One of my housekeeping goals has been to add "Catholic Identity" to our home. It occurred to me that there isn't much in our home that speaks our faith. Of course, living it is what's important, but I also think you should know when you step inside that this is a Catholic Home. Plus, I think it will help our daily practice as well.
Before I took on this challenge, we had a crucifix hanging over our bed and a prayer over the crib (Bless this child, O Lord we pray/And keep him safe by night and day.) Other than that, a small statue of St. Jerome (patron of librarians) on a shelf in the library/office was it! Of course, I do a lot of religious reading, so books on the faith (especially apologetics) abound!
A Christian bookstore/gift shop recently reopened in our town so I stopped in there the other day while we were out walking (actually after Father spoke about making the Sacred Heart of Jesus the center of the home) and found a picture of the Sacred Heart as well as Our Lady of Grace to hang.
Decorating for Advent and Christmas:
We have an Advent wreath this year, so that's good, and I bought a Nativity Advent Calendar.
Last year my mom gave us a Precious Moments nativity for the baby and we have a small one we bought, so those will be out eventually too. I think my mother-in-law wants to get us a Fontanini one as well. We'll have one in every room!
My mom and I also went to a local greenhouse this morning and picked out a wreath for the front door. Other than that and the tree (real), we don't put up anything else. No lights, etc.
Spiritually, we have a lot planned for the season. One new thing for this year is that we're trying to start some family devotions/traditions with the baby. He's young, but we want to keep his and our focus in the right direction during this season from the beginning!
Well, bowling may have to wait. Sounds like nursing time and a nap for someone in this house!
We got this as a gift a couple of years ago - http://www.holyfamilycatalog.com/detail.aspx?ID=366#
ReplyDeleteIt's great. And this year i'm starting something new, an advent box, which will have the piece for the day, a chain from an advent chain book i picked up from the church gift shop (it has an activity or discussion idea for each day. it was 1.25!), and some days some extra thing like on Saint Nicholas day or Saint Lucia's feast day we'll have something specific to learn about . We'll see how it goes, we did day one today (i know Advent starts Sunday - we discussed what it means today though and our countdowns both, despite being religious/catholic, start on December 1st). They seemed to like it. They are going to decorate the box this weekend, I need to find last years Christmas cards ...