The beginning of February is big for celebrations here in the Auth household. We celebrate our 5th child’s birthday and two baptismal anniversaries. And typically, Ash Wednesday is right on the heels of those celebrations. Feasting and fasting: the rituals of our faith give us an identity and fashion our way of life. Living by the liturgical calendar is the simplest way to infuse our family culture with faith.
I mentioned the importance of immersing your family in the mystery of the Trinity last time. The Church’s liturgical calendar’s rhythm imbues our daily routines with a sense of God’s closeness. In times past, the church bells would ring out to mark the hours to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, reminding all the faithful to lift their minds to God. Entire villages would celebrate feast days or fasting periods together, giving an identity as a family of God. Plus, who doesn’t love a good party?
Today, we can establish our own family traditions to celebrate various feasts or display visual reminders around our house to remind us of the liturgical season. We can set times for morning or evening prayer; we can eat special meals, hang decorations or do fun activities to celebrate certain saints that are meaningful to us. Plus, most of these ideas can be done with family and friends! The more we can involve other families in our traditions, the more our community grows.
Creating rituals of celebration, penance and prayer in our homes gives our children a rhythm of life we can all enter into together: activities in which memories are created, communities are built, and God is worshiped.
Take baptismal anniversaries, for example, since my family just celebrated a few. On their anniversary, we light the candle from their baptism while we renew our baptismal promises. Then, we are blessed with holy water. We end with a treat. It’s a simple but important reminder of the gift of grace that gives us a new life in Christ.
Each week, we are given another way to enter into the mystery of Christ’s death and Resurrection. Every Sunday is a feast and a day of rest, a celebration of creation and the Resurrection. But rising to new life requires death, so every Friday, we are reminded of Good Friday, and all Fridays become a day of fasting and penance. Although the Church now allows individuals to pick their own sacrifice on Fridays outside of Lent, it is a longstanding tradition for the faithful to give up meat every Friday. Here Mary Beth Bonnacci gives a good explanation on this.
Since Lent is approaching, let’s consider how we imitate Christ’s fasting in the desert.
Lent is a season of preparation for the Cross, which leads to Jesus’ death and Resurrection. That is why we go to the Stations of the Cross and the fish fry on Friday, give up chocolate or go to the Penance Service during Lent. When we engage our faith as a community, we strengthen our identity as Catholics and leave a legacy of tradition for our children.
Sometimes, taking small children to Stations at the church is difficult. If it’s more convenient, remember you can pray them in your home! You can also have small decorations to remind you of the season, like a grapevine wreath with a purple cloth underneath, since purple is the liturgical color for Lent.
This season is a time for prayer, fasting and almsgiving, so perhaps you can learn a new way to pray as a family or spend some time in the Adoration Chapel. When we first moved to our parish a decade ago, I didn’t know the Mass responses that were sung in Latin during Lent. So, we sang them at prayer time to learn them, and it became an expression of the season for us. Maybe you can lean into giving up something as a family and find a way to give alms with your money or time.
One thing my kids look forward to every Lent — which is weird to me! — is saying goodbye to the word “Alleluia.” In Lenten liturgies like the Mass, the word disappears until Easter, so we write it down, put it in a box and “bury” it. The kids love having a forbidden word they “almost accidentally” say.
Then, when Easter arrives, we celebrate and shout Alleluia! Fasting leads to feasting, and there is no greater reason to celebrate than the victory of Christ over death and sin. This is the time for good food, Easter egg hunts, candy and parties. The Easter Octave is eight days long, but the whole season lasts 50 days, so there is plenty of time for rejoicing.
There are also beautiful prayers during this season, such as the Divine Mercy Novena leading up to the Sunday after Easter or the Te Deum, which is prayed during Liturgy of the Hours (but could be prayed on its own at any time).
There are other Holy Days in the Church to be observed, and a great many saint feast days that could be observed. Pick a few and make them meaningful to your family.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it simply: “The Church invites the faithful to regular prayer: daily prayers, the Liturgy of the Hours, Sunday Eucharist, the feasts of the liturgical year” (CCC 2720).
So, in summary:
Celebrate baptismal days, all the Church’s solemnities, and Sundays.
Fast on Fridays and in penitential seasons.
Allow Confession to be a regular part of your family’s routine.
Find ways to grow in prayer that fit your family, like by reading books or listening to podcasts about the saints and then asking for those saints’ intercession. (Other podcasts like Bible in a Year and Catechism in a Year make it easy to know your faith better).
The more the faith is a part of your life, the more you will live it.
Like any good thing, though, you can overdo it. Google “liturgical living,” and you could spend hours gathering an overwhelming number of ideas, envying someone’s picture-perfect decorations or ordering hundreds of dollars of accessories. Some money may be worth spending, but please don’t miss the point. Your liturgical living should help you and your family grow in holiness, but it won’t always be picture-worthy.
Resources:
Catholic All Year Compendium book
CatholicCulture.org and click on “liturgical year”
Catholicpapergoods.com has a free Last-Minute Liturgical Living newsletter
ShiningLightDolls.com has a Catholic Saint of the Day app and free coloring sheets on their website
If you want to spend some money, you can order Catholic Family Crate boxes or Saint of the Month boxes, both local to our Archdiocese.
