Out Reach: The Christ Child Society

The Buds continue to be busy focusing their efforts on proclaiming God's Truth, committing themselves especially this month to our Respect Life Campaign.  We received word that our Buds collected well over $200 during the Pennies for Life Drive, and now it is our goal to collect needed items for donation to our local Christ Child Society Layette Program.  This program services young mothers in need and their beautiful blessings.

We began our meeting this week working in our binders in a section that will be dedicated to Mary.  This section will be filled with all the beautiful coloring images of Our Mother.  The coloring page the girls completed this time was Our Lady of Fatima in honor of the Miracle at Fatima on October 13.

 

Then the buds were off to work in the gym, creating posters to advertise our collection effort and decorating boxes for all the donated items.  The creativity was flowing...and so was the glue!  Unfortunately my camera battery gave out just as I began snapping pictures of each group.  I missed getting shots of several hard working young ladies.  Oh, snap!

 

 So glad I grabbed a quick picture of Mrs. A's snack before it was too late.  Isn't it adorable?  A baby box filled with bottles and onsies! 

 A few of the girls stayed late to help hang the posters and place the boxes throughout the school and at the church.  After a couple weeks of collecting, we will gather everything together and then spend some time making blankets for the layettes, which will be added to the donations that we will give to The Society. 

What dedicated young ladies! 

Until next time,

Keep planting seeds...

An Invitation

Rose Buds, Please Join Us!

October is quickly nearing an end and so is the global 40 Days For Life Campaign.  With only two weeks left of this beautiful witness to our faith, I would like to invite all our Rose Buds and their families to join our family for the Family Adoration Hour at the St. Mary's Church from 6:00 - 7:00 PM this Tuesday, October 19.  The Rose Buds have dedicated their month of October to Truth and celebrating our respect for all life is a testament to that Truth.  What a beautiful way for these little souls to lift their faith-filled prayers together for this fantastic cause!

I know schedules are packed!  Please feel no obligation to stay the full hour.  It is our plan to offer a Rosary for Life at the beginning of the hour and then spend the last half hour in quiet contemplation before the Blessed Sacrament.

Please consider joining us!

Keep planting seeds...

Pennies for Life

The Rose Buds had a great time (and took very seriously their job of) collecting for our parish "Pennies for Life Campaign".  Many were up for the 7:00 Mass!  (Unlike our family who never makes it sooner than 9:00, but prefers 11:00!) We even had some "Buds-in-Training" (aka: little sisters!) helping out  as well!  What a beautiful testament to the Truth these young ladies are!  And what a beautiful way to plant the seeds of the next generation of women who will stand for that Truth in protecting the lives of the unborn. 

 

The parishioners were so very generous and our Buds were so pleased with the donations they will be able to forward to our local Family Resource Center.

 

Next on our agenda for Respect Life month will be putting together a layette for our local Christ Child Society.  The girls will be working hard at our next meeting preparing for a donation drive to gather items needed for the layette, all to help mothers who proclaim the Truth in the simple act of choosing Life!

Keep planting seed...

Truth: Rose Buds Respect Life

Our Rose Buds are dedicating their month of October to the virtue of Truth and they are working very hard this month to truthfully bear witness to Life.  During Respect Life Month, our Rose Buds will be helping with the collection during our parish "Pennies for Life" Campaign, as well as organizing a donation drive to gather items for the local Christ Child Society's layette program.

Our first October meeting was held, fittingly enough, on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary...our model for saying "yes" to life!  How perfect is that?

We started our afternoon together with a beautiful coloring page to add to our binders.

The girls have been invited to gather after our October 10 Mass to collect donations for our Right to Life Committee's "Pennies for Life" drive. To prepare for the drive, the girls created prayer cards to pass out to all the parishioners as a "thank-you" for their donations.  The girls worked hard to add ribbons and charms, flowers and bows to the cards to make them look like baby shower favors.  They turned out so cute and will be a beautiful message to all who receive one.

 

After working so hard on the prayer cards, the girls were soooooo excited to see what was in the treat boxes this week!  Mrs. A "wowed" us all again with her fantastic cupcakes, iced baby-blue and pink and decorated with life saver mint "binkies"!  Absolutely adorable and quite a hit with all the buds!

 And we ended our meeting with some fun, fun, fun (baby-themed, of course!).  The girls ran a relay race of "dress the baby".  Hilarious!  It was a great way to end a fun afternoon dedicate to Truth and the gift of Life.

God Bless You, Rose Buds!

Heavenly Father, You created men in Your own image and You desire that not even the least among us should perish. In Your love for us, You entrusted Your only Son to the holy Virgin Mary.  Now in Your love, protect those little ones to whom You have given the gift of life.

Keep planting seeds!

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...