Pondered In My Heart

Missal Musings (and a homemade prayer booklet)

You have probably noticed that I am quite fond of my 1962 Roman English-Latin Missal. When we first started attending the Traditional Latin Mass a few years I was amazed to discover not only an entirely different form of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, but also what seemed to me like a completely different approach to prayer unlike anything to which I was accustomed. (The way I feel about it is similar to this very succinct piece on Why do we need a new translation of the Mass, anyway? <smile> )

Besides of course the canon and propers of the TLM itself, I found myself enamoured with so very many of the prayers found in my missal, and felt that I had discovered great treasures that I had somehow been missing all of my life. I have posted before some of these such as this prayer of St. Bonaventure or these of St. Ambrose. So after we had invested in our own missals I found myself turning to these older prayers for much of my daily personal prayer.

However, I also like to keep my missal in the car so I always have it for daily Mass. In trying to get all of us out the door in the morning, most often moving sleeping little girls swiftly and quietly into the car, I can't be looking for my missal as well.  I wanted to have some of my daily prayers available for morning and evening, so I made this little booklet of the prayers. I printed them out on a nice cream cardstock, adding an extra blank piece to act as the 'endpapers', and then stitched the pages together on the sewing machine using a heavy duty (denim) needle. This is just eight pages of text and for morning includes the Acts of Adoration, Faith, Hope and Charity, Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, Morning Offering and St. Ambrose's Morning Hymn. For the evening there is also the Confiteor, Act of Contrition, Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, prayers for the faithful departed, for a happy death, protection during the night, and Psalm 129.

For the cover, I cut a piece of pretty double-sided card stock just a little larger than the text pages. Then I glued the blank endpages to the inside of my cover. I rounded all the corners for a finished look, and now I have my own personal little prayer booklet that I keep at my bedside. This is a simple little project that you could do with your own favorite prayers to make your own personalized booklet. Mine is half page size, but you could also do it quarter size to easily fit in a pocket of purse.

I was so pleased with my finished booklet that I made a few extras to share. If you'd like one just send me an email with your address and I'd be delighted to send you one. 

 I also have the pdf of the prayers if you'd like: Download MORNING PRAYERS booklet print form 3 It's meant to be printed double-sided in booklet form (on my printer I did the front pages first, then had to feed them back in and printed the back pages). It's just two pages of printed cardstock, half size pages printed on both sides. Hope that makes sense!

ETA: I discovered some slight errors in the pdf I posted of the prayers - things so slight I didn't notice them as I used my booklet - so I uploaded a new (corrected) version (it has a 3 in the title now).

Another useful missal tidbit I finally accomplished was to make an elastic band to fit on the cover to hold my holy cards in place like so (my children think this is quite silly, but I haven't had my holy cards spilling all over the floor since I put it on):

One last little missal project is this pair of bookmarks I asked Lydia to make for me. I wanted to have a place to write down prayer intentions because while some are always on my mind and heart, there are others that slip my sieve-like brain. So I had Lydia make me this bookmark on which to list the dear departed I wish to remember, and I will keep it in my missal right at the commemoration of the dead.

Then I have this one I will keep at the commemoration of the living, with sweet little forget-me-nots Lydia added for background. 
 
 
 As Josiah would say, thus endeth my post about my missal. Hope you all have a wonderful, blessed Sunday!

ETA I fixed the link to the Catholic Culture article.

3/52

Joining Barbara and friends for "52 weeks of daily life in pictures: trials and celebrations, the extraordinary and mundane -- whatever is unique to the week. Join me if you like."

This week I had too much trouble trying to pick just one photo a day, so I chose two. I figure I can break my own self-imposed 'rule'.

January 15 - Lydia practices some birds

 

sleepy girl on her favorite lap

 

January 16 - in which Michael determines we are in need of a new faucet

and we play Bananagrams

 

January 17 - Dvorak's Slavonic dances

a little nap

 

January 18 - reading aloud - my view

 
their view

 

January 19 - the snow was finally good for a snowman
 

Mary Rose tries her hand at a landscape

 

January 20 - Eliza putting the paints to sleep

practicing with the new dip pens

January 21 - two hobbits ran excitedly outside to see the Northern harrier they spotted swooping by between the houses

 

out my window, a lovely view and a merry worker

2/52

Joining Barbara and friends for "52 weeks of daily life in pictures: trials and celebrations, the extraordinary and mundane -- whatever is unique to the week. Join me if you like."

January 8 - shoveling dude deals with the few inches of white stuff.

 

January 9 - Forlong, the song sparrow without a tail, stops by for a visit.

January 10 - Eliza admonishes Faustina to 'hold the pencil right'.

January 11 - the poinsettias in church are still so lovely.

January 12 - after (almost) twenty-five years, it's (still) nice to know. This is actually one of his favorite spots to leave love notes. :-)

January 13 - Eliza reads from a vintage Cathedral reader. She was so delighted to find a story about a party for Blessed Mother's birthday.
 

January 14 - Lucy and Susan look gravely at Aslan on the stone table. They had the poor Lion bound with belts, ribbons, socks, hair elastics and every sort of strap they could find. Eventually the mice came to help out.
 
 
Two weeks of this New Year have slipped by already. Thank you, Barbara, for hosting this lovely project!

Some Favorite Gifts

 Now that it's three weeks past Christmas I thought I'd get around to posting some of the favourite gifts as Bridget suggested. Since I'm so late I can be sure they are really favorites, see?

Like Bridget, we tend to get practical gifts and I figure that the gifts the kids make each other are the fun stuff. I try to get in some fun stuff too of course, but I can't really compete with their cleverness and creativity and ability to delight and amuse each other. I do almost all of the shopping online and just about everything came from Amazon (books!), Sierra Trading (basics like wool socks) and Dick Blick (art supplies!).

The books are listed in my sidebar on the left and I think they have all been read by now. The color fairy books were a big hit - we've since added The Yellow and The Pink Fairy Books, purchased with Christmas gift money. Definitely a favorite genre around here. I was delighted when I finished writing that post with the fairy books in it I clicked over and saw that Auntie Leila (now Grandma Leila) had just written about the importance of fairy stories. Alas, she has taken the post down for now, but not before I saw her recommendation for some of George MacDonald's fairy stories. We have long been fond of The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie and The Light Princess, but somehow these other books had somehow escaped my radar. You know how it's always so exciting to discover new books by a favorite author - I quickly ordered up The Wise Woman,  The Gray Wolf, The Golden Key and The Light Princess. They are really lovely volumes with beautiful type and pleasing covers.  I have started reading The Wise Woman aloud to the whole family in the evenings and from the very first sentence it is simply delicious. We are enjoying it immensely.

Mary Rose also bought the BBC Narnia movies with her Christmas money. I realize many people despise these, but we watched them recently for the first time and were very amused. I think after seeing Voyage of the Dawn Treader in the theater we were all delightfully surprised to find Narnia movies that actually follow the stories in the books, and we found them quite entertaining. (Josiah reviews them here.) The Silver Chair is particularly nicely done and Puddleglum is as charming a marshwiggle as you can get on screen. And that eel stew is something to behold. Ew. (It's like the complete opposite of Eowyn's soup.)

I got everyone stainless steel water bottles from Sierra and these have all been in use daily. Jonathan especially likes to have a water bottle when he goes off to college or off to sing in church and he is happy to stop using the crinkly plastic kind. I got mini bottles for the little girls and also one for my purse.

I made these wool covers for the bottles to make them more pleasing to hold and so we could tell whose is whose. Don't laugh at my primitive needlefelting skills - Lydia makes it look so easy (did you see her barn owl?)  I thought I would give it a try. ahem. The boys just have their initials (in elvish). (you can't see Mary Rose's apple tree - I had to add apples to the 'tree' because it looked like a haystack...)

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Another practical gift is these hankies I made for the girls. They each got half a dozen in these cheery cherry prints - I just chose some clearance fabrics in thin soft cotton and edged them on the machine. Naturally these are a big hit and in use every day.

Eliza's had to get some new music of course and I was happy to give her Cake for Dinner. I first heard of Scythian on Alice's blog, and then I was delighted to learn that their mother Mrs. Fedoryka (may her soul rest in peace) was a friend of Bridget's, and then I found out that our favorite local musicians have performed with them as well. I love how the internet lets you discover little connections like that. Anyhoo, the little girls absolutely love it and I enjoy the Eastern European flavor to much of the music (being just a bit akin to a gypsy myself).  In our quieter moments we are also enjoying Mary Kate's new CD of mostly solo harp, Mirabilis.

And finally, another small sized gift that has been a big hit is the little book of meditations, My Daily Bread. I first learned about this gem from Christine. I started out with two copies that we were sharing, but some children asked for personal copies so I was happy to get two more. The book is arranged into brief but powerful daily reflections, and I find it's just perfect for mid-afternoon when I need a bit of targeted meditation to re-focus. It is very blunt and straightforward and we like it. Example (in the voice of Our Lord):

 Knowing all things, I know your most important needs. I want you to gain the perfect and unending joy of Heaven. For this reason I will place you at times in a spiritual darkness of doubts and confusion. Then again I will let you enjoy the light of My truth and joy. One day I will console you, and on the next day you may find life hard and sorrowful. But through all these changing conditions, remember that My hand is leading you on toward Heaven.

Follow My Will in all things. Be just as ready to experience suffering as to have joy, just as glad to be poor and needy as to be well off. If you prefer My Will in all these things, you will be preferring the Perfect Wisdom and the Highest Good.

God made me for the perfect life of Heaven. Whatever He sends me is sent with this goal in view. Some things I can remedy and improve in my daily life, while other things are beyond my control. After I have done my best, I should accept the results as God's Will for me. Be it hard or easy, pleasant or disagreeable, I can always be sure that God knows, wants and permits what is good for my soul.

Goodness, methinks that's quite enough linkiful rambling for one Friday night - from the mundane to the meditative!

Yarn Along

 
This is my first time joining Ginny and friends for her weekly Yarn Along - a single photo combining one's love of working yarn and reading books. These are some handwarmers I just finished today as gifts for my three oldest girls (we are still within the Octave of Epiphany!). The pattern is here: Easy Victorian Shell Mitts. The deep purple ones are of course for Lydia, the royal blue are for Anna and match the embroidery on her cloak, and the leafy green are for Mary Rose- I just liked the green color and they seem to be a fine reminder that someday it will be spring again.

The book is The Silmarillion which my family in general and Jonathan in particular have been trying to get me to read for ages. I have a hard time squeezing in personal reading, but I am finally making some headway. It is a beautifully written book and I enjoy reading it, though it's very complex and I find myself reading and re-reading (and re-reading) frequently, hence the slow going. Also pictured is the lovely bookmark Lydia painted for me featuring a helpful list of the Valar on one side and the genealogy of the Houses of Finwë and Bëor on the other, which I refer to often. But my favorite part is the Two Trees of Valinor, with the glittering gold of Laurelin and the shining silver of Telperion, courtesy of a little shimmery watercolor.

Visit  Ginny's to see so many other lovely projects from so many lovely ladies. Don't forget your cup of tea!

Wordless Wednesday: Remember the Signs

 

1/52

I've decided to join Barbara in her 52 Weeks project:  " 52 weeks of daily life in pictures: trials and celebrations, the extraordinary and mundane -- whatever is unique to the week. Join me if you like." I aim to post one single picture taken each day of the week. Seven pictures a week, fifty-two weeks. Wouldn't it be lovely to print out into a book at the end of the year, with just a glimpse at every single day of a whole year of this blessed family life together? I'm starting a little late, but I'll just post my first week.

January 1 - a New Year, page one of our new family book.

 

January 2 - Kateri loves her new wool hood from her brother

January 3 -sunrise over the city, one of Josiah's miniatures

January 4 - this was not staged! Michael happened to by lying on the floor next to the open Nutcracker (illustrated by Maurice Sendak). I cracked up when I look down at this sight

January 5 - the girls pore over a letter from their friends, two lovely girls that they swap bird ATC's with every month

January 6 - on this day when we celebrate the bringing of gifts to the newborn King, Kateri was working on being thankful for her own Christmas gifts

January 7 - Eliza receives the daily lunchtime call from her dear Dad
 

There we have it, Week One. Want to play along?

Epiphany

Behold, the Lord the Ruler is come: and the Kingdom is in His Hand, and power, and dominion. Ps.71:2 Give to the King Thy judgment, O God: and to the king's Son Thy justice. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. (Introit, The  Epiphany of Our Lord)

O God, who on this day didst manifest Thine only begotten Son the Gentiles by the guidance of a star: graciously grant, that we, who know Thee now by faith, may be led even to contemplate the beauty of Thy majesty. Through the same Christ Our Lord, Amen. (Collect, The Epiphany of Our Lord)

 

Today we celebrated The Epiphany of Our Lord and we were blessed to be able to attend Holy Mass for the feast. It is traditional to bless the home on this day and we brought home the blessed chalk to mark the New Year and blessing over the door. We also walked through the rooms of the house sprinkling inside and out with holy water, and Jonathan sang the Magnificat and antiphon for us.

Also in honor of the feast Josiah has posted a video of the Christmas mummery the children performed for us on Christmas night. A 'mummery' is a very short play performed by a troupe of travelling actors, and this one involves an encounter with St. George and Father Christmas. They got the idea to do this from a brief mention in Chesterton's Ballad of the White Horse, and this particular mummery is in the notes section of the Ignatius Press edition. They staged this entirely on their own as a surprise for Michael and I, and we were quite surprised indeed. The children suddenly announced they had to go downstairs for a few minutes, and then they disappeared into the cellar. We had no idea what they were up to until the front doorbell rang, and Michael thought to grab the camera when it did.  I remain quite astonished that even Kateri (Mince Pie) memorized her lines and practiced with the big kids with nary a peep about the whole business. The video is just a few minutes, but it sure was jolly good fun.

Hope you all had a Happy Epiphany!

 

Happy New Year Daybook

Outside my window- It's cold and dark and the white Christmas lights are twinkling on the deck.

I am hearing- Kateri is sitting on my lap and reading every word as I type it. Now she is giggling because I am writing about her. Jonathan is singing chant in the foyer - his favorite spot due to the pleasing acoustics.

I am wearing- A red plaid skirt - because it's still Christmas! Kateri wants to know why I wrote that apparently ridiculous sentence...

I am thankful for- A quiet and pleasant holiday season.

I am thinking about- Kateri says I should write "I am thinking I want a carriage" as she wants to buy a dolly carriage with her Christmas money from her Grammy. As she didn't get any boughten toys for Christmas, I'm thinking this might be a fine idea. Hmmn, she seems to be effectively highjacking this post...I'm thinking how hard it is to squeeze in blogging time, and how it doesn't seem like that long ago I would write with a sleeping nursling in my arms. And here she is quite awake and reading (and giving her opinion) on every word. It's quite tricky trying to type with a small person wiggling and giggling-so-much-she's-now-hiccupping on my lap.

I am reading- 'The Hobbit.' Kateri, that is. She is on page six. She's reading it out loud to Jonathan, quite slowly (!) I am reading The Silmarillion - I just restarted it as I hadn't picked it up for so long. The rest of the family has been busy ploughing through their new books received as gifts. I've posted a list of them in my left side bar if you're interested.

The students young and old have greatly enjoyed the leisure of reading so much while on break, while I've gone around muttering about my folly in buying them so many books as I have trouble getting some of them to arise and do something else. But that's what break is for, right? And silly me is encouraging them to buy more books with their gift money. They got the first three of Andrew Lang's Fairy Books (we previously only had an old copy of Fifty Favorite Fairy Tales, a compilation drawn from the individual color books) and there are nine more...

 

 On a similar note, today I read this great article on reading - Stop cleaning the kitchen and read a book H/T Regan Good stuff.

From the kitchen- Still enjoying lots of Christmas goodies here. Supper was potato pancakes, carrots, corn and a big pot of homemade applesauce. We eat pretty simply here. :-)

In the learning house- We will start back with the actual schoolwork tomorrow, as that's when Jonathan's classes start. We've had many weeks off for crafting and celebrating so everyone will be in for a shock as we crack open those math books...

Living the Liturgical Year- Two more days of Christmas and then we celebrate Epiphany on Thursday. My resident liturgical consultant aka the schola director tells me the time after Epiphany is quite long this year, with the maximum six Sundays before Septuagesima. It's so nice to know these things ahead of time...

Around the house- Things are relatively clean and tidy. There are still neat little gift piles in the living room as folks haven't put all away yet and still enjoy admiring their new things. The Christmas tree still looks lovely and we're never in any hurry to take it down, nor the sparkly lights hung here and there that give the house such a pleasant, friendly glow on these dark winter days.

We are creating- After so much creating for Christmas gifts the children seem quite content to just be drawing for pleasure. They are trading ATC's with friends and with each other. And like most other kids the first week in January they are making thank you cards. 

I am pondering- 'The only thing we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.' These favorite wise words of Gandalf come to mind at the start of a fresh new year. Or as the saints put it, as quoted in my Divine Intimacy:

We must give every moment its full amount of love, and make each passing moment eternal, by giving it value for eternity. - Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, OCD

We have only the short day of this earthy life in which to grow in love, and if we wish to derive from it the greatest possible profit, we must overcome our natural inertia and carry out our good works 'with our whole heart.' Then love will increase immeasurably and we shall be able to say to Our Lord like St. Therese of the Child Jesus: "Your love has grown with me and now it is an abyss, the depth of which I am unable to sound." We must, then, make haste while we still have time, for "the night cometh when no man can work."

On my part, O Lord, I can think of no better way to make up for the time I have lost than to try with all my might to increase my love. Yes, my love will grow if, for Your sake, I fulfill all my duties and perform all my good works "with all my heart" and "with all my good will." Alas! I am so weak, so careless, so indolent! I am inclined to flee from exerting myself; I try to avoid making sacrifices. My nature always seeks what is easiest, what is the least tiring, and soon falls into negligence and laziness. Help me, O Lord, and strengthen my love by Your almighty power. What I do for You is so little; grant, O my God, that I may at least do it with all the love possible.

None of us knows what awaits us in this new year, but God knows. His will has already prepared our path; every detail of our life is already determined in His mind. Let us be ready to accept, or rather to embrace with courage and readiness, everything that God wishes or permits, certain that in His holy will we shall find our peace and our sanctification.

"I think of this new year as a white page give to me by Your Father, on which He will write, day by day, whatever His divine good pleasure has planned. I shall now write at the top of the page, with complete confidence: Domine, fac de me sicut vis, Lord do with me what You will, and the at the bottom I already write down my Amen to all the proposals of Your divine will. Yes Lord, yes to all the joys, the sorrows, the graces, the hardships prepared for me, which You will reveal to me day by day. Grant that my Amen may be the Paschal Amen, always followed by the Alleluia, uttered wholeheartedly, in the joy of a complete gift. Give me Your love and Your grace, and I shall be rich enough." -Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, OCD

A picture thought-

Happy New Year, Friends!