Reviving or Manufacturing Catholic Traditions

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consumedconvert

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Hi,

My wife and I are fairly recent converts to the Faith, and we have one six-month-old son. It’s very important to me that we have a strong Catholic home, and I would like to have many good and feasable Catholic traditions.

But what would you all suggest?
 
I think daily family prayers and of course weekly Mass attendance are a great start! Just talking about your faith openly on a regular basis… making it part of your life, your daily routine… so that it permeates your life… that is real “tradition”…
You don’t have to “do” anything special to make yourself “good Catholics”… often focusing on just the “image” of being Catholic can distract you from living it…
So don’t stress too much on the image… just live it! 👍
 
consumedconvert said:
Hi,

My wife and I are fairly recent converts to the Faith, and we have one six-month-old son. It’s very important to me that we have a strong Catholic home, and I would like to have many good and feasable Catholic traditions.

But what would you all suggest?
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To me the most important thing is prayer. It would be good for your son to grow up seeing you pray and participating in prayers himself.

A fun thing you can do is celebrate the liturgical seasons and saints’ days. I’ve recently encountered a blog called Catholic Cuisine with foods to recognize different days. It seems to me like a good way to bring things home.

The Diocese of Greensburg has a nice guide to the domestic church with ideas including the Word, Worship, Community, Service, Leadership, and Stewardshp ideas.
 
consumedconvert said:
Hi,

My wife and I are fairly recent converts to the Faith, and we have one six-month-old son. It’s very important to me that we have a strong Catholic home, and I would like to have many good and feasable Catholic traditions.

But what would you all suggest?
Click to expand...
Welcome home!

Here are some common traditions that relate to “Catholic home decorating” to make your home say, “Catholics live here!” 🙂

Crucifixes (often, but not always above the head of the beds.)

Usually at least one statue of Mary holding baby Jesus, (displayed year round–not just at Christmas.😉 )

Statues of favorite saints or those saints that are name-sakes, (Catholics naming their children after saints is quite common).

Statues can also be placed outside the home in gardens. St. Francis and Mary are usual garden favorites, (Saint Fiacre, the patron saint of gardeners is rarer.)

Display of images of personal family devotions, (i.e. the Sacred Heart, Divine mercy, etc.)

Holy water fonts or bottles: it’s not just for Church–parents can bless their children using holy water obtained at church. (I make a small cross on my children’s foreheads with my thumb–same pattern as used for annointing ashes on Ash Wednesday.) If holy water used on self, make the sign of the cross.

Many times these items pass down from elderly relatives, or are given as gifts for confirmations, baptisms, first communions, and other special occassions. You can also find them at Catholic church garage sales, thrift stores or antique stores, in addition to places that sell new Catholic books and gifts.
 
My family has several Catholic traditions that we love. Since my husband is Italian, we throw a huge traditional St. Joseph’s day feast every March 19th. We cook all the traditional Italian foods, invite priests do the traditional blessings, and invite all our friends and family. It’s awesome!
Then in May, we have a May crowning ceremony for our family’s Mary statue in our garden. This year a priest friend of ours said Mass in our home, then we proceeded to the garden and crowned Mary with a crown the children and I made. Then we had a barbeque! Lots of fun!
We do other little things like make special cakes and desserts on our favorite saint’s feast days. We make a Mexican meal on Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Polish one on the anniversary of JPII’s death, etc.
But I think the most important things we do are going to Mass as a family, praying the rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet together. These are the things that have kept us together during hard times.

Also, having a priest consecrate your family and home the Immaculate and Sacred Hearts is very important too.

God Bless you!
 
Hi! I’m a convert, too. For a long time, I was the only Catholic I knew, so I was excited to finally have a family of my own to implement the beautiful traditions I saw the families in my parish practice. I have a 15 month old and a 3 year old. My favorite tradition, and I am sure lots of moms can vouch for this satisfaction, is to have my son (and this year my daughter, too) grow hay from seeds they hand out after the All Saints/Souls day Mass. During advent, the hay is harvested to make a soft bed for the creche for the baby Jesus. We put ours by the Christmas tree. On Christmas Eve night my husband and I put baby Jesus in the crib after the kids are in bed. Christmas morning our little boy was thrilled to see the much talked about baby Jesus lying in the bed he helped make. For the Christmas Mass the children bring their baby Jesus to Mass where it is blessed by the priest.
 
Many good things here.

Something simple that we do, tracing the Sign of the Cross on DS forehead every evening before bed. He is a big ole teen now, and still comes to us for this blessing every night. When he spends the night away from home, I send him a text with a “+” so he knows I am praying for him.
 
A fellow convert here as well. I had no Catholic traditions to fall back on so I had to do research and make our own “new” traditions. We add things all the time. Here are some links that I just posted in another similar thread 😃

catholicculture.org/liturgicalyear/
wf-f.org/WFFDomCh.html
wf-f.org/LitCal2008/index.html
domestic-church.com/
stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=23

This is a good book to reference:
ewtn.com/library/FAMILY/TRAPP.TXT

This one’s good, too.
neumannpress.com/noname4.html

Hope that helps!
 
Be very, very, careful, my friend. In my home, if you did it ONCE, it was TRADITION!! Be sure you are ready to live with some very clever ideas for the rest of your life. 😃
 
Ann Ball has a series of books you might consider:
  • Encyclopedia of Catholic Devotions and Practices
  • Catholic Traditions In The Home And Classrooms: 365 Days To Celebrate A Catholic Year
  • How to Book of Sacramentals: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You
  • Catholic Traditions in Crafts (Traditions)
  • Crafts for Catholic Children
  • Catholic Traditions in the Garden (Traditions)
  • Catholic Traditions in Cooking
Additionally you might consider this book by Mike Aquilina:
  • The How-To Book of Catholic Devotions: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You
 
Oh, I am loving this thread. Traditions have been such a source of blessings for our family, Just reading some of the posts here brought those (achingly pleasurable) mommy memory tears to the surface.

The home truly is a sanctuary and should promote this idea with religous images, statues, fonts etc. It think it is personal opinion on how much is too much or too little. I personally have religious themed pictures that tastefully match the palette of each room, at least one in every room. I have a lovely framed scripture verse in the bathroom. I couldn’t put anything with eyes in there, (made me feel weird. Oh, and I have a Holy Water font at the front door.

My children have their own collection of religious articles and enjoy making small purchases at our local Catholic bookstore.

I second the nightly blessing. Don’t ever underestimate it’s power, and the children do love it. I still melt when I remember my little ones making an awkward cross on my forehead while saying, " in da name of da fadder and da son and da Holy Spirit." I also blessed them every morning before they went to school. If I forgot, they would remind me!

There are so many wonderful ways to incorporate our Faith into your home life. Try some and see which are a good fit for your family, and don’t be afraid to come up with some of your own!!

My children enjoy drawing picures and making jewelry and crowns for the Blessed Mother during the month of May. For every new creation, she gets a procession singing Hail Holy Queen.
 
IrishAm said:
Be very, very, careful, my friend. In my home, if you did it ONCE, it was TRADITION!! Be sure you are ready to live with some very clever ideas for the rest of your life. 😃
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Omgosh … This is sooooooooooo true!!!👍
 
If it hasn’t been said yet do the Sign of the Cross when passing a Catholic Church out of respect for Jesus in the Tabernacle
 
Any time we get into the car, we also ask our guardian angels to help us arrive safely. So far no accidents!
 
Buddy, you hit on one of my favorite topics.

fisheaters.com

A TON of traditional Catholic practices, all Pre-Vatican II. It’s a Trad site, with an obvious bias but still amazingly useful for starting traditions.

catholichomeandgarden.com

Their entire site is also dedicated to a restoration of Catholic culture and traditions.

The How To Guide to Sacramentals is an excellent book.

A better book, in my humble opinion, is “Catholic and Loving It!” beautiful resource.

Beware. Pretty soon you’ll be parading around your front yard with an incense burner, your children behind you, singing “AVE MARIA!” at the top of your lungs and crowing your garden statue with fresh flowers from your Mary Garden.

Oh trust me, you’ll learn about Mary Gardens…
 
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