This is from the introduction to the (forthcoming) Catholic All Year Compendium, that I wrote for the pitch I submitted to the publisher, back in 2015:
“Sometimes all you really need is a little enthusiasm and the willingness to give things a try. The easiest way is to start when your children are young enough to be dazzled by even your less successful endeavors. Case in point: I stood in my kitchen one Friday afternoon, looking at a slightly runny red gelatin heart, decorated with orange segments and pretzel sticks, sitting somewhat off-center on a cake plate. It was supposed to look like the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but it had looked better in my head—less oozy. My four-year-old daughter, however, took one look at it and gasped in wonder at its beauty. She called the other kids in to see it. They agreed that it was awesome but could use some whipped cream.
So that’s what we did. We put some whipped cream on it. Over dinner, we talked about St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and her visions. We talked about the burning love that Jesus has for each one of us and the pain that he suffers because of the sin and the ingratitude of mankind. Then we ate the weepy heart. And now my kids can’t imagine a feast of the Sacred Heart without one. That’s what living the liturgical year looks like in our home.”
I’ve read through it SO MANY times through the writing and editing process and I finally went back and found my photo of that jello heart.
I still shake my head, NOPE, looking at it. 😝 But the kids are looking forward to having another one next Friday. There’s really no accounting for them.
And . . . <looks around nervously, knocks on wood desk, slowly types> . . . I – think – I’m – done – writing – the – book?
Crazy. It has been nearly three years that I’ve been writing this book. Which is just preposterous. It’s hardly the great American novel or anything. But it does feel like an accomplishment, and a few other things were going on during the process: I was pregnant with baby number eight, packed up to move, accidentally had a baby at home, sold the old house, moved, entered the exciting world of construction supervising and do-it-yourself remodeling and feeding a family of ten from a makeshift kitchen in the garage, found out I was pregnant again, got super morning sickness, got better, fell off a ladder while painting and broke my tailbone, had a kid hospitalized after a freak accident, somehow got the first draft written, it was 600 pages. Had another baby, continued fixing up the house, cut the book down by a couple hundred pages, redid hundreds of quotes and footnotes, went through copy edits, then content/fact-check/heresy-checks, added a few new feasts, and updated others with new stuff we’ve been doing, and just submitted it (with 113 feast days covered in 360 pages), I think for the last time!
They’re telling me it will be out Fall 2018. 😍
So . . . speaking of June, the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let’s look at a few of the feast days this month. Including the TWO MEAT FRIDAYS!
June 3 The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ a.k.a. Corpus Christi (Sunday, solemnity, holy day of obligation)
TO DO: read John 6:52–59; make a Eucharistic procession (plenary indulgence); recite the Act of Spiritual Communion, recite the “Tantum Ergo”; begin the practice of making the sign of the cross whenever passing a Catholic church; make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament
TO EAT: We have a Last Supper dinner, like we do on Holy Thursday.
June 8: The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (solemnity)
TO DO: publicly recite the Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (plenary indulgence);
TO EAT: It’s a Meat Friday! And you can make your very own red Jell-O heart. Just think, three years from now you could almost have written a book about it, too!
June 9:The Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary (memorial)
TO DO: recite the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Litany of Loreto)
TO EAT: Leftover jello?
June 13: St. Anthony of Padua, priest and Doctor (memorial), patron of lost items, lost people, lost souls, the elderly, and mail
TO DO: Start collecting stuff the kids leave around the house in a secret St. Anthony box, when they ask if you’ve seen it, tell them to ask St. Anthony. Give it back to them on the morning of his feast day, with a note that they should be more careful to not lose their things.
TO EAT: St. Anthony died of ergotism, as a result of long term eating of tainted rye. Since ergotism has been eradicated in the western world, I think we’re safe to have a toasted pastrami and provolone on rye.
June 22: SS. John Fisher, bishop, and Thomas More, martyrs (optional memorial), patrons of lawyers and stepparents
TO DO: Refuse to apostatize.
TO EAT: Add some St. John Fisher foil fish packets and St. Thomas s’Mores to your Nativity Eve bonfire.
June 24: The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist (solemnity)—patron of builders, tailors, printers, baptism, and against seizures
TO DO: read Luke 1:57–80; have a vigil bonfire
TO EAT: locusts (we like ours in potato chip flavors), wild honey, grasshopper pie .
June 26: St. Josemaría Escrivá, priest (optional memorial), patron of Opus Dei, diabetics, job seekers, and the sanctification of ordinary work
TO DO: consider ways to grow holier in daily life
TO EAT: Spanish tortilla, paella, flan.
June 29: SS. Peter and Paul, apostles (solemnity)
TO DO: Pray the “Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, intercede for us” prayer; use an article blessed by the pope or a bishop (plenary indulgence); go camping, fishing, or have a picnic
TO EAT: It’s another MEAT FRIDAY! For dessert, graham cracker tent s’mores for St. Paul, a tent-maker, and Swedish fish candies for St. Peter, a fisherman.
And, now, for this week’s giveaway!
Rebecca Górzyńska and I are both members of a group of Catholic women artists, and I just LOVE her work. She sent this awesome St. Joan of Arc print to our conference last year.
Check out her Etsy shop, Dephina Rose Art!
And she also creates really unique and fun and SUPER CATHOLIC coloring pages.
And she also creates really unique and fun and SUPER CATHOLIC coloring pages.
The Saints Bundle includes St. Joan of Arc, and St. Apollonia, to whom Anita has had a devotion ever since she got her front tooth knocked clean out last summer. (It seems to have worked!)
The Marian Bundle features Mary under ten different titles. So great for easy feast day activities for kids. And they’re detailed enough to be really appealing to older kids, and even adults!
I get to give a set away (winner’s choice) here on the blog. (Stay tuned to the Catholic All Year Facebook Page and my Instagram account for giveaways there sometime during the week.)
To enter the giveaway, tell me what feast day you’re looking forward to this month, and why.
And say a prayer for Rebecca, who is about 25 weeks along . . . with TRIPLETS! 👶👶👶
P.S. Speaking of prayers, so many of you have asked what you can do for our family, and my friend Michaela came up with the BEST THING EVER. Check it out.
The Feast if the Sacred Heart is on my husband’s birthday! Meat Friday with a grill party in the plans. Perhaps a jello ♥️, too. Or lemon bars. It’s his birthday.
Corpus Christi! Also, June 22, since my son is named after St. Thomas More.
Sacred heart! Meat Friday calls for steaks.
My favorite feast is the Sacred Heart of Jesus because it is my favorite devotion. I am currently working on cultivating a greater devotion to the sacred heart of Jesus.
Corpus Christi because my baby is getting baptized!
St. John the Baptist because grasshoppers… yum 😉
Corpus Christi because of the procession!
St Anthony June 13th – one of my favorite saints (because I use him all the time??) and one of the first saints I knew/learned. I want to do this liturgical living stuff and it's a good place to start. I love the activity (because it is sorely needed in this house) and I can handle the meal idea, good connect and story to go with our dinner prayer (about a year ago we started asking the saint of the day to pray for us after the blessing, but I usually don't know much about them to field questions on who they are, I am learning and a work in progress 🙂
Signed up for a slot. Not until NOVEMBER! There were only about 10 slots left between now and December, which is AWESOME!! Praying for you all daily.
Thank you, Kris! Isn’t it wonderful?!
I love the pun about St. Thomas S’Mores! So either that or Sacred Heart. That’s also the name of my in-law’s parish, so I might see if they have anything special going on for the feast day since they’re only about 30 minutes away.
There are so many awesome feasts this month! I'm eagerly anticipating the Sacred Heart, as I'm praying a novena leading up to it, but Fisher and More are also some favorites of ours.
I'm looking forward to St. Anthony's feast day because it is my 3 year old's name day.
The Nativity of St. John the Baptist. When my husband moved away from home, he would always return to visit around June 24th to celebrate my father in law's feast day. As was the custom in Mexico, people would celebrate their feast day over their birthday. After we married, we would make the trip every year until my father in law passed. It holds such special meaning and memories.
Sacred Heart of Jesus because we will be visiting my family during that one. Always nice to celebrate with others. Also, wow, triplets! Congrats to her.
Definitely, the Sacred Heart (no explanation necessary, but meat Friday is part of it) and St Jose Maria (because we just love him and have a special devotion to him). My kids (ok, and definitely I!) would love those colouring pages.
I'm looking forward to two meat Fridays! Last year, we did Sacred Heart fruit pizza with our meat, but not sure if we'll have that elaborate of a meal since my niece has her graduation that night. Loving the idea of St. Thomas s'Mores… and I will definitely put "refuse to apostatize" on my list of things to do. 🙂
I always look forward to Corpus Christi 🙂 it's one of my favorite feasts.
I LOVE the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and I look forward to the Corpus Christi procession all year. My youngest son is named Paul so Peter and Paul will be a family feast. But my 7th child was born on the feast of John the Baptist and baptized on the Feast of Josemaria. I had spent 3 months on bedrest during the pregnancy and the baptizing priest quoted the readings from the feast of St. John the Baptist, about someone "called from the womb and wonderfully made into a sharp-edged sword." He referred to all the families who had brought dinners for my family during those months of bedrest: "All these matters were discussed throughout the country; all who heard these things took them to heart, saying, 'What then will this child be?'" A sharp-edged sword!
This is just a month chock-full of liturgical partying at our house.
I just wanted to note that although I always turn to St. Agatha during breastfeeding difficulties, and I think Rebecca's picture of her is lovely, I won't be letting my boys see that coloring page . . .
For my kids, I make a point of shielding them from sexualized nudity, but not artistic, medical, or religious nudity. I think it’s a good distinction to make, especially if you ever plan to take your kids to art museums or historic churches.
Micaela's meal train is pretty amazing, and harder to get into than the orthodontist. My daily planner doesn't even go to January, which is when I found the first likely slot, so I hope the sign-up sends out reminders.
My 11-year-old son said, "How awesome to have that many people praying for you. I wish I was a celebrity." : )
Thank you! I think it will send out reminders. And we are really honored that so many people have been willing to do this for us!
The Sacred Heart of Jesus – thanks to you, I'm going to try a heart, even if it does turn out wonky! And not it will come as a surprise, but I predict your book is going to be a smash-hit run-away best-seller – I can't wait to get it in my hands!
St. John the Baptist because he is such a cool saint!
St Peter feast day, one of my sons is named Peter.
Got to love Corpus Christi as well. We will be celebrating!
That graham cracker tent looks so cute and tasty! I usually get pretty stoked for the birth of St. John the Baptist (when I was a teen our then-parish had a waterfight to celebrate each year and it was epic), but this year I'm especially looking forward to Peter & Paul. We're hosting our Domestic Church "circle" that evening (part of a Catholic lay movement, it's lovely) and my husband wants sushi, so we'll go with a "fishers of men" theme and have a big bowl of deconstructed sushi. Most likely with Greek Honey Cake, as a nod to St. Paul's interactions with Greece 🙂
Got in in November!
And it's St. Anthony for us – my daughter was confirmed in February and chose St. Anthony as her Confirmation saint.
I'm looking forward to the feast of St. Thomas More, since he is my son's patron saint! And kind of my husband's too, due to him being a lawyer. I like the s'mores idea 🙂
The Sacred Heart is one of the only ones I can pull off a liturgical food for with any regularity. It’s a fruit and veggie tray (strawberries! Red peppers! Carrots! Oranges!) with a pretzel crown.
I really like the Nativity of John the Baptist, because he was saved from original sin before birth. So pro-life! Plus I feed the kids bugs.
I have a devotion to the Sacred Heart but the snacks aren’t as good
Oh, I don't think I can pick just one feast day! Baby girl arriving in early July will be named for Margaret Mary, in large part due to my husband's devotion to the Sacred Heart. Anthony is my one year old's middle name. We always save our Christmas tree to burn at the bonfire for John the Baptist – it's quite impressive! And it makes the "I must decrease, He must increase" connection between the timing of the Nativity of John the Baptist and Christmas. Phew! I'm just hoping to get energy from nesting, because it's gonna be busy!!
What a fun tradition!
It is fun! Although I only recommend it out in the country away from houses and trees – the flame shoots up really high.
St. Anthony! He's one of our family patrons and I think our church is doing a big celebration for his feast day. I totally looked at the calendar last week and got SUPER EXCITED when I realized June had 2 meat Fridays! So thank you for sharing the enthusiasm 🙂
St. Thomas More! Our parish (St. Thomas More) throws a huge party called MoreFest. It's a great way to evangelize.
Meat Fridays for the win! Lots of traveling for us this month (homeschool convention and a family gathering) and both of those Fridays are Meat Fridays!
I'm most looking forward to the feast of Saints Peter and Paul because it's our 5 year wedding anniversary! Coincidentally, I've been following your blog for about 3- 4 years, shortly after first daughter was born. I was looking for Catholic home school blogs and found your writing and parenting experience/advice refreshing. We're still learning, and have a way to go, but continue to be inspired by our Catholic friends and your writing. Thank you so much for sharing your families experiences!
St Anthony and St Thomas More are namesakes of two of our sons! We're quite excited for both :)!
I am looking forward to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary feast days! On May 31, 2008, our wedding day, it was a double feast day – The Visitation and the Immaculate Heart of Mary (and our rehearsal was on the Feast of the Sacred Heart). So ever since then, I have loved celebrating those feasts as they remind me of our wedding. I made a Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary decorated fruit pizza a couple times this past spring for two of my Goddaughter's first communions, so I will make that again for the actual feast day. Thanks for the giveaway opportunities!!
Well, I got married on the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist last year, so now it is our wedding anniversary in addition to a Solemnity. Looking forward to a bonfire in future years – we just moved so I'm thinking it won't happen this year 🙂
Looking forward to teaching and talking about Sacred Heart of Jesus with my three year old. She already has so much love for Jesus!
My favorite feast day already passed but it was Corpus Christi! I was looking forward to it for a few months now because a local, newly-ordained FSSP priest was having a First Mass at our (diocesan) parish. The 10am NO and 12pm EF Masses were combined as one 10am EF Mass with First Blessings before Mass, a procession after, and a lunch reception to celebrate. It was long and hot but oh so beautiful and worth the extra graces to participate in such joyful festivities!
I love Corpus Christi because of the procession. And, you inspired me to make red jello today.
The feast of st Anthony! For some mysterious reason he played a part in leading me from paganism to entering the Church.
Had a baby named Elizabeth Joan (intended patroness Elizabeth of Hungary; re-evaluating due to birthday/Elizabeth Ann setons conversion) on Corpus Christi. She'll be baptized on the 24, doubling her party with nativity feast party.
Although sacred heart of mary is our liturgical anniversary!
The Nativity of JTB… (That's what the cool kids call him, right?) And thank you for the info about Ss Peter and Paul's day being a meat Friday… We missed yesterday because I wasn't sure if it truly was one or not.
It was the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Which also fell on my husband’s birthday! I had a lovely meal planned out but our seafood show at Costco got postponed (my husband loves fish and we were going to have Ireland’s white wine sauce mussels with brown bread). It turned out fine in the end. I did make my carrot cake for dinner- it was a birthday.
I’m still working on my living liturgically lifestyle. And I don’t particularly care for jello.
Most special feast day this June was Corpus Christi, because it is amazing but also because my nephew made his First Holy communion!
wow! pertandingan yang sangat seru dari meron dan wala untuk anda yang mau menonton klik disini!
dan dapatkan seputar sabung ayam hanya di sini http://www.sateayam.org
http://agenayamterpercaya.emyspot.com/blog/permainan-sabung-ayam-sampai-mati-paling-bergengsi-tahun-ini.html
Birthday cake for St. John the Baptist! St. Peter is also quite fun since we have a Peter too.
Sts. Peter & Paul tomorrow! I decided to buy goldfish instead of Swedish fish, because I would eat the WHOLE BAG of Swedish fish myself, and we have a 1 year old, so she can’t enjoy them anyway. I’m super excited about the s’mores tents though! I’m new to liturgical living, but we’re all loving it as a family. I made this recipe: (https://www.mydarlingvegan.com/2013/10/double-chocolate-pistachio-donuts-2/)
for the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, because I was completely unprepared and didn’t have things for grasshopper pie, but felt this carried the brown and green pretty well, and the pistachios looked kinda like dried crushed up locusts. And we’re just not as brave as you to eat the really thing ;). I didn’t have a donut pan, so I made the recipe in a muffin pan and it just turned out to be a delicious and moist chocolate cake topped with ganache, crushed pistachios, and a sprinkle of sea salt. So tasty. The bonus to all this is that we live with my in-laws right now, and they were very intrigued about my little experiment to celebrate the feast day. They also enjoyed the cake!�� Thanks for sharing all the ideas!
I am so thankful to have found your blog….amazing all that you get done! You are definitely an inspiration! Cannot wait for your book…..and I am adding your husband and all your family to my prayer list. May God continue to guide and bless all that you do!