Thursday, April 21, 2011

Jesus, I Trust in You

Tomorrow (Good Friday) is the beginning of the Divine Mercy 9-Day Novena which ends on Divine Mercy Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter.  It's one of the greatest and easiest ways to gain a full plenary indulgence--a true testement to Jesus' unfathomable Mercy.  If you don't have a Divine Mercy booklet, the words and a more complete explanation can be found here

My booklet states 7 ways we should observe the Feast of Divine Mercy:
1. Celebrate the Feast on the Sunday after Easter (which is widespread now)
2. Sinerely repent of all of our sins (becoming detached)
3. Place our complete trust in Jesus
4. Go to Confession
5. Receive Holy Communion on the day of the Feast
6. Venerate the Image of The Divine Mercy (Jesus coming forward with a red and white ray piercing forth from his Merciful and Sorrowful Heart)
7. Be merciful to others, through our actions, words, and prayers on their behalf

To make a plenary indulgence you also have to pray for the Holy Father and his intentions.  Generally a Hail Mary and Our Father are accepted as fufilling this requirement.  Confession should be within 8 days  before or after, but on the EWTN website it states within 20 days.  And, something I just found out on the EWTN website, is that you can apply the plenary indulgence to yourself (obviously) or a deceased loved  one!  That would be a very merciful deed to say it for someone who has died.  3pm is the Hour of Mercy, but the novena may be said at any time throughout the day.  It really doesn't take much time.  The daily readings are short and the  Divine Mercy Chaplet only takes about 6 minutes.  Best of all, it's a great way to Console Jesus' Merciful and Sorrowful Heart.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

SDS Butterflies - Dill

If you recall my butterfly album from facebook last year, you'll remember the beautiful butterflies we hatched out from caterpillars we attracted to our garden.  About a week and a half ago we planted our dill again this year to attract the swallow-tailed caterpillars.  It has now sprouted, and seeing it this morning reminded me to blog about it. 

It's a really easy process, and it's so fun and educational to watch the life cycle of a butterfly.  If you want to attract the caterpillars to catch and watch morph into butterflies, now is the time to buy dill seed and plant it.  The variety I buy is "Mammoth Dill."  Since you're most likely not going to be eating it, there's no harm in buying the potentially genetically modified stuff from Walmart or any other store.  If you have a spot to permanently dedicate to dill, plant an entire packet or two, and in the late spring or early fall it will "go to seed" and come back up every year. 

I'll post more about it as we go along...

SDS Resurrection Rolls!

We've made Resurrection Rolls every Easter since Alli and I were little.  They're a tasty way to teach the Easter story.  There's really no way to make these low fat, and believe me if you have more than one you will feel sick, but don't let that stop you!  Pick up these ingredients today, and start a tradition your family will look forward to for years to come.

Items Needed:
Regular sized marshmallows
A bowl of melted butter
A bowl of cinnamon and sugar (I do a ratio of 1:4)
Crescent rolls (we buy Pillsbury, if you're super adventurous, make your own!)

Preheat the oven according to your crescent roll can.  The rest of the directions are included in the story, which of course can be adjusted by age.

First, pick up a large marshmallow.  The marshmallow represents Jesus after He was taken down from the cross.  Dip the marshmallow first into the butter and then into the cinnamon.  The butter represents the oil and the cinnamon-sugar mixture represents the spices used to prepare Jesus' body for burial.  Place the marshmallow on the crecsent roll.  The crescent roll represents the burial cloths that Jesus was wrapped in.  Be sure to enclose the marshmallow as well as you can, or it will ooze out during the baking process.  Once everyone has done their own Jesus, place the pan in the oven.  The oven represents the tomb Jesus was laid in.  Bake according to label directions.  Open the oven, remove the pan, and cut open a roll.  The tomb and burial cloths are now empty, and Jesus has
Resurrected!! Alleluia and Happy Easter!!!