St. Faustina, pray for us!
Our first meeting in Wreath II! It is wonderful to see the girls together again and pick up where we left off. They are excited to learn more about these holy women in our Communion of Saints and the virtues they practiced.
I was so excited that this month's virtue and saint falls within the season of Lent. The plan to create a Divine Mercy lapbook will certainly help to prepare the girls to participate in the Divine Mercy Novena starting on Good Friday! This novena is truly unique for a number of reasons. This novena is different from all other novenas because it is the first novena in the history of the Catholic Church which was created by Jesus. The Divine Mercy Novena is intended to be prayed for graces and/or salvation to be given to other people, unlike other novenas, where people ask for something from God through the intercession of His Holy Saints.
We began the meeting with the prayers in the member's guide: Act of Faith, Act of Hope, Act of Love and the prayer to St. Therese.
The craft this month was going to take some time, so we began straight away with our lesson. I've decided that this year the girls will complete their notebook pages and coloring pages at home as part of the assignments. This will give us more time for our lesson, games and craft during the meetings.
Virtue ~ Saint ~ Flower of the Month
I read aloud the lovely book, Helen's Special Picture by David Previtali, and we talked about St. Faustina's special life and how she is such an inspiration to trust in Jesus and to be merciful to others. She exhibited mercy from her childhood until her death.
In our discussion, and using the leader's guide, I explained that mercy means God loves us and forgives us our sins. Mercy is the fruit of charity - given when not expected and never withheld. Mercy is an imitation of God. The Church provides us with the 'Works of Mercy' to grow in and use this virtue. Jesus appeared to St. Faustina and gave her the chaplet and image to share with the world and to show His mercy and encourage souls.
I displayed Fr. Lovakik's book The Works of Mercy and reviewed with them both the Corporal and the Spiritual Works of Mercy.
We listened to the memory verse and read, repeated it together:
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion, wipe out my offense. Psalms 51: 3-4.
~ Craft ~
My children have loved making lapbooks and I found one online to use in our group. Ours turned out to be a combination of two examples I discovered.
Above shows the 'raw' materials and then pictures of my example for the girls. A mini book of the novena and chaplet, a pocket to hold a holy card (image on front, Divine Mercy Prayer and image description on back) printed on card stock, St. Faustina with Divine Mercy image, Divine Mercy promises mini book with tabs.
They worked very diligently as even a simple lapbook takes a while to finish. They did a great job and it will be nice to have this to refer to anytime and especially leading to Divine Mercy Sunday.
~ Snack ~
Keeping things simple, as we are in the season of Lent, the girls enjoyed
'Divine Mercy' strawberries and cream.
"The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross."
~ Closing ~
Our meeting was completed after praying the Hail Mary and thanking God for bringing us together to grow in virtue.
Pray for our members, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, as they work towards earning their first patch in Wreath II and grow in the Virtue of Mercy - and through these small acts, showing their love for your Son, Jesus.
