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The Hope Chest with Virginia Knowles

Bella Sophia (Lady Wisdom Sets Her Table)

March 2013

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Dear friends,

Welcome to the March 2013 edition of the Hope Chest e-magazine! I sent out my Holy Week / Easter links this past weekend, and I hope they add some inspiration and beauty to your holiday experience through the art, music, poetry and essays. The two articles in this issue are "

Bella Sophia

(Lady Wisdom Sets Her Table)" and

 

"

St. Francis of Assisi

 

in History, Current Events, Literature, Writing, Art & Music."

I'm actually also preparing the April issue right now and will probably send it out the first week of the month.  It's my book review issue, and I'll be sharing about Craving Grace Like Chocolate: How the Gospel Changes Everything by Ruthie Delk, The Sword of the Spirit: The Story of William Tyndale by Joyce McPherson, Duck and Friends: The Dinosaur Bones by Donna McFarland, and A Thousand Resurrections: An Urban Spiritual Journey by Maria Garriott.

In family news, we recently found out that our daughter Rachel is graduating summa cum laude (that means with highest honors) from the College of Nursing at the University of Central Florida in May.   We are so proud of her!  She is defending her Honors in the Major thesis this week.

I also wanted to let you know that for the time being, both of my home schooling books are available in free PDF format here:  The Real Life Home School Mom: It's a Life in ReVision and Common Sense Excellence: Faith-Filled Home Education for Preschool to 5th Grade.  You can download them or read them on-line.  I updated Common Sense Excellence in January.

At the bottom of this issue, there are also links to the other articles I have written since I last sent out the Hope Chest.  Several of them are about creating a beautiful atmosphere in the home, an area where I need a lot of growth!  Of course, this week, I'll be planning Easter dinner for my husband, ten children, two sons-in-law, two grandchildren, and my sister-in-law

.   I am also hoping we'll make it to the Tenebrae (Good Friday) service at our little Presbyterian church this week.

 

I hope you all have a happy Easter!

Peace and joy to you and yours,

Virginia Knowles

Bella Sophia (Lady Wisdom Sets Her Table)

"Bella Sophia"

 by
Virginia Knowles

 

Lady Wisdom diligently prepares her feast

She fixes her savory meats and mixes her sweet wines

Then arranges her lovely banquet table:

Linens,
bouquets, crystal, china, silver, candles

With
exquisite hospitality and grace

She
welcomes her guests:

"Come
in, sit down, and dine!"

 

This
feast is for our souls

Lady
Wisdom nourishes our minds with solid truth

And
delights our spirits with goblets of merry mirth

She
pleases our inner eyes and ears with a deep harmony

A heart
mark of the Creator.

 

Dear
Lady Wisdom,

Teach
me to teach as you do

To
season my words with the spices of love and prayer

To
think before I speak so I will know

What
each hungry heart needs to hear

Show me
how to captivate hearts and minds

With
insight and satisfy their souls with delight

To feed
them the honeycomb of pleasant words

Sweet
to the soul and healing to the bones.

 

Bella
Sophia

Beautiful
Lady Wisdom

Help me
to spread a banquet in my home 

With
the Meat of the Word

The
Bread of Life and Living Water

The
Fruit of the Spirit

Then
come alongside 

And
call out with me through open doors,

"Welcome,
sit down, and dine!"

Wisdom has built her house;

she has set up its seven pillars.

She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine;

 

she has also set her table.
She has sent out her servants, and she calls

 

from the highest point of the city,
"Let all who are simple come to my house!"

 

To those who have no sense she says,

 

"Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.

Leave your simple ways and you will live;

 

walk in the way of insight.”
Proverbs 9:1-6

(

NIV)

I read these words from Proverbs and started thinking about how I communicate
with others.  It still wasn't a good day for that -- so many cross
conversations!

 

As a mother, I do need

 

bella

 

s

ophia, beautiful wisdom, in

 

the atmosphere of

 

my home.

 

How am I nurturing my own children?  I've got so much to learn and do.

 

As a writer, I try to set the table on my blog

s 

with a variety of
articles, some serious, some practical, some aesthetic, some light

-

hearted.
 As a

n English

 

teacher, too, I see the need to reach the hearts and minds of each
of my students.  Lesson planning takes effort, but it's worth it.
 Yes, I teach grammar and spelling, but most of all, through the
literature, writing, music and art appreciation that I plan each week, I try to
impart wisdom for life.  After reading in Proverbs 9, I'll now try to
think of it as preparing the feast and setting the table -- with enough
substance to sustain them and enough delight to capture their hearts for the
truth.  What do you think about this?

P.S. I borrowed the table photo from my post Weekend Gratitude: Welcoming Touches.  (Many thanks to my friend Judy, who hosted our Dinner with Friends feast two weeks ago!) 

St. Francis of Assisi

in History, Current Events, Literature, Writing, Art & Music

Dear friends,

You know by now how I love to integrate English with history!  The 5th-6th graders in our home school co-op are using the Mystery of History Volume 2 text (by Linda Hobar) on the time period of the early church up through the Middle Ages for their history class.  One of the lessons this past week was about St. Francis of Assisi.  I decided to shape my literature and writing assignments around that.

In class on Monday, I read the picture book Saint Francis of Assissi: A Life of Joy by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  There are many pictures books about St. Francis, but this is my favorite, and the author (son of Bobby Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy) has had a keen personal connection with his subject since childhood.  Charlotte Mason

 

would say that's the best kind of author to read!

Our main literature resource this year is The Book of Virtues edited by Dr. William Bennett, so I assigned "The Sermon to the Birds."  Francis is well-known for his love for all animals, as well as the rest of nature. (I also assigned the poem “Kindness to Animals” in light of this.)  This is so evident, no only in the bird story, but also in his "Canticle of the Sun."  There are many translations of this, but my fav is the one from the back cover of Kennedy's book:

“Canticle of the Sun”

by St. Francis of Assisi

Most high, all-powerful, all-good LORD!

All praise is yours, all glory, all honor and all blessing.

To you alone, Most High, do they belong.

No mortal lips are worthy to pronounce your name.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made,

And first my lord Brother Sun,

Who brings the day; and light you give to us through him.

How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendor!

Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon and Stars;

In the heavens you have made them, bright and precious and fair.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Wind and Air,

And fair and stormy, all the weather’s moods, by which you cherish all that you have made.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,

So useful, lowly, precious, and pure.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,

Through whom you brighten up the night. 

How beautiful he is, how gay!  Full of power and strength.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Earth, our mother,

Who feeds us in her sovereignty and produces

Various fruits and colored flowers and herbs.

All praise be yours, my Lord,

Through those who grant pardon for love of you;

Through those who endure sickness and trial.

Happy those who endure in peace, by you, Most High, they will be crowned.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death,

From whose embrace no mortal can escape.

Woe to those who die in mortal sin! 

Happy those She finds doing your will!

The second death can do no harm to them.

Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks,

And serve him with great humility.

The other notable thing about St. Francis is his unwavering kindness to the poor.  Born into a wealthy family and serving briefly as a soldier, he left behind his riches so he could live sacrificially as an itinerant preacher, serving the Lord, seeking peace, leading a religious order (Fratres Minores, now known as the Franciscans) and giving to the needy.  You have probably read his inspiring prayer many times...

“The Prayer of St. Francis”

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

I find it interesting to note that the new pope chose the name Francis I because a cardinal embraced him and reminded him not to forget the poor.  Francis I, who is from Argentina and is the first pope elected from the Americas, is known for being a humble and simple man who lived in a simple apartment, cooked his own meals, and rode the bus.  He has pledged to bring a new era of justice and mercy to the Catholic church, which has been wrought by corruption and scandal in recent years.  Though I am not Catholic and my students aren't either, this is really encouraging.  Be sure to watch this NBC news report: Pope Francis describes wish for 'poor church for the poor'

The writing assignment for the week was to write a factual narrative or a made up story about being kind to other people or to animals.  

This is what my daughter

Naomi

wrote:

The Homeless

 

I have had the opportunity to help the homeless twice, once about two months ago and another this week. The first time my sister Julia teamed up with another man to help the homeless. Julia got a lot of people to help out and  collected a bunch of jackets, sleeping bags, first aid supplies, snack bags, wash cloths, shoes, clothes and lots of food. I helped out with serving cake, muffins and cupcakes along with helping my mom with the snack bags.

The first aid bags had a sheet of paper in it that said where to go to get help. Our English class packed all of the supplies in the bags and put them in a box to bring to the homeless outreach.

The other time I helped the homeless was after school on Monday. All us kids asked my mom if we could go to Sam’s Club to get a soda. She agreed to go after we picked up my brother. So while we were on our way to pick up my brother I saw a homeless couple with two dogs near Sam’s. So after we picked up my brother, we stopped at our house so I could get some snacks and water for them. I packed four fruit roll ups, two bags of pretzels, a bag of graham crackers, and two bottles of water and put it in a plastic bag. Then we drove back to Sam’s Club and gave the bag to them. They were glad and said, “God bless you!” So that is how I was kind and helpful, to help feed the poor.  St. Francis was a great example to me for doing the right thing for the poor. Someday I hope to be as helpful to the poor as St. Francis.

Here is a quote that St. Francis wrote about giving:

“Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that have received--only what you have given.”

― St. Francis of Assisi

 

(You can see pictures here: 

Weekend Gratitude: Homeless Outreach in Downtown Orlando.  We're going again in April.  Wanna come?)

 

You can read more about St. Francis by doing a Google search on his name.  Here are two  articles: Who Was St. Francis? by Leonard Foley, O.F.M. and St. Francis of Assisi Took Amazing Twists, Turns (a recent article mentioning Pope Francis I).

I love to incorporate art and music, too.  You can do a Google Image search and come up with loads of beautiful paintings, drawings, and sculpture.  It's interesting to notice that most of the art features birds.  Ask your children if they know why he looks the way he does with the robe and the bald spot on his head.  The plain hooded robe with rope belt was the typical poor monk's clothing, and the bald spot is called a tonsure.  That's how monks wore their hair.  Invite your kids to draw their own picture of St. Francis.  Or, be like St. Francis and learn to appreciate the beauty of nature.  Draw pictures of flowers and animals.  Francis was also a lover of beautiful things that reflected the truths of God.  He created the first nativity scene, which is also called a creche.

You can add in a vocabulary lesson with words from his life and legacy, such as monk, monastery, chapel, priest, religious order, friar, tonsure, vow, poverty, chastity, pope, itinerant, patron saint, soldier, stigmata, sultan, creche, nativity, and Eucharist.

You can also watch musical videos of the "Prayer of St. Francis" by clicking on the original blog link: 

St. Francis of Assisi in History, Current Events, Literature, Writing, Art & Music

What can you and your children to do to follow the example of St. Francis in the 21st century?

Grace and peace,

Virginia Knowles
www.ContinueWellHomeSchool.blogspot.com

Here are the other blog posts I've written since I sent that last Hope Chest:

• Decorating and Organizing Bathroom Areas on a Budget
   
  (a photo post)

  
  

• My Hope Is In You
• Springtime in My Front Hallway
   
  (a photo post)

  
  

• Simply Southern Pound Cake and Divine Chicken
• A Potpourri of Philippians: Favorites, Study Methods, and Activities
• "At the Cross" by Living Waters A Capella from Yale
   

  (a music video)

• Still Blooming on a Chilly Morning

   

  (a photo post)

• Weekend Gratitude: Welcoming Touches
   

  (a photo post)

• Weekend Gratitude: A Little Lenten Liturgy
• Friends: Songs, Quotes, Poems, Stories
• Honesty (A Mini-Unit Study)

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