Good Shepherd Sunday Celebration

This post is one for the records!

I realized thought I didn't have all the links in one place for the 4th Sunday of Easter, which is always Good Shepherd Sunday.  Then I found an old post that wasn't labeled.  So I did have the links posted here after all. (As I'm more than half way done with this post and spent an hour looking for my sheep template)! Argh. Oh well, I'm finishing this one anyway!  It will be fun for us to look back and see the differences over the years;)
Celebrating Good Shepherd Sunday has been one of our many liturgical celebrations over the years.  Some of the others have come and gone but this one has "stuck" for our family!  (It has officially made it to our annual list of traditions and everyone looks forward to it. Mostly, I think everyone loves the menu:)  For me, I love the reminder that we are the sheep and Christ is our Shepherd.  Like good sheep of the flock, staying closely pressed to Him is the best place to be.

We made these cute little guys a few years ago.  I loved them because they were easy to print out on card stock, color, and fold for each member of our family.  They can be found at the Crayola website.  I also Pinned them so they can always be reproduced if we add more family members or if one gets ruined.  We bring them out to graze the table (above) on Good Shepherd Sunday:)

Each year our menu stays pretty much the same, though our dessert has varied.

Shepherd Pie
{I always use this one from Simply Recipes and add a shredded cheesy Cross to top before baking}

Shepherd staff breadsticks

Green pasture salad

Flock of sheep dessert

In previous years, we have made Flock of Sheep Cookies but this year we stuck to easy peasy Rice Krispy treats since I have a sheep cookie cutter.

This year my Good Shepherd glass candle fell to the floor, broken by me and not the kids this time.  I am able to reproduce it very easily with this link and instructions for a tall glass candle jar. Yay!
Well that's about it.  Praying all of you readers are still feeling the graces of Easter!
When all else fails, count eat sheep:)

Good Shepherd Sunday Dinner

Happy Good Shepherd's Sunday!

I'm re-posting our traditional dinner menu as I'm scrambling out to the grocery store after Mass to pick up supplies...Good Shepherd Sunday snuck up on me this year:)  Just in case you are looking for quick and easy ideas to celebrate this special day of the Easter season!

Our Good Shepherd Menu:

• Shepherd's Pie (I used the recipe from Simply Recipes) With a cheese cross garnish:)
• Shepherd's Staff Bread Sticks
• "Green Pasture" salad
• Flock of Sheep Cookies

Our sheep cookies were really easy and turned out cute!  

Sheep Cookie Tutorial:

*Easy*

Here is a photo of the ingredients:

1.  Use any jumbo chocolate chip cookies. (Ours were store bought)

2.  Frost in sheep wool swirls with cream cheese frosting.  Mix with a bit of chocolate frosting for a tan color.

3.  Use regular sized marshmallows cut in half for the face

4.  Cut mini sized marshmallows in half for the ears

5.  Mini chocolate chips were used for the eyes

6.  Nose/mouth was a mini m&m

7.  Black licorice was used for the legs

Table Decor:

(I saved these and re-use each year)

Two years ago, we did a little sheep craft to decorate our table based on an idea from this link.  We made 7 sheep, for 7 people in our family to represent the fact that we are Christ's sheepfold.  Then we cut out green hand prints for the sheep's pasture to represent the hands of the father from the gospel passage:  

"My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father's hand.  The Father and I are one." ~John 10:29-30~

Here is a tutorial for a quick and easy Good Shepherd Candle Craft if you don't have a (home) Paschal Candle:

I found this link to a printable Good Shepherd that I found in google images.  If you click on the full size image, you should be able to print to the perfect size for these clear glass candles, found at the Dollar Tree (and many other places too).

I printed it out and used this product to seal it to the candle.

This is something I found that does not cause printed color copies to bleed.  It worked perfectly!  If you don't have this, Good old Mod Podge will work too.

~The Good Shepherd candle worked great along side our Paschal Candle~

Most importantly, let us remember to always listen for the voice of the Shepherd...

Our happiness depends on our fidelity to the grace that keeps us sensitive, aware, and disposed to the tender voice of the Shepherd...."I think I could no longer live if I stopped hearing Him speak."~Johan A. Mohler~

Good Shepherd/Our Lady of Fatima Garden Party

~Our Garden Party centerpiece was Our Lady of Fatima~

~I tried to make it look like a spinning sun with a gold scarf and lighted candles~

Our Lady of Fatima, please pray for us!

The Heavens Tell God's Glory!

We were finally able to have a Good Shepherd's Garden Party!  After playing a bit of catch-up after our First Communion and other festivities, we were able to pull it together.  I bought the Good Shepherd calendar last year with good intentions to participate this year...I can't believe it's the 3rd week of Easter already!  We are joining in late and it sure makes me appreciate Jessica and Charlotte's lovely devotion all the more.

We ended up combining our Garden Party with the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.  The symbols of the sun and rainbow worked out perfectly for our dessert...
Miracle of the "Sun"-daes!

Our Menu
Lighting Bolt Quesadillas topped with Swirling Wind Sour Cream
Shining Sun Fruit Platter
Shortbread Sun Cookies
Blue Rain Gatorade
(Also blue for Our Lady)
Miracle of the Sun-daes with Garden of Good Shepherd toppings:
*(We used vanilla frozen yogurt instead of ice cream)*
Yogurt covered Hail raisins
Mini marshmallow Clouds
Rainbow M&M's
Rainbow Lucky Charms
Rainbow cookie crumbles

Lightning Quesadillas with Swirling Wind Sour Cream

~I put sour cream in a ziplock bag, sealed it, clipped the corner and squeezed it like frosting to get the swirling effect~

Shining Sun Fruit Platter

Diced pears and mandarin oranges...Favorites at our house!  I ended up adding a second layer to make sure we had enough for everyone but I think this one looks less like a Sun.

Shortbread Sun Cookies

These were store bought from Pepperidge Farms, found at Target.

Blue Rain Gatorade

(And blue for Our Lady too)

The kids loved the whole thing!  It's always fun to bring out the fancy dishes... 

(What better way to honor Our Lady)

and tea cups too!

Incorporated into our dessert:
Yogurt covered Hail raisins and mini marshmallow Clouds

Rainbow M&M's
Rainbow Lucky Charms
Rainbow cookie crumbles

These were fun toppings for our frozen yogurt
Miracle of the "Sun"-daes!

After we added the toppings...

We found that we got a better rainbow if we took out the brown M&M's!

It was fun to stir things up to make that spinning sun.

The fun part about these "Sun"-daes was the result of the melted M&M's at the bottom of the bowl.  They left the effect of the spinning sun with rainbow colored rays!

Isn't that an amazing bonus to the dessert?
If you would like to read more about this miracle at Fatima, Catholic Fire has a nice article.  Please visit JOYfilled Family for some wonderful Our Lady of Fatima resources too.

I also wanted to share a link to a printable Good Shepherd that I found in google images.  If you click on the full size image, you should be able to print to the perfect size for these clear glass candles, found at the Dollar Tree (and many other places too).

I printed it out and used this product to seal it to the candle.

This is something I found that does not cause printed color copies to bleed.  It worked perfectly!  Good old Mod Podge will work too, though you may get a little color bleeding.
~The Good Shepherd candle worked great along side our Paschal Candle~

This is our updated calendar, next to our Easter Cross.  We also started the Easter Cross countdown last year!

From the theme of this week: "With our eyes to the skies we will open wide our senses to the wonders of nature, and we will praise the Lord who is the maker of all."

We are all looking forward to next week!

The Good Shepherd Alive In Our Midst

First Reconciliation

“Let us run to her, and, as her little children, cast ourselves into her arms with a perfect confidence.”
-Saint Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church-

The Good Shepherd continues to be with us through this week...For this we are especially grateful.  Our daughter Princess received her 1st Reconciliation today.  We were reading together yesterday and

preparing for the day and the first line we read was this: 

"Jesus the Good Shepherd is waiting to meet you in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  He longs to hold you close and forgive you.  He wants to help you set things right again."

Princess exclaimed:  "Hey, Mom, this is what we've been talking about and hearing about in our bible readings... and in church!"  Oh what joy when God reveals himself to us through our children.

We have also been blessed to have a pilgrim statue of St. John Vianney this week.  Last night we were reading the mediations and prayers.  In the prayer for vocations, the first line of the prayer read:

"O God our Father, You promised "I will appoint shepherds for My sheep who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble: and none shall be missing." (Jer. 23-4-5)  Hear the prayers of your flock.  Through the intercession of Your beloved priest, Saint John Vianney, we beg You to call to the sacramental priesthood generous men who will desire nothing more than to serve You in imitation of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, our High Priest.

As we read the words of the prayer, our family's eyes met with a knowing look that this was yet another God-incidence with the discussion of the Good Shepherd and his sheepfold.  We talked afterwards how this pilgrim piece of St. John Vianney was definitely meant to visit our family during the week of the Good Shepherd.  Though we don't know why, we are still grateful.  Princess responded with "God knows what he is doing!"  Yes, He sure does.

Many blessings from our sheepfold to yours!

"Let us live as the Blessed Virgin lived: loving God only, desiring God only, trying to please God only in all that we do."
~St. John Mary Vianney~

Good Shepherd Sunday

Fourth Week Of Easter

Happy Good Shepherd's Sunday!
Jesus said: "My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish" 
~John 10:27-28~

We are half way through the Easter Season already!  Continuing our 8 week Easter Gospel Study, we are moving into the second half and the 4th week of Easter.  (The post for Part 1 of our study is here.)  Our kick-off was a Friday Family Dinner to celebrate our Good Shepherd, Christ the Lord!  I give thanks to Showers of Roses and Waltzing Matilda for our menu inspiration which included Shepherd's Pie and Shepherd's staff bread sticks.

Easter Countdown~8 week Sunday Gospel Study

First Week of Easter

I don't know about you, but Mondays are the hardest day of our week!  This was a good transition from our Easter break last week.  We started this project to increase our faith and understanding of the Easter season by studying the 8 Sunday gospels from Easter Sunday to Pentecost.   I wanted a "visual" to help the kids see the weeks unfold into the Ascension and Pentecost.  We came up with this tri-fold that I had on hand from the Dollar Tree.  Then we built in a snack, a craft or two, and a couple of fun celebrations for Good Shepherd Sunday, The Ascension, and Pentecost!  This was a fun journey and bible study.

Our idea was to highlight the theme for each week's gospel by studying the readings that unfold after the Resurrection.  We included feast days and other things that were pertinent to the week we are studying.  This was a good opportunity to study what Jesus had to say to His disciples, the first leaders of the Catholic Church, after his death and resurrection.

 This is the 1st Sunday, Easter Sunday.  The Gospel according to John 20:1-9

2nd Week of Easter

This was the 2nd Sunday block.  The Gospel according to John 20: 9-31.  We read and discussed the Gospel of John about Thomas who doubted and had to see and touch the wounds of Jesus himself.  We focused on Jesus' response which was "Believe!"  We also noticed that Jesus repeatedly greeted His disciples with "Peace be with you."  And of course we talked about the Divine Mercy which I wrote about in another post.

Third Week of Easter

The Third Sunday study is centered around the Gospel of John 21: 1-19.  Jesus reveals himself at the Sea of Tiberias (Sea of Galilee).  We took this opportunity to find it on the map!

As we have seen all week, through the readings, Jesus is the Bread of Life.  His resounding message at the end of the gospel is "Follow Me." ~John 21:19~  He is the Bread of Life.  We noticed the pattern of 3's in this 3rd Sunday.  This is the 3rd time Jesus revealed himself to his disciples after being raised from the dead. (John 21:14).  And Jesus asks Peter 3 times, "Do you love me?"  This is reflected in our next block.  And we are SO glad Peter said YES!  We will practice saying "Yes" to Jesus and telling him we love him.

We followed our study with a fun snack.  Princess helped Superboy count out 153 fish like Jesus gave to his disciples when they cast their nets over their boat. (John 21:11)

Then we carved out a loaf of french bread into the shape of a boat.  After decorating a cookie sheet with blue construction paper and saran wrap, we were ready to set sail!  We thought this was fitting to the reading when Jesus invited his disciples to breakfast and gave them bread and fish. (John 21:12-13)  We used the photo (below) of an ancient vessel as our guide.  Different shaped pretzels were added to make the seats, oars and net.

Then we were ready to fill the boat with the 153 fish!  Jesus said to them: "Come, have breakfast." And none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they realized it was the Lord.  (John 21:12)

The FINAL TOUCH was to add a few disciples!  We counted 7 names in the Gospel story.  We made them from pretzel sticks and mini marshmallows.  Peanut butter was our glue and black frosting was used to make the faces and hair, applied with toothpicks.  I forgot to mention that we used a large pretzel stick and a triangle tortilla piece for the sail, "glued" with peanut butter!

Here is Jesus proclaiming "FOLLOW ME." (John 21:19)  We will be doing our best to do as Jesus asks us!

Then we got to eat the "fish and bread", like the disciples:)

Fourth Week Of Easter

We celebrated Good Shepherd Sunday with a special family meal!  It can be found in a separate post titled Good Shepherd Sunday.  This is how we decorated out bible board this week:

The Fifth Week of Easter

This week we are learning about the great commandment of LOVE!  The gospel reading was John 13:31-35.  Jesus asks us to love one another as He has loved us.  He states that "This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."  Our bible board reflects the heart of Jesus and all the ways that we should love, written inside the heart.

It is also the Month of May so we are talking and doing a lot of activities to celebrate "Mary's Month."
The Sixth Week of Easter
This was Mother's Day!  We celebrated with the planting of our Mary Garden so not much was written on the board this week.  The garden is a lot of planning and preparation but always SO worth it!  It's one of my favorite traditions.
The Seventh Week of Easter 
The Seventh week of Easter is Ascension Sunday!  This year it also fell on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima so we combined our fun and celebrations with an Ascension Lunch.


The Eighth Week of Easter
The eighth week of Easter is Pentecost Sunday!  We ran out of gas with updating our board by the end of the 50 days...can you tell!?  However, we had fun preparing for Pentecost with this fun craft.  We sure had a blessed Pentecost celebration to close out the Easter season!

Easter is officially over but we sure enjoyed learning more about this fantastic 50 days!