Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes begins today

Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes

Prayer

Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest your shining with life, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child, St. Bernadette: "I am the Immaculate Conception." A thousand times we congratulate you upon your Immaculate Conception. And now, O ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of mercy, Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings deign to cast upon us a look of mercy. By appearing in the Grotto of Lourdes, you were pleased to make it a privileged sanctuary, whence you dispense your favors, and already many have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and physical. We come, therefore, with the most unbounded confidence to implore your maternal intercession. Obtain for us, O loving Mother, the granting of our request. (here make your request) Through gratitude for your favors, we will endeavor to imitate your virtues, that we may one day share your glory. Our Lady of Lourdes, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your divine son while upon earth. You have the same influence now in Heaven. Pray for us; obtain for us from your Divine Son our special requests if it be the Divine Will. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY ONE

O Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, virgin and mother, queen of heaven, chosen from all eternity to be the Mother of the Eternal Word and in virtue of this title preserved from original sin, we kneel before you as did little Bernadette at Lourdes and pray with childlike trust in you that as we contemplate your glorious appearance at Lourdes, you will look with mercy on our present petition and secure for us a favorable answer to the request for which we are making this novena.
(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY TWO

Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest yourself shining with light, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child Saint Bernadette: "I am the Immaculate Conception!" O Mary Immaculate, inflame our hearts with one ray of the burning love of your pure heart Let them be consumed with love for Jesus and for you, in order that we may merit one day to enjoy your glorious eternity. O dispenser of His graces here below, take into your keeping and present to your Divine Son the petition for which we are making this novena.
(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY THREE

"You are all fair, O Mary, and there is in you no stain of original sin." O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. O brilliant star of sanctity, as on that lovely day, upon a rough rock in Lourdes you spoke to the child Bernadette and a fountain broke from the plain earth and miracles happened and the great shrine of Lourdes began, so now I beseech you to hear our fervent prayer and do, we beseech you, grant us the petition we now so earnestly seek.
(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY FOUR

O Immaculate Queen of Heaven, we your wayward, erring children, join our unworthy prayers of praise and thanksgiving to those of the angels and saints and your own-the One, Holy, and Undivided Trinity may be glorified in heaven and on earth. Our Lady of Lourdes, as you looked down with love and mercy upon Bernadette as she prayed her rosary in the grotto, look down now, we beseech you, with love and mercy upon us. From the abundance of graces granted you by your Divine Son, sweet Mother of God, give to each of us all that your motherly heart sees we need and at this moment look with special favor on the grace we seek in this novena.
(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY FIVE

O Mary Immaculate, Mother of God and our mother, from the heights of your dignity look down mercifully upon us while we, full of confidence in your unbounded goodness and confident that your Divine Son will look favorably upon any request you make of Him in our behalf, we beseech you to come to our aid and secure for us the favor we seek in this novena.
(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY SIX

O glorious Mother of God, so powerful under your special title of Our Lady of Lourdes, to you we raise our hearts and hands to implore your powerful intercession in obtaining from the gracious Heart of Jesus all the helps and graces necessary for our spiritual and temporal welfare and for the special favor we so earnestly seek in this novena.
(make your request)

O Lady of Bernadette, with the stars of heaven in your hair and the roses of earth at your feet, look with compassion upon us today as you did so long ago on Bernadette in the Grotto of Lourdes.
O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY SEVEN

O Almighty God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary did prepare a worthy dwelling place for your Son, we humbly beseech you that as we contemplate the apparition of Our Lady in the Grotto of Lourdes, we may be blessed with health of mind and body. O most gracious Mother Mary, beloved Mother of Our Lord and Redeemer, look with favor upon us as you did that day on Bernadette and intercede with him for us that the favor we now so earnestly seek may be granted to us.
(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY EIGHT

O Immaculate Mother of God, from heaven itself you came to appear to the little Bernadette in the rough Grotto of Lourdes! And as Bernadette knelt at your feet and the miraculous spring burst forth and as multitudes have knelt ever since before your shrine, O Mother of God, we kneel before you today to ask that in your mercy you plead with your Divine Son to grant the special favor we seek in this novena.
(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY NINE

O glorious Mother of God, to you we raise our hearts and hands to implore your powerful intercession in obtaining from the benign Heart of Jesus all the graces necessary for our spiritual and temporal welfare, particularly for the grace of a happy death. O Mother of our Divine Lord, as we conclude this novena for the special favor we seek at this time.
(make your request)

We feel animated with confidence that your prayers in our behalf will be graciously heard. O Mother of My Lord, through the love you bear to Jesus Christ and for the glory of His Name, hear our prayers and obtain our petitions. O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

Less than a Week Until Ash Wednesday

There is less than a week before Ash Wednesday--one week to ponder and to pray and to petition God. What does He want from us? We have a week to seek Him and ask Him to help us plan. I've started to prepare a bit here at Real Learning. In the upper right hand sidebar is a short Lenten prayer. I prayed this prayer last year during Lent and found it to be incredibly powerful and transforming. It's short, easily committed to memory, and highly recommended.

I've got some plans for our family and we've begun to discuss them with our children. You can read them here at the Herald site this week: Before Lent, A Time to Refocus. This will also be our time for Patrick to finish his Confirmation notebook and Nicholas to make his First Communion notebook. These notebooks have become treasured family projects. My plan is to post Nicholas' notebook here as we go and to make a photo album of it for the sidebar.

On the lefthand sidebar is a list of books found in my bedside basket this Lent. I'm hoping to work through these early and have ample time closer to Easter to read The Life of Faustina Kowalska and The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska before Divine Mercy Sunday. This is quite a stack of books. I admit to having already begun--I'm reading Full of Grace: Women and the Abundant Life with a friend this week as a Lenten warmup. And I've already read some of the others.

His Suffering and Ours is a book I last read with my friend Nicole as she was dying. It has sat on my shelf untouched since her death. I remember writing to Kathryn Mulderink, the author, and telling her about Nicole. I had given my copy of the book to another friend who was suffering greatly and I needed a copy for Nicole shipped quickly, frankly, so that we could read it before she died. That's really the simplest and best recommendation I can give for this book. It was written by a close and dear personal friend who walked with me hand in hand through the lowest valley in my life and it's the book I chose for another friend when she wanted to find God in the agony of terminal cancer.Kathryn was God's instrument to bring peace to Nicole's final days. I will forever be grateful to her for her ministry.

Where will I find the time to read these books and also to sit quietly and listen for God's thoughts on these books in my life? The Lenten Prayer is a good beginning to clearing time away. A reader noticed it recently and sent me a little longer version. She writes, "It reminds me of the prayer of St. Ephrem that we, as Byzantine Catholics, pray daily during the Great Fast (Lent):

O Lord and Master of my life, keep me from the spirit of indifference and discouragement, lust of power and idle chatter.  (prostration)

Instead, grant to me, Your servant, the spirit of wholeness of being, humble-mindedness, patience and love.  (prostration)

O Lord and King, grant to me the grace to be aware of my sins and not to judge my brother, for You are blessed now and ever and forever.  Amen. (prostration)

O God, be merciful (+ and bow) to me a sinner.  O God, cleanse me of my sins and have mercy (+ and bow) on me.  O Lord, forgive me, for I have sinned (+ and bow) without number.  [Repeat 4 X]

Honestly, I believe that all the "time management" tools necessary are wrapped neatly in this prayer. A blogging friend told me recently that she only reads three blogs on a daily basis. The rest she saves for an occasional (rare?) time when she might have some unexpected downtime to sit and read a bunch at once. Or she doesn't read the rest at all. My blogs are all on my Google Reader. It's a great tool. It keeps me posted on who has something new to read on any given day. It allows me to organize my blogs according to category:  all the craft blogs in one place, all the gardening blogs in another, and the cooking blogs, and the home education blogs. It allows me to easily share with you on my sidebar any blog posts I have found especially interesting. But my friend who only reads three blogs a day says that those three are chosen because they are the blogs she includes in her prayer time. She reads them to come closer to her Creator and to better answer her call to be a holy wife and mother. This gave me pause. Can I choose just three blogs to be a part of my daily time with God?  Those had better be well worth reading.And if I did and if I limited myself to just those blogs for Lent, wouldn't I be well on my way to avoiding "the spirit of indifference and discouragement, lust of power and idle chatter?"And wouldn't I clear up a considerable amount of time that I could dedicate to those books on my nightstand? Yes, I would.

Lent is a time of penance and prayer and fasting. It's a time to re-evaluate, to strengthen ourselves spiritually, to root out the "stuff" that keeps us from being who God intends us to be. Recently, I was thinking about Lent in light of purgatory. I've long struggled with the concept of purgatory, mostly because I can't wrap my mind around the "time" dimension. But I do fully see the need and the reality of purgatory and I do trust the wisdom of the Church. Puragtory is the warm hug that envelopes the saved. Mary Beth Bonacci recently wrote an excellent article on purgatory. In part, she wrote:

I will see what God’s perfect plan was for me, and how I — to the extent that I was lazy or selfish or otherwise occupied — fell short of that plan. I will see how many more souls I could have touched if I had followed Him more closely, if I had listened to His promptings. I’ll see how their lives could have been better, or even how their souls could have been saved, if I had more generously allowed the Holy Spirit to work through me.
Yes, purgatory involves suffering. But I have read that the souls in purgatory are happier than those of us here on earth. And why wouldn’t they be? They are assured of salvation. They know they are going to heaven.

Lent also involves suffering. And the goal is very similar to the one Mary Beth reflects upon above. Can the ascetism of Lent allow us to see how we are lazy or selfish and what He desires instead? Can we live Lent in such a way that we touch more souls because we listen carefully to His promptings and follow Him more closely? In our prayer and fasting, can we be generous? Can the Holy Spirit fully inhabit us so that at the end of our Lenten journey, Easter is taste of heaven?

For the Feast of John Bosco

The Feast of St. John Bosco is January 31. He is the patron of our home education endeavor. Michael had always affectionately referred to our home"school" as "The Foss School for the Athletically Inclined." Good to know he had his priorities straight. When he began applying for college and we actually did need a name to put on the line asking for one, he chose St. John Bosco Academy after the good, Italian saint who was a lover of athletics and a, well, saint with boys. Perfect.

Tomorrow, Patrick will attend a talk at a local church on athletics and religion, an activity long planned and very fitting for the feast. Then, we'll all finish watching this wonderful, fabulous DVD. Then, following the Italian theme, we'll turn our attention to Days of the Blackbird: A Tale of Northern Italy. Dawn's got it all planned out ever so nicely. We'll enjoy our own version of her tea and a craft.

For dinner, it's Chicken Cacciatore over angel hair pasta and Frutti di Bosco alla Zablagione (HT: MacBeth)

For parents and educators and especially parent-educators, this is a a little bit of the good saint, well worth reading and pondering and meditating upon. A candle will be lit and my prayers will be that I can be the "teacher" Saint John Bosco envisioned:

It seems to me that the words of the Holy Gospel which speak to us of the Divine Saviour come down from heaven to earth to gather together all the children of God scattered all over the world, could be applied literally to the young people of our times. They constitute the most vulnerable yet valuable section of human society. We base our hopes for the future on them, and they are not of their nature depraved. Were it not for struggling parents, idleness, mixing in bad company, it would be so easy to inculcate in their young hearts the principles of order, of good behaviour, of respect, of religion, because if they are ruined at that age, it is due more to carelessness than to ingrained malice. These young people truly have need of some kind person who will take care of them, work with them, guide them in virtue, keep them away from harm.

When teachers are thought of as superior and no longer as fathers, brothers and friends; they are feared and little loved. And so if you want everyone to be of one heart and soul again for the love of Jesus you must break down this fatal barrier of mistrust, and replace it with a spirit of confidence in you.

How then are we to set about breaking down this barrier? By a friendly informal relationship with the young, especially in recreation. You cannot have love without this familiarity, and where this is not evident there can be no confidence. If you want to be loved, you must make it clear that you love. Jesus Christ made himself little with the little ones and bore our weaknesses. He is our master in the matter of the friendly approach.

In general, the system we ought to adopt is called Preventive, which consists in so disposing the hearts of our students that they ought to be willing to do what we ask of them without need of external violence. I would like to think that coercive means are never to be used, but only and exclusively those suggested by patience and charity. If we wish to be seen as friends wanting the real good of our students, and require them to do their duty, we must never forget that we represent the parents of these young people. If therefore I want to be a true father to these children, then I must have a father's heart, and not turn to repression or punishment without reason and without justice, and only in the manner of one who does so under duress, and for the sake of duty.

How often in my long career have I had to convince myself of this great truth! It is certainly easier to lose one's temper than to be patient; threaten young people rather than reason with them. I would say that it better suits our lack of patience and our pride to punish those who resist us, rather than bear with them firmly and with kindness. The charity I am recommending to you is the one St Paul used towards the faithful newly-converted to Christianity, who often made him weep and implore them when he saw them less docile, and less responsive to his zeal. Hence I recommend all teachers that they should be the first to practise fatherly correction in respect of our dear children, and this correction be done in private.

Sometimes it might seem to us that a young person was taking no notice of our advice, whilst deep inside they were well-disposed to cooperate, and meanwhile we were ruining him by our harshness which they cannot understand. Perhaps they did not believe they deserved so much punishment, for something they did; more from weakness than malice. Quite often, when I have sent for trouble-makers, treated them in a kindly way, and asked them why they were so unruly, I was given the answer that they were being picked on, as the saying goes, or given a bad time by one or other teacher. When I looked into the matter calmly and without making a fuss, I had to admit that the fault was not nearly as bad as it seemed at first, and sometimes simply wasn't there at all. For this reason I must say to you with sorrow that we always must bear part of the blame for insubordination. I have often noted that those who demanded silence, handed out punishments, exacted prompt and blind obedience, were invariably those who showed little respect for the useful advice I and other colleagues found it necessary to give, and I became convinced that teachers who never forgive their pupils, are in the habit of forgiving themselves everything. So if we want to know how to command, let us be careful to first learn how to obey, and let us set out first and foremost to make ourselves loved rather than feared.

Everything at its proper time, says the Holy Spirit. When there is the need to punish, great prudence is required to choose the right moment. Nothing is more dangerous than a cure applied incorrectly, or at the wrong moment. We can get to know the right moment only from experience which has been fine-tuned by the goodness of our hearts. First of all then, wait until you are in control of  yourselves; do not let it be understood that you are acting because of a bad mood, or in anger. In this event you would put your authority at risk, and the punishment would become harmful. You may recall that saying of Socrates to a slave he was not pleased with, If I was not angry, I would strike you. young people watch us keenly, and are good at judging from the expression on our face or our tone of voice, whether we are upset because of our devotion to duty, or because we are angry. Even though they are young, they know that only reason has the right to correct them.

Do not punish anyone the very moment the fault is committed, for fear that they are not yet able to own up, or overcome their emotions, they might become embittered, and commit the same, or even worse faults. Give them time to think it over, to recover, to acknowledge their mistake, and so make it possible for them to profit by the experience. I have often thought that this was the way the Lord treated St Paul when he was still breathing threats and murder against the Christians. It seems to me that the same rule is proposed to us when we encounter certain young people who stubbornly oppose us. Jesus does not throw Paul to the ground at once, but after a long journey, after he has had the chance of reflecting on his mission. And he did this far away from those who in any way could have encouraged him in his resolve to persecute the Christians. There instead, outside Damascus, he showed himself to him in all his power and might, and with gentle strength he opened his mind to see the error of his ways. And it was precisely in that moment that he changed Saul's attitude. From persecutor to the apostle of the Gentiles. It is upon this divine example that I would want teachers to train themselves, so that with enlightened patience and diligent charity, in God's name they await that opportune moment to correct.

When you are punishing, it is difficult to preserve that calm which is necessary to assuage any doubt that you might be acting to impose your authority, or to vent your anger. The more you act from spite, the less you are likely to be heeded. The heart of a father, which we ought to have, condemns this way of acting. We should regard those over whom we must exercise authority as we would our own children.

In certain more serious moments it is more useful to turn to God, to humble oneself before him, than to let loose a torrent of words which, on the one hand only harms the one who hears them, on the other hand does nothing for the one who deserved them. When we see our efforts prove ineffectual, and we have only thorns and brambles to show for all our labours, believe me, we must put it down to defective methods of discipline. God is not in the whirlwind, which St Teresa interpreted as, Let nothing disturb you. Our gentle St Francis of Sales used to say, I am afraid to lose in a quarter of an hour that little gentleness that I have managed to put together drop by drop over twenty years. What's the point of talking to someone who is not listening? One day he was reproached for having dealt with excessive gentleness with a young man who had seriously offended his mother. He replied, This young man was not capable of gaining anything from any rebuke of mine, because his poor attitude had deprived him of reason and common sense. A harsh correction would have done nothing for him, and would have done me a lot of harm, causing me to act like those people who drown trying to rescue another.

Young people often need convincing that we have confidence in their ability to improve, and feel there is a kindly hand to help them. You can get more with a friendly look, with a word of encouragement that gives his heart new courage, than you can with repeated blame, which serves only to upset, and weaken enthusiasm. Using this system, I have seen real conversions among those one would otherwise have believed impossible. All youngsters have their off-days - you have had them yourselves! Heaven help us if we do not try to help them to get through them without trouble. Sometimes simply having them understand you do not think they acted from malice is enough to ensure they do not fall again into the same fault.

Remember that education is a matter of the heart, of which God is the sole master, and we will be unable to achieve anything unless God teaches us, and puts the key in our hands. Let us strive to make ourselves loved, and we will see the doors of many hearts open with great ease, and join with us in singing praises and blessing of Him who wished to make himself our model, our way, our example in everything, but especially in the education of the young.

Pray for me, and believe me.

Your loving father and friend,

Fr. John Bosco

Feast of St Francis of Sales 1883

For more of St. John Bosco's writings, visit the Salesians and Crossroads Initiative. And I highly recommend Keys to the Hearts of Youth.

O glorious Saint John Bosco, who in order to lead young people to the feet of the divine Master and to mold them in the light of faith and Christian morality did heroically sacrifice thyself to the very end of thy life and did set up a proper religious Institute destined to endure and to bring to the farthest boundaries of the earth thy glorious work, obtain also for us from Our Lord a holy love for young people who are exposed to so many seductions in order that we may generously spend ourselves in supporting them against the snares of the devil, in keeping them safe from the dangers of the world, and in guiding them, pure and holy, in the path that leads to God. Amen.

In Real Life

Way back when the school year was still in the planning stages, Rebecca and I decided that we'd brainstorm together for "Tea and a Craft" ideas. We both agreed that we wanted the simplicity of a tea time and craft activity suitable to active boys and busy girls. And we both knew that Dawn's archives was a treasure trove of simple, yet meaningful afternoons throughout the liturgical year. So, we figured we'd start there and add and tweak as the year went along, bouncing ideas off each other and enjoying the synergy of friendship. We also knew that we wanted to add a good bit of beauty and, particularly, handicrafts, to our children's lives. So, those plans were "written in" as well (they were actually keyboarded and sent back and forth in endless emails and blogged a bit, too).
We've been sharing most of our learning plans, sending books back and forth between Virginia and Ohio for perusal, and chatting often on the phone. Rebecca's also been on an inspiring de-cluttering tear of late, and it's rubbed off a bit on me. With some other friends, we're talking about how to discern the  the best when you are surrounded by too much that is good, but not necessarily holy. And a dozen times a month or more, I'd have these planning conversations or clutter conversations or knitting conversations with Rebecca and I'd whine a little bit. "If only you were here, this would all be so much better!" And so, on a week that was destined to be gloomy (Michael went back to school and Mike left for the Super Bowl), God smiled on me and a minivan Gypsy Caravan pulled up at my house! We drank endless cups of tea and talked and talked and talked. Our children got to know one another. We sorted through my books and gathered bags and boxes of giveaways (aren't I the most gracious hostess?). We actually did one of those tea and craft ideas of Dawn's together! We made orange snowballs and had orange spiced tea in honor of Our Lady of Altagracia. All the children made pretty bookmarks with an orange theme and an image of Our Lady.In real life. Both of our families together in one place.
And, wonder of wonder, Rebecca taught us to knit. I still don't know how to purl, but Mary Beth does and she has actually finished two washcloths since Rebecca's departure.
I am grateful for the internet. In the nine years since I've been online, I've met so many good people and learned so many good things. I am also painfully aware of the pitfalls of the internet. I know how limiting an online friendship can be and how necessary the human voice and--better yet--the human touch is for a true friendship of trust and understanding. Computers are such a gift and can be such a blessing for our families and the world of blogging and message boards can be a place of community and friendship. This is an unprecedented world, though, one where we tread a bit cautiously as we seek to understand the limitations and the pitfalls of relationships begun in cyberspace. I'm still new at this, but I think the key to true and deep friendships is that both parties are real. If blogs and emails are "the real deal" and phone calls and letters and packages reveal even more of the real person, then the in-real-life transition is not a surprise at all. Instead, it's a blessing and relief. At last, we are able to see and hear and touch all at the same time. And we can revel in the easy companionship of an in real life and forever friend.God bless Rebecca!

Preparing for Candlemas

Candlemas is right around the corner. Now is a good time to pay Suzanne another visit and take note of lots of ideas for celebrating that she gathered for last year's fair.