We’ve talked a lot on this blog about prayers, pious practices, and foods associated with particular days and seasons of the liturgical calendar. The deep and wide deposit of Catholic tradition ALSO includes beautiful music associated with these feast days. You might remember that our family feast days food repertoire includes traditional foods like lamb on Holy Thursday and waffles on the Annunciation, and also more novel fare like a rice crispy lamb to go with the roasted variety on Holy Thursday, and St. Thomas S’Mores on his feast day. Feast day playlists in our house are a lot like that. Some songs are traditional, some are just for the fun associations. These four playlists for Holy Week and Easter are brand new this year.

They have been specially curated with songs that I love to listen to with my family, that I think will help your family enter into the spirit of each day!

Music is especially helpful for setting the tone throughout the day with children, so pump the tunes, and Happy (Solemn?) Holy Week!

Spy Wednesday

Spy Wednesday is the day that we remember Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and then his “spying” out a convenient time to hand Jesus over to be arrested. This SPY Wednesday-themed playlist is curated especially with Judas’ sneakiness in mind!

Holy Thursday

Especially drawing on the history of the feast of the Passover that Jesus was celebrating with his disciples at the Last Supper, this playlist is perfect to listen to while you make your Holy Thursday dinner, or while you wash each other’s feet!

Good Friday

On Good Friday we’ll spend the day remembering our Lord’s passion and death. This playlist was specially curated to help you enter into the solemn mysteries that are unfolding today.

Easter

Rejoice! Alleluia! Here are some hymns for your Easter celebration! This playlist is perfect to listen to on Easter day, as well as throughout the whole Easter season.

If you take a listen to one or all of these, I’d love to hear what you think. If I misfiled a song or left out your favorite, please let me know in the comments!

Piano All Year – Hymns for Your Domestic Church

Bring the music of the Liturgical Calendar into your home with our new piano music book!

The post CAY Holy Week and Easter Playlists on Spotify appeared first on Catholic All Year.

Holy Thursday is a day of contradictions. On the evening of Holy Thursday, Jesus’ Passion began. But before that, he gathered with his friends to celebrate the Last Supper and at this meal, he instituted the Eucharist and the sacramental priesthood, truly something to celebrate! Maybe even with sculpted marshmallows and cereal?!

Join us as we prepare a special Last Supper-inspired meal of lamb, potato knishes, bitter herb salad, homemade applesauce, flatbread, and dessert and share ideas for family activities that help kids understand the beauty of this complicated day. Also, Bobby makes a huge mess of the dessert and you’re not going to want to miss that.

You can watch the Holy Thursday episode exclusively at Formed.org.

P.s. If you’re looking for a Holy Thursday soundtrack, I have you covered with this playlist I created! It’s perfect to listen to while you make your Holy Thursday dinner.

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

Holy Thursday – April 6th

Lamb Chops with Rosemary and Garlic

Potato Knishes

Rice Crispy Treat Lamb

Bitter Herb Salad

Applesauce

Flatbread

FEATURED PRODUCTS

Triumphal Cross Banner

CAY Lent Booklet

Feast Day Prep Squad Apron

Liturgical Living Weekly Meal Planner

Catholic All Year Compendium
Catholic All Year Prayer Companion

Did you miss 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. 6: Holy Thursday appeared first on Catholic All Year.

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.

Also available as a YouTube video here!

Well, you’ve done it. You AND your children have, somehow, against all odds, survived through to these last few days of Lent. Though for a while there, it looked like you might succumb to an acute lack of coffee / Netflix / Facebook, you’ve made it. And now you need to figure out how to make Holy Week solemn, meaningful, and memorable for your kids. Without a whole lot of effort or advance planning on your part.

So what exactly does Holy Week look like in a faithful Catholic home? Hah! That’s a trick question. There’s no one way to be Catholic, and there’s no one way to do Holy Week. But I WILL tell you what WE usually do and that I haven’t started any of it yet and that it’s worked for us in the past. If I can do it, you can do it!

And . . . as always, please remember that you do not have to do all these things! I am a big supporter of baby steps when it comes to beginning liturgical living in the home, and doing what works for your family. I’ll include links to some Catholic All Year products, in case that’s helpful. But if you haven’t set aside a budget for Holy Week that’s okay too. When I started doing all this stuff with my family fifteen years ago I put everything we used together myself, mostly using things I had around the house.

See the Catholic All April printable booklet with prayers, readings, and devotions for Holy Week and Eastertide here.

— 1 —

Monday of Holy Week

Clean the House Part I: Clean out the toys. This is a great time for a BIG toy purge. We did a our first big playroom toy clean out a few years ago, and it was a HUGE blessing in less mess, less cleaning, less yelling, and more family interaction. I can’t recommend it enough.

We use the first three days of Holy Week to do our biggest house cleaning and stuff purging of the year. People talk about “Spring Cleaning”. That’s too open-ended for me. I need more of a “these are the only three days of the year you could possibly do this and it’s for JESUS” feel to make it happen. You can get a holy week cleaning checklist for free to print at home here.

On Monday we clean the living spaces, and specifically clean out toys, desks, and craft supplies. This is a great time for a BIG toy purge. Since I am not naturally a very tidy and organized person, I have found that the BEST thing I can do towards keeping the house clean is to regularly get rid of half of our toys and craft supplies and even books. I just keep the stuff I actually like. It’s revolutionary, I’m telling you. Fewer toys in my house means less mess, less cleaning, less yelling, and more family interaction. I can’t recommend it enough.

I’ll also finish up our Easter baskets. I’m focusing this year on practical, lovely things that won’t fill our house back up with junk. Each child is getting a new pair of shoes, a new swimsuit, a couple religious or outside toys or books, and some candy.

Monday is the day that St. Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus with nard perfume. We have this little Catholic All Year bottle of actual nard perfume, which allows us to smell the same smell that Jesus did on this day. I think that’s SO cool.

Try It! Tidy a couple rooms of the house. Because it’s tradition. Buy candy and toys for Easter baskets.

— 2 —

Tuesday of Holy Week

Clean the House Part II: On Tuesday the cleaning continues with sleeping spaces. We tidy up upstairs desks and bedside tables and clean out the closets. The method that works best for us is to pull ALL the clothes out of each closet, and only put back in a reasonable amount. Draws that close easily and some wiggle room between hangers makes it much easier for kids to keep their closets tidy.

We do laundry nearly every day, and we have much, much more in the closets than we actually use in a week. It’s time to pass it along to people who could actually use it. AND make our closets a little more manageable. Also, if stained / ripped / cartoon-character-adorned shirts aren’t in their closets, they can’t wear them, which is a plus in my book.

I’ll also finalize the guest list for our Good Friday Fish Fry and Easter Sunday Dinner, and make up my shopping lists for the food we’ll need for the rest of the week.

Try It! Tidy a couple more rooms of the house. Figure out what you are doing for Easter dinner.

— 3 —

Spy Wednesday

Then the fun starts on Spy Wednesday, but not until . . .

Clean the House Part III: On Wednesday we will tidy eating spaces. The kitchen will get cleaned including inside the drawers and refrigerator. We’ll also organize the dining room shelves.

It’s called “Spy” Wednesday because it is the day that Judas *sneakily* betrayed Jesus, selling the information of when he would be in a place where he could be conveniently arrested to the high priest for thirty pieces of silver.

We’ll read the story in the Bible. (Matthew 26:1-16)

And I’ll hide thirty pieces of silver (we use quarters or chocolate coins) in one area of the house for the kids to find.

We started doing this a few years ago and it’s always an interesting social experiment. My (somewhat) kind and pleasant kids have been known to turn into a bunch of Judases themselves. They’ve pushed past each other, grabbed quarters that other kids had spotted first but couldn’t reach, and babies have been knocked over. All over 30 pieces of silver.

These days, they kind of know what to expect, so it’s not quite so dramatic, but still fun. And they know that they’ll allow themselves to be convinced to donate the quarters to the poor box and maybe even to save the chocolate to eat on Easter.

For more info, and more photos, see this post.

Wednesday evening is the first night of the very cool and very unique Tenebrae service, done only Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of Holy Week. We do an at home version with this very cool Tenebrae Hearse Candelabra. But you can also use any 15 candles you’ve got in a drawer someplace. Get a printable version of a modified at-home version here. (Or grab this new guide from the CAY Marketplace!)

Try It! Finish tidying the house. Do your grocery shopping for the rest of the week. Read the story of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus from the Bible to your kids. (Matthew 26:1-16)

— 4 —

Holy Thursday

Hopefully the three day manic housecleaning was successful, because now things get pretty busy. We do a modified Seven Churches Visitation. This is a Catholic tradition that began with St. Alphonsus Liguori in Italy in the 18th century. After the Mass of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, the Eucharist is not again consecrated until the Easter vigil. The hosts consecrated at this Mass are removed from the church and placed in what’s called an “altar of repose” in a location outside the church. In order to emulate the disciples who followed behind Jesus as he went from place to place after the last supper on Thursday, St. Alphonsus, with his friends, would visit the altars of repose at the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome, on foot, after the Mass of the Last Supper. 

That sounds really amazing.

But also not very practical for where I live in Los Angeles and my current state of life which includes many small children. So, I remember the advice of my late grandfather who used to say “better is the enemy of good enough” and we do it during the day, in the car. Perhaps someday I’ll do it at night, on foot, in silence. But so far, doing it during the day in a car full of noisy little kids has been great.

Then, we come home and prepare our Last Supper Dinner. For dinner, we’ll approximate what Jesus and the disciples ate and have lamb chops, a bitter herb salad, flat bread, applesauce, and knishes. See here for the recipes.

On Holy Thursday we commemorate something happy (the Institution of the Eucharist) along with the sad (Jesus’ agony and arrest). So in addition to our bitter herbs, of which the kids must have a little, we also have a Rice Crispy Lamb Cake.

I can’t vouch for the historical accuracy of that part, but it’s fun and tasty.

In whatever order works with the Mass schedules, we’ll also attend a Holy Thursday Mass and do a family foot-washing extravaganza. We draw names and everyone washes and gets washed. We’ll do the at-home Tenebrae service again.

If we can find the time we’ll also watch The Prince of Egypt. It covers the ten plagues and the Passover, so it’s especially appropriate for the day. It is a really wonderful movie, it’s available here streaming.

Try It! Watch The Prince of Egypt. Eat Gummi Frogs.

Posts to check out:

HOW WE DO THE TRIDUUM: HOLY THURSDAY

HAPPY FOOT WASHING DAY!

— 5 —

Good Friday

Good Friday is meant to be a day of fasting and of solemn reflection. My kids aren’t very good at that. And, frankly, neither am I. But we do our best.

We’ll start the day with Hot Cross Buns, because even though they’re a tasty treat, I figure if they were Catholic enough for Elizabeth I to outlaw, that ought to be good enough for me.

In the late morning we usually walk to our local parish, visit the empty Adoration Chapel and venerate the cross either at church or at home. See this video for how we do it.

Veneration of the Cross Printable Booklet {Digital Download} Also available as part of the Catholic All April Booklet.

We have a fasting “collation” lunch and read aloud from the Bible the story of the Passion, Crucifixion, and Death of Our Lord. One version is Matthew 27:11-66.

During nap time, I’ll give the older kids a quiet craft or project, like Stations of the Cross coloring pages.

After naps, in order to encourage quiet, I often put on a movie for the kids, called “The Miracle Maker – The Story of Jesus”. Available for streaming here. It’s a claymation style and is pretty great. VeggieTales Jonah and the Whale is another option since Jonah, in the whale for three days, is an archetype for Jesus in the tomb for three days. And hey, you’d get to teach your kids the word “archetype”. They’ll be so impressed.

For dinner, we always invite friends over for a simple Lenten Catfish Fry in honor of my mom’s southern heritage, and we do the Stations of the Cross, and the Tenebrae service.

Try it! Fast. Read the story of the crucifixion. (Matthew 27:11-66) Spend the hours of noon-3pm in prayer or doing quiet activities like Stations of the Cross coloring pages. Consider doing the Stations of the Cross at home with this booklet.

Post to check out:

HOW WE DO THE TRIDUUM: GOOD FRIDAY, HOLY SATURDAY

— 6 —

Holy Saturday

Next up is Holy Saturday . . . a day of silence and waiting.

Here are a few things we don’t do:

• We don’t attend Easter Egg Hunts
• We don’t attend early Easter brunches
• We don’t abandon our Lenten disciplines
• Or otherwise pretend that it’s already Easter when Jesus’ body is still in the tomb

Here’s what we do:

• We dye our Easter Eggs
• We take down all our Lent decorations
• We decorate for Easter
• We begin preparations for Easter dinner.

We do preparation things, but not celebration things.

If we have some extra time, we’ll get out of the house for a hike or a walk to keep the house from getting messed up again. Which is a real problem around here since everyone keeps eating and wearing clothes even though I JUST cleaned all that stuff.

Once it gets dark we’ll light our family paschal candle and do a little at home lucernarium for the little kids.

A grownup will take just the big kids to the Vigil Mass, which is always a big deal for them, especially since it means getting to break their Lenten fast of treats many hours before their sleeping brothers and sisters. And the beauty and majesty of the Easter Vigil and all that . . . but also . . . treats early. 

The Easter Bunny comes and fills the Easter Baskets and changes our Lenten Sacrifice Beans into Jelly Beans.

Try it! Don’t attend any Easter Egg Hunts. Dye Eggs. Remove Lent decorations. Decorate for Easter. Begin preparing for Easter dinner. Watch The Robe .

—7—

Easter Sunday

And then it’s Easter Sunday! And there is much rejoicing!

We dig up the Alleluia that we buried in the yard on Ash Wednesday. We sing O Filli et Filliae. Loudly.

We really hit those alleluias, since it’s been a while.

We find that our Lenten Sacrifice Beans have been turned to jelly beans. We have our baskets and an Easter Egg Hunt, and get all dressed up to go to Mass as a family and have a big lovely Ham Dinner.

And I’m going to be having a couple Dr. Peppers. At least.

So that’s what we do. As I always have to say at the end of these things: it sounds like a lot. I know. But somehow it’s been manageable for us over many years and my kids really enjoy and benefit from these traditions. Even in the midst of Holy Week sacrifices, Holy Week traditions are something we all look forward to. If you’re just getting started, I recommend starting small, with a few things that sounded cool and/or doable for your family.

If you want stuff like this for the whole year, check out my books from Ignatius Press, The Catholic All Year Compendium and The Catholic All Year Prayer Companion. Ignatius Press also has many other lovely books for children and adults that would fit just right in Easter baskets, so check those out. 

You can do this! Catholic All Year is here to help.

WE HAD EASTER, IT WAS CUTE

What will you be doing for Holy Week?

The post The “You Can Still Do This” Guide to All Things Holy Week appeared first on Catholic All Year.

Lent, you guys. Here it comes again. Late this year, but coming nonetheless. I’ve written about how my general approach to Lent has changed over the years:

I used to labor under what I think is a pretty common misconception about Lent: that we are supposed to be miserable for these forty days. But, really, that’s not the right way to look at it. Lent isn’t a time to try to punish ourselves into being deserving of God’s grace. (Especially since that’s not possible, at Lent or any other time.) Lent is a time to try to be our best selves, to take up new practices that lead us towards God and to leave behind practices that distract us from God.

The Catholic All Year Compendium p160

I think a great focus as we head into Lent is the concept of detachment. Lent is an opportunity to prove to myself that I don’t NEED or DESERVE my little personal crutches and rewards.

The big personal and family adjustments we make as voluntary Lenten disciplines certainly didn’t come easily at first. These days, while my kids don’t love it, they ARE expecting it, and it’s not such a big deal. But it was a very hard adjustment at first (it took us three years of trying to actually succeed at not watching TV during Lent) and it’s still a somewhat hard adjustment every year.

So, what’s worked for us? What has allowed our family to manage to live without our two big attachments (treats and screens), for over a decade of Lents now?

Easy: Cheating and compromise.

Really. And I think it’s totally legit, too. This is the approach that’s really helped me and the rest of my family manage to conquer our voluntary Lenten disciplines, year after year, and to benefit from that during the rest of the year.

CHEATING

We have recourse to Sunday. This was the single biggest “cheat” that initially helped me succeed at giving up my personal biggest attachments. Six weeks feels like a LONG time, six days isn’t so bad. I know people have strongly held differing opinions on this, but it’s a fact that Lent on a calendar is 46 days but “Lent” is 40 days long. Our voluntary Lenten disciplines were always voluntary anyway, so it’s not “breaking” any Lenten requirements to plan to indulge on Sunday in something we’ve given up for Lent (as long as it’s not an immoral thing).

Back in the olden days of the aughts when I first started trying to take Lent seriously, it was a genuinely big concern for me that the TiVo was going to eat my episodes of Heroes and Lost and The Office and what would I do then? Wait a year for the season to come out on DVD and get it in the actual mail from Netflix? #idontthinkso I’m not saying that it was a good concern. But it was a genuine one at the time. And knowing that I could get up super early Sunday morning and watch my absolute favorite shows gave me the strength to give all of it up the rest of the week.

On Fat Tuesday, we eat or get rid of all the treats in the house, since we give them up for Lent. But then we are faced with the issue of what to do with newly acquired treats. This is a balancing act for everyone, weighing piety vs charity in a specific situation, but in most circumstances, it has worked for us to have the kids bring treats they are offered home and save them for Sunday.

COMPROMISE

The other secret is substitutions. This one seems like it should be obvious and, um, kind of the entire point of Lent. But it wasn’t obvious to me, and was even a harder sell to myself than Sunday cheat day. So in case it’s also not obvious to you, I’ll break it down.

I thought I should be able to go cold turkey on mediocre stuff and let the best stuff fill in the hole. But in practice I found that substituting a better thing while on the road to the goal of the BEST thing was more successful.

Water and quiet would be best. Regular hot tea instead of my preferred sugary chai latte and flavored sparkling water instead of soda works for me. I read or listen to worthwhile books (see this post for my Lenten favorites) instead of watching TV. Music in the car is classical instead of pop. I talked with Cameron Fradd on her podcast last week and she said that they cut out all their “regular” streaming services and only watch Formed, which sounds like a good approach!

Even though I dread them every year, I also genuinely appreciate our voluntary Lenten disciplines. I like knowing that the things I like aren’t in charge of me, and I can live without them. Being able to manage that during the days of Lent has allowed me to make important changes to the way I enjoy licit but unnecessary things the rest of the year.

This might be a waypoint on my journey to a perfectly penitential Lent with no cheats or compromises, or maybe this is the best I’ll ever be able to manage. But, I will say that, for now, it’s been a way to move closer to my goals and continue down that road of increased personal holiness.

So, as you finalize your voluntary Lenten disciplines this year, maybe your secret to success will be a little cheating and compromise?

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler

Happy Fat Tuesday! I hope you’re kicking up your heels today before you get your ashes and get serious tomorrow! Here’s a post from the archives with how we’ll be celebrating:

Mardi Gras Madness and a Hoodoo Movie Review

Tricia from the CAY Team designed these darling free printable Mardi Gras masks for you!

A Few Catholic All Year Resources for Lent

The post Succeeding at Lent by Compromise and Cheating appeared first on Catholic All Year.

Limbo, a poem by Sr. Mary Ada, OSJ

The ancient greyness shifted
Suddenly and thinned
Like mist upon the moors
Before a wind.
An old, old prophet lifted
A shining face and said :
“He will be coming soon.
The Son of God is dead;
He died this afternoon.”

A murmurous excitement stirred
All souls.
They wondered if they dreamed —
Save one old man who seemed
Not even to have heard.

And Moses standing,
Hushed them all to ask
If any had a welcome song prepared.
If not, would David take the task?
And if they cared
Could not the three young children sing
The Benedicite, the canticle of praise
They made when God kept them from perishing
In the fiery blaze?

A breath of spring surprised them,
Stilling Moses’ words.
No one could speak, remembering
The first fresh flowers,
The little singing birds.
Still others thought of fields new ploughed
Or apple trees
All blossom-boughed.
Or some, the way a dried bed fills
With water
Laughing down green hills.
The fisherfolk dreamed of the foam
On bright blue seas.
The one old man who had not stirred
Remembered home.

And there He was
Splendid as the morning sun and fair
As only God is fair.
And they, confused with joy,
Knelt to adore
Seeing that he wore
Five crimson stars
He never had before.

No canticle at all was sung.
None toned a psalm, or raised a greeting song.
A silent man alone
Of all that throng
Found tongue —-
Not any other.
Close to His heart
When the embrace was done,
Old Joseph said,
“How is Your Mother,
How is Your Mother, Son?”

I love it so much, I had to make it into a printable this year, so we can display it, at least from St. Joseph’s Day to Holy Saturday!

Folks with a Catholic All Year Membership get this poster (and much more!) as part of the exclusive March liturgical year printables that also includes monthly clipart calendars, prayer booklets, and saint day recipes. But you can also get it on its own here.

UPDATE 2024: This poem is available as a FREE digital download here!

And, good news, my laser-cutting pal Ashley and I have been working nonstop all week to restock the very popular Tenebrae sets for the Triduum.

Tenebrae Hearse Candelabras are available in two styles, including a set of 100% beeswax candles, and will ship out in time for Spy Wednesday.

They are available in limited quantities and sold out very quickly last week. See the Tenebrae Hearse Candelabra here and the Simple Tenebrae Candle Holder here. (Note: a Simple Tenebrae Candle Holder is included in the Triduum Subscription Box. Subscription Boxes are currently sold out, but we plan to open subscriptions again after Easter!)

Enjoy your solemnity today!

St. Joseph, pray for us!

The post Happy Feast of St Joseph, Get Ready to Cry appeared first on Catholic All Year.

Well, here we are on Monday of the first week of Lent. Happy feast of the Chair of St. Peter! (See how our family celebrates the day here.) If Ash Wednesday crept up on you this year, not to worry . . . it’s never too late to start voluntary Lenten disciplines! I always feel like Lent beginning on a Wednesday, but the next week being “the first week of Lent” gives us a chance to ease in a bit and to tweak things that aren’t going as well as I had hoped or to add or subtract as necessary. And the Spring Ember Days are this Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, so there are plenty of chances for fasting this week!

I’ve written quite a bit about Lent, and how, over the years, we have incorporated decor and small but noticeable changes in how and what we eat (fewer snacks, more shopping from the pantry) and what we do (no TV or video games, more Mass and prayer) to make Lent feel like a season set apart from others. And how sometimes even Lent fails can be positive.

But I don’t think I’ve written about one important aspect: BOOKS! I love reading–and more often these days listening to audiobooks, since my hands are usually busy. During Lent, I have even more time for it, since I don’t have recourse to TV shows in my downtime. Choosing books that fit the mood and goals of Lent, as it were, adds to the ambiance of Lent in an interior way, just as decorating our home for Lent does in an exterior way.

I try to have a fiction book and a nonfiction book going at the same time, and usually a couple others that I’m doing as read-alouds (or listens) with various groups of my kids. Here are a few of my favorites over the years. This post contains Amazon and other affiliate links.

Nonfiction

Devotionals

In Conversation with God: This is a seven-volume set of books of meditations on the gospel readings that covers every day of the year. Volume 2 covers Lent, Holy Week, Eastertide. I’m reading it daily during my private prayer time. I love these books because they have a really practical unsentimental approach that fits my temperament. The meditations are best read alongside the gospel for the day, but can be understood without it. Also available as a daily podcast. Appropriate for men, women, and teens.

Set a Fire Lent Journal: The beautiful Lent journals by Blessed is She never disappoint. The kids’ hardcover version is really lovely and would make a great addition to Lent at home for kids. My middle kids are so excited to have a Lenten devotional just for them. Suitable for children 6-12 years old.

In Sinu Jesu: I’ve recommended this before and I’ll probably do it again. These messages from Jesus and his mother, Mary, received in prayer by a Benedictine Monk beginning in 2007, and published with an imprimatur in 2016, are beautiful and convicting. This book is full of God’s mercy and plenty of inspiration for us to resolve to reconcile our will to his. Appropriate for adults and teens. Buy an extra copy for your priest, you’re going to want to give him one.

Introduction to the Devout Life: Need a plan? St. Francis de Sales has one for you. Written specifically as letters of advice to laywomen to whom he gave spiritual direction, it feels very applicable to my life as a wife and mother. And though it was written in the 17th century, it is still very relevant. It’s available as an audiobook, but in this particular case, I recommend reading it slowly, one chapter at a time, as it is recommended to be used. Appropriate for men, women, and teens.

Lives of the Saints

Saints: Becoming an Image of Christ Every Day of the Year (or from Ignatius Press here): A quick look at hundreds of saints’ lives, organized by the liturgical calendar. This book makes a great reference for kids’ saint reports, or as a help for parents who want to incorporate more liturgical living in the home to be able to quickly access some information about the saint of the day! Appropriate for all ages. To read on their own, kids might enjoy this book more.

Bakhita Tells Her Story: St. Josephine Bakhita has a lot of sympathy for the fact that I’m missing Dr. Pepper. Well, she probably would be sympathetic, being a saint and all, but I appreciate how her story, and the stories of so many saints’ lives really put my own paltry sufferings in perspective. This book is out of print and hard to find, which is unfortunate, but perhaps you could find it at a local library? It’s the only book I’ve been able to find that contains the actual text of St. Josephine Bakhita’s actual thirty-five page 1910 autobiography, rather than an author’s interpretation of it. If anyone knows of an in-print book version of that, please let me know!

The Story of a Soul: I come back to this autobiography again and again, especially during Lent. St. Therese has a reputation of being sweet and gentle, but I love reading about how feisty and difficult she was, and how her eventual gentleness was the work of God’s grace and years of concerted effort. #soyouresayingtheresachance

SO so many great saint biographies are available at Ignatius Press.

Fiction

Fantasy

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien: I’m listening to this with one of my daughters right now. I’ve been admiring this hardcover illustrated version. While the trilogy itself is not overtly religious, J.R.R. Tolkien was a devout Catholic and a daily communicant and that is reflected in his writing. The ideas of redemptive suffering and death to self and sacrifice for others–all so good as Lenten perspective–really shine through. Appropriate for all ages, but sensitive kids might be troubled by descriptions of violence and scary creatures. Recommended for ages 12 and up.

Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson: Written in 1907 by the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury who converted to Catholicism and became a priest, it’s an excellent (if unsettling) work of apocalyptic science fiction. The audiobook version is really well done. Same age caveat. Note: A Canticle for Leibowitz is another great work of Catholic dystopian fiction.

Classics

The Brothers Karamazov by Fydor Dostoevsky: Sometimes Lent is the motivation we need for undertakings we might not otherwise, um, undertake. So reading what many consider to be the greatest novel ever written, all nearly-a-thousand pages of it, is underway for my Lent this year. Popes JPII, Benedict, and Francis have all referenced it in encyclicals! I’m not aware of anything in it that would prevent listening to it as an audiobook around kids, but it’s probably only of interest to adults and teens.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: A great undertaking from a couple Lents back for me, this is a beautiful and true novel with Catholic themes and an excellent Lenten perspective. You have my permission to skip the chapter about the Paris sewer system. Same age caveat as above. This beautifully illustrated abridged version is a nice introduction to the story for older kids.

The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas: We watch the sixties technicolor movie version every year, but it’s even better as a book. A really compelling historical fiction-version of the story of a Roman soldier who participated in the crucifixion. Appropriate for all ages, but of interest to middle-grades and up.

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset: I think it took three different Lents for me to finally read this book over ten years ago. Sometimes it just isn’t the right time, you know? But wow, when I finally did, it has really stuck with me. The book is a trilogy which follows the entire life of a medieval Norwegian woman. The depictions of the consequence of sin are really moving, and the way that the characters practice their Catholic faith was really transformational in my life. The same can be said for the author, who converted to Catholicism shortly after the last book was published. A bit intense for little ears, but great for adults and teens (with discussion, I think it should be required reading for teens!). I like the single volume for the audiobook version, but if you’re reading it, I recommend the individual volumes. As a single book it’s rather unwieldy.

So . . . what books would you add to the list for Lenten reading?

Note: To keep help keep the trolls at bay, you must have a free Catholic All Year account to comment. But, if you’d don’t have one I hope you’ll take a moment to sign up for one! Just click “my account” at the top of the page. I’d love to have the conversation here where it’s stuck to the post and people can benefit from it in other years, rather than on social media.

And be sure to check out the Lent products here before they sell out!

Burry the Alleluia Kit, Lent Countdown Calendar, Memento Mori Print, Tenebrae Hearse Candleabra

The post It’s Never Too Late to Start: A Lenten Book List appeared first on Catholic All Year.

We’ve done the quarters thing for many years now, and love it. New this year, something I’ve been meaning to do forever: a family at home Tenebrae Service!

Latin for “darkness,” Tenebrae is a religious service particular to the Triduum, featuring a unique triangular candelabra called a “hearse.” In it are fifteen candles, fourteen darker natural wax candles and one white candle. The fourteen candles represent Jesus’ followers, the white candle represents Jesus. Fifteen readings are proclaimed, after each of which one of the candles in the hearse is extinguished, symbolizing Jesus’ followers abandoning him one by one. At the end, just the white Christ candle is left burning, and it is hidden. The services end with a “strepitus” or “loud noise” made by slamming a book shut or stomping on the floor, symbolizing the earthquake that followed Christ’s death. This takes place in total darkness. Then the last candle is returned, representing the light of Christ returning.

Edit: I’ve updated the image and pdf here to reflect new information from the comments. Thanks all!

A family-friendly interpretation of this practice is to recite the final prayers of the service: The Benedictus, Christus factus est, and the Our Father, after dinner on the evening of Spy Wednesday, Holy Thursday, or Good Friday, extinguishing candles as you go. The last candle is hidden under the table or taken out of the room, then someone can slam a book closed, or everyone can stomp, or all can bang their hands or utensils on the table. Note: This at home Tenebrae service is included in my new book, The Catholic All Year Prayer Companion.

UPDATE 2024: We have a NEW Tenebrae booklet designed by the talented Tricia from Providential Co.. You can grab that here!

Saint John Cantius Parish in Chicago is live streaming a real Tenebrae service at 7:30pm central time tonight, Spy Wednesday. See it here. See here to sign up for reminders for their Thursday and Friday Tenebrae Services.

See their pdf booklet of the complete service here. Just scroll down the page a bit for the download link!

My oldest son tells me he can put together a Tenebrae hearse for me out of copper pipes. I am very excited about this prospect. Stay tuned to Instagram to see if it happens! But if you DON’T have a bored teenager at home, any candles will do. My original plan was to just make a row of tea lights down the center of the table, far enough apart to keep extras from being blown out by enthusiastic blowers.

Update: THIS HAPPENED! It was so cool. My kids all want to do it again on Thursday and Friday.

Anyone at your house who would enjoy blowing out candles and banging on the table?

A FEW RESOURCES YOU MIGHT FIND HELPFUL FOR THE TRIDUUM

• Catholic All April Prayer Booklet featuring at home prayers, readings, and devotions for Holy Week and Eastertide
• Holy Week Meal and Activity Planner ($1)
• Holy Week Cleaning Checklist
• Stations of the Cross Booklet
• Stations of the Cross Coloring Pages for kids and adults
• At Home Veneration of the Cross Booklet ($1)
• Holy Saturday at Home DIY Easter Candle
• At Home Lucernarium & Exsultet for the Easter Vigil Booklet {Digital Download}
• Easter Sunday at Home Dry Mass Booklet {Digital Download} + FREE Printing & Shipping Available

The post The Triduum at Home: a Tenebrae Service appeared first on Catholic All Year.

The sea of humanity, the crowd, the bustle! It all seems so foreign right now. None of this or this in 2020.

Instead, we’re preparing for Holy Week and Easter at home. I’ve got this post with all of our Holy Week traditions, and 90% of them were at home any way, so if you’re looking to use sheltering at home to start some new traditions, check ‘er out.

The “You Can Still Do This” Guide to All Things Holy Week

I know this pandemic and the associated social distancing is troubling and inconvenient and stressful and even scary. But it also has the potential to be a time when we can come together in our domestic churches and create beautiful moments and beautiful memories of these holy days, all from the comfort/crazy of home.

But Palm Sunday has always revolved around Mass: the blessed palms, the dramatic reading of the Passion. How to manage THAT at home?

I started getting questions about at home versions of these things, and at first, I didn’t think it would be possible. The palms we receive at Palm Sunday Masses are blessed by a priest, and become sacramentals. Lay people cannot create sacramentals. However, we are allowed to ask God’s blessing on things over which we have dominion, like our homes and our children and our . . . branches, right? Right. So, I asked a trusted priest and he thought it COULD be done. I went looking for an appropriate blessing, and found it in the USCCB’s book: Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers.

Under normal conditions, this rite is used for placing already blessed palms in a place of honor in the home. Hopefully that’s what we’ll use these prayers for NEXT year. This year, however, with the addition of some holy water, if you have it, and some waving and processing about the yard and/or house, it makes a good at home approximation of the beautiful reenactments of Jesus’ Entry into Jerusalem.

And of course, it wouldn’t be Palm Sunday without a reading of the Passion. Most parishes do a dramatized version of the gospel on this day. It gets me every time. I wanted to do THAT too, but it seemed prohibitively cumbersome to have the kids all crowded around our one Magnificat trying to figure out who says what. So, I created a Passion Play Script for us to use on Sunday as we pray through the Mass as a family, word for word from the gospel of Matthew.

And then I decided to get fancy with all of it and booklet-ify the blessing of branches, and add a hymn, and a litany, and a procession, and some illustrations, and to gussy up the Passion Play Script a bit too, and put them in the shop in case you guys are interested in this stuff too.

Palm Sunday at Home Passion Play Script and At Home Blessing of Branches Booklet

Update 2024: Use the Palm Sunday At Home booklet to place your blessed palms in a place of honor in your home when you get home from Mass!

The Passion Play can be done in four parts like is traditionally done at Mass, with as few as three people, or it can be broken up into individual speakers and have as many as fourteen parts for those with big households. We plan to begin our family prayer service on Palm Sunday with the blessing of branches and procession, then use the script during our family Mass prayers. And we’ll be wearing red, of course!

I grabbed my trusty tree saw this afternoon and headed out into the neighborhood. Good thing everyone isn’t taking this time to go for nice long walks and I didn’t totally baffle them all. I located the perfect palm branch, got permission from the neighbor, and sawed it down. If you don’t have palms locally, you can use ANY branches. All over the world people have traditionally used local branches, including olive, pussy willow, and manzanita. Use evergreens, use a decorative branch from the grocery store floral department, use kale, there really isn’t a requirement for palms!

But if you’re local and want some palm leaves, let me know. I might end up with a couple to spare. Email me!

Speaking of people thinking I’m nuts, I’m not sure how YOUR Coronavirus Quarantine crazy is manifesting, but mine is turning up as booklet-making. I also created this brand new, and hopefully never EVER useful again Easter “Dry Mass” Booklet.

Easter Sunday at Home Dry Mass Booklet {Digital Download}

UPDATE 2024: Use the Easter Sunday Mass booklet to follow along with the prayers and readings for Easter Mass during the day on Easter morning!

The booklet includes a complete “Dry Mass” as it’s traditionally called, with the prayers and readings of Mass, excluding the consecration. Also included are hymns, a renewal of baptismal promises, an Easter reflection by Saint John Chrysostom, petitions, and an Act of Spiritual Communion.

It’s useable by families following along with a Mass on TV, and also for those who plan to read the prayers and readings aloud as a family. Everything included is appropriate for use by the laity, according to my research from many sources, and has the thumbs up from a very informed and trusted priest (the same one).

And while we’re at it, I’ll give you the complete rundown of all the printable Holy Week and Easter resources available in the Catholic All Year shop, so far. I say so far because I have one more kind of big project I want to put together, so we’ll have to see if I can manage it in the next few days, in time for it to be useful.

First, because I get this question a lot, I should mention my book, The Catholic All Year Compendium: Liturgical Living for Real Life. It’s available as a real book and an ebook, and, really, liturgical living in the home has never felt so relevant, right? The Compendium has the history and stories behind over a hundred feast days all year long (of course) plus suggestions for foods, activities, devotions, blessings, Bible readings, hymns, and prayers that families can do together. A few texts are included, but mostly it’s just suggestions.

That’s where the monthly booklets come it. I’ve compiled all the actual texts of all the suggested prayers, readings, etc. into booklets for each month. So, you can reasonably use either one without the other, but they work best together.

Here’s what’s available for Holy Week:

1. Catholic All April Prayer Booklet featuring at home prayers, readings, and devotions for Holy Week and Eastertide
2. A Visit to the Blessed Sacrament Prayer Booklet
3. Divine Mercy Novena Prayer Booklet
4. Stations of the Cross Booklet
5. Holy Week Meal and Activity Planner
6. Paschal Greeting for Eastertide (He is risen! He is risen, indeed!) in color and b&w
7. Prayer After Grace for April (O Sacrum Convivium) in color and b&w

You might also enjoy:

• Grace Before and After Meals
• Stations of the Cross Coloring Pages for kids and adults
• Act of Spiritual Communion, Act of Contrition, Morning Offering Set 
• Prayers of Surrender and Abandonment to God’s Will Set
• Catholic All Day Prayer Booklet as a printable pdf and as a paperback booklet
• At Home Veneration of the Cross Booklet
• Rosary Guide Printable
• Blessing of Produce Printable

If you don’t have access to a printer, check out documents.Staples.com. They’re currently offering 50 free copies, delivered free to your front door in a day or two. It’s pretty amazing.

The Catholic All April booklet has really simple, concrete things to do as a family, in your home, for each day of Holy Week. You don’t even have to look up the Bible verses, ’cause they’re right in there. But it didn’t have a blessing for palms or and at home Easter Dry Mass, so I did those up special for this year.

Okay, I think that’s it for tonight I hope you have a very blessed Holy Week and Easter. Please feel free to reach out in the comments or email me at helpdesk@catholicallyear.com if you have any questions. I’m here to help!

The post Palm Sunday at Home and Every CAY Printable for Holy Week appeared first on Catholic All Year.

But from what shall we fast?

Well, the short answer is food. And the slightly longer answer is attachments.

While non-food-related voluntary Lenten disciplines are good and useful and I highly recommend them, I think it bears mentioning that, for a healthy 19-59 year old who is not pregnant or nursing, the CURRENT recommended practice is self-imposed fasting on every Lenten weekday. (see the USCCB Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence no. 14) As in one full meal, and two “collations” which together don’t add up to as much as the one full meal, Monday through Saturday. The one full meal can include meat on days other than Fridays.

Not many of us are attempting that. Many of us shouldn’t, and are therefore exempt. But it seems to me like the messages out there on social media during the first week of Lent have largely been encouragement of non-traditional fasting to the exclusion of traditional food-type fasting, often accompanied by fake quotes from Pope Francis about fasting from harsh words and whatnot, and/or misapplication of a genuine Saint Josemaria quote.

Here, on an Ember Day in Lent, is a good time to consider that the Church has recommended fasting from food as a prayerful and penitential practice since her inception, and it’s been only in the last fifty years or so that we have drifted away from it.

The Catholic Gentleman has one of the best explanations I’ve ever read on why we fast. The whole post is worth the time of Catholic gentlemen and ladies, but here’s an excerpt:

For our purposes, asceticism can be loosely defined as self-denial with the ultimate goal of self-control. And this self denial most often takes the form of, you guessed it, fasting.

Asceticism is necessary for everyone because of our passions—intense fleshly desires, which are sometimes referred to as concupiscence. Experience teaches us that we are often lead about by these desires in a way we can barely control. . . .

In other words, we find freedom from the passions by mortifying them, putting them to death, through the practice of grace-empowered asceticism—specifically, fasting. Fasting helps us tame the wild stallion of our flesh and bring it under the bridle of self-control.

Spiritual Weapons: Fasting, by Sam Guzman, The Catholic Gentleman

A fake Pope Francis (FPF) quote that gets shared around every Lent is frustrating to me because OF COURSE we should be doing things like avoiding worries and trusting in God and avoiding sadness and being filled with gratitude and avoiding anger and being filled with patience but in no way does any of that preclude one from fasting from food and eating less food. The FPF suggestions are HARD. Impossible even . . . without grace. A genuine Pope Francis quote says, “Lenten fasting frees us from our attachment to things, from the worldliness that anesthetizes the heart.” Fasting from food, if we are able, can help us achieve those other goals!

The Saint Josemaria quote I referenced above is this: “Choose mortifications that don’t mortify others.” (The Way 6.179) It’s a really good quote. It’s true that we should take care that our personal Lenten disciplines aren’t a hardship for other people. But one sometimes sees this quote used as a reason why a person couldn’t possibly give up coffee or Diet Coke or whatever. If I’ll be unpleasant to my loved ones without cigarettes, then I just can’t ever give up cigarettes. Period. #nottrue

And, you know what, maybe in a particular year, it’s true that we are facing so much involuntary penance that we can’t handle the additional penance of giving up a cherished food or drink. I get that. I have been there. But I don’t like the message that if we have an attachment to something, we are just stuck with that attachment . . . forever. Saint Josemaria wouldn’t like that message either. His very next two maxims are: “Where there is no self-denial, there is no virtue.” (180) and “Interior mortification. I don’t believe in your interior self-denial if I see that you despise, that you do not practise, mortification of the senses.” (181)

If I can’t keep it together around my family without the aid of Dr. Pepper, that is a problem that needs solving.

^Actual footage of me.^ If I have a good reason that this isn’t the Lent to work on it, then I’m going to commit to trying again the next year, and the year after that. And I can tell you from my personal experience with Dr. Pepper, not to mention TV and treats and snacking (and yelling, mostly? that one is still in progress, but so much better), that a failed Lenten fast can be a stepping stone to a successful one in another year. It doesn’t mean that I have to resign myself to my attachments.

I have a great fondness for silly things of this world like Dr. Pepper, and Chamba Chai, and Netflix, and snacks, and having a stash of clearance Christmas candy in my bedside table. But I just can’t tell you how much interior peace and confidence comes from knowing that by the grace of God I CAN SURVIVE without those things. Every Lent is another chance to prove to myself that I can practice detachment. I don’t want to let those chances slip away without a fight.

*P.S. Some folks are legitimately excused from traditional food-type fasting. Maybe even most of the people who read my blog are excused from that type of fasting, since it covers women who are pregnant or nursing, and those who are ill, including chronic and mental illness, or are under or over the age requirements. That’s a lot of people, and there are good reasons why the Church, in her wisdom, gives those exemptions. If you are exempt from traditional fasting for health reasons, I wouldn’t recommend disregarding that exemption without the advice of a trusted spiritual advisor.

P.P.S. If you’re looking to add some meaningful Lenten devotions this year, you might like this Printable Lent DIY set, which includes a countdown calendar, a sacrifice bean jar kit, and voluntary Lenten discipline pledge slips.

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