St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Hi Everybody!
 
Today is the feast day of one of the Church's great saints: St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

St. Bernard was born almost a 1,000 years ago in France to a rich family. When he was 22, he, 4 of his brothers and 25 friends joined an abbey that was started by the Cistertians.

What's an abbey Cloë? and what about the word Cistertian?

An abbey is a place where monks live. Monks are religious men. And the Cisterians are an order of monks that began almost a 1000 years ago!!

Eventually St. Bernard founded his own monastery in Clairvaux, France where 700 monks lived with him! Unfortunately the building is long gone. But the Cisterians are still going strong in 2013. They have 169 abbeys/monasteries all over the world.

 

Cistercians at work in a detail from the Life of St. Bernard of Clairvaux

 

 

Did you know Tallulah that we have a church in Finch named after St. Bernard of Clairvaux?! Here are some pictures.

 

 

 

We thought we'd finish off today with a joke. Tallualah, have you got one?

 

Yup!

Why was 6 afraid of 7?

 

 

Because: 7 8 9 - ha!ha!ha!

 

 

That's sad Tallulah!

 

Woof!

 

Cloë and Tallulah



Vacation Bible School!

Hi Everybody,

We just came from the last day of the Festival of Faith Vacation Bible School. It was so much fun! We have pictures but they aren't ready yet. We'll post them next week after we post our vacation pictures! While you wait, here are a couple of videos of the songs we learned at VBS.

The first is The 10 Commandment Boogie (http://youtu.be/5Kp8yXDpNaQ)

The other is I've Got the Joy.

These are two catchy tunes with great actions. Even we were up dancing!

Next week things should be back to normal and we'll start blogging more regularly again.

Hey Cloë I wanted to show them a picture of me with Super Duck! My friend Bonesy let me borrow it.

Sure Tallulah, go ahead.

This is me and Super Duck!!

Have a great weekend - Woof!

Cloë and Tallulah

We are back!!

Hi Everybody!

We are finally back from vacation. We thought we'd have time to blog while we were away but our master kept us too busy! We have some neat pictures that we will post over the next few days (our master has to find her camera first.)

Yesterday (August 11th) was the feast day of St. Clare. (Click here to read more about St. Clare.) She was a great friend of St. Francis of Assissi.

Hey Cloë isn't St. Francis the one who loves animals?!

He sure is.

Well any friend of his is definitely a friend of mine.

So in her honour here is another video of those crazy guinea pigs: Carmie and Clare.

 

(link for this video: http://saintfactory.com/to-the-guineacycle/)

Stay tuned for our vacations pics.

Woof!

Cloë and Tallulah

Thank Your Priest Today!

Today (August 4th) is the feast day of St. John Vianney, the patron saint of priests.
 

 
What's a patron saint Cloë?
 
Well Tallulah, a patron saint is a saint to whom God has been given a special group of people to help. So priests have St. John Vianney as their special saint in Heaven who really understands what they are going through, good and bad, and will talk to God for them. Click here to discover your own patron saint.
 
So getting back to St. John Vianney, he was born and raised in France. He really wanted to be a priest but he was not the best in school. He was eventually ordained because of his goodness. As a priest he spent a lot of time hearing peoples' confessions.
 

 
Go to catholic.org for more Saints Fun Facts!
 
I have a good idea Cloë, maybe people could send their priest a card this week telling him how much they appreciate what he does. Click here for some ideas.

 

And here is a neat craft from Catholic Icing, click here for directions

 
 

Finally, we found a special prayer you can say for your priest.

Lord Jesus,

we often ask your priests to pray for us:

our intentions, our needs, our problems.

This time, I want to reverse the order and pray for your priests, your servants,

and in particular I wish to pray for Father (your priest's name):

give him your Spirit's blessing,

let him radiate in our milieu,

may he be a spiritual guide for us,

support him in his ministry,

nourish his spiritual life.

Thank you for giving him to us as a priest.

I pray you, risen Lord,

you who are our Eternal High Priest

and sit at the right hand of the Father.

Amen.

We've met lots of priests Cloë so it might take some time to get them all into this prayer. But we especially want to pray for our "uncle" who is a priest: Father Timothy Walsh, LC.

Guess what Tallulah, he is coming to visit us today and we'll get to spend the whole week with him!!

Yeah Cloë, I especially love his black suit it looks so nice when it is full of dog hair- hee!hee!hee!

Woof!

Cloë and Tallulah

P.S. Parents if you want to teach your kids more about St. John Vianney you can click here for some great info and activities.

Greed: Another of the 7 Deadly Sins

Do you remember a few weeks ago when Tallulah was a little piggy and had too many hot dogs?! (June 27, 2013) 

I sure do - burp! I think they are still with me. 

We took the opportunity to tell you about the 7 Deadly Sins. Click here for a recap of the 7 and what each means.
 

 
Today at Mass, the readings talk about the sin of Greed! Greed is probably one of the sins that so many of us have trouble with!
 

Greed-Mr. Krabs

Obviously Mr. Krabs is greedy and desires money. How could Greed not be Krabs? He actually sang about the power of greed in “Selling Out”.

 

 

 
What do you know about greed Tallulah?

Well I don't think I'm greedy Cloë, I just like to make sure I get all the food and treats and all the hugs. Oh yeah and I also like to make sure I get all the sticks and toys that our master throws for you, I mean us.
 
Well Tallulah, that is actually greed. Greed means that you have to have more than you need and more than anyone else has. Do you know the opposite of greed?
 
I'm not sure Cloë, could it be sharing?! Ok, maybe I'm not so good at sharing.
 
I used to be pretty greedy when I lived with my friend Milo. But when you came along I learned how to share. Here is a video that might help you Tallulah.
 

 
(youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnD1t2O8vAE)

And here is the video of the parable that Jesus told to the people.
 

(youtube link: http://youtu.be/yS0pS0kV6uQ) 
 
Gee Cloë that guy is not very nice. I don't want to be like him. From now on I'm going to try harder to share.

Well that's it for today. Don't forget to share! Woof!

Cloë and Tallulah

P.S. Parents here is another version of today's Gospel.

 
(youtube link: http://youtu.be/z3yBvFuISVY)

Hanging out with Jesus

One of the best ways to talk to God is in Adoration. When you go to Adoration you get to be in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist!

As you know, Jesus comes to us in the bread when we go to Communion. We don't eat the bread at Adoration, instead we sit before the bread/Jesus and talk to Jesus. We also sit with Jesus and adore God the Father with Him.

 

Hey Cloë don't we have an Adoration Chapel here in Cornwall? Our master takes us sometimes when she goes on Saturday mornings.

That's right Tallulah, though we wait outside for her.

The Diocese's Adoration Chapel is located behind St. Peter's Church at the corner of Second St. E and Campbell (in Cornwall). It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and everyone is welcome to come.

 

 Does that mean someone could go at 3:00 a.m.?!?

Yup!

So the reason we are talking about Adoration today, is because it is the feast day of St. Peter Julian Eymard, who our chapel is named after.

One of St. Julian's greatest loves was Eucharistic Adoration. He loved it so much that he spent much of his life as a priest promoting Eucharistic Adoration.

Adoration is for everyone, including little kids! Here are two websites about Adoration especially for children.

 

Children Eucharistic Adoration

 

 

Children of Hope

 

 

Here is a picture of St. Julian that you can download and colour!

 

Does anyone know what you call the "holder" that contains Jesus in the bread? St. Julian is holding one? Let us know in the comments section.

 

I do Cloë! but I'm not going to say.

 

Well that's it for today. Woof!

 

Cloë and Tallulah

 

P.S. Most of our parishes have Eucharistic Adoration once a month. Many parishes choose the first Friday of the month. Ask your priest when your parish has Eucharistic Adoration, he would be very happy to see you there.

 

 

Happy Birthday Tallulah

Yesterday (July 28) I turned 3! I am feeling much more mature today. I had a good bday. In the morning we went to church with our master. Then we hung out with our master at home. But the best part was going to the pet store

 

where I got to pick out my own present!!!

 

There was just so much choice that it was hard to decide. Finally though I settled on a big giant birthday bone!

Here is me with my bone and my birthday cupcakes.

Cloë and our master sang me Happy Birthday.

And then we chowed down. Everything was deeeelicious!!!

Tallulah, in all the birthday excitement did you remember to listen at Mass?

I did Cloë. Yesterday Jesus taught his apostles the Our Father! And here is a read along video to help everyone learn this most important of prayers.

(youtube link: http://youtu.be/fUerHJD1n7o)

Woof!

Cloë and Tallulah