My Latest Book...

I just finished reading Augustine Came to Kent, by Barbara Willard. It tells about a time when St. Augustine of Canterbury went to Kent. It is also about a young boy named Wolf and his father, who go along with St. Augustine and his fellow monks in 597.

Wolf's birthplace was England, but when raids started, Wolf and his family were taken to be sold as slaves. The raiders brought them to the Roman market place to be sold, and St. Gregory bought them and brought them to a house where they could live. He arranged for Wolf's father to be the helper of the farmers in that area. There, Wolf and his family lived for about 8 years until they were invited by St. Augustine to come to England to help bring Catholicism to it. His father refused the first request saying that he had to stay in Rome with his family. Soon after, though, Wolf's mother died.

The first time St. Augustine and his fellow monks set off, they were unable to make it all the way to England, so they sailed back. Wolf's father decided that St. Augustine and the monks came back because God was trying to tell them that they were supposed to go with them. Wolf's father left Wolf's sister in the care of dear friends and he and Wolf, who was 12 at the time, set off with the monks. Then, when they tried to make the journey again, they succeeded in getting all the way to England.

Because Wolf knew English, he was able to translate for the monks when they were in England trying to make conversions. In England he met a girl named Fritha. She and her father, like all the Englishmen, were pagans. Fritha had been promised to her cousin before they were old enough to protest. Soon after the family and the monks came, she and her father were their first conversions. Fritha later said that she not only had made a vow not to marry her cousin the day she was baptized, but had promised to marry Wolf.

But, her evil uncle was furious at hearing of their baptism and found a way to punish them...

There is alot of adventure and excitement in this book. If you want to find out what happened to Wolf and Fritha and if the Augustinians succeeded in converting England, you can find the book here.

~ by Theresa

St. Patrick's Feast Day...

St. Patrick was born in Wales in 387. While still young, "Niall of the Nine Hostages" captured him and sold him to a farmer in the country. He took care of the farmer's sheep and even his pigs. Sometimes he would have to kill one of the pigs just to keep from starving to death.


Then one day, he heard a voice, a voice from God. He said that St. Patrick had to get away, because there was a ship in Waterford that was going to France. When he got there Patrick asked the captain if he could go to France on his ship. The captain asked "Why are you in such a hurry?" Then he continued "You're a slave who is trying to escape, aren't you?" St. Patrick said "Yes, I am." The captain said "I don't want slaves on my ship!" Then they sailed away. They didn't get far. Almost as soon as the ship left the dock the dogs started barking and they had to go back. After several times of this St. Patrick said that if he could go on the ship then he would keep the dogs quiet. The captain said "Alright but if you are lying, then we will throw you overboard!" So, St. Patrick boarded the ship, and almost as soon as he got on the ship the dogs stopped barking.


When they landed in France St. Patrick realized what he was meant to do. He was meant to become a priest. Then he heard another voice, again from God, He said that once he had finished priest school he must go back to Ireland and preach to the Irish pagans.


By the time he went back to Ireland it was Easter. On Easter night they lit a fire. What they didn't know was that they were actually breaking the law. Then it was the custom that the king would light his fire first, then all the people could light theirs. Seeing St. Patrick's fire they thought the king had already lit his fire so they started lighting theirs. When the king saw that the people had already started lighting their fires when he hadn't even lit his yet, he flew into a rage and had all the foreigners, including St. Patrick, arrested.


The chieftain did not want to hear about God, but he let St. Patrick speak anyway. He was surprised at how well he knew their language. St. Patrick picked up a shamrock and asked "How many leaves are on this shamrock?" They all answered three. Then he asked "How many seeds did it take to make the three leaves?" They all answered "one". He continued to explain the Blessed Trinity with the shamrock, after all, if three leaves can be made by one seed why can't Three Persons be in one God?

St. Patrick stayed in Ireland for sixty years. During that time he not only consecrated 350 bishops to follow him, converted all of Ireland, but also cast out every single snake from Ireland.

His feast is March 17.
He is the patron saint of Ireland.


~ by Theresa

Feast of St. Dominic Savio

St. Dominic Savio was born in Italy in 1842. He was very pious and was always trying to imitate Christ. He was a good friend of St. John Bosco.

When he was 12 he went to a school run by Don Bosco. He always set a good example and when fights started he always tried to settle them in the most charitable way. He was always sure never to do anything that would not please God, and tried to make sure his classmates didn't either. For instance, one time when a magazine was sent to the school filled with bad pictures, a crowd of boys were looking at the shameful magazine when St. Dominic Savio went over to see what they were looking at. One glance at the horrid pictures was enough - he took the magazine and tore it into shreads saying, "Poor us! Did God give us eyes to look at such things as this? Aren't you ashamed?"

Then a boy replied "We were just looking at it for the fun of it."

So, St. Dominic said " Sure for fun, and in the meantime you are preparing yourself to go to hell!"

Then, another boy asked " What's the matter with looking at them anyway?"

St. Dominic replied "If you don't see anything wrong this is even worse, it means you are used to looking at these kinds of things." The rest didn't say a word, because they knew he was right.

One day, when St. Dominic was 15, he started feeling a bit sick, so he was sent home, but he just kept getting worse and worse. On his deathbed, he said goodbye to his loving parents. Suddenly, he seemed so happy and said "I am seeing such wonderful things!" and never said anything more.

His feast is March 9th.

He is the patron saint of the falsely accused, all children, and choir boys.

He is the patron saint of all children because of his good example to them, and because he tried never to let any of his classmates fall into sin.

~by Theresa

Simple Girl Tuesday

Outside my window... it's rather dull and gray, we're expecting either rain or snow soon

I am thinking about... my French lessons with a lady at church

From the kitchen... the dishwasher is running

I am creating...some embroidery which I got for Christmas

I am reading... a book from our library called " A Girl of the Limberlost"

I am hoping... we can go up to Spokane this summer

I am hearing... Mommy on the phone

Around the house... Bella had her puppies and Paul proposed to Nicole

Few Plans For The Rest of The Week... going to a St. Valentines day skate party on Friday.

~ by Theresa

Recipe Monday

This week's recipe is:
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup butter
2. 1 1/2 cups sugar
3. 2 eggs
4. 2 tsp. vanilla extract
5. 2 cups all-purpose flour
6. 2/3 cups cocoa powder
7. 3/4 tsp. baking soda
8. 1/4 teaspoon of salt
9. 2 cups chocolate chips

How to make

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy.
3. In another bowl, beat flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
4. Combine the mixtures and stir until well blended.
5. Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
6. Drop by rounded teaspoon fulls on to a greased cookie sheet
7. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until you can stick in a tooth pick and it will come out clean.
8. Let cool for 5 to 7 minutes and enjoy!

This is Interesting!

Who knows who the oldest person in the world actually is? I did some research last night and I found so many places claiming that they had the oldest person in the world, but I only found one place that didn't say something like: Mr. Shigechiyo Izumi is THOUGHT to be the oldest person ever. Out of this list can anyone guess who was the only one that was known to be older than 110?

Those Who Have Passed Away

Mr. Shigechiyo Izumi

120 years old

died February 21 1986

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Maria Capovilla

122 years old

Died December14, 2005

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Elizabeth MaPampo

128 years old

Died October 3 2003

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Mrs. Jeanne Calment

122 years old

Died November 26, 2008

*

Those Still Living

Bertha Fry

113 years old

*

Edna Parker

114 years old

*

Maria da Silva

125 years old

Can you guess which one has records to prove their age?

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Jeanne Calment was the only one that we know for a sure thing that she was 122. She was born February 16 1896 in Arles France. This is a picture of her at her 122nd birthday. She died last November.

Here are Some Pics of Where I Live...

Pleasant Winters...
Our Old Barn...Pretty Sunset...
Sometimes a fairy or two...
And lots of room to roam!


It's a wonderful place to live.

~ by Theresa

This Is Really Fun!

A virtual softie! It's a virtual doll and you can change its clothes. My 6 year old sister enjoyed it, and I thought it was really fun, too.

~ by Theresa

My Confirmation Saint

For my Confirmation I chose St. Barbara. I chose her because, ever since I was old enough to read, I've always loved the story of St. Barbara. When I was trying to think of a name for my Confirmation her amazing story always seemed to be the one I thought of. Since she is a very special saint to me I decided to do a post about her.

St. Barbara was the beautiful daughter of a rich pagan man named Dioscorus. She was born around the year 300 A.D, during the prosecutions. She was so beautiful that Dioscorus wanted her all to himself, so he imprisoned her in a blocked off cell with one window, with only the servants to care for her. One day a priest happened to be passing under her tower singing a song about Christ. St. Barbara asked what he was singing about. He told her all about Our Lord and the happiness of being a Catholic. St. Barbara said that she wanted to be a Catholic, too. So, the priest instructed her in the faith then baptized her. He told her that she must not let her father know because he would have her killed. Whether it was a servant who thought it was their duty or if her father just noticed we'll never know, but Dioscorus found out about her Baptism and dragged his own daughter to the Emporer and said she must be tortured then beheaded. She still kept her faith in God. It was by her father's own hands that she was martyred. On his way home he was struck by lightning and killed.

Her feast is December 4th.

She is the patron saint of military men and prisoners.

Thank-you, Mrs. Mama Bear for the idea for this post!

~by Theresa

Feast of St Agatha

St. Agatha was born in Sicily into a wealthy family. As an infant St. Agatha's parents dedicated her to Christ. For all her life she served God well and was always ready to die for the love of Him. St. Agnes was arrested by an evil Roman named Quintanus because she was a Catholic, but also because he wanted her to marry him. Agatha would never marry him because she was dedicated to Christ.

"O Jesus Christ" she cried as she set off on the journey to the prison, " All that I am is Thine; preserve me from this tyrant".

And Our Lord did preserve her. Even though Agatha was in the care of an evil person, she stayed pure and good while in prison. God gave her strength to stay firm and not fall into temptation when Quintanus offered her safety in exchange for sin.

Quintanus lost patience and sent Agatha to the torturers, but she never lost her faith in God. After being cut up and rolled over broken pottery, Agatha prayed for God to take her to Heaven, which He did.

St. Agatha is an incorruptible.
She is the patron saint of nurses and breast cancer patients.

~ by Theresa