Sacred Art in a New Generation

It's been a while since I have posted! I'm here to share the work of my oldest daughter with all of you. Over the years she has helped to create some of our printables and now she's working on her own projects. 

Caitlin loves watercolor and oil painting. Truely, any creative medium sparks her imagination and sends her off to make the most beautiful sketches, paintings, sculptures, and embroidery projects. I'll be sharing more of her work here on this blog so stay tuned for some exciting projects she has showcasing the saints and other religious subjects.  

You can support the work of this budding young artist by purchasing a printable, sharing this post, or simply leave an encouraging comment. 

 

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FREE Advent Candle Coloring Wraps

 

A happy and blessed Advent to all of you! If the season has suck up on you and you find yourself without

Advent candles, these wraps are the perfect solution. I've made this printable free for you to download. Just print them out and color with markers, crayons, or colored pencil. The "Joy" candle gets colored pink. The candle with the Chi Rho is the Christmas candle and stays white, but you can add gold and red to it. 

These candles wraps will fit around most glass pillar candles you can pick up at a grocery or dollar store. I like to cut out along the decorative edge

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I also have colored candle wraps available for purchase.

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The Catholic Mom Bundle Advent 2021 is Here!

Advent is one of my favorite liturgical seasons! We don't try and do ALL of the things, but over the years we have added many traditions that our family have come to love. You can find some beautiful resources for those and so many more helpful products in this year's Catholic Mom Bundle Advent 2021 that I'm so excited to be a contributor for!

My favorite Advent traditions are praying the O Antiphons and saying the St. Andrew Novena. Share some of yours in the comments!

My Marian Planner PDF has only been out for a short while and you can buy it here. 

Or, for a single price, you could get 32 more Catholic products too!

For 5 days only, 33 Catholic small businesses have pooled together their best resources for moms. We have easy, open-and-go, products for liturgical living, personal faith, emotional health, catechesis, creativity, family prayer, home management, decorating, etc. I can't wait to print out the Advent Bingo and coloring pages from Catholic Paper Goods!

Some of the resources include printables, workbooks, courses, and videos.

The total value of this all-digital bundle is $474. But that’s pretty out of reach for moms on a budget. That’s why we want to offer it to you at a crazy low price: $25. 

The sale ends November 12th at midnight, so now is the time to buy.

There’s a 30-day guarantee if you have any problems. What a great opportunity to sample work from amazing Catholic makers while supporting this small business effort!

Coffee & Crayons: FREE St. Martin de Porres Quote Coloring Page

 

I hope to get back to creating and posting these coloring pages more regularly. If you a favorite saint quote you'd love made into a coloring page, let me know in the comments.

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of St. Martin de Porres. What a man of compassion! My heart is aching for all of us to show compassion to each other. St. Martin, pray for us. Once St. Martin took in a sick man covered with ulcers and gave him his bed. This didn't sit well with one of his fellow brothers. St. Martin replied with: "Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness." 

Artist inspiration: Tianna Williams has recently completed a beautiful painting of St. Martin de Porres that you can view by clicking here. 

To print out the coloring page, click on the image below and save it first, and then you'll be able to print it out.  

Sacred Art Artist Spotlight: Monica Skrzypczak

This week I'm interviewing Monica Skrzypczak. I discovered Monica's art a few years ago through a group of Catholic artists and have been inspired by following her creative journey. You have to check out the beautiful process videos she shares for her work. I hope if you don't know of her work that you'll soon be a huge fan just as I am. Most of all I pray you are blessed and encouraged in your faith by her talent. 

On to the interview!

What is your name and where are you from?

I'm Monica Skrzypczak, from Rockford, IL!

How did you end up creating sacred art? Did you start out with a desire to do that or were you eventually lead in that direction?

I've always loved painting, and as I went through college studying theatre management, I began to realize how important being an artist was to me. As my classes focused less and less on art, a hole started opening in my heart. At the same time, my faith was growing tremendously and I actively wanted a relationship with God. It all came together the summer between junior and senior year when I didn't get the internship I was hoping for, and ended up at home, working for my grandparent's business. I was crushed; it seemed that all my college education was crashing down and I would never make it in theatre. This was the first time in my life I started going to daily Mass daily, and praying a daily holy hour. With no classes to mess with my schedule I said, why not ramp up to full speed? And without really realizing it, I began to want to use my artistic talent for God specifically, instead of just painting what I thought was pretty. I painted my first tabernacle painting that summer ('Easter Lilies for the King'), and I went, here is a subject matter that will never grow old. I ended up wishing I could be an artist again, but still thought it was an outrageous desire. But going into senior year, my heart started to not care as much for the culture of theatre, so I applied to be a missionary, aaaand I wasn't accepted. I was suddenly in the same place I was the year before - jobless and without a clue as to what I wanted to do. I went on a pilgrimage to Poland that summer and everything clicked. I was presented with stunning church after stunning church and the thought to be an artist came back full force. I knew we needed sacred artists in America, and if was in God's Will, I wanted to be one of them. After I came home I started working on an Etsy, with the intent of still getting a real job in theatre, but as the process continued, I realized I absolutely love running a small business and this is exactly where Jesus wants me right now!

What medium/s do you work with?

I primarily work in oil paints at the moment, but in the past have loved watercolors. And for the statue restorations I use acrylic paints.

Do you have a favorite or patron saint? Who inspires your work?

Bl. Carlo Acutis is the patron of the shop! This kid was incredible. As the first millennial saint, he knew modern technology, but steadfastly but it on the back burner in favor for prayer and encountering others with the love of Christ (something I fail at constantly). But most importantly, he had a huge devotion to the Eucharist and compiled a list of all the Eucharistic miracles into a website (in the early 2000's).

I came upon this website ages ago when I was still in highschool and reading through the miracles changed my heart for understanding the Real Presence, which in turn is why painting tabernacles, monstrances, and the Mass has enamored me this whole time, and why adoration is a pillar of my prayer life. I proceeded to forget the website until after college a guy at a retreat was passing out his Servant of God cards and story and I recognized the miracles website. I had no idea it was made by a kid, much less a soon-to-be saint. And then to top it off, I randomly chose Oct 12 as the launch date for Outpouring of Trust, and was always embarrassed because it wasn't a big feast day, BUT it turns out that two years later, in 2020, Carlo was beatified and his feast day is now Oct. 12. How crazy is that. God is so good.

Do you have a favorite historical artist or period?

Presently the Renaissance is my favorite, particularly the Counter-Reformation artwork. This is when art turned from stylized humans to the full-bodied beautiful Caravaggio and Michelangelo saints, and when sacred art was revisited in the Council of Trent, reaffirming it's value and necessity in aiding prayer and teaching the faithful, while also creating guidelines for artists to use to create works suitable for sacred spaces.

Also Bellini. Bellini is my favorite painter. I've done 4 master copy studies of his paintings of the Madonna and Child and have one more to go, and let me just say, I have never seen Mary depicted so serenely and so humanly. She looks like a teenager. She looks like a queen. She looks like a mother. Somehow all at once. And Jesus looks like a real, floppy baby, a crawling away baby, a can't-hold-my-head-up, fully human baby. The combination with a strikingly peaceful Mary clearly marks the baby as Jesus, even though there is nothing Divine showing out, in contrast to the past when artists would depict the baby Jesus as a tiny man symbolizing Him as fully God. On that note, I've been doing little 5x7 master copy studies of a bunch of Renaissance artists, so if you want to see which artists I'm most inspired by, that's a list! Not tackled yet (because they're too good, and it's hard to get good scans of their paintings to study) are Caravaggio and Bouguereau. Talk about perfect use of composition, symbolism, models, brush technique, and color mixing.

It's kind of silly to ask an artist what their favorite color is, but are there colors you are more drawn to?

This is my favorite question, and I'll counter it with a really nerdy answer. A mix of cadmium red and burnt umber creates the most beautiful dark crimson that brightens a shadow in the face and between fingers without adding black and is perfect for a deep red in Mary's dresses. I can't get enough of it.

But if I were to just pick a color, blue is my favorite.

Do you have a website? Can my readers find you on any other social media platform?

www.outpouringoftrust.com is my website where you can find original paintings and restored statues for sale, as well as prints, stickers, rosaries, decade bracelets, and many chaplets! Signing up for my email list gives a 20% off code for your first order! I'm on Instagram at @outpouringoftrust.sacredart and @outpouringoftrust.rosaries Facebook (Outpouring of Trust) Tiktok @outpouringoftrust I also have a Patreon where I'm sharing all the behind the scenes for my upcoming series on the titles of Mary in the Litany of Loreto; all 49 of them. It'll take me a long while to get to the finished paintings and there's a ton of research and sketching and model hiring I hope to do before I get there! So if you're interested in the life of an artist or just on supporting me in my work, it's the perfect place for you! The link is https://www.patreon.com/outpouringoftrust?fan_landing=true

Do you take commissions?

I do! I'd love to chat with you about your idea, just send me an email at monica@outpouringoftrust.com with your idea and a general size you're thinking about.

Is there a work of art you have created that is your favorite?

I've spent a long time thinking which one and I think I've landed on whichever painting I've most recently finished. For a long time it was 'The Divine Praises' (the painting of a monstrance with the prayer in the background), but more recently it's my two still lives on prayer; 'The Call to Prayer' and 'Memento Mori' since those are heavy in symbolism and I'm just really proud of how I painted them technique-wise.

The Call to Prayer consists of a Breviary, bell, and undyed cloth symbolizing the life of a religious monk/nun, and a call for us to join in their prayer, dedicating more of our life to God. While Memento Mori consists of a skull, empty hourglass, black cloth, and wood symbolizing mortality, with the white box and gold cloth symbolizing Heaven, and the path to it - God (the Bible).

But as a secret plot twist, my true favorite paintings are the ones I'm still working on: the Traditional Latin Mass for Children book I'm illustrating for Kimberly Fries (@mylittlenazareth on Instagram), but they're not done yet. It'll be out by Black Friday! You have no idea how excited I am to be an illustrator. This is easily the coolest project I've ever done.

Is there anything specific I haven't asked that you would like to share about your process or what inspires your work?

I'm a huge time lapse nerd so I'm always sharing time lapses of me painting on my Instagram. I share a lot of the process of painting and inspiration there! And prayer. Lots of prayer. My business isn't called Outpouring of Trust for nothing. There's a whole lot of trust

involved every step of the way, and a whole lot of prayer, from concept sketches to prints at your door. Without

commending the shop to Mary and taking time to pray and get to Mass, this whole operation can (and often does)

fall apart. It's a good reminder for the start of any apostolate (an endeavor that serves and evangelizes) that it's nothing without God. Root your life in the Eucharist, and let nothing get in your way.

Tell me which of Monica's work inspires you the most! I can't just pick one so Queen of the Most Holy Rosary is pretty amazing but I really love the sky and colors of On God's Time.   

Sacred Art Artist Spotlight: Michael Corsini

Thanks for joining me here to discover amazing current artists who focus on creating sacred art. 

This week I'm interviewing Michael Corsini. I discovered Michael's art a few years ago through his music and have been inspired by following him on his creative journey. I hope if you don't know of his work that you'll soon be as much of an admirer as I am. Most of all I pray you are blessed and encouraged in your faith by his talent. 

On to the interview!

What is your name and where are you from?

    Michael Corsini Waymart, PA

How did you end up creating sacred art? Did you start out with a desire to do that or were you eventually lead in that direction?

   I was led to create sacred art after I entered the Catholic Church.

What medium/s do you work with?

    Oil mostly, but also acrylics and many drawing mediums... charcoal, pastel, etc...

Do you have a favorite or patron saint? Who inspires your work?

    Francis!

Do you have a favorite historical artist or period?

    Joaquín Sorolla or John Singer Sargent

It's kind of silly to ask an artist what their favorite color is, but are there colors you are more drawn to?

    Ha! I like greens.

Do you have a website? Can my readers find you on any other social media platform?

michaelcorsini.com

Do you take commissions?

    Occasionally.

Is there a work of art you have created that is your favorite?

   So far, "Mother of Priests"

Is there anything specific I haven't asked that you would like to share about your process or what inspires your work?

   JP2's Letter to Artists, Michael D. O'Brien wrote a letter to artists (for discernment of the vocation).

Tell me which one of Michael's work inspires you the most! I have a hard time choosing between The Nursery of Heaven and The Bride of Christ pictured below. 

Sacred Art Artist Spotlight: Adalee Hude

Thanks for joining me here to discover amazing current artists who focus on creating Sacred Art. 

This week I'm interviewing Adalee Hude. Years ago I had the pleasure of meeting her at a Catholic women's retreat in Bend, OR. I was so inspired and impressed by the beautiful art she displayed at her booth! I have enjoyed following her creative journey over the years and continue to be inspired by the beauty she puts forth into the world. I hope if you don't know of her work that you'll soon be as much of an admirer as I am. Most of all I pray you are blessed and encouraged in your faith by her talent.

On to the interview!

What is your name and where are you from?

    Adalee Hude, Clark County, WA

How did you end up creating sacred art? Did you start out with a desire to do that or were you eventually lead in that direction?

    I had been doing secular art, namely ceramic horse sculpture, professionally for 15 years. It was and intricate art that I enjoyed for a long time, but my interest in it waned over the last few years. I felt called to do art for a higher purpose, and after entering a sacred art contest in 2015, I was hooked. I discussed switching entirely to sacred art with my husband, and he agreed that I should. So in 2016 I started to paint Jesus, the saints, and symbols, and I have not stopped since.

What medium/s do you work with?

    I started out using acrylic and gouache (opaque watercolor), but switched primarily to watercolor and digital art, a couple of years ago. I would love to do some sacred art sculpture, someday.

Do you have a favorite or patron saint? Who inspires your work?

    Gosh, I’m blessed to have many saint friends! St. Catherine of Bologna, the patron saint of artists is my confirmation saint. Our Lady, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Benedict, St. Therese, and many others, remain close to me as I work.

Do you have a favorite historical artist or period?

    My favorite artist is Alphonse Mucha, the father of the Art Nouveau period (turn of the last century). I’m smitten with art from that era, from poster art to Arts & Crafts. I’m also a huge fan of medieval art, and have studied it a little.

It's kind of silly to ask an artist what their favorite color is, but are there colors you are more drawn to?

    Yes- bright colors! I never realized how much I loved bright colors until I changed my studio name along with my surname after getting married. I went from Velasquez Artistry to Brightly Hude Studio, and embraced all things bright. I particularly like shades of green, sunny yellow, and blues.

Do you have a website? Can my readers find you on any other social media platform?

My website is brightlyhude.com or brightandholy.com There is a Catholic Children’s book blog on my website (Bright and Holy Kids), and I am on Pinterest (brightlyhude). 

*If you would like to shop for some beautiful sacred art from Adalee she has so kindly given a 10% discount code just for you! Use the code BRIGHT10 at check out. 

Do you take commissions?

    I do not take commissions right now; my plate is too full!

Is there a work of art you have created that is your favorite?

    Hmm… I think my favorite work so far is my Divine Mercy painting that I did years ago. I would like to re-paint it someday!

Is there anything specific I haven't asked that you would like to share about your process or what inspires your work?

    The Holy Spirit definitely inspires my work! I am so grateful for His guidance. He has led me to do illustrations for Catholic children’s books, and I’m loving it!

Tell me which one of Adalee's work inspires you the most! I dearly love anything that she creates and used her Catholic clip art that you can find in her shop to make some beautiful signage for my daughter's Frist Holy Communion celebration! 

A New Marian Planner & Giveaway!

The new school year is just around the corner and I've published a beautiful Marian planner to help you stay organized. Whether you are heading back to school or homeschool, this planner will help you keep your plans together. It's a blank bullet journal style planner with a calendar section and 300 blank bullet journal pages. There is a cut out tabs page to help you organize the planner. The Immaculate Heart of Mary adorns some pages and also a floral Auspice Maria embellishment, but other than those items and the beautiful cover the journal is a blank canvas for you to fill. 

There's a printable PDF version available for you if you'd rather print out pages and make your own  planner in a three ring binder or with another binding method. The PDF version offers more than bullet journal pages!

Sharing this planner with you in a giveaway gives me a lot of joy. I was so excited to put this planner  together and hope that it's something that is helpful for you. The giveaway will end August 15th. Anyone can enter, but if you are outside the USA we can't ship a planner and only a PDF will be given. One winner within the United States will receive both a printed planner and a printable PDF. Enter the give away through the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the post.

What are some things you find helpful to stay organized and inspired throughout the year? 

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

FREE Scripture Coloring Valentines

34 I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. 35 This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” -John 13:34-35 

I think this verse is simply beautiful and exactly what I want to be focused on every day and not just on a day like Valentine's Day. 

Do you like to make your own Valentines or buy a card? 

I've made some cute printable coloring Valentine cards for you to use! I hope you'll enjoy sprinkling around the love Christ calls us to. 

Just save the image below and then you can print it out. I would recommend printing it on card stock. Cut the paper across in half, color and then fold. The inside will be blank so you can write in your own special note. 

If you love these simple notes as much as I do, maybe you'll want to color a full page just to put up on the wall. You can save the images below and then print them out. 

The Jesus Tree and Other Awesome Lenten Resources

 

I can't tell you how excited I was to find this simple Jesus Tree Family Lent Devotional from Elizabeth Clare in the Lent 2020 Catholic Mom Bundle . I have been looking for something just like this to do with my family through Lent. It's simple. All I needed to do was print and go. I did something with it that wasn't mentioned, but it will make it so much easier for me to implement this come Ash Wednesday.

I cut the little reading guide strips out and placed them all in our Bible so it's ready to go each day of  Lent! If I do nothing else with my family this Lent, I will feel like we at least journeyed with Jesus.

Light of Heaven Coloring Party and Book Release

These beautiful new books are almost out just in time to help you celebrate All Saints Day!

If you haven't ordered your copy of the new Light of Heaven: A Children's Book of Saints from Adalee Hude published by OSV , I urge you to do so and then join in the coloring party. The book and matching coloring book will be released October 11th but are available to pre order right now! After your purchase, you'll be able to download the coloring party PDF package and join in the coloring contest ending Oct 7th. If contests are not you thing, simply use the beautiful coloring pages and little litany of saints for a group study/reflection with kids or adults (there's a coloring party pack for both).

In her  Instagram stories, Adalee will be doing a live coloring party on October 4th, from 5:30-6:30 PST (8:30-9:30 EST). Click on her face to join in.

About the Light of Heaven Picture Book:

The “Light of Heaven” children’s book is a beautiful way to teach your children or grandchildren about our heavenly friends and helpers, the saints.  Bright and colorful images will delight their eyes while short synopses on each saint provide inspiring glimpses into those holy lives. Each saint image has a Latin word that corresponds to an aspect of their personality, with the word translated on the opposite page.  It’s a little Latin lesson!

 

About the Light of Heaven Coloring Book:

Anyone who loves the saints, and loves to color would benefit from the “Light of Heaven” coloring book.  The “Light of Heaven” coloring book is quite versatile- you can use it to color with your kids, and talk to them about the saints, or you can grab a few girlfriends, get out your “nice” set of pencils, and make an evening of it!  Whoever does the coloring will appreciate the bold lines, nice paper, and smiling saint faces found in this book.  Be they 4 or 94, this coloring book is friendly to friends of God!

Here's a peak at our coloring party creations! 

The toddler and I had a marvelous time coloring today while the big girls were busy with school. He loves St. Micheal and was so excited to color the page depicting this archangel! He'll be three in October. 

What I love about these books: 

I've always been drawn to beautiful things, especially books! I love Adalee's style and can't wait to get a hard copy of her picture book to read with my children. They are very aware of beauty and often exclaim to me how wonderful or particularly gorgeous something is. I know this book will be a treasure in our library to inspire them to lift their hearts to God and ponder His goodness. I am impressed that the Light of Heaven book has a matching coloring book to go along with it. We love to color together and it's one of the main ways we celebrate feast days along with a special tea. This will certainly add richness to the way we celebrate and study the saints. 

Coffee & Crayons: FREE St. Padre Pio Quote Coloring Page

St. Padre Pio is one of my all time favorite patrons! I love to ask his intercession before I go into
confession. Did you know what an amazing confessor he was?

Resources I love: 

Books 

Pray, Hope, and Don't Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book 1
Padre Pio: Man of Hope
There is a short little book I read years ago about his life that inspired me, it was written from a perspective of letters written to and from him. I can't for the life of me remember the title or author. If you know which book I am talking about please leave a comment!

Movie 

Padre Pio Miracle Man: Sergio Castellitto, Carlo Carlei ( If you have access to FORMED, I remember it being on there Otherwise you can find it on Amazon. )

Blog Posts

Prayer Wine Chocolate~ For the Sake of the Kingdom
Catholic Singles~ St. Padre Pio: Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry

Creative Inspiration

Delphina Rose Art: Modern Saints Coloring Collection

The Free Coloring Page: 

I love to color as part of my reflective prayer time. The saint and scripture quotes I make coloring pages for hopefully will help you reflect and ponder the goodness of God.
The popular quote of St. Padre Pio "Pray, hope, and don't worry" is comforting. There is so much in this life to get worked up and worried about. Sometimes we need a little reminder that in our prayers
we must surrender that "worry" part over and have hope in God's love for us.

Simply save the image below and then you can print it out.

My passion is creating. Some of my creations are available printed on a variety of things over at

Zazzle. You can even get the quote above printed on a mug or rosary holder with beautiful watercolor flowers.

Pray Hope & Don't Worry 4 Peg Rosary Holder Dry Erase Board With Keychain Holder
by SaongJai

Pray Hope & Don't Worry Coffee Mug
by SaongJai

Digital Lent Prints and a Book Review

I am so excited to share this Lent printable set with you. There are 6 different images in the PDF all sized to and 8x10 image. You can find the link to purchase at the bottom of the post. They are inspired my my new book Stood the Mournful Mother Weeping: A Simple Stations of the Cross Through Image & Song which was just released on Amazon.

As a busy mother I wanted something very simple to help me contemplate the stations of the cross. 

This book was my solution. Beautiful painterly images are paired with simple verses from my favorite Lenten hymn the Stabat Mater. The book has a short introduction followed with a large picture of each station of the cross and a verse from the hymn. There are blank notebook pages in the back of the book with a place to write down prayer intentions or record reflections and inspiration. It's not a book specifically for Lent so my hope is that it will be something one can use throughout the year to reflect on the sacrifice Jesus made for us and to encourage us to offer up our suffering to Jesus through our Blessed Mother.

Here's a quick video preview from the manuscript that was submitted. It's so new I don't even have my final copy yet!

Here is a closer look at the beautiful Lent printables.

 They are available in my Etsy shop. Or on the website www.saongjai.com 

Coffee and Crayons: St. Andrew Christmas Novena Coloring Page

Here is a more detailed coloring page for the St. Andrew Christmas Novena. Just click on the picture and select "save image as". After you save it you will be able to print it out. 

I am praying you have a blessed Advent!

 

You can find more Coffee & Crayons coloring pages here: 

St. Andrew Novena Card Brown
by SaongJai

St. Andrew Novena Mug
by SaongJai

St. Andrew Novena Card
by SaongJai

FREE Advent Calendar for Kids and Helpful Tips for Mom Too

Well Advent is almost here whether you are ready or not! Here is my annual Advent calendar for the kids. If you have the Activity pack from last year there are no new saints, but I have added additional pages this year: Epiphany, the Holy Family, nativity gift tags, a template letter to Baby Jesus, and the bonus of an updated easy to read St. Andrew's Christmas Novena card. You can pick it up in my Etsy shop here. 

To print the calendar click on it and save it as an image then you can select to print it. 

There is an Advent Activity Pack group on facebook you can join where others and I share ideas and links for Advent.

Advent Activity Pack Resource Closed group · 65 members Join Group A place to share and talk about Advent traditions and activities.

Help for the Mamas...

1. YES Dec 8th is a Holy Day of Obligation even though it's Saturday. It might be helpful to look at your church's Advent schedule and see what times they have set aside for Mass. If they offer a vigil, going Friday night for Immaculate Conception and then Sunday Morning or afternoon for your Sunday obligation may be a pleasant way to spread it out.

2. My lovely friend Ginny at Not So Formulaic has written this beautiful Mass Journal for moms. This Advent, one of my goals is to pay better attention in Mass as I am busy keeping an eye on my children. The older girls are pretty great now in Mass, but golly that two year old! I am hoping to kick start my Advent this weekend with Ginny's book Until I Rest in You. You can pick up a copy at Amazon or buy a digital download from Not So Formulaic here.
                                                 

Here is a peak at the inside of this beautifully simple Mass Journal. 

Help for the Kids...

1. Advent is a time to focus our hearts on Jesus more. If you are not already volunteering and helping find something as a family you can do to help others.  Ginny also has an awesome Works of Mercy printable advent calendar with suggestions for Advent prayer, sacrifice, and service.

2. Encourage little acts of kindness in your family. There are a bunch of awesome ways to do this. The straw for Baby Jesus thing, Natalie the Nativity Angel, Abigail the Altruism Angel (she is retired this year maybe she'll make a come back next year after a thorough proofreading and editing of the file), The Shepherd on the Search, or Christmas Countdown as you follow the star (This is my new

3. I have really wanted to jump on the Jesse Tree train because I feel it is a tangible way of unfolding Salvation History for children. I stumbled upon this beautiful Jesse Tree printable from Marginalia Books and it's only $4!!!!! It only lists the reading and you need to look them up but can be a great activity to help kids become more familiar with the bible. Make it special by lighting a candle as you break open the Word of God and read from the Bible together.

If you are looking for Jesse Tree ornaments and a little more substance check out To Jesus Sincerely and Sara's Mosaic Jesse Tree. The meditations are beautiful!