time for catholic crafts!

Did y'all know I am Catholic?

Yep. I like standing up, sitting down and kneeling at Church.
And I call the service "Mass."
I have a box of different rosary beads.
And I love me some Saints; among other things...

One of the super fun things that I have been wanting to do with my boys is to celebrate their name day, which is the Saint Day for the Saint they are named after (even though I didn't specifically name them after a Saint, we just have lots of Saints, so finding one with your name is not difficult - in fact here is a guide for you).

So I've been meaning to do this...which means every time I see someone else do this I think,
"That is super awesome, I will totally do that."
But then, I forget to do it.

Then one of my new friends (I know! I think I have 4 friends here in WI, it makes me happy!) invited us to a little name day party for her son Andrew.
Yes! Just the kick in the pants I needed to get this tradition started.

So today (St. Andrew's feast day is Nov. 30) we gathered at my friend Katie's house and the boys ate pizza and ran around like crazy men carefully and calmly completed a craft. And while the three year olds were screaming at tops of their lungs praying the rosary, the moms (and some sweet older girls) made a mom craft!

mom craft!

This, my friends, is a chaplet.
A chaplet is basically a bunch of beads that we Catholics use to count our repetitive, rote prayers - it's a prayer tool.

We created it to pray the St. Andrew Christmas Novena, which is a prayer directed at God, but begun on the feast day of St. Andrew (hence the name).

Hail and blessed be

the hour and moment

in which the Son of God

was born

of the most pure Virgin Mary

at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold.

In that hour

vouchsafe, O my God! 

To hear my prayer

and grant my desires

through the merits of

Our Saviour Jesus Christ

and of His Blessed Mother Mary

and of Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.

Amen.

Let's look at my chaplet again:

hey - I figured out how to use picnik!

I used two anchor beads, because I needed to wrap the beading wire around something and I liked the beads. Then there are 15 prayer beads, I alternated between two pearls and a polka dot glass bead because it is easier to keep your place with an assortment of beads - your fingers don't get lost as easily. And a cross, because I love Jesus, alternatively a St. Andrew medal would be great on this chaplet (but they don't sell religious medals at Micheal's).

To pray the entire novena you repeat this prayer 15 times a day, every day from now today until Christmas. Then your wildest dreams will come true...errr...your prayers will be answered. We are dealing with God, so if you are praying for something that He doesn't really think you need (ahem...new diamond earrings), it might not happen.

I happen to really enjoy repetitive prayers, I find them meditative, and once I've memorized them they are really easy to pull out in stressful situations.

Going to make your own chaplet?

Impressed by my Picnik skills?

Running for the hills because I mentioned religion?