Tag: liturgical living

"Three Books to Buy Before Advent" by Barb Szyszkiewicz (FranciscanMom.com)

Three Books to Buy Before Advent

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As you plan your prayer routine and family celebrations for Advent and beyond, you’ll greatly benefit from three new Catholic resources. I’m looking forward to using them on my own and with my family in the new liturgical year.

Festive Faith: Catholic Celebrations Through the Year and Around the World

by Steffani Aquila
Publisher: Ave Maria Press

When my children were young, I purchased a few books about living the liturgical year as a family. Those were great — until my children were not so young. Steffani Aquila widens the liturgical-living focus in Festive Faith so readers can find ideas for carrying on our rich Catholic traditions at home and in our parish communities. In this book, you’ll find a wealth of ideas for seasonal or feast-day celebrations, ideas you can adapt to families of different ages and sizes and to parishes large and small.

For every feast day, holiday, or season included in this book, Aquila includes the story behind the tradition, a description of the tradition itself, and several ideas for carrying on these customs with your parish or family. Finally, some entries include an extra section, “A Living Tradition,” in which various contributing writers share their own reflections on celebrations special to them.

Highly recommended for families, Catholic schools, and parish leaders!

 

2025: A Book of Grace-Filled Days

by Vinita Hampton Wrights
Publisher: Loyola Press

Unlike many daily devotionals that begin on January 1, 2025: A Book of Grace-Filled Days follows the liturgical year. The first entry is dated December 1, the First Sunday of Advent. So you won’t need to wait until January to start praying with this book — and you won’t want to wait, I promise! It also does include all of December 2025, for a total of 13 months of daily reflections.

In this lovely book, you’ll find reflections to jumpstart your morning prayer or to enjoy during a prayer break during the day (I’m thinking this will be a great way to collect myself for the afternoon when I return to my office after lunch!). The daily reflections include a brief Scripture passage and a short paragraph offering food for thought, prayer, or even journaling. This would be an excellent Christmas gift!

 

Pray with Us: A Saint for Every Day

by Belinda Terro Mooney
Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor

Belinda Terro Mooney’s new book invites readers to learn about and pray with 365 saints (including a few blesseds). I love that we’re reminded of the focus of each month (January: The Month of the Holy Name of Jesus, and so on).

Of course, I went looking through Pray with Us for my favorite saints on their feast-days, and in the process I discovered a new-to-me saint who’s my birthday patron. There’s a handy index by date in the back, too.

Pray with Us is an excellent book to use on your own or with your family during your daily prayer time. This book is organized according to the calendar year, but there’s no reason you can’t jump right to December and begin on the First Sunday of Advent to pray for the intercession of these fascinating saints.

 

"Three Books to Buy Before Advent" by Barb Szyszkiewicz (FranciscanMom.com)

 

Copyright 2024 Barb Szyszkiewicz
Images: Canva
Some links to books in this post are Amazon affiliate links. Your purchases made through these links support Franciscanmom.com. Thank you!
Review copies of all three of these books were provided by the publisher. Opinions are my own.

On Barb’s Bookshelf: Four for Lent

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It’s almost Lent: time to take a look at this year’s newest resources, including one newly re-released gem you can use the whole year long.

One for the Family

With Our Savior
Families with school-age children will enjoy Claire McGarry’s With Our Savior: Family Devotions for Lent. Each day begins with a line or two from Scripture, followed by a short reflection: sometimes a story with a message, sometimes a vignette about a famous person, sometimes an explanation of something from the Bible. A one-sentence prayer focuses on the meat of the story. Finally, there’s an action item, ranging from questions to spark conversation at the dinner table to prompts for works of mercy the family can do together. This inexpensive 48-page booklet is available directly from the publisher, Creative Communications for the Parish, and on Kindle.

One for Your Teen

lent one day at a time

Give your teenagers their own devotional. Katie Prejean McGrady and Tommy McGrady’s Lent: One Day at a Time for Catholic Teens (Ave Maria Press) starts out with a scenario we can all relate to: that absent-minded way we break out “Lenten resolution” only one week in. Leading off with this story allows the McGradys to remind the reader that Lent doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing kind of thing, but is instead supposed to be a time when we can re-center our lives: on Jesus.
Each Sunday offers a challenge for the week and suggestions for making it happen, as well as a Gospel reflection, journal prompt (and space to write right there in the booklet), and short prayer. Journal prompts for the rest of the week will require a separate journal; each Saturday the week wraps up with an examination of conscience of sorts, based on the challenge from the Sunday before. It’s an easy-to-use book and inexpensive enough to purchase for a whole class or youth group.

One for the Worrier (like me!)

give up worry for Lent
Gary Zimak makes no secret about the fact that he’s a worrier, which makes him the perfect person to write encouraging books for other people who worry too. New from Ave Maria Press, Give Up Worry for Lent: 40 Days to Finding Peace in Christ is a devotional for people who make a habit of worrying. I appreciate that Gary never takes the tactic that if only you trusted God more, you magically wouldn’t experience anxiety anymore. He does talk about trust, but in a way that encourages the reader instead of dismissing their suffering.
Each day’s reflection begins with a short Scripture passage; following this, there’s a reflection (about a page long), an area called “Respond” with a spiritual action item, often including a way to turn around the tendency to worry or be anxious and instead, turn to God. A short prayer wraps up the day’s section.

One for the Whole Year

Around-the-Year
Lenten devotionals are wonderful, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t include Maria von Trapp’s re-released Around the Year with the von Trapp Family in my list of Lenten must-reads. With this one, your best bet is to start reading it early, because it’s a guide on living the liturgical year, and in many parts of the world, that includes Carnival! Learn about the Old World customs that you can import into your family life. As you move into the Lenten season, read about Maria’s spiritual-reading program, a discussion of fasting and society’s motives for fasting (which reads like something written in 2019, not 1955!), and other Lenten practices.
Around the Year is a book you’ll want to keep handy the whole year long: it’s packed with recipes, descriptions of and historical information about customs, family stories, and even hymns and folk songs – with music! Sophia Institute Press has packaged this book as a beautiful hardcover with lovely touches and simple illustrations. (And if you’re a Sound of Music fan, this is definitely not to be missed.)

Copyright 2019 Barb Szyszkiewicz

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. I was given free review copies of these books, but no other compensation. Opinions expressed here are mine alone.