Love of Neighbor Petal Meeting 2/21/21

Some of our Little Flowers gathered after Mass for an outdoor petal meeting, or rather a mini meeting and presentation. Carmelite sisters from St Agnes Home, representatives of the Knights of Columbus on behalf of the food pantry, and our seminarians were present to receive our tithes from our Advent candle and candy sales.

Love of neighbor, or charity is our virtue for the month of February. What we do for others we do for God, and when we give God the little we have with the rightly ordered intentions, he multiplies the gift into much more than we can give by ourselves. The work we did provides for our troop but also allowed us to give money to our church, buy food for the hungry, and donate to the Carmelite sisters who care for the elderly. Don't forget, our patron, St. Thérèse was also a Carmelite who helped keep the sisters faithful to God's mission for their order. We also made cards of spiritual bouquets to show love for our neighbors, the residents of St. Agnes home. Thank you for using your virtues of Faith, Industry, Piety, and Love of God & Neighbor to make such beautiful cards!

We seem to be forever scheduling meetings on the birthdays of Little Flowers. It is good to celebrate together and the sisters even sang a birthday blessing. 

Practicing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy are excellent ways to show love of neighbor. Spiritual works are done for the souls of others and corporal is about providing for the needs of the body. We discussed ways that we as individuals, even children can do these works every day. Our little ways can be turned into big acts of love by inviting God to multiply our efforts. The girls were given cards listing the works. Be sure to look for ways to do these works of mercy. 

We worked to memorized the verse: You shall Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10:27

We also practiced the Act of Charity prayer: O my God, I love you above all things with my whole heart and soul because you are all good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me and ask pardon of all whom I have injured. Amen.

We learned about St. Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641). She married and had six children in France. Her young husband was accidentally killed by a friend while hunting. Though it was very hard, she forgave the friend. St Francis de Sales became her spiritual advisor and together they founded the Visitation order to fulfill corporal and spiritual works of mercy. They welcomed women not usually allowed to become religious sisters. Their motto was, “Live Jesus” and they spread devotion to the Sacred Heart. St Jane was well known for her charity towards all. Her feast day is August 12. St. Jane is the patron saint of widows and forgotten people.

The flower for Love of Neighbor is the red rose. The rose is a symbol of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Rose plant bearing the flower, Christ. The thorns remind us of the crown of thorns Jesus bore for our sake. 

Everyone who participated in the spiritual bouquet cards earned the Love of Neighbor petal (some still to be delivered). May God help us to always show love for others and give charitably.   

Don't forget to be marking your calendar daily as a reminder to keep your Lenten promise. If you miss a day you can always begin again! Please say a little prayer our patches will arrive as we still haven't received our Jesse Tree patches. 

St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Pray for Us!

Love of God Petal Meeting & Shrine 12/27/20

Wreath 1: Lesson 5

Virtue: Love of God  Saint: St. Agnes  Flower: Peony

Verse: Whoever does not love does not know God for God is love. -1 John 4:8

With money we earned from Advent candle and candy sales, we went on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Il. It was built by Oblate missionaries in honor of a miracle that happened in Rome. It snowed there on August 5th to show the outline of a church that Mary wanted built. 

We imagined what it might have been like for Jesus or Mary to ride on a donkey, or the Wise Men to ride on camels.  We warmed up with hot cocoa and kettle corn and celebrated the birthday of a Little Flower born on the feast day of The Holy Family and John the Evangelist. 

St. Agnes, a martyr of Rome loved God very much. She was very beautiful and many wanted to marry her. But she had made a promise to God to love only Him. She was killed because she refused to break her promise to God. The name Agnes means lamb, so she is often shown holding a sheep. She also followed Jesus, the Good Shepherd, like a sheep. 

Her feast day is January 21. On her feast day two lambs are presented to the pope for a blessing. The sheep are shorn on Holy Thursday and their wool is woven into the pallium the pope gives to a newly consecrated archbishop as a sign of his power and union with the pope. St. Agnes  is the patron saint of young girls and chastity. We remembered St. Agnes as we pet live sheep. St Agnes, help us to love God more!

Archbishop's Pallium

We learned about the virtue of Love of God. We are to love God with all our hearts, all our minds, all our souls, and all our might. The more we get to know God, the more we love Him. 

Act of Love: O my God, because you are all good, I love you with my whole heart and soul.

The flower for Love of God is the Peony. The peony means honor and riches and reminds us to give our best to God. We used our peony pencils to write prayers to God about how much we loved Him and about what "riches" we have to give.

We saw the way of lights and followed the star of Bethlehem to the manger scene at the grotto dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes. At the grotto, we read aloud or prayed silently our intentions. We learned about the original grotto of Lourdes and St Bernadette. Then, we followed the path up the hill through the forest of lights. We found a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He loves us so much, His heart is on fire for us. 

We earned the Love of God petal. May God bless us and help us fall more in Love with Him. 

We collected our Jesse Tree worksheets. If you didn't get yours to me, you can mail in to the address on the worksheet and the badge will come to you. We will put these badges on the back of our sash or vest. 

This petal meeting served as our January meeting since the Way of Lights is ending early this year. Our next petal meeting is not scheduled but sketched out to be about Love of Neighbor, the rose, and St. Jane Frances de Chantel. I thought that would coincide well with the theme of Valentine. We'd also hoped to earn our coding badge for St Isadore. Let's pray about how best to do this in the winter of a pandemic. St Jane, St Isadore, and St Thérèse, Pray for Us!