Prayer 4 U: The Hail Mary

We've been talking about prayers and the Bible and how we use them.  This next prayer is also important.  As a Catholic, we pray to Mary, Jesus' mom, to help us grow closer to her Son, Jesus.  Don't you think as His mom, Jesus listens to Mary?  MM and MC know our children don't always listen to us (that's why MC's dog is wearing underwear right now) but we know Jesus listens to us and His mom.

Lots of people misunderstand this and think Catholics worship Mary.  We don't worship Mary. No, No Way, Nada, Zilch, Crazy Thinking.  We hold Mary up because she is the queen of saints and as someone who is close to God.  We also think of her as our mother up in heaven!!

There is a prayer called the Hail Mary.  You may have heard of the "Hail Mary pass" in football but Catholics used the Hail Mary first.  It goes like this:

Hail Mary, full of grace.
Our Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

This prayer comes directly from the Bible.  Go to the New Testament and look up Luke 1:28-35, 42-48.  Don't tell us you don't know how.  We already talked about how to look of things in the Bible.  Need help?  Go here.

Basically, Gabriel the Archangel was acting like God's Smart Phone.  He came to Mary who was probably a teen and not married and asked her to be God's mother. 

Now remember this was about 2000 years ago.  If a woman became pregnant and wasn't married, the community would throw stones at her for getting pregnant.  Mary was incredibly brave and said, "Sure, bring it on."  Actually she didn't say that but she said yes to the angel and God and trusted God to see her through the pregnancy and not get pelted with rocks.

God also spoke to Joseph in a dream and told him to marry Mary because she was pregnant with Jesus so she would not get hit with rocks. 

 Joe was a great guy!

So let's go over the prayer:

Hail Mary, full of grace. (Hey Mary, you are a nice person)
Our Lord is with thee. (God really thinks you are awesome)
Blessed art thou among women,  (Because God thinks you are awesome, you've been chosen by God)
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. (God is blessing your baby, Jesus)
Holy Mary, Mother of God, (Mary's a saint and she is Jesus' mom)
pray for us sinners,  (Pray for us because we are not perfect and MC's kids didn't listen to her and put underwear on the dog anyway)
now and at the hour of our death. (Help us right now and when we die)
Amen.

Now just because Mary is up in heaven, it doesn't mean she stays up there.  She grabs her rosary, slips out heaven's back door and appears to very special people like St. Bernadette, St. Catherine Laboure, St. Juan Diego and St. Simon Stock to give messages of hope and love.  What a mom!!!  .

 Our Lady of Guadalupe when Mary appeared Juan Diego

Now, go brush your teeth, wash your hands--use soap--and get ready for dinner.

Saint 4 U: St. Paul

Okay, say you are riding your Razor down the road and Zap!  You're down on the concrete and there's a voice talking to you.  Are you going crazy?  Is your mom fussing at you for falling and ripping your shirt?  Who does the voice sound like?  Did you end up in a Phineas and Ferb episode because Dr. Doofenschmirtiz's Cartoon-a-nator pulled you into the Tri-State Area?  Do you follow the voice's instructions or do you run away or do you get back up on your Razor and ride?

This is what happened to a dude named Saul.  Jesus had already died and rose for the dead and then up to heaven.  Saul was riding around on his horse being kind of mean to people who believed in Jesus.  In fact, he was down right nasty about it.

Well, I think Jesus got his game on with Saul.  Saul fell off his horse (there were no Razors back then) and Jesus blinded him with a big bright light.  Saul could not see for three days.  No books to read, no TV, no Wii, nothing, nada!

When a pal named Ananias cured Saul with the help of Jesus up in heaven, Saul changed his name to Paul and off he went to all over the place telling people that Jesus cured him.  He did this with no GPS or computer.  Paul visited so many places that he started writing letters to cities he had visited to remind his friends how to believe in Jesus.

All these letters were saved and gathered up.  You can actually read them!  They are in the New Testament in the Bible.  Some of the letters are read in Mass in the Second Reading. 

Hopefully you've learned something:  you won't need to get zapped off your Razor to listen to Jesus.  Just put your hands together and pray to him.

St. Paul's Feast Day is June 29.  Feast Day does not mean you go hog wild at Golden Corral and eat your weight in apple pie.  It's the day we celebrate St. Paul's life and how he spread Jesus' story around without a smart phone.

St. Paul standing and not on a Razor



Skill 4 U: The Bible Part II

People quote the Bible all the time.  It makes you wonder if they memorize it.  But you know, you probably know more about the Bible than you think. It is used during Mass and prayers.  Using the Bible is easy peasy lemon squeezy.  You guys are know that because you eat your vegetables (Ehh, not really.  We're moms and we know you hide your veggies under your plate or feed them to the dog).

We've written it before and we're writing it again--Everything the Catholic Church does is based upon Jesus and the Bible.  The Mass is chock full of Bible-y stuff.  We have Psalms [Psalms are poems or beautiful writings about God written by David--a king of Israel and Jesus' ancestor]

During Sunday Mass, the lectors [lectors are the grown ups who have get dressed up and read from the altar] read from the Bible.  First something from the Old Testament and secondly mostly from the Epistles [Epistles are fancy words for letters written by the Apostles and other followers of Jesus] in the New Testament. 

The priest or the deacon [deacon is the priest's assistant] read from one of the four Gospels [Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the dudes who wrote the four Gospels].  The Gospels tell us what Jesus did or said.  The Gospels don't keep track of everything Jesus did.  We don't know when He lost His first tooth or when he went to help Joseph, His foster father, at work.  Good old Joseph was a carpenter.  He built things from wood and he taught Jesus that.

So if your mom's favorite Bible quote, for example, is:

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  Philippians 4:13

Usually the Bible book is behind the quote.  In this case, it's the blue Philippians 4:13.  Crack open your Bible to the Table of Contents.  Because MC and MM are old, we know that the Philippians is in the New Testament because it mentions Jesus (Christ) by name and He wasn't mentioned by name in the Old Testament.

Anyhoo, look for the Philippians [which is an epistle], chapter 4 verse 13.  See!  Now you can look up lots of stuff.  In fact, email us at catholicism4kids@hotmail.com and let us know if you have a favorite quote.  We may put it under our Fave Quotes section.

Skill 4 U: The Bible

It's actually very easy once you understand it.  Some of it is really, really, really hard to read.  And the names!!!  Can you believe Nebuchadnezzar or Bathsheba?  Makes you glad you're named after Crazy Aunt Beth or Wacky Cousin Garrett or others!

Let's do some short history.  No groaning or running away or saying you need to help Mom with the dishes.  Put on your big kid pants and pay attention.

The Bible is has two parts:  The Old Testament and the New Testament.  There are 73 books total in the Catholic Bible.  This makes it bigger than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 

The Old Testament is our faith and history before Jesus was born.  It has 46 books in it--Books like Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs and more.  All the books predict the coming of the Messiah which is a fancy name for Jesus.  There are more stories:

• Adam and Eve and their kids.  If you and your sister or brother can't get along read up on Cain and Able.  Talk about bickering.
• Noah and the ark.  Why did they have to save bugs?  Ick

• Moses and the Ten Commandments.  Look at the 4th Commandment:)
• Dave and Goliath.  It's one of the earliest stories of bullying.

The New Testament is like Jesus' biography.  There are 27 books from the Gospels to the Letters of St. Paul and others to that kind of weird book--Revelations.  Jesus' words that actually came out of his mouth are printed in red. 

• Jesus' birth in a manger surrounded by animals and His mom, Mary and His foster father, Joseph.  And you complain about giving up your bed to your visiting grandmother.

• Jesus gathering his posse--the 12 Apostles and more like Mary Magdalene and Martha.  Lots of chicks named Mary back then.
• Jesus doing miracles like raising the dead (and again, they are not zombies) and changing water into wine.  No mention of the miracle of cleaning your room in 3 minutes.
• Jesus carrying the cross and dying :(

• Jesus rising from the dead :)

• The Apostles visiting different places and writing letters.  And they wrote some llloooonnnnggg letters and they didn't have computers or even ink pens or paper.  They wrote on vellum which is dried animal skin.

Now go grab your family's Bible to see if you can find the New and Old Testaments.  Ask your parents if they have a favorite Bible story or saying.  Extra points if you look up the 4th Commandment!!

Next post:  How to find stuff in the Bible.

Question 4 U: What does a priest do besides saying Mass?

Thank you, Logan from Georgia in USA for this question!

I used to think priests were kind of scary.  The priest I grew up with, Father S, always smiled at me but he used to change bread and wine into Jesus' Body and Blood.  I thought Father S must have superhero powers if he could do that.

But one time I saw him shopping the grocery store.  He put Twinkies, ice cream, toilet paper and chocolate syrup in his basket.  OMG!  He's human.  I bet you smartie guys knew that priests are human but I didn't.

Every priest has different duties or things they do.

1.  Priests say Mass.  Father D, the priest at our church [or called a parish], does FIVE Masses every weekend.  Then he comes back during the weekdays and does Mass for the day!  That is a boatload of work already.

2.  They conduct the other sacraments [remember sacraments:  gifts that Jesus gave us] like marrying people, hearing confessions, doing funerals, going to hospitals to visit sick people to anoint them.

3.  Talking to people about becoming Catholic.

4.  Praying A LOT!  Every priest or nun [a woman who has married the church and lives with other women] read the Divine Office.  Now this Office is not place you go when you work.  The Divine Office is book with lots and lots and lots and lots of prayers.  People read it several times a day to become closer to God.

5.  Priests do take time off.  Father S used to hike.  Some priests have pets.  Some like to read and some like to play sports.  Although I don't think they watch Phineas and Ferb or the Transformers, some priests might.  They might be transforming Bumblebee from car to Autobot at this very moment.

6.  Running a parish.  Someone has got pay the light bill or the water.  Where would you go if you had to pee after Mass and there was no toilet?

7.  They go to meetings in the community or maybe the diocese office [A diocese is when you put a lot of parishes together that are in the same part of the country.  The pope hires a guy called a bishop or archbishop who is the boss of priests of the parishes in the diocese]

 

Archbishop Gregory of the Diocese of Atlanta.  See, no cape or tights.  He's human!

8.  They wash their dirty clothes, cook dinner, mow lawns or other stuff that you and I do.  Some priests go to school and learn more about God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit or how be a good priest.

So the next time you see your priest at the store or at Sonic, remember he is just like you and me.  He's not a superhero but he's as busy as one. 

Prayer 4 U: Glory Be

This prayer is simple like a good chocolate chip cookie.  Nothing fancy but it goes great with everything. 

It goes like this:

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

What you're saying is Yes and You Rock, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit!!  Y'all were there when the world was made.  Y'all are here now and Y'all will always be there!

Sometimes it is call the Doxology which means short prayer or song.

But for us, let's just keep it simple by saying the "Glory Be." Yep, can't beat simple especially with prayers and chocolate chip cookies.

Sacrament 4 U: Baptism

Time for a pop quiz!!!  Did you study? 

Actually, there's no test so don't go running from the computer screaming!

But we do have a question:  What is a sacrament? 

a) A Walmart bag of peppermints. 
b) It's what you say when you get in trouble.  "I was gonna do it in a sec or minute."
c) Sacraments are holy gifts given to the Catholic Church by Jesus to remind us how to live.

The answer is C.  We knew you knew that.  Grab a M&M if you chose C.  If you chose A or B, go clean your room.

There are seven sacraments. 

1. Baptism
2. Reconciliation
3. Holy Communion
4. Confirmation
5. Marriage
6. Holy Orders
7. Anointing of the Sick

We are going to talk about Baptism.  Chances are if you are reading this blog or you go to Mass, you've been baptized.  You probably don't remember it since you were a baby and all you could do was eat, poop, cry and sleep.

Change my diaper!!!

Your parents wanted you to become a member of the Jesus' gang of 1,196 million (aka the Church).  They dressed you in frou-frou clothes, found a couple of people to be your Godparents (sort of like a pinch hitter in baseball--the Godparents are supposed to teach about Jesus if your parents forget) and brought you to their church.  The priest blessed you, some oil and some water.  Va-va-voom!  You are a Catholic.

Did the pope just decide to have all Catholics get water poured on them for fun?  If he did, why did he not use a dunking booth? 

Well, everything the Church says and does is based in the Bible.  Do you remember Jesus' BFF Simon Peter?  Peter explained what happens at baptism when he said, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Look in the Bible:  Acts 2:38).

Also ask your parents about John the Baptist.  He did not go to your neighborhood Baptist church.  He sleep in the desert and ate, get this, locusts.  John started baptizing people in the river and not in a dunking booth.  He even baptized Jesus.

John the Baptist's dinner.  Would you like ketchup on your bug?

So now you know what Baptism is.  Go forth and try it out on your Barbie doll or Optimus Prime.

Question 4 U: How long has the Catholic Church been around?

A question from MC's son, Wesley:

Wesley, that's a great question.  The short answer is almost 2000 years.  And Wesley, your mom is not that old {I know he was going to make an old age joke}.  There are oodles of Christian denomations that seem to sprout daily but only one Roman Catholic Church. 

When Jesus was preparing to leave us (us meaning his posse--the Apostles, His mom, Mary and more), Jesus was chillin' with his one of his BFFs, Simon Peter.  Now Simon was one of the first dudes to follow Jesus.  Then Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter.  Why?  Simon seems like a good name.  After all, there's Simon Says, that cheesy guy from American Idol, Simon Crowell and that funky memory game, Simon. 

But there's always a reason why Jesus did things.  Sometimes even today, we don't know why things happen but Jesus knows.

Now Jesus and Peter (the old Simon) were talking and Jesus said, "You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church."  {Don't believe us?  Go to your Bible and look for Matthew 16:18--Ask your parents to help}

 Good old Simon Peter

Remember when we said Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter. The name Peter means "rock".  So basically Jesus told Peter that when he is crucified, Peter becomes the Big Cheese of the Catholic Church.

So Happy 2000th (or so) Birthday to the Church.

Saint 4 U: Kateri Tekawitha

Did you know that are hundreds of friends waiting to hear from you? But you can't text, Facebook or tweet to them. We don't think they even have cell phones or Ipads. To talk to them, you gotta pray 'cause they are saints and they are up in heaven with God.

But what exactly is a saint? There's a couple of rules:

1. A saint is someone who loved God with all their heart and tried to live as much like Jesus as they could. We know it's hard. But that's what makes a saint a saint.

2. A saint is dead. No two ways about it. Good live person--not a saint. Good dead person--maybe a saint. But, they are not ZOMBIES. Get that thought out of your noggin.

3. The Catholic church has to research the saint's life to make sure the saint was real and nice. Sometime it takes hundreds of years to finish the research. Think of it like going to school all year for 50 years and you have to write a 1000 page report. Yikes.

4. Lastly, there needs to be 2 miracles that need to happen as a result of praying to the would-be saint. You can't pray to a saint asking them to change your tests score from a D to an A. A miracle is something that cannot be explained like a kid was dying because of a car wreck. One hour he was dying in the best hospital and the next he's okay.

One saint is was a teen named Kateri Tekawitha. That's a mouthful. Don't spit on your mom when you say it.  She lived almost 500 hundred years ago and was an Indian or as people call them now, a Native American. She got sick one time and because of that, she was scarred on her face. There were no hospitals back then so she was lucky she didn't die.

It was a time when there were not a lot of Christians. Most tribes didn't like Christians and plus Kateri had all those nasty scars on her face. But Kateri didn't care. She prayed a lot and tried to live like Jesus. Lots of Native Americans became Christian because they saw what a great chick Kateri was.

When she died, all the scars on her face disappeared and she was once again pretty.
So you see, saints don't necessarily have to do ginorous things to get noticed. Kateri didn't fight any big wars or fly or even travel all over. She just did what she thought Jesus wanted her to do.

We can all do that, can't we?

Kateri's feast day is 7/14. That's the day that we all tell Kateri "GREAT JOB" is on July 14th. But you can pray to her any day!

Prayer 4 U: "Our Father"

We've all said the Lord's Prayer or the "Our Father".  It's a very important prayer given to us by Jesus.  It's in the Bible too.  We say it during every Mass and it goes like this:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

But what does it really mean?

Our Father, who art in Heaven [Hello God! What's up?  You're living it up in Heaven and You are our Father]

hallowed by thy name. [Your name is cool and holy.  Help us to be more like Jesus.]

Thy kingdom come [Your house (heaven) is always there.]

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. [We need to follow Your rules with the help of the Holy Spirit.]

Give us this day our daily bread [We need to trust You to make sure we have all that we need and see us through bad times so we can chill up with You when we die.]

And forgive us our trespasses [Please forgive all the snarky and mean things we do]

As we forgive those who trespass against us. [We will forgive all those kids who do mean and snarky things to us like Stacy Cook who smushed MC's fingers in a bathroom stall in kindergarten]

And lead us not into temptation. [We're asking God to help not do mean and snarky things or think mean and snarky thoughts]

But deliver us from evil. [Help us come to You when we die] 

Amen [yes, please--(that's MM's advise for us--always try to be polite, help others, say please and thank you and use sir and ma'am)]

So there you have it.  The Lord's Prayer!  Don't you think it's best prayer ever?  Basically when you say it, you asking God to help us in faith, friendship and life! 

Next up, the Hail Mary!!!

Prayer 4 U: Sign of the Cross.

We're at Mass and the priest gets to the front of the church (the altar).  Then you do this wonky thing with your hands and mumble:

"In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

What is up with that?  Well, you've just told the world that you believe in the Holy Trinity (trinity means three).  The Trinity means One God, Three Persons altogether.

Yep, you read it right.  We're not punking you.  That is one of the mysteries of the Catholic Church.  When you pray to Jesus, you are praying to God the Son.  When you're chatting it up with God, you are talking to God the Father.  The Holy Spirit used to be called the Holy Ghost.  And we don't mean Casper or those freaky ghosts on Scooby Doo.  The Holy Spirit is like the arm of God.  He helps you do good things. 

When you move your right hand to touch your forehead, then your belly, left shoulder and then right shoulder, you just reminded yourself that Jesus who was God died for us on the cross.
.
That's our very first prayer!  Pat yourself on the back if you knew what to say and do when we make the "Sign of the Cross."  Now you know everything means.  Get yourself a Kit Kat or some Junior Mints!!

Welcome to our Blog away from Home!

Since this our introductory post, let's talk about who we are first!!


1.  We (Moms Christy and Michelle) decided to make a place that kids can read and ask questions about what is means to be a Catholic!  Both of us are first and foremost Catholic Moms. 


MC (Christy) has two human kids and two furry but goofy dogs. 

MM (Michelle) has one son and a rather large fat cat named Jesse.

2.  The stuff that gets taught in Sunday School or Catechism for the old people (MC and MM) is important but it's like the cookie part of an Oreo.  It's good but we really want to know more about the middle goo.  The middle goo in the Catholic Church is the stuff that doesn't get taught in Sunday School.  It's not anyone's fault--the teachers just don't have the time, there's so much to learn and honestly, what kid wants to stay inside at school on a Sunday morning after Mass learning stuff? 

3.  The middle goo of an Oreo is what holds the cookie together.  And what this blog is about is the like the middle goo of an Oreo.  It's the goo that holds the Catholic Church together.  The things like prayers, Bibles, Sacraments and old dudes like the Popes and chicks like St. Therese are so important.


4.  So now that we have that out of the way, let's have some fun!!!!  Ask away and let's rock and roll.