Our Motherhouse Field Trip

This month of September, our Rose Buds have been focusing on Faith. The girls have been hard at work praying for vocations and an increase in faith in ourselves, our parish and our community. To help us live out this virtue, we decided to end the month of September with a field trip to the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis Motherhouse and examine the call to faith in the religious life. We are blessed to have the Motherhouse only minutes from our own parish. I hope you will all visit the Motherhouse website and/or their blog. I'm sure the girls would love to see photos of the Sisters now that they have met them! I know I had fun looking through it all!

Our event started after school on Friday. The girls did a fantastic job of completing the task of creating a Spiritual Bouquet for one of the Sisters. We piled them all into our basket and then we all piled into the car! (Thanks to all you Moms and Dads that helped drive and chaperone!)

Sister Judith Ann greeted the girls as we arrived and she ushered us into the House, where all the other Sisters were waiting.

It was our pleasure to meet the Sisters and sing for them. The girls offered two songs about Mary, and then recited a poem about Mary as well. Sister Judith then led the girls in a decade of the Rosary.

It was so hard to get good shots of all the beautiful Buds. I know there are a few sweeties that can't be seen in the crowd of hair, but aren't they all just beautiful?!

After our Rosary, Sister Judith Ann gave all the girls prayer cards of St. Theresa. Don't miss her feast day coming up on October 1st (October 3rd on the traditional calandar). Visit my favorite site here for lots of fun ways to celebrate this special saint!

The girls then had a fantastic time letting the Sisters choose a Spiritual Bouquet from the basket. I didn't do a very good job of making sure all the Buds got a turn to help out, so I apologize for that, but all the Sisters were accounted for and we saw many smiles (and even some tears.) What a blessing for all.

Our last stop was a nice visit to the chapel, where Sister Judith Ann led us in one last prayer before we departed.

We had a wonderful trip and a beautiful visit and I just have to wonder...how many seeds were planted this day? What might grow within the hearts of these lovely girls because of the witness of the Sisters they met today?

Keep planting seeds...

Welcome Back Buds!

It was great to see so many smiling faces, ready to dive into a new year of growing in Christ! Our first meeting was a success...although maybe a bit boring, as we had to get into the swing of things with some review "stuff"...but nevertheless, a great time to be together with all our Rose Bud friends.

We will be meeting this year in the school cafeteria because we have such a big group...27 girls! WOW!
It's not the most comfy of places but it gives us lots of table space, everything we need to get snack ready and the gym is right next door (which came in handy today as you will see!)

We began with Mary, Queen of Heaven coloring pages until all the Buds arrived.

Then we moved on to learning how to earn our September Cross.
This month is dedication to the virtue of faith and putting our faith into action.

The girls were very attentive and interested in their tasks for the month, especially the Marian Prayer Box that will rotate from girl to girl each week throughout our year as we pray for an increase in the lives of the faithful and an increase in vocations to religious life.

Then we discussed our next meeting, which is our first field trip! Already! We will visit the local Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis Motherhouse, bringing spiritual bouquets to all the Sisters there. We practiced a beautiful Marian poem and two songs that we will perform for the Sisters too.

After being such good listeners, the girls were ready for snack, which has become practically world famous (or at least town-wide famous!) for the best and cutest cupcakes ever (thanks to a very special Mom helper)! No, it's not Martha Stewart, but very, very close!

After all that sugar (yes, that rose is ALL icing!) we decided it might be best to run some energy off so... we hopped into the gym for a game of "Sinner, Sinner, Saint". That would be the Catholic version of "Duck, Duck, Goose"! The chosen "It" is Mary, who leads the chosen "Saint" to Jesus in Heaven! The girls had a blast! It's amazing how something so simple can be so much fun.

It was a great way to start our new year together and I hope everyone is looking as forward to the coming months as I am.

Keep planting seeds...