Our Lady of Loreto

Our Lady of Loreto: Feast Day Dec. 10th

Today, the Church celebrates the Blessed Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Loreto. Pope Francis added today’s feast day to the official Roman Catholic liturgical calendar in 2019. Even though it is a relatively new feast day, devotion to Our Lady of Loreto has been around for a long time, since in Loreto, Italy, moved there by angels, the Blessed Mother’s childhood home resides. Thousands of people visit this holy site each year—my parents and my in-laws had the opportunity to visit the shrine/home of Our Lady in 2019 a couple days before the feast day was added to the liturgical calendar.

Here is a link to an article, from Catholic News Agency, you can read if you’d like more information about Our Lady of Loreto.

Celebrating Today Through Crafts and Food:

Today is about Mary and her childhood home—the house she was immaculately conceived in, the home where the incarnation of Christ occurred, and the home where the Holy Family dwelled while in Nazareth. With Christmas being near, what better way to celebrate this Holy home and our Blessed Mother than by making gingerbread houses? My friend, Hannah, started doing this with her family a few years ago and even makes homemade gingerbread. My family made Our Lady of Loreto’s “gingerbread home” using graham crackers, frosting, pretzels for windows, and M&Ms. My daughter has been begging me to make gingerbread houses, so I thought today would provide the perfect opportunity!

Another craft you and your family can do today, is make the“Angels Carrying Mary’s Home” craft. You will need markers, crayons or colored pencils, scissors and glue. Color and cut out Mary’s house and the angels, and then glue them together to show the angels carrying her home.

Here is a link to a template for the Angels Carrying Mary’s Home craft I made that you are welcome to download and print.

(This is what the template looks like)

I hope you and your family have a truly wonderful time celebrating Our Lady of Loreto! Our Lady of Loreto, pray for us!

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