What is Liturgical Living?
Liturgical living is bringing an awareness and celebration of the Catholic calendar into your every day life. It is celebrating the seasons (Ordinary Time, Lent, Advent, etc.), feast days, saints, and holy days that make the Catholic Church beautiful and unique. It is weaving the Catholic faith into our daily lives.
Can this only be done at home or will it work in a classroom?
You can absolutely live liturgically in the classroom. While parents are the primary educators of their children in the Faith, they need help. It takes a village, right? Supporting parents by teaching about the important days of the Catholic calendar in your Catholic school classroom or religious education classroom is an amazing idea.
For some children, it will be a great connection between what is happening at home and what is happening at school. For the children who aren't living liturgically at home, it can be a chance to educate and evangelize those families and show them how simple it can be to do at home.
Are there rules? Can I do it wrong?
The rule is do something! Haha, how does that sound? No, there are no rules or checkboxes. No one is going to ask you how many different days you celebrated that year. You can't do it wrong if you just start with baby steps and try to bring more and more Catholic teachings into your home and classroom.
Remember, you are teaching children about these events. So it might include reading something, watching something or just talking about a saint, Holy Day, or liturgical season. I like to connect it to something hands on - a snack, a coloring page, a simple craft, etc. Something tangible that will help them remember.
I'm overwhelmed, do I celebrate every day on the Catholic calendar?
Do not attempt to celebrate every day on the Catholic calendar. You will be overwhelmed and defeated. In my blog post about baby steps to living liturgically, I recommend just starting with one activity a month and building from there. We've found it easiest to focus on certain saints that my girls are interested in or saints that they were named after. This always leads to instant engagement. We've also found that connecting a special day to food makes it easy and memorable.
Use my freebie in that blog post or simply look through a Catholic calendar and plan out ahead of time what one or two days you want to celebrate each month. Mark it on your calendar and make a plan from there.
I'm still feeling overwhelmed. How do I simplify liturgical living?
I get it. It is easy to feel overwhelmed. I feel like the year we homeschooled it was a lot easier for me to celebrate these days with my girls. Now between school. taking the girls back and forth to school for their different activities, dinner, homework, and getting ready for bed, I barely have enough hours in the day to add anything else. Which means I need simple! Something I can just print and use.
Would that help you too? I've designed monthly liturgical living printables that can be used in the home or classroom. The whole point is for them to be easy to use with minimal prep. You just decide what you want to celebrate and print out those pages.
What is included each month?
Each month I pick five saints that have feast days in that month. I've included a crown, a coloring page and a puzzle for each saint. Some months there are bonus activities for the saints like a quote to color.
I also include any Holy Days of Obligations or other feasts that the Catholic Church celebrates. I try to give a little background for parents and kids to help teach them about each day and then have an activity that goes with it. There is anywhere from 25-50 pages included...again pick and choose what you want to use, do not feel like you have to use every page.
Each month I also include a printable banner that can be displayed in a prayer corner or on a mantle.
Here is a little bit about what is included each month. Click the links to purchase or find out more.
January
January focuses on St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Agnes, St. Francis de Sales, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. John Bosco. There are also activities for The Baptism of the Lord, Epiphany and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
February
This month features St. Brigid of Ireland, St. Blaise, St. Josephine Bakhita, St. Scholastica & St. Valentine. There are also activities for Ordinary Time, Candlemas (The Presentation of the Lord), Our Lady of Lourdes and the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter.
Lent/Easter Bonus
Because Lent and Easter fall in different months each year, I made a separate resource that wasn't linked to a particular month. This pack has activities for Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Week, Triduum, Easter and Pentecost. This can be used alongside the monthly packets.
March
For March, I've focused on St. Katharine Drexel, St. John of God, St. Patrick, St. Joseph, St. Oscar Romero. There are also activities for the Annunciation of the Lord.
April
April is focused on St. Hugh of Grenoble, St. Mark the Evangelist, St. Gianna Beretta Molla, St. Catherine of Siena and St. Quirinus of Rome. There is also activities for the monthly devotions - The Holy Spirit & the Eucharist along with how to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
May
May focuses on St. Joseph the Worker, St. Dominic Savio, St. Damien of Molokai, St. Augustine of Canterbury and St. Joan of Arc. Also, this month has a Holy Day of Obligation - Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord and we will celebrate the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There are several activities that can be used to honor Mary during the month of May like a Rosary, Mary Garden and Prayer Cube.
June
June includes St. Anthony of Padua, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. William of Vercelli, St. Josemaria Escriva, and St. Peter. There are also 5 solemnities this month - but some years the moveable solemnities could be in May due to the how early Easter falls. There are activities for Corpus Christi, The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Sacred Heart of Jesus and Nativity of St. John the Baptist.
July
In July, we will celebrate St. Benedict, St. Zelie Martin, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, St. Anne, and St. Ignatius Loyola. There is also a focus on the miracles of Jesus, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, World Day for Grandparents and Elderly and the monthly devotion, the Precious Blood of Jesus.
August
In August, we will honor St. Dominic, St. Clare, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Rose of Lima and St. Aidan. There is also a Holy Day of Obligation - Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We also focus on the Transfiguration, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queenship of Mary and Our Lady of Knock.
September
September is all about St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Joseph Cupertino, St. Padre Pio, St. Vincent de Paul, and St. Gabriel. There are also several days celebrating Mary - The Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary along with the monthly devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows.
October
In October, we will focus on St. Francis of Assisi, St. Edward, St. Luke the Evangelist, St. Isaac Jogues and St. Ursula. We will also focus on the month of the Rosary, Holy Guardian Angels, and All Hallows' Eve.
November
November starts out with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. We will also learn about St. Charles Borromeo, St. Francis Xavier Cabrini, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Cecilia, and St. Andrew. Also included is Thanksgiving, Christ the King, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and St. Andrew Novena.
December
December is focused on St. Francis Xavier, St. Nicholas, St. Juan Diego, St. Lucy and St. Stephen. We also cover Advent, Christmas, Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Holy Family, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and more!
Can I buy the whole year?
Yes! I have bundled up all of my monthly activities. It includes all 12 months plus the Lent/Easter resource for a discounted price versus buying each month separately. Find the Liturgical Living bundle here with all 12 months plus a bonus Lent/Easter resource included.
