Now available are the May Notebooking Butler's Lives of the Saints! There are some small adjustments to the layout and the pictures this month are taken straight from Pictorial Lives of the Saints! Don't forget to purchase this newly reprinted copy of the book over at All the Saint's Books!

Download the new title piece and the saint's calendar pieces for the Liturgical Year Bulletin board! May is the month of Mary and the feature artwork of the title piece. Also check out some of the titles we have on the Blessed Mother to read during the month of May.

There are free downloads for the children's planners still up through June. Download May & June's files over at the new Crusader's for Christ planner page and the Maidens for Mary planner Page.

This year's printed planners feature 225 Catholic stickers and our new Maidens and Crusader's Designs along with a reproducible book report sheet, a tear out report card and monthly record keeping sheets.

Our friends over at Crusaders-for-Christ have a new St. Catherine Academy Gazette up for free download! Full of Catholic stories for children (and adults) as well as coloring pages and games.

PDF Downloads are NOW AVAILABLE for all three planners! Download your copy(ies) today for only $5.95. 

Tuesday is the Feast of the Great Martyr St. George! We thought we would share with you today the wonderful writings of Dom Gueranger, he writes like no other! Also if you hop on over to Crusaders-for-Christ they have a wonderful children's story and also two St. George Coloring Pages free for download! St. George ora pro nobis!


The Liturgical Year - Pascal Time Book II, Vol. 8
By: Abbot Dom Guranger, O.S.B.      + Imprimatur 1927

SAINT GEORGE, MARTYR   APRIL 23
Clad in his bright coat of mail, mounted, on his war-steed, and spearing the dragon with his lance, George, the intrepid champion of our Risen Jesus, comes to gladden us to-day with his feast. From the East, where he is known as the great Martyr, devotion to St. George soon spread in the Western Church, and our Christian armies have always loved and honoured him as one of their dearest patrons. His martyrdom took place in Paschal Time; and thus he stands before us as the guardian of the glorious sepulcher, just as Stephen, the Protomartyr, watches near the crib of the Infant God.

The Roman Liturgy gives no lessons on the life of St. George; but, in their stead, reads to us a passage from St. Cyprian on the sufferings of the martyrs. This derogation from the general rule dates from the fifth century. At a celebrated Council held in Rome in the year 496, Pope St. Gelasius drew up, for the guidance of the faithful, a list of books which might or might not be read without danger. Among the number of those that were to be avoided, he mentioned the 'Acts of St. George,' as having been compiled by one who, besides being an ignorant man, was also a heretic. In the East, however, there were other 'Acts' of the holy martyr, totally different from those current in Rome: but they were not known in that city. The cultus of St. George lost nothing, in the holy city, by this absence of a true legend. From a very early period, a church was built in his honor; it was one of those that were selected as Stations, and gave a Title to a Cardinal; it exists to this day, and it is called Saint George in Velabro (the Veil of Gold).

The Bollandists were in possession of several copies of the forbidden 'Acts'; they found them replete with absurd stories, and, of course, they rejected them. Father Papebroch has given us other and genuine 'Acts' written in Greek, and quoted by St. Andrew of Crete. They bring out the admirable character of our martyr, who held an important post in the Roman army during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. He was one of the first victims of the great persecution and suffered death at Nicomedia. Alexandra, the Emperor's wife, was so impressed at witnessing the Saint's courage, that she professed herself a Christian, and shared the crown of martyrdom with the brave soldier of Christ.

As we have already said, devotion to St. George dates from a very early period. St. Gregory of Tours gives us several proofs of its having taken root in Gaul. St. Clotilde had a singular confidence in the holy martyr, and dedicated to him the Church of her dear Abbey of Chelles. But this devotion became more general and more fervent during the Crusades, when the Christian armies witnessed the veneration in which St. George was held by the Eastern Church, and heard the wonderful things that were told of his protection on the field of battle. The Byzantine historians have recorded several remarkable instances of the kind; and the Crusaders returned to their respective countries publishing their own experience of the victories gained through the Saint's intercession. The Republic of Genoa chose him for its patron; and Venice honoured him as its special protector, after St. Mark. But nowhere was St. George so enthusiastically loved as in England. Not only was it decreed in a Council held at Oxford, in the year 1222, that the feast of the Great Martyr should be observed as one of obligation; not only was devotion to the valiant soldier of Christ encouraged, throughout Great Britain, by the first Norman Kings; but there are documents anterior to the invasion of William the Conqueror, which prove that St. George was invoked as the special patron of England even so far back as the ninth century. Edward III did but express the sentiment of the country when he put the Order of the Garter, which he instituted in 1330, under the patronage of the warrior Saint. In Germany, King Frederic III founded the Order of St. George in the year 1468.

St. George is usually represented as killing a dragon; and where the representation is complete, there is also given the figure of a princess, whom the Saint thus saves from being devoured by the monster. This favourite subject of both sacred and profane art is purely symbolical, and is of Byzantine origin. It signifies the  victory won over the devil, by the martyr's courages profession of faith; the princess represents Alexandra, who was converted by witnessing the Saint's heroic patience under his sufferings. Neither the 'Acts' of St. George nor the hymns of the Greek Liturgy allude to the martyr's having slain a dragon and rescued a princess. It was not till after the fourteenth century that this fable was known in the west; and it arose from a material interpretation of the emblems with which the Greeks honoured St. George, and which were introduced among us by the crusaders.

Although, as has been said, the Office of St. George is the Roman Breviary has been taken from the Common of Martyrs in Paschal Time, the following historical lesson has recently been approved for the Dioceses of England:

George, who among the martyrs of the East has received the name of Great Martyr, suffered a glorious death for the sake of Christ in the persecution of Diocletian. When shortly afterwards peace was given to the Church under Constantine, the memoir of St. George began to be celebrated. Churches were erected to his honour in Palestine and at Constantinople, and devotion to him spread through the East and into the West. From early times Christian armies have invoked the protection of St. George, together with SS Maurice and SEbastian, when going into battle. Special devotion was shown to St. George in England for many centuries, and Pope Benedict XIV declared him the special protector of that kingdom.


(Editors note: See the text of Dom Gueranger's Liturgical Year for a Hymn of St. George)

Thou, O George, art the glorious type of a Christian soldier. Whilst serving under an earthly monarch, thou didst not forget thy duty to the King of heaven. Thou didst shed thy blood for the faith of Christ; and he, in return, appointed thee protector of Christian armies. Be their defender in battle, and bless with victory them that fight in a just cause. Protect them under the shadow of thy standard; cover them with they shield; make them the terror  of their enemies. Our Lord is the God of Hosts; and he frequently uses war as the instrument of his designs, both of justice and mercy. They alone win true victory who have heaven on their side; and such soldiers, when on the battle-field, seem to the world to be doing the work of man, whereas it is the work of God they are furthering. Hence are they more generous, because more religious, than other men. The sacrifices they have to make, and the dangers they have to face, teach them unselfishness. What wonder, then, that soldiers have given so many martyrs to the Church!

But there is another warfare, in which we Christians are all enlisted, and of which St, Paul speaks, when he says: Labour as a good soldier of Christ: for no man is crowned, save he that striveth lawfully. (2 Tim. ii 5) That we have thus to strive and fight during our life, the same Apostle assures us in these words: Take unto you the armour of God, that ye may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. In all things taking the shield of faith, and wherewith ye may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of the hope of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. (Eph. vi 13,17) We, then, are soldiers, as thou was, O holy Martyr! Before ascending into heaven, our divine leader wishes to review his troops; do thou present us to him. He has loaded us with honours, notwithstanding our past disloyalties; we must, henceforth, prove ourselves worth of our position. In the Paschal Communion which we have received, we have a pledge of victory; how can we ever be so base as to permit ourselves to be conquered! Watch over us, O sainted warrior! Let thy prayers and example encourage us to fight against the dragon of hell. He dreads the armour we wear; for it is Jesus himself that prepared it for us, and tempered it in his own precious Blood: may we, like thee, present it to him whole and entire, when he calls us to our eternal rest!

There was a time when the whole Christian world loved and honoured thy memory with enthusiastic joy: but now, alas! this devotion has grown cold, and thy feast passes unnoticed by thousands. O holy martyr! avenge this ingratitude by imitating thy divine King, who maketh his sun to rise upon both good and bad; take pity on this world, perverted as it is by false doctrines, and tormented at this very time by the most terrible scourges. Have compassion on thy dear England, which has been seduced by the dragon of hell, and by him made the instrument for effecting his plots against the Lord his Christ. Take up thy speak as of old; give the monster battle, and emancipate the isle of Saints from his slavish yoke. Heaven and earth join in the great prayer! In the name of our Risen Jesus, aid thine own and once devoted people to a glorious resurrection!

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. 1894]

March 1.—ST. DAVID, Bishop.
ST. DAVID, son of Sant, Prince of Cardigan and of Non, was born in that country in the fifth century, and from his earliest years gave himself wholly to the service of God. He began his religious life under St. Paulinus, a disciple of St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, who had been sent to Britain by Pope St. Celestine to stop the ravages of the heresy of Pelagius, at that time abbot, as it is said, of Bangor. On the reappearance of that heresy, in the beginning of the sixth century, the bishops assembled at Brevi, and, unable to address the people that came to hear the word of truth, sent for St. David from his cell to preach to them. The Saint came, and it is related that, as he preached, the ground beneath his feet rose and became a hill, so that he was heard by an innumerable crowd. The heresy fell under the sword of the Spirit, and the Saint was elected Bishop of Caerleon on the resignation of St. Dubricius; but he removed the see to Menevia, a lone and desert spot, where he might, with his monks, serve God away from the noise of the world. He founded twelve monasteries, and governed his Church according to the canons sanctioned in Rome. At last, when about eighty years of age, he laid himself down, knowing that his hour was come. As his agony closed, Our Lord stood before him in a vision, and the Saint cried out: "Take me up with Thee," and so gave up his soul on Tuesday, March 1, 561.



Download March Notebooking Pages, including one for St. David

1.) Silvia's Mexican Tuna Salad

2.) Baked Potato with Caramelized Onions & Mushrooms, and Feta Cheese

3.) Enchiladas de Acelgas

4.) Jalea de Mariscos (Fried seafood and Plantain dish)

5.) Mexican Pizza

March is dedicated by the Church to St. Joseph, the Spouse of the Blessed Virgin and the Patron of the Universal Church. The monthly downloads are now available for March!

Butler's Lives of the Saint's Notebooking pages for March's Saints are here and may also be found on our Butler's Lives of the Saint's Notebooking Page

Download the March Liturgical Year Bulletin Board pieces on the Liturgical Year Bulletin Board page, there have been some changes made to the monthly prayer cards as well as the title pieces. If you have any questions please email us.

March and April downloads are up for the Catholic Children's lesson planners. Starting in May we will have printed planners available for both boys and girls, please visit the Holy Simplicity Planner page to sign up for updates on those as well as our main planner.

The March edition of the St. Catherine Academy Gazette is available for download over at Crusader's for Christ. 

We pray that this 2nd week of Lent is fruitful for you all and that God sends His choicest blessings upon you!

Our friends at Crusader's for Christ have put out another lovely download! A Saintly ABC's Catholic Pre-School program. 81 wonderful pages to help the Catholic preschooler. Take a look over at their blog! 

We also have a couple of pre-school file folder games that would go hand in hand with this wonderful free e-book!

A blessed Thursday to you all, Lent is less than a week away!

Liturgical Year - Christmas Vol. 1
By: Dom Gueranger Imprimatur 1927

So far, the only ones we have seen standing round the Crib of our Jesus have been Martyrs: Stephen, overwhelmed with the shower of stones; John, the Martyr in heart, who survived his fiery torture; the Holy Innocents, massacred by the sword; Thomas, murdered in his cathedral; these are the champions of Christ, who keep guard in the palace of Bethlehem.  Yet all Christians are not called to be Maryrs. Besides this countelss battalion of the King's favourite soldiers, there are other troops of sainted heros which form the heavenly army; and amongst these there are the Confessors, who conquered the world without shedding their blood in the combat. Through the place of honour in the service of the King belongs to the Martyrs, yet did the Confessors flight manfully for the glory of his name and the spreading of his Kindom. The palm is not in their hands, but they are crowned with the crown of justice, and Jesus, who gave it to them, has made it be part of his own glory that they should be near his throne.

The Church would therefore grace this glorious Christmas Octave with the name of one of her children, who should represent at Bethlehem the whole class of her unmartyred Saints. She chose a Confessor - St. Sylvester: a Confessor who governed the Church of Rome; and therefore the universal Church; a Pontiff whose reign was long and peaceful; a Servant of JEsus Christ adorened with every virtue, who was sent to edify and guide the world immediately after those fearful combats that had lasted for three hundred years, in which millions of Christians had gained victory by martyrdom, under the leadership of thirty Popes- predecessors of St. Sylvester - and they, too, all Martyrs.

So that Sylvester is messenger of the Peace  which Christ came to give to the world, of which the Angels sang on Christmas Night. He is the friend of Constantine; he confirms the Council of Nicaea; he organizes the discipline of the Church for the new era on which she is now entering: the era of Peace. His predecessors in the See of Peter imagined JEsus in his sufferings; Sylvester represented Jesus in his triumph. His appearance during this Octave reminds us that the divine Child who lies wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and is the object of Herod's persecution, is, notwithstanding all these humiliations, the Prince of Peace, the Father of the world to come. (Isa. ix. 6.)

FIND DOM GUERANGER'S STORY OF ST. SYLVESTER OVER AT ALL THE SAINTS AND PETER AND PAUL!

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. 1894
December 31.—ST. SYLVESTER, Pope.

SYLVESTER was born in Rome toward the close of the third century. He was a young priest when the persecution of the Christians broke out under the tyrant Diocletian. Idols were erected at the corners of the streets, in the market-places, and over the public fountains, so that it was scarcely possible for a Christian to go abroad without being put to the test of offering sacrifice, with the alternative of apostasy or death. During this fiery trial, Sylvester strengthened the confessors and martyrs, God preserving his life from many dangers. In 312 a new era set in. Constantine, having triumphed under the " standard of the Cross," declared himself the protector of the Christians, and built them splendid churches. At this juncture Sylvester was elected to the chair of Peter, and was thus the first of the Roman Pontiffs to rule the flock of Christ in security and peace. He profited by these blessings to renew the discipline of the Church, and in two great Councils confirmed her sacred truths. In the Council of Arles he condemned the schism of the Donatists; and in that of Nicæa, the first general Council of the Church, he dealt Arianism its death-blow by declaring that Jesus Christ is the true and very God. Sylvester died A. D. 335.

Today we are giving away a copy of the Illustrated Explanation of the Commandments. This is one of the first books we are giving away that I haven't actually read yet though my in-laws tell me it is the most wonderful book they have read on the commandments! They have also made comments about how there was so much more involved in this and that commandment that they never realized. This little book is on my 'to read' pile and I would love to hear from the person who win's what they think of it!

From the publisher's website: "A Complete and Thorough Exposition of the Commandments of God and of the Church. With Numerous Examples From Holy Scripture, The Fathers, and Other Sources. With Reflection and a Practice on Each Commandment. Originally printed by Benziger Brothers in 1897. From the Introduction: "Eternal salvation does not depend on faith alone, but also in keeping the Commandments. " This book is the most complete, the most thorough and the most enjoyable that I have ever read on this important subject. Imprimatur, 1897."

To print just this blog post please select the title of the post before hitting the print button.

If you are joining our Notebooking with Butler's Lives of the Saints the October Notebooking sheets are ready! There are 30+ saints this month as a few days have more than one Saint. How did you enjoy the September Notebooking pages? We sure are having fun learning about all the different saints!

Also now available for download are the October Liturgical Bulletin Board Pieces. Both the Saint's Pieces and the Title/Prayer Pieces are located below as well as on the Liturgical Bulletin Board Page.

Don't forget to hop on over to Crusader's For Christ to get the October Issue of the St. Catherine Acadamy Gazette! Some wonderful reading on the Most Holy Rosary! For those of you who already downloaded this wonderful gem, there has been an update you may want to look into.

Hopefully before the week is up we will also have the October Children's Lesson Planner downloads available. Our computer died and so we are busy remaking some things that will lost because of that. As always have a most blessed day!

We are starting back our our Notebooking with the Saints project. Starting with September the monthly notebooking pages that correspond with the Lives of the Saints For Every Day in the Year  By: Fr. Alban Butler will be available for download.

The layout of the pages will change and vary for each month, please feel free to send suggestions that might work best for your children and their ages/grade levels. God bless!

*** I just wanted to bump this up with a new note since I forgot to mention it prior. Please see the new notes below in daily pages section. ***


There Our little blog has been fairly quiet, part due to the current season of the Liturgical Year and in part due to our preparing this coming school years curriculum.

As part of that curriculum we are doing a daily journal for writing practice. As we strive to make all things Catholic we decided to do that with our daily journal as well. Provided are free journal covers for your use to download and make your own daily journals. The covers go from 1st to 8th grade and they each have their own Patron Saint for the year. The patron's were taken from an old Catholic Teachers Manual called Christine Doctrine with an imprimatur from 1904. The whole text is available here and has been a great help in making sure our homeschool is even more Catholic this year. Half of the quotes or poems on the covers were also taken from this book.

The Journal Pages are also provided here for you free to download and print. With over 14 different pages they feature some lovely Catholic artwork from traditional books. Bright colored pages (they may be printed in black also, please adjust your printer settings), and prompts that guide the child to Catholic thoughts, give them spaces to remember special items on the Liturgical Calendar for each day and a space for their artistic hand. They even get to record the weather for the day! There is a second file of journal pages which are basically the same accept the drawing space has been changed to a bible quote box. This is so that children that are beyond the stage of drawing may still enjoy the journal pages.

*** We are using the beautiful Catholic Picture Dictionary from Refuge of Sinners Publishing to fill out some of our Journal Pages which ask the child to look up a word in the Catholic dictionary, write the definition and then draw a picture of it. These wonderful little dictionary's are a reprint from 1948 and sell for around $11. You can find copies here at Refuge of Sinners Publishing. ***

1.) Download the Journal Cover File

2.) Select the covers (for corresponding grades) that you want to print
- Card stock of 110 lb is highly recommended, 65 lb should also work. Feel free to laminate your covers for durability.
- If your printer has a 'print to edge' or 'print without borders' setting it is highly recommended that you use it for the best looking cover.

3.) For every cover you print have a blank piece of paper of the same stock that you printed the main cover on. This will be your back cover.

4.) Download the Journal Page File for either Draw your Day for younger kids or Bible Quote for older (and younger) children.

5.) Print as many journal pages as you desire. Our school year is about 150 days.
-To save on paper and ink: (a) Print half in black ink and half in color by changing your printer settings (b) print one on side of paper and then on the second side to limit number of sheets used. (c) Print in draft mode (d) print all pages in black and have child add his/her own color

6.) Last but not least bind your new beautiful journal!
- Coil binding at a local office store is only a dollar or two or purchase your own coil binder. They really do come in handy!
- 3 hole punch your Journal Pages and insert them into a 3 ring binder, slip your journal cover in a clear binder cover

Eventually I hope to add more journal pages and you will find those updates on this blog as well as the Catholic Child's Daily Journal. God bless!


*** UPDATE 8-11-12 New simplified pages have been added for the littler ones on our Catholic Child's Daily Journal Page ***

For those of you following with us on the Liturgical Year Bulletin Board, the new July 2012 pieces are up!

July is yet another busy month!

July 1st    Feast of the Most Precious Blood

July 2nd The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin

July 7th SS. Cyril and Methodius, Patrons of the Slavs

July 16th    Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

July 19th    St. Vincent De Paul

July 22nd   St. Mary Magdalen

July 25th   St. James the Apostle

July 26th  St. Anne Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we will have a special feast day post (or two) for this special saint!

July 31st    St. Ignatius