Pentacost Celebrations 2015

Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth!

~Psalm 104

Somehow, the Easter season always goes by faster than Lent.  We have feasted and celebrated for over 40 days now: five family birthdays, a First Communion, Divine Mercy Sunday, Mother's Day, Ascension Sunday and many more.  It is always hard to begin to put away the Easter season decorations and celebrations.  But today, we made sure to culminate the season with a grand Holy Spirit celebration to usher in the routine of Ordinary Time.

For breakfast, we enjoyed our traditional Pentecost fare: marshmallow cereal, yogurt and fruit smoothies.  This is the one morning each year when I buy marshmallow cereal, which I love, and it reminds us of the Fruits of the Spirit that the Holy Spirit  brings into our lives.  Then, we headed to a special Mass, met friends to hand out Pentecost roses at an Uptown bus stop, hosted friends for lunch and then celebrated dinner with MoMo and Papa.  Our joyful spirits and schedule were undeterred by the rainy day.

I made T's favorite Strawberry Pizza for dessert, a Grandma Johnson classic treat.  I left the frosting bare in the middle in the shape of a dove to remind us of the Spirit descending.  It was a wonderful way to finish a special day.

It is so fitting that we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit at the end of Easter and the return of Ordinary Time.  Ordinary Time isn't so much about days that are boring, but about finding or returning to an ordered routine for our lives after seasons of fasting and feasting.  During these weeks of Ordinary Time, we strive, with the help of the Spirit, to find a proper place for moments of fasting and feasting and to grow the Fruits of the Spirit in our daily lives.   All this is so that we might know and love God and our neighbor in a deeper, fuller way.

Christ our Lord said it was better for us that He should ascend and send the Spirit to descend into our lives.  So, we've replaced our family Easter prayer with one for the coming months:

Come, Holy Spirit!

Happily Ever,

Queen B

Fruits of the Spirit Summer Project

This time of year, the hard work of summer begins to pay off.  Summer's bounty is at it's peak.

Yummy tomatoes at the North Carolina Farmer's Market

Here in Happily Ever Johnson Land, we've been hard at work too, and we're excited about our bounty.
We're celebrating a different kind of garden harvest, though.

 Behold, our Fruits of the Spirit Garden!

Our Fruits of the Spirit Garden

Our Fruits of the Spirit Garden has been a summer-long project for us.  I am really excited to be able to share our progress over the summer.  The inspiration for our project centered around Mandy Groce's free, online "Fruits of the Spirit" coloring book, found at Ministry to Children.  Ministry to Children is a wonderful, free children't ministry resource website.  We love their coloring pages, Bible story lessons and craft ideas.  I was also inspired by the fun learning lapbooks that Jessica of Shower of Roses makes with her children.  Finally, thanks to our little herb garden for inspiring us to create another out of the "spiritual fruits."

Part I.

After Pentecost last June, we started talking about the Fruits of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23:

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.  Against these there is no law."

We talked about how, just like soil, water and sunlight help tiny seeds turn in to a garden of beautiful flowers, fruits and vegetables, the Holy Spirit helps the seeds of faith in our hearts turn into visible "fruits" in our daily actions and interactions.  These visible, spiritual fruits don't appear as cherries and bananas and apples, but instead show up as things like love and joy and goodness and kindness in our daily lives.

Our conversations were a great way to personalize the meaning of Pentecost and the visible work of the Spirit in our family life.  I used Mandy Groce's Fruits of the Spirit coloring page as a visual aid for E-Bear and G-Bear.  

G-Bear's Fruit of the Spirit folder

After the kids colored their pages, we used them to make covers for our Fruits of the Spirit folders. 

E-Bear's Fruit of the Spirit folder

Part II.

For the second part of our project, we took a few weeks to focus only on the first fruit of the spirit.  To help us do this, we made "Love Charts."  I printed off Mandy Groce's "Love" coloring page for each of the kids.  As they colored, we spent an afternoon talking about ways that the Holy Spirit can help us be more loving people.  We made a list of examples of things that the kids could do that would be loving.  Then, we hung the Love Charts on our wall along with a bag of special stickers.  For the next several weeks, every time the kids made a choice or did something that was loving, I tried hard to recognize it by thanking them and asking them to put a sticker on their Love Chart.  Pretty soon, the kids were recognizing loving behaviors both for themselves and for each other.  Before we knew it, their charts were full, and we added them to our folders. 

G-Bear and E-Bear's Love Charts

Part III.

Next, it was time to give attention to the other eight fruits.  Thanks to Nana, we found a great song to help us memorize them: Fruit of the Spirit by Brentwood Kids   My kids love this song!

To help us cultivate all these fruits, we painted an empty egg carton to represent our "garden."  We had work to do.  It looked pretty barren!  I carefully sliced holes into the top of each egg basket.

Our Fruit of the Spirit Garden

Then, I helped the kids assemble little "fruits" that I had cut out of construction paper.  They got to glue the pieces together, decorate them with leaves, and decide which spiritual fruit each stick would represent.

We wrote the name of the spiritual fruit on the fruit sticks and inserted them into slits that I had cut into their folder pockets.

Over the next several weeks, when the kids did something that represented one of the spiritual fruits, they were allowed to get their fruit stick out of their folder and put it in the garden.   This was a great way for me to reinforce examples of each of the spiritual fruits in their actions.  They were also able to look at our garden at the end of the day, recognize the fruits they had "grown," and focus on the fruits they had yet to display.  On our harder days, I could point to our barren garden and show them a visual example of how we needed to 'grow' more spiritual fruit for our family.

Part IV

To reinforce our ongoing gardening project, we made mini Fruits of the Spirit "Gardener Coloring Books" out of Mandy Groce's online coloring book.  We spent several afternoons coloring in the coloring books, talking about the pictures and how they represented particular spiritual fruits.  Then, we added them to our folders.

I also gave the kids a new page of special stickers, so that if they displayed a fruit of the Spirit during the day, and had already put the fruit stick in their "garden," then they could add a sticker to the corresponding fruit page in their coloring book.  

This brings us to the end of our summer and the completion of our Fruits of the Spirit project.  

Our finished Fruits of the Spirit folders

Overall, I am happy with the things we have learned and the ways we have grown together.  In focusing on the Fruits of the Spirit, I grew just as much as my kids, if not more.

I can't wait to get to our new home and set up our garden in another prominent spot.  After all, you can never have too much spiritual fruit!

Learning a new language

"All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them."  ~Acts 2:4

Buddy Bear is so excited to talk to us.  For the past month he has been a very conversational babbler.  He has picked up a few hand signs, such as clapping at us during meals to indicate that he wants "more" or waving his hands together when he is "all done."  He is speaking a pretty convincing "Hi!" when we wake him up from naps, he waves predictably when we say hello and good-bye to others, and he is saying "Daddaddadaa" when I ask him if he wants to go find T.

In light of Buddy Bear's recent accomplishments, I listened intently to the readings about Pentecost last Sunday.  I realized what a gift it was for the Holy Spirit to enable the Apostles' linguistic facility on that amazing day.  Learning or communicating in a new language is hard.  I remember struggling to learn and understand Italian in college.  G-Bear really enjoyed her preschool Spanish class this year, but despite her enthusiasm she always reminds me, "I have trouble remembering the words, Mom."  Then there is Buddy Bear, who is trying with all his might to both understand and be understood by his own family!

Everyday, we need help as we encounter the "foreign languages" all around us.  We struggle to understanding people from other countries, people with different backgrounds and viewpoints, even our friends and neighbors.  In our own families, where we expect to be known and understood most clearly, miscommunication and misunderstanding can be very painful and divisive.  Everyday, I need to learn more of the yet unspoken language of my son.  I need to tune my ears to the language of my husband's & children's emotions and needs.  These are just the varying languages within the walls of my home, to say nothing of understanding and communicating with the neighbors and strangers I meet on a daily basis.

The ability to communicate well with others is a real gift, a true blessing; it heals differences, fosters peace and paves the way for the good news of the Gospel.  I need the power of the Spirit  to help me accomplish it.  I need the fruits of the spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control--to look past differences and meet others on their terms.  I need the Spirit to intercede for me when I encounter needs for myself or others but don't know how to pray.  I need the Spirit's prompting to remind me to be sensitive to the needs and differences of others when their languages don't come easily to me.

So, as Buddy Bear's vocabulary blooms and we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit,

I am praying for an extra measure of grace 

to embrace the foreign languages of my daily life 

and blaze a path of understanding and love.

Pentecost and Memorial Day Memories

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful

and kindle in them the fire of your love.

Our Pentecost flame decorations

What a special weekend to get to celebrate both Pentecost and Memorial Day!   The gift of the Spirit and the gift of our country's freedom are so worthy of our grateful hearts and reflections.  

On Sunday, our Easter decorations were conspicuously absent (I'll admit it, I dismantled our 'He Is Risen' banner a bit begrudgingly.  I love the Easter season).  Instead, our table was decorated for a special Pentecost Sunday Breakfast.  To celebrate the "Birthday of the Church," we enjoyed Holy Spirit whole wheat pancakes with whipped cream and sprinkles (every good birthday breakfast requires whipped cream and sprinkles).  We lit candles on our pancakes, read the story of the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost, and then blew out our candles to make our own mighty wind :).    

Our "Holy Spirit pancakes"

It is always interesting to see what the kids pick up on when we celebrate holidays.  E-Bear was excited to point out that our priest was wearing bright red robes at Mass, "the same color as our table decorations at breakfast, mom!"  On Sunday night, as we celebrated with a cookout at the home of some friends,  G-Bear was asked what we had celebrated earlier that day.  She couldn't quite remember the name of the day or exactly who we were celebrating, but she was sure that we celebrated "the church's birthday!"  

T and I commemorated Memorial Day by watching a Band of Brother's episode.  We gave thanks for our freedom and the military service of our family members and friends.  We both miss being up at the Cabin on weekends like this.  Instead of enjoying pancakes in the kitchen at the lake, I set up our griddle on the porch and finished up our pancake batter (it was too hot to cook the pancakes in our kitchen today!).  It allllmost felt like breakfast Clear Lake :)  

In true cabin style, we lounged around until 1pm in our pjs, coloring pictures and playing with toys.

We finished off our weekend with a steamy afternoon bike ride (each Bear riding their own bike!) and a long, leisurely dinner at Chick-fil-A.  What a treat of a weekend!  We are spoiled silly with blessing around here.  May our hearts overflow with gratefulness for our family, our freedom, our friends and our faith.

Making space for the Spirit

"Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
~James 4:7

Tomorrow is Pentecost.

Today, we had granola for breakfast on our porch.  The sun was coming up.  And the kids and I danced to this song.  With a little poetic license, it is a great song for today.

And I am done with my graceless heart

So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart

'Cause I like to keep my issues drawn

It's always darkest before the dawn.

Shake it out, shake it out,

Shake it out, shake it out, whoa!

Shake it out, shake it out,

Shake it out, shake it out, whoa!

and it's hard to dance with the devil on your back,

so shake him out!

And it's hard to dance with the devil on your back,
and given half the chance I would give any of it back,
It's a fine romance, but its left me all undone,
It's always darkest before the dawn.
~from "Shake It Out" by Florence and the Machine

Tomorrow is Pentecost.  Jesus' gift of the Holy Spirit reminds us that darkness has no place in our lives.  The Spirit comes in power!  So today, let's make space for Him and get ready to work.  Shake it out!  He has work that He wants to do, in us and through us.  

Holy Spirit Celebration!

Happy Pentecost.  Today marks the end of the Easter Season with the celebration of the Holy Spirit's descent after Jesus ascended into Heaven.  Try explaining THAT to a three-year-old!  I tried talking to G-Bear about  "celebrating the Holy Spirit at church on Sunday" a bunch of times this week, but I got a lot of funny looks.

The Veni Creator

"Come, Spirit Creator,

come live in our minds 

and fill our hearts which you have made

with perfect grace.

We know you as the Paraclete,

the gift of God most high,

our Fire, our Love, the Living Fountain,

and Holy Anointing of our lives.

With seven gifts you act 

as the finger of the Father's right hand

you are His promised One,

teaching us heavenly speech and understanding.

Kindle us with fire brought from above,

pour love into our heart,

and give strength to our weakness.

Drive Satan far away from us, 

and give us lasting peace

so that, led by your guidance,

no harm will come to us.

Let us know the Father through you.

Let us know the Son through you.

Let us believe forever that you are

the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son.

Glory to the Father,

and glory to His Son, who rose from death,

and glory to you, kind Strengthener,

forever and ever.

Amen."