General resources for incorporating liturgical living into you daily home life.
This article from the Notre Dame McGrath Center lists some simple ways to incorporate the Liturgical season into your everyday activities.
Liturgical Living General Books
Around the Year with the von Trapp Family by Maria Augusta von Trapp. Good for a more advanced look at the traditional ways the liturgical year has been celebrated in Europe, especially Austria, through the years. Contains chant, recipes, and activities.
The Catholic All Year Compendium by Kendra Tierney. A thorough explanation of the celebrations Kendra and her family have developed, using traditions and their own creativity. Next step book for taking feast days beyond a handful of major feasts into a more comprehensive celebration schedule. Kendra also publishes pdf versions of the prayers and blessings the family uses, organized by months, available on her website and on Amazon.
The Catholic Home by Meredith Gould. A great entry into celebrating the year of the Church in the home.
The Year and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland. Includes more in-depth celebrations for major feasts, including ideas for prayers, music, activities, and food. Has many traditional prayers and actions that are not found easily elsewhere.
Picture Books
These are good starter compilations. For books specific to a saint, they’ll be listed on that saint’s feast day entry in our liturgical living activities sections, as they’re built.
Brother Wolf, Sister Sparrow by Eric A. Kimmel. Saints mentioned: St. Ambrose, St. Blaise, St. Brendan, St. Brigid, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Giles, St. Hormisdas, St. Hubert, St. Hugh, St. Kevin, St. Martin, St. Notburga.
The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones. Many of the Jesse Tree options out there use this particular Bible for the stories to accompany their ornament illustrations.
Lives and Legends of the Saints by Carole Armstrong. Saints mentioned: St. Andrew, St. Apollonia, St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Cecilia, St. Christopher, St. Dorothy, St. Eustace, St. Francis of Assisi, St. George, St. Jerome, St. Joan of Arc, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, St. Lucy, St. Luke, St. Martin of Tours, St. Mary Magdalen, St. Michael, St. Paul, St. Peter
Mary, The Mother of Jesus by Tomie dePaola. Follows Mary’s life from her Presentation at the Temple to her Queenship in Heaven. The O Antiphons that are relative to each story as well as Marian and other Feast days when the stories would be appropriate are listed under the heading of each story. Excellent book to have on hand for Marian feast days (and just in general). Very good for Advent.
Picture Book of Saints by Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik. A picture book, but with enough saints (about 124 are included), each one with about a page of text accompanying the picture, to be a good starter book for a liturgical living library.
Saints and Angels by Claire Llewellyn. Classic artwork accompanying saints and angels covering the topic groups of The Holy Family, Followers of Christ, Gospel Writers, Martyrs, Great Thinkers and Evangelists, Peace and Healing, Angels, and Archangels.
Stories of the Saints by Carey Wallace. (The stories in this one are a little “drier” but the illustrations are beautiful. There are many saints included in this compilation.
Tapestries: Stories of Women in the Bible by Ruth Sanderson. The many women of the Bible, each with their own illustration and page of text telling their story. Especially helpful for the saints days of St. Anne, St. Mary Magdalen, St. Elizabeth, etc.
Tomie dePaola’s Book of Bible Stories by Tomie dePaola. Beautiful illustrations of a selection of Bible stories. If a certain Bible passage from the Mass reading is represented here, it’s nice to read this children’s version at bedtime to reiterate and discuss the story. Also contains many of the stories needed for the Jesse Tree Advent tradition.
Preschool & Kindergarten
A handful of books and sites used specifically for our younger children.
A Is For Altar, B Is For Bible by Judith Lang Main. Wonderful for taking to Mass. We use it to point out items during quiet times to help littles focus and learn some letters along the way.
A is for Angel: The Alphabet in Sacred Art by Adrienne Keogler, Katie Keogler, and Jaimee Keogler. Beautiful sacred images by artistic masters accompanied by rhyming descriptions of the images.
A Child’s Christmas ABC Book by Paul Thigpen. Season book of alphabet including illumination style illustrations.
- Catholic Icing, great ideas for preschool and kindergarten aged children. Many printables for free (if you sign up to her mailing list) and purchase. We also use her small Picture Book of the Mass to look at during Mass (and while we aren’t singing in Mass, it helps the grownups, too) and a full Preschool curriculum based on the faith. Many feast day ideas!
- Crusaders for Christ many free resources, including their free printable Saintly ABC’s Catholic Preschool program.
Websites and Blogs
- Carrots for Michaelmas, mostly the archives, as many ideas for celebrating feast days, especially with food. Haley has a couple e-books with recipes ideas their family uses for feasts. Her print book, The Grace of Enough, though not liturgical living themed, is also an excellent look at Catholic family life.
- Catholic All Year, mostly the archives, has many ideas for celebrating feast days, including prayers and activities. Kendra still blogs about their festivities, but does more in discussing current events relevant to the Church and her family. The shop has booklets of prayers available for sale, as well as other printables, for use during various feasts and seasons.
- Catholic Cuisine, like the name implies, is a blog focused on different meals and foods to eat for many of the feast days throughout the year. The search bar can bring up the name of the feast or saint easily!
- Shower of Roses, a blog that features many feast day ideas and recipes as well as reviews of various Catholic items and books.
St. Anthony Catholic Church 