Advent Candles in a Pinch

I had waited until the last minute to get advent candles for our wreath and every store in our tiny town only had white candles. So I took some pearlized glass paint and a stencil and proceeded to paint my candles with purple and rose accents. On the Rose candle for Gaudete Sunday I had stenciled JOY across the bottom. So if you ever need advent candles you can always paint them. the only tip I would recommend is that you just sponge on the paint, it adheres better to the wax than painting with a brush.




If you'd like to share your advent wreath join this Advent Wreath Link up at Catholic Mom

O Antiphons Ornament Printable

I didn't get around to making an advent calendar or Jesse tree this year and we barley got our tree up...thank goodness there was one more little tradition to count down the days till our sweet Savior is born! Praying the O Antiphons. For a few years I've been wanting to make a set of ornaments to put on our Christmas tree.

Just incase this is the only page you land on I have updated this Ornament printable with each Antiphon written on the ornament in my newest blog post here.

If you use the printable please like and share so others can enjoy it too!

O Antiphons Ornament by abansmer

 I thought it would be neat to have a little basket of gold pinecones each with a tiny painted O Antiphon. The kids can place one on our tree and then we could say the prayers for the respective O Antiphon. If you are a little bewildered as to what I'm talking about or have never heard of this beautiful tradition the O Antiphons are an ancient tradition in the church in which we anticipate Our Lord's birth by bring to mind these particular seven Messianic titles for Christ: O Sapientia (O Wisdom), O Adonai (O Lord), O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse), O Clavis David (O Key of David), O Oriens (O Rising Sun), O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations), and finnally O Emmanuel our long awaited King! Here is a great link that goes into further detail about the matter: What Are the O Antiphons?

Onward to the ornaments. I painted seven pinecones in a bright gold...you could spray paint, glitter, sponge, brush or apply gold to the pinecones however you like.

I then  painted seven little paintings of each O Antiphon and used a scrapbook software to put them in frames and make a layout so that I could print them, cut them out, and glue them onto my pinecones.

                                    

                                       

                                       

You could attach the printouts anyway you like this is just one of the many ways I was contemplating how to proceed with the project.

A Crucifix for The Holy Trinity

I wanted to reflect on the Trinity and omnipotence of God. In this crucifix is represented God the Father with " the hand of God" painted on medallion at the top of the cross, God the Son with the plaster cast corpus finished with a faux white marble technique, and God the Holy Spirit with a dove painted on bottom medallion. On the right side of the cross is painted the Alpha and on the left is painted the Omega because God Almighty is the beginning and end of everything.