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.

 

Modern Art

We are having a fun time here working our way through the Meet the Masters art curriculum.  We subscribed to this curriculum at a discount through Homeschool Buyers' Co-op.  We just completed the unit on Piet Mondrian, so I wanted to share our fantastic results:

They look so cheerful on our kitchen wall!  Next week, Picasso.

Split Personality

     Sometimes I feel like there are two (or more) of me...especially when it comes to the blog-o-sphere.  There's my family blogging, my homeschool blogging, my serious spiritual blogging, and recently I set up another web page with a blog that was going to be a phase-of-life blog.  Enough already!  I am going to do all of my blogging in this space.  So that means some days you will see posts that are philosophical and meditative, some days will be chatty and family-centered, and generally there won't be any theme to the whole mish-mash except the theme of my life.  I would go off on a pleasant muse here about my life, but I hurt my wrist exercising (not because I am so buff, but because I am so out-of-shape), so I need to log off now and give it a rest.  More later on my life (I know how exciting that is for all of you!).

Keeping Track

In a renewed effort to document and track our schooling progress, I have added pages (see above) that detail what we are doing in Science and History.  I hope also to add this week a page for Language Arts.  Math is pretty cut-and-dried, so I doubt I'll post much on that.  I hope this will be an ongoing record of our main learning experiences, and I hope you will enjoy seeing what we are doing here!  The main blog will continue to be our record of family times and trips.  I just read in Blogging for Dummies that I ought to try to post every week, so we'll see about that!