If you’ve spent any amount of time on Catholic social media, you’ve probably seen and heard quite a bit about liturgical living. In fact, liturgical living is something I have frequently written about and encourage here on this blog!
But what exactly is liturgical living? And how does one get started?
Liturgical Living at a Glance
The Church year is structured on a cyclical liturgical calendar. We begin in late November or early December with Advent, before moving into Christmastide, and a brief period in Ordinary Time before moving into Lent, the Tridduum, and Easter. Eastertide ends after 40 days with Pentecost, before we move into a longer period of Ordinary Time once again.
Throughout the year, the colors of the priestly vestments change with the seasons: white for Christmas and Easter, purple for Advent and Lent, green for Ordinary Time, rose for Gaudete and Laetare Sundays (the third and fourth Sundays of Advent and Lent, respectively), and red for feasts of the Holy Spirit, such as Pentecost. Our hymns, scripture readings, rites, and liturgical prayers change as well, always drawing our focus to the season at hand.
The liturgical calendar, however, is, in a sense, more real than the cycles and rhythms we experience in the secular calendar. Rather than simply serving as a static reminder of historical events, the liturgical calendar invites us into the living mystery that is Christ, whose entire life is an offer of redemption and an invitation for recapitulation.
Every part of Christ’s life was a sign of His mystery. As the Catechism tells us, “Redemption comes to us above all through the blood of His cross, but this mystery is at work throughout Christ’s entire life,” in His incarnation, His hidden life in Nazareth, in his preaching, healings, and miracles, and ultimately, of course, in His victory over death accomplished by His resurrection (CCC no. 512). And as Catholics we know that these mysteries are not simply historical events, but events that Christ, through the action of His priests, re-presents to us over and over again in the liturgy. At every Mass, we do not simply symbolically recall Christ’s crucifixion – we are literally, physically, and spiritually present at it!
Because of Who God Is, however, He doesn’t want to just have us present at these holy mysteries, He wants to invite us into them, so that we may say with St. Paul “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Christ’s life, then, is also an offer of recapitulation: “Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us. … We are called only to become one with him, for he enables us as the members of his Body to share in what he lived for us in his flesh as our model” (CCC no. 518).
It is once we accept Christ’s offer of recapitulation – to allow Him to live the mysteries of His own life in each of us – that we begin to truly live liturgically. As Christians, then, all our living must be liturgical, and this is really as simple, yet as deep and profound, as living our regular lives more intentionally and more fully infused with the richness of our Catholic faith.
Beginning to Live Liturgically – Without Adding Stress!
Now if all of this sounds esoteric and complicated, or if you’re just not even sure where to start, I have great news for you! While there is absolutely no shortage of resources available, one of the best, most affordable, and flexible resources I have found – and one of the only ones that is 100% in line with the traditional 1962 Church Calendar - is The Ultimate Catholic Bundle by Kathy Green, published by IamHis365.
Designed with something to engage the whole family, The Ultimate Catholic Bundle provides easy to print PDF files delivered automatically to your inbox on the 20th of each month. Each monthly release includes everything you need to live liturgically for the coming month, guaranteed to be 100% authentically Catholic and in line with the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church. Because it follows the traditional calendar, you’ll have built-in reminders and resources for things like the Ember Days, Rogation Days, the pre-Lenten period including Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays, as well as all the traditional calendar of saint’s feast days (something you won’t find in any of the other popular Catholic planners available).
Each bundle contains a monthly calendar highlighting that month’s feast days and denoting full and partial days of abstinence and fasting, followed by weekly planner pages with space to write your to-do lists, activities, prayer intentions, and meals for every day of the week. It also includes space for a 30-day prayer journal where you can list your intentions of thanksgiving, repentance, praise, supplication, blessings, and protection, as well as Novena Checklists with the prayers included (no more having to Google the prayers every morning or missing a day!).
Prepare for Mass as a family by using the Scripture Reading Checklist, which lists the Sunday readings for the Traditional Latin Mass and includes a lectio divina guide. For the little ones, art prints featuring prayers or scripture verses as well as coloring pages suitable for all ages are included. Each month also includes done-for-you liturgical living activities: for example, the bundle for October, the month devoted to the Holy Rosary, contains a 54-day Rosary Novena tracker as well as a Rosary Intentions Prayer journal.
What I love most about the Ultimate Catholic Bundle is that it is the last planning or liturgical living resource you’ll ever need: it’s a calendar, planner, prayer, and scripture journal all rolled into one, brand new each month. All you have to do is print!
As a mother of three children who has homeschooled in the past and is now doing a homeschool-hybrid option, I love the simplicity and ease of this bundle. It is rich in material, yet flexible and not overwhelming. It also keeps the focus on what matters most in trying to live liturgical.
Liturgical living is not about the crafts or the themed foods – although those can be fun and memorable! Liturgical living is, at its core, about entering more deeply into the Body of Christ through His living Word and the communion of the Saints, and that is exactly what this Bundle helps your family to do. At the end of the year, you’ll also be able to flip back through your bundles and see what your family prayed for over the course of the year, what insights you gained together from Scripture, and see how God has answered those prayers and worked in your Domestic Church.
If you are interested in learning more or signing up to receive the next month’s bundle, check out The Ultimate Catholic Bundle here. You can also use code Lauren25 at checkout for 25% off your first month!
As always, happy feasting!