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alicegunther
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TracyQ wrote:
I'm thinking too that I might include in our study a couple of other things......one is that I may also include Holy Thursday and Good Friday, just in a simple way. I too would like to include more Lenten and Easter music as well. But we'll see. My focus will be on this beautiful Easter Vigil unit! What a blessing it is!
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This is a great idea, Tracy, and it plays in nicely with the Passion Story narration at the beginning of the book. The Gennady Spirin Easter Story begins at Palm Sunday, so the Last Supper is one of the first events narrated in the notebook. This makes it easy to introduce Holy Thursday and Good Friday, and should help them to understand why the Easter Vigil begins with the Liturgy of Light and without an introductory rite (because it is part of the Paschal Triduum).
It occurred to me while preparing the plans for the Liturgy of the Eucharist that, even though we are doing quite a bit this year, there is so much more to learn about the Easter Vigil. Perhaps it would be a good idea to plan the notebooks as a tradition to be repeated over the course of several years. The children will re-visit what they learned this year, but with a new depth of understanding. They will be able to review their own passion narrative, relearn the lovely prayers, add new sacrifices to the "gift" page, and learn more about the psalms.
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TracyQ
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alicegunther wrote:
It occurred to me while preparing the plans for the Liturgy of the Eucharist that, even though we are doing quite a bit this year, there is so much more to learn about the Easter Vigil. Perhaps it would be a good idea to plan the notebooks as a tradition to be repeated over the course of several years. The children will re-visit what they learned this year, but with a new depth of understanding. They will be able to review their own passion narrative, relearn the lovely prayers, add new sacrifices to the "gift" page, and learn more about the psalms. |
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What a FANTASTIC idea! I hadn't thought of that! And then I won't feel badly when we can't finish everything! We'll look forward to this being a tradition in our Lenten preparation. Yay!
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
 homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Meredith
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I love this idea too, because just like learning the Catechism, each year they grow in faith they learn more in depth what makes our Catholicism special. I will not be able to do justice to this beautiful study this late in the game, but for sure we will re-visit it again and continue to add to our books. It's so wonderful to be able to do that.
Alice, I just Love the pictures from the notebooks you've already posted. They are beautiful 
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Meredith
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Sweetness and Light
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alicegunther
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>>>Alice, I just Love the pictures from the notebooks >>>you've already posted. They are beautiful
Thank you so much, Meredith! And thanks to you too, Tracy.
I just thought I would write a post to let you know how this project is going so far.
We began on Ash Wednesday and have just about completed our Liturgy of Light section (for the most part--the girls will continue to copy and illustrate the Exsultet over the next few days and weeks). Tomorrow, they will create a page representing the Paschal candle lighting the candles of the people in church. This will be a lift-the-flap format page, so we spent a bit of time this afternoon just discussing how it will look. I used a plain white page to show them my ideas, but each girl had her own suggestions. It will be fun to see how each individual book turns out.
I am planning to work on the Liturgy of the Word section slowly, reading about two readings per week (starting this Wednesday) and asking the girls to narrate them. With four children at "narrating age," this will be time consuming, so it helps that the readings will be spread out over the course of the next 4 1/2 weeks. We will work on the "Liturgy of Baptism and Confirmation" pages during the first two weeks of March and the "Liturgy of the Eucharist" section during the second two weeks in March (not including Holy Thursday and Good Friday). Most of the Liturgy of the Eucharist section will consist of printed parts of the Mass for the children to read and embellish, so it should keep things from becoming too busy during the final days before Easter.
For those of you who have not had the chance to read through the Liturgy of the Eucharist plans, you might want to begin collecting the children's sacrifices for the "gifts" page. If it is too difficult to have the children write down each sacrifice throughout the course of the day, maybe you could take note of their good deeds and jot them down yourself. Wouldn't the children be surprised to have an envelope full of good deeds/sacrifices noticed and written down by Mom!
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Love, Alice
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alicegunther
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Hello again,
I just uploaded the following files onto the server:
Preparation of the Altar and of the Gifts
Prayer over the Gifts
Eucharistic Prayer--Preface
Preface Acclamation
Eucharistic Prayer I (First Part)
Memorial Acclamation
Eucharistic Prayer I (Second Part with Doxology)
I will be sending along the pages for the Communion Rite and the Concluding Rite in the next day or so.
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Love, Alice
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Meredith
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Wow, Alice, you continue to amaze me! These really should be published. We are only just beginning so I truly appreciate your re-cap. It helps us stragglers 
PS Have you been following the history thread at all, I bugged you for a question over there
Take care. God Bless.
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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light
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alicegunther
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Tonight, as we were reading a chapter of Fingal's Quest by Madeleine A. Polland, we came across the following paragraph:
"Patrick had come with no conquering armies, but almost alone; walking in peace through the green fields, and picking the small shamrock to teach his wide-eyed listeners of the Holy Trinity. He had kindled the Pascal fires opposite the pagan hills of Tara, and with them kindled a faith which was the heart and foundation of the Irish way of life." (Spelling of "Pascal" as in original.)
When the girls heard, "Pascal fires," they leaped up with a united shout: "Paschal fires! Paschal fires! St. Patrick was celebrating the Easter Vigil!"
It's moments like this when I feel especially blessed to be a home educator.
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Love, Alice
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guitarnan
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Alice,
It's all the faithfulness and love you put into it...thanks so much for sharing it all with us, too!
We had one of those moments today as well; I'm reading Bible stories to dd (7) from our fourth children's Bible (we own 5). We'd just finished reading about how God asked Gideon to help save His people, and how Gideon didn't want to...and dd said, "It's just like Jonah; he didn't want to do what God told him to, either."
Kerplunk.
I'm so grateful that she's listening to the Most Important Subject, at least!
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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JennGM
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alicegunther wrote:
| When the girls heard, "Pascal fires," they leaped up with a united shout: "Paschal fires! Paschal fires! St. Patrick was celebrating the Easter Vigil!" |
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Oh, that's so great!!! I had been actually looking for references on that incident to pass on to you! The St. Patrick video by CCC did a large part on that incident with the paschal fire...a feud with the druids. There's also this great book by Marigold Hunt called St. Patrick's Summer which I believe included that, also. My copy is packed away, so I can't verify. What a great moment when it all comes together! 
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Family in Feast and Feria
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MEBarrett
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alicegunther wrote:
| We own the book, For the Children: Life Lessons from Pope John Paul II, and it is a good one. I also occasionally print the words of the Pope if I think the girls should read them. For example, my daughter is working on a special First Communion book all her own. I printed out the Pope's message to First Communicants for her, and she was very glad to add it to her book. |
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Hi Alice: I just ordered the book. I would like to have Katie include the message from the Holy Father in her First Communion notebook. Is it in the book? I just spentt a frustrating 20 minutes searching EWTN's libraries.
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Mary Ellen
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alicegunther
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Thanks so much, everyone. I've been away from my computer all day, because we were trying to upgrade to a new edition of windows (unsuccessfully I might add) and my computer was out of commission.
Nancy, hooray for your dd! What a perfect connection.
Jenn, thank you, for the recommendations. I will be sure to play the CCC video for them and will seek out the Marigold Hunt book. It's too bad St. Patrick's Summer is out of print. We actually began the year reading two Marigold Hunt books--The Life of Jesus for Children and the Acts of the Apostles for Children. I will try to get a hold of St. Patrick's Summer as well.
Mary Ellen, here is the link to the
Pope's message to First Communicants. I hope Katie enjoys reading it!
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Love, Alice
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MEBarrett
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Thank you Alice!
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Mary Ellen
Mom to seven beautiful kids
Tales from the Bonny Blue House
O Night Divine
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MEBarrett
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Alice:
We received For the Children by the Holy Father yesterday. What a beautiful little book. I can see many opportunities for copywork. Thank you for making me aware of it!
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Mary Ellen
Mom to seven beautiful kids
Tales from the Bonny Blue House
O Night Divine
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alicegunther
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You are more than welcome, Mary Ellen!
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guitarnan
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OK, I'll take any advice...dd (7) was very interested in making her notebook until just this week; now she says she only wants to do it if she can put Disney stickers in it.
We're focusing on the Mass (thanks, Alice, for all your Easter Vigil files) as part of First Communion prep; her lack of interest now is a major setback.
All help is welcome!
Thanks.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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alicegunther
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I would suggest taking her to the local craft store to help her choose beautiful and appropriate stickers and maybe a few scrapbooking supplies. We found a stunning array of crosses, flowers, bibles and other Christian symbols at Michael's craft store. There are even Communion stickers and other lovely adornments in the scrapbooking section.
Perhaps your daughter would like these stunning Catholic Stickers available from EWTN catalogue.
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Love, Alice
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Karen E.
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[QUOTE=alicegunther]For this reason, we hope to spend the forty days of Lent slowly preparing the girls to appreciate the majesty of the Vigil. The prayers and readings, ceremonies and symbolism are so deep that we will have ample material to keep us busy for weeks, and I hope our study will give my children memories to last a lifetime.
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Alice,
I've just read your beautiful post on your Easter Vigil notebook plans. What a magnificent idea! It's too late for me to try it this year, but I'd really like to do it next Lent.
I so love the Vigil ... it holds such sublime memories for me ... of the night I was received into the Church in '95, the night Tom was received in 2000, and the other vigils I attended in those five years between, when I was privileged to be part of an orthodox RCIA team preparing and welcoming new members into our Faith. (A friend once teased me that I looked like a little mother hen at the confession time the day before the Vigil, shuffling my babes to and fro, making sure everyone knew what to do and where to go ... I have to admit that I came to feel a maternal love for each and every one coming into the Church.)
Last year, for the first time, I took Emily and Elizabeth to the Vigil. Tom stayed home with Kate (we all went again in the a.m. to celebrate Easter together.) The girls were awed by the Vigil's beauty. They did, admittedly, fidget at times, but they were glad they went, and they have been asking if we'll go again this year. Kate's not old enough to make it through (if only she were the kind of 2 yo to fall asleep at such things...) so we haven't decided what to do. But, I know that your girls will love it, and all of your preparation will make it so much more meaningful.
I remember, last year, the Protestant mother of one of the candidates was sitting behind us. She approached me after the Mass and said she was so moved to hear me whispering and explaining everything to my little girls throughout the Mass. She said, "You really made it meaningful for them." Ah, how inadequate my whisperings feel now! Next year, it's the Alice Approach!
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God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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alicegunther
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Karen E. wrote:
I remember, last year, the Protestant mother of one of the candidates was sitting behind us. She approached me after the Mass and said she was so moved to hear me whispering and explaining everything to my little girls throughout the Mass. She said, "You really made it meaningful for them." Ah, how inadequate my whisperings feel now! Next year, it's the Alice Approach!
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There is nothing inadequate about you or anything you do, Karen, and I am so happy to hear that the girls were moved by the Vigil. I'm hoping it will have a big impact on ours this year. One of my favorite things about this project has been the copywork for the Exsultet. Each line of that prayer is so haunting, and I love to see their little illustrations, especially because each of the girls puts her own unique emphasis on different parts of the prayer. This alone would make a good mini-project for anyone just getting started on this now.
Thanks so much for all your encouraging words.
By the way, friends, we have had quite a bit of computer trouble of late, which is why I have not created and uploaded the last few printable pages for use in your notebooks. Sorry to take so long!
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Love, Alice
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Karen E.
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alicegunther wrote:
There is nothing inadequate about you or anything you do, Karen, and I am so happy to hear that the girls were moved by the Vigil. I'm hoping it will have a big impact on ours this year. One of my favorite things about this project has been the copywork for the Exsultet. Each line of that prayer is so haunting, and I love to see their little illustrations, especially because each of the girls puts her own unique emphasis on different parts of the prayer. This alone would make a good mini-project for anyone just getting started on this now.
Thanks so much for all your encouraging words. |
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Alice,
You're much too kind. And you are absolutely right -- the Exsultet copywork would be a wonderful mini-project. Thanks for helping me see beyond "all or nothing"!
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God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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Wendi DeGrandpr
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Hello everyone - I have been following this very closely and I love this project. We will be doing a book this year but as we are starting late into Lent I expect to do a more detailed study next year. I just wanted to pass on that I found the book Alice mentioned: The Easter Story at Barnes and Noble on-line for only $4.98. It is marked as a bargain price book. I didn't see it in the store when I was there but admittedly I could have missed it or it could be available in one of the many other stores.
Thanks to everyone for the great information and inspiration.
God Bless, Wendi
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Easter Vigil Notebooks
