First 50 US/Canada groups mapped!!

View Little Flowers Girls' Club Group in a full screen map

To get your group on the map, fill out the form here: www.eccehomopress.com/LFregistration.html
Let your group be counted!!

Little Flowers Featured on EWTN!

Women of Grace (EWTN) aired last week's program on Girl Scouting, its positions, leadership and direction. In the last segment on alternatives to Girl Scouting, Little Flowers Girls' Club was featured as a great alternative. Thanks so much to Susan Brinkmann and Johnette Benkovic for all their hard work and support!


View the program here:

http://www.womenofgrace.com/en-us/media/tv/details.aspx?id=261

Welcome Jessica from Shower of Roses!

I'm so excited to announce a few more regular bloggers that have been added to our Little Flowers blog! Jessica from Shower of Roses blog has agreed to share with all of you her wonderful ideas for your Little Flowers Girls' Club. A link to her blog is to the right.

Here is a brief biography:

Jessica is a Roman Catholic, Wife, and Home-Educating Mother to her 6 children ages 1-11, with two more blessings in heaven and another baby due to arrive this coming January 1st. She was Home-Educated herself, along with her 11 younger siblings, before attending Christendom College for one year. Jessica started leading a Little Flowers Girls' Club 3 years ago so that her daughters would have the opportunity to participate in Little Flowers, and has been blogging meetings at Shower of Roses. Jessica is also the founder and administrator of Catholic Cuisine, a group blog she created to share recipes for celebrating the feasts and seasons of the liturgical year.


Welcome Jessica! Can't wait to see what you have planned for this year!

Jessica and her Little Flowers at their Mother/Daughter Tea

Join us on Facebook!

Do you love Little Flowers Girls' Club or any of the other great products offered by Behold Publications? Show your support for us on Facebook by clicking here!

September Newsletter

Here is the link to the September newsletter and discount coupons. Features include an inspiring message from the creator of Little Flowers Girls' Club, frequently asked questions, items shared by other Little Flowers groups and much more!

http://conta.cc/9k1hKz

Diocese of Fargo, ND

Little Flowers and Blue Knights are mentioned as options under the Youth Programs for the diocese of Fargo. Check out this link:
http://www.fargodiocese.org/EducationFormation/Youth/Local&Regional.htm

Fun Website!

Got a great email the other day from Vee who directed me to her website with tons of really cute saint and historical figure paper dolls for FREE! I'm hoping that Behold Publications can work with Vee to bring more creative stuff for Catholic kids in the future. Meanwhile, enjoy her site!

http://paperdali.blogspot.com/

New Year of the Priest Incentive

FOR ALL LITTLE FLOWERS GIRLS CLUB, BLUE KNIGHTS BOYS
CLUB, LITTLE WOMEN HOSPITALITY PROGRAM AND OUR LADY’S
HONOR GUARD PARTICIPANTS!
BY RACHEL WATKINS
Behold Children, Behold Christ programs celebrate “The Year of the Priest!”
It is truly fabulous that our Holy Father has given us such a wonderful year to celebrate! While many of us gained new knowledge of St. Paul and many graces from committing more time to studying his letters and life; the “Year of the Priest” seems much more approachable. I will admit that—having a brother who is a priest (currently serving as a military chaplain), as well as a son discerning the same vocation—I am more than a bit biased.
With this mandate from our Holy Father, we have created the following “bonus” activity. Not a virtue, but adding this to your program will certainly help the children grow in virtue as they discover the gift that the priesthood is to our faith and our families.
If you decide to take advantage of this, here is a new list of activities (there are 12 to chose from rather than the traditional 10 in honor of the 12 first priests/apostles), to complete it as you would any of the other virtues. Make a decision on what your member or group (based on age and ability as with all Behold Children, Behold Christ programs) can complete. The first three activities are * as it would be expected that all members would complete these.
Upon completion, you can receive a special recognition prayer card and a medal of St. John Vianney, the patron of the Year of the Priest, to commemorate your participation in this holy year. Also available at www.eccehomopress.com are award certificates, or if you prefer you can create something of your own.
The following can be downloaded as a .pdf from the www.eccehomopress.com website:
THE YEAR OF PRIEST
Memory verse: “His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever He tells you.’” Jn. 2:5
1. *Memorize the verse above as a sign of your own respect and love for the priesthood. For while
they are not perfect, they are Christ for us here on earth.
2. * Commit to saying the Prayer for the Priest as suggested by our bishops during this year to
spiritually support all priests throughout the world. Perhaps you could add it to your family
rosary, say it together after your Sunday Mass, or after dinner each evening. You can find the
prayer at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website (http://www.usccb.org/
yearforpriests/pdf/Peoples%20Prayer%20for%20Priests%20(English).pdf)
3. *Send a letter of thanks to your parish priests thanking them for their commitment to your parish.
4. Contact your parish priest (or other priest you may know) and ask for permission to interview
him. Ask him about his ‘job’ and what he does. Ask about his vocation and how it came about.
What can you discover that you never knew about priests? After the interview, write up what you
discovered in the form of a newspaper column and give it to the priest as a thank you. Or you
could seek permission to create a display that could be exhibited at your parish. (This could be
done as a group if desired with each member asking questions.)
5. Contact your diocesan vocation office or military chaplain’s offices (www.milarch.org). Inquire
to see if there are any needs with which your group could assist them. Perhaps you could develop
a pen pal program, a fundraiser, or collection of needed supplies. If nothing is available, create a
spiritual bouquet and send it to the office (or seminary) requesting it be shared with those under
their care.
6. Ask your parents about the priests who married them and performed sacraments such as Baptism
or First Communion for your family. If possible, locate these priests and give them news of the
family and how you are doing. Thank them for helping your family in their faith journey. If this
is not possible, say a rosary in their honor and ask the Blessed Mother to grant them grace and
fidelity.
7. Choose one of the many saint priests. Read their biography and share it with your group. Having
an evening of discovery of the many priests who are also saints.
8. Priests give up a great deal of serve Christ and Christ alone. There have been priests who were
once doctors, scientists, and great athletes. Some of these men were able to continue their work
as priest while others gave everything up to follow Jesus. Investigate some of these extraordinary
men, and create a display honoring their work. Perhaps there is one such man in your own parish
or diocese?
9. There are many good movies that give tribute to the sacrifices and work of good priests (such as
The Scarlet and the Black or Boy’s Town). Have a movie night and watch one as a group.
Consider inviting your parish priests to enjoy it with you.
10. Using Catholic apologetic material or books, explore the scripture verses that show the
establishment of the priesthood in the Catholic Church. These include: Lk 16:24, 1 Cor. 4:15,
Mt. 19:12, Jn. 20:22-23, Acts 19:18, Mt. 16:18, and Lk. 22:23. Create an apologist’s brief in
defense of the priesthood to give to all the members of your group.
11. Priests come from families just like yours. Praying for an increase in vocations and a generosity
from many families is key. Many dioceses have Eucharistic adoration, contact those in charge
and inquire if time could be dedicated to praying for vocations. Help them advertise this addition
as a part of this year’s celebration. In addition, make a commitment as a family to pray for
vocations regularly during family prayer time.
12. Participate as a family or a group in one of the programs your own parish/diocese is doing to
honor this year. Send a thank you to the organizers of the event afterwards and let them know
you appreciate their service. OR Fulfill the necessary obligations to receive the indulgences
attached to this holy year as prescribed. You can find the list of indulgences on the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops website at http://www.usccb.org/yearforpriests/indulgences.shtml

Group Service Project

I loved reading this article about the Pittston, PA Little Flowers Girls' Club service project. Way to go girls! Click here to read the article: http://www.timesleader.com/pittstondispatch/news/Little_Flowers_girls_club_donates_to_Greater_Pittston_Kids_Closet_06-14-2009.html

Beautiful Sacred Heart tye-dye shirts

This is from Lara in MO--Thanks for sharing, Lara!

Our Little Flowers tye dyed t-shirts with hearts this past Friday then I embelished them with fabric markers to make the hearts into Sacred Hearts. The backs will be Immaculate Hearts but I returned home from Michael’s with fabric markers to find out they were dried out and unusable L

We used directions and supplies from http://www.dharmatrading.com/ this kit: http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1966-AA.shtml?lnav=kits_starter_sets.html includes the book with instructions for doing a heart. VERY easy!!! We had kids from age 4- 13 and so far I have not heard of one that did not turn out. I used yellow, orange, and black fabric markers to embellish the Sacred Heart. I had a purple one to add a wound to the heart but that was one that was dried out. I will use purple to put dark roses on the Immaculate Hearts (you could use pink dye instead… do NOT let yourself be limited by our photos, I just used what was in the kit I received but the dyes are quite inexpensive once you have all the supplies. I found 2.5 gallon blue buckets for the soda ash bath at Walmart in the automotive dept. for $1.25 each).

I also have metallic silver fabric marker to put a sword piercing the Immaculate Hearts. I will try to post photos of that when they are complete.
+J.M.J.+,
Lara in MO

Flowers in Bloom

As Rachel said in a previous post, we recently met to plan some exciting new things for Little Flowers. Our daughters are both part of the same religious order in Rhode Island, so we met there, able to visit with them so that we two busy moms with 21 children between us could make the best use of our time. Rachel flew from Baltimore and I drove with two other children, including baby Thomas, from Kentucky. Driving home through Maryland and Virginia to visit relatives on beautiful early spring days, I was struck with the increased budding of flowers as we traveled south. In New England, all was still bare. While visiting Concord, MA, we saw syrup collectors on nearly every maple. Rhode Island was still brown and bare, too. Going through New Jersey, we began to see signs of life. Maryland actually boasted buds and a few brave early spring leaves poking through the earth. Virginia, however, was actually green. The daffodils, forsythia and hyacynth at my parents' home in Central Virginia were in full bloom. The bird feeders were crowded. Spring had actually come!
I began to think about you all in your Little Flowers year and how you have been working on virtues since September. All through the cold, dark winter, the girls have been learning about virtues, the saints, and their faith. Now, as the flowers poke through the ground, the trees begin to bud, and sun warms the body and soul, we can start to see the virtues growing like little flowers in our girls' lives. They begin to be excited about the next Little Flowers meeting, the next saint they will read about and the next virtue they'll practice. Finally, in May, they'll have an elegant Mother/Daughter Tea or May Procession to present their mothers and present to the Blessed Mother a symbol of the flowers that have grown in their hearts this year. What beautiful work God has done through all of you this year. Thank you for all your sacrifices for your girls and all those Little Flowers that are touched through your efforts. God bless, Joan

New Little Flowers Girls' Club Ideas

One of our very talented LFGC Leaders, Jessica, has some fantastic pictures and ideas that she's done with her Little Flowers club. Here's the link to her September site: http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/2008/09/little-flowers-for-st-therese.html

Here's the link to the October club meeting: http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/2008/10/little-flowers-girls-club-october.html  Thanks for sharing, Jessica!

Looking for a Little Flower Group?

Little Flowers Girls' Clubs are indepently operated at the local level. There is no national database or registration of groups. They are operated in homes, homeschool groups, parishes and schools. Check with your local Catholic homeschool group or Catholic parish for a group near you.

Check the "leader's support" section of the website: www.eccehomopress.com for a yahoogroup of 900+ leaders that may have information of a group near you.

May Crowning: How to plan and carry it out in your parish

Here is a great post from Peggy Bowes about her LFGC group at Laughlin AFB in Texas. Thanks for sharing, Peggy!
To help other leaders, I'm posting my "blueprint" in hopes that it
will save someone some work (perhaps too late for this year but it
may be helpful for next year's planning):

1. Contact your parish priest with plenty of advance notice. Keep
in mind that May is a busy month with the Easter season (most years),
First Communion, Mothers' Day, etc. I drafted the proposal below,
which I submitted to our parish priest, asking for a meeting to
discuss it further if he was interested. I think it's easier to get
a May Crowning done during Mass if Father doesn't view it as "his"
project, but do give him room for inputs:

LITTLE FLOWERS GIRLS' CLUB MAY CROWNING CEREMONY PROPOSAL,
May 18, 2008

1. The girls will process in at the beginning of Mass and join their
families in the reserved pews up front. (Reserved signs available
through the parish? Or, we can make our own.) They will all wear
Easter/First Communion dresses, Little Flowers sashes with patches,
white gloves, and crowns of flowers representing each of the nine
virtues they studied this year.

2. The actual crowning could be accomplished after the homily,
after Communion or at the end of Mass.

3. The Little Flowers Leader will read a short history of the May
Crowning ceremony (text attached) and four girls will each read a
short summary of what we've studied this year (text attached).

4. The girls will go to the back of the church and process up with
the crown and bouquets of fresh flowers. The youngest girl will
carry a pillow with the crown for Mary, also made from the flowers
representing each virtue studied. Fr. X will bless the crown (with
holy water?), and one of the girls will crown the statue of Mary.
(Ladder will be needed—we can provide one of the chapel doesn't have
one). Another option is to place a small statue of Mary in front of
the altar.

5. During the crowning, a Marian hymn will be played/sung by the
choir, preferably "Bring Flowers of the Rarest (Fairest)". Another
option: We have the May Crowning Song—"Bring Flowers of the Fairest"
on CD (Little Flowers Wreath I/Wreath II) if it can be played in the
church.

6. After Mass, the girls will process out, following the altar
servers.

7. After Mass, refreshments will be served, provided by the mothers
of the girls in the club. (Note: A "flower" theme is nice-- flower-
shaped sugar cookies or a flower-themed cake, etc.)

Attachments (Speaking parts):

Leader:
Good morning! I'm ___________, and I'm the leader of the
_____________ chapter of the Little Flowers Girls' Club. We are
honored today to perform a May Crowning ceremony.

The month of May is both named for and dedicated to Mary, and
Catholics have long honored the Blessed Mother by placing a crown on
her image. Crowing a statue of the Lord's Mother is symbolic of the
honor we give her as the one chosen by God to bear His Son, our
Salvation.

Mary is Queen of heaven and earth because she was the perfect
follower of Christ, who is the absolute "crown" of creation. She is
the Mother of the Son of God, who is the messianic King. She
remained steadfast in devotion to her Son, all the way to the foot of
the Cross. After the Ascension, she persevered in prayer with the
Church. She truly has won the "crown of righteousness", the "crown
of life", and the "crown of glory" promised to those who follow
Christ.

The tradition of crowing images was commonplace in the Eastern
Church. A blessed crown was frequently used to adorn icons in
churches to add additional splendor, much like a gilt frame.
In Rome during the late 16th century, Pope Clement VIII turned this
tradition of crowning images of Mary into a formal ceremony, which
was continued by successive popes.

In the United States, the tradition today is for school girls,
dressed in beautiful dresses, to crown a statue of Mary with a crown
of flowers during Mass.

We will begin the ceremony shortly, after the girls give a brief
summary of the virtues they've studied this year. We're always
excited to enroll new members, and the club will resume in the fall.
Check the bulletin for announcements.

1st girl:
We (number in club) girls are the Little Flowers Girls' Club. We
have spent the last nine months studying the virtues of Faith, Hope,
Love of God, Love of Neighbor, Obedience, Piety, Humility, Industry,
and Truthfulness. [Substitute virtues from Wreaths II, III, or IV if
appropriate.]

2nd girl:
Our role models are the Blessed Virgin Mary as well as our patroness,
St. Therese of Lisieux, and our own mothers. As examples of the
virtues we studied, we also learned about St. Catherine of Sienna,
St. Monica, St. Agnes, St. Jane Frances de Chantal, St. Joan of Arc,
St. Cecilia, St. Catherine Laboure, and St. Bridget of Sweden.

3rd girl:
The flowers around our hats and on the crown for our Blessed Mother
represent the virtues we have studied. They are sunflowers, ivy,
peonies, roses, carnations, forget-me-nots, violets, daffodils and
narcissus.

4th girl:
Our sashes are blue to help us remember the example of Mary, and we
have earned our patches through prayer and works of love and
charity. Next year we will study nine new virtues and we hope to add
more girls to our group.

I also printed out the text from this site on May Crowning liturgy:
http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/TextContents/Index
/4/SubIndex/67/TextIndex/6

Our pastor was delighted with the plan and made a few minor changes.

I also found this site helpful, which was the source for the leader's
speaking part:
http://www.wf-f.org/MayCrowning.html

This site was also helpful:
http://campus.udayton.edu/mary//meditations/crownmed.html

Here's what I did to prep:

I made crowns of flowers for each of the girls using silk flowers on
a green pipe cleaner "base" (twist several together to fit the girls'
heads). (Throughout the year, I bought the flowers associated with
each virtue, intending to make the crowns at the end of the year.) I
cut the flowers off the hard plastic stems and used florist wire and
florist tape to make it easier to affix to the base. I had
originally intended to make the flowers as a crown for the girls to
wear on their heads, but the large size of the flowers looked a
little off on our relatively young girls, so I decided to use the
crown around hats instead. Luckily, we had our tea party the week
before, so all the girls had hats. If you're really on the ball, you
can make the crowns/hat pieces as a craft for "Industry" and have
this done ahead of time (and not be making crowns late the night
before...)

Our statue of Mary was very small, so the flowers I used for the
girls would overwhelm the statue, so I ran out and bought miniature
versions of the flowers. I had to get a bit creative (an open white
mini rose subbed for a carnation), but it looked beautiful. I used
the same technique (pipe cleaner base and floral wire/tape) to make
the miniature crown. I made a small pillow (blue satin, edged with
lace) to place the crown on, which was carried by the youngest girl.

To elevate the small statue, I used a box draped in light blue satin
and placed it in front of the altar, ensuring that it wouldn't be
higher than the altar.

To mark the reserved pews for families, I used white silk rosebuds,
wrapped in floral wire/tape and added some blue tulle and affixed
them to clips to place on the end of the pews. Make sure you mark
both ends of the pews (main aisle and side aisle) so that people who
come up the side aisles don't sit there by mistake.

I bought small glass vases, and a dozen roses, divided among the
vases, so the girls had fresh flowers to carry up and place by the
statue.

I called our choir director to ask if he could play/sing "Bring
Flowers of the Rarest". He remembered the hymn but didn't have sheet
music. I found the lyrics and sheet music at this link:
http://campus.udayton.edu/mary//resources/mayhymns.htm
and the choir did a wonderful job of playing and singing the hymn.

I designated my husband as the official photographer so that a bunch
of parents taking photos wouldn't distract from the ceremony.
Aftewards, the parents can take photos at their leisure.

We all arrived about 45 minutes before Mass to practice, and the
ceremony went off without a hitch. The congregation enjoyed the
ceremony, and we received many compliments. Fr. X hopes this
visibility will add more girls to our group next year. One woman
approached me after Mass and asked how she can start a group at the
parish to which she's moving this summer.

I hope this is helpful. Feel free to email me if you have any
questions. The photos at the link at the beginning of the email will
help explain some of my text.

Blessings,
Peggy

Little Flowers Girls Club -- Texas Style!

From Beth Leary, Club Leader from North Austin, TX:

"I co-lead the Little Flowers Girls Club of North Austin in Austin, Texas. This is our 4th year to meet. We are repeating Wreath I. Every year, we have had an end of year pot-luck banquet and awards ceremony, which we are planning to have again this year. All of the families meet for a pot-luck dinner in our parish "dining room". After dinner, the girls sing a few pre-selected, rehearsed songs, and then individually speak for a minute or two about a saint, virtue, or activity that they especially enjoyed learning about during the year. After that, we call them up one at a time to receive the whole wreath of flowers that was earned during the year. "

May Crowning from Germany!

This beautiful picture is from a May Crowning the Little Flowers Girls' Club in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Thanks so much, Leanne Seguin for this photo. Notice the beautiful wreaths of flowers the girls are wearing.

Little Flowers in China!

They aren't quite the same as groups here, but I wanted to share the work of this graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville who started a home for dying Chinese orphans in 2007. The Loving Heart Home for Dying Orphans http://www.chinalittleflower.org/ relies totally on donations to continue its work.

Maybe your Little Flowers Girls' Club group would like to do a fundraiser for these orphans? The pictures of the orphans are on the website. Each girl could adopt one and raise funds for that girl. If you can't do a fundraiser for the China Little Flowers, perhaps your girls could send a spiritual bouquet to them?

One of the amazing results from this work is the transformation of Chinese women. In China, a child is valuable only if it is perfect. An imperfect child is cast aside to make room for a perfect child. The work with the orphans has shown the Chinese women who help out the value of each life and the beauty of every soul. Just goes to show you how one young woman, following the promptings of the Holy Spirit, can change hearts.

God bless!