Living the Liturgical Year: January (Part 1)

A bit behind the event here, but I'm posting what I have in my folder so far for the first three days of January. It may come in useful next year!

January 1st - Mary, Mother of God (Solemnity)
(Not a Holy Day of Obligation here, though I think it is in the US?)

I had never seen this picture - Kissing the Face of God, by Morgan Weistling - until Rebecca of A Gypsy Caravan put it into this post. I think it is beautiful. Rebecca is kindly sending me a copy and I plan to make it the centrepiece of a display for both this feast (next year!) and other Marian occasions. Aren't blogging friends nice :).

I collected some prayers together and made our own simple family prayer books for the Advent and Christmas seasons (only one sheet of folded printer paper for each). This is the prayer I included for this feast. I can't remember where I found it. Possibly Catholic Culture?

Father, source of light in every age,
the virgin conceived and bore Your Son
Who is called Wonderful God,
Prince of Peace.
May her prayer,
the gift of a mother's love,
be Your people's joy through all ages.
May her response,
born of a humble heart,
draw Your Spirit to rest on Your people.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

January 2nd: St.Basil
Katherine at A Living Education posted about St.Basil and Vasilopita (St.Basil's bread) here, and also gives a recipe for Vasilopita. I am a Grecophile, so I like the idea of adding an edible tradition with a Greek flavour to our New Year.

January 3rd: The Holy Name of Jesus
As the month of January is dedicated to the Holy Name I plan to have the girls focus on this later in the month. A few activity ideas:

• make IHS monograms
  
• make posters decorated with the different names of Jesus (I noted down Lord, Saviour, Emmanuel, King of Kings, Lamb of God, Prince of Peace, Son of God)
• read the story of St.Bernardine in Saints for Young Readers for Every Day (May 20th), or 57 Stories of Saints by Anne Heffernan
• copywork - first verse of hymn 'At the name of Jesus'
• catechism - focus on the second commandment "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain" (CCC 2142-2167)
  

Today we said the Litany of the Holy Name as our morning prayer. (Angel and Star are less fond of litanies than I am. At the end they said rather plaintively, "we don't have to say that every day, do we?")

As the year goes on I hope to build up a collection of items to display with our liturgical candle. This year it will be very much a work in progress, but hopefully next year we will be pretty much set after this year's efforts. As well as the picture of Our Lady I want to add an icon of St.Basil and the monograms and Holy Name posters to my stash.