As we look at October stretch before us, we can also see the liturgical year begin to wind down. Before we know it, Advent will be here, and with it a new liturgical year. As I sit here with my huge mug of coffee, I'm taking a moment to think about the next couple of months. While I love articles about liturgical living and the huge variety of ideas out there for marking the liturgical year, the fact is that I am currently thriving off of prayer, caffeinated beverages, and bits of sleep snatched between nighttime newborn snuggles...and I just can't keep up with everything (In fact, I originally started writing this post last week, but here we are, a week later, and I'm still typing it out).
So, as much as I would love to write a bunch about some of the wonderful saints this month and hold fabulous celebrations with treats to commemorate all of the feasts...it just isn't going to happen. Instead, I'm trying to incorporate small steps to stay in tune with the liturgical year during the chaos that reigns during life with a newborn and a toddler.
Prayer
I've been turning to the Liturgy of the Hours when I can, which, as liturgical prayer, is naturally an awesome way to pray with the Church during this Ordinary Time. On feast days, I've been asking the saint of the day for his or her intercession throughout the day-so even if I can't manage novenas or attend Mass on those feast days, at least I can lift up my heart in prayer.
Feasting
As the feast of St. Therese began this month, I recalled how last year, I made a whole tray of homemade eclairs to celebrate. Wow, what a contrast to this year, I thought. This year, we enjoyed store-bought apple pie to celebrate the feast day; it didn't have any special significance with the saint (we were just in the mood for apple pie), and it required very minimal effort from me. But, it was something special we could enjoy. As other awesome feast days draw near in these next couple months, I'm planning to continue keeping things very simple-and while I've long been a bit of a snob when it comes to making most of my food homemade, I'm learning that it is perfectly fine to buy pre-made foods too (I totally bought a premade pie crust the other week, which is something I never thought I'd do haha!).
Writing
Ideally, I would love to write more here and at other Catholic sites about the liturgical year and different feast days. However, most of my brainpower and the (minimal) writing time I have had lately has been dedicated in putting together a small presentation I'm giving later this month at a local conference. Not only that, but getting writing time in is a challenge which requires giving up sleep (and even then there's no guarantee-the other week I went to a coffee shop when it opened and my newborn decided to stay awake and nurse most of the time I was there, making it very difficult to get any writing done). Yet, I really do love writing about our Faith and about ways to live liturgically-so as the year comes to a close, I'll try to put together a post about it. I'm also going to be making myself a bit of a schedule so I make the time to write more about this in the coming liturgical year.
It seems that when there's a newborn around, I have to start from the ground-up with figuring out life again. Things have been going pretty well, and it's been a good opportunity to remind myself to slow down. These days and weeks with my boys are flying by, and I'm trying to cherish the moments I have with my little ones. While I am excited to get more elaborate with our liturgical year celebrations sometime, taking these baby steps has been a good opportunity to remember why we live the liturgical year and to focus on Christ instead of focusing on how elaborate or creative I can be.
I hope that as the liturgical year begins to hit the final stretch of weeks, your days are filled with peace and joy!
If you need some ideas for celebrating the feast of Pope St. John Paul II later this month, check out my recent article at Catholicmom.com: 7 Ways to Celebrate St. John Paul II.
So, as much as I would love to write a bunch about some of the wonderful saints this month and hold fabulous celebrations with treats to commemorate all of the feasts...it just isn't going to happen. Instead, I'm trying to incorporate small steps to stay in tune with the liturgical year during the chaos that reigns during life with a newborn and a toddler.
Prayer
I've been turning to the Liturgy of the Hours when I can, which, as liturgical prayer, is naturally an awesome way to pray with the Church during this Ordinary Time. On feast days, I've been asking the saint of the day for his or her intercession throughout the day-so even if I can't manage novenas or attend Mass on those feast days, at least I can lift up my heart in prayer.
Feasting
As the feast of St. Therese began this month, I recalled how last year, I made a whole tray of homemade eclairs to celebrate. Wow, what a contrast to this year, I thought. This year, we enjoyed store-bought apple pie to celebrate the feast day; it didn't have any special significance with the saint (we were just in the mood for apple pie), and it required very minimal effort from me. But, it was something special we could enjoy. As other awesome feast days draw near in these next couple months, I'm planning to continue keeping things very simple-and while I've long been a bit of a snob when it comes to making most of my food homemade, I'm learning that it is perfectly fine to buy pre-made foods too (I totally bought a premade pie crust the other week, which is something I never thought I'd do haha!).
Writing
Ideally, I would love to write more here and at other Catholic sites about the liturgical year and different feast days. However, most of my brainpower and the (minimal) writing time I have had lately has been dedicated in putting together a small presentation I'm giving later this month at a local conference. Not only that, but getting writing time in is a challenge which requires giving up sleep (and even then there's no guarantee-the other week I went to a coffee shop when it opened and my newborn decided to stay awake and nurse most of the time I was there, making it very difficult to get any writing done). Yet, I really do love writing about our Faith and about ways to live liturgically-so as the year comes to a close, I'll try to put together a post about it. I'm also going to be making myself a bit of a schedule so I make the time to write more about this in the coming liturgical year.
It seems that when there's a newborn around, I have to start from the ground-up with figuring out life again. Things have been going pretty well, and it's been a good opportunity to remind myself to slow down. These days and weeks with my boys are flying by, and I'm trying to cherish the moments I have with my little ones. While I am excited to get more elaborate with our liturgical year celebrations sometime, taking these baby steps has been a good opportunity to remember why we live the liturgical year and to focus on Christ instead of focusing on how elaborate or creative I can be.
I hope that as the liturgical year begins to hit the final stretch of weeks, your days are filled with peace and joy!
If you need some ideas for celebrating the feast of Pope St. John Paul II later this month, check out my recent article at Catholicmom.com: 7 Ways to Celebrate St. John Paul II.
Loved your CatholicMom.com article on JPII! Our son is named after him ;) Also, that's awesome about the conference!! What's it about?
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