Further Fortification for Our Lady's Victory Garden

Each fall we humbly invite those involved with the Children's Rosary to do a 9 day fast. To the extent people are able we invite them to participate. Some are able to do a bread and water fast; others sacrifice something else. This year the fasting journey lasted from September 29-October 7. 

Recently we shared pictures of our garden, which is entirely enclosed. We likened it to spiritually gardening after one does a Consecration to Jesus through Mary. The fruits are protected. For so many years it was the squirrels that feasted off the kids' hard work in the garden. At the end of last year, we built this enclosure. We named the garden "Our Lady's Victory Garden." We could not believe the bounty we harvested from the garden this summer. 

During the fasting journey we had the idea to dig a trench around the outside of Our Lady's Victory garden and put wire mesh. In this way, going forward, if any critters try to dig down to access the garden, they will be prevented. In many ways it seemed this was a beautiful imagery of the fasting journey. The Consecration journey could be likened to the garden enclosure above ground. The fast, however, goes deep and provides yet further protection from even the most aggressive attacks. While we did not have animals digging this year, Our Lady's Victory Garden is ready for next growing season with yet further fortification.

We thought you might like to see some of our fall harvest of winter squash and gourds.

Spring Planting has Begun

 

Today is the first day of spring in the Northern hemisphere. We have been busy planting seeds and they have been on the warm radiators inside the house. The sun is getting stronger and one can see as soon as he seeds break through the soil they are already bending in toward the light. 

In many ways, I see this light as the love of God and the tender plants in many ways resemble our little children.  Some people have asked, when should we introduce our children to Our Lord and prayer. I see these seedlings as providing the best answer: immediately. The hearts of children are yearning to know the love of God from their first moments. I once read in a book about St. John Paul II and also saw it mentioned again at the St. John Paul II museum in Washington, that when the saint was born his mother asked that the window immediately be opened so the first sounds he heard were the voices of people singing in honor of Our Lady. 

Thus, I see great benefit to having Our Lord and Our Lady's names being praised in the space where young babies are being held such as in a nursery. Often parents have purchased our Children's Rosary CDs to play as they may be feeding their baby or the baby is resting in the crib. The CDs have young children praying the Rosary with soft music behind which is soothing to babies. It also protects the space through these prayers and surely brings fruits to have Our Lord being honored in the home. Later as the child grows and is playing in the room it still is wonderful to keep the Rosary playing. By the age of 3 we have regularly seen children praying the Rosary and even leading the Rosary in our Children's Rosary prayer groups. 

For those interested in our Children's Rosary CDs they can be purchased through EWTN Religious Catalogue HERE. The CDs are also available through EWTN in Great Britain. To purchase click HERE.

As the spring unfolds keep checking back to see how the garden turns out this year. We are full of expectation and are hoping for a bountiful harvest. 

Early Snow

 

Today we woke up to a surprise. Heavy snow was falling. While not unprecedented to have snow in October in Connecticut, it is still a bit surprising. Our harvesting is far from finished in the garden but these Juliet tomatoes surely are not happy about the cold snap and fresh show weighing down their branches already laden with tomatoes (see the picture above). The harvest has been so abundant this year, we have been hard pressed to get all the tomatoes in before the cold. Asher, one of our children, has been out picking red and even the green tomatoes . . . buckets full in fact. 

We have been trying something new this year. We have netted the plants and also created a brand new enclosure to keep all the unwanted squirrels at bay. This has helped tremendously. Yards are small where we live and a whole harvest can be taken by unwanted critters. This year, the squirrels have had to find something else to eat and we have been enjoying fresh tomato salads and a special tomato strata recipe we found in my grandmothers old cookbook. This has been perfect for those tomatoes that look a bit bruised or are soft but cooked taste great. 

As the month of the Rosary comes to a close this coating of white clean fresh snow is an inspiring sight. One's heart begins to think of the coming of Advent and also Christmas. Yes, the picture below was taken today. We keep this ornament in our window all year.

Our son Kostin has been splitting wood for the fires we look forward to having as the cold weather sets in. This is also the time when we begin to think of writing our Christmas cards to family and friends. This year we have our new Children's Rosary Christmas card. Abigail who has been illustrating our Christmas cards for the past 5 years did an amazing job again. Some say it is the best one yet. To purchase a box of 25 Christmas cards visit our Children's Rosary collection at the EWTN Religious Catalogue click HERE. This year's card is shown below.

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

A Child's Cross Made of Out of Snow

More Snow

Please consider starting a Consecration to Jesus through Mary using our new book. To learn more click HERE.

Fruits from the Garden

It is harvest season here in New England where we live. Since I was a child I have loved to garden. Even after losing a lot of the use of my hands due to a joint disability my love has not lessened. However, the kids now are my hands and they help in working the soil and harvesting what we grow.  We have learned many lessons in the garden.  

We live on a small piece of land in a town that has many many squirrels. The squirrels which seem to increase in number every year, pass their time raiding the garden. We have adopted several strategies to deal with this. One of the primary ways is to go underground. Growing vegetables such as tomatoes although a favorite of our family, rarely produces mature fruit. Before they turn red, they are stolen by the critters. We always plant a few tomatoes holding out hope but more and more we try to grow things underground which has proved to be much safer. Our crops of choice are garlic and potatoes. Garlic is too smelly for most insects and rodents to interest them. The potatoes while sometimes get dug up for the most part seem to grow undetected. 

In looking at our harvest bucket of potatoes waiting to be made into a potato salad, some thoughts came. What about our faith and the fruits that we wish to come through it? Are there not so many predators or as Scripture calls then birds who will carry away our seeds. How do we yield fruit today? Do we need to go very deep so those looking to take our fruit cannot find them...so they can grow and be ready for the harvest? Indeed our roots may have to grow very deep. Another lessen we learned is that the fruits we as a family grow are not the same as our neighbors. I do not know why we cannot grow certain things and others can when they live only a few yards away. Why do the squirrels take our vegetables and yet others have no problems? The garden has taught me many things. It has also taught me season to season certain plants in the garden will do well one year and not another even though seemingly everything is the same. To this one must just work and toil, wait and hope. We are not entitled to the fruits...it is by God's grace. To this we must always be grateful.

This year we had a happy surprise. There was a hope this spring that maybe we could try to grow pumpkins again. While in the past squash or anything similar to this was taken by our friends the squirrels, there was a hope we should not give up completely. The kids made mounds and planted some Cinderella pumpkin seeds. Pumpkins in New England take a long time to grow. One can plant them in June and they are not ready to harvest until the fall.

Something unexpected happened this year. Due to some grape vines growing near the garden that actually overshadowing some of the plants the pumpkins were able to grown undetected. We held our breath for weeks hoping no one would catch sight of them. While we could have waited longer for them to grow in size, as soon as they were showing their orange skin we picked them. The kids were very excited to pick our own home grown pumpkins! We have yet to decide how we are going to cook the pumpkins. But that too is the fun of waiting for one's harvest with anticipation. The cooking of the food is more special and much thought goes into the meal. We can share the potato salad we made with one batch of the potatoes we grew.  Yes despite many efforts by the squirrels there were fruits that came from our garden this year.  

P.S: I should introduce you to one of our friends.  They had many nice dinners thanks to the garden but we managed to have some, too. On a positive note Alina finds them a fun subject for her photography.

Other Posts You May Enjoy:
How to Start a Children's Rosary
Special Release of Our New Video
A Child's Devotion to St. Joseph

Don't forget to unify prayers with the children during their meetings. A schedule of meetings is present on our website. By clicking "Join in Prayer" you can add your gold flashing light to our View from Heaven map.

For more information about the Children's Rosary visit our website: www.childrensrosary.org
Visite nuestro sitio web en español para obtener más información: www.rosariodeninos.org

A Long Winter

As many of you may be aware of who live in the United States it has been a long cold winter.  Even today on May 16th there is word of some snow in Chicago.  Strange but apparently true. As we celebrated the Memorial of St. Isidore, the Patron Saint of farmers this week, I thought it might be timely to share some experiences from our garden.

Now I must tell you we live on a very small piece of land in a town so garden space is precious.  Two years ago our family tried to grow parsnips for the first time in one of our raised beds.  The seeds were planted in the spring.  All summer and fall we waited and watched as these tiny seedlings barely grew. As fall harvest came we looked at these tiny little plants and realized for some reason they had not made any parsnips.  It was generally a great disappointment.  Not wanting to pull out living plants at the end of the season we left them in the ground.  The next spring we noticed some very thick green shoots that looked much like a carrot green but thicker.  I wasn't sure what it was for a while.  By the time I realized that indeed these were some of the parsnips from the previous summer the plants had "bolted" a term referring to the plant sending up a shoot to form seeds.  The children pulled out the plant to reveal a tiny parsnip too tiny to eat. I was disappointed but in reading a very old gardening book written by a gardener from our area, it explained that if a plant makes it through a winter it will indeed produce fruit but harvest quickly as it will go to seed very fast.  It has been through so much it quickly tries to ensure the next generation before harsh weather kills it.  With this piece of knowledge I was poised for the following year.  We left the remaining parsnips that had gone to seed and left them alone.  In the fall the whole bed looked like snow with parsnip seeds through the whole bed.  There were also some random little parsnip plants as well. With record cold this year I wondered if any of the plants would live through the winter.  As the snow melted one of the first things to emerge were 5 strong shoots.  There was no mistaking them this year.  A few parsnips had made it.  

As my hands are too weak now for gardening due to a disability with my joints I called our son Asher who is in first grade.  He came over and with all his might he pulled.  One of the medium sized parsnips on the table came out.  We were intrigued by the many extensions that came out of the parsnip.  The one he had pulled out had three distinct roots all attached at the top.  He began to try to pull another one out but could not.  Later our 13 year old daughter Alina and my husband set to work to remove the others.  It was comical to see them sinking their hands deep into the ground trying to get under each root.  Pulling very hard they came to light. These larger parsnips were even more unusual looking then Asher's first one.  This was all new to us.  We wondered how these strange looking parsnips would taste.  With a roast chicken these roots were cut up.  The roots were so big we needed a second glass dish to cook the remaining ones.  As our family sat down to dinner we all could not believe how sweet these parsnips were.  My husband said he thought they were the sweetest parsnips he had ever tasted.  A couple of things struck me about these parsnips.  
Through the severe weather of the winter with extreme cold and harsh conditions a few things happened.  The parsnips lost their "normal" appearance and were deformed.  This deformation allowed them to extend like many tiny fingers into the soil so removing them was a difficult task indeed.  As weather broke and fair weather came they were the strongest looking parsnips I have seen with thick healthy shoots.  Their mission was not to sit around and enjoy the weather but to pass on what they had to future generations...quickly.  Upon removing them despite their disfigured appearance they were tender and sweet.  

The effect of "suffering" or trials on these plants seemed much the same as the effect suffering has on us when we unify it with the suffering of Our Lord.  We may less and less resemble our old selves but to Our Lord these sufferings produce sweetness in our soul when endured with love.   Our ability to sustain and survive further trials increases and when the sun comes out our leaves are thick and lush.  We care less and less for the material things of this world.  Instead we have our eyes looking upward and also have a desire to pass on such faith to our children and the next generation.  It is beautiful that Our Lord who spoke often of farming in the Gospels, helps us understand many things through nature around us and toiling with the land.  These lessons are particularly helpful for our children who love to work in the garden and who in a special way seem to understand many of these things easily.

You may also like the following posts:
Finding Answers to Our Spiritual Questions in the Garden.

The Harvest is Abundant

The Compassion of Jesus

As they were going out, a demoniac who could not speak was brought to him,and when the demon was driven out the mute person spoke. The crowds were amazed and said, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel." But the Pharisees said, "He drives out demons by the prince of demons." Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest."(Matthew 9:32-38)

The last few days I have been marveling at the multitude of ways that the Lord makes Himself known. Through prayer it is as if shades were drawn from my eyes and now I see so much more hope and beauty. I hear those glum and down trodden speaking about politics and life in general but these words seem to roll off. Instead I see the Lord bringing people together within the Children’s Rosary.  Members offering to pray or to help purchase Bibles that will be given to families they may never meet.  Through our many novenas, that now have reached over 300, we have asked Jesus to be His extended hands and those of His Mother.  More and more people have begun praying.  As the laborers increase the Lord shows us more of the harvest He has waiting for us.  It is so beautiful to see what the Lord has in store for us, we have only to ask through prayer.  If you are reading this on the other side of the world you may wonder why should I join together with people on the other side of the world.  How will my prayers change what is happening in my family or town.  It is amazing to see the Lord use our prayers and reach to areas of the world I have never heard of before.  Caitlin who moved to the San Juan Islands off the Coast of Washington has been continually saying our novena to new saints each 9 days.  She continues praying the 15 decades of the Rosary every day.    She does not know where the Lord is taking her but she is secure that the Lord is directing her.  Just last week she began efforts to start a Children’s Rosary on San Juan Island among people she only just met this summer. 

The Priest said in Mass today “do not waste time on the things that do not matter”. On a small piece of paper which I keep in my prayer book I had written from another Mass a few months ago “you are not wasting your time when you do something for God”.   Can we start today? Can we all begin with prayer and if prayer is already part of your life then add something more for Jesus and listen for His direction.  If you ask the Lord in your heart to join our Children’s Rosary then all the prayers said by hundreds of others will include you.  With so many laborers we can begin to harvest the vast fruits Our Loving Lord has stored for us.  

join in the prayers of the children's rosary