On a recent trip to Indonesia, I had to visit the Catholic Cathedral in Jakarta. I’ve visited countless Catholic churches and cathedrals throughout the US, many in Europe, and a handful in Asia. I love seeing the beauty and differences (and similarities!) between the churches in different areas.
Gereja Kathedral, the Catholic cathedral in Jakarta, Indonesia, was no different. Here are some images of the trip with a hidden, beautiful Catholic gem that you might overlook if you visit without reading this first!
Gereja Kathedral (also known as St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral) is a Neo-Gothic church which has twin ornamental towers, constructed of steel. The interior of the church has beautiful stained glass depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38694537
A statue of Our Lady of Indoneisa, a lifelike statue of Pieta, and perpetual Eucharistic Adoration are also present in the church.
Side view of the Cathedral
The outside of the Cathedral is also beautiful!
cathedral courtyard
A lovely grotto is just outside the church where our surprise relic is found.
The grotto in the courtyard of the cathedral
And, lastly, here is the beautiful, VERY hidden gem: a rock from the actual grotto location where Our Lady of Lourdes appeared! Amazing!
A rock from where Our Lady of Lourdes appeared!
If you find yourself in Jakarta, be sure to check out this beautiful cathedral. Parking is free and easy and all denominations are welcome to tour it.
The theme of the Conference, My Soul Magnifies the Lord, is supported by a Eucharistic procession, Adoration, Mass, and multiple speakers and events for the entire family.
A command center is always a good idea if you like to be organized, have a big family, lots of moving parts, and you want everyone on the same page… or wall. 😉
But when you’re moving full speed ahead, how can you remember to look to Heaven in those moments throughout your week?
Let’s make a Catholic command center! It’s just like your command center, but with bells and whistles that will keep you on track to grow in prayer throughout the month and bring the people closest to you closer to Jesus too!
Not only are these some essential steps to creating a Catholic command center, but these printables are excellent tools for organizing your Catholic prayer life!
And…..Here’s the free printables to make your Command Center Catholic!
This is our family’s command center. I wiped the personal stuff so you can see it really well and not get distracted by our *stuff* going on.
In the center is our main calendar where we note anything the family is doing outside of the house: daily Mass, Bible study, soccer practice, etc. It’s the heart beat of keeping us all organized!
On the top left, you can see the Weekly Organizer where I can track my “to do’s” for the week, who I need to call, etc.
Below it is our Meal Calendar so I can better manage groceries purchases and the kids know what they’re getting (ha!)
I also made this one for those of you who like color and a different layout!
To the right of the calendar is our Saint Study sheet. This really helps me to pick a feast day and saint to focus on every month. Sometimes I get too excited by all the feast days and want to celebrate all of them in every way possible and… well, that’s just not possible!
This Saint Study helps me to focus and dive deeper into one saint. It also helps the kids to remember that saint and what they have in common with him or her later on!
Below that is our Weekly Homeschooling Schedule. It’s the bread and butter of our education and so, so important to making sure we stay on top of everything!
If you don’t homeschool or you prefer to swap out some of my organizing papers with someone more prayer-sustaining, check out these printables!
(Press the right arrow to flip through the pages)
They are excerpts from My Catholic Prayer Journal: Pocket Edition. I created them to help me focus on my prayer life and grow in my relationship with Jesus Christ every month. They really do help!
Below the calendar is our Weekly Cleaning Schedule (sourced from the Printable Crush blog) and two daily cleaning magnet flaps for my big kids.
My kids loooooove these magnet flaps. It turned one of my chore haters into a kid excited about doing the magnet flaps… after getting her chores done. 😉 It took me a bit of DIY time to make it, but it’s worth it for our family! Here are the directions to DIY it.
Above the calendar is the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary… perfect for the Summer and focus on the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and on the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but also a special devotion for our family. That’s why they get an important place in our home: right smack in the middle of our busy schedule!
And of course: Christ crucified. Take a moment to contemplate on His Passions and the worries of the day will become so much less.
I swap out the prayer card on the calendar for certain months and feast days. If we’re focusing on St. Therese of Lisieux in October, then I will have her prayer card up on the calendar. Likewise, in April we focused on Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday so we had a prayer card of Jesus’ resurrection and an image of Divine Mercy.
Make it your own, just don’t make it complicated. This is a source to help you find balance in your life, between the busyness of the day, organizing everything, and bringing it back to God to find peace.
Here’s where to get everything you need to copy this Catholic Command Center and organize your life:
Now, having this awesome Catholic command center doesn’t mean I can all of the sudden DO IT ALL! I am not a seven-armed mother who can conquer the world.
But, by organizing, being a good steward of my time and resources, and bringing them to Christ before bringing them to fruition, I allow Christ to work through me… which, in turn, allows me to accomplish more things for His glory. Let your life be prioritized and organized in that fashion.
God bless you; JMJ
P.S. please check out our main page and see what Catholic events are happening in your diocese or add an event from your parish so more Catholics can connect! Thank you! <3
If you’re traveling through the USA or looking for a place to pilgrimage to in the US that has a lot of your favorite saint relics, this is the place for you! But, first, let’s sign into what exactly classifies as a relic.
There are 3 types of relics:
First-class Relics: a part of a saint’s body (like fingernails or fragments of a bone)
Second-class Relics: an item used by a saint (like a shoe)
Third-class Relics: an object touched to a first-class relic (my daughter’s rosary that was touched to a vial of Saint Pope John Paul II’s blood)
The Maria Stein Shrine of the Holy Relics contains 1,100 relics in 970 reliquaries representing 900 saints. 95% of the relics are first-class. The collection continues to grow since they receive new relics from the Vatican regularly. It is located in the Diocese of Cincinnati.
Located in the Archdiocese of Chicago, St. John Cantius is home to about 1800 relics.
One very interesting facet of the collection of relics at St. John Cantius Church is the relics of the saints from the Lenten Station Churches of Rome. In the fourth century, pilgrims could journey to Rome and visit churches honoring various saints.
St. John Cantius is known for its celebration of the traditional liturgy and the Station Churches which are listed each day of Lent in the traditional missal.
What better way to provide an inspirational message for your child daily than on the walls where he or she plays and sleeps? Here are ideas for decorating your child’s playroom or nursery and where to buy the Catholic products that make up those living spaces.
Decorate with Angels
Let your child remember that their guardian angel is always watching over them with a beautiful portrait on the wall or framed the Guardian Angel prayer for them to read often
Angel of God My guardian dear To Whom His love Commits me here Ever this day Be at my side To light and guard To rule and guide. Amen
Make a prayer space or shrine to Our Mother Mary
Prayer spaces are a great way for children to keep their special religious items like statues, prayer books, Bible, and rosary. You could have a small place for it in a corned of their room with a comfy chair or in a walk-in closet. Just explain that it’s not a place to play, but to pray. This unique, up cycled jewelry box is a good idea too!
Decorate with your child’s favorite saints
What better hero to watch over your child while they play or sleep? The saints of course! I love these paintings from Etsy. Wouldn’t it be cute to gift them with a new saint each Christmas until they have a whole gang of saints to learn about and watch over them at night???
Keep the Bible front and center
Let the Bible and Bible verses be the focus of the room with framed decorative Bible verses or this cute DIY Bible verse idea. This would be a great way to help them memorize verses if they’re able!
Make their favorite characters Christian too!
I’m as much of a fan of Iron Man as anyone else, so why not have him acting Christ-like in your child’s room?
A crucifix is a must!
So many saints have said what a great help meditating on Christ crucified has done for their prayer life so a crucifix in your child’s room would be ideal. It is the image of the epitome of love.
I hope these ideas give you a good starting point for decorating your Catholic child’s room! For more Catholic decorating ideas, check out our Decorating Pinterest board!
If you’re in the Los Angeles area, you’re familiar with hot summers, traffic and Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. You know, the big cathedral off the freeway?
Well, you might not about the relic that is housed in this cathedral that got me excited enough to want to tell you about it. Because I’ve been to this cathedral, but I didn’t know this relic was there and you probably didn’t either!
This relic is an original piece from Saint Juan Diego’s tilma on which Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared! Isn’t that amazing?
Also, you may not know that the relics of the third century Roman martyr, Saint Vibiana, can be found in the mausoleum of the cathedral.
The next time you visit the cathedral, be sure to check out these relics!
Do you have relics hidden in your parish or cathedral? We would love to hear about them! Use our contact form to let us know and your hidden relics may be featured in a future post!
Check out these interesting Catholic churches in California… from the very first church ever built in California to the largest Catholic cathedral west of the Mississippi to the most amazing-sounding organ (seriously, we should have a sound bite for that)!
Find a Catholic church to learn about and discover new places to visit on your next #travelCatholic vacation!
The impressive organ in the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption is considered to be one of the finest in the world. Check out concert times available at the cathedral monthly.
The exterior of Saint John the Baptist Cathedral is a Gothic-Romanesque style made of red brick and the interior has beautiful stained glass and paintings to draw your eyes upwards.
Set on a hill off the freeway in downtown Los Angeles, this Cathedral is a beacon to those traveling in traffic to Hollywood, downtown LA, and beyond. The enormous cathedral has a mausoleum downstairs that is open to the public.
Founded by Saint Junipero Serra in 1770, the Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo is the longest standing, continuously functioning church in the state of California.
Christ Cathedral was previously a Protestant church but has been carefully renovated into a Catholic church. This (almost entirely) glass and crystal-looking church was dedicated in the summer of 2019.
As the largest cathedral west of the Mississippi, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament is a highlight for art and prayerful devotion near California’s state capitol.
I can almost taste the sun-kissed sweetness of Summer: cold ice cream dripping down the cone at a parish picnic, an exciting book club meeting to talk about our latest Catholic fiction novel at the coffee house, and a happening carnival at the parish down the street playing (safe) music that my kids can dance to.
It’s a time when there’s more freedom, more sunscreen, and more time for friends and family. How can you best spend that time and where?
1.
Make your vacation Catholic! When you’re planning a vacation, consider making the vacation a pilgrimage to a certain shrine or Catholic landmark. Sometimes, shrines even have accommodations similar to hostels.
2.
Attend Catholic events and activities in your home diocese or while traveling. Now you can find the Catholic festival, concert or retreat happening in your area or the diocese next to yours easily. Sign up for notifications at dioceseevents.com!
3.
Make a Catholic staycation! If you want to stay home for a vacation, make your own personal Catholic retreat in the comforts of your home. Start with daily Mass, confession, and add the rosary and quiet time during the day. Have the kids watch a Catholic movie or listen to a Catholic audiobook from formed.org while you get some down time with the Lord!
4.
Find God in your environment! Wherever you go, God is there. When you go for a hike, say a prayer and listen for God’s voice. Find the little moments throughout the day when God speaks to you and make sure to slow down enough so that you can truly listen.
5.
Pray daily and practice a new devotion. If summer has your prayer life in a spiritual slump, be sure to start the day with a Morning Prayer and offer your day to God. You may also find it helpful to start a new devotion like praying the rosary daily or praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet everyday at 3 o’clock.
6.
Celebrate feast days with daily Mass, crafts and Catholic recipes!Get your creativity on while celebrating our saintly brothers and sisters in Heaven!
This Summer, create special moments to help your kids connect and grow in the faith. Here are some ideas and activities to keep your summer Catholic!
Check out Catholic events and landmarks in your area (or wherever you are traveling to)! You can attend Bible studies, conferences, Bible camps, retreats, and festivals just by searching within the right diocese. For landmarks, I simply type in “Catholic shrine” or “Catholic cathedral/grotto” into Google maps on my phone and it gives me some ideas of places close to me. Just double-check the websites that these are indeed Catholic and and open at the time you want to visit!
Plant a faith-focused garden! Here are some ideas to decorate your garden as a prayer space and flowers the symbolize Our Blessed Mother. You can also get an outdoor statue of Mary and plant flowers around her. Finish it off by saying or singing a prayer and placing a crown made of flowers on her head. What kid wouldn’t enjoy that?
Need an indoor idea? How about some family time putting together a puzzle of the Last Supper or a puzzle featuring Mary and the angels?
Build a time capsule by collecting some prayer cards, write down prayer intentions or letters to Jesus, and small statues or Catholic toys and bury them to open next year. Your kids will love digging a hole and rediscovering their treasures next year!
For the older kids, make a scavenger hunt! Check out these neat ideas and printables to create a Catholic scavenger hunt from Ave Maria Press.
Create something fun in the kitchen using Catholic feast day-inspired recipes. You can see some ideas on Pinterest here and even more on Catholic
Check out these Catholic crafts ideas for when the kids have had just enough sun and need some time to focus on a project (like this St. Francis bird feeder). These are also great ideas for starting a park day together on certain feast days. Bring the supplies, let the kids do a faithful project, and let them run around and be crazy!
I hope these ideas give you a good direction for fun and faithful activities for your Catholic kids to do this Summer. For more ideas, please follow us on Pinterest and follow our Catholic kids Facebook page!
Saint Faustina is known as the saint who introduced Divine Mercy to the world. Through divine revelations, visions, and conversations with Jesus, St. Faustina brought us the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Divine Mercy Novena, and the image of Divine Mercy.
St Faustina picture source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Faustyna_Kowalska.png
Below are 7 of the most inspiring quotes from St. Faustina’s Diary… to inspire you to make the steps to become a saint too!
“Suffering is a great grace; through suffering the soul becomes like the Savior; in suffering love becomes crystallized; the greater the suffering, the purer the love.” (Diary 57)
“Great love can change small things into great ones, and it is only love which lends value to our actions. And the purer our love becomes, the less there will be within us for the flames of suffering to feed upon, and the suffering will cease to be a suffering for us; it will become a delight! By the grace of God, I have received such a disposition of heart that I am never so happy as when I suffer for Jesus, whom I love with every beat of my heart.” (Diary 303)
“I will not allow myself to be so absorbed in the whirlwind of work as to forget about God. I will spend all my free moments at the feet of the Master hidden in the Blessed Sacrament.” (Diary 82)
My child, know that the greatest obstacles to holiness are discouragement and an exaggerated anxiety. These will deprive you of the ability to practice virtue. All temptations united together ought not disturb your interior peace, not even momentarily. Sensitiveness and discouragement are the fruits of self-love. Have confidence, My child. Do not lose heart in coming for pardon, for I am always ready to forgive you. As often as you beg for it, you glorify My mercy. (Diary, 1488)
“O my Jesus, You have tested me so many times in this short life of mine! I have come to understand so many things, and even such that now amaze me. Oh, how good it is to abandon oneself totally to God and to give Him full freedom to act in one’s soul!” (Diary 134)
“‘I am love and Mercy Itself. There is no misery that could be a match for My mercy, neither will misery exhaust it, because as it is being granted – it increases. The soul that trusts in My mercy is most fortunate, because I Myself take care of it.’” (Diary 1273)
“‘I remind you, My daughter, that as often as you hear the clock strike the third hour, immerse yourself completely in My mercy, adoring and glorifying it; invoke its omnipotence for the whole world, and particularly for poor sinners; for at that moment mercy was open wide for every soul. In this hour you can obtain everything for yourself and for others for the asking; it was the hour of grace for the whole world – mercy triumphed over justice.’” (Diary 1572)
I hope these quotes inspire you! Please take a moment to look at the rest of our website where you can find Catholic events and activities in your home diocese!
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