Ideas to celebrate the Liturgical Year of the Roman Catholic Church as a family and build your Domestic Church.
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The Annunciation of the Lord
The Annunciation of the Lord: March 25th
Behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Pure and lowly, humble and holy, delight in the Father's eyes. For the son she was chosen, the world waited frozen, as from her lips came her reply. "Yes," was her answer; no better word was spoken, for death would now be broken, by the Son she would bear and raise. Sing, let your heart ring, with praise for His mother, dear Mary, who's full of grace!
(Poem and oil pastel created by me)
"Hail, full of Grace! The Lord is with you." These were the words that the angel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary, as he shared God's plan for her to become the mother of God's son, and waited for her reply. With Mary's beautiful "yes," the fate and history of mankind was changed! No longer would death prevail. Jesus, God's only begotten Son— the Lamb of God— was to become the paschal sacrifice, establishing the New Covenant between God and humanity. "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women and Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." Thank you, dear Mother, for your wonderful "yes" to God's beautiful plan. As you and your family spend today celebrating, ponder upon these questions. When is a time that you've said "yes" to God? is there something he's asking you today and waiting for you to reply with a faith-filled "yes?" Below are the beautiful songs, "Gabriel's Message," by Matt Maher, and "Behold," by David Kauffman," that you and your family can listen to; to help you reflect on the beauty of today's feast day, our spiritual mother, and what God might be saying to you in your life. I hope you and your family have a blessed day celebrating our spiritual mother and God's amazing plan for salvation!
("Gabriels Message" by Matt Maher)
("Behold," by David Kauffman)
Celebrating Through Food:
To celebrate the Annunciation, my family makes cinnamon-sugar cookies using this delicious recipe from "Food.com." Since we make these on several Marian feast days, we've fondly dubbed them, "Mary Cookies." Making something sweet, smelling the sugared aroma wafting through the house, while the cookies bake, and then tasting the delicious confection, helps us reflect on the sweetness of our spiritual mother, and the love and beauty that radiates forth from her immaculate heart. When I make these cookies, I like to carve a cross on top of them with a toothpick or knife before I bake them.
For dinner, you can make "Mary Manicotti" (or in my case, stuffed jumbo shells, since I can never find manicotti shells at the grocery store), served with Texas toast and salad. I use the manicotti, or jumbo shells, stuffed with ricotta cheese, to represent that Mary was filled with grace, the Holy Spirit, and baby Jesus. The white color of the ricotta also symbolizes the Blessed Mother's purity. I use this yummy recipe from "Taste of Home."
Celebrating with a Prayer and Craft:
Pray the "Magnificat" together as a family and write or print it on white paper. Glue the paper with the prayer on construction paper of your choice and then decorate the boarder around the prayer with pictures related to Mary. You can draw the angel Gabriel, roses, symbolizing Mary's title: "The Mystical Rose," stars, symbolizing Mary's title: "Stella Maris—Star of the Sea," (Stella Maris is my favorite Marian title,) or any other pictures associate with Mary. Your children can then set their prayer cards on their nightstands and you can say the Magnificat together as a family before going to bed.
The Magnificat:
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name.
He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Invite Your Parish Priest Over for Dinner: Four months after moving into our new house, my husband and I decided to invite our parish priest over for dinner and to bless our new home. We still had piles of unpacked boxes, our toddlers were bouncing off the walls with excitement, and my husband and I were a little nervous. Was our home clean enough? Would we be able to engage in good conversations with our guest? When the doorbell rang, our children raced to the door, and began bouncing around, welcoming Father inside. During dinner, we found that the conversations flowed easily. We shared stories about where we grew up, our families, and various other details as we got to know one another outside of church. We laughed as our daughter spilled the beans that my husband and I were expecting our third child, and when we shared our due date, our priest began enthusiastically sharing all sorts of common, as well as some crazy sounding, saint names for days on and near our due date. Afte...
Make a Rosary Garden—Planting Flowers and the Seeds of Prayer: On the lawn outside of my family's parish, there is a stepping-stone Marian-Rosary garden. Often, after attending daily Mass, on warm or non rainy days, my children love to run around the rosary stones, encircling the statue of Mary, and sit upon the garden's benches. The days when they would run around, only able to exclaim the words, "Hail, Mary! Hail, Mary! Hail Mary!" for each stone, are precious treasured memories I hold within my heart. When we entered the pandemic shutdown, in the spring of 2020, I didn't realize just how much I missed the rosary garden tradition my children and I had after Mass. When my husband and I scheduled confession with our pastor, twelve days into the shutdown, we took turns waiting with our children and letting them play and pray in the rosary garden, while we participated in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I'd always desired to make a Mary/Rosary garden in our ba...
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Feast Day: Nov. 17th Saint Elizabeth of Hungary has always held a special place in my heart since she is my confirmation saint. If I'm being honest, when I was reading about saints back in the eighth grade, trying to choose which saint I wanted to take as my patron, my requirements were as follows: (1) She couldn't die a horrible death, (2) She was married with kids, (3) and her life was pretty good allowing her to serve God and others through the blessings she'd been given. In hindsight, my list of "requirements" was probably a little superficial, but now as an adult I focus more on the virtues and saintly qualities of Saint Elizabeth, and find inspiration in how she lived. She was humble, a kind and loving wife and mother, and very generous to the poor. She also made plenty of time to pray and grow in her relationship with the Lord. On her wedding day, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, who was a princess, did not wear a crown. Instead she s...
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