Parents looking for fun ways to bring their families together in an affordable, easy way will love this guide by popular blogger Sarah Reinhard. Includes easy recipes, crafts, and activities that families will enjoy. A helpful index and rating system help parents choose activities according to their demanding schedules and tight budgets. Blends playful games and reflecting, relaxing time with God in order to help families take full advantage of their time together!
For many families, the four weeks leading up to Christmas can be a time of great stress, unrealized dreams, a commercial blur, and a financial burden. Susan Hines-Brigger, the mother of four children, knows well that the days counting down to Christmas can easily become for parents and grandparents a nightmare of whiny behavior, crowded to-do lists, and a less-than-spiritual experience. That’s why this mother who has seen and heard it all in her own home during Advent created this resource with prayers and activities: She wants to put Christ back into the family holiday celebration and help families--even hers--become holier. Using A Catholic Family Advent on a daily basis will give Catholic families time together to pray, reflect on Scripture, and do a simple activity together. This daily source of inspiration can be used in the family setting as prayer before or after meals, as morning and evening prayer, or as family time in front of the Advent wreath or Christmas crèche.
Looking for a way to bring your family together in faith and fun, but not sure where to start? Discover how game night meets Catholicism in this guidebook of activities with strategies and suggestions for fun family engagement— with one another and with faith! Adaptable ideas for storytelling, arts & crafts, meals, outdoor adventures, places to go... these are just some of the ways families can bond and deepen their faith, building a "domestic church" of their very own!
How do you walk with your children during times of struggle and crisis? Do you feel as if nothing you do will be enough? In Mary's Way, a heartfelt book for moms who struggle to guide children through the various stages of their lives, Catholic speaker and teacher Judy Landrieu Klein shows how her own crisis of faith helped her release her children to the care of the Blessed Mother. In doing so, Klein shows you how to find the love, joy, and peace of Our Lord as you surrender your will to him. Judy Landrieu Klein struggled with her faith as she lived through her son’s near-fatal addiction to drugs and her daughter’s painful anxiety. She discovered she couldn’t handle the relentless pressure of life not measuring up to her expectations and it was eating away at her family. Klein considered Mary’s reaction to the events in the life of Jesus. She meditated on Mary’s fiat and her prayer of total surrender to God’s will and saw how this act of obedience carried on throughout Mary’s life as she witnessed the life of her son. As Klein focused on her devotion to the Blessed Mother, her life and faith were transformed. In Mary’s Way, Klein reflects on the Annunciation and describes her own to struggle to embrace the will of God by surrendering control of her family planning. She meditates on Mary’s powerlessness during the Crucifixion, finding a place of calming surrender during her own son’s escalating battle with addiction. Klein shows how you can become a more powerful intercessor for yourself and your children. When you finish reading this book, you’ll find yourself turning to Mary and surrendering yourself and your children more fully to God.
We are Catholic introduces children to the Catholic faith and its traditions. Simple words and engaging illustrations explore the most well-known symbols of Catholicism, making this an accessible book for very young Catholics.
Here's help encouraging, understanding and celebrating the Faith with your crafty kids or grandkids. They'll discover a fun, engaging side of the Faith as they are elbow-deep in: Resurrection beans Mini Mary garden St. Jerome bookmark Sacred Heart candle Baby's First Mass book Together you can experience hands-on teachable moments as you enjoy these simple, creative activities and projects ? no technical expertise required! Whether the setting is a classroom or your home, the index makes it easy to pick the right project for the child's age, your time schedule, the lesson plan, and/or the time of year. Plus, most projects use basic and inexpensive supplies and tools, making for easy group or individual implementation. All craft books show you how. Some craft books tell you why. This craft book helps you show them The Way.
The Handbook for Catholic Moms, Lisa M. Hendey’s eminently practical and award-winning resource, has helped new parents balance and integrate the deeply personal needs of their hearts, minds, bodies, and souls with the demands of family life and faith commitment. Since the first edition was published in 2010, it’s become an indispensable resource for two generations of Catholic moms, offering a unique perspective on all aspects of life and honest advice from fellow moms on topics ranging from marriage and finances to stress management and parish life. The Handbook for Catholic Moms is not a typical parenting book: It doesn’t offer tips for calming a fussy baby or dealing with adolescent angst. In caring for yourself—heart, mind, body, and soul—you can better love and care for your family, community, and Church, according to Lisa M. Hendey, founder of CatholicMom.com and bestselling author of The Book of Saints for Catholic Moms and The Grace of Yes. Hendey provides her personal stories and observations on a number of topics, including: stress reduction and sleep nurturing your marriage engaging in Mass as a family modeling lifelong learning to your children balancing your career with your vocation as a mother Each chapter includes relevant scripture references, quotations from saints or noted Catholic figures, commentary and perspectives from other Catholic writers, and checklists of suggested steps moms can take in bringing better balance and integration to their lives.
Witty and thought provoking, two Vatican astronomers shed provocative light on some of the strange places where religion and science meet. “Imagine if a Martian showed up, all big ears and big nose like a child’s drawing, and he asked to be baptized. How would you react?” —Pope Francis, May, 2014 Pope Francis posed that question—without insisting on an answer!—to provoke deeper reflection about inclusiveness and diversity in the Church. But it's not the first time that question has been asked. Brother Guy Consolmagno and Father Paul Mueller hear questions like that all the time. They’re scientists at the Vatican Observatory, the official astronomical research institute of the Catholic Church. In Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? they explore a variety of questions at the crossroads of faith and reason: How do you reconcile the The Big Bang with Genesis? Was the Star of Bethlehem just a pious religious story or an actual description of astronomical events? What really went down between Galileo and the Catholic Church—and why do the effects of that confrontation still reverberate to this day? Will the Universe come to an end? And… could you really baptize an extraterrestrial? With disarming humor, Brother Guy and Father Paul explore these questions and more over the course of six days of dialogue. Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial will make you laugh, make you think, and make you reflect more deeply on science, faith, and the nature of the universe.
"This book seeks to provide you with practical help in teaching your children Christian values and fostering faith in everyday family life. Chapters offer ways to celebrate the Church's liturgical year, as well as secular holidays. You will find simple explanations of the Church seasons and major holy days. Scripture readings, simple prayers, rituals and activities are suggested throughout, as well as true stories from family life meant to inspire, encourage and offer food for thought."—from the Introduction Mary Cronk Farrell outlines her chapters by season, beginning with the New Year and ending with Christmas. For each holiday, season, milestone or celebration, she provides family-friendly activities and reflections for parents to share their Catholic faith with their young children. Mary invites her readers to be creative and inventive by using each activity or reflection as a stepping-stone to integrate the Catholic faith into their own family traditions, rituals and experiences. Prayers, activities and reflections for: Holy Days Secular Holidays National Holidays Family Milestones Seasons Meal Time Story Time Get-Together-as-a-Family Time
The uninterrupted life is not worth living. Got questions about Catholic family life? You've come to the right place! As a lifelong Catholic, devoted wife, diligent homeschooler, and mother of seven, Susie Lloyd knows lots of people who just might have the answers for you. Susie herself is too busy to give advice: busy giving home haircuts and finding missing socks; busy teaching her teen girls to drive, cook, and diagram sentences; busy praying for divine protection while she races off to church (late) in her full-size van. As she did in her beloved first book, Please Don't Drink the Holy Water, in these pages Susie Lloyd will charm and edify you with her offbeat but always pitch-perfect take on the joys and challenges of raising a Catholic family in today's world.
