Yuma Little Flowers

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-31T20:48:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from the Yuma Little Flowers!

Busy Busy December III

2008-12-31T20:35:00.001-08:00

Rachel's Run 2008

For our Medal Project we decided to participate in Rachel's Run. An event that was put on to raise money for Rachel Determan's family. Rachel lost her battle with leukemia at the age of 12.

Busy Busy December II

2008-12-31T20:24:00.001-08:00

Christmas Caroling Time!!!

This was our 3rd year getting together for caroling. It was so much fun and so awesome to see our little group grow each year! We decided to have a potluck this year before we set out.

Busy Busy December I

2008-12-31T20:04:00.000-08:00

We decided not to have any formal meetings in December, but we sure made up for it with our
extra gatherings.! :-)

We attended the Ken and Betty Borland Holiday Pageant and Tower Lighting. Each year on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, the Caballeros de Yuma usher in the holiday season with a pageant at Desert Stadium that culminates with the lighting of the Yuma Friendship Tower. The girls brought in canned food donations for the Yuma Crossroads Mission.

November's Meeting

2008-12-31T18:44:00.000-08:00

For November we learned about St. Francis Xavier Cabrini and the virtue of Industry. I was a little stumped trying to figure out the best way to present this virtue. So, I decided to break it up into other virtues that you need to demonstrate Industry. We broke up into groups and talked about self discipline (ahem), purposefulness, and orderliness.

For our craft activity we started putting together our notebooks. See, now if I had been practicing orderliness, and purposfulness and had a little more self discipline... I would have been better prepared for this activity. :-) I found this idea from another LF mom's blog. Looked simple enough!

I took for granted the amount of time and the overload of extra scrapbooking supplies I had stored up after many years of aquiring but not producing any scrapbooks! It was a little chaotic getting the supplies out but it was a great time regardless of the headache most of us probably went home with!

I had to rely on my darling daughter to take the meeting pictures for me, but she was very happy to do that job for me.

October's Scavenger Hunt

2008-11-05T22:05:00.001-08:00

At our second meeting for October, we split the girls up into two teams and sent them off on a scavenger hunt! The girls had clues that led them to stations where they had to answer questions or complete a task in order to receive a piece of their treasure map. At the end of the hunt they received their treasure bag with their Faith Petal. It was so much fun! We ended our night with some pizza and a final romp on the playground.

October's First Meeting

2008-11-05T21:56:00.001-08:00

We decided to start our year out in October instead of September. Gave us moms a little more breathing room for the month of September!

In October's meeting the girls learned about Saint Catherine of Siena and the virtue of faith.

The girls each decorated a holy water font.

August: Ice Cream Social

2008-11-05T21:36:00.001-08:00

We kicked off our year with an Ice Cream Social at St. Johns. New moms and daughters were able to come out and meet everyone and get more information about our club.

The girls colored some great pictures of the saints and had a scoop (or two) of ice cream with all the fixins!

Hey! Wait a minute! He's not a Little Flower!!!

February Meeting

2008-02-27T10:59:00.001-08:00

Activities

2008-02-11T08:17:00.000-08:00

Prayer: Memory Verse: Sirach 4:28

Even to the death fight for truth, and the Lord your God will battle for you.

Study:

Learn about St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and why she was chosen for her virtue of perseverance

Action:

Read Luke11:5-10. Who was persevering? Copy down Luke 11:9 and send it in a letter to someone who might be discouraged. Tell them you will be keeping them in prayer and remember to do so.

"And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. " ~ Luke 11:9

2008-01-25T21:21:00.000-08:00

Prayer:
A quick tempered man makes a fool of himself, but the prudent man is at peace.
~Proverbs 14:17

Study:
What are some ways that St. Angela Merici showed prudence?

Action:
How can we use prudence when we need to choose who to listen to?

December ~ Loyalty ~ St. Lucy

2007-11-29T06:50:00.000-08:00

Prayer:

#1. Memorize and Pray: "I will maintain my Covenant with you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting pact, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you." ~ Gen 17:7

Study:

#2. Read about St. Lucy. Write a short description of her and why she was chosen. Younger girls can share this verbally.

Action:

#4. The Book of Ruth is a wonderful story of Loyalty. Read through it and make it into a book of your own making. Give the book to a friend to whom you feel loyal.

December Activity: In Flander's Fields

2007-11-29T05:02:00.000-08:00

Poppy Girls, Yuma Veteran's Day Parade 2007

When I was at the Veteran's Day Parade this year, I came across a float that said Poppy Girls... What are Poppy Girls? Why are these ladies selling Poppies??? Wow, everytime I learn something new I am humbled! Being a former Marine, you would think that would be something I should know! Well, I was so excited to see that this was one of the activities for our December Virtue: Loyalty!

Here is a history I found online:

For many years I have found myself asking what the significance of the red poppies were in relation to Veterans Day. This year that question was asked of me and I had no answer. I did vow, however, to find the story behind the symbol. What interesting information I found.
It has been noted throughout history that after a major war red poppies seemed to pop up in the battlefields and on soldiers graves. It seems that poppy seeds lay dormant in the soil and when the soil is heavily turned or dug up it causes them to sprout. The most detailed of this event took place in WWI in Flanders Field, Belgium. In the craters where bombs fell and on the mounds of rubble, poppies bloomed everywhere. The heavily churned earth and the high concentration of lime from the limestone buildings made the perfect catalyst for the poppies to grow.

Around 1920 an American, Moina Michael, was the 1st recorded incidence of a person wearing a poppy in remembrance of lives lost in WWI. Madame E. Guerin on a visit from France heard of the idea and upon returning home began to make homemade poppies and sold them to help support the children of war. This idea quickly spread around the world. The poppies are sold in many countries with proceeds benefiting many different veteran organizations.

So the next time you see someone with poppies for a donation......dig down deep and give with pride. Know you are saying thanks and helping a worthy cause.......by supporting our vets and vets around the world.

Below, find a famous poem called ‘In Flanders Field’ written by Major John McCrae who was at Flanders Field, Belgium during WWI.

(Click on Poem for more history and photos)

In Flanders Fields
by Major John McCrae Canadian Officer

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the dead.

Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Action

2007-11-19T19:59:00.000-08:00

You are practicing generosity when you:

Are thoughtful about the needs of others

Notice when someone needs help

Give freely without holding back

Are willing to make sacrifices for others

Use wisdom about sharing treasured belongings

You need more practice when you:

Cannot find anyone who deserves your help

Give only things that do not matter to you

Expect something in return for sharing

Hold on to the gift after it is given with conditions about how it should be used.

Keep reminding people that you gave.

Study ~ The Angelus

2007-11-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

SHORT HISTORY OF THE ANGELUS
Giuseppe Luppino

We repeat the words of the Annunciation for the world, the Church:

On 25 March, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Annunciation: an important moment for her to pause to recall what suddenly happened in the history of mankind, so that man could be changed profoundly and saved. Our experience of education in the faith has us continue our formation by reciting the Angelus even though we know that the Angelus in the form we have it was crystallized only around the first half of the 16th century.

Medieval custom of triple Hail Mary in the evening:

In the centuries before that, this name or the name Ave Maria was applied to the moment of prayer specifically devoted to the daily recitation of the "angelic greeting", the Hail Mary (a custom that seems to have spread in England before it took hold on the continent of Europe). The practice of reciting the Hail Mary three times in a row dates at least to the 12th century, and St Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) strongly recommended it. This devout practice was a great favourite also of St Mechtilde of Helfta (1241-1298) in her Revelations, and St Bonaventure, in a Chapter of the Order of the Friars Minor in 1269 proposed they recite these three Hail Mary's in the evening after Compline, meditating on the mystery of Christ's Incarnation, urging at the same time that the recitation be preceded always by the ringing of a bell so that the brothers and all the faithful nearby would know that it was time for the Hail Mary.

Morning and Noon Angelus for Christianity at risk:

As time passed, in the Christian lands, the practice was repeated first in the early morning, and then at midday. Testimonies to the noon recitation are found around 1413 in the land now known as Czechoslovakia and in 1423 in Cologne. Pope Sixtus IV, in 1475, was the first to endow the recitation of the Angelus at noon with an indulgence. This indulgence was confirmed and extended by Pope Leo X in 1517 to whoever recited it in the morning, at noon, and in the evening, and Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) seems to have been the last one to grant an indulgence.
This is a moment of prayer, then, that has been used to sanctify the first part of the day for centuries and that even was prayed to rescue Christianity in difficult moments, such as happened in Belgrade in 1456, when the Turks succeeded in invading Serbia.

Modern form of devotion to Mary and the Incarnation:

The form as we know it appears for the first time—according to J. Fournée in his The History of the Angelus. The Angel's Message to Mary (Lev, 1997)—in The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Officium parvum BMV), printed in Rome during the time of Pope Pius V (1566-1572), and also in the Manuale catholicorum (Handbook for Catholics) by the Jesuit St Peter Canisius, published in Antwerp in 1588. In older manuals of devotion, according to the date of their publication, the Angelus may mention Pope Benedict XIV (14 September 1742) and Pope Leo XIII (15 March 1884) as its great promoters.

Artists have shaped our image of the Annunciation, Mary at prayer or in meditation at the angel's coming:

The greatest artists have chosen to immortalize this moment: Mary is usually shown kneeling or seated and sometimes has a book in her hand or nearby. The tradition preferred in the West and known in the East only because of Western influence (see the 16th century Mount Athos frescoes) likes to visualize Mary meditating on the Bible, and more precisely, according to the suppositions of the Fathers of the Church, on the passage by the prophet Isaiah (7,14): "Behold, a virgin will conceive …", or reading the psalter, as reported in the Meditationes vitae Christi (Meditations on the Life of Christ), a book dear to late medieval artists. Among the earliest works representing the Annunciation, we can mention the frescoes of Giotto (ca. 1305 in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua) and the panel painting by Simone Martini (1333, Uffizi, Florence). And we should not forget Fra Angelico's Annunciation in the Convent of San Marco in Florence (ca. 1440), the one by Leonardo (ca. 1475, Uffizi), or The Angelus by Millet (1857-59, Louvre, Paris).

Taken from:L'Osservatore RomanoWeekly Edition in English4 September 2002, page 6
L'Osservatore Romano is the newspaper of the Holy See.The Weekly Edition in English is published for the US by:
The Cathedral FoundationL'Osservatore Romano English Edition320 Cathedral St.Baltimore, MD 21201Subscriptions: (410) 547-5315Fax: (410) 332-1069lormail@catholicreview.org

Provided Courtesy of:Eternal Word Television Network5817 Old Leeds RoadIrondale, AL 35210

Prayer ~ The Angelus

2007-11-19T19:38:00.000-08:00

V: The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary

R: And she conceived by the Holy Ghost.

V: Hail Mary, full of grace: The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

R: Holy Mary, Mother of God: Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

V: Behold, the handmaid of the Lord.

R: Be it done unto me according to thy word.

V: Hail Mary ...

R: Holy Mary ...

V: And the Word was made flesh

R: And dwelt among us.

V: Hail Mary ...

R: Holy Mary ...

V: Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,

R: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

V: Let us pray.

All: Pour forth, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy grace unto our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ, thy Son, was made known by the message of an Angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ, our Lord, Amen.

Generosity Medal

2007-11-06T20:53:00.000-08:00

This month we have an extra activity to earn the Generosity Medal. We will be collecting items to donate to the Girls Orphanage (Home) in San Luis Mexico. For those of you who participated in the donation drive that the KofC at St. Francis did, you can count that donation. Bring your donations to the next meeting at Tracey's house November 20th. There isn't a picture of the Generosity medal on the ECCE HOMO website, so I am posting the medal for Prudence, just to give you an idea. I am also posting a picture of the girls when we visited them last year with our Confirmation class. They were in the middle of singing one of their songs.

November ~ Generosity ~ St. Katharine Drexel

2007-11-05T21:51:00.000-08:00

Prayer
Mary was generous, from saying "Yes" to what she did immediately after. Reread the account in Luke 1 and share this with your family. Say a "Hail Mary" that you can be generous as well.

Study
If anyone wants to go to law with you over your shirt, hand him your coat as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him two miles." ~ Matthew 5:40-41

Action
As Catholics, we are called to be generous with our time, our talents and our treasures. This generosity is spoken of as "stewardship." Seek out ways you can make better use of your time, talent and treasures. Discuss your ideas with your parents.