The Truth About Living Liturgically

There is a lot of talk in Catholic Circles about “Living Liturgically”.

Now, living in sync with the seasons and feast days of the Catholic Church is AMAZING…but when I was a young Catholic mom, just discovering how to run a home, I was totally STRESSED about “Living Liturgically”.

Why?

Because I thought that to live liturgically I needed to remember every single feast day, and plan a cute craft, and cook an involved and witty meal. And if I missed even one feast day I was a TOTAL FAILURE.

And, I missed nearly all of the feast days. So most days I went to bed confident that I was, once again, the worst Catholic mom ever.

Well, the years passed and babies kept coming. The idea of doing a craft or making a special meal for each feast day was simply laughable. We were hanging on by the skin of our teeth! Fed and clean was good enough!

And here is the funny thing.

As our family grew, life got busier, and I gave up on living liturgically, we naturally became more Liturgical. 

This didn’t happen through crafts or food.

Nope, it happened through Scripture. Specifically through the liturgical readings of our Church.

Gradually I have made it a habit to read the readings assigned by the Church each day, with a special focus on the Sunday readings.

Simply making time to read the daily readings has done something to me and my family–it has brought us into the rhythm of the Church. 

My heart is asking the same questions of the disciples, and straining to hear the words of our Savior. I am with the saints, pondering the Psalms and working through the teachings of St. Paul’s letters to the Early Church.

I know that this is simple and fairly obvious, but I can’t tell you how freeing it is to know that I don’t have to remember every feast day with a special meal and craft.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love cooking and crafting… but the idea that I HAD to mark these days with things that could potentially stress me out, and that I constantly had to be looking into the future, planning crafts and meal plans… Ah!

I’m getting all hot and tense just thinking about it!

Celebrating meals and crafts is AWESOME, and so many more organized people than me do just that. Bravo if that’s you!

But if it’s not you, please don’t label yourself a failure!

You can live liturgically–and you can guide your family in liturgical life.

THROUGH THE SCRIPTURE.

Of course, we can even make reading the Scriptures complicated. (The Devil likes to do this so that we stop doing these good things). But let’s not do that! Let’s keep reading Scripture SO SIMPLE. So small. So easy.

Yes, work to get into the habit of reading the daily Gospel reading… But how about one verse a week?

Taken from that Sunday’s Gospel reading. Just one verse to read and sit with. Just one phrase from Jesus, Himself, that will help you live with the Church.

As you can see, the journal is so simple. Just the date, citation, a flower, and a single verse.

And likely you’ve heard that verse on the page before, right? But do you really understand it? Read through it right now. Read it again.

What exactly is Jesus trying to say? And what is His specific message to you, right now, right where you are?

Looking at just one verse from the weekly Gospel will open your eyes to the power of Scripture. All too often we rush our way through reading Scripture. We start reading and think, “oh, I know this reading…” and then our mind drifts and we are done, close the book, and move on.

But Scripture is not like anything else. Scripture is the Word of God, it is alive and it has a message for you!

Your sister in the small things,

Nancy​