Today (May 13th) is the day we celebrate the first appearance by Mary at Fatima in Portugal.
Cloë, didn't we do that back in February?!
Not exactly Tallulah, although we talked a lot about Fatima and the miracle that happened there. On February 20th we actually remembered Blessed Jacinta and Francisco Marto, two of the children that Mary appeared to. Click here to view that post again.
That bacon sure looks yummy Cloë, my mouth is just watering. I'm not sure about the dates, but with all that bacon flavour they are probably delicious too!
God calls all humans to help spread the Good News, but not everyone is asked to do it in the same way. Some boys will grow up to be priests, brothers or deacons. Some girls will grow up to be religious. Most boys and girls will grow up and get married and some will stay single.
How do the humans know which vocation God has chosen for them?
Click hereto watch Fr. Richard talk about how he knew God was calling him to the priesthood.
And finally here is a prayer you can pray so that God sends us more vocations.
God, thank you for loving me. In Baptism you called me by name to live as your child. Help all your people to know their call in life. For your greater glory, raise up generous leaders to serve as priests, deacons, sisters, and brothers. Amen.
Woof!
Cloë and Tallulah
P.S. Parents, the role you play in your child's future vocation is crucial. Here are a few links to great websites about vocations.
One of the reasons I wanted to highlight this story is because of what is happening in Syria today. Damascus is the capital the country of Syria and Saul was on the way to Damascus when God spoke to him.
Unfortunately very bad things have been happening in Syria for three years now. More than a million Syrians have left Syria because it is not safe for them and they are now living as refugees in the surrounding countries.
And the Christians in Syria are being persecuted today the same way they were 2000 years ago.
Gee Cloë, we are sure lucky, we go to Mass all the time and nobody wants to do bad things to us because of it. We need to pray for all Syrians, and in a special way for the Christians.
We certainly do Cloë. We can also help them by learning more about their situation and giving money to organizations who work with the refugees. Organizations likeDevelopment and Peace
Cloë I was checking out this website and I saw that Save the Children has a whole list of ideas about how we can help.Click here to see what they are.
A Prayer for Refugees Almighty and merciful God, whose Son became a refugee and had no place to call his own; look with mercy on those who today are fleeing from danger, homeless and hungry. Bless those who work to bring them relief; inspire generosity and compassion in all our hearts; and guide the nations of the world towards that day when all will rejoice in your Kingdom of justice and of peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
It has been a really busy week and our master was not able to help type out our blog for us. It was her birthday last Sunday and she had lots of family home to help celebrate!
She told us that things have calmed down so we can get back to more regular blogging.
Today we want to do two Gospels in one! As most of you may know, we are still in the midst of the Easter season. In fact it goes on for 50 days!
Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, but He did not go straight back to Heaven. Instead He stayed to help prepare his apostles for the mission He was going to give them.
So in last week's Gospel Jesus appeared to his apostles who were hiding away for fear that the people who killed Jesus would come for them.
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." (John 20:21)
Cloë, not all the apostles were there. Thomas was missing. And he did not believe the others that Jesus had come to see them.
He may not have initially believed Tallulah, but Saint Thomas became one of Jesus' greatest apostles. It is believed that he brought the Good News of Jesus all the way to India!
In this Sunday's Gospel, Jesus meets up with two of his disciples who were on their way to a town called Emmaus, not far from Jerusalem. The disciples were very sad because they thought Jesus was the one who had come to save the Jewish people and now He was dead. They were so convinced that they had been wrong that they did not realize that it was Jesus who was walking with them.
Go to Amy's Free Ideasto download the template and to find out how to make this cool pop up. You will have to scroll down a bit to find this story.
As the stories of Thomas and the two disciples demonstrate, sometimes it is hard to see God in our daily lives, especially when things are not going well. Try today to find God in the people, things and situations around you.
Well that's it for today. We have lots in store for you next week!
Hey I thought Easter was finished, wasn't it last Sunday Cloë!
You are not wrong Tallulah. But we are in what is called the Easter Octave. This means that Easter Sunday goes on for 8 days - kind of like one big long Mass. Actually, Easter goes on longer than this, but we'll talk about that next week.
Does that mean we get to keep eating Easter eggs?!
Yes you can Tallulah, but what is much more important is that we continue to celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and came back to life! That is such marvellous news that we have to celebrate for more than just 24 hours.
We have some other exciting news to share as well. On Sunday, the Church will welcome not one but two new saints! Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II will both be canonized this coming Sunday in Rome.
Some of you may be old enough to remember John Paul II and certainly your mom and dad will, but only your grandparents may remember John XXIII. He too was a very special pope.
Go to the Vatican's websiteto get all the latest news about the canonization and to learn more about these two great men. If you are really brave you can watch the canonization live - though most of us will be asleep since Rome is 6 hours ahead of us. You can also watch on Canada's own Salt + Light TV.
Today is the first anniversary of our blog! We can't believe it's already been one year. We have written 167 blog entries and have had more than 8,000 hits during our first year.
In honour of our first anniversary why not have a look at our very first blog entry when we introduced ourselves. Click here.
We are having a great time and we hope to continue writing many more entries. We love God and we think it is so important to keep telling people about Him.
