Another All Saints’ Day has come and gone, and it was amazing to get to see all of the saints that your families chose to dress up as! The Catholic All Year team loved getting to look through each and every costume to choose the winners and honorable mentions. So, without further ado, let’s get to the good part!

The 1st Place Winners – The Blessed Ulma Family

The 2nd Place Winner – St. Joseph of Cupertino

We’re big fans of levitation here!

The 3rd Place Winner – Little Mother Teresa

The Honorable Mentions

Note to honorable mention winners: We decided that you all were so amazing that we couldn’t let you go without a prize too! We’re gifting you three months of our Venerable Level membership to try if you aren’t a current member already! Please contact us at helpdesk@catholicallyear.com to collect your prize.

Saints Peter and Paul

St. George the Dragon Slayer

St. John Bosco

St. Juan Diego, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Thérèse, and St. John Paul II

St. Lucy

St. Catherine of Siena

St. Thomas Aquinas

Amazing tonsures! #welovetoseeit

St. Cecilia

St. Pius X

St. Maximillian Kolbe

St. Augustine of Hippo

St. Alphonsus

St. Clare of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi and St. Michael the Archangel

St. Patrick

St. Teresa of Avila, St. Josephine Bakhita, St. Jean Vianney, Pope St. Pius X, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, St. Wenceslaus, Bl. Pier Giorgio Frasatti

St. Damien of Molokai

Shout out to George as St. Michael the Archangel!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered!

Our contest winners each received three months of various tiers of the CAY Membership! Want to learn more?

Check out all of the memberships below!

• Doctor of the Church
• Saint
• Blessed
• Venerable

Wondering what to do with your family for the rest of the month of the Poor Souls in Purgatory? We’ve got you covered!

Visit a cemetery to pray for the dead from November 1st-8th to recieve an plenary indulgence that can be applied to the Poor Souls! You can find the prayers for your visit in our Visiting a Cemetery Printable Booklet. Learn more about the requirements for gaining an indulgence for the Poor Souls here.

Decorate for the month of November with this All Saints Banner or this Requiescant in Pace Banner!

Meet some new saintly friends with these brand new saint photo cards and photo album.

The post The 2023 Costume Contest: Winners & Honorable Mentions appeared first on Catholic All Year.

The prizes are as follows:

First place wins three months of a Doctor of the Church level membership!

Second place wins three months of a Saint level membership!

And Third place wins three months of a Blessed level membership!

Any international winners will receive three months of a Venerable level membership!

Here’s how to enter . . .

If your kids are dressing up in a Catholic costume for Halloween or All Saints Day share a photo on Instagram and Facebook using #catholiccostume tag @catholicallyear and @kendra_tierney. (If you have a private account, you’ll need to set it to public for the day so I can see your tag.) If you are not a social media type, you can email your photo to me at helpdesk@catholicallyear.com.

We’ll do a round-up post following the close of the contest, which is November 1, 2022 at 11:59PM. By entering you give us permission to share photos on the Catholic All Year blog and social media channels.  Three winners will be selected & announced on November 2! Open world wide, international winners will win a digital pize.

The post Y’all Ready For This? It’s a CAY All Saints Day Costume Contest! appeared first on Catholic All Year.

And now, for . . .

In the latest CAY Liturgical Living Video, we’re talking about bird feeders , nativity scenes , and the blessing of animals . What do they all have in common? It’s St. Francis .

Watch the video here, and/or keep reading for more details plus a 25% off code for this month’s recommended books and printable PDF versions of “The Canticle of the Sun” and the St. Francis food tags you see in the video.

If you’re walking around a Catholic neighborhood, what are you going to see in the front yards? Statues of Mary, and St. Francis bird feeders, right? But why?

Well, because St. Francis of Assisi is one of the most well known saints in history, to people and birds alike. He was born in Assisi, Italy in the 12th century, to wealthy Catholic parents. After time as a soldier, he renounced his life of luxury for a life of prayer and service to the poor. While praying at an old country chapel in San Damiano, he heard the icon of Christ crucified speak to him saying, “Francis, Francis, go and repair my house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins.”

He spent the next few years rebuilding ruined churches in the area (including the Portiuncula Chapel which we talked about in a previous video). Eventually he gained some followers, and received permission from the Pope to begin his order of brothers. This was followed by an order of sisters, under the supervision of his friend, noblewoman St. Clare of Assisi. Francis never became a priest, but his love of poverty and his joyful preaching converted people everywhere he went.

St. Francis had a great love for all of God’s creatures, and was known to practice his preaching by giving talks to the birds. It’s said he was so compelling that they would fly down from the trees and perch on his shoulders to be able to hear him better. So that’s where all the Catholic bird feeders come from!

Hoping to inspire people with the beauty and humility of the first Christmas, St. Francis created the first ever nativity scene, complete with living animals! People liked the idea and now at Christmastime, you’ll find a nativity in almost every Catholic home . . . but they’re mostly of the non-live variety.

Another story says that there was a wolf terrorizing the Italian town of Gubbio. Francis agreed to speak to him, and brokered a peace between the town and the wolf. In exchange for being given food, the wolf agreed to leave the town’s flocks and children alone.

St. Francis wrote a beautiful song of prayer called “The Canticle of the Sun,” in which he praises God through all of God’s creation. It is believed to be the first piece of literature written down in the Italian language. According to tradition, the first time it was sung in its entirety was by Francis and two of his original companions, on Francis’ deathbed.

So, because of St. Francis’ love for animals, there is a long history of celebrating a blessing of animals on his feast day. This is offered at many parishes. It’s also appropriate for the head of the household to bless the family’s animals at home. You can find the prayers in the USCCB’s Book of Blessings or Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers, in my Catholic All Year Prayer Companion or Catholic All October monthly booklet, or online here.

We like to split the difference and invite a priest friend and some neighbors over for a backyard blessing of animals. This can happen ANYTIME, but sometime around the feast of St. Francis on October 4 is especially appropriate.

If you know me, you know I enjoy making complicated meals for feast days. But the feast of St. Francis is a good example of the fact that, even for me, entertaining for saints’ days doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated. Corn “dogs”, “ants” on a log, “bear” claws, and various animal-shaped cookies and crackers are all good ways to celebrate God’s creation through snacks!

As always, thank you to our video sponsor (and the publisher of my books), Ignatius Press. You can find out more about liturgical living in the home and Catholic traditions like the Blessing of Animals in The Catholic All Year Compendium and find the text of the blessing as well as “the Canticle of the Sun” and so much more in The Catholic All Year Prayer Companion. Our featured Ignatius Press books this month are both favorites around here and they’re both about St. Francis!

Get 25% off Brother Francis of Assisi and the whole Loupio series at Ignatius.com through November 2021 with the code CAY1021

Brother Francis of Assisi is a classic book by beloved children’s author Tomie de Paola. It’s now back in print thanks to Ignatius Press! It’s got great illustrations and a detailed story of the life of St. Francis and his friend St. Clare. It’s great as a read-aloud for younger kids over a few nights, or for middle grade kids to read alone.

Also this month we are featuring the Loupio books. I’ve mentioned these in other videos, but they’re back because volume six is now available! These are fun comic book-style illustrated books for middle grade kids about the adventures of young Loupio and his friends Brother Francis and the Gubbio wolf. You can get 25% off all the books in the Loupio series and Brother Francis of Assisi all month long from Ignatius.com using the discount code on the screen and in the description below.

As promised at the top, here’s a free sample of the new CAY hymns. Check out Grace’s lyric video here.

The post An At Home Blessing of Animals for the Feast of Saint Francis appeared first on Catholic All Year.

Here it is in video format:

Stay tuned to the end of the show for this month’s 25% off book recommendations!
Ignatius Bible (RSV), 2nd Edition – Leather
New Testament: Ignatius Catholic Study Bible
Saint Joseph: Watch Over My Family
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: Living on Love

Get 25% off any or all four of these books through the end of October at www.ignatius.com with the code CAY921

Books by @Ignatius_Press
Video by Jack & Bobby Tierney

That’s right, the Tierney teenagers have taken over behind the camera and behind the scenes around here, at least temporarily. Please keep our usual CAY filmmaker Elizabeth Mirzaei and her family and their other home, Afghanistan, in your prayers.

So let’s talk about . . . the Seven Sorrows of Mary: what they are, why Catholics make a point of remembering them, and I’ll share our family activity in honor of Our Lady of Sorrows that combines looking up scripture verses and eating sour candy . . .

Veneration of Our Lady of Sorrows can be traced back to Benedictine monks in the eleventh century, and grew in popularity through the late middle ages with devotions like the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows and the black scapular. The devotion was promoted by the Servite Order, and Saint Bridget of Sweden, among other saints.

The Seven Sorrows of Mary are seven sad events that occurred in the life of Our Lady, and are recorded in the Bible. The sorrowful mysteries of the rosary overlap some with the Seven Sorrow, but that’s a different devotion.

Our Lady of Sorrows is a popular subject in Christian art. The image of “Mater Dolorosa” can often be seen with swords or daggers piercing Mary’s chest or heart, based on the words of the prophecy of Simeon (itself one of the sorrows), “and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed”.

We can also see her in art as the Stabat Mater or “standing mother” next to the cross of Jesus (and of course that’s also a beautiful hymn).

And the pieta, in which Our Lady holds the body of Jesus after he is removed from the cross.

So . . . why do Catholics venerate Our Lady in her Sorrows? It’s a way that we can identify with our Lady, who very often, and rightly, seems out of reach for us. But even though she is sinless and perfect and the mother of God, we know that she can understand and empathize with our sufferings because she herself suffered. Our Lady of Sorrows is a good reminder that, just like the country song, Jesus never promised us a rose garden. His mother Mary was spared original sin, but not suffering. The greatest saints have had great sorrows. Our devotion to God and our faithfulness to the Catholic Church doesn’t promise us material wealth or a life free of suffering on earth. It promises us the chance for true joy and meaning in our lives on this earth, despite our hardships, and eternal happiness with God in heaven when this life is over.

The most important part of this—or any—devotion to Our Lady is that it points us to Christ.

When it was first instituted as a feast day on the church liturgical calendar in the fifteenth century, it was called The Feast of Our Lady of Compassion. This title really highlights the reason why Catholics venerate Our Lady in her Sorrows. It was her compassion for the suffering her son would endure that was her true sorrow. Mary suffered for Jesus and with Jesus, because of her great love for him. The Church gives us Our Lady of Sorrows as an example of Mary’s faithfulness.

She was faithful when it was confusing, like the prophecy of Simeon, and when it was inconvenient like the flight into Egypt, and when it was infuriating like the loss of the child Jesus in the temple, and when it was utterly heartbreaking during the Way of the Cross and the passion and death of Our Lord. Through it all, she was faithful, and that’s what we hope to emulate when we practice a devotion to her seven sorrows.

Since the seven sorrows of Mary can be found in the Bible, our family activity for the day is to read the scripture passage associated with each sorrow aloud. The scripture passages can be found in The Catholic All Year Prayer Companion, and monthly prayer booklets, or if you want to level up, this is a great chance to practice looking up Bible verses.

“Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you saddle the horse and I’ll jump on”

To make it even more fun, we meditate on each sorrow . . . . while eating something sour, and trying NOT to make a sour face.

The challenge is to think about how Mary would have felt during that experience, and be eating the sour candy, and NOT make a sour face. Because, as we know, she did not make faces: “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). It manages to be somber and slightly hilarious at the same time.

The Seven Sorrows of Mary: an activity for children

SUPPLIES: sour candies, seven for each child + a Bible and/or CAY Prayer Companion
TO DO: read the name of the sorrow. hand each child a sour candy. read the associated Bible verse while the child eats the candy. bonus points if he eats without making a sour face!

1. The Prophecy of Simeon
   (Luke 2:25-35)
2. The Flight into Egypt
   (Matthew 2:13-15)
3. The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple
   (Luke 2:41-51)
4. Mary Meets Jesus on the Via Dolorosa
   (Luke 23:26-31)
5. The Crucifixion
   (John 19:17-18, 25-30)
6. The Body of Jesus is Removed from the Cross
   (Mark 15:43-47)
7. The Burial of Jesus
   (John 19:39-42)

THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF SORROWS IS SEPTEMBER 15, and the whole month of September is devoted to the Seven Sorrows of Mary.

You can find out more about liturgical living in the home and Catholic traditions like the Seven Sorrows in The Catholic All Year Compendium

And find prayers and scripture readings for feast days in The Catholic All Year Prayer Companion.

Get printable liturgical living resources for September with a Catholic All Year Membership.

Get the Catholic All September booklet here.

And if you have the Catholic All Year Liturgical Living Box for Fall, you’ve got some super sour candies in there ready to go!

The post The Seven Sorrows of Mary: an activity for children appeared first on Catholic All Year.

Read Aloud Recommendations for Each Month

DECEMBER

Advent & Christmas Middle Length Family Read-Alouds (also great as audiobooks). I’ve included the publisher’s recommended age range, but we listen as a whole family, babies to adults.

The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas: An Austin Family Story by Madeleine L’Engle  2010 (originally 1964), recommended age range 4-8, illustrated short chapter book

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson 1972, recommended age range 8-12, short chapter book 

Christmas in Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren 1981, recommended age 7 and up, long picture book

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 1843, recommended age 10 and up, short chapter book

A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas 1952, recommended age 7 and up, long picture book

The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden 1958, recommended age range 5-8 long picture book

Advent & Christmas Picture Books

Angela and the Baby Jesus by Frank McCourt 2007

The Donkey’s Dream by Barbara Helen Berger 1985

Christmas in the Manger board book by Nola Buck 1998

An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco  2004

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree: An Appalachian Story by Gloria Houston 1996

The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola  1997

The Legend of Old Befana: An Italian Christmas Story by Tomie dePaola  2017

The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola  1978

The Twelve Days of Christmas by Laurel Long  2011

December 6—Saint Nicholas

The Miracle of Saint Nicholas (Note: about an Orthodox Parish called St. Nicholas, not about the saint, but a great story!) by Gloria Whelan  1997

The Baker’s Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale by Aaron Shepard  2018

Santa’s Favorite Story: Santa Tells the Story of the First Christmas by Hisako Aoki 2007

The Legend of Saint Nicholas (An overview of the various and more fantastical St. Nicholas legends) by Demi 2003

Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins (A more detailed version of the money through the window story) by Jim Forest 2015

December 9—Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin / December 12—Our Lady of Guadalupe

Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie dePaola  1980

Guadalupe: First Words – Primeras Palabras board book by Patty Rodriguez

Third Sunday of Advent—Gaudete Sunday / Bambinelli Sunday

Bambinelli Sunday: A Christmas Blessing  by Amy Welborn  2013

December 24—Christmas Eve / Saints Adam and Eve

The End of the Fiery Sword: Adam & Eve and Jesus & Mary by Maura Roan McKeegan 2014

December 25—THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD (Christmas)

The Christmas Story  by The Metropolitan Museum of Art  2017

December 26—Saint Stephen, The First Martyr

Wenceslas (Note: St. Wenceslas’ feast day is actually September 28, but most people associate him with the Feast of St. Stephen) by Geraldine McCaughrean  2007

JANUARY

January 1—Mary, Mother of God 

Mary: The Mother of Jesus  by Tomie dePaola  1995

My First Pictures of Mary board book by Maïte Roche 2011

January 6 (or the Sunday after January 1)—Epiphany

We Three Kings by Gennady Spirin  2007

FEBRUARY

February 1—Saint Brigid of Ireland

Brigid and the Butter: A Legend about St Brigid by Pamela Love  2017

February 11—Our Lady of Lourdes

Saint Bernadette and the Miracles of Lourdes by Demi 2017

February 23—Saint Isabelle

Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson 1999

MARCH

March 17—Saint Patrick

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola 1992

Patrick: Saint of Ireland by Diana Mayo 2002

March 25—The Annunciation

Mary Stories from the Bible by Charlotte Grossetête   2018

Holy Week

Margaret’s First Holy Week (The Pope’s Cat) short chapter book by Jon M. Sweeney  2019

The Queen and the Cross (About St. Helena, so also appropriate for her feast day August 18 or Exaltation of the Holy Cross September 14) by Cornelia Bilinsky 2013

The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale  by Angela Elwell Hunt 1989

APRIL

Easter

The Easter Story  by Brian Wildsmith  2000

Into the Sea, Out of the Tomb: Jonah and Jesus by Maura Roan McKeegan  2016

The Story of the Easter Robin by Dandi Daley Mackall 2010

April 23—Saint George

Saint George and the Dragon (fairytale legend St. George) by Margaret Hodges 1984

Saint George and the Dragon (Catholic legend St. George) by Jim Forest  2011

MAY

May 22—Saint Rita

Brothers at Bat: the True Story of an Amazing All Brother Baseball Team  (we read this for the feast of St. Rita since she’s unofficially the patron saint of baseball) by Audrey Vernick 2012

May 30—Saint Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc  by Demi 2011 

May 31—Visitation

Take It to the Queen: A Tale of Hope by Josephine Nobisso  2008

Little Gold Star: A Spanish American Cinderella Tale by San Souci, Robert D 2000

JUNE

June 29—Saints Peter and Paul

Peter, Apostle of Jesus: The Life of a Saint  by Boris Grebille 2014

JULY

July 22—Saint Mary Magdalene 

The Miracle of the Red Egg by Elizabeth Crispina Johnson 2014

AUGUST

August 28—Saint Augustine

Brother Hugo and the Bear by Katy Beebe  2014

Gus Finds God by Michael P. Foley 2018

SEPTEMBER

September 5—Saint Teresa of Calcutta

Mother Teresa: The Smile of Calcutta (Life of a Saint)  by Charlotte Grossetête 2016

September 11

Fourteen Cows for America  (not a saint story, but a beautiful book for September 11th) by Carmen Agra Deedy 2009

September 29—Michaelmas

The Bearskinner: A Tale of the Brothers Grimm Hardcover by Laura Amy Schlitz  2007 (we read this for Michaelmas, because it’s about triumphing over the devil, it’s my all-time favorite picture book)

OCTOBER

October 1—Saint Thérèse

Therese: The Little Flower of Lisieux (Life of a Saint) by Sioux Berger 2011

The Little Flower: A Parable of Saint Therese of Lisieux by Becky B. Arganbright 2015

October 2—The Holy Guardian Angels

Angel in the Waters by Regina Doman 2005

God Bless the Gargoyles by Dav Pilkey 2016

October 4—Saint Francis

Saint Francis and the Wolf by Richard Egielski 2005

Saint Francis by Brian Wildsmith  1996

Brother Sun, Sister Moon  by Katherine Paterson 2011

October 7—Our Lady of the Rosary

Let’s Pray the Rosary by Mauricette Vial-Andru 2015

Mysteries of the Rosary board book set by Catholic Sprouts 2019

Hail Mary board book/ Our Father board book by Maïte Roche 2017

October 22—Saint Pope John Paul II

The Story of Saint John Paul II: A Boy Who Became Pope by Fabiola Garza 2014

Lolek – The Boy Who Became Pope John Paul II by Mary Hramiec Hoffman 2008 (the two JPII books are both well-written and illustrated, but this one has more historical information)

October 31—All Hallow’s Eve

Cautionary Tales for Children Hardcover by Hilaire Belloc  2002 (originally 1907) We like these as spooky Memento Mori poems for Halloween!

NOVEMBER

A Story of St. Catherine of Alexandria by Brother Flavius C.S.C 2013 (originally 1965)

So that’s it, our entire picture book liturgical library! If you’ve read these, I’d love to know which are your family’s favorites, and if you love a saint picture book that’s not on the list, please let me know in the comments. I’m always looking to add good books to our collection. Check back in on this post, I’ll update it as we get new books!

And please pray for all of us at the Fiat Conference, and consider joining us!

The post The Ultimate Liturgical Library Post: Saint Books for All Year Long appeared first on Catholic All Year.

There is genuinely a lot of worry that they’ll get it wrong one way or another and drive their children away from the Church either by embracing the secular stuff too much or by eschewing it completely. The particular one I hear most often is the concern that when kids find out that Santa isn’t “real” (although he is, technically, real) they will think that God is also not real.

I’m nine kids and fifteen years into my parenting journey so far, and can finally say that I’m starting to see how some of our parenting choices are turning out. I am in NO WAY a perfect parent. Or a perfect Catholic. But in all honesty, I am really comfortable with the balance we’ve found in this area. I’m confident that it’s a historically Catholic approach.

In our family we do Santa, we don’t lie to our kids, they do not report feeling betrayed, they haven’t been denied a culturally typical Christmas, and yet Santa doesn’t overshadow Jesus. We’re living the dream, people.

We do traditional American Christmas stuff like letters to Santa, and mall Santa photos, and milk and cookies out on Christmas Eve. Our little kids believe that Santa brings them presents. Our big kids don’t believe that.

St. Nicholas is a part of our Christmas but we have not found that he dominates it, or overshadows “the reason for the season” as they say. My kids have moved from Team Little Kid to Team Santa’s Helpers without any angst or trauma.

I’ve detailed in a previous post why I think it’s okay for Catholic kids to believe in Santa, and how we answer various questions Catholic kids might have about his whole deal. But as I was responding to emails the other night, I realized that in that post I don’t really mention the two big reasons I think our approach has been successful for our family. I think they explain how we can eat our cake and have it too, Santa-wise.

Quick aside here, I hope and pray that your kids and mine will bring a formed Catholic faith into adulthood, practice it their whole lives, and pass it on to their children and their children’s children. I know that it is possible that they won’t. I think it’s very unlikely that the determining factor in how that goes will turn out to have been how we handled Santa Claus.

So, whatever you do: Be not afraid.

Here’s how WE do it.

1. I don’t insist to my kids that anything is TRUE, unless it’s a dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church.
2. We practice liturgical living in the home all year long.

And, unlikely as it may seem, those two go hand in hand.

St. Nicholas isn’t the only saint my kids know and love. He’s not the only saint around whom we have fun and exciting traditions. He’s not the only saint we know who’s got crazy stories associated with him.

In our home, in Advent alone, we also talk about St. Ambrose, the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Loreto, St. Lucy, St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe, and St. John of the Cross.

We tell our kids the stories of . . .

How a swarm of bees settled on the face of the baby St. Ambrose, so his dad knew he would be a good speaker. (The obvious reaction to bees on your baby’s face.)

How Mary, from the very moment she was conceived in her mother’s womb, was free from sin. She was pre-redeemed by Christ and was free from original sin at her birth and from actual sin for her whole life.

How Mary’s home in Nazareth, when it was threatened with destruction during the Crusades, was picked up by four angels and flown to Loreto, Italy.

How Our Lady appeared to a humble peasant named Juan Diego and gave him an important job to do, and trusted him to do it even when he was pretty sure he couldn’t, and tried to avoid her. And how she gave him roses, growing out of season, and imprinted her image miraculously on his tilma.

How St. John of the Cross was kidnapped and imprisoned by his own fellow Carmelite priests, and composed long, beautiful poems on scrap pieces of paper, by a sliver of light in his cell, before he boldly escaped from his captors.

St. Nicholas is in the mix too, and there are all sorts of great stories about him giving in secret to the daughters of a needy widower, slapping a heretic across the face at the council of Nicea, and saving three naked little boys from being served up as meat by an evil butcher.

But only ONE of those feast day stories, the Immaculate Conception, is a defined dogma of the Catholic Church. If my kids and I profess to be Catholic, we must believe that story to be absolutely true.

All of the others, we Catholics are free to believe or not believe. There’s historical record in support of some of the stories, like St. John of the Cross and St. Nicholas at the council; there are alternate explanations for some of the stories, like that perhaps returning crusaders carried Our Lady’s home, stone by stone, to Loreto; there is physical evidence for some, like the fact that Juan Diego’s tilma, with the image of Our Lady, still exists and you can go look at it. Regardless of plausibility, we don’t HAVE to believe any of it. But these legends and stories are part of our Catholic cultural heritage. For thousands of years, Catholic parents have passed them along to their children as fun and inspiration.

The specific, exact point of all saint stories has always been to point to Jesus.

So, when talking about St. Nicholas, and all the saints all year long, I use words like “traditionally,” and “the stories say,” and “what I’ve heard is.” If they have a specific concern about a particular aspect of the story — flying reindeer, covering all that ground in one night, etc. — together we brainstorm possible explanations. But I always maintain that I’m trying to figure this out as much as they are.

This position comes in handy when discussing other aspects of the faith, like the Trinity and Transubstantiation.

And it means that once they’re old enough to be able to reason, they can be trusted to sort the True (the Resurrection) from the false (Santa brings their presents) from the rest (all the other amazing stories of miracles from the Bible and the lives of the saints). It also means they can appreciate that the story of the generosity of St. Nicholas the bishop, giving in secret to those in need, inspired their mom and dad to give in secret to them. And that they can in turn begin to give in secret to their younger siblings. It’s a beautiful thing.

Updated to add . . .

I read St. Thérèse’s autobiography over my retreat this weekend, and was excited to see this anecdote from her childhood:

“I knew that when we reached home after Midnight Mass I should find my shoes in the chimney-corner, filled with presents, just as when I was a little child, which proves that my sisters still treated me as a baby. Papa, too, liked to watch my enjoyment and hear my cries of delight at each fresh surprise that came from the magic shoes, and his pleasure added to mine.”

That’s the recollections of a saint, raised by saints, which has GOT to put to rest the whole “Santa is dangerous to Catholics” argument.

One less thing to worry about, everyone!

—

If you’d like to keep track of ALL the feasts of the Catholic liturgical year, I’ve created a wall calendar to help you do it!

It features the all the feasts and fasts of the Universal Calendar and then some, illustrated with images featuring the traditional Catholic monthly devotions. It’s an easy visual way to bring liturgical living into your home. You can keep track of the feasts and fasts and seasons of the Catholic year, and be reminded to focus your prayer on a different aspect of our faith each month.

As the Church year begins with December, so does this calendar. You get December 2024 through December 2025, thirteen months. Available for purchase here. Thanks!

The post How to do Santa Without Lying to Your Kids appeared first on Catholic All Year.

I received this one after linking to my post about how we celebrate three special days each year for each kid: their birthday, baptism day, and nameday. Here’s that post:

Every Kid is Special (three days per year)

Question:

Kendra,

I have a rather odd question for you, but figured after trying to find an answer on the internet, with your gift of celebrations, seeking your advice might be a better alternative. Or at least, you might have a creative solution. I grew up Catholic, my husband is a convert. We are attempting to bring our faith more into our daily life. I really like the idea of celebrating feast days, etc. in the home and we have begun this practice. I have an actual saint’s name for a middle name (intentionally), and my husband actually has a saint’s name for his first name, just by coincidence. The problem is that we named our first child Eden. Obviously, after the Garden of Eden. Her middle name is significant to us, but isn’t a saint’s name either. Our problem is that, obviously, while we gave our daughter a biblical name, it is not a saint’s name. And not having a feast day to celebrate is upsetting her. Do you have any suggestions for what liturgical day we might celebrate as her “feast” day? I don’t know enough about the liturgical calendar to find any solution, as far as I can see.

Thanks, Ellen

Answer:

Ellen, what a beautiful and rich name your daughter has. There’s no St. Kendra either. Yet. Tell your daughter that just means we have extra motivation to live a canonize-able life!

I have a saint’s middle name, so that’s what I use as my name day, but for people with no saint name at all there are plenty of perfectly legitimate options.

You can pick something that sounds close. After all, most people who do have a saint’s name have it in translation. For your daughter, Venerable Edel Quinn comes to mind. (She has an awesome story.)

Venerable Edel Quinn hasn’t been beatified or canonized yet, but we are allowed to venerate her, because it has been established that she lived a holy life. Her death date is May 12, which traditionally becomes the feast day if the person is eventually canonized.

Or you could choose something related to the meaning of her name. Evie and Ashley and Elizabeth and Charlotte have pointed out in the comments that, of course, Catholics honor Adam and Eve as saints. Jesus visited the Limbo of the Fathers on Holy Saturday to bring the souls of the just to Heaven, who had been unable to enter until his sacrifice on the cross. The feast day of Sts. Adam and Eve is celebrated on December 24th, (also a well-known Eve).

Also, Mary is the NEW Eve, so your daughter could choose one of the Marian feast days as her special one. There are lots of Marian feast days from which to choose. LOTS. Thirty-two of them, actually. And while a few of them might be a part of your family liturgical year celebrations, like the Annunciation or Our Lady of the Rosary, there are still plenty of days left that probably you’re not celebrating.

OR she could choose a patron saint, any saint at all, just one that is special to her, and celebrate that saint’s day as her name day. As long as it’s just ONE, that’s my rule for my kids who have names that are shared by many saints. You don’t get ALL the John or all the Elizabeth saint days. Just one.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
Kendra

p.s. Blessed Dina Belanger would also probably be quite pleased to become the patron of anyone without a saint’s name!

Also filed under Three Special Days, comes this mailbag question . . .

Question:

Dear Kendra,

I read your three special days post . . . we have been Catholic for going on 4 years now, and I still haven’t got the hang of celebrating feast days like I’d like to. For your children’s namedays, what would you recommend for a family where all the children were baptized together (since we converted) and we didn’t pick out specific saints at that time? Should we help them pick a saint, or use saints that happen to share their names (if there are any), or . . . ?

Thanks, Kristi

Answer:

Kristi,

Congratulations and welcome! It sounds like you are currently about 26 years ahead of me in trying to celebrate the feasts, so good job. For name days, my kids use the feast day of a saint that shares their name (just one of them, not ALL the Johns or Elizabeths). If they didn’t have a saint name, I’d let them pick one that was close to their name, or that they had a particular devotion to. I think in your situation, I’d make baptism day a family party, like the real day was! Maybe everyone picks one part of the meal (maybe everyone PREPARES one part of the meal!) or maybe you go out to a restaurant together. It really can be anything, the point is just to commemorate it.

Cheers,
Kendra

You might also enjoy . . .

Baby Steps to Living the Liturgical Year as a Family

Canon 1250 All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the entire Church.

Canon 1251 Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities . . .

So, live it up people. No voluntary penance today. Unfortunately, however, I cannot guarantee a day free from involuntary penance. I’m just a blogger.

The post How to Celebrate Your Nameday When Your Name Isn’t a Saint’s Name (yet) appeared first on Catholic All Year.

Ashley asked me to share how we celebrate the Feast of JPII in our home, and we wouldn’t miss it, because our Jack is named John Paul in his honor. And that feast day is today: October 22nd.

Quick story about that: While I was pregnant (in 2002), Jim pointed out that the Pope was ailing and perhaps he would die before the baby was born, and we could name the baby after him. And I said I was pretty sure that people don’t have to be dead to have babies named after them. It turns out I was right. So we named the baby John Paul. But we call him Jack.

Anyhoo, it is Jack’s name day. Normally he’d get to pick anything he likes for dinner. But I bought kielbasa at the store because it was on sale AND because it was Polish. So I pretty much told him that he could pick anything he wanted for dinner as long as it was kielbasa and sauerkraut. He countered with kielbasa + potatoes + brownies and he didn’t have to eat the sauerkraut. Deal.

recipe at Taste of Home

I plan to poke some gummy worms into the brownies after they cool down, for the “fisher of men, also of fish” thing.

credit: Mama Gone Green

In her question to me, Ashely had the best idea yet for how to celebrate a great outdoorsman like Pope John Paul II: Take a hike. I think ours will just have to be a nature walk around the suburbs. But we will definitely be walking today!

I will never, ever get tired of looking at JPII in the out of doors.

If we tire of walking, we are fortunate enough to have the awesome Ignatius Press movie: Pope John Paul II on DVD. But in case YOU don’t, it’s available live streaming from the Ignatius website!

It stars Jon Voight as the elder, and Cary Elwes as the younger Karol Wojtyla. (By the way, please tell me you’ve read this: The Dread Pirate and the Pope. It just makes me so happy.)

And we own these two great books.

Or Gina’s post at Someday (Hopefully) They’ll Be Saints: It’s Gonna Be A Party! St. Pope John Paul II Feast Day.

Reader Christina asked me to make this great JPII quote printable. And, how could I say no?

So here it is: Pope St. John Paul II quote on red . . .

And: Pope St. John Paul II quote on white . . .

Click on the title to download the image from Google Drive, or just click on the image to enlarge it, and right-click to save it to your computer. You may download the image for free for your own personal use. If you’d like to sell it, please contact me. Thanks. To request a custom printable, visit my Etsy shop here.

The post Celebrating the Feast of Pope St. John Paul II in the Home, with a Printable appeared first on Catholic All Year.

If you’re anything like me, it’s going to take a lot to even convince you that it’s not utterly WRONG, let alone a virtue to be cultivated.

In our culture, the concept of obedience has fallen out of favor. We are hesitant to encourage blind obedience in our children. We want to reason with them, to value their input, to give them choices. We want them to do as we ask because they wish to do so, not because they were MADE to obey without question.

How much less do we hope to cultivate blind obedience in ourselves? Our culture champions choice above almost all other things. Many of us struggle to ask for or follow the advice of our husbands or parents or pastors or spiritual directors. Many of us struggle to follow the Tradition and Magisterium of our Catholic Church, especially when its teaching on important and personal social issues sounds so far removed from what our secular culture believes.

The world out there (and the occasional priest in here) tells us we need to listen to our own consciences alone, not just mindlessly follow the oppressive rules of a dusty old church run by a bunch of old men who don’t really understand what these policies MEAN for us, for our bodies, for our lives.

But that’s not what the Mother of God tells us. Mary was blindly obedient. Gloriously, blindly obedient. Obedient even to things that sounded crazy. That sounded wrong. That sounded like they would cause her to face ridicule and scandal and unimaginable heartbreak.

Her obedience set her free and sanctified her.

And mine, when I can manage it, does the same thing.

Deciding not to use artificial contraception as a newlywed felt like the craziest decision I had ever made. I made it without wisdom or understanding, without much trust or much hope. All I had to give was blind obedience.

The only reason I’m where I am today is that even though what the Church said sounded completely insane, I just couldn’t quite justify thinking I knew better than thousands of years of Church teaching.

And I didn’t know better. The Church was right, she was right about it all. I am deeply grateful that God gave me the grace to make that decision in that moment, and that I was somehow able to correspond to it.

I was able to come to understand the teachings of the Church, because I was willing to be obedient BEFORE I understood.

The beautifully counterintuitive thing about blind obedience is how liberating it is.

We don’t make decisions in a vacuum. We make them in the world, and often in crisis. It’s nearly impossible to make a detached decision on an issue related to sex or marriage or fertility or infertility or life or death, because the moral aspect of these issues is inextricably tangled with our own fears and desires.

In times of difficultly and confusion, we can fall back on blind obedience.

We have a responsibility to form our own consciences, of course, but obedience covers a multitude of sins. If I’ve chosen wrongly, but in obedience to a person or entity in whom it was reasonable to place my trust, I’m very confident trusting in God’s mercy.

But how to find someone to give me good counsel?

1. My husband.

Husbands are mostly better for this than we give them credit for. We’re quick to run to our girlfriends or moms or the world wide web when we need advice, but I know that my husband is my greatest source of drama-free advice. And if I can make myself be obedient to it, I’m always better off.

2. My gals.

I also happen to have girlfriends and a mom and bloggy friends who have the same life and afterlife goals as I do. If they didn’t, I just wouldn’t ever, ever ask them what they thought I should do.

3. My spiritual director.

I am in spiritual direction. When my husband or friends are stumped or not available, or when the situation is too close to them, I take it to spiritual direction. A spiritual director can be anyone you’d trust to advise you well. I’ve met with both priests and laywomen as spiritual directors over the years. Both have been great. I’m seeing a priest now, and we meet once a month. I believe some priests and nuns take a vow of obedience to their spiritual directors. My situation isn’t so formal. I just get good advice. I could choose not to take it, but that would kind of defeat the purpose.

I am striving to cultivate the virtue of blind obedience in myself. For me it looks like knowing when to just stop asking questions and say okay. It likes like agreeing to do it someone else’s way, even though I like my way better. It looks like eating what is set before me, be it too much or too little, something I like or something I don’t much like. It looks like trusting my God, my husband, my parents, my Church, to know what’s good for me.I am also striving to cultivate that virtue in my children. I want to raise bold, confident, self-starters, who understand that there is a time to ask questions and there is a time to zip it and do as you’re told.

Confidence is not at odds with obedience. Both are virtuous. Being obedient doesn’t mean being cowed. It means knowing when to say:

How shall this be done, because I know not man?

Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.

This post is part of a series on the Ten Virtues of Mary, hosted by To the Heights and running every Tuesday until the middle of December. So if you need some help in the virtue department, here’s a great place to start

The post The Virtue of Blind Obedience (yes. that’s actually a virtue.) Part of a Series on the Ten Virtues of Mary. appeared first on Catholic All Year.

Fast forward a few years, and I had kids, many of whom were boys, and we were trying to incorporate more of the feasts of the liturgical year into our family life. Since my boys were big fans of St. Michael, and of vanquishing the devil and whatnot, Michaelmas seemed like a good one to start celebrating. So we did.

It has since become (along with Easter, Christmas, the Assumption [aka Wafflesdaggen], and Fat Tuesday) one of the most anticipated days of the year in our house. We love it!

The kids mostly love it because of this pinata:

Grandad and the kids built it out of cardboard five years ago for our first Michaelmas party and it’s still going strong. Each year we just make a new candy pouch to attach to his tummy, so the kids can wail on him with wooden swords all over again. We hang him from our backyard tree house, and he dangles beneath a cardboard St. Michael, who has cast him down from heaven. It’s pretty awesome (thanks Grandad!) and is both the main activity and the main decoration of the party each year.

If you’re looking for a less giant/complex option, we’ve also used the newer version in the upper photo, available as a DIY in the CAY shop.

But it IS a feast, after all, so the food is the most important thing. I keep hoping that someday they will let me cook a goose. But so far I have been expressly forbidden to do so. The first year we threw the party I special ordered one from our grocery butcher counter, but I guess they thought I was joking, because it never came in and I had to make chicken, and there was great rejoicing in the Tierney house.

look how happy this guy is that he gets to cook this goose

Anyway, my compromise the last couple of years has been to make cornish game hens. They’re a bit, well, game-ier than chicken and so seem a bit more exotic. And it feels old fashioned somehow to have a whole bird (or half of one anyway) sitting on your plate. Since I don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen the whole time our guests are here I usually just roast potatoes and onions underneath the hens, and make a green salad with blackberries (more on that in a minute), and a vegetable (usually asparagus spears!), that’s the whole feast.

But the fun part is the appetizers and desserts and drinks. Usually I ask our guests to bring something to share and we always get great stuff like deviled eggs, angel food cake, devil’s food cake, etc. I also like to put out a bowl of flamin’ hot cheetos and watch the kids dare each other to eat them. Hilarious.

The husband is in charge of the drinks. With dinner we have wine. This one is our favorite anyway, and perfect for the day!

As the guests are arriving we like to go old school and offer folks a cocktail . . . 

The husband made this up in 5 minutes last Michaelmas and calls it The Battle of Heaven (see Revelation 12:7)

Muddle
2 lime wedges and 3-4 small-to-medium mint leaves in an 8 oz jelly jar (or other extremely classy cocktail glassware)
Fill glass 2/3 full with ice cubes
Add 1 shot (1.5 oz) of blackberry brandy (we have used Hiram Walker’s)
Fill remainder of glass with chilled club soda
Stir, garnish with 1-2 fresh blackberries, and serve
Enjoy and repeat
In the Battle of Heaven, we win.

and I make a blackberry fizzy punch for the kids:

blackberry juice, sprite, berry sorbet, mint sprigs and fresh blackberries for garnish

Why all the blackberries you ask? Well, according to legend (according to Wikipedia):

Backberries should not be picked after this date. This is because, so folklore goes, Satan was banished from Heaven on this day, fell into a blackberry bush and cursed the brambles as he fell into them. In Yorkshire, it is said that the devil had spat on them. According to Morrell (1977), this old legend is well known in all parts of the United Kingdom, even as far north as the Orkney Islands. In Cornwall, a similar legend prevails, however, the saying goes that the devil urinated on them.

So, since the blackberries will be unfit to eat tomorrow, we eat a lot of them today!

When we host dinner parties, we don’t usually have any activities planned for the kids. The grownups sit and visit, the kids run around the backyard like crazy people and everyone’s happy. But for Michaelmas, we make sure to all recite the St. Michael Prayer before dinner, and after dinner we gather all the kids up and read them this book:

The Bearskinner: A Tale of the Brothers Grimm by Laura Amy Schlitz

I just adore this story. It’s romantic for the girls and gross for the boys and shows the power of prayer in an extraordinarily beautiful way. And the devil gets his you-know-what handed to him, so it’s perfect for Michaelmas.

Finally, we let the kids whack on the devil until he spills his candy guts and a good time is had by all.

Happy Michaelmas everyone!

————————-

And here’s what I wore to Mass and for the party (except I’m probably going to change to flat shoes!).

Dress & Sweater: J Crew Library Shoes: Kenneth Cole reaction Necklaces: family pearls, new old key Bump: 31 weeks

Thanks to the good ladies at Fine Linen and Purple for hosting yet another What I Wore Sunday. Head on over to check out what everyone else wore to Mass today!  

The post Fun, Feasting, and Beating the Devil With Swords: a Family Michaelmas appeared first on Catholic All Year.