What Catholic traditions do you practice?

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My trads:

Family alter (forming it as we speak)
Blessing my daughter before she goes to bed
Crossing self when passing a Catholic Church (I am lucky, most of our churches still look like churches)
Scapular
Miraculous Medal
Holy Water font by the door
House Blessing (I still need to get my apartment blessed)

As for the holy water grave thing,never heard of that, but I have seen Holy Water used to bless objects (scapulars, statues, rosaries, etc…) and homes. And don’t forget the exorcist uses as well 🙂
 
House is blessed

Make the sign of the cross on my sons foreheads when they leave. (They’re in the military)

Have a sick bed/emergency Crucifix-it opens and has blessed candles and holy water in it. It can also be used for a Mass in the home.

Sign of the Cross when passing Catholic church and graveyards

Hail Mary at the scene of an accident or when emergency vehicles pass

Blessed Salt and Holy Water in the home.

The youngest in the family opens the front door on Christmas and Easter and asks Mary and Jesus to join us in our meal. (My granddaughter shouts it out into the neighborhood. Lol) We leave the door open through the meal and have extra places set on the table.
 
George_Waters said:
Cross yourself when you drive by a Catholic church? Anything? Anybody?
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Sometimes, sometimes other expressions of respect, not only churches (cemeteries, chapels, side-of-the-road crosses and crucifixes), but not always, either. Sometimes I’ll kneel, sometimes I’ll just say a quick prayer. The hat should go off, though, I believe. Those crosses on foreheads with the thumb I’ve done on occasion, but that’s either exclusively or almost exclusively been family members. I think exclusively, anyway. What else? I’m pretty traditional as regards penitential discipline, so while we aren’t supposed to be doing the Pharisee stuff and fast for the sake of getting seen and praised, I dislike the modern fashion of disregarding the external manifestations of penitential periods, so no dancing on Fridays or in the Lent, no eating meat so that hosts would be happy and so on.

What else? There’s that Polish tradition of crossing bread with the knife before cutting it for the first time. I should probably start crossing myself while praying before eating because I’ve already been asked by non-believers if I’m not supposed to pray and had to explain. We also treat all bread with respect, so there’s no throwing bread away with litter, not even with other food. Yes, this means it’s dealt with separately. Not even rotten bread goes into the bin. In ages past, they would pick up any fallen bread and kiss it. I’ve never seen that happen, although people do pick up bread or at least move it so it can’t be trampled on.

In some traditional families, the bride and the groom go down on both knees for a blessing from both couples of parents. I could… but not in any way possibly giving the impression of asking or receiving permission, which is a tradition I dislike and believe to be contrary to canon law (no authority can supply missing consent, any people free to marry each other under the law have the right to marry; the decision is theirs).
 
angelus
holy water font by the front door
palms behind the crucifix
crucifix by each door

adopted the local custom of an altarcito for NS de Guadalupe, found a hand-painted wood retablo in Monterrey, and a serape in subdued, not the usualy bright colors, in an antique store, it faces the front door and really spooks the JWs and Mormons who call regularly. It also has a large wooden wall rosary that came from my German Catholic great-grandmother. Candles, some religious folk-art, and a small Saint Joseph (he helped sell our mobile home when I left him there, now he is back home).

nativity scene at Christmas, and clam chowder and finnan haddie on Christmas eve.

still write JMJ at the top of the page when I am writing.

cross myself and say OF, HM and GB at an accident scene or when I hear sirens.
 
My husband was taught to cross himself everytime he passed a Catholic church. For me (guess you could say its my own tradition) I cross myself and say alittle prayer anytime I see flowers on the side of the road or freeway. Usually theres been an accident and someone has died. I really don’t know why I do it I just feel I need to who knows maybe in a small way I can help those people that died there.
 
  • Prayer corner in the home
  • Keep a bottle of Holy Water in the home
  • Blessed Candles at Candlemas (Feb 2)
  • Blessed Palms at Palm Sunday
  • Ash Wednesday ashes of course
  • Stations of the Cross (mainly during Lent)
  • Benediction and Adoration
  • Advent Wreath and a little Nativity Scene at Christmas
  • Daily Mass a few days a week
  • Rosary, and wear a Miraculous Medal and a few other medals
  • Morning and Evening prayer of LOTH - or the Little Office in the month of May
  • Pray an Our Father when I hear a siren (and a Hail Mary too if it lasts that long!)
  • One of my school mates used to do a Buche de Noel each year and share it with us (yummo!)
  • Coloured hardboiled eggs at Easter
Wow, that’s a decent-size list!
 
  • Keep a bottle of Holy Water in the home (need to get a font for it!)
  • Blessed Palms at Palm Sunday
  • Ash Wednesday ashes
  • Benediction and Adoration
  • Advent Wreath and a little Nativity Scene at Christmas
  • Rosary, and wear a Brown Scapular
  • Pray a Hail Mary when I hear a siren
  • Sign of the Cross when I pass a Catholic church
    Also, on the East-bound side of the Massachusetts Turnpike (Rt 90), between Exits 8 and 9, there is a Marian shrine and I make the sign of the cross as we drive by it.
 
Ah, didn’t mention prayers and services. Didn’t really seen them as tradition. Benedictions, adoration, Way of the Cross, Bitter Lamentations or whatever you translate it as… Yeah, looks Bitter Lamentations is official. You’ll find it in Polish churches abroad too, and not only Polish, from what I know, although it’s a Polish tradition.
 
Almost forgot…we do the Three Kings blessings on our doorways on Jan.6th…with chalk and then burn the incense.
 
stbruno said:
Almost forgot…we do the Three Kings blessings on our doorways on Jan.6th…with chalk and then burn the incense.
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Oh my! Flashbacks! Repressed memories!! :hypno:

We used to do that when I was a kid!

Must be a good twenty years since I’ve seen those old chalkmarks anywhere.
 
I have a crucifix and icons at home and in my office
I wear the St. Benedict medal
I try to say some part of the Divine Office each day
I make a Holy Hour before the Eucharist once a week
I always say a prayer when I hear a siren
Where I live, there are often markers by the side of the road where there has been an accident, and when I see one, I say a prayer.
I try to read some part of the Bible each day.

There are more, but what it all boils down to is to try and make God part of my life each and every day.
 
I do Morning and Evening of LOTH everyday, have a home altar (that I just set up, really helps keep me focused during prayer) and I change the candles and cloth to match the liturgical season, I cross myself when I pass a church and when I hear a Siren, and I pray for the souls in purgatory when I go by a cemetery.

I’d like to start prayer before and after meals (I never seem to remember!) and get back into my daily rosary.
 
Rawb said:
I do Morning and Evening of LOTH everyday, have a home altar (that I just set up, really helps keep me focused during prayer) and I change the candles and cloth to match the liturgical season, I cross myself when I pass a church and when I hear a Siren, and I pray for the souls in purgatory when I go by a cemetery.

I’d like to start prayer before and after meals (I never seem to remember!) and get back into my daily rosary.
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Wow… what a beautiful thing to do!:angel1:
 
Pray the Rosary every so often
Have a family altar with statues and crosses and other items (place my children’s, and grandchild’s, nephew’s, and godson’s picture on the altar)
Pray every day
Pray the Divine Chaplet often
Pray for every disabled vehicle I see and for every ER vehicle that passes
 
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