Can you believe that Ash Wednesday is just next week? Every year I start off in pursuit of the best Lent evaa (queue any one of my kids quoting Matt Kelly) and I start out with resolutions for giving up things, taking on things and elaborate programs for my kids. This year will be no different, although I feel a little better prepared!
Equipping Catholic Families with a NEW Hands-On Prayer-packed Craft Kit for LENT!
So, even though I have 50 Cathletics Craft Kits in my Arma Dei Shoppe, it’s hard to believe that I don’t actually have one craft kit dedicated to LENT! Well, that is, until NOW!
Hands-On Lenten Pack of Prayers
This craft kit focuses mainly on the Stations of the Cross, the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet and offers more inventive ways to get kids hands-on praying! Prayers are counted as beads are colored or laced up with a shoelace! Our Super Saints illustrations are kid-friendly and enticing and help to focus our prayers just a little bit more! Plus, they’re just fun to look at!
What the Catholic Church has to offer: Equipping Catholic Families with the Catechism!
This is part of a special blog series through Reconciled to You exploring the rich Traditions and Teaching of the Catholic Church.
We are so blessed to have the wisdom, traditions and teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church! There isn’t much that the Magisterium of the Church hasn’t worked out under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Equipping Catholic Families for FEBRUARY Saints, Monthly Devotion and Ordinary Time!
Equipping Catholic Families for February Saints!
Welcome to our monthly summary of crafts and family traditions related to the Monthly Devotion, Key Feast Days and the appropriate Season of the Liturgical Calendar. As our kids get older, our activities and commitment to Catholic crafts has changed and adjusted (at least for our tween, teen and young adult kids)! While we haven’t exactly been adding a lot of Catholic crafts around here, we do enjoy pulling out the crafts and programs we’ve developed over the years, sometimes sharing them with younger families in our parish!
Equipping Catholic Families …with Traditions for Ordinary Time!
Sometimes we feel a little down when the official Christmas season is over. It’s hard to jump enthusiastically into Ordinary Time, because it sounds so, well, ordinary! But Catholic living can add so much richness to our every day life and celebrating our Faith and family culture can be an active pursuit all year long! Here are ten ideas to foster your own family culture…while integrating the richness of our Catholic Faith with Saints, Sacraments, Scripture, Catechism and Prayer! All of our Cathletics Craft Kits come with permission to copy for family use and they’re packed with Catechism, Saints, Sacraments and Prayer to get you started, but we’ve included other helpful links too!
Equipping Catholic Families for January 2019
Equipping Catholic Families for January 2019 Saints!
Welcome to our monthly summary of crafts and family traditions related to the Monthly Devotion, Key Feast Days and the appropriate Season of the Liturgical Calendar.
- Feast of the Holy Family (December 30)
Key Feast Days in January:
- Solemnity of Mary (January 1) Mary Crafts, In the Arms of Mary
- World Day of Peace (January 1)
- St. Basil the Great (January 2)
- St. Gregory Nazianzen (January 2)
- Most Holy Name of Jesus (January 3)
- St. Genevieve (January 3)
- St. Elizabeth Seton (January 4)
- St. John Neumann (January 5)
- St. Andre Bessette (January 6)
- Epiphany of the Lord (January 6) Felt Kings Tutorial
- St. Raymond of Penysfort (January 7)
- Baptism of the Lord (January 13)
- St. Hilary (January 13)
- St. Anthony of Egypt (January 17)
- St. Sebastian (January 20)
- St. Agnes (January 21)
- Day of Prayer for the Unborn (January 22)
- St. Francis de Sales (January 24)
- Conversion of St. Paul (January 25)
- St. Timothy and St. Titus (January 26)
- St. Angela Merici (January 27)
- St. Thomas Aquinas (January 28)
- St. John Bosco (January 31)
Monthly Devotion for January: Holy Name of Jesus
- Holy Name of Jesus by PBandGrace
Season of the Liturgical Calendar: Christmas!
- 12 Days of Christmas ends January 5th
- Sock Baby Jesus
- Nativities
New Year Resolutions and
Season of the Liturgical Calendar: Ordinary Time!
Just a reminder, the readings for Sunday Masses come from Year C and Cycle 1 for the Weekday Masses.
Catholic Stamps for planners, prayerbooks and penpals!
I’ve just added 17 new stamps to our Prayer Impressions Journal Stamp Shoppe at Arma Dei! This after adding a bunch of Rosary stamps, just a few weeks ago! These stamps are perfect for your prayer journal, Christmas Cards, lunch notes, penpal correspondence, planners, calendars, adult coloring, Bible journaling…and more!
Equipping Catholic Families for December Feasts and Saints Days!
Equipping Catholic Families for December Saints!
- Both the month of December and the season of Advent begin this weekend!
- Here is our monthly summary of crafts and family traditions related to the Monthly Devotion, Key Feast Days and the appropriate Season of the Liturgical Calendar.
Key Feast Days in December:
- St Francis Xavier (December 3)
- St John Damascene (December 4)
- St Nicholas (December 6)
- St Ambrose (December 7)
- Immaculate Conception (December 8)
- St Juan Diego (December 9)
- Our Lady of Loretto (December 10)
- Our Lady, Queen of Angels (December 11)
- St Damasus I (December 11)
- Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12)
- St Lucy (December 13)
- St John of the Cross (December 14)
- O Antiphons (December 17-23)
- Bambinelli Sunday (December 16)
- Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Dec 18)
- St Abraham, St Isaac, St Jacob (December 20)
- St Thomas, St Peter Canisius (December 21)
- St John of Kanty (December 23)
- The Birth of Jesus (December 25)
- St Stephen (December 26)
- St John Apostle (December 27)
- Holy Innocents (December 28)
- St Thomas Becket (December 29)
- Feast of the Holy Family (December 30)
Check out the St Nick Bundle at the Arma Dei Shoppe for great stocking stuffers! on sale until December 13/2018!
Season of the Liturgical Calendar: Advent!
- Anticipating Advent: Prep for Advent: Summary of Crafts and Activities
- Keep Christ in Christmas: read Him, look for Him, pray to Him, visit him, share Him, give for Him; live for Him Keep Christ in Christmas
The Advent Calendar
The Advent Calendar is a great way to countdown the days until Christmas. You’ll find lots of chocolate covered ones in the stores now, but you can make your own and fill it with dollarstore Nativity figures, holy medals, Saint pegs, Super Saints, printable Advent Quest challenges and of course your favorite treats or chocolates. There are so many ways to make an Advent Calendar (including this one we made years ago) and we found 35 [Awesome} DIY Advent Calendars here.
Sock Baby Jesus Workshop in time for Advent!
Last Sunday (a whole week before Advent begins!) we hosted a Sock Baby Jesus in a Clementine Crib Workshop and we had a lot of fun!
First, we collected the materials we would need and even made a new Sock Baby Jesus just to make sure that we weren’t forgetting anything. The kids co-operated by eating their way through 3 crates of Clementine oranges and our friend Michelle brought 3 additional crates as well!
Cyber Small Biz: St Anthony Find Us a Deal
Purchase a couple Saints, Sacraments, Catechism or Prayer-packed Craft Kit PDFs (minimum spend $39), get $13 OFF!
That’s 33% OFF!
Use the code: StAnthonyFindUsADeal at our shoppe:
www.ArmaDei.com
Expires at midnight on Cyber Monday November 26th!











































