Pro-Life Novena: Activity Sheet

On this feast day of the archangels,  St. Michael the Archangel Organization's Novena for the Protection of the Unborn begins.

To help children participate in this novena, I drew up a little activity for tracking days of the novena. (I drew it for myself, too. I tend to lose track of days.)  Here's a glimpse at the completed project at the end of nine days: 

What You Need:
To use this pro-life worksheet, you'll need to print out:

• the Pray the Novena sheet (Mary with her arms ready to cradle children)
• the Bundle of Joys sheet (a printable of nine different babies)

Directions:

• Color the picture of Mary and put it in an accessible place (such as a prayer corner).
• Pray a rosary for the protection of unborn children. (Here's a refresher for praying the rosary, just in case!)
• Color a picture of a baby then cut and paste the baby in Mary's arms.
• Do the same for the eight remaining days, and you've just prayed a novena.

Add the Archangels, too!
And because this is the feast day of the archangels, you may want to download and color a picture of St. Michael the archangel, too. Print three out, color them differently, and you've got Gabriel, Michael and Raphael!

Shalom! ♥
Veronica Maria (aka Vee)

Reminder: Prayer Campaign to Protect Unborn Children begins Sept. 29.

image by Paper Dali

Read about an upcoming novena by the Saint Michael the Archangel Organization (hat tip: Evann's blog).

The novena begins on Sept. 29, which is the Feast of the Archangels. You can also download a coloring page of Saint Michael, if you like.  For more information, please visit the official page for the Novena for the Unborn.

You can download my drawing for free as a pro-life coloring page. Just add it to your refrigerator, prayer corner, etc. as a reminder to pray for the unborn and most vulnerable of people.

"If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves."
(Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate) 

Blessings,
Vee

Writer at Work: A Worksheet for Your Characters

photo credit: uppercase gallery

Can you hear me above all the clicking of the keys, my dears?

Lately, creative writing has pushed my drawing into the background, which explains the dust bunnies collecting at Paper Dali. Blame writer Steven Pressfield. After reading his head-smackin' "The War of Art," I have not been the same. The abandoned projects languishing for years in my desk have been yanked from their deep sleep, cleaned up and forced to march into daylight. Query letters, book summaries, and deep editing rule the night at my house now. Steven, Steven, Steven. What have you done to me? It was easier to approach my creative writing as a mere hobby. Now, it has become my second job.

The outcome of all this for you is a free printable worksheet for the writer under your roof. The 3-page Word document is a brainstorming worksheet for a character. (Print out enough, and you've got a whole notebook of character notes!) There are lots of blank spaces for scrawling down ideas about your character's personality, physical traits, background info, etc.

I created the worksheet for my 10-year-old daughter. (This explains the G-rating of the worksheet. Actually, everything at Paper Dali is written for children and adults.) My daughter spends hours writing or discussing writing with the two other writers in the house.

Are you a writer, too? Working on something? Thinking about it?

May your writing session be a productive one.
♥
Vee

A Shared Moment

In yesterday's mail, we received a catalog from Behold Publications/Ecce Homo Press. And here's what I saw in it:

 That's my activity book as the second picture on the page. The quote to the right of my book says:

"Ann Ball's favorite saint was Blessed Miguel Pro, so she wrote the children's book Jose Finds the King: A Blessed Miguel Pro Story. She hoped her grandchildren would come to know and love Miguel as much as she did by reading it. I know it helped me to love him more! My hope is the same for the children who enjoy the activities in this book. May the humor, prayerfulness, and bravery of Blessed Miguel reach them and guide them in drawing closer to the Lord." - Veronica Maria Jarski, author of Celebrating Blessed Miguel Pro

It gladdened my heart to see this in the catalog. Now, as a professional writer and editor, I see my work published often, but this activity book was so deeply personal and heart-focused that I can't compare how it pleases me to anything else I've done. It's more than just all the hard work poured into it---everything I do has that much dedication. But it's as if I had a chance to be with my best friend for months, and the book is like a scrapbook of our time together.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

We'll chat more about this near October 15 (its official release day).