Prudence Petal Meeting & Ice Skating

 The Little Flowers learned about St Angela Merici and the virtue of Prudence. The virtue of prudence is about acting on the virtue of wisdom, to not only know the good, but to do the good. Prudence helps us make good decisions. We should not make decisions when angry. We must rightly form our conscience in order to grow in prudence. A rightly formed conscience will never go against God’s commands. 

Verse: A quick tempered man makes a fool of himself, but the prudent man is at peace. -Proverbs 14:17

St Angela Merici (1474-1540) was an Italian religious educator of young women who founded the Ursulines. She was known as a prophet. She suffered much grief at a young age and dedicated her life to God. She became blind for a time on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land but carried on and was miraculously cured in the same spot beneath a crucifix that she had first lost her sight. She saw the holy places with the eyes of her soul instead. Her feast day is January 27. She is the patron saint of the disabled and orphans. Her image is usually shown with a ladder to represent her climb to heaven and intercessory role. Like Angela Merici we practice seeing with the eyes of our soul every time we receive the Eucharist or visit Jesus in adoration. 

The flower for prudence is the African Violet. They symbolize delicacy and simplicity. They are sometimes called, “Our Lady of Modesty” for Mary’s humility. There is a legend that violets first bloomed at the Annunciation. Violets have medicinal properties. 

We practiced making prudential decisions in made up scenarios and made book marks to help us remember this lesson. We earned our Prudence petals. 

Then we asked for the intercession of St. Lidwina as we laced up our skates and took to the ice rink. 

Congratulations to Jessa for completing the Jesse Tree Badge this year. This is the tree she made. If anyone else who did not earn the badge last year completed this prayerful activity, please let us know. 

Please be sure to sign up for some service at the parish fish fries. Sign up genius went out via e-mail. We will wear our Little Flower aprons when we work. 

Advent Activities

The Little Flowers have had an eventful December. We sold out of Advent Candles. We completed a service project by working at the Christmas tree lot. 

Our planned adventure to Our Lady of the Snows was postponed as it coincided with the path of a tornado. Instead we gathered at our home for dinner and petal meeting. We ended up moving the party down to the basement when the sirens sounded. 

St. Lucy, or Lucia whose name means “light” of Sicily (283-304) secretly devoted her life to Jesus. Her mother wanted her to marry a man who did not believe in God. Lucy’s mother became very ill. Lucy persuaded her to go to the tomb of St Agatha to pray for healing. She was healed and her mother agreed to break off the engagement out of gratitude to God. Furious, the man had her tortured and martyred. She is often shown with her eyes on a plate, for once they were removed, they miraculously returned. She also holds a palm symbolizing victory over evil. She is the patron of eye problems. 

Many countries celebrate St Lucy’s feast day. The eldest daughter in the family wears a white dress with a red ribbon (for martyrdom) tied at the waist and a wreath of candles (light) on her head. She loyally serves breakfast, usually sweet buns to family and friends.  

We made paper candle crowns to remember St. Lucy. The girls were encouraged to serve breakfast to their families as girls all over the world will do on Lucy's feast day, December 13, spreading light to the world. We also planted wheat which should sprout with new life right around Christmas day. The wheat reminds us of what will become the bread of life, as Jesus came to us on a bed of hay, as food for all. 

We learned about the virtue of Loyalty. Loyalty is faithfulness to a cause or belief. We are called to be loyal to God and our faith. We should also be loyal to our family and friends when they are following God’s will. It means we stick together and support each other. In the Bible, Ruth is a good example of the virtue of loyalty.  For it is loyalty that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. -Hosea 6:6

Red poppies remind us of the blood of the martyrs, like St. Lucy. They represent eternal sleep and are often used to commemorate fallen soldiers. 

Our favorite Iris Lady, Jean taught us the skill of flower arranging as we made bouquets to deliver to the residents of St. Agnes Home. We got to spread a little joy on Gaudate Sunday! We also submitted coloring sheets of Irises for the American Iris Society's art competition. We are working toward our St. Therese Floriculture badge.  

Happy Gaudate and Bambinelli Sunday, and the Feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe! Have you remembered your Jesse Tree today?

May God Bless us and help us grow in the virtue of Loyalty.

Advent Activities continue as we look forward to our Adventure at Our Lady of the Snows tonight!

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!