Today is the feast of the great French saint, Margaret Mary! It is listed as October 17th in the old calendar, but I try not to let such niggling inconsistencies disturb my equilibrium.
Today is also the feast of St. Gerard Majella, patron of childbirth and expectant mothers. Both saints are awesome, amazing intercessors, but because Margaret Mary is my patron, she will get most of my ink this morning! (St. Gerard, you know I still love you!)
Here is a list of things I love about St. Margaret Mary:
· She began receiving the visions of the Sacred Heart in 1673.
· Because of these apparitions, the First Friday devotion was established.
· Margaret Mary was the first to promote the Holy Hour devotion.
· She is known for the three-fold virtues of obedience, humility and charity.
· Her body is buried beneath the altar in the chapel at the Visitation Convent in Paray-le-Monial, France.
· She is the patron of polio patients and also loss of parents.
· Her confessor was Blessed Claude de la Columbiere, whose book Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence is just awesome and whose feast is February 15. (We can tie that one in with Valentine’s Day!)
The name Margaret in French is Marguerite, which is also the word for “daisy.”I have no idea how you might work that into your lesson plan, but I have always loved
this little bit of info!
Here are 3 simple craft ideas for today’s feast, taken from EnchantedLearning.com:
1. Cut a heart out of a brown paper bag. Punch holes around the edges and tie with yarn. Write “Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You” on the front.
2. Fold a piece of red construction paper in half to make a card. Cut a heart-shaped hole on the front of card and glue aluminum foil to the back of it.
3. Take a commercial envelope and open it up carefully. Use the unglued as a template to make your own envelope by tracing the template onto pretty craft paper, a page from a magazine, etc.
You now have a “heart” to hold your love letter to Jesus.
I will close this post with a beautiful prayer, the Collect from today’s Mass:
Lord,
pour out on us the riches of the Spirit
which you bestowed on St. Margaret Mary.
May we come to know the love of Christ,
which surpasses all human understanding,
and be filled with the fullness of God.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Have a blessed Feast of St. Margaret Mary!
Margaret, thank you so much for sharing this post. It was delightful to learn more about your patron saint. I love all the ideas – and we will be looking for daisies today!
Margaret,
I so glad you shared the tidbit about the daisy. We’re doing the ice cream spoon craft shown at Alice’s blog and adding a daisy to our Margaret Mary saint will help distinquish her. 🙂
I am so glad to read this, Margaret. We have a huge clump of daisies blooming in our garden right now–not to mention a nine year old whose patron is St. Margaret Mary!