Under Her Starry Mantle

Stitchin' Traditions Giveaway Winners!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 06:04:00 +0000

On the 27th of last month, we started a giveaway competition to promote my dear friend Anna's little business Stitchin' Traditions. If you have not seen Anna's etsy site before, click over and see her incredible work. Anna and her daughter Emma have wonderful crafting talents and have put them to great use in crafting many lovely Catholic gifts, using the finest quality materials.

The draw took place as promised on Our Lady's Birthday.

And the results are.......

Congratulations!!!

Melissa, I've been able to email you. You have won a beautiful felt, religious doll of your choice!

Jodi Reel, you have won second prize, two priestly pencils, colours of your choice! I have no way of contacting you, but if you could email me, I can pass you onto Anna to arrange your prize. (My email is in the right hand sidebar, look for an image of a typewriter.)

Joseph J. Borowski, you have won third prize, a 100% wool felt rosary pouch. I have no way of contacting you also Joseph, but if you could email me, I can pass you onto Anna to arrange your prize. (My email is in the right hand sidebar, look for an image of a typewriter.)

Thank you to all those who joined in this giveaway. Thank you Anna and Emma for your wonderful work, I know many of your creations have been a blessing and inspiration to me, I hope you will continue to bless others with your work!

Religious Dolls Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 07:03:00 +0000

My very dear friends in Australia, Anna and her family have set up their own Catholic business on esty in the past few months called Stitchin' Traditions to sell some of their beautiful handicraft, much that is religious. I have been the very fortunate recipient of some of their lovely work as gifts over the past few years.

My children have found much enjoyment in Anna's Rosary Flowers and matching pouch, all in 100% wool felt.

They have also loved Anna's fantastic Priestly Pencils!

Most of all, they have loved Anna's Mother Teresa's play set, complete with Mother Teresa holding poor mother's baby, the Bishop and the Poor Indian Mother.

Then when Anna opened her etsy store I was very keen to buy a couple of her handsomely designed saint dolls. The dolls are all hand-sewn and each measure approx. 10 1/2cm (6 inches) and are made out of 100% wool felt, fleece, cotton fabrics, 100% wool yarn and other various objects e.g. beads, buttons, etc…the quality, the doll's details and the workmanship is second to none! Here are photos of some of her creations:

St Mary MacKillop ~ Australia's First Saint!

St Francisco Marto, one of the Fatima Children

St Jacinta Marto, one of the Fatima Children

St Bernadette of Lourdes

A Dominican Nun

St Rose of Lima

The Stitchin' Traditions Giveaway!

Anna has arranged with me, as part of promoting her lovely Catholic business a giveaway consisting of three prizes to be won and you can have up to ten entries in the draw.

The prizes are:

1st Prize: A Custom Made "Play-With-Me-Doll" ~ Choice of any Saint or Storybook Doll (this may take up to 1-2 weeks to make and ship.) You can nominate the saint you would like Anna to make.

2nd Prize: Choose two Priestly Pencils from her liturgical set of colours. The pencils are of very good quality.

3rd Prize: 100% wool felt rosary pouch

To Enter...

All you have to do is leave a comment below and tell us what item you would most likely buy from our shop or what you would like to see us offer.

For additional entries you may also…

Favourite Stitchin’ Traditions Esty shop ~ 1 entry
Purchase an item from Stitchin’ Traditions ~ 10 entries
Share this giveaway on Facebook and/or your blog ~ 1 entry each
Post the Stitchin’ Traditions button on your blog sidebar ~ 2 entries

(To share the Stitchin' Traditions butoon on your blog, just cut and paste the header image at the top and link to Anna's etsy shop which is in the first paragraph.)

Please make sure to leave a separate comment for each additional entry.

Giveaway is open internationally.

The giveaway will end on Our Lady's Birthday, the 8th of September 2012 and the winners will be drawn at random.

Thank you!

Stitchin’ Traditions ~ Annamaria, Emma and Co.

Feast of St Anne

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 09:05:00 +0000

Juan de Roelas, Saint Anne Teaching the Virgin to Read (c. 1610)

Happy Feast Day to all lovers of St Anne! I hope your day is filled with many graces and blessings. I was very blessed to have received some lovely St Anne prayer cards touched to her relic from a dear Australian friend, who shares my name.

I made a yummy apple tart for the feast, which is a very tradition cuisine for St Anne, to try this lovely, gluten free recipe adapted originally by Tamara Duker Freuman, pop over to Catholic Cuisine, where I have shared it.

Last Supper and the Mass presented for children

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 08:35:00 +0000

The Mass setting for the felt dolls with altar.

Some may remember my posting last year, where I showed how I made a felt doll set of apostles, Our Lady and the Holy Spirit for children to interact with in a catechesis setting. If you did not see it, here is the link to my tutorial. You can see below a photo of what I made.

To see closer detail, click on images to enlarge.

Felt apostle dolls with Holy Spirit and tongues of fire

So what this posting is about is the 'home' and 'setting' made for these dolls. The dolls were to be presented in a Last Supper or Pentecost setting (both being in the Upper Room) and then also a Mass setting (I'm yet to make the priest doll).

The Last Supper setting with Last Supper Table.

The first photo above is the completed Mass setting, that features the back wall of a church, with stained glass windows, statues and in the centre is the altar.

The photo just above is of the Last Supper setting, with three open windows looking out onto the Garden of Olives and the Jerusalem wall and Temple. In the centre is the Last Supper Table. The Apostles and Our Lord can be placed around the table for a re-enactment of the Last Supper. It also can be used for the Pentecost scene, which took place in the Upper Room as well.

This was not hard to make, it was not expensive. I used 3 MDF boards (very cheap) and 2 metres or so of wood and a little bit of square doweling, some nails, a saw. Other essentials include pencil, rubber, ruler, tracing paper and school acrylic paints.

The picture you see above is the back wall, on one side I painted the Church scene, then I flipped it over and painted the Last Supper scene. The back wall panel buts in between two strips of square doweling wood, that were nailed side by side length-wise at the back of the floor area, the spacing between the two pieces of doweling is the exact thickness of the MDF board, so it fits in firmly and does not move. When you are packing the display up, you can take the back wall out all together. Have a look at the photo below, you will see the square doweling at the base of the wall, I have painted it with 'stone brickwork' to disguise it's functional purpose.

The photo above is also a good shot to see how I made the altar/Last Supper Table, as they are one and same thing. On one side I have painted a 'IHS' motif that you would often find on a Church altar. On the other side, it is plain, so that it just looks like a wooden table. The altar was made from left over MDF board, it features as the top of the table and the base. In between the two pieces of MDF board is three pieces of wood, two are the same size, the third is slightly smaller, no really reason for that, just it gives a nicer appearance. The three pieces of wood were placed together (smaller piece in the middle) and then I nailed the MDF board on top of the 3 pieces and then flipped up side down, and nailed the MDF board base. I painted it mission brown and then painted the IHS motif on the Church altar side. The photo below features the altar side, front on.

The next seven photos, feature the painting of the Church side, back wall. What I did, was do an internet search on stained glass windows and Church statues. I found a lovely Holy Spirit window image, saved it to my computer. Then I found a lovely image of a set of 3 stained glass windows which featured the Crucifixion. Then I found an image of a St Therese statue and St Francis Xavier, two Australian patrons, which often see in many Churches throughout Australia.

Here is a nice close up of the Holy Spirit/Trinity stained glass window, this one I drew free hand and painted it with simple, school acrylic paints.

Here is a close of the St Francis Xavier statue, with the statues, I printed up the images to the size I wanted to draw and paint them, but I mirror flipped them before printing. The reason for mirror flipping was because I wanted to trace the statues and put onto the board that way, less chance of mistakes. Then I painted them both to look like they were stone statues.

Here is the close up of St Therese of Lisieux.

You can see how I've drawn and painted the stone brickwork around everything, I used three different shades of grey.

When it came to the three stained glass windows set, I free hand drew the windows, the only thing I traced was the Crucifixion scene. I changed a few little things here and there, in fact, I printed up two different stained glass windows, using the motifs out of the one and using the colour scheme and glass patterning, from the other.

A photo of the all the stained glass windows.

All finished, and ready to start on the reverse side ~ the Last Supper scene is next.

Here is the three windows looking out onto the Garden of Olives, the Jerusalem wall and Solomon's Temple rising above the walls. I just did an image search of the Mount of Olives and came up with a photo that looked like what you see here. Of course, the modern photo featured the muslim Dome of the Rock where you see Solomon's Temple in this picture! So I did a search on what Solomon's Temple was supposed to have looked like and drew the top of it, where would normally be today, the Dome of the Rock. You can see pencil pines and the olive trees in the forefront, laden with olives.

In this photo you can get an idea of how I built the base. It featured two big pieces of MDF board. So I took the MDF board base, and nailed timber around the two sides and the front, I set them back from the edge by about a couple of cms (inch or so). Then I nailed the top MDF board on top, which was to be painted as the stone floor. The back side did not have a strip of timber nailed along it, as I wanted to use it as an opening to place the felt dolls for storage. I used some left over MDF board to make a sliding door. In this photo you can also see the second strip of square doweling, that holds the back wall firmly in place on the base.

So, here they are finished and ready for use! It is solid and very eye catching for children, hopefully for many years of use ahead in a catechesis/atrium setting.

A new litany of St Anne

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 23:11:00 +0000

The novena to St Anne is about to begin, in order to finish in time for her feast day on the 26th of July.

In my left hand sidebar you will see many links to my previous posting about this wonderful saint. I've linked three different novena prayers if anyone is looking for some suitable ones.

I wanted to share today, a beautiful litany to St Anne I had never seen before. It comes from a really beautiful prayer book for mothers called, "Mother Love". My copy was gifted to me by a very dear friend who has been such an example to me over the years. It is one of the very best prayer books for mothers, which I highly recommend. It is published by the Capuchin Franciscans. Here is a place that it can be purchased.

Artist Name: Jacques Stella
Painting Title: St. Anne Leading the Virgin to the Temple, c.1635-45
Museum: Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, Normandy, France

Litany of St Anne

(For private recitation only)

Lord, have mercy on us

Christ, have mercy on us

Lord, have mercy on us

Christ here us, Christ graciously hear us

God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us

God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us

God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us

Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us

Holy Mary, spotless child of St Joachim and St Anne, Pray for us and for our children

St Joachim, father of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pray for us and for our children

St Joachim, promised descendant of Abraham and David, Pray for us and for our children

St Joachim, venerable patriarch, Pray for us and for our children

St Joachim, holy spouse of St. Anne, Pray for us and for our children

St Joachim and St Anne, shining models of Christian spouses, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, royal lady, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, glory of the House of David, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, faithful and loving wife, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, venerable model of meekness and humility, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, brilliant example of holy obedience, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, sparkling mirror of patience and resignation, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, perfect type of devotion and piety, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, fruitful vine, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, giving wise instruction and careful training to your child, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, worthy mother of the Mother of God, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, tender mother of all virgins, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, mother lending aid to all Christian mothers, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, consoling mother of all widows, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, kind mother of us all, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, refuge of the suffering, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, guiding star of widows, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, harbour of safety in the storms of this life, Pray for us and for our children

St Anne, bulwark of the Church, We implore you, St Anne

Through your virtues and merits, We implore you, St Anne

Through your goodness and compassion, We implore you, St Anne

Through all your gifts and prerogatives, We implore you, St Anne

Through your high vocation, We implore you, St Anne

Through your miraculous maternity, We implore you, St Anne

Through Mary, your child full of grace, We implore you, St Anne

Through the joys prepared for you on earth by Jesus and Mary, We implore you, St Anne

Through the honour they now render you in heaven, We implore you, St Anne

Through your exceedingly great rapture and bliss, We implore you, St Anne

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, O Lord

Christ hear us,

Christ graciously hear us

Let us Pray,

St Anne, my dear mother and most compassionate protectress, receive graciously my poor efforts to do your honour. May I ever be devoted to you with a heart full of childlike humility and submission! May your example encourage me, your intercession strengthen me, your goodness console me! Permit me with all my heart to commend to you my children. As you consecrated Mary, your child of grace, entirely to God, I beg you to obtain for me the grace to train my children for Him, and with them to labour perseveringly for heaven. As you lived in holy harmony and peace with St Joachim, so may love, union, devotion, and zeal for virtue reign in my household, that we may belong to the host of blessed spouses who with you will love, praise, and glorify the Most High forever and ever. Amen.

July: Month of the Precious Blood

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 07:36:00 +0000

Bernini's Crocifissione

It has been a long time since I posted last, I've had a long blogger's break but I hope to post a little bit more regularly in the future.

Here we are in the month of July which is dedicated to the Precious Blood of Jesus. I wanted to remind others that I have completed my Precious Blood Page that lists with photos, info and links, to all my Precious Blood postings a few years back, when I wanted to share a few beautiful and rare prayers dedicated to the Precious Blood and Our Lady. So please click over to have a browse.

The prayers had come from a Precious Blood Manual called, "The Precious Blood and Mother" and is one of the best prayer books I have ever seen. (see photo and link below)

To purchase this gem of a prayer manual, click here.

There is a lovely page with a comprehensive list of prayers, devotions and stories of devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus over at Catholic Tradition, it is definitely worth a visit.

I just finished making this chaplet to the Precious Blood for my sister-in-law yesterday, the medal features the Divine Mercy image with the blood and water and the rosary centre features the Heart of Jesus with one drop of His Precious Blood, on the back read the words from Pope Pius IX:

"Place upon thy heart, one drop of the Precious Blood of JESUS and fear nothing."

My Classical Chainwork Creations

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:45:00 +0000

A tenner I made inspired by the ancient and miraculous fresco of Mother of Good Counsel. The beads were chosen to match the image in colour and texture. Click on any of my photos to enlarge.

If you don't have a lot of time to read my whole posting but would like to look at my latest beading creations I have for sale or just to visit and look, click over to my site All Beautiful Catholic Beads.

I have been back beading again with great gusto and loving it. I have spent the last 6 months learning new skills as well with my beading. I have always loved browsing Annie Meinssen's rosary site, in the same way you window shop at a shopping centre.. the delight at looking at really beautiful things. I've slowly learnt how to chain in the same style, with Annie's encouragement when I've need it ~ a classical style that has taken time to learn, time to perfect and improve. I'm still creating religious pieces in wire, but now I have two styles to offer.

I have also been inspired by another dear friend as well. My friend Anna, through asking me to custom make a certain style of tenner for herself and her family, has given me a design of tenner that I am now creating for others and I use myself.

I would like to mention here too, that this dear friend makes it a habit of inspiring me by her talent and ideas. If you remember my felting creations a few months back, it was Anna who had originally given me the idea when she sent me a beautiful Mother Teresa three doll set (Mother Teresa, the Bishop, a poor woman).

My religious felt dolls, the idea for them came from my dear friend, Anna, who now has her own etsy store, selling her beautiful felt creations.

Pop on over and visit Anna's Stitchin' Traditions etsy store, for many beautiful gift ideas in 100% wool felt for Christmas.

The new designed tenner has an extra 3 Ave beads (as all rosary beads have at the beginning) and a rosary centre. The rosary centre becomes my "Pater bead" the way a rosary centre on a normal pair of rosary beads becomes a Pater bead, for the first Our Father of the first decade given out.

When using this design of tenner for the Divine Mercy Chaplet, I offer the first three prayers (Our Father, Hail Mary, I Believe) on the first 3 Ave beads. The rosary centre is where I offer the "Eternal Father" prayer for each decade. When the chaplet is nearly finished and I'm ready to offer the last prayer that is repeated three times, "Holy God, Holy Might One, Holy Immortal One..." I slip my hand back to the first 3 Ave beads to recite them. This design works so beautifully, for the recitation of these two prayers!

I often put a lot of thought into the beads, rosary parts chosen. I like to give a tenner a theme that is very tangible and recognisable. I have below some photos of some of my themed tenners.

Mother of Good Counsel Tenner

This tenner matches the colours of the image of Our Lady you can see at the very top of this posting. The Pater, a Petrosky Stone, matches Our Lady's hair and tunic trim. The first 3 Aves are Blue Chatoyant "Hawke Eye" gemstones, to match Our Lady's tunic. The 10 Aves match the Child Jesus' tunic, Red Jasper gemstones...not only do the colours match, but the markings on the Jasper looked exactly like the crackling of the egg-shell thin fresco, especially in the bottom, right hand corner. The crucifix was chosen with cherubs, as cherubim transported this miraculous image from Albania to Genezzano, Italy and they hold the picture in mid air, a few inches from the church wall in which the angels placed it. The rosary centre is an Ave Maria Crown and the medal is a Mother of Good Counsel medal.

Via Dolorosa Tenner

This tenner's theme was the 'Via Dolorosa' Mary's sorrowful journey to Calvary. I chose an Irish Penal Cross due to the instruments of the Passion are incorporated onto the front and back of the crucifix. The Pater represents the sky on Good Friday...maybe it was a fine day but we know that the sky changed, clouds billow and build. The first 3 Aves represent the Blood Red Moon Eclipse that took place at the Crucifixion, the first Ave shows a normal moon, the second Ave, the eclipse starts to take place, half pale, half blood, then the third Ave is blood red. These three Aves are all Mookaite gemstones. The rosary centre features the thorn crowned Jesus on one side, Our Lady's sorrowful profile on the other. The African Opal gemstones are really beautiful, duck egg blue streaked with blood red, representing Mary's sorrowful journey to calvary. The final medal is the Crucifixion scene with Our Lady and St John at the foot of the cross. The Via Dolorosa.

The tenner below is another themed tenner and the first of my new design of tenner. This tenner has a very touching theme of a personal nature for the lady who owns it, every part, every bead.

I particularly love this tenner.

Here is another themed tenner below, the theme was St Basil the Great (Doctor of the Church). The crucifix represented St Basil's magnificent defence of the Trinity in a time of Church history where heresies needed correction. The rosary centre is of St Benedict, because of St Basil's influence on St Benedict's monasticism. The Holy Spirit medal represented St Basil's principle theological writings which were on the Holy Spirit. The Pater bead and the 10 Aves are Petrosky Stones and represent a particular rock face, which was the final resting place of the Sword of Roland, Durendal. Durendal contained a few holy relics, one of the relics was the Blood of St Basil. The first 3 Ave beads have a threefold theme, St Basil was by nature, hot-blooded and fiery in nature. He came from the line of martyrs. The holy relic of his blood in Durendal.
This tenner was a confirmation gift for a young boy. His confirmation names are St Columbus and St Jerome. The skull Pater bead represents on of St Jerome's well known symbols. The Holy Spirit represented by the dove was appropriate for St Columba, his name means "dove". The 3 Aves were a beautiful Labradorite, that threw of vivid flashes of blue, very Marian, leading to the rosary centre of Our Lady Undoer of Knots, a title dear to this boy. The 10 Aves were Blue Chatoyant "Hawke Eye" gemstones, which had personal significance to this young fellow.

If you have a gift idea in mind for someone or you would like a religious piece for yourself you would like custom made, with a theme (or not) please feel free to email me.

I have also made some rosary bracelets that feature a crucifix, rosary centre and medal. It is similar to my tenner design except there are 3 Aves before the rosary centre, 7 Aves after the rosary centre. The placement of the first 3 Ave beads allow someone to use the beads in the same way I explained above with my tenner. When the rosary is given out on this bracelet, the Pater bead is used to offer the Our Father, then the 10 Aves are offered, when the third Hail Mary has been said, the hand slips over the rosary centre and continues onto the 4th Hail Mary. This may seem unusual, but I have been using this with great success and is not in anyway confusing.

By adding the rosary centre in between the 10 Aves, you have a lovely focal point when wearing the bracelet throughout the day.
This tenner is for a young woman who has St Philomena and St Bernadette in her name, the medal is in honour of St Philomena, the rosary centre has the Lourdes scene with St Bernadette kneeling. The pieces chosen for these sort of rosary bracelets need to be small, the crucifix definitely no bigger than 1 1/2", 1" is preferable. The medal should be no bigger than 1". The rosary centre between 1/2" to 1". Since sterling silver is so very expensive compared to solid bronze, this is a lovely way to have a one decade rosary in sterling silver, one that you can wear always.

Here is another sterling silver one decade rosary bracelet, with a beautiful Our Lady of the Pillar medal, an Ave Maria Crown rosary centre (so small and fine, with a tiny little crown!) and a beautiful French crucifix. The Pater and Ave beads are Aquamarine gemstones. This one is for sale over in my jewellery gallery.

Below is a small sampling of some of my latest work, some of it is for sale which I will point out. To see all my galleries and all my creations, pop over to All Beautiful Catholic Beads.

Spotless Honour in Victory Tenner in sterling silver, now for sale.

Totus Tuus Tenner in solid bronze, now for sale.

Corpus Christi Tenner in bronze, now for sale.

Adoro te Devote Tenner in bronze, now for sale.

This rosary is in honour of St Therese with a "Shower of Roses" theme, it is in chain. The Paters are Mookaite with solid bronze leaf bead caps, the Aves are Mookaite gemstones, all representing a garden of roses. This one is not on my beading site for sale as yet, but it has been made to sell, so if you are interested, email me privately.

I love this rosary. It is like looking at the sea! Mary's name means "a sea" and it is very, very Marian! The Paters and Aves are Aquamarine gemstones. This also has been made to sell, but it is not on my site as yet, email me privately if you are interested in it.

This rosary was my oldest son's rosary which was originally on wire, re-made with chain..I added a beautiful Mother of Good Counsel medal. The Paters are carved bone, the Aves are Fossilized Crazy Lace Agate gemstones.

This is another rosary that was originally made on wire but has been re-made in chain. It belongs to one of my daughters. I re-made it for her as her confirmation gift in late October. The only changes were the Pater beads, the 8mm Swarovski Crystals were removed and replaced with Aquamarine gemstones.

I've always made religious jewellery, mainly necklaces. I have created five new pieces to sell, two are in chain, three on wire. Below, is one of the chain necklaces, 'Lily of the Valley' with a rosary centre, featuring Our Lady's profile surrounded by lilies. There are two beautiful lily link medals attached half way up each side of the necklace, as you can see in the photo below.

I have a few pairs of rosary beads in my rosary gallery, the one I'm featuring here below is called, "Faithful Companions of Jesus" ~ the crucifix is breathtaking! It features the Crucifixion scene with the two Mary's standing at the foot of the cross. It is a lovely big rosary with 8mm Ave beads in Aquamarine, the Paters are Rainforest Jasper, each sitting in a natural brass 'acorn' bead cap. Very feminine.

This rosary is also in my latest rosary gallery, it is called, "Mother of Good Counsel" as it features are stunning rosary centre of Mother of Good Counsel, it is also features 8mm sized Ave beads and is suitable for a man or woman.

I've finally designed my own rosary bags, which I'm very happy with. They are made from 100% cotton, very well constructed to last as long as your rosary (so that's a long time!). I have hand carved a stamp with my own logo, a beautiful Ave Maria Crown featuring flowers and vine. It is colour-fast and fully washable.

I really enjoyed making my Ave Maria stamp, it is a craft posting in itself, and I will save that for another day!

Christmas Novena on the Feast of St Andrew

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:35:00 +0000

If you do NOTHING else this advent with your children but recite this prayer, you will be doing something wonderful, here is why.

The prayer is recited 15 times per day. Sounds repetitious. It's not, it is a constant turning of the mind and heart to the midnight hour of Christmas. I don't think you will find a better more perfect way to prepare yourself and your children for Christmas. Pray for those you love, pray for those you know need a miracle of grace, pray for yourself and your needs in the intentions, and lay those intentions at the feet of the Child Jesus like the shepherds and Magi, on Christmas morning.

This year I have quickly made myself a novena bracelet to wear until Christmas. I've particular chosen beads with varied patterns in the stone so I can wear the bracelet, offer the prayer and note which bead I am up to by it's markings. That's the theory. ;) I feel confident though, I won't even take the bracelet off to do that, just touch the bead I am up to as I offer my next prayer. Simple and easy.

The postcard image above has the Christmas Novena prayer on it, if you download and print up, you can post a few copies around the house for a reminder.

Wishing everyone a blessed and holy Advent.

My Scapular Craft ~ Two Hearts

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:37:00 +0000

If you saw my original posting My Scapular Craft, where I made my first scapular, (that you can see to the side) you would have also seen a photo at the end of another scapular that I had only just started, but not completed. This posting is showing you that newly designed scapular.

It is really important, if you wish to make this scapular, you MUST click the link above to learn how I constructed the whole scapular, this post is just showing you how I made my new design of the Two Hearts.

This one is simpler in design, no ornately embroidered vine/flower patterns around the edges, just the Sacred Heart on one side, the Immaculate Heart on the other. Between the mushroom background and the brown scapular is sewn all my special sacramentals ~ miraculous medal, St Benedict medal, Agnus Dei wax and a St Therese blessed rose.

All of the embroidery has been created with with one stitch style alone ~ a bullion stitch. I taught myself how to do it by finding a little online video, it's really quite simple, don't be put off by the complicated look it creates. I should say, that there is one other stitch used, a blanket stitch to attach the wool felt hearts and the little felt cross on the Sacred Heart, to the wool felt background, then it is used again to attach the mushroom felt background to the scapular itself.

Below is a copy of my great grandfather's Sacred Heart and the matching Immaculate Heart I designed a few years back, these images are my template for the hearts being cut out of felt, I print one of them to the right size for the scapular (so quite small) and then trace a template.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

Blessed St Therese Petals Craft

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:35:00 +0000

I wanted to share our latest craft, that has enabled us to really look after the blessed St Therese roses we received on the feast of St Therese on the 1st of October and made it really easy and attractive for distribution.

Our choir was invited again for the second year to sing for the Carmelite sisters in NSW Australia. Here is the beautiful monastery that overlooks beautiful rolling hillside, even though it is in the centre of town. (A lovely town on a high ridge.)

My children had a simply wonderful day at Carmel.

Particularly my youngest.

My youngest boys were honoured to serve for the feast.

Here we are chanting the feast day Mass for St Therese.

What could be better? A spray of blessed St Therese roses in one hand, a little bag of goodies in another...

The tradition for the feast is the blessing of roses in St Therese's honour. Our children all went up after the blessing to receive a rose. They were all beautifully scented, home grown by the sisters are Carmel. We came home with a handful, the fragrance filled the car.

Once we got home, we carefully dried out the petals and stored them in a clip lock container, so that we could distribute the blessed roses to family and friends. I was thinking what would be the best way to give out this rose petals? I thought about laminating them, but I didn't like the idea of not being able to touch petal itself. So I came up with this craft I have photographed below, step by step.

I went to the craft store and bought a maroon sheet (looks a bit brown in this photo, but it is a beautiful wine colour) of mounting board. Mounting board is thicker than normal cardboard, it is the same thickness of sheet that would be used by framers to create boarders within a framed picture.
I looked at all the scrapbooking paper with beautiful colours and designs and wondered, just wondered if I would find what I was looking for...and I sure did!!! A BEAUTIFUL sheet of smoky pink paper with beautiful, fine markings of roses, flowers and leaves. Perfect!

I looked at all the cutters and found a lovely cutter in the shape of a flower..just what I needed.

So I cut the scrapbooking paper into rectangular pieces, 4cm by 3.3cm. I also cut the wine coloured mounting board into pieces exactly the same size, so they matched in size and shape. Then I took the cutter and stamped a flower out of the middle of the scrapbooking paper.

I flipped the scrapbooking paper over on it's back and took a little piece of a blessed rose petal and placed it over the cut out flower and used masking tape (paper based) to hold it down and secure it.
Then I glued the scrapbooking piece to the wine coloured mounting board, back to back. As you can see in the photo above, the middle piece is the front, where you can see the blessed petal. On the back (which you can see on either side, in the photo) I wrote with a lovely calligraphy pen, "Blessed Rose of St Therese 1 Oct 2011" All finished, nicely protected, yet the petal can be touched.

Here I have made 50 to send back to the Carmelite Monastery for distribution throughout the year. I have also made quite a few for myself, so that I can distribute to family and friends.

It is such a beautiful sight, all the petal colours and the really beautiful paper.

The girls and I had so much fun, choosing out the different petals to mount, trying to vary the colours...there were so many colours!

My youngest daughter had brought home from Carmel a beautiful blessed spray of miniature roses which we also dried out. You can see it below, on a little Our Lady of Guadalupe altar I have in my bedroom.
I love it, the spray sits perfectly on the little altar.

My Scapular Craft

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:30:00 +0000

A few years back I did some work on our scapulars, as I was tired of scapulars breaking, wearing out and having medals fall off, no matter how firmly I sewed them on. I had found some very strong, flat braid to replace the cords, which I sewed on, all the way around the scapulars themselves. I also slit open the backs of the scapulars and placed a blessed miraculous medal and St Benedicts medal inside, sewing the opening firmly together again. This has worked very well with us all, they do not break down and will last a lifetime through. I blogged about this endeavour, here.

I have in recent months been crafting with felt and found it a very easy and beautiful medium to work with. I have crafted religious dolls with felt. Also revamped our yearly Precious Blood craft with felt. I have many other projects in the pipeline, so as to speak, which I look forward to.

One of the projects that has been on my heart since working with felt, is making scapulars from completely from scratch. Making unique creations for each member of the family, for friends and relatives as gifts from the heart. Each scapular's design can be different, chosing religious symbols that are special to the individual person. As long as the scapular is made from 100% brown pure wool felt, there is no set image or design that must be used.

So I bought some 2mm commercially dyed 100% wool felt and cut it up into rectangles, 4.5cm x 5.5 cm (1.5inches x just over 2inches ). I also bought some beautiful hand dyed 100% wool felt to use like a 'blank canvas piece', slightly smaller than the brown wool felt, onto which I could embroider my designs. The colour of this felt could be any colour, my very first creation was being made for my eldest daughter's best friend, so I chose pink. I am presently making one for my mother for her birthday, it is on a neutral 'mushroom' coloured felt. Very light blue would be another popular colour to use. It also allowed me to create a 'pocket' between the two felts, where I could once again, sew in other sacramentals, securely.

Here is a photo of a piece of the hand dyed wool felt. It is a 'salmon' colour. Hand dyed felt has irregularities in colour often, which adds to the beauty and versatility of the piece. I wanted to use the commercially dyed brown for the back of the scapular, as I wanted uniformity of colour. For everything else, I was happy for colours with some irregularity. The piece you see above is what I bought to make my Sacred and Immaculate Hearts...when you see the images of the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart below I have used for my designs, you will see how the irregular colour suits the hearts perfectly.

I would prefer to use DMC cotton threads (6 stranded) but I cannot afford to buy alot, so I searched on ebay and found another brand of cotton thread that used the same code numbers and colours as DMC. I bought over 400 different colours for $60+ dollars, free shipping. The quality is not quite the same, but it is more than adequate, which is all that matters. I have the freedom now to make very good colour choices and matches in my designs.

I have been doing extensive image searches on the net for many different designs and patterns for my scapulars, I've been saving the images into a folder for future use. The sort of images I have been looking for is: miraculous medals, IHS, crosses, Lamb of God images, Eucharistic images ~ from this I hope to create many templates, so I can offer those I'm making the scapulars for, a choice of designs.

For my first scapular I chose a lovely feminine miraculous medal picture and a matching Sacred and Immaculate Heart that I had drawn many years ago.

Here is the holy card image that was the inspiration for the scapular. I shrunk the image down to scapular size, printed it up and traced around the medals to create my felt template, I always make these out of tracing paper. Except for the medals, everything else is embroidery work.

I have also embroidered the mirculous medal images onto the felt medals. For the side of the medal that has the 12 stars around the edge, I embroidered french knots. For the side that has Our Lady's image, I stitched a very simple pattern, considering how small the medals are, see my template below that I used. Where Our Lady's hands would be, I made little French Knots.

So here is a photo of the felt cut out, the image I shrunk down for tracing the miraculous medals template from and the very beginnings of my embroidery. For some people, the design I have there already is fancy enough and they won't want to go beyond that. The embroidery you can see uses three main stitches ~ buillion stitch (for the roses) I learnt how to do it, the day I embroidered it, it was that simple, I used this online tutorial to guide me. I used a daisy chain stitch for the blue forget-me-nots and green leaves. I used French knots for inside the forget-me-nots. Also a normal straight stitch for a little greenry between the flowers and leaves.

At this point decided to stitch the pink felt to the brown felt. I matched a cotton to the felt and used a blanket stitch, very fine and firm. I left the top unstitched, so that I could slip in an image of Mother of Good Counsel, on the back of the image I had typed up the St Anthony's Brief, in Latin and in English:

"Ecce Crucem Domini Fugite, partes adversae, Vicit Leo de Tribu Juda Radix David, alleluia. Behold the Cross of the Lord! Flee ye adversaries! The Lion of the Tribe of Juda, The Root of David has conquered, alleluia!"

This prayer is a powerful exorcism sacramental given to us by St Anthony himself, to read the story, click here.

I printed up a sheet with these images and prayers, cutting them out individually, placing them back-to-back and laminating them. If anyone would like a copy of this document sheet with the images and prayers, please email me. Once I had placed this sacramental into the space between the felts, I then blanket stitched shut the top. It will never come out. To re-enforce this further, I am soon to embroider all around the edges as well.

Here is a closer image of the scapular, you can click open any of the photos to get a better look.

Here is this side of the scapular now completed. I had 4 different coloured roses, pink, purple, yellow and orange ~ each rose has three shades of the colour. The darker colour in the centre, the next shade, in the middle and the lighter shade on the outside. Roses and forget-me-nots are classic Marian flowers, so very suitable for this miraculous medal design. I think next time I do this miraculous medal design, I will buy some gold thread to outline the miraculous medal and to embroider inside the medals.

Below is the images that inspired the other side of the scapular.

This is an image I drew, using pastels many years back, which was a replica of a very unique image of the Sacred Heart which was owned by my great grandfather. This was going to be my design for the embroidered Sacred Heart, I would also use the ivy pattern around edges as well.

I designed a matching Immaculate Heart to go with my great grandfather's Sacred Heart. I would embroider this Immaculate Heart and use the forget-me-nots around the edge.

Once again, I shrunk the images of the hearts down to the size of the scapular in order to trace the designs perfectly, to create a lasting template on tracing paper. Here is the two hearts cut and sewn with a fine blanket stitch.

I sewed the pink felt to the brown felt with a fine blanket stitch, leaving at this stage the top end of the pink felt open, so I could place a miraculous medal and St Benedict medal inside.

In case the scapular needs to be washed in the future, I've placed the medals inside a very small, plastic click-lock bag. Next time I will place one of the medals on one side of the scapular, and the other with the St Anthony's Brief, rather than having the two medals together. The medals have been blessed, with the St Benedict's medal receiving the special blessing it needs.

Here is a close up photo of the hearts finished. I have used the bullion stitch quite a bit. I've used this stitch for:

The crown of thorns on the Sacred Heart.

The wreath of roses around the Immaculate Heart.

The lower end of the sword that goes through the Immaculate Heart.

The wounds in the sides of both hearts and the drops of blood.

The flames on both hearts.

The vines.

I've used felt for the hearts, cross and 2 large vine leaves.

I've used 5 different colours in the flames.

Now that the two scapular ends were completed, I needed only to attach the scapular cord.

I am very blessed to have a big discount fabric and craft store in my area, here is a photo of one SMALL area of the braid area!!! Here I found the perfect cord for the scapulars, it is flat, thick and strong in chocolate brown.

Here is the braid attached and finished from the front.

Here it is at the back. When I took this photo I hadn't completed all the sewing of it, I had only sewn around the outside, but not the inside. With this task I bought special quilting thread in dark brown, it is very strong and durable thread that is needed for making this scapular last for a lifetime. I use a very fine, close set blanket stitch and I run the cord all the way around the edge of the scapular.

This is the first scapular of many to come. I hope to start working on new designs and will share them here as I go along. Below is a photo of the beginnings of my mother's scapular, which is coming along nicely.

If anyone has any questions about this craft, please feel free to email me.

Precious Blood Craft in Felt

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:33:00 +0000

Each year we have found this month long Precious Blood craft very meaningful in our home, this year I've converted it to felt. I had been working on the Eucharistic Host in felt to begin the making of a Mass set for my two younger boys and so I was able to incorporate the Host into the Precious Blood craft. I think for next year, I will set up the chalice and host for the feast of Corpus Christi and then add the rest of the craft, once July begins.

The stream of the Precious Blood from the Sacred Heart statue, measures roughly 50cms in length..narrow down one end, the other end fitting to the size of the chalice. Inside is cardboard for strength, with felt stitched on both sides.

A close up of the the chalice and host, with the drops of Precious Blood surrounding. The host has also a cardboard centre.

One side of the Eucharistic Host has the IHS symbol, the other has the cross and the alpha & omega symbol. Both sides have a daisy chain border in an off white thread. The Precious Blood drops are also have a cardboard centre.

Next to the craft is the reparation prayer ~ it is offered each day by the whole family and then one child, places one of the Precious Blood drops into the Chalice ~ there are 31 drops, one for each day of July, with all drops within the Chalice on the 31st of July. It is a lovely visual way for children to understand that by offering this prayer, we are honouring His Precious Blood.

Here is the prayer that has come from the Precious Blood Manual of the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood in New York:

An
Offering
Of the Precious
Blood for Souls

O my God, I beg of Thee in
union with the Immaculate Heart
of Mary, through the merits of the
Precious Blood offered Thee in every
Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,
to grant that this day one mortal sin may be
averted, one soul in doubt may be converted to
the truth, one soul about to die in sin may receive
the grace of repentance and a happy death, and
the deliverance of that soul in purgatory which is
nearest Heaven. I wish by this offering to console
the Heart Of Jesus in agony for the souls lost
through the Teaching of error against the
true Church of Christ Jesus,
Our Lord. Amen

For anyone who would like to read more about the Precious Blood and it's devotions and prayers, follow this link to my blog page that now contains all my previous postings, that have come from the Precious Blood & Mother Manual.

Religious Felt Dolls for the Atrium

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 23:16:00 +0000

At Easter time I was blessed with some beautiful gifts from a dear friend. My friend had used her incredible talents to make some lovely felt saint dolls for my little ones, amongst some other religious handiwork. They were all beautifully made. The ideas behind every design, so creative! So, I thought I'd love to make some dolls for my children as well.

We also attend the Atrium of another dear friend, who presents to the children the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. I have arranged to barter lessons for creating these religous doll figures for her atrium.

We decided to start with a Pentecost set, for the upcoming feast and I have finally completed that set. Our Lady, the Twelve Apostles, the Holy Spirit, tongues of fire. From there I will make Our Lord, Catholic clergy and religious (Pope, Bishop, Priest, Nun, Monk etc.) other biblical characters from Old and New Testament...and on it goes!

St Peter ~ with his keys of the kingdom. He is the only apostle I gave grey hair.

St John ~ with a cup (a symbol of an attempted martyrdom) and the eagle.

St James the Greater ~ with his pilgrim shell and staff, very well known symbols connected to him.

I didn't want to focus on the common, more gruesome symbols connected to some of the apostles, thinking that really little children 3 years old or so might be thinking why is that apostle got a knife in his hands? ...even after an explanation. I wanted the symbols to be more gentle in appearance, especially for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

St Batholomew ~ he usually holds a knife..so I made up a symbol for him ~ a fig tree. The fig tree was chosen because Our Lord said to Bartholomew, the day they met, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under a fig tree." It is a lovely passage in scripture in reference to Bartholomew as Jesus also states he is a man "without deceit." What beautiful words for Bartholomew!

St Thomas ~ His symbol is the builder's square, from an ancient story that built a palace for King Guduphara in India. India is one place he evangelized.

St Philip ~ One of St Philip's symbols is the loaves and fishes from the biblical story of the feeding of the 5000. It was Jesus that said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ Jesus had said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little."

St Jude ~ I've used very traditional colours and symbol for Jude. The 'coin' with Christ's head is believed to be connected to the legend of Edessa and the Shoud image. St Jude had evangelized in Edessa.

St James the Lesser ~ It was very hard to find a symbol suitable for James. One of his more obscure symbols is a windmill, as one of the instruments used in his martyrdom was a piece from a windmill. So the windmill is a secondary connection to his martyrdom.

St Simon the Zealot ~ A traditional symbol for Simeon is a fish on top of a bible, referring to him possibly being a fisherman but definately a 'fisher of men' through the preaching of the gospel.

St Matthew ~ I used the traditonal and well known symbols for Matthew, an angel and the Bible, both reference to his inspired writing of the gospel.

St Mathias ~ Mathias was the apostle who replaced Judas the betrayer. Scripture tells us that they cast lots to decide between two honourable disciples for the replacement of Judas. So I chose to use a symbol of 'drawing the long straw' for Mathias.

St Andrew ~ I decided to use Andrew's martyrdom symbol, a X-shaped cross as it also a symbol that is part of the Chi Rho symbol representing Christ. He is also holding two fishes, as he was originally a fisherman and became a fisher of men.

Here is the felt doll of Our Lady, in this picture she has the flame of Pentecost. She is in traditional blue colours.

In the close up you can see Our Lady's traditonal symbols. Her Immaculate Heart, with a wreath of roses around her heart, a sword piercing it through. A spray of lillies represent her spotless and immaculate purity.

When I made the Immaculate Heart, I sewed everything onto the yellow halo first, all completed and THEN sew it onto the body of the doll. Doing it this way allows you to work more effectively with very delicate, intricate needlework.

Our Lady, looking very serene and peaceful. I embroidered her eyes, slightly downcast to capture her humility. For the apostles I used a deep skin coloured cotton for both the nose and mouth. With Our Lady I did the same but I then embroidered over the top of the mouth with a dusky pink cotton to give a bit more depth and feminine colour.

I created stencils for everything. I sketch my designs onto tracing paper and cut out. I then pin the felt to the stencil and cut out. Really simple. In the photo above you can see some of my head/hair stencils. I have a variety of 'hairdo's'. I also have a stencil for the head, once I've cut out the skin coloured felt I cut cardboard with the same stencil and sew the cardboard to one side the head, to give strength, otherwise the neck will get stretched from a lot of handling by children. Once I've finished the head, I then get the back and front section to the hair and sew on to the head.

I only use two stitches ~ blanket stitch for joining everything together. This stitch is a good, strong stitch to hold things tight and it also protects fraying of felt edges. The other stitch I use is for decorating inside an area, and that is the daisy chain stitch.

Here is the basic stencil pattern for the doll's body.

Here is some of my collection of stencil patterns. I don't throw away any stencil I make, you just never know if you will need to use it again.

Here is one head completed, ready for a face to be embroidered on. Once I get to this stage, doll body made and head completed, I then stuff the doll and then blanket stitch attach the head to the stuffed body.

Here is a view of my busy head production in action! With the making of so many dolls at once, I had a production line going, making 12 heads at once. You can see above how I've sewed the cardboard backing to the head. Of course the hair, once it is sewn over the top, will hide the cardboard completely.

I always sew the sash and then the symbols to the doll body, before I sew up the sides of the doll's body. The photo above shows all the dolls, now ready and waiting to be stuffed and have their heads sewn on.

A lovely mixture of colours that capture the minds and hearts of little children....at one point I had the dolls stuffed and sitting in a group on the kitchen table. I caught my 3 year old 'Annie' standing in front of them (she didn't know I was looking) and then all of a sudden she gave them all a massive bear hug with great gusto! So beautiful!

I had originally planned to to have rounded ends to my dolls, to be held only but not to stand. Then we decided to give them flat bottoms, so a change to my stencil pattern. At that point I thought I just weighing the bottoms with a river stone inside amongst the stuffing. The trouble was, if the stone shifted a bit, then the doll would be leaning forward or backward...

Then I thought that I would mount them onto little wooden blocks...maybe I could get a piece of timber and cut up to size?? ...No, a bit too labourious.

Then I thought to look on ebay Australia..and what did I find? The PERFECT thing! Someone down in Tasmania was selling a 54 block set made from beautiful Tasmanian blackwood timber, all oiled. I won it and I think it worked out that the blocks per dolls about 45c a doll, not bad at all! But more importantly, they were the perfect size...one of those marvellous 'God-incidents,' I think. They were there just when I needed them.

I glued the flat, oval shaped bottom of the dolls to the wooden blocks with a very strong, suitable glue. I used one called, "Hard as Nails."

We would like to engrave onto the fronts of the blocks, the name of the saint. I job for later on.

Here is the Holy Spirit I made for Pentecost. I had sat in a Church only a few nights earlier, looking at a beautiful stained glass window of the Holy Spirit and I knew that's how I wanted to make it.

A few days later I got onto the Church's website and found a photo of the window and started drawing my stencil. The halo is separate from the body of the dove and so is the dove's beak. The yellow halo has cardboard inside for strength. So I sewed the dove up and stuffed it, all the way around to the front and then stopped. I then inserted the halo, and blanket stitched the dove to the halo to finish it. (The beak had already been sewn to the dove at that point.)

This creation was one that required a lot of daisy chain stitching. I lightly marked the pattern onto the felt with a sharp grey lead pencil and daisy-chained over the top.

Then I was ready to make the Pentecost tongues of fire. I drew up the stencils and cut them out and sewed together. (As above.) How was I going to attach them? After a bit of thought I decided that I'd sew press studs to the flames and to the back of the doll's heads.

I bought black and silver press studs. I sewed all the flames with silver press studs. On the back of the dolls heads I divided the dolls into two lots, those with lighter heads of hair, and those with darker hair. I sewed the silver press studs to the lighter hair and black press studs to the darker hair. These press studs allow me to make other attachments if I want to..maybe I could make halos, if I wanted to.

Here are the finished Apostles, minus Our Lady, as I made her at a few days later after handing the set over to the atrium. The mixture of colours is pleasing to the eyes of children (and adults), it was so lovely to see the children react and interact with the set..it was like moths to a flame!

I have to say that this has been a most enjoyable endeavour. Making a full set all at once was a big task, but to just slowly build up a set piece by piece is an easy job. It is not an expensive endeavour either, if you can buy felt, cottons and doll stuffing cheaply, then it won't cost much.

It is a REALLY good sewing craft for young girls! My daughters have started their own creations and it will be a great way for them to learn basic embroidery stitches, the sky is the limit ~ they could embroider the hem of Our Lady's garment with very fancy stitches, or halos etc and learn a great variety of stitches in the process.

Young girls can put their handiwork to good, practical use, by making gifts for younger children for birthdays. The beautiful, original gift I received from my friend was a Mother Teresa set ~ Mother Teresa holding a poor baby ~ A poor mother ~ A bishop (in black with red cap and sash). ~ It was fabulous!

Maybe some young ladies would like to approach a local atrium and make some doll sets for them? Just think, children will gain much spiritual good from them for many, many years to come.

As I continue to create more dolls for the atrium, I will share here.

If anyone has any questions about this, feel free to email me.

Miraculous Medal Mobile Facelift for May

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Fri, 27 May 2011 07:08:00 +0000

Four years ago in the month of May, the children and I worked together on a miraculous medal craft that has lasted us to this day. It was a very practical craft that enabled us to have a lovely visual reminder to offer the prayer, "Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." It also allowed us to write the prayer intentions onto paper and pin it to the 'shower and streams of grace' coming from Our Lady's hands.

The mobile hangs in the main room of our house and constantly reminds us to offer the prayer, and remember the intentions.

Recently I've been working on giving the mobile a bit of an extra lift, but before I show you what I have done, have a quick look at my previous postings on the making and use of this mobile, starting way back in 2007.

Miraculous Medal Craft Activity Part 1

Miraculous Medal Craft Activity Part 2

Our New Miraculous Medal Craft Finished!

Practicality 1 ~ Petitions, Prayers, Paper, Pins and Pen.

Practicality 2 ~ Scapulars for the family

Making an easier version of the Miraculous Medal Mobile

The first little change I made was:

Removing the plastic beads from the fingers of Our Lady and replacing them with:

Some little crystals that throw off blue and lemon lights that are lovely and eye catching.

The next change was sewing 8mm and 4mm crystals to the fine netting material with stars. Closer to the top I sewed a 4mm crystal on each star, further down I sewed onto the stars 8mm crystals. These were not expensive, I found some very cheap 3rd grade crystals (ones with slight irregularities in shape) and used them liberally. These too, throw off lights.

The next change was a little adjustment to the world that Our Lady is standing on:

What I decided to add was a felt cut out of my country Australia and I think I will glue on another little 4mm biscone crystal on the spot where we live...just a nice touch for the children, to show that Our Lady has her heart and mind turned towards us, even though we are but a very small spot in this big, wide world.

The two images below show my favourite change. Our Lady's Halo.

As you can see above, I had used some felt with a ring of yellow/gold plastic beads.

I bought some 3rd grade 6mm crystals in the colours, crystal and blue. I glued the felt with the crystals and finished by adding a ring of blue crystals...the effect is stunning and Our Lady's whole halo throws of lights and glints.

I also built up Our Lady's hair with another thickness of felt in the same original colour.

Here are some photos of the updated mobile without the petitions added at this point.

Previously our prayer petitions were written on little rectangular pieces of paper and pinned to the netting that looked like the photo below:

The change I've made with writing out the petitions is I found a lovely pen image of a rose and copy and pasted it to fill an A4 sheet of paper. I printed them up on blue paper and then cut out the individual roses and popped them in a clip lock bag, ready for use.

I also added blue crystals over the stars on the back of the mobile as you can see below.

Below you can see the photos of the prayer mobile complete with the new prayer intentions added.

Part of saying the prayer, "Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." you should also be wearing the miraculous medal around the neck, usually on a chain. This often proves difficult with little children, strong chains can be expensive. So I decided to sew miraculous medals (and St Benedict medals) into the family scapulars two years ago which has been very effective. By sewing the medals inside the scapulars, they were safe from falling off (as they usually will fall off in time, no matter how firmly you sew them on).

Recently I have created another way to wear the miraculous medal which also includes wearing another very special sacramental ~ A St Anthony's Brief ~ which is a particularly powerful exorcism sacramental. The wonderful story about St Anthony's Brief is here and will show it's efficacy in protection against the devil and all evil.

You can see below the St Anthony's Brief on a cross (on the other side of the cross is an image of St Francis and the 'priestly blessing' from Numbers Chapt 6. The two necklaces you see below are for myself and my eldest daughter. My daughter 'Faustina' has the miraculous medal rosary centre with the two roses on the front, whereas I have a more traditional medal.

In the photo below you can see my middle daughter's necklace, she has great devotion to St Therese, so I wired a little St Therese 'rose' medal in between the miraculous medal and the St Anthony's Brief Cross. The other one is my youngest son's necklace.

Here is a close up of my son's necklace, since he is only 6 I haven't added a clasp. I haven't added a miraculous medal as yet, but I'll put a small medal near the rosary centre. The boys all have St Benedict rosary centres with the special exorcism lettering.

Here is my youngest son and oldest daughter, showing their necklaces, they can be worn under clothes or outside where they can be seen, they are very practical.

Rosary Story for the Month of May

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Wed, 25 May 2011 22:19:00 +0000

One of my beading creations, "Our Lady's Veil" Rosary.

Recently I read a story from a little publication in Australia called the Apostles of Mary. This time last year they published a story called, "Serial Killer Ted Bundy and the Power of the Rosary" which I am sharing here today.

"To understand that Our Lady needs us, it helps to begin with the awareness that we also need her and that her help never fails those who pray to her with a sincere heart. This American Monsignor is a good witness of that.

On May 14, 2009, Mgr. William Kerr, a leading human rights figure, died. Mgr. Kerr often spoke of his very first hospital assignment, where he ministered to a young burn victim dying from his injuries. Later, he recalled, he would be called upon to perform even more ghastly duties.

In 1978, the police called Msgr. Kerr in the middle of the night to accompany them to a sorority house in Tallahassee. When he arrived he was told that all but one of the girls in the house were dead or near death, killed by the infamous serial killer, Ted Bundy. After administering last rites to one of the college girls who was dying, the police on the scene asked Fr. Kerr to speak with a girl who had survived the massacre unscathed. They had a very specific question: Why did Bundy stop right inside the door to her room, drop his weapon, and leave without touching her?

The young woman refused to speak to anyone except a priest. When Fr. Kerr approached the near-catatonic girl, she told him that her mother had made her promise, before going off to college for the first time, that she would pray the Rosary every night before bed for protection; even if she fell asleep praying the Rosary, which she had that night. When Bundy came into her room to murder her as he had the other girls, the beads were still clutched in her hands.

Ironically, Bundy later sought out Msgr. Kerr as a spiritual counsellor while he waited on death row. Over the course of their sessions, Bundy explained to Mgr. Kerr that when he entered the girl's room, he just wasn't able to continue with his spree, he dropped his weapon, and he fled.

Our Lady's protective mantle, a shelter to all.

Such is the power of our Mother's protective mantle. Such also is the wisdom of a Mum, who managed to give her daughter the most efficient, powerful weapon ~ the rosary, which later saved her life."

~ by Domenico Bettinelli of www.bettnet.com

Sts Anne and Joachim with Our Lady

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:08:00 +0000

I found this beautiful image of St Anne teaching the Child Mary with St Joachim, one worth sharing on St Anne's Tuesday!

Click on the image to see it in all it's glory, full size.

Praying for a beautiful friend

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:36:00 +0000

I would love to invite anyone who would like to join with me, offering two novenas for a beautiful friend Melinda, a Catholic mother of six young children living in Australia, who has advanced renal cancer and secondaries.

Melinda

In Australia is the 14th of April and we are starting the first of the two novenas today. The second novena which follows directly on from the the first, will finish on the 1st of May, Divine Mercy Sunday and the beatification day of Pope John Paul II.

We pray with great hope!

Firstly, inspired by this wonderful miracle that was used for the beatification of Pope John XXIII.

Secondly, because I read in the latest Fidelity magazine (an Australian publication) and also in the worldwide, Love One Another magazine, of a incredible miracle that took place through the intercession of Juan Diego, The miracle was around the time of Juan Diego’s beatification and was the miracle used for his canonization.

A man, Jose Silva, plunged over 30 feet or 10 metres to the ground, landing directly on his head on concrete, he struck the concrete with an estimated force of two tons. His mother who witnessed this cried out to Juan Diego to interceed for her son. She continued to pray fervently over the next 10 days. This happened a couple of days before the beatification of Juan, the fact that he even survived the fall was a miracle, testified by the doctors. Then he turned a complete corner in healing on the beatification day of Juan Diego ~ he walked out of hospital 10 days after the accident and all traces of damage and injury to his head and brain had vanished, all verified by the doctors.

So we pray for Melinda for complete healing, especially around this joyful time of Pope John Paul II’s beatification.

Please pass this novena on to as many people you can think of, who would like to join and many thanks in advance!

NOVENA PRAYER

We believe in God’s everlasting love for all and through faith and great confidence in that love, our petitions will be granted. Therefore in the desire to promote God’s greater honour and glory we pray through the intercession of Pope John Paul II for the healing of Melinda.

O Blessed Trinity, we thank Thee for having graced the Church with Pope John Paul II, and for allowing the tenderness of your fatherly care, the glory of the Cross of Christ and the splendor of the Holy Spirit to shine through him. Trusting fully in your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary he has given us a living image of Jesus the good shepherd and has shown us that holiness is the necessary measure of ordinary Christian life and is the way of achieving eternal communion with you. Grant us by his intercession and according to your will, the graces we implore, the healing of Melinda, hoping that he will soon be numbered among your saints. Amen

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be to the Father.

UPDATE: I am very sad to add here that Melinda passed away, day eight of the first novena, on the morning of Holy Thursday, the beginning of the Triduum. We continue to offer the novenas for Melinda, for her soul and for her family, her six children who are now without their earthly mother. Many thanks to all those continuing to join in prayer for Melinda.

"Sweet Chains" that Shine in the Sun

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 02:30:00 +0000

I mentioned earlier this week, about my new beading endeavour here. Since then I've continued to experiment and working on developing the skill of wire wrapping.

It has been an enjoyable week to say the least, a real 'gaudete' week in lent for sure. ~ The joy of beading for God's glory. ~ Ruth from Loreto Rosaries and I were only talking about this recently.

Above is a chain rosary I have named, 'Tilma full of Roses' ~ the most beautiful Castilian Roses ever...when I look at these gemstones together, I imagine them lying in folds of Juan Diego's tilma, freshly arranged by the hands of the Blessed Mother...

The crucifix is a Spanish 'Caravaca' cross that has a special story connected to it..it has Our Lord on the cross on one side, and as you can see here, Our Lady on the other.. The rosary centre is Our Lady of Guadalupe, standing in front of a Truine filigree aura, representing the Blessed Trinity.

This rosary is big and monastic in appearance..maybe it is too big and I need to use smaller links, but as you finger through the Aves it feels lovely, but it certainly is big...a lovely, large lap rosary.

The beads are an Australian gemstone ~ Mookaite. It's warm, it's vivid. The Pater beads are carved roses.

I'm discovering that I love the earthy, masculine gemstones the best, they have this ancient feel to them, like our Faith. Timeless ~yet ever new.

This is a tenner dedicated to Sancta Joseph the universal patron of the Church...he features on the left hand side of the Crucifix and the medal of course The crucifix is the Holy Family with the Holy Spirit. There is a little double sided medal after the Pater bead, Our Lord's profile one side, Our Lady's profile on the other..

Sancta Joseph, ora pro nobis!

This is an Assumption medal..angels surround Our Lady assuming into heaven..cherubs surround the crucifix as well.

The brown Agate Aves represent earth..the glints of aqua crystals either side of the Aves and the Pater bead, represent Our Lady rising to Heaven..the Pater bead is a very cloudy gemstone, just like the sky...

This tenner is called "Bread of Heaven" ~ I made it for my mum 3 years ago when I first started beading. What is new, is that I have taken it off it's wire and converted it to chains. I've also added near the Pater bead, an exquisite little medal called, "Jesus, are you there?"...with a little child knocking at the door of the tabernacle.

“Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain linking us to God” ....

~ Pope John Paul II in his apostolic letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae.

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 22:54:00 +0000

St Anne Sidebar Archives...at last!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:13:00 +0000

I have been promising for a long time to place my Tuesdays with St Anne postings, link by link in the sidebar of Under Her Starry Mantle. It was always going to be a big job, hence my terrible delay but finally I have done it.

It will make a hugh difference for anyone who would like to go back and read any of the past information I have shared here. I have had a few different 'series' on the life of St Anne and used different sources from time to time. I have also come across things out of the blue. So I've tried to have some sort of structure in my sidebar to reflect all of that.

I felt the best way to display the information was to put them under subheadings with an image like the ones you can see below:

The day I found information about the birthplace and home of St Anne, I was so awestruck. Discovering where it was and it's symbolic significance was incredible. To top it off, someone informed me later that day the the daily readings at Mass for that day was a scene from that spot! There are three postings to look at, they will be in the lefthand sidebar under the icon you see above.

St Anne's Chaplet is one of the best of all chaplets. It's simple, not too long and you don't need to read long prayers. Did I mention it was powerful? I can say from personal experience, it is!

I have a few postings on St Anne's chaplet ~ how to recite it, it's efficacy. The second posting in the list, is the story of how we saw the Holy Father at WYD, totally against the odds, and how I believe it is through the recitation of St Anne's Chaplet.

I have added to the link list two postings of my St Anne Chaplet creations ~ one to my own St Anne chaplet and another to the seven symbolic ones I made one year to giveaway for her feast..you may enjoy to read what inspired each one.

Under this icon heading, I have linked the stories on the life of St Anne that I have shared from a big out-of-print book on St Anne called, St Anne: Grandmother of Our Saviour, written by Frances Parkinson Keyes. It was an enjoyable, informative series.

I only have two links at this stage, under this icon. One is to a meal with much symbolic meaning to it, including a cake I made that was also shared at Catholic Cuisine. The second posting is a craft we made to honour St Anne through her litany titles.

This icon is the first one in the lefthand sidebar, directly under my link to the Transapline Redemptorists on Papastronsay in Scotland. The reason for that is, I shared probably the best source of information on the life of St Anne and the history of her devotion from a beautiful Catholic newspaper/magazine, given to me from my sister-in-law last year. I didn't know who published it, sharing only the name of the paper as the source of my information. Then I was very blessed to discover the blog Papastronsay and subsequently realised that it was their publication!

So I have gone back through all of those postings in the series (nine of them) and given a more accurate HT to this wonderful order and it's publication. You will love the stories from this series. If this is a calibre of the articles from the magazine Catholic, then it's definitely worth subscribing to.

Under this icon are all the miscellaneous postings I've shared over the years...there are some really lovely things in this section, St Anne poems, images, stationery, stories and much more.

I launched Tuesdays with St Anne with this little Tan book, Good St Anne. It's a wonderful little book and sharing it was a joy, some of the best St Anne postings are in this list, including my very first posting.

I have shared three different Novenas to St Anne during the last few years, they are novenas that have a special prayer for each day. They are all beautiful. My favourite is "Novena 1" which I recite every day.

This little book, "Pilgrim's Handbook of St Anne deBeaupre" is my latest discovery. It was published in 1883 and has many new prayers and devotions I have never seen before. I will be sharing from this book in the weeks and months to come. Look especially to the beginning of July this year (month of St Anne's feast day) as I will have something to share everyday from this book. So far under this icon, I have the Way of the Cross with St Anne, perfect for Lent.

A Tenner in chain..a new endeavour

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 22:16:00 +0000

Last night, out of the absolute blue (not planned, so very me when it comes to beading) I made this tenner. Even when I picked out the medal, crucifix and beads, I STILL didn't know I was going to make it in chains rather than the normal soft flex wire. So the chain idea came to me and within 5mins I was away.

It came together without problems, just a little slower as I so very carefully, wrapped the wire to the chain. The movement in the tenner amazed me, it felt fantastic and because of that movement sat in the hand as easily as my wire tenners which I use smaller Ave beads (8mm) ~ this tenner has 10mm Aves.

I love this tenner, it is earthy and magestic in appearance, thanks to the Fossilized gemstone beads and solid, unpolished bronze...

The Eucharistic Adoration medal is incredible, I have not seen one so spectacular than this, other than the Our Lady of Mt Carmel scarf medal I have used in the past. I chose a Fleur de Lis cut-out crucifix matches beautifully with the cut-out work in the Eucharistic medal.

I've done something very different ...I've used 10mm Aves and the spaces are far bigger than anything I've ever created..and it feels perfect in the hand, fingering from one Ave to another..

Now to test it's durability ~ I believe it to be VERY durable...the weeks and months ahead with daily use, will tell. I'm very happy.

I name this tenner ~ Heaven on Earth.

Stations of the Cross with St Anne

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:57:00 +0000

I was very blessed to stumble upon a pilgrim's manual to St Anne de Beaupre written in the late 1800's and it has many new prayers and devotions I have not seen before. I look forward to sharing them over the months to come. The only changes I have made to what I share, is changing the very old English 'thee' 'thou' etc to the modern equivalent.

One very special devotion which I am very keen to perform and share here, are prayers and meditations every day with St Anne through her month of July ~ thirty one days.

Today I am sharing The Way of the Cross with St Anne, very suitable for Lent.

THE WAY OF THE CROSS WITH ST ANNE

Jesus will undoubtedly grant our prayer, provided that we only ask for that which

presents no obstacle to our salvation.

PREPARATORY PRAYER.

O God, heavenly Father, your divine Son Jesus has promised us that you will grant us whatever we shall ask in His name; in His name then and through His merits I come before you and confidently ask of you for entire conformity to your holy Will in all the troubles of this life, profound grief for my sins, an ardent zeal in the practice of virtue and, above all, I specially recommend to you (here name the favour you would ask); I come before you in the name of Jesus, I offer you His Passion and Death, and I firmly trust that through these, you will grant me my petition. St. Anne, you were the Grandmother of Him Who, by journeying along the way of sorrows, didst open to me the infinite treasures of His grace, accompany me along this way of the Passion and vouchsafe to present my prayers and sighs to the Eternal Father.

Mary, Daughter of St. Anne and Mother of Jesus, pray for me now, that God may grant my prayer.

O Angel of God, to whose care I am committed, enlighten, protect, direct, and govern me. Amen.

THE FIRST STATION ~ JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH

V/. We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee.

R/. Because by Thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

Consider Jesus before the tribunal of Pilate, receiving the sentence which condemned Him to death. What crime had you committed, O my Jesus, that you were so condemned ? My Saviour, it was not you that was guilty, but I who by my sins have renewed your passion. Henceforth I will avoid sin out of love for you. My loving Saviour, since you are so compassionate to us, I approach you with confidence and humbly beg of you to grant me the grace which I ask of you.

St. Anne, consoler of the afflicted, pray for me that Jesus may hear my prayer.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE SECOND STATION ~ JESUS IS MADE TO BEAR HIS CROSS

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

My beloved Jesus, I adore the love which urged you to take on your own shoulders the heavy Cross of our sins and weaknesses; I pray you by that love to have pity on me and grant me the grace of My Jesus, I confide in your goodness and love and I trust you will not reject my prayer; for you have said: Because he has hoped in me, I will deliver him: I will protect him, because he has known my name.

St. Anne, help of those who call on you, say to Jesus, that all my confidence is in His Cross and Passion.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE THIRD STATION ~ JESUS FALLS THE FIRST TIME

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

My Jesus, how could you love me so? For it was out of love for me that you did fall beneath the Cross, you did fall in order that I might not give way to discouragement after my repeated falls into sin. Who ever trusted in the Lord and was disappointed? Dear Lord, such would be impossible: No one has hoped in the Lord, and has been confounded. My Jesus, all my hope is in the merits of your Passion, and I pray that you grant my prayer.

St. Anne, worthy ancestress of our Saviour, vouchsafe to intercede with Jesus for me, ask Him to listen to my prayer, for in Him is all my hope.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE FOURTH STATION ~ JESUS MET BY HIS BLESSED MOTHER

V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

Jesus, how great was your grief at the sight of Mary's sufferings, and what a sea of sorrow overwhelmed the heart of your holy Mother when she saw the insults which were heaped on you; but your mutual sufferings inspire me with confidence and hope; for you did suffer out of love for me, in order to turn aside from me the punishments I have deserved and obtain me a share of the divine mercy; sweet Jesus, do not refuse me the favour which I ask of you in all humility and confidence.

St. Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ask of your Daughter to obtain for me a favourable hearing from Jesus through the sorrows she endured on account of Him. All my hope is in His goodness.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE FIFTH STATION ~ THE CROSS IS LAID ON SIMON OF CYRENE

V/. We adore you, O Christ and we bless you

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

My Jesus, I adore the great love which made you sink beneath the weight of your Cross. I pray to you by that love to have pity on me, to hear my prayer. Dear Jesus, I hope you will have compassion on me, even as your heavenly Father had compassion on you, when He sent you Simon to help you to bear the Cross. Sweet Saviour, you know what is afflicting me... refuse me not your assistance. I come to you with the greatest confidence, for St. Bernard assures us that divine mercy is an inexhaustible fountain.

St. Anne, filled with grace, pray to Jesus to listen to me.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE SIXTH STATION ~ VERONICA WIPES THE FACE OF JESUS

V/. We adore you, O Christ and we bless you

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

My Jesus, through the love you showed to Veronica by imprinting your sacred Face on her handkerchief, I beg of you to bestow on me likewise the marks of Thy goodness. Veronica had sufficient confidence in God to enable her to overcome all obstacles in order to reach you. I come before you with similar confidence, trusting that you will remove all obstacles to the fulfilment of my desire.

St. Anne, ark of alliance, I trust to your intercession; ask of Jesus to hear my prayer.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE SEVENTH STATION ~ JESUS FALLS THE SECOND TIME

V/. We adore you, O Christ and we bless you

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

Behold, my Jesus, the second time you fell beneath the Cross out of love for me. Such goodness inspires in me the greatest confidence that you will hear my prayers and show forth your infinite mercy on me. My Jesus, I cast myself before the throne of your mercy: have pity on me and reject not my sighs and tears.

St. Anne, joy of angels, would you but intercede for me, I am certain of my prayer being granted.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE EIGHTH STATION ~ JESUS SPEAKS TO THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM

V/. We adore you, O Christ and we bless you

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

My Jesus, great indeed was the love you showed these women when you said to them: Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children. Your goodness, my Jesus, emboldens me to hope that you will not leave me comfortlessin my need and that you will not reject my prayer, for you are of infinite goodness. You desire that I should come to you, since you have said : Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find ; knock and it shall be opened unto you. I come before you filled with hope that you will grant me the favour which I ask of you.

St. Anne, mother of the sick, I have recourse to you in all confidence: pray to Jesus for me and I shall be saved.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE NINTH STATION ~ JESUS FALLS THE THIRD TIME

V/. We adore you, O Christ and we bless you

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

Merciful Jesus through the love where you did support the pains and insults you met with when you fell the third time beneath the Cross, I pray that you inflame my heart with love of you, so that I may bear all my sufferings with a desire of being pleasing to you, and may I always conform myself to your holy will in all the trials and crosses you send me. But, above all, I recommend to you the favour of which I implore your all-powerful assistance. My Jesus, I am filled with confidence in your goodness; You overwhelm me with benefits even when I have not loved you. How then could you refuse to bestow your grace on me now that I love and desire to love you always more and more?

St. Anne, mirror of patience, obtain for me from Jesus that I may always suffer the miseries of this life with resignation..

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE TENTH STATION ~ JESUS IS STRIPPED AND RECEIVES GALL TO DRINK

V/. We adore you, O Christ and we bless you

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

My Jesus, by that patience where you submitted to being stripped of your garments and given gall to drink, I beg of you to inflame my heart with your love, to detach it from all worldly affections and to give me the grace of supporting patiently all trials and humiliations which may happen to me. I also pray that you grant me, that which I ask of you with filial confidence, but only on condition that my demand should be agreeable to you and conducive to my salvation. I now say and ever will say: Father, not my will but yours be done.

St. Anne, mirror of obedience, obtain me the grace of always doing the Will of God.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE ELEVENTH STATION ~ JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS

V/. We adore you, O Christ and we bless you

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

My Jesus, I adore the love which impelled you to stretch yourself on the Cross and to present your hands and feet to be pierced with nails: by this love I beg of you to inflame my heart with love of you, so that I may bear my crosses with resignation. I adore also the love which impelled you to retain the marks of the five wounds in your glorified body after your resurrection, whereby to plead for mercy with God the Father in our behalf. Beloved Jesus, I unite my prayers with yours, and it is by this union that I hope to obtain the favour which I solicit.

St. Anne, mirror of piety, unite your prayers to those of your holy Daughter Mary, so that Jesus may hear me.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE TWELFTH STATION ~ JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS

V/. We adore you, O Christ and we bless you

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

My Jesus, you died between two thieves in order to merit the grace of God for me! All my hope is in this incomprehensible goodness. You only wish for my happiness, for you have said : Come to me all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. My Jesus, I pray that by your goodness and by the merits of your death to have pity on me and to hear my prayer.

St. Anne, bulwark of the Church, ask of God to listen favourably to my prayer and, through the merits of Jesus, to have pity on me.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE THIRTEENTH STATION ~ THE BODY OF JESUS IS TAKEN DOWN

V/. We adore you, O Christ and we bless you

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

My God, look down on your beloved Son, Who, out of love for me, is now lying in the arms of His afflicted Mother. Behold, O my God, this Head crowned with thorns, these Hands and Feet pierced by the cruel nails, this Side transfixed by the lance, the whole Body torn by scourges. By all these wounds, received through love of me, I pray that you have have mercy on me and grant me the favours I beg of you. My Jesus, I know that you will hear my prayer, for you have said : Verily, verily, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my Name, shall be given to you.

St. Anne, light of the blind, pray your Daughter Mary to present her beloved Son to His heavenly Father, and then the light of grace will be granted to me.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

THE FOURTEEN STATION ~ JESUS IS LAID IN THE SEPULCHRE

V/. We adore you, O Christ and we bless you

R/. Because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

My God, on beholding Jesus borne to the sepulchre, how can I give way to discouragement and doubt your intention of coming to our assistance? My faith and hope are redoubled when I see this same Jesus rise again glorious on the third day. Yes, my God, I hope in you, for you have disposed of all things for my happiness and salvation.

St. Anne, port of the traveller, obtain me the grace, that during my journey through this perishable world I may always have recourse to the goodness of God.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory, etc.

Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

PRAYER AFTER THE WAY OF THE CROSS.

God of goodness and mercy, prostrate before the throne of your infinite Majesty, I adore your love. your goodness to us is so great, that St. Augustine does not hesitate to assure us, that you are even happier in bestowing than we are in receiving your benefits; and that you desire still more ardently to deliver us from our miseries than we to be delivered from them. Encouraged by such goodness, I come before you filled with confidence! My God, my hope is not in myself, nor in my own merits, but in your goodness and in the merits of Jesus Christ. God of goodness cast a favourable glance on your well-beloved Son Jesus; behold all that He has suffered out of love for me. My God, since it was for my sake that He humbled Himself to die between two thieves, could you refuse to have pity on me? If, after gaining a brilliant victory, a general covered with wounds were to present himself before his king to demand a favour, could that king refuse to grant it? My God, Jesus presents Himself before you, covered with wounds and interceding for me; can you refuse to grant what He asks of Thee? My trust is in your mercy and I know I shall obtain what I ask. In you, O Lord, have I trusted, I shall never be confounded.

Then recite five times Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory, etc., in honour of the five wounds of Our Lord, in order to gain the indulgences attached to the Way of the Cross ; then say the following prayer before the statue of St. Anne.

PRAYER TO ST ANNE OBTAIN SOME SPECIAL FAVOUR.

Glorious St. Anne, filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present affair which I recommend to you, under your special protection. Vouchsafe to recommend it to your Daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to lay it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted. Above all, obtain for me the grace of one day beholding my God. Amen

St Patrick's Breastplate

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:33:00 +0000

St Patrick

A happy and blessed St Patrick's day to everyone! As an Australian Catholic I have a great love of St Patrick and we see him as an ancient father in faith considering many Australian Catholics have an Irish heritage to thank for their faith. In our home each year we like to thank St Patrick for that original grace and blessing.

As I have mentioned before in two previous posts, here and here ~ we also have a great love for St Patrick's 'Breastplate' prayer and we recite it everyday, this has been a tremendous blessing to us. It inspired me in a very deep way and I set myself to learning it all to memory. I recite this prayer individually, for each member of our family, daily ~ where you read the words "myself" or "me" etc, I will replace it with the name of the person I am offering it for.

Not long after learning it myself, I taught my three oldest children the poem so they could recite it as part of their daily personal prayer. In the last few weeks we have decided to to add it to our family communal prayers.

I often find that if I haven't recited the breastplate for everyone very early in the morning, travelling in the car is a great place to offer it. I remember my youngest 3 year old daughter who sits directly behind the driver's seat, said to me a few months ago as she listened to this familiar prayer.. "you are praying for me" as she heard me offering the Breastplate with her name added throughout ..sometimes I hear her trying to recite it in her own way along with me. I hope the memories of her mother's prayers will stay with her always...

The version that I know to memory is very rhyming, lilted and I love it. I understand it is the 1889 English translation of Mrs Cecil Frances Alexander that was written in a metered style as a hymn, click here for the tune.

I have made small change to the Breastplate that others in the past have also done, where it is said, "and purity of virgins souls" I say, "and purity of the Holy Virgin's soul" giving it a more direct reference to Our Lady especially as she is the "virgin of virgins." Having a St Louis de Montfort Marian devotion, this was appealing to me. As I was doing some research on the breastplate again I found this:

"The line in the original Gaelic: "Inendgai noemingen" Some translate this line with "The purity of the Holy Virgin." However, the word is clearly plural."

I have to add that a dear baptist friend of mine had wondered about 'binding' people in this prayer, I didn't want to ignore her thoughts and so I talked to the exorcist in my diocese. His comments were that it was an extraordinarily beautiful and powerful prayer to offer in this way and stated that as parents, when we offer our children for baptism, there is a far more powerful 'binding' to God taking place ~ and we are offering for them, on their behalf. When I thought on that, I felt it tied in with my friend's general baptist beliefs ~ if they do not believe in baptism for infants, allowing their children to make their own decision to be baptised, then it may also mean they might feel uncomfortable using this beautiful prayer in this way.

I read online somewhere, an Irish person stating that they were going to be singing this hymn for two baptisms coming up, a perfect hymn for this sacrament. Of course there are other translations for this word "bind"..."I summon" and "I arise" etc, which doesn't have the same feel as the word bind. The original translation to English uses the word, "I arise" and I have that further below for anyone who is interested.

I also discovered that in the original Gaelic prayer, there was a Latin ending, which read as:

Domini est salus,

Christi est salusñ

salus tua, Domine, sit semper nobiscum.

Salvation is the Lord's,

salvation is the Lord's,

salvation is Christ's

May Thy salvation, O Lord, be always with us.

We look forward to learning this and adding to it our prayer.

~o0o~

ST PATRICK'S BREASTPLATE

I bind unto myself today

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same

The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this today to me forever

By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;

His baptism in Jordan river,

His death on Cross for my salvation;

His bursting from the spiced tomb,

His riding up the heavenly way,

His coming at the day of doom

I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power

Of the great love of cherubim;

The sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour,

The service of the seraphim,

Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,

The Patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls,

All good deeds done unto the Lord

And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today

The virtues of the star lit heaven,

The glorious sun’s life giving ray,

The whiteness of the moon at even,

The flashing of the lightning free,

The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,

The stable earth, the deep salt sea

Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today

The power of God to hold and lead,

His eye to watch, His might to stay,

His ear to hearken to my need.

The wisdom of my God to teach,

His hand to guide, His shield to ward;

The word of God to give me speech,

His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,

The vice that gives temptation force,

The natural lusts that war within,

The hostile men that mar my course;

Or few or many, far or nigh,

In every place and in all hours,

Against their fierce hostility

I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,

Against false words of heresy,

Against the knowledge that defiles,

Against the heart’s idolatry,

Against the wizard’s evil craft,

Against the death wound and the burning,

The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,

Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One and One in Three.

By Whom all nature hath creation,

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

Praise to the Lord of my salvation,

Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

St Patrick as a shepherd slave, before returning to Ireland to convert it to Christ.

St Patrick Breast Plate Prayer "Faeth Fiada”

In the original Gaelic tongue:

Atomriug indiu

niurt tréun:

togairm Trindóit

faístin Oendatad,

i nDúlemon dáil.

Atomriug indiu

niurt gene Críst cona bathius,

niurt a chrochtho cona adnacul,

niurt a essérgi cona fhresgabáil,

niurt a thoíniudo fri brithemnas mbrátho.

Atomriug indiu

niurt gráid hiruphin,

i n-aurlataid aingel,

i frestul inna n-archaingel,

i freiscisin esséirgi

ar chiunn fochraicce,

i n-ernaigthib uasalathrach,

i tairchetlaib fáithe,

i preceptaib apstal,

i n-iresaib foísmedach,

i n-enccai noebingen,

i ngnímaib fer firén.

Atomriug indiu

niurt nime,

soilsi gréne,

étrochtai éscai,

áni thened,

déni lóchet,

luaithi gaíthe,

fudomnai mara,

tairismigi thalman,

cobsaidi ailech.

Atomriug indiu

niurt Dé dom luamairecht.

Cumachtae nDé dom chumgabáil,

ciall Dé dom inthús,

rose nDé dom remcisiu,

cluas Dé dom étsecht,

briathar Dé dom erlabrai,

lám Dé dom imdegail,

intech Dé dom remthechtas,

sciath Dé dom imdítin,

sochraite Dé dom anacul

ar intledaib demnae,

ar aslagib dualche,

ar forimthechtaib aicnid,

ar cech duine mídúthrastar dam,

i céin ocus i n-ocus,

i n'uathud ocus i sochaidi.

Tocuiriur etrum indiu inna uili nert-so

fri cech nert n-amnas n-étrocar frista-i dom churp ocus dom anmain,

fri tinchetla sa-ibfh-aithe,

fri dubrechtu gentliuchtae,

fri saíbrechtu heretecdae,

fri imchellacht n-ídlachtae,

fri brichtu ban ocus goban ocus druad,

fri cech fiss arachuille corp ocus anmain duini.

Crist dom imdegail indiu

ar neim, ar loscud, ar bádud, ar guin,

condom-thair ilar fochraicce.

Críst limm, Críst reum, Críst im degaid,

Críst indium, Críst ísum, Críst uasum,

Críst desum, Críst tuathum,

Críst i llius, Críst i sius, Críst i n-erus,

Críst i cridiu cech duini immumrorda,

Críst i ngin cech oín rodom-labrathar,

Críst i cech rusc nonom-dercathar,

Críst i cech cluais rodom-chloathar.

Atomriug indiu

niurt tréun:

togairm Trindóit,

cretim Treodatad,

faístin Oendatad,

i nDúlemon dáil.

(the latin ending:)

Domini est salus,

Christi est salusñ

salus tua, Domine, sit semper nobiscum.

The direct English translation from that is:

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through the belief in the threeness,

Through confession of the oneness

Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today

Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,

Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,

Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,

Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today

Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,

In obedience of angels,

In the service of archangels,

In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,

In prayers of patriarchs,

In predictions of prophets,

In preaching of apostles,

In faith of confessors,

In innocence of holy virgins,

In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today

Through the strength of heaven:

Light of sun,

Radiance of moon,

Splendor of fire,

Speed of lightning,

Swiftness of wind,

Depth of sea,

Stability of earth,

Firmness of rock.

I arise today

Through God's strength to pilot me:

God's might to uphold me,

God's wisdom to guide me,

God's eye to look before me,

God's ear to hear me,

God's word to speak for me,

God's hand to guard me,

God's way to lie before me,

God's shield to protect me,

God's host to save me

From snares of devils,

From temptations of vices,

From everyone who shall wish me ill,

Afar and anear,

Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,

Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,

Against incantations of false prophets,

Against black laws of pagandom

Against false laws of heretics,

Against craft of idolatry,

Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,

Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.

Christ to shield me today

Against poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against wounding,

So that there may come to me abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the threeness,

Through confession of the oneness,

Of the Creator of Creation.

(the Latin ending translation:)

Salvation is the Lord's,

salvation is the Lord's,

salvation is Christ's

May Thy salvation, O Lord, be always with us.

Here are our very simple activities for today, would have liked to have done some cooking but it will be such a busy day unfortunately...

We use this at our All Saints Party, "Pin the Shamrock on St Patrick" but perfect for today.

I knew I wouldn't have time to read our St Patrick's books on his feast, so we read one a day leading to his feast:

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie de Paola

Patrick: Saint of Ireland by Joyce Denham

And lastly, a St Patrick's Breastplate rosary I made in honour of the Breastplate prayer, for more details, pop over to my beading blog.

Tota Pulchra beading creations

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 06:59:00 +0000

As some of you would know, I have been beading for the last three years, creating rosary beads, chaplets, tenners and also my favourite speciality ~ religious jewellery for women.

I called my little hobby/business 'Tota Pulchra" beads, (see the quote below) which means "All Beautiful" so in recent times I have also gone by the name "All Beautiful Catholic Beads"...so I need to sort my name out for good, very soon I think. Here is my website below:

Tota Pulchra Beads

My creations have always been heirloom quality, with no plated parts. My more recent creations are incredibly durable with no parts that will break down (like seed beads) in the creations that would take alot of wear & tear ~ namely, rosary beads, chaplets and tenners. (I still use beautiful seed beads for my jewellery.) I double crimp for extra strength, crimp either side of Pater beads to stop movement in the beads over time and use a wire that is flexible yet 49 strands of stainless steel, strong.

I have been beading of late, as I bead for a few months and then stop for a few months, just the way I do it! Here are some of my latest creations below, that are currently for sale in my Rosary Gallery.

This rosary is called, "Michael Skellig" Rosary ~ in honour of the ancient, Catholic island off the coast of Ireland.

This large rosary is called "Breastplate of St Patrick" ~ it is my special favourite out of all my latest creations, pop over to my rosary gallery to see why.

This rosary is called, "Calm Waters" Rosary in honour of the great miracle that inspired the building of the greatest shrine to St Anne in the world ~ St Anne de Beaupre.

This rosary is called "Lourdes Spring" rosary, in honour of the healing spring of Lourdes in France. The colours of this rosary represent the spring's humble beginnings which I explain over in my gallery.

I like my work to reflect the ancient Catholic saying, "Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi" roughly translated to mean, the way we pray, is the way we believe. It is a quote that refers to the liturgy of the Church of course but I reflect on those words and think ~ when we create something beautiful, it is an outward reflection and reminder that we offering something beautiful to God and for our fellow man in the spiritual sense when we use it for prayer.

It is a beautiful and rewarding past time, creating holy sacramentals that people will use for a lifetime for great, great spiritual good ~ it's an awesome thought, actually.

Ash Wednesday and the Jesus Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Anne (aussieannie)) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:02:00 +0000

Today is Ash Wednesday and we have begun our Lenten journey with receiving the ashes at Mass this morning. It is so lovely that no matter the age, everyone comes up to receive those ashes, my little 6 and 3 year olds come back so proud to have received them!

At home we bring out our purple lenten cloths that I had bought cheaply at a discount fabric store last year. A heavy, purple cloth for the main altar and a beautiful, sheer material to cover our statues. I've placed our lenten books, the main rosary candle and large crucifix outside the sheer cloth. The large candle is placed on a tall candlebra, because the sheer material is a large piece I can tuck it under the candle, to hide the candlebra.

I also covered my St Anne altar.

We dusted off our large Jesus Tree and set it up. We made this a few years ago thanks to the inspiration of Jessica at Shower of Roses. My children are so excited to see this again! So am I.

Here is my 'Ambrose' placing the first symbol for Ash Wednesday...the two turtle doves from the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple...so we begin our journey with these humble turtledoves that represent the humility and poverty of the Holy Family and it will lead us finally to the open tomb at the base of the tree...to the victory of the grave and eternal life.

Here is a photo of our Jesus Tree all made up from a few years ago.

Below is the symbols for this first week of Lent, it is thanks to Jessica at Shower of Roses for the matching bible reading and colouring in activity that you see below.

WEEK ONE

DAY ONE ~ THE PRESENTATION

Symbol: Two Doves

Reading: Luke 2: 22-38

New Catholic Picture Bible: Page 103 The Pesentation of Jesus in the Temple

Colouring Page: The Presentation HT: sjtbre

DAY TWO ~ JESUS IN THE TEMPLE/HIDDEN LIFE

Symbol: Carpenter's Saw
Reading: Luke 4: 41-52

New Catholic Picture Bible: Page 109 Jesus is Found in the Temple

& Page 111 The Hidden Life of Jesus

Colouring Page: Finding of Jesus in the Temple HT: sjtbre

DAY THREE ~ THE BAPTISM OF JESUS

Symbol: Dove over the Water

Reading: Matthew 3: 11-17 & Mark 1: 6-11 & Luke 3: 21-22
New Catholic Picture Bible: Page 113 The Baptism of Jesus

Colouring Page: Baptism of Jesus HT: sjtbre
Crossword Page: Baptism of Jesus HT: Catholicmom

DAY FOUR ~ JESUS TEMPTED IN THE DESERT

Symbol: Desert Stones

Reading: Matthew 4: 1-11 & Mark 1: 12-13 & Luke 4: 1-13

New Catholic Picture Bible: Page 115 The Temptation of Jesus in the Desert

Colouring Page: Jesus is Tempted HT: sdraisa

DAY FIVE ~ JESUS' MIRACLE AT CANA

Symbol: Wine Jar

Reading: John 2: 1-11

New Catholic Picture Bible: Page 116 The Marriage at Cana
Colouring Page: The Wedding at Cana HT: sjtbre