The Girls' Retreats

   This week Meemz went on retreat with the Rosa Mystica Girls Society, a church club that teaches domestic arts like sewing, crocheting, knitting and embroidering.  The 8-14 yo's make blankets and other baby items which are then donated to a local maternity home.
   The annual summer retreat offers other arts and crafts projects that promote our Catholic faith and spirituality.  In keeping with this year's theme, Love of Family, the girls sewed table runners made from fabric with family-themed prints; they decorated magnets with pictures of the Holy Family; and they decoupaged picture frames to hold family photos. Other crafts included painting an apron, embroidering a bookmark, and making rosaries. The first two days also included Mass, a talk from our priest about the virtue of familial charity, Benediction and praying the Rosary. The third and final day was held at the coordinator's house where the girls finished up their projects, feasted on a summer brunch, and frolicked in the swimming pool.  Meemz has been attending these retreats for nearly five years and has learned plenty of wonderful home-making skills while having lots of fun.

   While big sister was at her Rosa Mystica retreat, Angel attended a one day retreat for Little Flowers.  This club is for younger girls and teaches them virtues through the lives of the great female saints.  At the retreat, the heroic life and martyrdom of St. Joan of Arc highlighted for the girls the importance of obedience. Then it was craft time: the girls recycled old ribbon spools into bracelets decorated with a carnation, the flower of obedience.  They attended Mass with the Rosa Mystica girls, grabbed a bite to eat, then burned off some energy jumping rope, swinging hula hoops, tossing frisbees and balloons. While the girls frolicked, their Little Flowers leader and her helpers (Edna was one of them) prepared t-shirts for tie-dyeing.

It was a messy but fun project as the girls transformed plain white tees into brightly colored shirts emblazoned with the Sacred Heart on the front.



They were then joined by our pastor and several seminarians who kept them cool with wet activities: creating bubbles bigger than themselves,

spraying water guns in a race to fill a bucket, even getting hosed down for some extra giggles.  The girls ended the day by praying a decade of the rosary. It was a delightful day for them all and they couldn't wait for next year.
photos from http://joyfilledfamily.blogspot.com/