One of the sentiments that was clear from this week’s reader survey (you can still fill it out and help me make Carrots better) is that y’all miss the monthly liturgical year posts. As a blogger it’s hard to tell what’s striking a chord, and because there were rarely more than one or two comments on these posts, I thought y’all were bored with them! And they’re time-intensive to put together so I stopped. But….they’re back! Thanks for letting me know you missed them!
I’m always trying to figure out how to make it easier for families to observe the Christian Year because we felt so overwhelmed when we first started that journey (which is why we wrote the book we wish we had then). I thought it might be helpful for our family to have resources compiled for the month ahead so that we can plan in advance which special saints days we want to observe and I hope having them all in one place is helpful to you, too!
I made a simple printable October 2014 liturgical calendar you can download for FREE. If you’d like to sign up for my newsletter (on the right sidebar) in exchange for the handy dandy printable, I’d be eternally grateful. *wink wink*
And I pinned all of the following resources on an October Liturgical Living board on pinterest for your convenience!
As always, remember not to get overwhelmed. You don’t have to observe every saints day! (We certainly don’t at our house.) The liturgical year is a gift. It shouldn’t feel like a burden!
October 1st: St. Therese of the Child Jesus
Food for Thought:
- The Power of the Little Flower: Jenny Uebbing for Catholic Exchange
Faith and Little Ones:
- St. Therese and Family Paper Dolls (Lucy loves these!)
Celebrating Around the Table:
- Heavenly Garden Apple Rose Pastries: Catholic Cuisine
October 2nd: The Holy Guardian Angels
Free Printable Guardian Angel Prayers: Catholic All Year
Faith and Little Ones:
Book suggestions:
Angels, Angels Everywhere by Tomie dePaola
Pascual and the Kitchen Angels by Tomie dePaola
October 4th: St. Francis of Assisi:
Faith and Little Ones:
Book suggestions:
Brother Sun, Sister Moon by Katherine Paterson
The Song of Francis by Tomie dePaola
The Good Man of Assisi by Mary Joslin
St. Francis and the Nativity by Myrna Strasser
Activities for Celebrating:
- 10 Easy Ways Your Family Can Celebrate the Feast of St. Francis: Molly Makes Do
October 6th: St. Bruno
Faith and Little Ones:
Coloring Page:
- St. Bruno: Waltzing Matilda
October 7th: Our Lady of the Rosary
Faith and Little Ones:
- Rosary CDs for Kids: Holy Heroes
Celebrating Around the Table
- Cupcake Rosary: Catholic Cuisine
October 10th: St. Francis Borgia
Celebrating Around the Table:
Make a Spanish feast (Simple Spanish Tapas, Spanish Eggplant Spread, and Potatoes Aioli recipe is in Feast! Real Food, Reflections, and Simple Living for the Christian Year)
October 15th: St. Teresa of Avila
Celebrating Around the Table:
- Chicken Stew with Lighter than Air Dumplings: Catholic Cuisine
October 17th: St. Ignatius of Antioch
Celebrating Around the Table:
- Make Mujaddara, a lentil and rice dish popular in the Middle East. (You can find the recipe in Feast!)
October 18th: St. Luke
Faith and Littles Ones:
- Coloring Page: Waltzing Matilda
October 22nd: Pope St. John Paul II
Faith and Littles Ones:
Coloring Book:
- Pope St. John Paul II 15-pg Coloring Download: Holy Heroes
Audio Story:
- Pope St. John Paul II Glory Story: Holy Heroes
Celebrating Around the Table:
- Polish Food and Papal Cake: Better Than Eden
October 23rd: St. John of Capistrano
Faith and Little Ones:
Book Suggestion:
Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi
October 31: All Hallow’s Eve
Faith and Little Ones:
- All Saints’ Halloween Party: A Knotted Life
And I love Kendra’s idea to easily transform Halloween costumes into All Saints’ costumes:
Awesome All Saints Costumes, And More Halloween/All Saints’ Costumes, Hallowtide, It’s How We Roll
Do you have any special traditions for holy days in October? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
(Some links in this post are affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Carrots!)
I love this!! Definitely going to go back and look at your old ones. One question though- why the chicken and dumplings for St Teresa? I would have thought the recipe would be something Spanish 🙂 Is the ‘lighter than air biscuits’ a reference to her levitation?
That’s what I thought, too, Erin (the levitation thing). I wish there was a Spanish recipe, too. She’s on the list for feast days we want to add to the new cookbook so….who knows! I try to find actual meal recipes because most of what you find on google is cupcakes for every saint and…I love a good cupcake but my kids aren’t getting them for EVERY feast day. 😉 So I was excited to find a recipe for a real meal!
St Teresa of Avila is my confirmation saint. We’re going to be eating a dish called Judías del Barco, which is sort of like Spanish pork and beans/cassoulet/whatever. It’s large-ish white beans cooked with pork like Spanish chorizo and other assorted bits. The particular variety of beans are grown in Avila and are a traditional dish there. I won’t be using them, but just a regular large white bean that cooks down nice and creamy.
Apologies for the link in Spanish, but this is the dish: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jud%C3%ADas_de_El_Barco_de_%C3%81vila
Thanks so much for sharing! That’s an awesome idea, Celia. Maybe we’ll follow suit 😉
I am fairly new to your blog, so I didn’t know I was missing out on these liturgical year posts. I am so glad you’re posting them again. Our moms’ group at church gets together to celebrate various events throughout the liturgical year and you are a great resource for us!
Oh yay! I’m so glad, Lia 🙂
My words exactly!!!! This post is amazing!!!!
Thank you so much for this resource! I’m a Catholic convert too and I get easily overwhelmed with all of the ideas out there for celebrating the liturgical year. This looks very doable.
You’re welcome, Jennifer! (And just FYI, my family will NOT be celebrating all of these days! One or two feast days a month is all we can handle.) So, don’t get overwhelmed! 🙂
This is wonderful! Thanks for putting this together! We also are a big fan of the North American Martyrs – the US feast day is 10/19 (a Sunday this year), celebrated with classic poutine and Canadian pork pie!
Oh cool! I’ve never had Canadian pork pie but it sounds amazing.
YAY it’s back!!! Thank you so much for curating all these incredible resources, Haley! I’m printing out two copies of your calendar – one for my kitchen by my weekly menu board and one to sit next to my little oratory. I especially love the Spanish feast for St. Francis Borgia.
Thanks again; you totally rock 🙂
Thanks, Willow! <3
We’ll be eating lots of Polish food this month. St. Faustina’s feast is this Sunday, and with her and Pope St. John Paul II I’m going to have fun cooking! My husband’s family is Polish, but most of those traditions have been lost over a couple of generations. Trying to bring it back!
I commented on our St. Teresa of Avila feast above. I love Spanish food, so I’m all over any excuse to cook something special. She’s a special saint in our house.
I am so unfamiliar with Polish food. I guess this month is a good time to remedy that 😉
I love this! I guess I haven’t been reading your blog long enough to know that you used to do this. I’m so glad you’ve started it again.
Oh good! Forcing myself to sit down and come up with a calendar is going to help me plan, too!
We’re not very good at remembering to celebrate the various saint/holy/feast days, but I always love seeing these posts for some future ideas. Thanks for bringing them back!
You’re welcome, Francine! 😉
Thank you for this, Haley! How awesome. I look forward to the months to come, too!
Thank you!
This is great Haley. I love that you included books, what a great idea!