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 pinned all of the following resources on an April (and Easter!) 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!
I actually had trouble finding good resources for saints days in the month of April. Maybe everyone is worn at from weeks of Lent and focused on Easter (not a bad thing)? So, maybe next year I can look ahead and have some real food recipes ready!
Holy Week Preparation
- Sticky Handprints and When You’re Not Ready for Easter: Carrots for Michaelmas
- The “You Can Still Do This” Guide to All Things Holy Week: Catholic All Year
April 2nd: Holy Thursday
- Last Supper Craft: Catholic Icing
- Happy Foot Washing Day: Catholic All Year
April 3rd: Good Friday
- Printable Stations of the Cross for Children: Catholic Icing
- Make Hot Cross Buns (The Pioneer Woman has a good recipe.)
- Read T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets (especially East Coker IV).
- How to Talk to Little Kids about the Crucifixion: Catholic All Year
April 4th: Holy Saturday
- Attend a Vigil Mass! Get ready for Easter!
- Getting the Eastertide Party Going: Carrots for Michaelmas
April 5th: Easter Sunday!
- Simple and Fun Kids’ Easter Basket Fillers: Carrots for Michaelmas
- 8 Picture Books for Lent and Easter: Carrots for Michaelmas
- Catholic Resurrection Eggs: Catholic Icing
- Preparing for an Easter Feast: Team Whitaker
April 11th: St. Stanislaus
Food/Activities for Celebrating:
- St. Stanislaus in LEGOs: Catholic Playground (Maybe it’s just because Benjamin is obsessed with LEGO stuff, I thought this was actually a pretty fun idea for sharing stories about the saints with kids.)
- Coloring Page: Catholic Playground
April 12th: Divine Mercy Sunday
- Divine Mercy Sunday: Catholic Culture
April 23rd: St. George
Book:
St. George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges
(Our copy is falling apart because we’ve read it so many times.)
Food/Activities for Celebrating:
- Make Shepherd’s Pie for St. George of Merry England. You can find my recipe in our liturgical year cookbook, Feast! I don’t mean to brag…but my recipe is a little bit famous. If you don’t believe me, just check out the Shepherd’s Pie-centered reviews on the Amazon page. 😉 I’m about to make a giant batch to take meals to some new moms this week and I will be making extra for us!
April 25th: St. Mark
Food/Activities for Celebrating:
- Make an Italian meal. (St. Mark is the patron saint of Venice and his feast is enthusiastically celebrated in Sardinia.) Here’s a simple ideas from Catholic Cuisine: Risi e Bisi
April 29th: St. Catherine of Siena
- Coloring Page: Catholic Playground
Food/Activities for Celebrating:
- Make an Italian meal honoring St. Catherine. We have a Sun-dried Tomato Risotto recipe in our new cookbook, More Feasts!
Do you have any special traditions for saints days in April, Holy Week, or Eastertide? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
In addition to Shepherd’s Pie for St. George’s Day you can find reflections on celebrating Easter in our real food liturgical year cookbook: Feast! Real Food, Reflections and Simple Living for the Christian Year. You can buy the ebook for $7.99 or the print version for $21.99.
(Links to Amazon are affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Carrots!)
Haley, what’s the ruling on doing a Seder meal in Catholic households? I know Simcha Fisher does one, so I was going to try implementing it, but then my homeschool group sent out an email stating they’re bad joujou for Catholics. Kind of confusing.
I honestly can’t imagine any reason at all not to have a Seder meal and it’s really surprising to me that anyone would have a problem with it.
Some people advise against doing Seder meals out of respect for our Jewish brothers and sisters, likening it to non-Catholics holding a Eucharist. I can see a huge learning experience in participating in a Seder, but I can also see the argument going the other way. I think it can be respectfully and carefully done — my parish does one from time to time.
We try to replicate the food Jesus and the apostles would have eaten, but we don’t attempt the prayers or ceremony, for just the reasons Elizabeth mentions. For us it’s felt like a happy medium.
That makes sense, Elizabeth. Thanks!
Yeah, I was all set to embrace it when I was emailed a link to this post by a Dr. Taylor Marshall. I’m not sure what his credibility is, but he has LOTS to say on the subject:
http://taylormarshall.com/2015/03/christian-seder-passover-meals-should-christians-celebrate-them.html
However, now that I know it’s Kendra-approved, I’m pretty comfortable giving it a try. (:
So interesting! I’ve never seen a Seder meal done in a Catholic church but they did one in a Presbyterian church we attended for awhile when I was growing up. Until today it didn’t cross my mind that there could be a problem with it.
I think it’s that Jewish people consider it a sacrilege.
I’m with Haley, not sure why anyone would object. We did one with our Catholic Family Movement group and it was just lovely. So much symbolism. We loved it!
As the Christian half of an interfaith relationship, my Jewish boyfriend and I had this discussion very recently! My approach is to let my boyfriend lead, ask what kind of involvement would feel appropriate, and respect the Seder’s importance to avoid appropriation. After all, Seders aren’t just a likely context of the Last Supper, but a current Jewish practice.
It pains me, especially as a follower of Christ, to learn how often Christians acted with hate toward Jews; I want to distance myself from them and say, “But they (and their Christianity) were different from me (and my Christianity)! I don’t go around telling Jews that they killed Jesus.” I empathize with the desire to host “Christian Seders” to understand Jesus’s Jewish roots. However, earnest wishing cannot change 2,000 years of often contentious Jewish-Christian relations. Thus, since I share a heritage with folks who did the persecution, I think it’s incumbent upon me to ask Jewish people what they think about “Christian Seders” and follow their lead. From what I’ve read, Jewish people prefer keeping Seders Jewish, while also being happy to share about what this tradition means to them.
With this historical view in mind, I think Christians should not host “seders.” Last Suppers, meals that evoke the food in Bible times, learning about Passover as a present Jewish practice and not just a historical event are probably okay.
This year, my boyfriend accompanied me to all the Holy Week services and we co-hosted a Seder on Holy Saturday. I was a co-host in that I helped significantly with invitations, shopping, cleaning, setting up, and cooking. My boyfriend led us in the prayers and we all took turns reading from the Haggadah (Seder instruction book). The family and friends in attendance came from Jewish, Christian, spiritual-but-not-religious, and non-religious backgrounds, but it was a Jewish event.
My suggestion for next year: reach out to a synagogue and see if they would be interested in co-hosting an interfaith learning Seder with rabbis/Jewish folks leading the rituals and all attendees welcome to participate as appropriate! 🙂
Sorry for the length! If I’m this opinionated maybe I need to start my own blog… lol
Haley, this is a great resource. Thanks so much for all these links!
We LOVE that St. George book. Pro tip: if you’re in a hurry, and you only read the first sentence of each page, it still pretty much makes sense. 🙂
SO TRUE. They won’t notice. I’ve tried it. 😉
Our parish is hosting a Seder meal in the community room just prior to the Holy Thursday mass.
Hi Haley! I would love to implement more recipes for celebrating the liturgical year, but we are vegetarians–are your recipes easily adaptable to that?
thanks! 🙂
15 out of 23 recipes are vegetarian (several have fish, though, do you eat fish?). And I THINK 7/10 in the new cookbook (More Feasts) are vegetarian friendly. Hope that helps, Emily!
I’ve attended/hosted Sedar meals in the past and never realized they were offensive to Jewish people. I don’t think they really should be. So much of our Catholic tradition is taken from Jewish roots, and this is just a continuation of that. What I love about the Catholic version is that it’s slightly different, because the Messiah has come for us. I found good resources on catholicculture.org before. 🙂