  We seek out new experiences, new places, new thrills. The very notion of "exotic", so highly desirable to us thrill-seeking 21st century nomads,  means nothing more or less than "unfamiliar".  Yet, to understand our lives, to be fully human, we must have sameness.  The day must have its routines or it degenerates into a stressful random walk.  The year must have its seasons, its times of rest and renewal.  And we must have the anchor of the familiar, too.  Our repetitive moments  fasten us securely to our own lives and thus to God as we travel through time.
     A young child sits through Mass.  He learns the always-the-same order of the liturgy. Sometimes he sleeps, at peace with God.  Sometimes he sings or prays.  Week after week the routine begins to plow deep furrows in the soil of his heart.  The words of consecration and prayer are breathed in as naturally as the air around him.  Phrases of Scripture are planted within.  The sameness becomes a part of him, as much as his arms or legs.  It is ingrained not only in his soul, but in the very biology of the neural contacts of his mind.
     As a young man, he rebels.  He wanders into a far country, partying and carousing, forgetting his heritage of faith.  But one day, he walks into a Church.  Mass is being prayed, and he remembers the flow of it, the words of consecration, the prayers to the "Almighty and Ever-living God."  The sameness calls to itself within him, to someone he was and is and is to become. He is drawn back to understand himself, his past, his God.
      He becomes old.  His life is passing away, but the steady song of the liturgy remains the same.  In the heart of its faithfulness, old yet ever new, he more and more deeply comprehends his God.  The same words that spoke peace to him as a child and  repentance to him as a young man, speak strength to him now.  Because he knows the form of worship as he knows his own image,  the deep meaning under the form is revealed to him.  He does not need to wonder what will be said or when.  He is not constantly distracted by variety and novelty.  He can plunge beneath the form to the level of meaning.   The silence of sameness allows him to enter into his own life at all ages-- child, youth, man-- identifying and remembering vividly his own reactions, feelings, and hopes.  The silence of sameness allows him, too, to enter the presence of God in a profound and simple way.  
     We clamor for change; we demand excitement.  We are no longer at peace with either God or ourselves.  Perhaps if we could reclaim the value of sameness, we would have enough silence in our lives to find that peace.

Background Noise

     My young boys keep up a steady conversation...with themselves, with me, with "mid-air".  Not a quiet, whispered murmuring, soothing in the background, but a loud rumble punctuated with emphatic shrieks and shouts.  The intermittent pounding of running feet wakes me in the morning and the repetitive questions of my sweet African Lion escort me through the day.  Even as I type now, he is standing by my side asking me questions about whales and dinner.  I'd like to be able to write a thoughtful, insightful essay, but honestly I can't even remember what I sat down to type in this post.  It has been driven from my head by the background noise of my life.
     Sitting here typing and listening to them, my eyes fall upon a beautiful needlepoint icon of Christ "written" (icons are not made or painted) by a dear priest friend of mine.  In His hand, He holds a page from the Gospel of St. Matthew: "Come to me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you.  Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart:  and you shall find rest to your souls." (Douay-Rheims)   (here, teenage daughter comes by to talk, phone rings with distant relative, adult children drop by, life keeps on happening with ever increasing frequency and insistency). 

***sound of time passing......

Five days later, I am back posting with you.  The commotion still swirls, but inside of the hurricane is the still eye...where He carries all my burdens.