Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

Friday, February 22nd was the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. Our Bishop, Gerald Kicanas, asked the parishes when celebrating this feast to do so for retiring Pope Benedict XVI for his years of service to the Catholic Church.
The feast happened to be our weekly school Mass. Grades 3 and 4 were in charge of the Mass.  At the introduction to the Mass, the 4th grade girl read, "Today we are celebrating the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter", at that point two boys, ( one who was a pro at walking backwards) proudly carried out a regal looking chair with the sign- The Chair of St. Peter.

The introduction continued, "No, we are not celebrating the chair that St. Peter sat in." The introduction further explained that the chair symbolizes the teaching authority of the Bishop and the Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter, the first Pope.
The pope's mitre and crosier were then added.

Fr. Ariel in his homily had one of the servers pretend he was Pope-Pope Jaime. He further explained to us the meaning of the feast.

Pope Jamie-enjoying his new role. 

This week was also a busy one for us. On Wednesday, we had an "Arizona blizzard" as the weather lady told us. Here is a picture at about 3:00pm during the blizzard at our school.

Parents were calling to see if we were calling off school-no, we weren't. The snow was very wet and great for making snowballs which we did- a rare event for the children. I loved making the snowballs too. It has been a long time since I had a chance to throw snowballs.

By Friday, all the snow was gone and students were out cleaning up our grounds for the accreditation visit which starts Monday, February 25th. Please say a prayer that we pass with flying colors.

Students also cleaned their classrooms and washed their desks. 

Tis fun to do something besides school work. If you notice one boy is relaxing already. His desk is already cleaned.

The 5th and 6th graders also conducted an experiment. What is the best way to keep a can of pop cold without the use of a refrigerator. What would you use?
Here is the winner:

House insulation - the temperature only dropped 7 degrees all day. Her father is a construction worker.

Other students thought their idea would be the winning one. Here are other ways to cool your soda.

A battery in a box lined with Styrofoam

First inside a thermal coffee cup, then 2 pairs of wool socks stuffed inside a coffee can. ( Very creative! but not the winner)

What would you have done to cool your soda for the day?

LENT - CUARESMA

Lent -  a time to pray, fast and give alms. It is one of the longer church seasons after Ordinary Time. Lent requires preparation in church and school before Ash Wednesday - the first day of Lent.

Here the students of All Saints Catholic School are being active Christians by being of service to Our Lady of the Mountains Parish. They are removing the old missalettes from Ordinary Time and Christmas and putting in the missalettes that have Lent and Easter in them.

Ash Wednesday - the color in church is purple and the beautiful view from our church window is darkened throughout the 40 days of Lent. That is a big penance for most of us who enjoy the beauty of the outdoors.

The ashes are blessed and ready for distribution. "Repent and believe in the Gospel"

Students and adults received a nail after receiving ashes. A visible reminder of the pain Christ suffered for us and a reminder for the next 40 days to so something hard for Christ in return.

We had four Masses on Ash Wednesday and all of them were very full. Christians realize it is time to do some penance during the 40 days of Lent. .

The students at All Saints Catholic School traced their shoe and on the back wrote down what they will be doing for Lent. Some students told me they were giving up their DS, chocolate, strawberry milk. A little 3 year old said she was giving up running. :):)

Each classroom has a prayer table that changes with the church seasons. Here is the Lenten look in two of the classrooms.

All roads lead to the cross. Jesus, I will keep my Lenten promises. 

Sunday, Sr. Anna and I drove to Old Bisbee and we stopped to visit St. Patrick's Catholic Church. Here are the Lenten decorations in their church that were on each pillar in the church.
Can you tell how each one is a symbol for Lent?

 

 

Mary is always at her Son's side. Even to his last breath on the CROSS.

Have a very holy Lent! What can you do for the 40 days of Lent to show your love to Our Savior?

Mini-Camp Franciscan

This was a busy weekend with our school choir. We had our own mini-Camp Franciscan. We had a talent show, we prayed and sang together and ended up playing games together and having a meal together. The only part missing from Camp Franciscan in the summertime was the bonfire and sleeping overnight.
Here are some pictures of our mini-Camp Franciscan.

Saturday night was our school's fundraiser-Spaghetti Dinner/Student Talent Show/Auction of classroom gift baskets. We had a packed hall to the point we ran out of food and still three more tables to feed. More pasta and meatballs were found and the talent show began. Father Ariel was the emcee  for our talent show. Part of the talent show was Sister Act III with Sr. Carol and three Sisters in formation.

We sang Salve Regina, My God-with Father Ariel playing the role of the muscle man and the handsome man. This really brought lots of laughs.
We ended with I Will Follow.

Other students sang and played the piano.The school choir sang several numbers.

Sunday morning the school choir traveled to St.Andrew's Catholic Church located in the city of Sierra Vista. We would be the choir at their 10:00am Mass.
We took time to warm up before Mass with vocalies.

The church was packed even the balcony was full. The choir did an outstanding job. They really gave great witness to All Saints Catholic School and hopefully we inspired some of the families at St. Andrew's Church to come to our school.

After Mass I quickly flew home to make the brownies for our Mardi Gras party for the choir from 1:00-3:00pm.  The choir members were welcomed with beads and some even came with their own Mardi Gras masks. One of the girls asked, "Can we be silly today?" I said, "Definitely! I might be sillier than you even!" A familiar comment as they entered the convent, " Is that brownies I smell?   U mm-mm!"

The first game which they loved went like this: put an animal cookie on your forehead and using the  muscles in your face and eyebrows move it down to your mouth and eat it. No hands allowed. Here is what the game looked like--

 Try it and see if you can eat the cookie before it hits the floor.....too many times. The choir became very successful at this.

Time for bingo! Winners already!

Great Mardi Gras masks! 

The next game was good old bingo played many ways. Many winners and several took their turns at calling bingo.

The Mardi Gras party ended with chips, pizza and brownies and then they all went outside to try out the hammock and to play tag, running from one wall to the other.

A fun and successful mini-Camp Franciscan in Sierra Vista!

NO TWO DAYS ARE THE SAME!

The title this week - "No Two Days Are the Same! " fits this past week. The weather changed daily along with the variety of "hats" or "veils" I wear.

It was Catholic Schools Week and no two days had the same weather.We started out with nice warm weather which led itself to rain off and on all day with many rainbows all around school and indoor recess, which at times is a treat for children.

After the rain and rainbows we had cold weather and snow!!! 

View from in front of our glass church window.

Most picturesque church window that God changes constantly with His own pictures He likes to share with us!

A parent called me this morning at 6:30 asking if there was school. This was after I had left the house at 5:45am to pick up donuts for Donuts With Dad - our Catholic Schools Week activity for the day. I said yes, there is school. She replied, Well, don't you have snow there? I said yes, but not enough to call off school. You forget, I am from Wisconsin!
Here is Donuts For Dad on this snowy day......................

That night I had to give a vocation talk on being a Sister to our parish's confirmation class. They enjoyed the pictures I showed of myself as a Postulant, Temporary Professed and Final Profession. After hearing my vocation story I could tell the wheels were turning and they were trying to figure out - " How old is she with all these experiences?"

Catholic Schools Week continues and we have a Student Council activity - Mexican Bingo. Several of the boys on Student Council, their parents are originally from Mexico so they go often to Mexico so naturally they played Mexican Bingo. This is different from the "Catholic Bingo" we are use to.

 The bingo cards are smaller and instead of numbers there are pictures of items from Mexico. The boys took turns calling the item out in Spanish and then English. Beans were used to cover the pictures. After awhile though, one of them asked if we couldn't play "the other kind of bingo". We took a vote and all students voted unanimously to switch to the number cards. I began the calling and lots of kids were winning prizes and did not want to quit playing, even when it was time to go home!

Sunday I was invited to the Baptism of one of our 1st graders. I went to St. John the Divine Catholic Church of the Anglican Rite.  It has a congregation of about 20 people and little Willie is the only child.

Willie was first called up to the front of the church to see the priest and deacon and to say, "Yes, I want to be baptized." He was very nervous. He then proceeded to the back of church to the baptismal tub.

Little did he know how cold the water was going to be in the baptismal tub. He was shivering.

Willie very proudly carries up his new lit Baptismal candle to the front of church for all to see him as a newly baptized member of the congregation.

 Willie's job every Sunday is to take up the collection and he doesn't miss anyone. He came to my pew and asked, "Do you have any money Sister Carol? Do you? Can you put something in Sister Carol?" So I did as I don't think he would have moved on till I did.

Here is the outside of the church. It is a little country church.

After the Baptism it was time to get the convent ready for the Super Bowl party. Even though the Packers didn't make it we still decorated in their colors as most likely they will be needed for next year's Super Bowl Party.