Catholics--organizing the liturgical year??

[Moxie]

I've read Real Learning by Elizabeth Foss and been inspired. I would really like to do more liturgical year activities with the kids. My problem is that I can't do it on the fly; it has to be organized and on paper before the year starts. How does everyone else handle it?

[Mama2two]

I think her book is amazing and inspiring as well.

 

I do our liturgical plans a month at a time. I pick one our two feast days for the month and try to plan a craft, book and a food item. I have saved what we have done in a file folder labeled for each month so we can re-do our favorites. My kids are only 4 and 6 but we have already created some great family traditions.

 

I think there are some feast days (like the solemnities) we will do each year and then maybe each year try to do a few different ones.

 

The Catholic Cuisine website is a great source of ideas for food:

 

http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/

 

This blog (she also founded the Catholic cuisine blog) is fantastic for ideas, click on the top tab for her liturgical plans.

 

http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/

 

I also really like to use the book in Catholic Mosaic.

[Moxie]

I'll add this resource http://catholicicing.blogspot.com/ . There is so much good stuff out there!

[HRAAB]

If you're wanting to tie in reading to the liturgical year, I think Catholic Mosaic by Cay Gibson is great. The ladies at 4Real Learning always seem to have terrific ideas.

[4besitos]

I use all of the above resources and love the Elizabeth Foss books/blog. I try to do 2 feast celebrations a month. My plan is to do 1 in our house and then 1 with another family; this gives my children a playdate as well. :001_smile: There are some in the year that our Co-Op does and the other HS group we belong too; so some months end up with quite a few. I try to plan for 3 months at a time; especially since I tend to be a perfectionist and that can hold me back if everything can't be just so!!!!!

 

Blessings,

Yvonne

[Janet in Toronto]

Here's another online resource: http://www.catholicculture.org. If you click on "Liturgical Year" they have calendars with lots of info for each day/season along with readings, songs, recipes, etc.

[VA6336]

A Year With God is the living the liturgical year guide that Catholic Heritage Curricula uses. We just got it and plan to use it. So, I can't tell you if I like it yet other than the activities are really flexible and organized by subject, calendar and title, which makes it all really easy to find something I'm looking for.

[love2read]

Melissa, Best advice I can give you is to follow Yvonne's lead. The links are fabulous, but set your clock and get off when it rings or you'll spend all of your time reading about the wonderful things other people do and you'll never do them yourself. I pick just one feast day a month to celebrate and then we make visible the devotion of the month on the mantle--in bold print at this link

http://www.fisheaters.com/customs.html and we discuss the mantle and related virtues and stories throughout the month. Plan for one or two feasts a month, you can always go back and add more later if you are actively celebrating the two without added stress from the preparations.