As I’ve worked with Formed to bring this show to life, my focus has always been family-centered content. I wanted to create a show that is not only good to watch together but ALSO goes beyond the time you spend watching and allows you to discover ways for your family to experience the faith in a deep and life-changing way.

I hope that as you and your children watch this episode together you are able to plan your feast together too!

You can watch the Fat Tuesday episode exclusively at Formed.org.

Access to all the great Catholic audio and video resources on FORMED is free if your parish has a subscription.

Signing up for FORMED is quick and easy.  Just follow the simple instructions below. 

1. Go to formed.org/signup

2. Search for your parish by Zip Code/ Postal Code. Click on your parish. 

3. Register with your name and email address

4. Check that email account for a link to begin using FORMED

If your parish doesn’t offer FORMED, you can sign up for a free 7-day trial of the individual membership, and if you choose to keep it, it’s just $10 per month.

THIS EPISODE’S RECIPES

Fat Tuesday – February 21st

Authentic King Cake

Cheater King Cake

Hurricane Mocktail & Cocktail

Louisiana Shrimp Etouffee

Boeuf Gras Sundaes

FEATURED PRODUCTS

Mardi Gras Party Kit

Printable DIY Mardi Gras Mask {FREE Digital Download}

Wooden Alleluia Sign

Feast Day Prep Squad Apron

Lent Booklet

Printable Lent DIY Bundle

Missed the last episode?

If you’d like to see more episodes, please consider watching, commenting, and sharing the links with your friends, family members, parish and school/homeschool groups.

We had such fun making these!

Special thanks from me to the awesome CAY at Home team.

• Leo Severino, executive producer, you might know him from Bella (2006) and Sound of Freedom (2022)
• John Haggard, producer and director, also Dean of Students and Faculty at my kids’ school
• Elizabeth Mirzaei, director of photographer/editor, academy award-nominated documentary filmmaker known for Three Songs for Benazir (2021) and also my YouTube videos
• Charley Blum, director of photographer/editor, JP Catholic alum
• Jennifer Rueda, makeup, wardrobe, set design, and fellow homeschool mom
• Keeley Bowler, production manager, also CAY marketing manager and homeschool mom
• Brian Battles, colorist, also visual effects for Star Wars and Star Trek and Transformers movies

They’re all super talented and super Catholic and it’s an honor to collaborate with them on my little show. Have you watched it? I’d love to hear what you think!

The post Catholic All Year at Home, Ep. 3: Fat Tuesday appeared first on Catholic All Year.

For more on indulgences see this blog post:

Catholic Indulgences: what they are, when they are, and why you should care (as of the 1999 Manual of Indulgences revision of the Enchiridion of Indulgences)

For more about St. Francis’ Portiuncula Indulgences and many more indulged prayers and practices see The Catholic All Year Prayer Companion or the Catholic All August PDF also available for free with a CAY Membership.

Here’s what you’ll hear in the video:

Hi I’m Kendra from Catholic All Year and today we’re going to talk about . . . indulgences, St. Francis of Assisi, and the founding of Los Angeles. And I promise they all link together!

We are here at the San San Fernando Mission, one of the twenty-one California Missions founded beginning in 1769 by Franciscan Friar St. Junipero Serra. And we’re here because of another Franciscan friar, St. Francis himself, and his Portiuncula (port-tsi-un-cu-la) Indulgence.

If you don’t know what indulgences are at all, or if you’ve only heard negative things about them, I’ll also include links in the description below to posts that have a lot of good information.

It comes down to sin. When we sin, there are consequences. We can (and should) repent of our sins and go to confession, and this means our sins are forgiven and we don’t face the eternal consequence of being excluded from heaven. But there are also temporal consequences to sin. If I steal a car, it’s not enough for me to repent. I also have to give the car back. Whenever I sin, I sin against God, and I have to make reparation to God. If that reparation happens after my death, it will be through time in purgatory. But if I’m smart, I’m going to try to avoid that by acts of penance and good works here on Earth. And, because Christ instituted the Church and gave her the power to bind and loose sins, I also have recourse to indulgences.

The Church has the authority to give me access to a combined deposit of grace, stockpiled by saints and martyrs and everyday sacrifices, that all Catholics can share in.

By doing particular prayers or acts recommended by the Church in the Manual of Indulgences, we can gain plenary or partial indulgences, meaning full or partial remittance from the temporal consequences of sin that can be applied to ourselves, or to the soul of someone who has died. These prayers and acts can also be seen as a playbook of officially recommended “best practices” that can help us all grow in personal holiness as well, so we are strengthened against falling into sin again. It’s a twofer!

There are dozens of indulged prayers and acts. One of them is the Portiuncula Indulgence on August 2.

The Portiuncula is a tiny chapel, within the very large Papal Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels, in Assisi, Italy. But in the early thirteenth century it was just a tumbledown old chapel. A young St. Francis stopped there one day to pray and heard the voice of God urging him to “rebuild my church, which as you can see has fallen into disrepair”. St. Francis restored that little church, and it became the seat of the new Franciscan order.

Tradition tells us that in 1221, Jesus, his mother Mary, and a host of angels appeared to St. Francis inside the little Portiuncula. Jesus asked St. Francis what favor he would ask of him, and what St. Francis wanted was a plenary indulgence . . . for EVERYONE. He asked Jesus to grant that anyone who visited the chapel on the feast day of Our Lady Queen of the Angels, August 2nd, confessed his sins with a contrite heart, received Holy Communion, and prayed for the intentions of the Holy Father, would be as pure from all sin and punishments as he was immediately after baptism. Our Lord agreed to Francis’ bold request, and so, eventually, did Pope Honorius III, but the stories say that he took more convincing.

Plenary indulgences had existed before, but this was the first that was accessible to everyday folks Eventually the indulgence was extended to include any Franciscan Church, including the California Missions and today includes any church, anywhere.

So on August 2, a plenary indulgence is available to anyone who visits any Catholic church, devoutly recites an Our Father, and one of the approved Creeds: Nicene or Apostles’ are the commonly used ones. If one is unable to fulfill all the conditions, the indulgence becomes partial, which is still really really good and worthwhile. So you should definitely do it!

And now . . . here we are in Olvera Street, for a little lesson on the very Catholic history of Los Angeles.

You remember that, 250 years ago, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel was established. Ten years later, a group of forty-four settlers founded a town a few miles away that they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula; which means, “The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Portiuncula.” One imagines that in the interest of saving time, it eventually became known as just “Los Angeles.”

But here’s the thing: this town wasn’t actually originally named in honor of our patroness, Mary, Queen of the Angels. IT WAS NAMED AFTER THE INDULGENCE. Remittance from the temporal consequence of sin, through the Christ-given authority of the Catholic Church available to everyone for the simple act of visiting a church in a spirit of humble repentance was mind-blowing enough that 560 years after Jesus appeared to St. Francis and 6,268 miles away from Assisi, a group of settlers named a little town after it.

So, this August 2nd, find a Catholic church, and participate in this beautiful gift of God, St. Francis, and the Church. And hey, maybe grab some tacos while you’re at it.

Thanks so much for watching this installment of the Catholic All Year Liturgical Living Show, and thank you to our sponsor, Ignatius Press. You can find out more about liturgical living in the home and Catholic traditions like the Portiuncula Indulgence in the Catholic All Year Compendium and more about indulgences and Catholic prayers in the Catholic All Year Prayer Companion.

Speaking of the California Missions, you might also enjoy these!

Colorized Vintage CA Missions Postcard & Pencil Set

And, finally, if you’re looking for a hassle-free way to bring liturgical living into your family’s life each month, we’ve created something that is perfect for you! Our Liturgical Subscription boxes get delivered right to your door each month, and include activities to celebrate three of the feast days from the month! See more details and sign up here.

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The post Catholic Indulgences and that Los Angeles is Named for One appeared first on Catholic All Year.

It’s easy for me to forget now how overwhelming it was to be expecting for the first time, and then to bring our baby home and feel like I had no idea how I could be supposed to know how to take care of this tiny person.

Do I look like I’ve got it together or what? Update: The husband points out that this is not what our couch at the time looked like.  I do not know where we are or whose couch it is.  But I am asleep on it.

Fortunately I had plenty of help in the first days, but then, eventually, I was faced with that first day when my parents left and Jim was back in classes . . . and there we were, just the two of us.

But, I’ve always been a reader.  And I tried to prepare myself as best I could by reading.  Some books I liked more than others, and some have proven especially helpful over the ten years since the above photo was taken.

People have asked me to share my favorites, as recently as today (Hi, Kirsten!) so here they are, broken down by topic.  Clicking on the link will take you to Amazon*.

Pregnancy:

• Husband-Coached Childbirth by Dr. Robert Bradley
• Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way by Susan McCutcheon-Rosegg

The Bradley Method is, for me, a really intuitive way to prepare for natural childbirth. The first book is the theory, the second is the how-to. A warning . . . the how-to book is chock-full of grainy 70s black and white photos of women in labor in various stages of undress. I brought it on an airplane to read and got some strange looks from the guy in the seat next to me.

Newborns:

• The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by Diane Weissinger
• The Baby Book by Dr. William Sears

Both of these are pretty serious attachment parenting books. I really needed to read books like these to get myself into the mindset of devoting myself to motherhood. They are not for everyone, but they worked for me, and I still practice attachment parenting with my babies.

Babies:

• Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth

When I get tired of attachment parenting, I turn to this book. But seriously, I read other sleep books and had zero success with them. This book is basically a 500 page pep talk to parents on how to manage to let your baby learn to sleep. Some people do not like this technique, but it has been a huge blessing to our family. It’s the one book I still re-read with every baby. If I only had one parenting book, it would be this one.

Discipline:

• Discipline That Lasts a Lifetime by Dr. Ray Guarendi (He also has a newer book called Raising Good Kids)
• Compass by James Stenson (or any of his other excellent books and booklets)
• How To Really Love Your Child by Dr. Ross Campbell (and How To Really Love Your Angry Child for not necessarily angry, but more challenging kids)

Raising good, happy kids is counter-cultural these days.  So, I’m careful where I get my advice.  Dr. Ray is especially great at building your confidence in your own “gut” as a parent.

Faith:

• Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler by Kathy Pierce
• The Year and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland

The first is a really lovely, practical guide on how to introduce the Catholic faith to children. The second is more aspirational. It was first published in 1957 and seemed not all that relevant to me when I first read it eight years ago. (She has suggestions that include bread dough and chicken manure.) But I have grown into it (I actually made bread dough for pizza tonight and for the past two years I have had access to chicken manure!)

Self-Improvement:

• Fascinating Womanhood by Helen Andelin
• The Temperament God Gave You by Art and Laraine Bennett

Neither of these is a parenting book per se, but both have made me a much more effective parent, by helping me become a better person.
 
So, what do you think?  Have you read these, do you like them?  What did I miss?

* Full disclosure on the Amazon links: clicking on a title from any of my posts will take you to Amazon, if you buy that title (or anything else) after clicking through my blog I get a (very small) percentage. So far I have made . . . two cents. Literally two cents! Awesome.

The post My Favorite Parenting Books appeared first on Catholic All Year.

Merry Christmas to all!  Well, it’s still Christmasy here, even if the mall has moved on to Spring Break.  Although the husband has recently informed me that there are actually only eight days of Christmas NOT twelve.  I would argue that that’s the kind of information a person should keep to himself and I will have twelve days, thank you very much.

At our house, the three wise men set off on Christmas.  And traveling only by night and always in secret, they journey through the various rooms.

Here’s where we found them yesterday.

Did you spot them?

Until they finally make their way to the rest of the nativity set on the mantle on January 6th.

I think we’ve got room for a couple more stockings, don’t you?

And if you look closely at that top photo again, you’ll see that the outdoor wise men are also sneaking up on the outdoor Holy Family. 

Thanks to our friends from Argentina (the De Tezanos Pinto family, we miss you!) we learned that on the eve of Epiphany we must leave out some snacks for the Three Kings and some water and hay (grass from the yard seems to work) for their camels.  Ever since we started doing this, they have left us golden chocolate coins!  Very exciting.  We can tell that the camels really stopped by because they have eaten the grass out of the container and left a bunch of camel spit in there (which looks a lot like an egg white that’s been whipped up a bit).

For breakfast on Epiphany, we always have a King Cake.  Not the kind you get in New Orleans, I usually make Grandma Brace’s Coffee Cake (yum), but the key is to put a ring in the cake before baking.  The cake must be small enough that the whole thing will be eaten that morning, otherwise you run the risk that no one would get the ring!  Put the cake down bottom down (or the ring will show since it sinks to the bottom) then slice the cake in equal sized slices for each member of the family.  Hand them out and whoever gets the ring is the King (or Queen) of Epiphany.  The King (or Queen) gets to choose what we have for meals (from what’s in the house), where to sit, and what we do for fun that day.  Believe me, everyone is rooting against Jack (10).  He’s a real tyrant.

We’ll have something nice for dinner and have dessert because after all, it’s a feast!

Well, that’s what we’re doing.  How are you going to celebrate Epiphany at your house?

The post We’re Having an Epiphany, Are You? appeared first on Catholic All Year.