Celebrating Pentecost, the Birthday of the Church!

"Pentecost Sunday is the second greatest Feast of the liturgical year -- the first being Easter -- and takes place 50 days (7 weeks) after Easter (the earliest possible date for this Feast is 10 May). This day celebrates the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the disciples and Our Lady and, in a sense, the reversal of the story of the Tower of Babel in that the the Apostles were given the gift of tongues by which they could preach and be understood by anyone in any language -- a demonstration of the Church's true catholicity." Source

Here are a few pictures of what we did at home today, after attending Mass:

~ White Donuts after Mass on "Whitsunday," another name for Pentecost ~

~ Completed our Garden of the Good Shepherd Calendar~

~ A Twelve-Fruit Salad for with Dinner~

Our 12 Fruit Salad (in honor of the 12 fruits of the Holy Ghost) included: Strawberries, Blueberries, Red Grapes, Green Grapes, Kiwi, Pineapple, Mandarin Oranges, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Peaches, and Apples.

It was SO delicious!

~ A Symbolic Cake for Pentecost ~

Our cake is a white cake with white frosting since Pentecost is also known as Whitsunday.

The large candle in center represents Christ our Light, who promised to send the Holy Ghost, and the 12 smaller white candles represent the 12 Apostle and the tongues of fire.

The 7 red hearts represent the 7 gifts of the Holy Ghost:

Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord

We made them from strawberries this year since one of the girls seems to be allergic to red food coloring. However, I should have let them dry out a little since the juices ran down the sides of the cake! Oops!

The 12 strawberries, placed around the cake, represent the 12 fruits of the Holy Ghost:

Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience, Benignity, Goodness, Longanimity, Mildness, Faith, Modesty, Continency, and Chastity.

After we light the candles we sing Happy Birthday to the Church...

...then the children blow out the candles with a "mighty wind!"

After dinner (which was nothing special, unless you are a pregnant momma craving Albacore Tuna Melts!) the children colored some pictures of the Apostles on Pentecost. The day ended with an amazing thunderstorm (preceded by some more "mighty winds!") while we prayed the rosary on this last day of May, the month of Our Lady!

Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost

O Lord Jesus Christ, Who, before ascending into heaven, didst promise to send the Holy Ghost to finish Thy work in the souls of Thy Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me, that He may perfect in my soul the work of Thy grace and Thy love. Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal, the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Thy divine truth, the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining Heaven, the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with Thee, and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, the Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. Mark me, dear Lord, with the sign of Thy true disciples and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. Amen.


I hope you all had a very blessed Pentecost Sunday!

Ideas for Celebrating Pentecost Sunday

* I just updated and revised my post from last year, adding a few new ideas and fixing some of the links... Here is the updated version!


The feast of Pentecost, also known as Whitsunday, ranks among the great feasts of Christianity. "It commemorates not only the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Disciples, but also the fruits and effects of that event: the completion of the work of redemption, the fullness of grace for the Church and its children, and the gift of faith for all nations."

Here is a list of ideas that could be done for this day!

(Disclaimer: We will not get to all of these (more like just a few!), but I thought I would share the ideas with you just the same!)

Prayer:

• Pentecost Sunday Mass.
• Sing Veni Creator Spiritus (aka: Come Holy Ghost).
• Say some of these Prayers for Pentecost.

Come Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Ghost, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Ghost we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Food/Snacks:

• You can find a list of ideas I posted last year over at Catholic Cuisine.
• Since Pentecost is also known as "Whitsunday," and one tradition is to serve white foods, we will be having powdered sugar doughnuts and white hot chocolate with breakfast and an afternoon snack of milk and Macaroons.
• Amy's family always enjoys Holy Ghost Sopas.
• Set the table with a red tablecloth and white plates.
• Another dinner suggestion is to serve Cornish Game Hens (representing the Dove), Pasta Alfredo (white), and Cauliflower (white).
• Here is a link to all the posts at Catholic Cuisine labeled Pentecost.
• Cornish game hens sound like too much work, so I think I am going to go with the "Red-Hot Theme" for dinner this year. Maybe some grilled shrimp (it's red!) and veggies? That way hubby can cook! ;)
• I've really been craving fruit all week, so I definitely plan on making a Twelve-Fruit Salad this year!
• For dessert, A Cake for Pentecost, complete with the mighty wind to blow out the candles. This was a hit last year, and I plan on making it again!

Reading:

• Read Song of Songs 2:8-17 for the Garden of the Good Shepherd theme of the day: The Dove.
• Read about The Descent of the Holy Spirit pages 226-227 in the New Catholic Picture Bible.
• Read The Very First Christians.
• Read I Believe: The Nicene Creed.
• ReadThe Twelve Apostles by Marianna Mayer.
• Read Apostles of Jesus by Father Lovasik.

Copy work:

My Lord and My God!

--traditional Eucharistic exclamation.

Craft:

• Make a centerpiece. Cut out seven flame shapes from either felt or construction paper and label them with the names of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost.
• Make the Pentecost kite found in The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions.
• Make Dawn's Pentecost Windsock!
• Here is a cute Holy Spirit Mobile. (pdf)
• This Pentecost Spinner looks like fun!

Activities:

• Do a Pentecost Cross Word Puzzle, Decoder, Word Jumble, Word Search, or a Twelve Disciples Word Search.
• Color this Pentecost Coloring Page, or any of these.
• Don't forget the beautiful Pentecost coloring page to be found in Fenestrae Fidei: A Coloring Companion for Catholic Mosaic!
• Even more great resources for Pentecost can be found here!
• Go fly a kite! Wind is one of the symbols of Pentecost, so what better way to experience the wind than to fly a kite? If a kite is too much work, Pinwheels would be fun too!
• Play "Who Has the Fire?"

Who Has The Fire?

Introduce game: What flickered around the disciple’s heads, but didn’t burn them? Fiery flames.
Need: Orange construction paper balled up to be the fire.
Directions: The children sit in a circle close together. The child who is “It” stands away from the circle and hides their eyes while the fire is passed around. When “It” says "STOP!", the child holding the fire hides it (under their leg, up their sleeve, etc.). The child who is “It” guesses who has the fire. The child who had the fire is now “It”.

What are your plans for Pentecost? I would love to hear any ideas that you all have as well!

I hope you have a blessed Pentecost Sunday!

Pentecost Sunday & Mother's Day!

I hope all you mother's had a wonderful Mother's Day! Mine was! This morning I woke up to lovely cards made by all my children and a Belgian Waffle Maker from my hubby! I have always wanted one of those!!!

I didn't take very many pictures, it's just not the same without my Canon Rebel, but I did get one of most of the children blowing out the candles on our Pentecost Cake with a "mighty wind!"

Believe it or not, I didn't have even one taste of that cake. I got my Food Sensitivity results back on Thursday, and that cake is totally out of the question. Not even one little lick of frosting! I did enjoy looking at it all day though! :)

With the list of Food Sensitivities/Intolerances that I have, it's no wonder I have had low energy and a hard time losing weight! I hope to post about it soon, in the hopes that some of you out there may have some suggestions for me, but right now I need to get to sleep!


**OH! I just noticed that my sister posted a darling picture of my mom! You'd never know that she has 12 children and 7 grandchildren by looking at her, would you?!?! Love you Mom!

Plans for Pentecost Sunday

The feast of Pentecost, also known as Whitsunday, ranks among the great feasts of Christianity. "It commemorates not only the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Disciples, but also the fruits and effects of that event: the completion of the work of redemption, the fullness of grace for the Church and its children, and the gift of faith for all nations."

Here is a list of ideas that could be done for this day!

(Disclaimer: We will not get to all of these, but I thought I would share the ideas with you just the same!)

Prayer:

• Pentecost Sunday Mass.
• Sing Veni Creator Spiritus (aka: Come Holy Ghost).
• Say some of these Prayers for Pentecost.

Come Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Ghost, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Ghost we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Food/Snacks:

• I listed a few ideas over at Catholic Cuisine, and Amy posted the recipe for Holy Ghost Sopas!
  
• Set the table with a red tablecloth and white plates.
  
• For breakfast we will be having powdered sugar doughnuts and white hot chocolate.
• An afternoon snack of Milk and Macaroons.
• For dinner we will be having Cornish Game Hens, Pasta Alfredo, Cauliflower and Twelve-Fruit Salad.
• For dessert, A Cake for Pentecost!!

Reading:

• Read Song of Songs 2:8-17 for the Garden of the Good Shepherd theme of the day: The Dove.
• Read about The Descent of the Holy Spirit pages 226-227 in the New Catholic Picture Bible.
  
• Read The Very First Christians.
• Read I Believe: The Nicene Creed.
  
• Read The Twelve Apostles by Marianna Mayer.
  
• Read The Twelve Apostles by Father Lovasik.
  

Copy work:

My Lord and My God!

--traditional Eucharistic exclamation.

Craft:

• Make a centerpiece for our school room. Cut out seven flame shapes from either felt or construction paper and label them with the names of the Fruits of the Holy Ghost.
• Make the Pentecost kite found in The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions.
  
• Make Dawn's Pentecost Windsock!
• Here is a cute Holy Spirit Mobile. (pdf)
  

Activities:

• Do a Pentecost Cross Word Puzzle, Decoder, Word Jumble, Word Search, or a Twelve Disciples Word Search.
• Color this Pentecost Coloring Page, or any of these.
• Jamie also listed a couple more great links!
  

What are your plans for Pentecost? I would love to hear any ideas that you all have as well!

I hope you have a blessed Pentecost Sunday!