Today, the day after Ascension Thursday, we begin praying for the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised He would not leave us orphans, that He would be with us always in a deeper way, for He would send His Holy Spirit. So today we begin the Holy Spirit Novena. Let's pray for the Holy Spirit to renew the face of the earth, wiping out the Coronavirus and helping us to recover, help us to move forward in faith, in hope, and in love.
Here is a Holy Spirit Novena you can pray with your family over the next 9 days.
Hey everyone! Happy Ascension Thursday! I've put the video of today's Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral above in case you haven't yet streamed Mass today.
Here's an activity you can do to celebrate this great day. You're going to make your own Ascension!
Share a picture of your creation in our Album! I'd love to see it!
Then, check out this nice poem on the Ascension from a beautiful picture book: Jesus Returns to Heaven. Recite it to your family and you can add live action with your Ascension Craft!
Finally, Ascension is so sweet, try making this Ascension Desert.
I'm going to try to make it, too! I'll post a picture of mine in the Album. Start as soon as you can! You have to put it in the refrigerator for 3 hours before you can enjoy!
Yesterday we prayed the Glorious mysteries of the rosary because it was a Sunday, but what about today? Today you would pray the Joyful mysteries. How do you know when to pray which mysteries?
Here's the breakdown:
Glorious Mysteries: Sundays and Wednesdays
Joyful Mysteries: Mondays and Saturdays
Sorrowful Mysteries: Tuesdays and Fridays
Luminous Mysteries: Thursdays
So if you did the full lesson, you just did a full rosary. It reminds me actually of a little story. I think I told you guys that I do prison ministry at a juvenile detention center where teens who have committed a crime go and try to learn from their mistakes to be better people. In one of our visits, all the young people that came had rosaries and they asked us how to pray the rosary. They didn't know the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, so they asked us to write it down for them. We wrote the prayers over and over again for the different young people. It reminded me of how I learned my prayers, writing them out 3, 5, 10 times--that was how they made us learn when I was in school. Aren't you lucky that you didn't have to learn your prayers that way? Aren't you lucky that you've learned your prayers and can pray them whenever you want? Aren't you lucky that even if you're mostly locked indoors right now, that you're safe with your family, and that soon enough you'll be able to go outside and play?
Because you're so lucky and blessed, you can bless others. So I was thinking that it might be good for you all while you're in your houses, feeling locked up, wishing you could be outside, to remember the young people who are in the detention center, who might be worried for their families, missing their families, afraid of getting sick, and pray a decade of the Rosary or even a full rosary for them this week.
And here's a Bonus: Maybe write out the Our Father, Hail Mary, or Glory Be and draw a picture on the other side to make a little prayer card. You can take a picture of it and post them in our Album and I'll print them so that the next time I go to visit when quarantine is over, you'll have already written the prayers out for them for me.
And while we're remembering those in prison in our prayers, since today is also the feast of the canonization of St. Therese of Lisieux, check out this video with a powerful story from the life of St. Therese of how prayer can help a prisoner in the worst of situations.
