There's an all new Catholic All Year Liturgical Living Video up, all about the Stations of the Cross! Scroll on down to check it out. And because I love you guys . . . you get a bonus video this time. I die. every. time. It's the cutest. If it looks like Mary Jane is...
The Holy Cross: A Guide to Exalting and Sorrowing in September
September is traditionally a more somber month, liturgical calendar-wise. The month is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. On September 14 and 15 we observe the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. The fall Ember Days are...
That Time I Crossed “Mess With Some Bees” Off of My Bucket List: Catholic Stuff Saturday
Hey, look! It's me with a handful of bees! I have mentioned before that I have a weird bucket list. You guys asked for details. Well, it includes things like . . . Heroically land a commercial airliner after the pilots have become incapacitated: via GIPHY Well, Sean...
How To Start Liturgical Living in the Home (with help from me in 2008)
Health update: Not much to report. Treatments are progressing. We are awaiting test results. We are all in good spirits. Your prayers are SO appreciated. God's will be done. In case you prefer watching/listening to reading . . . this post is also available as a video....
The “You Can Still Do This” Guide to All Things Holy Week
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 /...
Southern-Fried Friday Catfish
Southern-Fried Friday Catfish My mom grew up in Memphis, TN, and her crispy, crunchy, tender, flaky fried catfish is my very favorite thing she cooks. It's a great meal for any Friday, especially if you’re entertaining. At our annual Good Friday backyard Stations of...
The Mega Boxes
Overwhelmed by the thought of getting materials to observe Lent and celebrate Easter?The Catholic All Year Liturgical Mega Box is filled with all the things you need to celebrate Lent +Triduum + Easter as a family!We are thrilled to deliver these amazing resources to...
How Things Are Going Around Here (and getting ready for Lent)
Hey remember long rambling blog posts? Those were my JAM, y'all, back in the good old days of blogging. Let's go old school. But, because I know your attention span isn't what it used to be, here's what we're going to talk about. Feel free to scroll to what interests...
A Catholic Small Business Christmas Gift Guide by Catholic All Year
I am a generally last minute person, but the one thing I try to get done ahead of time each year is Christmas shopping. Getting the shopping out of the way before Advent means I can concentrate on devotions and crafts and baking and family activities during Advent...
I Learned some Stuff from this Product Launch Week: Books and Boxes and Binders and Babies and Dreams
Thanks for putting up with this week of me trying to sell you stuff.* But hopefully you think it's good stuff and . . . it will mostly be over after this last push today. So, here's what I've got to tell you about . . . The Catholic All Year Liturgical Living Weekly...
Kids & Tech: What We Do and Why We Mostly Don’t
I’ve received many reader questions on this topic over the years, and just discussed them again this week in a Q&A session after an online talk I gave to a parent group, so I figured it would be a good time to go ahead and get it in a post. Updates on The...
Holy Thursday at Home: a Virtual Seven Churches Visitation
The triduum is upon us! Let's talk Holy Thursday. No, wait, for a Holy Thursday overview, see this post The “You Can Still Do This” Guide to All Things Holy Week Here, let's talk about the Seven Churches Visitation. Under normal circumstances, following the Holy...
The Triduum at Home: a Tenebrae Service
Happy Spy Wednesday! Today we'll be hiding thirty quarters. Here's why: https://youtu.be/2alx0jkg1Jw See the April Booklet for the collects and readings for Spy Wednesday and each day of the Triduum. We've done the quarters thing for many years now, and love it. New...
Homemade Easter Candles or the Coronavirus Wins
Easter candles, you guys. EASTER CANDLES. We must have them. And really, my family can't imagine missing out completely on the stirringly beautiful beginning of the Easter Vigil Mass, with the fire and the candles and the Exsultet. The whole Easter Vigil is great of...
Palm Sunday at Home and Every CAY Printable for Holy Week
Palm Sunday is tomorrow you guys! I'm inadvertently VERY prepared for an at home Holy Week and Easter, but definitely mourning the prospect. The images of Palm Sunday from old picture Bibles are kinda punching me in the gut right now. The sea of humanity, the crowd,...
Four Effective Ways for Catholics to Pray When Separated from Mass and the Sacraments
Many of us do not now have access to the Eucharist, "the source and summit of Christian life." (CCC 1324) But let's not just throw up our hands and despair! We have recourse to a Morning Offering to unite ourselves to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered publicly...
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Lent: Because Decorating Isn’t Just for Christmas
Liturgical Living heads up! Lent is quickly approaching. Ash Wednesday is February 26th this year, so we've only got a couple weeks to get our acts together here and figure out what we're going to do. I've written SO MUCH about Lent over the years, and I'll link to...
Season One Recap of My Show: Will there be more? Up to YOU.
The Catholic All Year Liturgical Living Show wrapped season one with a December episode on our At Home Nativity Play that I never managed to share here on the blog, because . . . baby > blog 😆🤷♀️. So, I figured I'd share it...
A Spy Wednesday Activity We Love and Good Friday Activities We Avoid
Spy Wednesday "Spy" Wednesday 🕵️♂️ is the name traditionally given to the Wednesday of Holy Week. This is the day Judas betrayed Jesus, telling the high priest when Jesus would be in a place where he could be more conveniently arrested, in exchange for thirty pieces...
Feeling Grateful . . . Anyway
New prayer booklets for April, and other new printables for Easter and the sacraments are up in the shop, details at the bottom of the post, or see here. If you're new around here, you can get up to speed on this particular issue here. And the recent, not so great...
The Catholic Mom Bundle Lent 2019
Lent . . . is coming. Finally. It's super late this year. Almost as late as it can possibly be. The latest since 2000 and the latest until 2030 when Easter will be on April 23 again. In 2038 it will be on April 25th, the latest possible Easter! I might be the only...
Taking Up Something for Lent
The Catholic All March booklets (physical booklets are available here), plus a bunch of new printables for Lent, are available now in the shop. More details below. 👇 Ash Wednesday is coming up in less than two weeks! (It's super late this year.) The actual...
I’m Not Mad About the Met Gala, Except That I Wasn’t Invited: Catholic Stuff Saturday
Happy Saturday folks, the winner of last week's giveaway is at the bottom! If you are a fashionable celebrity who reads this blog, you're probably aware of last Monday's Met Gala. For the rest of us, the Met Gala is a yearly red carpet/costume party thing where famous...
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)
Indulgences! So much opportunity, so much confusion and misinformation. And that's just among Catholics. It's really difficult to even find any information at all online about the most recent version of the Manual of Indulgences, a 1999 revision that replaced the 1968...
Should Catholics Attend Easter Egg Hunts on Holy Saturday?
Mailbag time! The Question: Hi, Kendra! Thanks so much for your blog. I was hoping you could offer some advice on a question regarding living out the liturgical year with young kids. Our parish Easter egg hunt is scheduled for Holy Saturday morning and I don't know...
How to Raise Good Little Catholics
Something I get asked about quite often is what we're doing with our kids to help to raise them to have an understanding of and an appreciation for our Catholic faith. It's a tough question, but a very important one. Whether our kids are homeschooled, or go to...
Our Triduum in Photos
It's still Easter today! Happy Easter! Let's jump in the ol' T.A.R.D.I.S. and take a look back at the Triduum, just for posterity's sake, shall we? And let's, um, go backwards. 'Cause, why not? In case you missed it in all the hubbub yesterday, here are all the Easter...
Lent: The End Begins (Ideas and Printables for Holy Week and Easter)
Today is the fifth Sunday of Lent, traditionally known as Passion Sunday. This is the day on which images and statues are often veiled in churches. We like to do this in our home as well. (I used think we were supposed to do this for all of Lent, but have recently...
#2: In Which Gus Receives his First Communion and We All Receive a Valid but Illicit Blessing From a “Bishop”
If you read Part 1, you'll know we arrived in Lourdes one day late. So, instead of the two days I had planned for, we had one full day in Lourdes in which to Do All the Things! And we did. Really, we did. We met up with my parents, who had already been in Lourdes...
An Easter Present for All of You but Mostly Bonnie and a Triduum / Easter Recap
Happy Easter everyone! He is Risen. . . Are you guys getting tired of that yet? Sorry. I just found out about it this year. It's possible I'm getting carried away. Also, I've eaten a LOT of candy. They're always saying how easy it is to take candy from a baby. But...