This Site is hosted by Heart Ridge Ministries.  

too busy to bother with these liturgical celebrations?

I hear you, and I know busy.  I think all families are busy today.  But are we too busy to give time for something worthwhile?  Something important?  Of course not.  I think that all the effort that families give to observing these holy days and holidays will reap benefits of immeasurable amounts.
 
I have experienced this first hand.   I also am guilty of neglecting many of these activities and celebrations.  I, too, get so caught up in the busyness that I neglect to mention or "celebrate" these traditional feasts.  Unfortunately when this happens, I find that I've also been too busy to tend to my own spiritual life as well as encouraging my children in theirs.  


And that's why these feast days are so beneficial for us today.  They call us back to the "important" things in life.  Through these feast day celebrations, we take time to pray, to be inspired by the saints, and to bond with each other as we are engaged in conversation and simply having fun together.  


Sure, there are many other ways to bond with your family and to grow in your spiritual lives together--for us, though, these celebrations often lead to those other activities.  


To make it happen takes a little planning.  That is why I've put this website together.  I needed this, and since I've done it for our own family, I might as well share it with others.  It's a culmination of ideas made simple so every busy family can experience these.  Families can follow every idea religiously (Is that a pun?), come up with your own variations, do one once a month--or even just one occasionally.   I've left out quite a few--there are saints for every day of the year and then some.   As I get more time, I hope to share more ideas and more feast days.  I've laid it out chronologically so you can plan a month in advance, a week in advance, or even for the day.  


If you need to find a particular feast day, you will have to know the date.  A page of alphabetical Saints and Feastdays with their dates will be included later.  
Use the free printable versions to put on your refrigerator.  The link is included on the opening page of every month.  This is one of the only ways that I can remember to do some of these feast days.  Even at the last minute, you can take the printout to your dinner table and read a story or say a prayer.  

Or simply take your Ipad or laptop to the dinner table! (Read about how I do this..."Take an Ipad to Dinner" )

Some advice:
  1. Keep it simple.
  2. Don't try to do too much.
  3.  Work with your family's comfort zone.  (Take small strides at first, if necessary.)
  4. Organize and record what you do in a way that you can presently use and refer back to year after year.   (Pinterest, Evernote, Calendar like Google or outlook, etc.) 
  5. Share it!  Spread this with your friends, parish, and to the culture.

“The Gospel lives in conversation with culture, and if the Church holds back from the culture, the Gospel itself falls silent. Therefore, we must be fearless in crossing the threshold of the communication and information revolution now taking place.”
― John Paul II
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