Mary, the First Tabernacle

Without a doubt, the page from our new book that garnered the most attention was this one. I've witnessed collective gasps, "wowwww," and exclamations of delight when people first spot the image of Mary as the First Tabernacle with little Baby Jesus in her womb.

Shari has told me that it was the first illustration cemented on her mind during her initial read-through of my manuscript. She was struck by the lines:

Mary was set apart and prepared to be the mother of the Messiah. She was pure and holy, filled with grace, and had a heart completely in tune with God’s will... What wonder and awe she must have felt to know that God’s promises were being fulfilled with her fiat, her yes. Imagine the nine months Mary waited like a living tabernacle with Jesus growing within her. Mary knew that hidden in her womb was the Light of the world.

I certainly am not the one who came up with this imagery. So along with a coloring page version of the illustration from our book, I thought I would share with you some wisdom from the Church and the Saints about Mary, the First Tabernacle:

• In his 1976 address at the Eucharistic Congress, Fulton Sheen called her "Mary, the Tabernacle of the Lord." He said: The Word was made flesh and tabernacled within her. In a certain sense, it was Mary’s first Holy Communion, for she had within herself the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.
• Fulton Sheen also wrote: How to find Christmas peace in a world of unrest? You cannot find peace on the outside but you can find peace on the inside, but letting God do to your soul what Mary let Him do to your soul what Mary let Him do to her body, namely, let Christ be formed in you. As she cooked the meals in her Nazarene home, as she nursed her aged cousin, as she drew water at the well, as she prepared the meals of the village carpenter, as she kneaded the dough and swept the floor, she was conscious that Christ was in her, that she was a living Ciborium, a monstrance of the Divine Eucharist.
• St. Gregory the Great said, Mary, you are the vessel and tabernacle containing all Mysteries.
• St. Peter Julian Eymard wrote this beautiful reflection on St. Joseph adoring Jesus before his birth: Words cannot express the perfection of his adoration. If Saint John leaped in the womb at the approach of Mary, what feelings must have coursed through Joseph during those six months when he had at his side and under his very eyes the hidden God! If the father of Origen used to kiss his child during the night and adore the Holy Spirit living within Him, can we doubt that Joseph must often have adored Jesus hidden in the pure tabernacle of Mary? How fervent that adoration must have been: My Lord and my God, behold your servant! No one can describe the adoration of this noble soul. He saw nothing, yet he believed; his faith had to pierce the virginal veil of Mary. So likewise with you! Under the veil of the Sacred Species your faith must see our Lord. Ask St. Joseph for his Lively, constant faith.
• St. Margaret Mary Alacoque said: Every time you visit the Church for the love of Christ, His heart draws us in an embrace of sheer delight. The tabernacle is like Mary’s womb wherein dwells the same Christ who reigns above, adored by angels, He who enters our bodies and souls.
• And Pope St. John Paul II said: If we wish to discover in all its richness the profound relationship between the Church and the Eucharist, we cannot neglect Mary, Mother and model of the Church…Mary can guide us toward this most holy sacrament because she herself has a profound relationship with it.
• This Vatican document includes a beautiful explanation of Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant: The Virgin Mary is the living shrine of the Word of God, the Ark of the New and Eternal Covenant. In fact, St. Luke’s account of the Annunciation of the angel to Mary nicely incorporates the images of the tent of meeting with God in Sinai and of the temple of Zion. Just as the cloud covered the people of God marching in the desert (cf. Nm 10:34; Dt 33:12; Ps 91:4) and just as the same cloud, as a sign of the divine mystery present in the midst of Israel, hovered over the Ark of the Covenant (cf. Ex 40:35), so now the shadow of the Most High envelops and penetrates the tabernacle of the New Covenant that is the womb of Mary (cf. Lk 1:35).

 Click here for the Mary, the First Tabernacle coloring page:

You may also like this Mary, Mother of the Eucharist Coloring Page and mini shrine:

You can read more about the Blessed Virgin Mary and her role during Advent in All about Advent & Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Hope & Wonder with Children. These coloring pages were made in cooperation with Shari Van Vranken of Catholic Paper Goods using artwork from our new book!

You can find it at The St. Paul Center here or on Amazon here. It's also available as an ebook in both places if that's more your style! 

Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, pray for us!

And you can find all of the free resources linked in this post:

O Antiphons Activity Page

The O Antiphons are traditional, scriptural prayers prayed during the week leading up to Christmas Eve. These antiphons are like a countdown as we near the end of our waiting and our excitement grows. Jesus is almost here!

An antiphon is a short prayer that is spoken, sung, or chanted before and after a longer prayer. The O Antiphons feature the seven titles of the Messiah found in the Book of Isaiah. They are sung in the hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and have been used by Christians for around thirteen hundred years! Each of the meanings of the names originally found in the Old Testament all match up to Who Jesus was, what He said, and what He did.

The O Antiphons make a perfect Advent Bible study. You can use this guide to read more about these titles of Jesus. In the Old Testament passage, you should be looking for promises God made about Who the Messiah would be and what He would do. In the New Testament passage, you should read for information showing how Jesus fulfilled that prophecy about the Messiah. The passages listed are often very short, so you can also read a little more to understand the context of the passage.

We turned the chart in our book into the perfect activity page to use for studying the O Antiphon with older kids. You can find it by clicking here:

You might also like these other O Antiphon resources from my archives:

O Antiphons:
O Antiphons Printable Coloring Books*
O Antiphons Bible Study & Creative Project (Digital Resources

And you can read more about the O Antiphons and other Advent traditions in All about Advent & Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Hope & Wonder with Children. These coloring pages were made in cooperation with Shari Van Vranken of Catholic Paper Goods using artwork from our new book!

You can find it at The St. Paul Center here or on Amazon here.

And you can find all of the free resources linked in this post:

Alllllll the All about Advent & Christmas Printables- Free for you!

The days left in Advent are dwindling, and I know as a teacher I am looking for activities to use in my classroom during the snippets of time before Christmas break. And I bet that parents will be looking for some tools to keep little hands busy while everyone is together over the Christmas Season.  

Shari Van Vranken of Catholic Paper Goods and I have worked hard over the past couple of months to make a huge collection of coloring and activities pages. Using the artwork and catechetical content from our book All about Advent & Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Hope & Wonder with Children, we hope make the book more interactive this Season and for years to come. We've shared a few printables already and still have more to come... but we want to get them all in your hands NOW so that you can put them to good use- and we're offering them totally FREE!

We've compiled a collection of over thirty pages of printables for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, including simple coloring pages (with snippets of catechetical content to give them meaning), more complex activity pages for older kids, a few resources translated into Spanish, a bulletin board set, and a clickable calendar with activities for each day.

You can access ALL THE RESOURCES IN THIS FOLDER

Or, you can download ONE FILE WITH ALL ACTIVITY PAGES 

Here is a list of the resources included. Many of these activities also have (or will have) their own blog post with additional information and connected resources to help parents and teachers use them well. You can find the links to those posts below:

• Clickable Calendar with activities for everyday in the Advent & Christmas Seasons
• Advent Calendar Coloring Page
• Advent Wreath Coloring Page
• The Advent Wreath- Cards for each week
• Design-an-Advent-Chasuble
• Waiting for Jesus Bulletin Board
• The Threefold Coming of Jesus at Advent Quote Coloring Page (in Spanish & English)
• The Threefold Coming of Jesus at Advent Mini Book (in Spanish & English)
• The Nativity Scene Coloring Page 
• St. Juan Diego's Miraculous Tilma (in Spanish & English, older & younger versions)
• Gaudete Sunday Coloring Page
• Bambinelli Sunday Coloring Page
• Bambinelli Sunday Prayer
• Mary, the First Tabernacle Coloring Page 
• The O Antiphons Activity Page 
• The Nativity Coloring Page 
• Christmas Prayer 
• Celebrating Epiphany
• Challenging Advent Crossword Puzzle

And all of them work perfectly alongside our book All about Advent & Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Hope & Wonder with Children, which you can find at The St. Paul Center here or on Amazon here. 

Gaudete Sunday

Can you believe that this Sunday is already Gaudete Sunday, the start of the third week of Advent?

During Advent we use the color purple to remind ourselves of preparing for Jesus to come at Christmas. But on the third Sunday of Advent, you might have a little surprise when you come to Mass and see the priest wearing pink!

Pink, or rose, is a color of joy. On the third Sunday of Advent we are over halfway through the season and drawing closer to the celebration of Christmas. We rejoice because our waiting is almost over!

The third Sunday of Advent even has a special name; it is called Gaudete (pronounced gow-DAY-tay) Sunday. Gaudete is from Latin and means “to rejoice.” It is the first word of the entrance antiphon for Mass on Gaudete Sunday, and the readings that day are all about joy.

We thought your children might like to color their own rose chasuble for Gaudete Sunday! This coloring page is complete with a little catechesis on Gaudete Sunday as well as the symbolism of the chasuble. You can print it here:

You may also like our design-an-Advent-chasuble page too, which you can find here:

My niece and a couple of my nephews designed a few samples for us, and I think that they did a great job!

And you can read more about Gaudete Sunday and other Advent traditions in All about Advent & Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Hope & Wonder with Children. These coloring pages were made in cooperation with Shari Van Vranken of Catholic Paper Goods using artwork from our new book!

You can find it at The St. Paul Center here or on Amazon here. It's also available as an ebook in both places if that's more your style! 

And you can find all of the free resources linked in this post:

Bambinelli Sunday

Have you ever heard of Bambinelli Sunday?

Bambinelli (Baby Jesus) Sunday in Italy takes place on the third Sunday of Advent. Families bring the Baby Jesus figurine from their Nativity sets to church to have them blessed in preparation for Christmas. Pope St. Paul VI even made it a custom for this event to take place in the Vatican. Pilgrims can have their Baby Jesus statue blessed by the pope himself!

If you've never seen this custom, check in with your priest to see if it is something that can be done at your parish during Advent! 

While doing a little more research into Bambinelli Sunday, I came across the beautiful blessing shared by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008. You can read the whole address on the Vatican website here, or we included just the prayer on this coloring page:

You can print either of these coloring pages to share with your children this Advent:

Click here for the coloring page with a description of Bambinelli Sunday:

And click here for the coloring page with the prayer from Pope Benedict included:

And you can read more about Bambinelli Sunday and other Advent traditions in All about Advent & Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Hope & Wonder with Children. These coloring pages were made in cooperation with Shari Van Vranken of Catholic Paper Goods using artwork from our new book!

You can find it at The St. Paul Center here or on Amazon here. It's also available as an ebook in both places if that's more your style! 

And you can find all of the free resources linked in this post:

St. Juan Diego's Miraculous Tilma

You probably know that in 1531 on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico, Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego. You likely also know that his miraculous vision led him to the bishop, asking for a church to be built on the site. And you've surely heard of the miracle of the roses gathered in his tilma, which when dropped on the floor- revealing an even greater miracle in the image of Our Lady imprinted on the tilma.

But did you know...

• The natural material the tilma was made from would normally last less than 30 years. Juan Diego’s tilma is intact almost 500 years later!
• There are no brushstrokes within the image. No pigment, paint, or other explanation for the image can be detected on the tilma.
• When looked at under a microscope, Mary’s eyes are lifelike and actually show a reflection of the moment Juan Diego opened his tilma to give the roses to the bishop.
• Not only was it miraculous that roses were growing in the winter, but the roses that Juan Diego took to the bishop were native to Castile, Spain- where the bishop was from and an additional sign to him of the miraculous event.
• Acid was accidentally spilled on the tilma in 1785, and a bomb was set off under the tilma in 1921. Both times the tilma remained undamaged.

If you'd like to share the miraculous story of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe with your children, I have some incredible new printables for you! They were made in cooperation with Shari Van Vranken of Catholic Paper Goods using artwork from our new book!

We're excited to offer not only a coloring page, but one that is packed with info. It includes a short bio, a few ways to celebrate the feast days, and a number of facts about the OLG image on the tilma. 

AND we have four versions available! There is a version for older kids with more text, and one for younger kids that is simplified and has a larger image. And we also were blessed to have a volunteer translate them both into Spanish!

Click here for the Tilma info page for older kids in English

And here for Spanish

Click here for the Tilma info page for younger kids in English

And here for Spanish

Other resources for St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe:

Our Lady of Guadalupe Block Print* 

Our Lady of Guadalupe Quote Coloring Page*

Included in the Advent Feast Days Booklet*

And read more about St. Juan Diego, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and other December Saints in All about Advent & Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Hope & Wonder with Children.

You can find it at The St. Paul Center here (30% off until 12/31/23!) or on Amazon here. It's also available as an ebook in both places if that's more your style! 

St. Juan Diego, pray for us!

Eucharistic Witnesses: Servant of God Charlene Richard

I'm honored to be contributing to the Heart of the Revival, the newsletter and blog for the National Eucharistic Revival. I've written several articles and created activities for kids (like this Eucharistic Procession, Mass Offering Cards, Pilgrimage Passport, Pope Benedict XVI quotes, Art for Holy Week, and Bl. Carlo Acutis Activities). 

I've also been helping with a monthly series called American Eucharistic Witnesses. This collection highlights Americans whose lives have been changed by the gift of the Eucharistic. With a different expert author each month and an original woodcut print by the talented Connor Miller, I've been tasked with creating a version of this series for children. Each booklet contains a shorter bio and the art print on the front and back, and inside has some activities like a quote to color, a timeline to put in order, reflection questions, and short comprehension questions to answer. One booklet is for older children (I'd recommend 5th-8th grade) and another for younger children (I'd recommend 2nd-4th grade). The collection matches in structure and we'll finish the series with a final project to pull all the booklets together. 

Read the original article about Servant of God Charlene Richard here, and find the kids' activities below. (including in Spanish!)

Servant of God Charlene Richard Biography Activity for Older Kids in English

Servant of God Charlene Richard Biography Activity for Older Kids in Spanish

Servant of God Charlene Richard Biography Activity for Younger Kids in English

Servant of God Charlene Richard Biography Activity for Younger Kids in Spanish

Others in the series:

St. Marianne Cope

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Bl. Stanley Rother

Bl. Carlos Manuel Cecilio 

Ven. Augustus Tolton

Ven. Fulton J. Sheen

Servant of God Dorothy Day

Servant of God Charlene Richard

Servant of God Julia Greeley

Servant of God Antonio Inija

Servant of God Michelle Duppong

Flannery O'Connor

Cardinal Francis George

Update: Find all of the biographies, as well as new cumulative activities for the series in these two free ebooks with over 40 pages of content in each!