A simple Catholic family celebration of Our Lady of Sorrows September 15th.
The past year has been a real doozie, friends, and, as such, our liturgical celebrations have been nearly non-existent.
When you spend your days weighing out canola oil, pushing medicine, and in general just trying to get through, things like observing feast days seem quite nonessential.
Last week, though, I saw the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows was coming up and I wielded to the feeling that it was time to get back in the liturgical saddle, so to speak.
Mary is one of those Catholic topics I accepted in faith but just didn’t quite grasp as I entered the Church.
Even after spending a month learning and praying the Rosary, I struggled to make this Catholic teaching my own.
I laid my tussle with Mary at the feet of Jesus and let Him know that if this “Mary-thing” was something He wanted from me, He was going to have to make it explicitly clear.
Fast forward 6 years from joining the faith and I finally cannot only believe but feel the motherhood of Mary in my daily walk with Our Lord. So, when I saw the upcoming feast in my planner, I felt a real desire to observe it however minimal that celebration may be.
I offer our observance, however humble, for your inspiration!
Our Lady of Sorrows Feast Table
I took all of one minute (can you tell?) to remake the feast table while the children did their morning run around the loop. I’m a firm believer that every house needs a good loop!
For your own information, I do not let Clare wear this dress-up in public. Quite trampy, isn’t it? She found it in the free bin at a garage sale and it was hard to turn down her excitement over the pink and sparkles.
I truly am trying to teach her about modesty. Promise!
- Tabletop Chalkboard: Hobby Lobby
- Our Lady of Guadalupe votive: Aldi (ha!)
- Tabletop crucifix: Amazon (looks like that particular one is not available, but this one is similar)
- Mary statue: Amazon (again, looks like that one isn’t available, but I like this similar one)
The feast table is such a simple way to celebrate the liturgical year! I let the children loose on it sometimes and at other times I decorate.
In the morning, before we start our school day, we gather here (me on the chair, children on the floor), pray a Psalm, talk about the feast day, and say a prayer for our day.
The children love when I bless them with holy water as they leave our prayer time. (We’ve also done more elaborate prayer times, but this simple format is what works for our mornings now.)
I’m into simplicity around here. As you can see, our feast table is quite bare bones. We use what we have and do the best we can.
Remember you don’t have to keep up with those perfect liturgical celebrations you see on the net (you know the ones I’m talking about).
I say, “Wonderful! Beautiful, but not for me.” Living the faith was never meant to be a complicated affair.
Here is a prettier picture of the feast table so you aren’t completely turned off by the whole idea. Look at how Elijah has grown since January!
Wondering what a feast table is?
- Why I started the feast table in our home
- How we do family devotions around the feast table
- Here are all the feast table posts thus far
- The planner I use to keep track of all those special feast days
- September Feast Table
- All the Feast Table Posts
Reading
Books are another simple way to “celebrate.” We’ve collected a nice little Catholic library through the years by giving books for birthdays, Easter, and Christmas (here are some tips on creating your own Catholic library on a dime). I went to the shelf and pulled off Jesus and Mary: The Lives of Jesus and Mary and the Story of Fatima.
It is a sweet reprinted book with lovely illustrations. Lowell had started school by that time, so I just read to the younger three.
Must Reads for Young Catholics
Marian Must Reads for Young Catholics
Here is the liturgical binder in our feast table. It fits perfectly! (You can tour the feast table here!)
Read through the Catholic Year Book Lists
After years of missing out on reading along with the liturgical cycle of the Church, I’ve finally created a comprehensive and curated list of Catholic book lists for:
- liturgical inspired book lists by month
- Marian book list
- Rosary book list
- Catholic chapter book list
- Catholic spirituality for kids book list
- Advent & Christmas book list
- Lent & Easter book list
All in easy printable format!
Daily Mass
Our parish circumstances don’t allow for us to attend Mass on a daily basis. In fact, for most of the summer our priest has been quite ill and unable to do daily Mass at all (say a pray of healing for him, won’t you?).
It was time for our biweekly grocery haul, so we made the effort to attend daily mass while in town.
(Rather silly to say we were “in town” since we live IN town, but, growing up on a farm, whenever we went somewhere we called it “going to town.” I still say it whenever I go from our little town (population 800) to the “big town” (population 66, 000) 20 minutes down the road.)
Husband was able to meet us there- what a blessing! The children loved seeing him in the middle of the day.
I left, not only fed by Our Lord, but encouraged by the number of college students I saw there (it’s a college town). There are good things happening in the Church!
And the Feast
What is a feast day without a feast? The thing I love about food and feast days is you can make almost any food meaningful for the occasion.
The feast of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts? Shape your pizza into a heart and decorate with toppings appropriately!
Feast of St. John Vianney, patron saint of priest? Bake some bread for the man who brings you the bread of life!
Assumption of Mary? Eat something with whipped cream because it “rises” just as Mary rose to heaven.
See what I mean? Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
While scouring the grocery ads, I noticed doughnut holes were on sale.
I really wanted me some donut holes, so I decided somehow I could transform them into our feast for Our Lady of Sorrows. Using my creativity, I decided they would symbolize Mary’s tears.
We served them for dessert and I explained that Mary’s sorrows and bitter tears as the mother of Our Lord became sweetness to us because, through Christ’s sufferings and death, which caused so much pain for Mary, we have been saved!
Clever, aren’t I?
Our Lady of Sorrows Coloring Page
And I wanted to share these BEAUTIFUL coloring pages from Delphina Rose Art. She has a whole set devoted to Our Lady. Look at this lovely Our Lady of Sorrows coloring page!!!
Print and go!
There you have it folks! I share our simple celebrations with you, lest you think every Catholic mother spends hours in the kitchen preparing a Pinterest-worthy feast.
See you really can do this thing called liturgical living!
A Prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows
If I really would have been on my game, we would have offered a prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows, but, the thought slipped my mind.
I did; however, pray a Rosary that night.
Here is a prayer you could say to Our Lady of Sorrows.
O most holy Virgin, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ: by the overwhelming grief you experienced when you witnessed the martyrdom, the crucifixion, and death of your divine Son, look upon me with eyes of compassion, and awaken in my heart a tender commiseration for those sufferings, as well as a sincere detestation of my sins, in order that being disengaged from all undue affection for the passing joys of this earth, I may sigh after the eternal Jerusalem, and that henceforward all my thoughts and all my actions may be directed towards this one most desirable object.
Honor, glory, and love to our divine Lord Jesus, and to the holy and immaculate Mother of God.
Amen.
(prayer found on thoughtco.com)
There you have it folks! I share our simple celebrations with you, lest you think every Catholic mother spends hours in the kitchen preparing a Pinterest-worthy feast.
See you really can do this thing called liturgical living!
