Faithful Lines / Shirley Vogler Meister

Canadians foster Catholic faith for families

Before receiving an e-mail from Christian Newswire, I knew nothing about a ministry now flourishing in McDonalds Corners, Ontario, Canada—Little Flowers Family Apostolates, founded by Rita Davidson.

On this 10th anniversary, Davidson has announced the formation of a special publishing division called Little Flowers Family Press.

A decade ago, Davidson first created and designed a child’s spiritual progress chart named “Flower Gardening for Our Lady.” From that time on, she has concentrated on producing material that encourages Catholics, especially young children and their families.

She credits her husband, Mark, for his practical help and encouragement, especially since they home-school their six children.

Referring to the extreme difficulties they encountered along the way, she said, “We found our rosaries and our knees … a religious friend encouraged us in prayer for God’s providence and helped us to discern that God was leading us to a life of holy poverty.”

To better understand their headaches and heartaches prior to developing Little Flowers Family Apostolates, log on to “About Us” at their Web site

(www.lffa-ollmpc.com) to learn how “God’s providence” worked for them.

Readers without computers can write to the following address for printouts of the rest of their story, culminating in God’s will for them. Catalogs can also be requested via this address: Little Flowers Family Aposolates, R.R. 1, McDonalds Corners, Ontario KOG-1MO, Canada.

Not on the Web site are these side notes shared in an e-mail with Davidson: “We are distant relatives of Father Eugene Prevost, a Canadian mystic priest whose cause is up for beatification and whose sister was a Mother Superior of the Grey Nuns … . In this anniversary year, we also learned that Father Prevost was the vice-postulator of the cause of the beatification of St. Therese, the Little Flower, whom he knew in his lifetime.”

The Davidsons consider this news a special connection since “the Apostolate was founded in her honor to begin with.”

In 1999, noting how purity and modesty were deteriorating in our modern culture, Davidson also founded Our Lady’s Martyrs of Purity Crusade, which is dedicated to educating families and making reparations for immodesty. Two years ago, their book titled Immodesty: Satan’s Virtue was published.

Also, issues of The Catholic Health Letter (“Natural Health Care for your Soul and Body for the Glory of God”), published from 1996 to 2003, are in anthology form. Their Web site also includes a “Mother’s Corner.”

The mission statement for the Little Flowers Family Press is “Resources for helping families to know, love and serve God.” To learn what other books are available through Little Flowers Family Press, log on to www.lffa-ollmpc.com/SHOP/lffapub01.htm.

Some catching my attention are Catholic Word Games, Music Appreciation for Catholic Families, Advent and Christmastide, Early Christian Martyrs of the Church—and stickers of male and female saints.

(Shirley Vogler Meister, a member of Christ the King Parish in Indianapolis, is a regular columnist for The Criterion.) †