St. Joan of Arc, pray for us!
It is hard to believe that we are about half way through our first year of Wreath I! I was able to find some wonderful suggestions on the Little Flowers Group Blog for this month's lesson and craft on obedience and I think the girls really enjoyed how it all came together (I did!). A few of them were quite familiar with St. Joan of Arc and her courageous acts of obedience to the will of God.
We began our fifth meeting once again with the prayers in the member's guide: Act of Faith, Act of Hope, Act of Love and the prayer to St. Therese.
A brief review from our lesson on the virtue - Love of Neighbor:
Love is first from God and it must be returned to God. From our love of God comes the love or our neighbor. The girls were reminded again of the words from St. Mark's Gospel - we are to love God first and our neighbor second, loving them as we love ourselves - this pleases God.
Love is first from God and it must be returned to God. From our love of God comes the love or our neighbor. The girls were reminded again of the words from St. Mark's Gospel - we are to love God first and our neighbor second, loving them as we love ourselves - this pleases God.
Together we sang the memory verse from last month and glass beads were put into the vase for assignments completed while each girl shared something memorable that they did to grow in the virtue - Love of Neighbor. The girls are concerned that we will run out of glass beads before the end of our studies! They are all doing so well with assignments!
Virtue ~ Saint ~ Flower of the Month
The virtue this month applies to the fourth commandment which tells us to obey.
The memory verse was posted on the marker board, we recited first and then sang together using the Memory Verse CD.
He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother meanwhile kept all these things in memory. Luke 2:51
The white carnation is the chosen flower for the virtue of obedience. I had a vase of white carnations next to the statue of our Blessed Mother. We talked about how long a fresh cut carnation will last in fresh water and then the girls all had a chance to smell the flowers. They described the scent as "sweet" which was just what I was hoping! "The carnation is a strong, hearty flower. We must be strong in our obedience to God and to His commandments. The carnation gives off a sweet fragrance. When we are obedient, we diffuse a sweetness wherever we go." I would like to give credit for this quote but cannot remember where I found it!
He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother meanwhile kept all these things in memory. Luke 2:51
The white carnation is the chosen flower for the virtue of obedience. I had a vase of white carnations next to the statue of our Blessed Mother. We talked about how long a fresh cut carnation will last in fresh water and then the girls all had a chance to smell the flowers. They described the scent as "sweet" which was just what I was hoping! "The carnation is a strong, hearty flower. We must be strong in our obedience to God and to His commandments. The carnation gives off a sweet fragrance. When we are obedient, we diffuse a sweetness wherever we go." I would like to give credit for this quote but cannot remember where I found it!
The girls put together their notebook pages and were given a St. Joan of Arc coloring page; fleur de lis embellishments and carnations to glue as well. A prayer for the virtue of obedience was also included. Notebook page example was again obtained from Jessica at Shower of Roses blog, changed just a bit to fit our group.
I focused on two objectives for the lesson, and during our discussion tried to reinforce the objectives and have the girls also repeat aloud:
1. All of God's commands are out of love; and,
2. Without obedience we will never have holiness.
Craft
Supplies for our craft: wooden hearts, clothespins, small adhesive magnets, glue gun, sparkly gems, tacky glue, permanent markers and 3 x 5 blank index cards to write the types of obedience. I painted the hearts ahead of time because it just wouldn't dry in time to complete the entire craft. One side light pink and the opposite side a darker shade of pink (I had both colors in my stash at home so I didn't need to buy more).
As they crafted, we began with a Q/A lesson: What is one rule in your home that is difficult to follow/or you don't like? Why do you think we have rules? Wouldn't life be easier with no rules? etc. The answers generated good discussion and led into examples of loving parents and our loving God. They were reminded that God loves us so much that He wants us to be able to make good choices. God's commandments are His way of letting us know ahead of time of the things that have bad consequences. He is being a loving parent. I gave an example of a typical playground game and gave the rule that if you not fast at running you cannot play - then asked: is this rule out of love? (no) At this point I stated the objective that all of God's commandments are out of love! The girls repeated this also.
Using Chat with God's Little Ones Lesson 26 Love of God/Chapter 10, the girls answered the questions as I read aloud (ex: Do you know how we find out what God wants us to do?, When we obey our parents, we obey God. Do you think God wants you to always obey your parents?, etc). These led nicely into explaining the different types of obedience: full, immediate, cheerful, trustful and sacrificial. I gave examples and the girls had to choose which type of obedience applied (sometimes more than one applied). We again stated the objectives aloud.
This question was asked: do we all agree that God expects us to obey? The girls were then asked: how can you prove that? We discussed the example of Jesus in scripture and His obedience at the temple, the wedding and the crucifixion. When we obey we are imitating Jesus and showing how much we love Him. This is especially true when we don't feel like doing something and we do it anyways.
They wrote each type of obedience on five separate index cards. The heart can be displayed at home, and the cards changed to practice each type of obedience. We hung the craft on the metal front door and grouped together for a photo. Someone said it looked like a line-up and so they started to pose for mug shots...giving an example of a bad consequence of DISobedience...lots of giggles!
They wrote each type of obedience on five separate index cards. The heart can be displayed at home, and the cards changed to practice each type of obedience. We hung the craft on the metal front door and grouped together for a photo. Someone said it looked like a line-up and so they started to pose for mug shots...giving an example of a bad consequence of DISobedience...lots of giggles!
Snack
This month's snack was a breeze. Fleur de lis is French for "lily flower" - lily symbolizes purity and chastity. We talked about how this symbol was easily established as an iconographic attribute of the Blessed Virgin. It is also believed that the fleur de lis represents the Holy Trinity in religious art. I mentioned that many images of St. Joan of Arc have the fleur de lis on her flag or garments. A candy mold was used to make fleur de lis chocolates and I cut a large bowl of fresh fruit served with St. Joan of Arc Swords! The strawberries were supposed to look like hearts (God's commandments are out of love), the fruit all sweet like the sweet fragrance of obedience. I had decided not to read a short biography of our saint this month and instead have the girls listen to "God's Hero on Horseback" the St. Joan of Arc Glory Story during our refreshment time; but, they were just too wound up to listen!
Spearing fruit and chocolates is such fun and probably what my daughter remembers most about our meeting!
In closing we had our badge ceremony and ended our meeting with the Hail Mary. Our group photo this month was a bit crazy...taken after the 'mug shots'!
Do you ever wonder why God values obedience more than sacrifice? Because obedience is someone else's idea of what you should sacrifice.
~ David Manuel
Pray for our members, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, as they work towards earning their fifth patch and grow in the Virtue of Obedience - and through these small acts, showing their love for your Son, Jesus.
