Today, September 5, is the feast day of Blessed Mother Teresa. Blessed Mother Teresa is our Teresa's patron saint. This year, I had decided to make a more conscious effort to celebrate the feasts of our children's patron saints, so thus, we celebrated this beloved saint!
Now, if you're looking to see what inspiring way we celebrated, you won't find anything spectacular here.
I've seen blogs where moms have made really neat desserts, decorations, and did all sorts of various activities with their family and children.... not me.
I don't want to mislead you - when I see what those ladies have done, I get so inspired and I think it's so beautiful! I've used some ideas for past feast days here and there. (Feast of the Assumption = "Cloud" jello..it was yummy and looked really cool). That's so awesome that they love to bake really beautiful and decorative treats, or do some type of neat craft. And I mean that.
But you know what I've come to learn about myself as a mother? I'm just NOT a crafty type of person, nor am I fond of baking. I've tried...and I will....sometimes. But it's just NOT ME. Ugh, the thought of it just puts such a burden on me. I start to shiver and sweat from the anxiety (not really). But again, that's just me and how I am. It may not be you or these other wonderful women who DO enjoy doing such things.
Ok so I'm a bit of a simpleton when it comes to this.
In our family, we go with the mantra "simple but special." Maybe you're someone trying to bring the Catholic life more alive around your home... Don't feel pressured to do something grand with your kids (in terms of crafts/decorations/food etc...) if that's not your personality or what you enjoy. I used to feel like that. Maybe do something more "intensive" every now and then when you feel motivated or inspired. But remember, you can always keep it simple yet have it still be special. :)
You know what I've noticed about our kids? That anything with our family members, dessert, and balloons equals TOTALLY, AWESOMELY FUN TIME.
Teresa blowing out the candle in the boxed Apple Crumb Coffee cake
Even though I forgot the balloons (shame on me), we picked up a dessert from the store (I just wasn't up for making anything!), Joseph picked out new flowers for our family "altar," we called up the fam to come on over, and prayed a family Rosary in thanksgiving for Blessed Mother Teresa. I also had a short reading picked out from a book about Mother Teresa that I had intended to read before Teresa blew out the candle on Bl. Mother Teresa's feast day cake ...but I forgot to do that. (And yes, instead of "Happy Birthday" we sang "Happy Feast Day" to Bl. Mother Teresa) :P Usually I set out a statue/picture of the saint we are venerating too, but I realized as I was preparing for the feast day celebration that we have NOT ONE picture or statue of Mother Teresa! So until we get one, whenever that may be, I will just have to use the front cover picture on a special edition of TIME Magazine that was about Mother Teresa.
Ok, so not the hippest celebration in terms of the trappings and trimmings...
But you know what? The kids knew exactly why we were doing this today...and they were excited about it. All of our family had a wonderful time and it ended beautifully praying the Rosary together. Yeah, it wasn't anything worthy of showcasing in a magazine, but Blessed Mother Teresa herself often said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
So if you're out there asking yourself, "How can we bring the Faith alive in our home?" I want to tell you - it doesn't really matter how you do it, just do it, and do it out of love for the Lord. Plan a little something and make sure you do look ahead as you plan out your month/week/whatever, but remember, it doesn't have to be elaborate, it can be simple. ...If you want to do something more elaborate because you'd enjoy that, then go for it! But in the end, bottom line, it is the amount of love you do it with that He will bless. :)