Feast Day: Feast of the Annunciation

The Feast of the Annunciation is one of our favorite feasts -- first, because it is such a wondrous example of obedience, Mary's resounding YES! to the Angel's message. Here is the plaque I made to add to our growing collection of Marian plaques (made from Shrinky Dink plastic). I added a personal touch to this lovely picture (see below for the answer if you can't figure it out!).

The Feast of the Annunciation is also a special day around here because 11 years ago, dh and I said "I do" in front of our pastor, family, friends and most of the parochial school where we were both teaching. It was a gorgeous, early Spring Wednesday afternoon and a glorious ceremony.

Since then, we've lived in Austria, moved to SC, moved to Colorado, and now in Virginia. We've had three more kids (to add to our combined five others) and even a puppy for a short time. We pledged our troth in a lovely chapel in Clemson, SC and renewed that pledge yesterday in the lovely chapel at dh's high school. We spent the early evening eating a sumptuous dinner at the Globe & Laurel (you should have seen the size of dh's "small" prime rib!) and then spent a relaxing, slow hour at a nearby Starbucks ... a sensationally, wonderfully romantic evening!

Hope your Annunciation was wonderful, too! Our Blessed Mother is a wonderful role-model for all moms ... a wonderful intercessor to whom we can pray through to her Son ... a lovely guide for us all.

Annunciation Prayer
Lord who came down from heaven and stayed in the womb of St. Mary, after making the annunciationto her through his head of angels, is blessed. The Lord is blessed whom the heaven and earth,Angels and mankind are praising always. Oh Lord let the intercession of your mother be a fort for us all. Peace be unto thee, Mother of the Sun of righteousness. Peace be unto thee, the palace of holiness, Peace be unto thee the ship full of blessings,the fruit of your virginity is blessed, Holy Mother please pray for us,so that we would also be holy like you in our lives. Lord have mercy upon us. Lord Jesus,who was kind enough to take the presence in humble virgin,kindly live in us and redeem us from the strong bondages of sins and death. Lord make us good and worthy divine homes,so that you could stay in us. Lord who had been kind enough to take the human body from the virgin, unite us all in your peace.Unite us all with your grace. Fill your love in us so that we could share the love with you and among us all. Make us worthy to praise thee with your blessed Mother and all the saints. Holy virgin Mother, you are blessed, By thy prayers let the Holy church and her children be saved from all sorts of calamities and let all the departed get forgiveness for their sins. Amen.

* the little personal touch I added is that the Blessed Mother is knitting ... and has dropped one needle to the floor!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ....

I'm so excited as Paidea Classics has got their shrinky-dink icon ornaments ready to ship and the St. Nick coins will be in within the next two weeks! How exciting is that? The chocolates are the best! And the ornaments are very intricate and make lovely gifts.... not that I'm hinting or anything!


There's lots of great Russian Orthodox items at Paidea ... beautiful icons and books and other resources for homeschoolers. The Advent Calendars are gorgeous as are the books about the Twelve Great Feasts in the Orthodox calendar -- many of which line up nicely with the Roman Catholic calendar.

Well, Christmas is coming .....

Feast: Holy Name of Mary

And I can't think of any picture of the Blessed Mother that honors her name more than this painting by Pietro Perugino, Madonna and Child Between SS. John the Baptist and Sebastian (1493). Doesn't she embody beauty, purity and love in this close-up?

Thanks to Aussie Annie and Waltzing Matilda, I was well-prepared for the Marian feast today. The Holy Name of Mary was named a feast of the universal Church in memory of King Sobieski (of Poland, of course) and his virtually miraculous victory over the Turks in Vienna on September 12, 1683.

Anne had a link to a great article about the Holy Name of Mary ... the story was interesting enough for even my littles to "get into" this Feast. Thanks to Matilda, we had great pictures to color during our discussion of Mary and why her name is so special (aside from the fact it's MY first name!):

The kids really enjoyed coloring these.

Then, since we had the Lyra colored pencils and Sharpie markers out, someone got the bright idea to get out the Shrinky Dink paper and make bunny "paper dolls", Ninja turtle figures and cool sports cars.

I decided to take a full sheet (8x10) and make my own Holy Name of Mary plaque. You can see how much the Shrinky Dink shrank just to the right of lower colored sheet -- but it makes a cool 3x5-ish size plaque. I'm thinking I'll do one for every Marian feast (as long as Matilda keeps making these cool coloring pages!).

For dessert, we created a deep-dish mixed-berry (blues and reds and purple for Mary and her times of joy and times of sorrow) crisp. The kids really don't want to have to wait till after pizza dinner to eat this one with vanilla icecream, but I'm sure they'll live!
Here are the many names by which the Blessed Mother is invoked (taken from the Litany of Loreto, an ancient prayer of the Catholic Church)

• Holy Mary, pray for us.
• Holy Mother of God, pray for us.
• Holy Virgin of Virgins, pray for us.
• Mother of Christ, pray for us.
• Mother of Divine Grace, pray for us.
• Mother Most Pure, pray for us.
• Mother Most Chaste, pray for us.
• Mother Inviolate, pray for us.
• Mother Undefiled, pray for us.
• Mother most amiable, pray for us.
• Mother most admirable, pray for us.
• Mother of Good Counsel, pray for us.
• Mother of Our Creator, pray for us.
• Mother of Our Savior, pray for us.
• Virgin Most Prudent, pray for us.
• Virgin Most Venerable, pray for us.
• Virgin Most Renowned, pray for us.
• Virgin Most Powerful, pray for us.
• Virgin Most Merciful, pray for us.
• Virgin Most Faithful, pray for us.
• Mirror of Justice, pray for us.
• Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.
• Cause of Our Joy, pray for us.
• Spiritual Vessel, pray for us.
• Vessel of Honor, pray for us.
• Singular Vessel of Devotion, pray for us.
• Mystical Rose, pray for us.
• Tower of David, pray for us.
• Tower of Ivory, pray for us.
• House of Gold, pray for us.
• Ark of the Covenant, pray for us.
• Gate of Heaven, pray for us.
• Morning Star, pray for us.
• Health of the Sick, pray for us.
• Refuge of Sinners, pray for us.
• Comforter of the Afflicted, pray for us.
• Help of Christians, pray for us.
• Queen of Angels, pray for us.
• Queen of Patriarchs, pray for us.
• Queen of Prophets, pray for us.
• Queen of Apostels, pray for us.
• Queen of Martyrs, pray for us.
• Queen of Confessors, pray for us.
• Queen of Virgins, pray for us.
• Queen of All Saints, pray for us.
• Queen Conceived Without Original Sin, pray for us.
• Queen Assumed into Heaven, pray for us.
• Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us.
• Queen of Peace, pray for us.