Truly Rich and Blessed

How to Celebrate the Immaculate Conception with Your Family

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immaculate conception

It’s the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 (tomorrow!) so I thought I would share some ideas on how you can celebrate it with your loved ones.

1. Go to Mass.

December 8 is a holy day of obligation so we Catholics are required to go to Holy Mass. More than fulfilling an obligation or requirement though, let’s attend Mass in joyful thanksgiving for the gift Mama Mary is to us. Without her and her role in Jesus’ life, we Catholics would not be where we are today. There would not even be a Catholic Church if Mary had not been in the picture.

2. Pray the Rosary together.

immaculate conception

The Rosary is a powerful, beautiful prayer which can bless our families in so many ways. It has been known to even help armies conquer their enemies in battle! And remember, the family that prays together, stays together! 😉

3. Sing a Marian hymn.

We learned a Marian hymn recently as part of the kids’ homeschool lessons and plan to learn some more. “Immaculate Mother” would be an appropriate song to sing on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, don’t you think? Here’s a video with lyrics that you can use:

4. Make an Immaculate Conception craft.

This need not be a complicated thing nor a big production. (I am not a “crafty” mom myself, so don’t be pressured in any way to do this!) You can actually just have kids . If you’re up to doing something “more,” you can also try this craft from . Or you might even want to try making a Mary candle.

5. Watch a video.

You can try searching the Internet for videos that explain the Immaculate Conception, depending on the ages of the kids in your family. Here is one where a priest explains it:

And another one by Ascension Press that gives us a peek into the home of Mary:

Since our kids are still young, we will also be watching “Bernadette: Princess of Lourdes” by CCC of America. I was able to buy a DVD copy of it at St. Paul’s a few years ago. Below is a scene from the video:

6. Read about the Immaculate Conception.

Although the Immaculate Conception is not mentioned explicitly in the Bible, we Catholics firmly believe in this dogma. Use this article from Catholic Answers as a reference or reading material for the whole family, to learn more about the Immaculate Conception.

Besides doing all (hopefully!)  of the activities mentioned above, our family will also be participating in our homeschool group’s Advent outreach activity tomorrow for the elderly priests at the Jesuit Health and Wellness Center. We hope that this will be a memorable way to celebrate our Blessed Mother’s feast day!

immaculate conception

We hope that you find this post useful even if you’re not a parent yet — #LiturgicalLiving is something you can do even if you’re still single, or are married but don’t have kids yet. 😉

From our family to yours, we wish you a most blessed Feast of the Immaculate Conception in advance! 🙂

If you found this post useful, please feel free to share it with others. Thank you and God bless!

Celebrating Saint Therese of the Child Jesus (With Some Suggested Activities and Videos)

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Today is the feast day of one of our family’s favorite saints: Saint Therese of Lisieux. 🙂 We named our second child after her — so today is also our daughter’s “Nameday”! (“What’s a Nameday?,” you may ask… More info here.). We only started celebrating our children’s “Namedays” last year, so I am still getting the hang of it. 😛

To celebrate, we plan to read about Saint Therese, have some cake and, hopefully, visit Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, just as Saint Therese loved to do. 🙂 We will also watch these videos:

A simple but meaningful (I hope!) celebration. 😉

In case you want to celebrate this special day too, here are some links to great resources:

saint therese

Background of today’s feast (Memorial of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, virgin and Doctor of the Church) via Catholic Culture​ (includes suggested activities)

Printable Activity Sheets from Shower of Roses plus more ideas

Ideas from Holy Family Classical Academy

For us parents — a good read from CatholicMom.com: Can We Help Our Children to Become Saints?

To end, here’s one of my favorite quotes from the Little Flower of Jesus, taken from my latest article for CatholicMom.com:

saint therese

May we spend this day and beyond with hearts surging, looking towards Heaven, and crying out in recognition of God’s amazing love for us! Saint Therese of Lisieux, pray for us! 🙂

saint therese

God Is Our Forever {Post-Grand Easter Feast 2015 Musings + Links to Divine Mercy Resources}

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How is the Easter season going for you so far, friends? I hope it’s been a blessed time of rejoicing so far. As for me and my family, we had an amazing time at the Grand Easter Feast last Sunday! Here are a few photos, from :

divine mercy divine mercy divine mercy divine mercy

I couldn’t help crying during Mass and the praise and worship — I was overwhelmed again at how much God loves me and my family. I am an imperfect, broken sinner, yet He still chooses to by my “Forever.” He still loves me and gives me chances every day to repent and renew myself.

Some of my biggest takeaways from the Grand Easter Feast (image credits go to the ):  [Read more…]

Saint Joseph, Pray for Us!

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saint joseph feast day

From the Collect for today’s Mass:

“Grant, we pray, almighty God, that by Saint Joseph’s intercession your Church may constantly watch over the unfolding of the mysteries of human salvation, whose beginnings you entrusted to his faithful care. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”

Source: CatholicCulture.org

For ideas for celebrating the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, please refer to my latest article on CatholicMom.com.

Oh, and if you’re looking for wonderful music to listen to on this special feast day, here’s a great playlist I found on YouTube:

Saint Joseph, pray for us! 🙂

Image credits: Photo of Sleeping Saint Joseph was taken from the . Used with permission.

 

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Pray for Us, Especially Those in the Path of Typhoon Ruby!

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typhoon ruby

Source: Wikipedia

Today, December 8, is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. What does “immaculate conception” actually mean? Here is a quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as seen on CatholicCulture.org:

Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, “full of grace” through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Blessed Pope Pius IX proclaimed on December 8, 1854: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church

Basically, it just means that Mama Mary was conceived in the womb of Saint Anne without original sin. She was sinless from the very beginning of her life! Below is a beautiful picture of Saint Anne conceiving the Virgin Mary, by Jean Bellegambe:

typhoon ruby

Source: wf-f.org

We Filipinos need Mama Mary’s intercession in a special way today. As I write this, our country is being battered yet again by another typhoon. As of today, Typhoon Ruby (international name Hagupit) has wreaked havoc in many parts of central Philippines and threatens to do the same in the north too, including Metro Manila.

I’ve been wanting to update the blog with posts of different topics (including introductions to my most recent posts on philstar.com), and had committed to doing so starting this week… but in light of recent events, I’ve decided to postpone doing so for now.

Instead, I just want to invite you all to pray with me, and to reach out in love to those who have been or are still being affected by the typhoon. We’ve done it before, and let’s do so again now.

If you’re going to Mass today (and you really should do your best to do so, since ), please do include our countrymen in your intentions! Kindly do the same, too, if you plan to celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception in your own way at home.

Let’s continue to update ourselves, too, on how we can help our affected brothers and sisters, and also prepare ourselves and our loved ones, especially if we are in the path of the typhoon.

Let’s also keep praying for our Lord to deliver us and our country from disasters and calamities:

typhoon ruby

Source:

Mama Mary, pray for us!

 

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