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St. John was given the surname Chrysostomos,  meaning ”golden-mouthed” because he was said to speak with eloquence. He is often considered the most prominent doctor of the Greek Church and known for his beautiful homilies. He was exiled after being falsely accused and later died in exile. Read more HERE and HERE .  St. John Chrysostom wrote: ”The bee is more honored than other animals, not because it labors, but because it labors for others”. Bees, work unceasingly for the common good of the hive and obey without question their superiors, and above all their queen…. Finish reading on this idea HERE His feast day is Sept. 13th in the new calendar and Jan. 27th in the traditional calendar.  St. John was often pictured with a bee hive, because of his quote about the bees. So for his ornament, Elizabeth and I created a bee hive.  We used light blue, green, light brown/tan yellow, and white felt. We also used a little purple to add a few tiny flowers. The bee was created with the yellow felt, and we added black stripes and a black head with a black permanent marker. We also used a brown permanent marker to outline the hive. We used a pink permanent marker to create the center of the flowers. We glued the green ”grass” to the light blue felt. We also added a few blades of grass before we added the hive. Then we added the bees and then the bee wings. Next we added a few flowers, just to make it look more cute!  And now you have a cute little bee hive to add to your collection of saint ornaments! St. John Chrysostom, pray for us. May we find peace in our hearts even when others treat us bad, like you did in your life. God bless. ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

The fast of the Archangels is on Sept. 29th, so Elizabeth made 3 ornaments for this feast day. The three ornaments include: Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel. Here are the details for how to create these three ornaments.  St. Gabriel Gabriel’s ornament was made with medium blue, light blue, yellow, white, off-white, and peach felt. Cut out all your pieces. We used a light-blue permanent marker to add detail to the robe. We used orange to add an outer edge to the halo. We also added brown marker to the banner edge and we used a black marker to make the ”Hail full of Grace”. I recommend that you make the letters by using a series of dots rather than drawing them like you regularly would. It helps give them a cleaner look. We also made a face and hair on the head with brown and black markers. Glue down the wings onto a piece of medium blue felt – the blue felt should be larger than all the other pieces. Add the robe and halo over top the wings. Then glue down the head and banner. Now cut off the extra blue felt from around the angel.  St. Raphael St. Raphael was made with medium blue, medium brown, dark brown, gray, white, yellow, and peach felt.  Black, brown, and orange permanent sharpie markers were used to add detail to the robe, fish, halo, and face. Glue down the wings onto a piece of medium blue felt – the blue felt should be larger than all the other pieces. Add the robe and halo over top the wings – don’t glue down the arm that will hold the staff. Glue the hand/arm to the back of the robe-arm and then glue that down. Then glue down the head and fish. Add the staff to his hand. Now cut off the extra blue felt from around the angel. St. Michael St. Michael was created using peach, medium brown, white, gray, medium blue, and yellow felt.  We used black and brown permanent markers to add detail to the face, feet and sword handle. The chest plate was decorated with black marker-dots in a fish scale pattern. We also used orange marker to add the edge around the halo.  Glue down the wings onto a piece of medium blue felt – the blue felt should be larger than all the other pieces. Glue down the shirt -only in the center and at the neck. Glue the arms onto the back of the shirt\’s sleeves and then glue down the arms onto the blue felt. Now add the brown strips to the skirt. Add the skirt to the ornament – glue it only at the waste – under the shirt bottom.  Now glue down his legs (under the skirt) and then finish gluing down the skirt, and finish gluing down the shirt, too. Add the halo and head over top the wings. Then glue down the chest plate and sword. Now cut off the extra blue felt from around the angel.  These guys are too cute! They have to be my personal favorite so far! But then again, Elizabeth and I have some really cute ornaments finished and ready to be posted for October! Hope you enjoy them! May God shower you with His blessings! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. Vincent, was a priest and founder of  ”Ladies of Charity” which eventually became the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. St. Vincent had a special place in his heart for the poor, particularity poor children. He is the patron saint of all charities. His feast day is Sept. 27 in the new calendar and July 19th in the traditional calendar. Read more about him HERE and HERE . St. Vincent’s ornament depicts an adult’s hand (St. Vincent’s hand) giving bread to a child’s hands – to symbolize St. Vincent’s love and care for poor children   To create this ornament we used light blue, tan, peach, and medium brown felt. We used brown permanent marker to add detail to the bread and blue permanent marker to add detail to the blue background. (the bread looks dark in these pictures -not sure why- but it is lighter in color than pictured.) St. Vincent de Paul, Pray for us! May our hearts be filled with a burning love to help others! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth PS: Happy Anniversary to my sweet-honey! We’ve been blessed with 17 years of wonderful marriage! To read our love story visit: ”Written by the Finger of God” Update: It looks like her blog is now gone.... We posted it HERE .

Our Lady of Sorrows is remembered on Sept 15th. This is the day we remember the 7 major sorrows which Our Lady would have experienced during her life. They are: The prophecy of Simeon (Luke 2:25-35) The flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15) Loss of the Child Jesus for three days (Luke 2:41-50)  Mary meets Jesus on his way to Calvary (Luke 23:27-31; John 19:17) Crucifixion and Death of Jesus (John 19:25-30) The body of Jesus being taken from the Cross (Psalm 130; Luke 23:50-54; John 19:31-37) The burial of Jesus (Isaiah 53:8; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42; Mark 15:40-47) Read more about this feast day HERE . Today I want to share the liturgical ornament which depicts the heart of Our Lady of Sorrows. The heart was cut from red felt and lightly outlined with a purple permanent marker. The 7 swords were made from gray felt. The flames were cut from yellow felt and decorated with orange and red permanent markers. After everything was glued down, we also added gold glitter glue to the flames and red glitter glue to the heart where the swords ”pierce” the heart and around the outer edge. Lastly, we added a gold-thread loop to hang it on our liturgical tree. Our Lady pray for us, may we endure our struggles with grace and peace. God bless you all! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

The Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun is Oct. 13th. In honor of the occasion I wanted to share an art project which centers around this amazing miracle. I asked the kids to image what they think the ”dancing” sun may have looked like to the people who were standing in the crowd on that rainy October day. Then they created some wonderful pictures. Read about Fatima and the sun miracle HERE . To create this you will need: yellow construction paper (Cut onto 8 x 11 inch page – if you want to add it to a 3 ring binder-art-portfolio.) black construction paper crayons  scissors glue Using your crayons, create your ”dancing” sun scene. Leave a little extra room at the bottom for the crowd of people. Using a white crayon, draw the heads of the crowd onto the black paper. You need to make 2 or 3 layers of heads.  The layers should have different heights so they can all be seen. Range the heights from 1 inch to 2 inches. Also create a few pointing and/or praising people. These will be added to the crowd to make more interest and diversity.  Cut out all the people and make sure they all have a white out line. This creates a sunshine look on their silhouettes. It also make them easier to see.  Glue the layers together and then glue them on to the bottom for the sun picture.  Add the extra people. Glue them between the layers. You may need to cut off some of there body to make them fit.  If you have cut the yellow paper down to a regular sheet size you will need to cut off the extra black parts along the edges.  Here is an example of a finished project, and below are the few of the projects my kids made. May you all have a blessed day! ~JenMarie

My little Naomi, had the hardest time deciding who to dress as for All Saints day. I was very surprised when she finally decided on St. Catherine of Siena – but what a cute little Saint Catherine she is! To create this costume we used: white robe – like THIS white veil which was just a small sheet white string – we used a shoe string rosary mock turtle neck grapevine wreath – just big enough for her head washable marker for her hands (stigmata)  I personally thought that getting the wreath was the worst part of make this costume. I had to find just the right wreath for her to wear – so she felt comfortable. St. Catherine wore a crown of thorns, but even a grapevine wreath can be a bit uncomfortable. So take your little one to the store with you when you go and test them out.  The rosary was looped through her waist string. The washable red marker was used to make the stigmata. And my little lady – made one silly little saint! Unlike St. Clare  she was NOT camera shy! St. Catherine of Siena, pray for us. ~JenMarie

In the Catholic Church,  November is dedicated to the Holy Souls. So I thought I’d share a few simple and meaningful activities you can do with your kids. Before I talk about what we can do for the souls in purgatory, I want to talk about who these souls are and why it’s important for us to help them. Purgatory is filled with the souls of people who have died with God’s Grace on them but they are not yet holy (aka: sanctified) enough to enter into Heaven. They are in a middle spot between heaven and hell. In Purgatory these souls are meant to be purified so they can enter into eternal life in heaven. Our prayers and good works are the key that they need to enter heaven. There are countless ways to help the souls through prayer and sacrifice. I’m going to share just a few that you can do with your kids so they can see how they can help, too: 1. Take a trip to the cemetery to pray: Take a trip to your parish cemetery to pray a Rosary. This is a great visual reminder of who we are praying for. It helps to make an imprint in a child’s head and it makes the reality of who they are praying for more real.  This trip can be made at anytime, but we like to go on the feast of All Souls (Nov. 2). Feel free to go several times during the month of November – remember the entire month is dedicated to the Holy Souls. (Not that you can’t pray for them after November – they ALWAYS need prayer.) Don’t let bad or cold weather bother you. If you plan to go an a specific day and it ends-up being cold or rainy, go anyway. You can pray in your vehicle while you are parked at the cemetery. Its better to go and stay in the car than not go at all. Also, going on an extra cool and windy day is an extra special sacrifice! 🙂 2. Take time each day to say an extra prayer: Make a list of your family and friends who have died and be sure to add” all the other souls in purgatory” or ”for the least prayed for souls” to your list. Then each night, say an extra prayer for them. I highly recommend that you pray the St. Gertrude prayer. Our Lord told St. Gertrude that this prayer would release 1000 souls from purgatory each time it is said. The prayer was extended to include living sinners as well. Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen. 3. Light a candle in November for the Holy Souls: Take a few minutes after Mass to light a candle for the Holy Souls. You can do this each weekend during November. You can also decorate around a special candle at home or school for the souls. Add some pictures of your deceased relatives and friends around it. If you don’t have pictures, just make a list to set beside your candle. 4. Offer it up! Don’t forget to offer up your bad days, your difficult events, or your painful or uncomfortable times. These may be sad times, but you can use these sad times for good. The souls in purgatory need our help. If you offer these bad things as a prayerful sacrifice to Jesus, He can turn them into good. So remember to ”offer it up.” each time you have something bad to deal with. You can also go to Mass and offer that as a sacrifice for these souls. The Mass is the most perfect prayer and a wonderful way to help the souls in purgatory! So make a special trip to Mass for these souls. 5. Give it up! Another way to sacrifice is to give up something you love. For example, don’t take a desert and offer that up as a sacrifice for the souls in purgatory. Or give up your seat for someone. Let your brother or sister have your turn to pick a movie. These are just a few ways you can give something up to help the souls in purgatory. Remember: **Do to others as you would what want them to do for you.** I’m sure that if you were in purgatory you would want the help of those who could help you, so please try to help these poor souls who need your help so desperately! God bless you all with joy and peace. ~JenMarie

Joshua is dressed as St. Rocco (AKA: St. Roch).  To create this costume I used: brown robe – like THIS or THIS   – OT is cheaper HERE twine, rope, or other string stuff dog – like THIS walking stick with a small rag-sack tied to it (optional) This costume is fairly simple to compile. It’s just a brown robe tied at the waist and a stuffed dog. The walking stick is optional. Ours is just a straight stick with a white scrap piece of material tied to the top. It’s filled with a few paper napkins to make it puff out.  Really the dog is what makes the costume. St. Rocco, pray for us. ~JenMarie

Elizabeth, my Liturgical Ornament making buddy,  dressed as St. Clare of Assisi. We already had the costume from when she dressed as St Therese . The only thing new was the monstrance.  To make this costume we used: habit from THIS nun costume — a few more options: HERE : HERE : HERE The long black nun rode was actually used by her older brother for a St. Peregrine costume. brown robe like THIS or THIS  – OT is cheaper HERE tan sheet or material (light weight) string for cloak (we used a shoe string) monstrance (which we made – I’ll be posting instructions for this in the future) We used the nun habit and the brown robe for the main part of the costume. We created the cloak by folding a tan piece of material over a string and then tie it (loosely) around her neck. Our St. Clare was kind of camera shy, but I took the opportunity to get a good picture of the monstrance. 🙂  I will post instructions for this later. St. Clare of Assisi, pray for us. ~JenMarie

Here is another one of our Felt Doll Statues. This is Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. She turned out so nice! Again this project requires the use of hot glue, so if you plan to make these with small children they will need help. Older children may be able to do these on their own if they are accustomed to using hot glue. Materials you will need: dark brown felt dress * (see felt cutting instructions below) white felt head covering (habit) * light brown felt cloak * white felt collar * wooden old fashioned clothes pin 4 inch piece of string (for waist) 2 inch piece of string (for scapular) small scraps of brown and white felt for mini scapular  mini old fashioned clothes pin (for baby) scrap piece of white felt for baby wooden ring (to help the doll stand, if it needs help) Gold ribbon for crown hot glue and gun Felt Cutting instructions: After cutting out your felt pieces, (as directed in the cutting instructions above) slip the round clothes pin head into the hole of your dress. You may need to add a drop of hot glue at the upper chest and upper back of the doll clothespin to keep the dress from sliding down the clothespin.  Pull all the dress parts down against the clothes pin and tightly knot a string around its waist. You may need an extra hand to hold the dress down while you knot the waist string. Now, cut off the extra sting ends. If the dress is too long, cut it to the correct length. If the opening on the sides of the dress are showing, hot glue it together.   Now, wrap the collar around the neck and hot glue it in place. Make sure the collar’s opening/seam is in the back.   Take your cloak and fold the corners in. Be sure to test it to see if the neck size and the length is correct for your doll.  When the size is correct, hot glue the corners down, (see pic above) and hot glue the cloak to the doll’s neck, leaving the front of the dolls neck uncovered.  Be sure the folded corners are inside against the dolls dress. Add hot glue to the top and sides of the dolls head and cover the top of its head with the WHITE  (NOT black, as pictured) felt habit.  Note: You may have to cut a slit in the back of the habit, (from the bottom of the habit up to the head)  so it will lay down properly. Then hot glue the back of the habit together so you don’t see the cut.  If the doll has a hard time standing on its own you may need to buy a wooden ring to help it stand. If you can’t find wooden rings, you may be able to hot glue the doll to a small wooden flat shape.  Now for baby Jesus: Cut or break the bottom of the mini clothes pin off so it is the correct size. OR if you don’t have a mini old fashioned clothespin you can use a craft stick. Break the craft stick in half and hot glue them one on top of the other. Now add some hot glue to the top and side of the baby’s head wrap the edge of the felt piece around the top of the baby’s head. Then wrap the rest of the felt around the baby, covering it completely. Hot glue the blanket in place. Then hot glue it to the doll of Mary. If possible, try to use the cloak as an arm so it can look like she is holding the baby. Now make four brown squares and two smaller white squares to make the mini scapular.  Glue the string between the two brown squares and add the two white squares to the front. Now, glue the Scapular to the other “arm” of Mary’s cloak.  Finally add her crown. Use a small piece of gold ribbon to make a circle. Hot glue the ends together and hot glue the gold ring to Mary’s head. That’s it! She’s finished! I hope I explained this well enough, If you have any questions please post a comment and I will respond. I hope you enjoy making this little doll/statue as much as we did!!   Take care and God bless. ~Jen-Marie

I’m going to share a few pictures of an old toy box my kids have been using for many years! It was one I decorated for the kids years ago and has been used by all 9 of my kids. The toy box was handmade by a friend who used scrap wood to create this sturdy little box! The stencil design is now a little outdated, but it’s the idea of adding Catholic images to furniture that I wanted to share more than anything….. Before I explain my reasons for adding Catholic images to this toy box I want to tell you a few of my thoughts…. I’m sure most of you heard about the shooting in Colorado at a movie theater. The shooter, who was idolizing the Joker from the previous Batman movie, shot and killed 12 people and injured 60. Now, I have to tell you that our family loves a good superhero movie, but we would not let our kids see that last Batman movie with the Joker. Don’t get me wrong, superheroes are okay, but be sure it’s clear to kids who the villain is and that they are  hurting people when they do the things they do in the movies.  I think it’s important that kids want to imitate the good guy and not the bad guy. The main reason we didn’t let our kids watch the last Batman movie was exactly that! The Joker was evil and as a “joker”, he made evil look fun which is very dangerous for young minds! So why am I bringing up this horrible event? I want to point out how important it is for us as parents, teachers, and guardians to make sure that kids idolize good and holy people! Surround your kids with stories and images of Jesus, Mary, and the saints!  Which brings me back to the toy box…..The neat thing about this toy box is that my kids get to see Jesus and Mary every time they play! And it will always be a reminder of how it is they should act. It may not seem like much, but little things like this can make a difference in a child’s head. So how did I add Catholic images to this toybox? As you can see it has religious pictures on each side. These pictures were ones that I cut out from Catholic magazines. The decorative borders around the pictures were from old wallpaper. (The  original picture which was in the middle was of naked angels -not very kid friendly) So I replaced the original picture with family friendly images of Mary and Jesus! And the green leaves are painted from an ivy stencil. After gluing the images onto the toy box I used a clear sealer to keep the images protected from the kids. Modge-podge will work, too, but be sure to add about 3 coats. Please, say a prayer for the victims and their families. And don’t forget to pray for the shooter, too. Look for a Novena for the victims of the shooting at Life of a Catholic Teen  ~ Click here It’s the 22nd!!!! Time for another Link-up party!!!! * * * L I N K – U P  P A R T Y ! * * * Feel free to share your faith-centered home posts with us! This is an especially important Tea with St. Anne Link-up because St Anne’s feast day falls during this link-up party!!! (July 26th)St. Anne, pray for us, may we create a holy domestic church! The Rules: Please add posts about   anything that can help Catholic families in our every day life . This includes: Catholic décor, crafts and activities we can do with our kids, home-school ideas, organization ideas, etc. Link to me on your blog/post so others can come and join in too! You may use one of my buttons if you li ke, or just make a text link of your own. I can’t wait to see your posts! God Bless! ~Jen-Marie

Here’s a fun, simple, craft for girls to create. It would be good for Kateri Tekakwitha’s feast day! My little girls love necklaces so it was a hit, but they did need help cutting the felt crosses and using the needle. You will need: brown felt string (we used embroidery thread) pony beads  scissors needle (large enough to use on your string) Cut out a cross shape from your felt Thread your string through the top of your cross. Try to keep the string’s entry and exit close to the edge of the cross. That helps to prevent the cross from bunching up when you add the beads. Now add your beads to the string on each side of the cross. Tie a knot in the ends to create a necklace.  Bl. Kateri, pray for us!! Remember she’s being canonized in Oct. 21, 2012!!!!!!! YAHhhhh!!!! 😀 God bless. ~Jen-Marie