Family

J1ST 099: 12 Days of Christmas

LISTEN ON ITUNES

LISTEN ON GooglePlay

Following the theme of ‘we can’t control things outside ourselves,’ we’re needing to take a week off from the Advent Book Study of Interior Freedom and instead, we’re sharing something else… The 12 Days of Christmas! Hoping that sharing this week gives you time to prepare a few ‘liturgical living’ activities but also gets you excited for the days following December 25th.

As Catholics, the Christmas Season doesn’t actually begin until the Christmas Vigil and doesn’t end till Epiphany (or if you’d rather, Candlemas on February 2nd). This is a perfect justification to be ‘slow’ putting the decorations away and keep listening to carols, It’s being Liturgically Appropriate.

Today we’re not going to discuss the symbolism of the song “12 Days of Christmas,” but that’s a really neat thing to read about (have a look here). Instead, we’re going to use Mary Reed Newland’s book “The Year and Our Children” to walk through the 12 days of Christmas. There are some fun, easy, and meaningful ways to mark the feast days we celebrate during the Christmas Season.

Following Christmas day, we celebrate the Feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr of our Church. He was one of the first deacons of the Church and gave his life in service of others. One possible activity to mark the feast day is to sing all five verses of “Good King Wenceslas,” since it was on the Feast of Stephen the good king look’d out. You can find the lyrics here. Another idea is to find a way to serve or give to others, just as St. Stephen and St Wenceslas did. Gather up some toys you no longer play with to donate. Serve a meal at a soup kitchen. Make some care packages to hand out to the local homeless.

On December 27th, we celebrate the feast of St. John the Evangelist. It is a traditionally a day to bless your wine. You could ask your parish priest to do so or you can can do so at home with a simple prayer service like this. How did this become a tradition? Well, legend says St. John drank a cup of poisoned wine and did not die because he had blessed it before he drank. Some even claim the poison rose out of the glass in the form of a serpent at the words of blessing. So raise a glass to St. John’s heavenly health today.

During the 12 Days of Christmas, we also celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the Feast of the Holy Family, New Year’s Eve, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and Epiphany. We share some ideas for each of these feasts in this episode and we’d love to hear your family’s traditions too! Please share here or on Facebook!

Your sisters in the small things

Nancy and Katie

J1ST 098: Advent Book Study on Interior Freedom

by Nancy Bandzuch · Leave a Comment

LISTEN ON ITUNES

LISTEN ON GooglePlay

Welcome back from our Thanksgiving break and welcome into Advent! We hope you had a beautiful “Turkey Day” and that the first week of Advent has been somewhat peaceful and prayerful.

During Advent, we will be doing a three part series on the tiny but powerful book, Interior Freedom, by Fr. Jacques Philippe. If you don’t have it yet, you can grab it here and join in on the fun. For this episode, we focused on the first section (through pg 81). Even if you don’t plan on reading the book at all, this episode still has something to offer and we’d love for you to tune in.

We picked this book for Advent because this time of year is full of expectations. Expectations others have of us. Expectations we have of others. Expectations we have of ourselves. Besides all the normal busyness of life, there is all that Needs to Be Done to get ready for Christmas. All these expectations can make us feel penned in and frankly a little grumpy (especially if you are an introvert!!! All the gatherings this time of year are EXHAUSTING).

Enter Fr. Jacques little book on Interior Freedom. We have limited control to no control on what happens exteriorly, but interiorly, we can choose how we react, interpret, and respond.

To illustrate, Father tells a little story about St. Therese (one of his favorite saints who he mentions quite frequently in his writing). St. Therese was often given involved tasks to complete within her community… things that required concentration. Before beginning such a task, she would tell Jesus, “I choose to be interrupted.” In this way, she could lovingly accept interruptions from her sisters and if she was able to work for an entire focused hour or even two, she could thank God for the gift of that time.

There were a few quotes we both loved from this first section of the book:

No circumstance in the world can ever prevent us from believing in God, from placing all our trust in him, from loving home with our whole heart, or from loving our neighbor. (p24)

Our freedom always has this marvelous power to make what is taken from us- by life, events, or other people- into something offered. Externally there is no visible difference, but internally everything is transfigured. (P57)

We are not always masters of the unfolding of our lives, but we can always be masters of the meaning we give them. Our freedom can transform any event into an expression of love, abandonment, trust, hopen and offering… positive things become a reason for gratitude and joy, negative things an opportunity for abandonment, faith, and offering: everything becomes a grace. (P58)

During the season, let us turn our little annoyances, distractions, and disappointments into opportunities to accept and offer it all to the Baby Jesus.

Your sisters in the small things

Nancy and Katie

The truth about living liturgically

by Nancy Bandzuch · Leave a Comment

The 2020 Thy Word Gospel Reflection Journal is on sale now, but supplies are super limited. Make sure to grab a copy soon!

There is a lot of talk in Catholic Circles about “Living Liturgically”.

Now, living in sync with the seasons and feast days of the Catholic Church is AMAZING…but when I was a young Catholic mom, just discovering how to run a home, I was totally STRESSED about “Living Liturgically”.

Why?

Because I thought that to live liturgically I needed to remember every single feast day, and plan a cute craft, and cook an involved and witty meal. And if I missed even one feast day I was a TOTAL FAILURE.

And, I missed nearly all of the feast days. So most days I went to bed confident that I was, once again, the worst Catholic mom ever.

Well, the years passed and babies kept coming. The idea of doing a craft or making a special meal for each feast day was simply laughable. We were hanging on by the skin of our teeth! Fed and clean was good enough!

And here is the funny thing.

As our family grew, life got busier, and I gave up on living liturgically, we naturally became more Liturgical.

This didn’t happen through crafts or food.

Nope, it happened through Scripture. Specifically through the liturgical readings of our Church.

Gradually I have made it a habit to read the readings assigned by the Church to each day, with a special focus on the Sunday readings.

Simply making time to read the daily readings has done something to me and my family–it has brought us into the rhythm of the Church.

My heart is asking the same questions of the disciples, and straining to hear the words of our Savior. I am with the saints, pondering the Psalms and working through the teachings of St. Paul’s letters to the Early Church.

I know that this is simple and fairly obvious, but I can’t tell you how freeing it is to know that I don’t have to remember every feast day with a special meal and craft. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love cooking and crafting…but the idea that I HAD to mark these days with things that could potentially stress me out, and that I constantly had to be looking into the future, planning crafts and meal plans… Ah! I’m getting all hot and tense just thinking about it!

Celebrating with meals and crafts is AWESOME, and so many more organized people than me do just that. Bravo if that’s you!

But if it’s not you, please don’t label yourself a failure!

You can live liturgically–and you can guide your family in a liturgical life.

THROUGH THE SCRIPTURE.

Of course, we can even make reading the Scriptures complicated. (The Devil likes to do this so that we stop doing these good things). But let’s not do that! Let’s keep reading Scripture SO SIMPLE. So small. So easy.

Yes, work to get into the habit of reading the daily Gospel reading… But how about one verse a week? Taken from that Sunday’s Gospel reading. Just one verse to read and sit with. Just one phrase from Jesus, Himself, that will help you live with the Church.

This was my guiding hope for you as I put together the 2020 Thy Word Gospel Journal.

Here is a look at one of the weeks included in the journal:

As you can see, the journal is so simple. Just the date, citation, a flower, and a single verse.

And likely you’ve heard that verse on the page before, right? But do you really understand it? Read through it right now. Read it again.

What exactly is Jesus trying to say? And what is His specific message to you, right now, right where you are?

Looking at just one verse from the weekly Gospel will open your eyes to the power of Scripture. All too often we rush our way through reading Scripture. We start a reading and think, “oh, I know this reading…” and then our mind drifts and we are done, close the book and move on.

But Scripture is not like anything else. Scripture is the Word of God, it is alive and it has a message for you!

And that is what Thy Word is for. It is an invitation to slow down and dwell in His word. Allow the words to speak to you, and as they do you will start to naturally live liturgically.

If you would like to grab a THY WORD GOSPEL JOURNAL, I encourage you to place an order soon.

Since I put this book together sort of last minute, I didn’t have very many printed and MANY have already been claimed.

To place your order, just head here: https://shop.catholicsprouts.com/products/thy-word…

Your sister in the small things,

Nancy

St. Paul was Catholic

by Nancy Bandzuch · Leave a Comment

In case you missed it, I have a new study out this week that will teach you and your family to PRAY THROUGH SCRIPTURE. It is called St. Paul’s School of the word and it is on sale for just $9 this week. To grab a copy, head here: https://catholicsprouts.com/stpaul-school-of-word.

Before researching and writing St. Paul’s School of the Word I had all sorts of WRONG ideas about St. Paul the Apostle. I mean, I liked and respected him, but St. Paul always seemed a little bit more, well, Protestant.

Is that weird to say?

It was just always easier to look at St. Peter as CATHOLIC. After all, don’t Protestants quote St. Paul when arguing against the Church?

Well, it is amazing what some research and prayer can do! This summer I spent 6 weeks at my parent’s farm. We were in the middle of a move from Kansas to Minnesota. My parents have notoriously terrible internet and Catholic Sprouts was on re-runs, so I had a bit more quiet time than usual. And I devoted much of this time to studying St. Paul.

I read some great books (this one was the best https://amzn.to/36bSgST) and slowly worked my way through the Epistles. And as I read and prayed I was finally able to see St. Paul as he really was: A Catholic Priest.

And not only that. St. Paul was a man in love with the Eucharist and devoted to Mary.

He never said we are saved by “Faith Alone” (this was actually a deliberate mistranslation by Martin Luther) and St. Paul zealously spread the faith through the sacraments. The idea that St. Peter and Paul didn’t get along is also baseless. They belonged to the same church–Our Church, the Roman Catholic Church!

Perhaps most enlightening in all of my study and prayer was the concept of PARTICIPATION.

We are all familiar with the term “Body of Christ”, which St. Paul gave us, but often we miss the full meaning St. Paul intended. Not only are we united to each other when we worship, we actually ARE part of Jesus when we believe and live our faith. When we stop fighting God, we become His hands and feet. Literally! Just as bread and wine become Jesus in the Eucharist, we become Jesus when we do His will.

And not only that but all of the great saints, when they get out of God’s way and allow His work to be done, they are a part of Jesus–and this is why we honor them! We honor Jesus through venerating His saints since the saints PARTICIPATED in His work. Also, the sacraments and Mary and everything else in our faith can be understood as a participation in not only God’s work–but in God Himself!

Deep stuff, I know, but this is what you will see if you really dig into the writings of St. Paul.

You will also see that St. Paul was Catholic! He was a Catholic Priest. End of story.

This is why I put together St. Paul’s School of the word. So that you could teach your children to pray through Scripture AND understand better this great man that did so much to establish the Church that we still belong to today.

So, if you are eager to learn more from St. Paul, then go and grab your copy of the study. I am offering physical copies for just $9 through the end of the week. And don’t forget, you can get St. Paul’s School of the Word AND the Jesse Tree Advent Devotional for Families for just $19, but only through the end of the week.

check it out here: https://catholicsprouts.com/stpaul-school-of-word

Your sister in the small things,

Nancy

St. Paul’s School of the Word: Lectio Divina for the Family

by Nancy Bandzuch · Leave a Comment

Today a new study is available for your families! It is called St. Paul’s School of the Word and it will teach your families a very simple, yet effective, method of Lectio Divina, or Divine Reading, that will teach your family to PRAY through scripture. It is based on the Letters of St. Paul, and you can grab a copy for just $9. Grab a copy and get all of the details right here: https://catholicsprouts.com/stpaul-school-of-word.

So, I started out this year with a couple of missions:

1. Help families pray the Rosary.

2. Help families fall in love with Eucharistic Adoration.

3. Help families pray through Scripture.

If you have been following along, you might have noticed that I have been picking away at these missions, although I still have a ways to go. Although it might not look like it, my third mission, to help families pray through Scripture, was the one that gave me the most trouble.

It’s funny because that might seem like the easiest, right? We all have a Bible in our homes…or at least we have super easy access to one online. We all know how to read…and yet how many of us know how to PRAY THROUGH SCRIPTURE? Honestly, I am still learning how to do this, and I struggle to quiet myself and slow down enough to actually do it.

So, if I have a hard time praying through scripture than how in the world will I ever teach my children to do this?

I alone could not have cracked this riddle. But luckily I hang out with smarter, more faithful people than myself. And through them, I have learned about the SCHOOL OF THE WORD.

What is the world is a SCHOOL OF THE WORD?

Quick story-

So, about six months ago I was hanging out with the Little Sisters of the Lamb in Kansas City on a Saturday. Each Saturday they host something called Open Table where everyone is welcome to come and share a meal. People from ALL WALKS OF LIFE show up, and it is such a beautiful way to spend an afternoon. After the meal they “break open the Word” by reading the Gospel for the next day. Sometimes there is a skit or a song, and other times they split into two groups, adults and children, to pray and discuss.

This Saturday a boatload of kids were there, including my five. The sisters bravely took all of the kids into the chapel and announced that they were going to mendicate (from the Latin, meaning to chew on) the Gospel. In other words, they expected the kids to sit and prayerfully work their way through the Gospel reading.

I was sitting in the back nursing George, who was a new-born at the time, and I privately thought, ‘ha! Good luck sisters! Those kids are going to sit still for about 1 minute!’

But, as usual, I was wrong. SO WRONG!

The sisters used the Telephone Game (remember that one, from when you were a kid?) to chew on the Gospel, only no whispering. The first person read a small part of the verse to the next person, who turned and repeated it to the next, and so on. On and on the verse went around the circle and even Josie, my ornery three-year-old, was repeating and REMEMBERING the verses. They did this with each verse of the Gospel and when it was done, even Dominic, my wild five-year-old, understood the reading and proudly declared his favorite verse.

And what’s even more amazing–I was able to meditate on the Gospel and understand it better too! Each time the little verse was repeated and pass around the circle I heard it just a little bit more clearly. Gradually the entire reading was opened up to me in a whole new way and I marveled that I had never really understood this reading before.

So, that is what the school of the Word is–an environment where YOU AND YOUR KIDS can interact with and pray through Scripture.

ST PAUL’S SCHOOL OF THE WORD

The new study, St. Paul’s School of the Word, uses this exact practice to explore Scripture: the Telephone game. This Study contains 55 separate readings, all taken from the second readings we hear at mass.

St. Paul is one of the most important writers in Human History, and he played such a big role in establishing our Church. We can learn so much from his letters to the early Church if we just slow down and listen to them.

Here is an example of one day of the study:

The day begins with the scripture. First, read the entire scripture, then play the telephone game with the scripture, stopping to have the family repeat each time you run into a dot. Only the parent needs the book, or even the ability to read, as everyone else is simply repeating.

Then, share as a family. What did this say to you? What was your favorite verse or word and why?

Next, read through the Lesson, and then say the prayer as a family.

Finally, color and paste your “token” onto the Risen Lord Poster (all included in the digital pack you get with the booklet) to both count down the days of the study and really lock a few of the key words from this reading into the minds and hearts of your family.

As I said, there are 55 different days included in this study, so it is longer and is meant to be used in any way that you like! Make it part of your homeschool day. Use it only a couple of times a week over the course of Ordinary Time, use just the first 24 days to earn your SCRIPTURE PATCH, or plow through it 55 days in a row!

I just really hope and pray that this study teaches your family an easy, effective and beautiful way to PRAY through Scripture.

Because helping families pray through Scripture is a mission of mine, I am offering the PHYSICAL booklet for just $9 this week. The booklet comes with all of the digital materials as well. You can also grab a DIGITAL booklet for $8, which also comes with all of the digital materials.

Also, since Advent is right around the corner, I am offering a Scripture Study Combo which includes the St. Paul Study as well as the Jesse Tree Advent Devotional for families. You can get both for just $19. Just click the button on the sales page to get find all of these different offerings.

To grab a copy or learn more about St Paul’s School of the Word, just head here: https://catholicsprouts.com/stpaul-school-of-word

Praised be Jesus Christ!

your sister in the small things,