8 Must-Haves for Liturgical Living
Implementing liturgical living in your home is easier than you might think! While it can seem daunting to keep up with all the feast days and devotions in the liturgical calendar, you shouldn’t feel like it’s an “all or nothing” situation. Whether you decide to start by celebrating one special feast day a month or want to dive deeper, every little bit counts towards strengthening your children’s faith and catechesis!
1. Catholic Family Crate
My favorite resource for jump-starting your journey in living liturgically is Catholic Family Crate!
If you want an easy way to start liturgical living in your home, then you need to subscribe to Catholic Family Crate. You get solid Catholic Catechesis delivered straight to your door every month with fun activities, beautiful artwork, lessons about saints and feast days in the liturgical calendar, and more! Each box usually contains activities, prompts, and stickers for your calendar for at least 2 important feast days that month. You also get an art print to display and a special extra product that coordinates with the theme for that month. One month we got their famous Mass Parts Cards that are great for your mass bag! (You can grab these separately on the website but most of the exciting products you get in the monthly crate can not be purchased separately on the website.)
I get a lot of messages and questions about CFC all the time from people wanting to know more about what’s inside the box!!!! Make sure you follow us on Instagram because I’m going to be posting another unboxing reel on our IG page to show you what’s in the October box (my favorite box yet!) and doing a full blog post all about CFC soon too! (Will link it here when the post is up)
2. Catholic All Year Compendium
A great starting point for most families can be grabbing a copy of Catholic All Year Compendium for Liturgical Living. This is a great resource for all families. It lists feast days, a little bit about the feast day or devotion for that particular day, activities you can do, and traditions you can start as a family.
Kendra is an amazing and well-known source for information when it comes to liturgical living, so be sure to check out her website and the Catholic All Year Liturgical Living Subscription Boxes!
Use coupon code RAISINGWIL to get $10 off your order!
3. Into The Deep
If you are looking for a thorough, rich Catholic catechesis for your children, look no further than Into The Deep Catholic Curriculum!
I cannot say enough good things about Into The Deep. I recently received a copy of Level 2 which is geared towards 4th – 6th graders. (Level one is aimed towards 1st – 3rd graders.) Both books are perfect for the whole family to enjoy and an excellent way to start your homeschool mornings.
There are 72 lessons so you can do a simple schedule of 2 lessons per week for the standard 36-week school year or stretch it out over the course of the entire year if you choose.
I love that this curriculum has a heavy focus on both the call to a relationship with God as well as sound doctrinal exposure and explanations. To “follow Him” is both an act of the heart and ascent of the will, something that is so important for children this age group to learn.
Use coupon code SARAH10 to get 10% off of Into The Deep to assist in the faith formation of your wild saints.
4. Day-By-Day Coloring Book of Saints
The Day-By-Day Coloring Book of Saints from Sophia Institute is perfect for children of all ages. There are two books, January-June and July-Dec. Each book has two pages per day – one is all about the feast day and the other has a beautifully illustrated picture to color.
In the Church’s calendar, every day is special because it is a feast for Jesus, Mary, and the saints! In Day-by-Day Coloring Book of Saints, children will get to learn about a new saint every day as they color in a full-page beautiful illustration of the saint of the day while listening to you read aloud the saint’s story to them.
You can buy both books in a set for $24.99 from Sophia Institute or individually for $14.99 each. Use my coupon code below to get an extra 20% off your order.
Use coupon code Ballard20 to get 20% off this coloring book (Link in bio)
5. Through The Year With Jesus
I also love Through The Year With Jesus by Katherine Bogner.
The liturgical year invites us to walk with Jesus through the most wonderful story ever told: the Gospel. In Through the Year with Jesus: Gospel Readings and Reflections for Children, catechist and popular blogger Katherine Bogner reveals the rich mystery of the seasons we celebrate in the Church.
With Gospel readings for each week of the liturgical year, along with tools for reflection, discussion, and prayer, Through the Year with Jesus offers endless opportunities for discovering who Jesus is and better understanding Catholic teaching about his life and mission.
Promote prayer and conversation about the life of Christ with children through
- Weekly readings from the Gospels
- Lectio Divina prompts to nurture personal prayer or journaling
- Sacred art to accompany the Gospel reading
- Stories of saints and many rich Catholic traditions for the liturgical year
The easy-to-use format of Through the Year with Jesus helps adults lead children to an intimate encounter with the heart of Jesus through the rhythm of the liturgical year and the powerful words of Scripture.
Book description via Amazon
6. Through The Year With Mary
Additionally, Through The Year With Mary is another great resource for diving deeper. For thousands of years, Christians around the world have sought the Blessed Virgin Mary as a source of comfort and a way to grow closer to her Son, Jesus. In Through The year With Mary, you’ll find supporting scripture, Catholic teachings, devotions, and beautiful works of art to help guide you on your journey to learning more about our Blessed Mother. Bo Through The Year with Mary and Through The Year With Jesus are great books to use when trying to teach children more about the faith and implement living liturgically!
7. A Saint A Day
A Saint A Day: 365 True Stories of Faith and Heroism is another great resource for daily reflections and learning more about the saints and feast days. The pictures are really cute and I love how this book is organized!
Teach your child to walk in faith, act justly, and lead with kindness and humility with this 365-day devotional for kids. A Saint a Day includes fascinating historical stories as it introduces young readers to over 300 saints who did extraordinary things for God.
Book description from Amazon
8. Spirit of Truth
Last but not least, Spirit of Truth is an AMAZING series from Sophia Institute that offers Catholic Catechesis for grades K-8. It surpassed my criteria for religious education, and I found that the more I read it, the more I liked it! Not only is the artwork amazing,
Unlike most textbooks, Spirit of Truth gives you a full year of varied lesson plans specifically for homeschoolers, that allows you to create an active learning environment in your home that engages your students while helping them learn more about the faith.
Most of the parents that I have recommend Spirit of Truth to have come back later to thank me for turning them on to this amazing curriculum because they are blown away at the quality and how much their children actually enjoy it. Spirit of Truth is exceptional in it’s ability to help children integrate what they learn into their daily lives so they can become the saints God is calling them to be!
Use coupon code Ballard20 to get 20% off your order from Sophia Institute
Don’t forget to HAVE FUN! Living liturgically should be about family time and enjoying learning more about the faith, not a point of stress. We try to do as many feast days as we can and share our ideas with you here and on Instagram, but definitely miss a lot! Don’t fret if someone else is celebrating more feast days than you are. It doesn’t mean they are a better Catholic. We are all sinners, trying our best to raise Catholic kids and future saints!
Just starting out?
If you are just starting our your liturgical living journey, I recommend beginning with Catholic Family Crate which offers activities for 2 feast days per month. It comes with instructions so it’s easy for moms to just pop open the box and go!
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Leave a comment and let us know if we should add anything else to this list or you want more information about any of the resources we covered above.