Kendra Tierney - The Catholic All Year Compendium: Liturgical Living for Real Life

THE CATHOLIC ALL YEAR COMPENDIUM

Kendra Tierney

Liturgical Living for Real Life

IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from Revised Standard Version of the BibleSecond Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition) copyright 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church , Second Edition, 1994, 1997, 2000 by Libreria Editrice VaticanaUnited States Catholic Conference, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved.

Cover art and design by Tricia Hope Dugat

2018 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-62164-159-9 (PB)
ISBN 978-1-64229-055-4 (EB)
Library of Congress Control Number 2018939526
Printed in the United States of America

To my children
Jack, Betty, Bobby, Gus, Anita, Frankie, Lulu,
Mary Jane, and George.
And to my godchildren
Ava, Lucy, Clementine, John, Alaina, Agnes, Mike, and Maryam.
I pray that this book will inspire you to
a lifetime of crazy Catholic fun .

When my publisher suggested that I write this second book (my first book, A Little Book about Confession for Children , was published in 2014), it seemed like a great idea. Now, I couldnt be happier that it finally exists, because it has been a crazy ride. During the proposing and writing process, I was pregnant, packed up to move, accidentally had a baby at home, sold the old house, moved, entered the exciting world of construction supervising and do-it-yourself remodeling and feeding a family of ten from a makeshift kitchen in the garage, found out I was pregnant again, got super morning sickness, got better, fell off a ladder while painting and broke my tailbone, had a kid hospitalized after a freak accident, and somehow managed to fulfill my dream of getting this written. And here I am, typing a preface with a different snoozing newborn on my lap. It has really been something.

This book has been a long time coming. My intention when I started my blog in 2013 was to document all the Churchs feast days and our crazy Catholic life. But then it turned out that there were about a million other things I also wanted to blog about. So its a good thing this part is now a book. My blog and its social media babies are still around and have become a place for Catholics to come together and chat about saints and feast days and the pope and parenting and what were watching on TV. Come find me and say hey. Just search for Catholic All Year or Kendra Tierney.

I wrote this book because of International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Not that this book will help you talk like a pirate. Alas, ye scurvy landlubber, it wont. But the fact that there is a Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19) and an Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (first Saturday of February) and a Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day (November 15) tells us something. When my social media feeds fill up with photos of donuts on the first Friday of June (National Donut Day), I can see that we as a society are hungry for community and shared experiences (and donuts, of course).

And while Im not here to tell you that you shouldnt observe Compliment Day on January 24 (I would never , and your hair looks great like that), I am here to tell you that, for Catholics, there is a whole world of days we could be celebrating togetherdays that have been marked by crazy community fun long before you could put a hashtag on it. We did it before. And theres no reason we cant do it again.

The Catholic Church recognizes more than ten thousand canonized saints, and each one has a feast day. A fraction of those show up on the free calendars they hand out at church, but for almost every day of the year, there are at least three saints from which to choose! Somewhere in the world, there are activities and foods and events traditionally used to celebrate each of those saints.

Saints days plus days celebrating the founding of particular churches, the approved Marian apparitions, and the important events in the lives of Jesus, his mother Mary, and the first Christians make up the feasts of the year. Combined with days of fasting and seasons of preparation and celebration, youve got the liturgical year.

The calendar of the Catholic Church has, for centuries, set a rhythm for the year for the faithful. Planting particular crops and paying rent were associated with specific saints days. Entire towns would fast together and feast together. Somewhere along the way, we have lost that cultural inheritance. Many of us have only the vaguest notion that the liturgical year even exists, let alone any idea of how to incorporate those days and that rhythm into our family life.

Thats where I was as a young wife and a new mother. I was starting to rediscover the faith in which I grew up but into which I never really delved. I hoped to create for my family a home full of joy and faith and Catholic traditions, but I didnt know where to begin.

This book will not teach you how to talk like a pirate. But it will teach you what I have learned and discovered and compiled and invented over the last decade, during my slow and steady journey into liturgical living in the home.

Despite being the person writing this book, I do not claim to be an expert in theology, history, cooking, baking, crafting, party planning, or home decorating. I am, however, a very enthusiastic amateur practitioner of all the above. I am not a perfect mother or a perfect wife or a perfect Catholic. And while perfection is always the goal (see Mt 5:48), thats not what this book is about. This book isnt about Catholic perfection; its about celebrating our common faith with family and friends.

Sometimes all you really need is a little enthusiasm and the willingness to give things a try. The easiest way is to start when your children are young enough to be dazzled by even your less successful endeavors. Case in point: I stood in my kitchen one Friday afternoon, looking at a slightly runny red gelatin heart, decorated with orange segments and pretzel sticks, sitting somewhat off-center on a cake plate. It was supposed to look like the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but it had looked better in my headless oozy. My four-year-old daughter, however, took one look at it and gasped in wonder at its beauty. She called the other kids in to see it. They agreed that it was awesome but could use some whipped cream.

So thats what we did. We put some whipped cream on it. Over dinner, we talked about St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and her visions. We talked about the burning love that Jesus has for each one of us and the pain that he suffers because of the sin and the ingratitude of mankind. Then we ate the weepy heart. And now my kids cant imagine a feast of the Sacred Heart without one. Thats what living the liturgical year looks like in our home.

In this book you will get that cant-miss dessert idea (obviously) plus dozens more ideas for activities, foods, crafts, and family adventures for the whole liturgical year, all of which require very little planning. Ill share the fun and heroic stories that the husband and I tell our kids to help them to love our favorite saints, and Ill explain how we talk to our kids about the less fun stuff, such as Judas betrayal and the Passion of Our Lord.

You do not have to do everything in this book . You can be a good Catholic and do these things to celebrate the liturgical year. You can also be a good Catholic and do other things or no things at all to celebrate the liturgical year. Our family doesnt do everything in this book every year. And we certainly didnt do it all in the beginning. Start slowly. Add one observance at a time. If you love it, do it again next year. If you dont love it, wait a couple of years and try again. Or just chuck it entirely.