"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” — John 1:14

Advent is the liturgical season of penitential but joyful anticipation and a time to prepare our hearts for the arrival of our long awaited Savior. It is also one of our family’s favorite seasons of the liturgical year and one that we begin observing with our children from their earliest days through traditions like the Advent Wreath.

As the beginning of the new Church Year, Advent also provides Catholics a fresh start, and therefore the perfect opportunity to incorporate new spiritual devotions and disciplines within our families. The 4 week length of Advent is just enough time to cement a new religious resolution of habit into the liturgy of our lives and prayers around the Advent Wreath are an easy place to start easy place to start that can help make the mystery of the incarnation more tangible to every member of your family young and old. As our children grew, we started selecting individual religious resolutions for the coming year as part out our Catholic New Year’s Eve festivities the night before Advent begins.

The Advent Wreath is traditionally lit at night, and preferably in the dark for the greatest effect on the senses and the soul alike. With most things the most painless way to remember to add something new into our hectic lives is by pinning it to or pairing it with something else your family already does habitually. For example, your family may decide to light your Advent Wreath before or after a meal like supper, or before bedtime. 

Our family has our devotions before bed as a quiet close to the busy day. We light the week's candle(s), sing "People Look East," and the O Antiphon if during the Golden Nights, then say our Advent prayers When over, we blow out the candles and, in the spirit of the Great Silence at the close of day in a monastery, head off to bed as hushed as possible with eight little ones in tow. 

• St. Nicholas Coins
• St. Nicholas Pickle
• The Christmas Novena
• December Ordo of Liturgical Living Activities & Meal Plan 
• December Prayers Prints
• Meal Time Prayers Prints

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee…” – Zachariah 9:9 

Lift me up bodily and in the flesh, which is fallen in Adam. Lift me up not from Sarah but from Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace had made inviolate, free of every stain of sin.”           — St. Ambrose

The Conception of the Virgin Mary has been celebrated as a Holy Day of Obligation since the mandate of Pope Clement XI in 1708. As such this feast is to be treated as a Sunday Sabbath without unnecessary work and purchases. Its vigil, the day before, is also traditionally a day of fasting and abstinence.

In 1954 Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception was proclaimed the 3rd dogma of Mary by Pope Pius IX in his papal bull Ineffabilis Deus. There in he announced: “We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore should firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful.”

In preparation for this commemoration on December 8th, the Immaculate Conception Novena is usually prayed the 9 days leading up to the feast, from November 29th—December 7th. However, it may be prayed anytime throughout the year.

This traditional version of the novena also includes the partially indulged Tota Pulchra Es, Maria Prayer found in the Raccolta.

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• St. Nicholas Coins
• St. Nicholas Pickle
• The Christmas Novena
• December Ordo of Liturgical Living Activities & Meal Plan 
• December Prayers Prints
• Meal Time Prayers Prints

• St. Nicholas Coins
• St. Nicholas Pickle
• The Christmas Novena
• December Ordo of Liturgical Living Activities & Meal Plan 
• December Prayers Prints
• Meal Time Prayers Prints

In our home the fragrances and flavors of Advent are not just delicious additions to an austere winter menu. They also help add to the season’s atmosphere of joyful anticipation. Historically, in European countries like Austria, Christmas baking did not commence until the traditional feast of St. Thomas the Apostle on December 21st. Here the appearance of these long awaited tastes and scents of the season illustrated just how near the Feast of the Nativity finally was.

In monastic communities this connection between food and anticipating Christ’s birth was also mirrored. In the celebration of the O Antiphons, from the Divine Office of Vespers, during the final week of Advent, different little goodies were shared among the monks. On December 19th, O Radix (Root of) Jesse, the gardener shared his best dried and preserved fruit, while for O Clavis (Key of) David, on December 20th, the cellar was unlocked and the finest wine enjoyed.

This raccolta of Advent recipes contains tried and true dishes from our family’s own collection, as well as the shortcuts we have used during busier seasons of life - like after a new baby is born. Some recipes are historical foods long associated with specific feasts and saints, or the cuisine of the places from which certain saints hail, while others are the silly food puns our children and I have come up with over the years. We’ve found that the later can often be the most memorable. You can print and add these recipe sheets to your recipe binder to use again and again. And we pray they will all be a nourishment to your family both in body and soul. 

• St. Nicholas Coins
• St. Nicholas Pickle
• Family Nativity Play: Gloria in Excelsis Deo
• December Ordo of Liturgical Living Activities & Meal Plan 
• December Prayers Prints
• Meal Time Prayers Prints

With a family big or small, in the Lord’s providence, there will always be another meal coming. This is why our family’s philosophy, whenever possible, has been to use these opportunities to make fare that feeds our family’s faith as well as fills their bellies.

Through the years our family has gathered a raccolta of recipes: tried and true dishes, as well as the shortcuts we have used during busier seasons of life - like after a new baby is born. Some recipes are historical foods long associated with specific feasts and saints, or the cuisine of the places from which certain saints hail, while others are the silly food puns our children and I have come up with over the years. We’ve found that the later can often be the most memorable. You can print and add these recipe sheets to your recipe binder to use again and again. And we pray they will all be a nourishment to your family both in body and soul.

• St. Nicholas Coins
• St. Nicholas Pickle
• Family Nativity Play: Gloria in Excelsis Deo
• December Ordo of Liturgical Living Activities & Meal Plan 
• December Prayers Prints
• Meal Time Prayers Prints

After adding in the meal blessing and thanksgiving, our next little steps to liturgical living were to add a prayer at supper for the monthly dedication. Each month of the Catholic year has a traditional dedication and December’s is the Immaculate Conception. Pinning a related prayer to supper is our daily reminder of the month’s dedication and what it’s commemoration is supposed to be teaching us over these few weeks.

So as a visual reminder for your family and mine, I made a set of our favorite prayers for the Immaculate Conception and Advent. Add as many or few to your meals, school day, or anytime as works for your particular family.

Included are the:

• St. Andrew Christmas Novena prayer
• O Mary Conceived Without Sin prayer
• In Thy Conception O Virgin Mary prayer
• O Mary Thou Didst Enter The World Without Stain prayer

Each prayer print is in both English and Latin when available. And you can choose to print them in ether black ink or one of our two Icon inspired color ways that best matches your seasonal decor. Magnetic poster holders make for easy displaying and switching out of prints each month.

• St. Nicholas Coins
• St. Nicholas Pickle
• The Christmas Novena
• Family Nativity Play: Gloria in Excelsis Deo
• December Ordo of Liturgical Living Activities & Meal Plan 
• Meal Time Prayers Prints

On Christmas Eve, after the tree trimming and lunch, we would run into the problem of what the kiddos could do before our simple fruit and cheese board supper and the Christmas Vigil Mass. If the boys went outside to play they ended up filthy and if they just sat around watching Christmas movies then there would be a rowdy mess at Mass. Neither of those options made for a very merry Christmas.

Then one year we discovered the answer for us was in the history of the Church all along! We just needed to go medieval for the rest of the afternoon and put on a family Nativity play. Ever ancient, ever new, and so on...

During the 10th century the performance of liturgical drama began as brief reenactments during the Masses of important holy days. These early forerunners of opera and oratorio were later lengthened and separated from the liturgy for performance outside of Mass. On Christmas Eve a popular subject for these paradise plays, as they were generally called, was the fall of Adam and Eve as it is also their feast day. Similar to our modern day Christmas trees, these plays used an evergreen tree with apples to signify sin and either unconsecrated hosts or sweet treats to represent eternal life. These Paradise Trees were used as a stand in for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and provide a possible origin for our ornaments today. Additionally the use of the evergreen trees themselves come from St. Boniface's felling of the early Teutonic's pagan Thunder Oak. So if you want to add a medieval touch to your Christmas decorations go find you some red baubles and candy canes for the tree on clearance!

One of the earliest preserved liturgical dramas was "Quem Quaeritis” that depicts the 3 Marys’ visit with the Angel at the tomb following the resurrection of Christ. While St Hildegard of Bingen's Ordo Virtutum is a beautiful example of the later, more extended liturgical dramas of the 12th century. This masterwork follows a soul’s journey toward heaven as it wrestles with the devil and the virtues.

• St. Nicholas Coins
• St. Nicholas Pickle
• The Christmas Novena
• December Ordo of Liturgical Living Activities & Meal Plan 
• December Prayers Prints
• Meal Time Prayers Prints

• St. Nicholas Coins
• St. Nicholas Pickle
• Family Nativity Play: Gloria in Excelsis Deo
• December Ordo of Liturgical Living Activities & Meal Plan 
• December Prayers Prints
• Meal Time Prayers Prints

Behold a thrilling voice calls out And chides the darkened shades of earth Pale dreams are gone, dim shadows fly Christ in his might now shines on high.

Some years St. Nicholas brings to our shoes a Christmas book for our Advent book basket or the year’s cozy winter pajama’s that St. Martin of Tours doesn’t quite have his budget together for by Martlemas on November 11th. But every year St. Nicholas is sure to fill our shoes with at least sweet oranges and golden chocolate coins. To add a bit more fun and pizzazz, in the leaner years, I started adding little pictures of St. Nicholas to our coins with a simple glue stick. And with these printable St. Nicholas coin toppers you can too.

There are 15 different designs that can be divvied up with one style for each child or all shared by the whole family. These toppers fit the larger 1.5” coins but can be used for the smaller 1” coins when printed at 70%.

• St. Nicholas Pickle
• December Ordo of Liturgical Living Activities & Meal Plan 
• December Prayers Prints
• Meal Time Prayers Prints
• Christmas Novena Booklet
• Family Nativity Play: Gloria in Excelsis Deo

"The giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic God’s giving, by grace, through faith, and this is not of ourselves.” - St. Nicholas of Myra

Ad majórem Dei glóriam,

For several of the other liturgical living traditions in our home, like our Advent gingerbread houses for St. Barbara’s Day or Our Lady of Loreto, I took things that we wanted to include in our family and then worked them into our busy schedule through a Catholic connection that would benefit my children spiritually. The St. Nicholas Pickle is our family’s Catholic adaptation of the Christmas pickle tradition.

In addition to putting our shoes out for the Eve of St. Nicholas Day on the 5th of December, our brood also hunts for the St. Nicholas Pickle on his feast. Similarly to the finding of chocolate coins in their shoes in memory of the dowry coins St. Nicholas often provided, as part of our grizzly, Flannery O’Connor style liturgical living that our boys love, the St. Nicholas Pickle is a tangible reminder of his miracle of raising the three pickled boys from the dead after their gruesome murder. This event contributed to St. Nicholas becoming the patron saint of children and was often illustrated in medieval books of the hours making it a simple option for the week’s picture study as well.

This miracle of St. Nicholas is also why we make a charcuterie board of preserved and pickled foods for supper on his feast with our traditional Ginger Bend Speculaas cookies and “Bishopswill” (dutch mulled wine or warmed grape juice) typically called Bishopswyn by those not in our family.  Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, in the midst of this rare pre-Christmas merriment, we pause between impromptu reenactments of the heretic, and fellow bishop, Arius getting an episcopal knuckle sandwich, for denying the divinity of Christ, to recite the Nicene Creed.

Print, cut out, and hide the pickle on the first page and use the Nicene Creed print below as part of your St. Nicholas Day Celebration this year. In our home the one who finds the pickle in our Advent greenery opens a small gift for the family or receives the first warm Speculaas cookie.

• St. Nicholas Coins
• December Ordo of Liturgical Living Activities & Meal Plan 
• December Prayers Prints
• Meal Time Prayers Prints
• Christmas Novena Booklet
• Family Nativity Play: Gloria in Excelsis Deo

“Let us therefore strive to preserve the holiness of our souls and to guard the purity of our bodies with all fervor.” - St. Nicholas of Myra

Ad majórem Dei glóriam,