This is a guest post from Kelly of This Ain't the Lyceum, one of my favorite blogs. I can't wait to create one of these binders because when I keep ideas only on Pinterest they're out of sight, out of mind and I simply won't remember the recipes, activities, and prayers I wanted to do! - Haley Our home library contains an impressive amount of Catholic books, however when it comes to praying as a … [Read more...]
Little Holydays: Trinity Sunday Blueberry Pie
On Trinity Sunday (May 26th this year) we celebrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity–the doctrine that distinguishes Christianity from all other faiths. A concept like the Holy Trinity is difficult to denote through food, but in our family we try to start food traditions for the Christian Year that also tie into what’s seasonal where we live. During early summer in Florida, blueberries are fully … [Read more...]
First Advent
Something from the archives today. I wrote this little reflection soon after Benjamin was born. I was huge. Not just big—gigantic. Even before I entered my third trimester, well-intentioned old ladies would pat my shoulder and say, “Any day now!” encouragingly as I waddled my way through the grocery store. Considering the raging pregnancy hormones running through my system, I’m impressed that … [Read more...]
Sleepers, Wake! An Advent Music Guide and Playlist
After explaining how we fast from Christmas music during Advent (and then turn up the jams during the Twelve Days of Christmas until Epiphany!), I get a variety of reactions including “Are you insane?” Well, probably. And “so, what DO you listen to during Advent?” To be honest I am just now discovering “Advent music” instead of just abstaining from Christmas music and I have completely fallen in … [Read more...]
Little HolyDays: The Feast of St. Nicholas
Welcome to our first Little HolyDays link up and Happy New Year! No, I haven’t gotten the months confused, it’s the beginning of a new liturgical year. Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. Let’s hope you were more organized than I and didn’t spend part of your Sunday scrambling around looking for your Advent wreath (don’t worry! I found it!). Anyhow, for our very first Little HolyDays … [Read more...]
Little Holydays: A New Link Up!
As you noticed from my recent posts on The Gift of the Liturgical Year and the season of Advent, I've been doing a lot of thinking about holy days. Partly because I'm so excited about our new link up: Little HolyDays: Redeeming Time with Feasts, Fasts, Holidays, and Everyday! It’s being hosted by over here at Carrots for Michaelmas and with Tammy and Hannah of Dualing Moms and Molly of Molly Makes … [Read more...]
Holy Time: Observing Advent Instead of Fighting Santa
Every year I hear folks bemoaning the secularization of Christmas and how commercialism has overtaken what used to be a Christian holiday. I read news stories about which retail stores are promoting “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” and which groups and organizations are boycotting those stores for choosing to greet their customers in one way or another. People label it the “war on … [Read more...]
Holy Time: The Gift of the Liturgical Year
“The liturgical year is not an idle discipline, not a sentimentalist definition of piety, not an historical anachronism. It is Jesus with us, for us, and in us as we strive to make His life our own. It is goad and guide to the kind of personal spirituality that is worthy of the Jesus whose commitment to the Word of God led Him all the way to the cross and beyond it—to Resurrection.” (Joan … [Read more...]