What are your cultural or family Catholic traditions?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DarkLight
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DarkLight

Guest
Like many converts, I don’t have a single catholic that I know of anywhere in the family, and I grew up in an area where we didn’t really interact with Catholics much. Which means, of course, I didn’t get any of the little traditions and handed-down stories that those from Catholic families would get. So I’m curious now - what are the little traditions you do that others might not know about?
 
Most of my dad’s family was Lutheran, but they converted to Catholicism. Mother’s family is a mix of Catholic, Jewish, Baptist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian. I’m not sure where the Catholics are, but since one of my great-grandmother’s was Catholic, I’m guessing some of my blood relatives still are from that side. I don’t know that, because of that, we have really any Catholic Traditions. The most I know, is that my Baptist great-grandmother, had a bunch of Marian stuff, for whatever reason. I was raised primarily with my mother’s family, I’m well aware there are Catholics in my dad’s family, but I didn’t really grow up with my dad’s family. It’s an interesting question though.
 
Rosary as a family after dinner.
Everything stops in the house at 3 PM for a holy hour.
Various statues around. My daughters used to say you couldn’t look anywhere in my house or Nana’s house without looking a Saint int he eye, LOL 🤣
 
pianistclare said:
Various statues around. My daughters used to say you couldn’t look anywhere in my house or Nana’s house without looking a Saint int he eye, LOL
Click to expand...
I’d really like to do that, but I’m kind of afraid of what the cat would do to them.
 
Oddly enough, our cats don’t go near them. Go figure. 🐈
 
I’m not a big fan of cats, but I also don’t live by myself. So, I had some icons, that one of the cats kept knocking over. So, I started calling the cat heretic. I started putting them up higher where the cat couldn’t get to them
 
My old roommate’s cat was baptist. Every time he got a new toy he dunked it in his water bowl,
 
We didn’t really have any traditions (I wish we did) but I do remember my sister and I when she was about 8 and I was 6, praying the entire rosary on our knees before we went to sleep until the wee hours of the night. She’s one of those very thorough, responsible people, even as a kid. I remember once on a Sunday, my mom and dad had to work so we had to miss mass…she was so upset about missing mass that she insisted on having our own mass and using store bought bread as the Eucharist.

I come from a big family (8 other sibs) so it was always a sort of party going to our little church to clean every month, all of us. I would rearrange the books in the pews and clean up any trash…I was also given the duty of refilling the holy water container (not sure what you call it). Being young, I had no idea how to read or what holy water even was so I would sometimes just go down to the church basement and fill it up with tap water…my mom had a fit when I told her about that a few days ago haha.

Edited to add: I do remember a certain tradition we had as kids. Often times when we were scared of the dark, or visiting my grandma’s house and sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, my mom would recite the guardian angel prayer with us. It always felt so comforting knowing my guardian angel was protecting me from the dark.
 
Last edited:
Grace before dinner, and also a little protection prayer to Jesus and Mary said before each car trip.

Family Rosary from time to time - usually during Lent or Advent when the priest would make a push for families to say it and my mother would make an effort to get us all together saying it after dinner, also during any kind of storm, bad weather situation or when someone was in the hospital. The rest of the time my parents would say the rosary daily but individually.

A blessed candle that my mother would light during bad storms because thunder and tornado warnings scared her. To avoid a fire she would put the lit candle, which was small, in the kitchen sink where it could not catch anything on fire.

Whenever anything was lost, we were supposed to pray to St. Anthony for it to be found. There is also a special prayer to him, “Tony Tony look around, something’s lost and must be found”. And when the item is found (which it very often is, right after you pray) then you thank St. Anthony for his help.

Statues of Jesus, Mary, saints, and crucifixes in the home. Also, holy cards stuck around like on the refrigerator and mirrors. And lots of Sacred Heart stuff around.
 
Last edited:
Growing up we would say the rosary as a family every night ,the Holy hour once a month.
Grace at meals ,Angelus.
Visiting priests would often say a home mass,hear confessions.
Holy water font by the front door.Holy pictures in most rooms. 🙂
Post script, my Mum ,I and others would have flowers by Our Lady’s picture on the mantle piece except during Lent.The foccus of the lounge room never on the t v,but on the larger images of Our Lady and the Sacred Heart of Jesus
 
Last edited:
Tis_Bearself said:
Statues of Jesus, Mary, saints, and crucifixes in the home. Also, holy cards stuck around like on the refrigerator and mirrors. And lots of Sacred Heart stuff around.
Click to expand...
Did they just sell these at a local store, or what? It’s almost impossible to find anything locally now, and I’m nervous about ordering online.
 
Hang a crucifix above the door ways…enterance and bed rooms! Beautiful. My children and I all have an altar in our room. A place reserved for prayer, a Bible, rosary, Holy Water, picture of Jesus and or Saint and maybe a led candle.

Picture of the sacred heart of Jesus somewhere in a prominante location. Picture of the last supper in the eating area.
 
Last edited:
The thing is, one can dilute holy water and the added water is made holy. if the folts were dry, then… whups a daisy!
 
very many great suggestions in this thread from some of the forum’s most powerful posters

the only thing i will repeat that has already been posted

" say the Rosary"
 
Last edited:
The container was always dry as a bone. Either that…or I would just dump the remaining out. 🤣
 
I mean, I kind of expected the Rosary.

I was thinking more, things someone who has a basic familiarity with Catholicism wouldn’t be expected to know. Like, say, when I went to the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I had never heard of leaving flowers before. (Helpfully, some of the ladies shared theirs with me.)
 
Holy cards often came, and still come, free in the mail if you make a donation to some Catholic monastery or charity and by doing so, get on everyone’s mailing list. My mother got so many and couldn’t bear to throw them away, that we have a large box of them which she was hoping to give away to some ministry that needed them but she never got around to it. The Sacred Heart League used to send out free holy pictures of Jesus and little doodads to stick in your car. Also look around near the doors of your parish church, there are often tables of cards and things to give away.

For nicer (laminated) holy cards, statues, crucifixes etc., if you don’t want to do mail order, there are dozens of Catholic shrines with gift shops. Usually the shrine is supported in part by the purchases at the gift shop and believe me on big shrine feast days there are so many people in there buying stuff that you can’t get in the door of the shop. Just find where the shrines are in your area and see if they have a shop. There are also special Catholic religious gift shops in some areas, you can look online to see if there’s one near you. Some cathedrals, though not all, also have a gift shop. St. Patricks in NYC has a big one for example, because of so many tourists.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top