Celebrating the Liturgical Year: July

I was so proud of myself the other night, because I actually sat down with a calendar and a bunch of books, determined to plan out different ways we could celebrate and recognize the various holy days and saints' feasts over the next month.  I have a number of good books on this topic, so I thought it'd be pretty easy to map out some good plans (certain traditional foods to make for dinner or dessert, a good decorating or craft idea that was relevant to the saint of the day, special prayers to use, etc.).  Turns out, it's not as easy as I expected.  Or maybe July is just a little sparse on big feast days.

Since we attend the traditional Latin Mass, we observe the traditional liturgical calendar in our home as well.  You may notice that certain feasts I mention below are on different days than you are used to.

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Here were some of the tools I had spread out in front of me:

2013 Traditional Liturgical Calendar, The Seraphim Company

Butler's Lives of the Saints Vol. III, Thurston and Atwater version - by far the best version of Butler's, and it follows the old calendar.  It's hard to put down once you pick it up - the stories are fascinating!

St. Andrew's Daily Missal (1953)

Around the Year with the Trapp family, Maria Von Trapp - I've mentioned this book a number of times.  I absolutely can't say enough good about it.  A wonderful source for how to observe the feasts and fasts of the Church.

The Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living: A Loving Look at the Lighter Side of Catholic Faith, with Recipes for Feasts and Fun , John zmirak and Denise Matychowiak- very amusing book, with some real and some tongue-in-cheek suggestions for celebrating the Catholic year.  Follows the new calendar, though, so a little more flipping around to find what I needed.

Feast Day Cookbook; The Traditional Catholic Feast Day Dishes of Many Lands - I've mentioned this one before as well.  Good source of information and recipes (though some are a bit "dated" in terms of ingredients).

 The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day - This book came highly recommended by several blogs and by Amazon ratings.  I haven't read enough of it to give a recommendation either for or against.


The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions for Children's Faith Formation - this book sounded pretty promising, but I find that there's not a lot of "meat" to it, and a lot of suggestions for activities are only vaguely Catholic and/or kinda corny.
 
Some good online sources for these sorts of things: Shower of Roses and Catholic Icing

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Here are some ideas I've come up with so far, for some of the days that stuck out to me.  I was hoping for more ideas leaning towards the "food and crafts" style of celebrating.  But for most of the days, it's going to end up just reading something aloud.  That's good too, I suppose.

July 1 - Most Precious Blood of Our Lord
Have friends over for dinner of red meat and red wine, and pray the Litany of The Most Precious Blood.
The whole month of July is dedicated to the Precious Blood, so this would be an appropriate prayer to use on any day.

July 2 - Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
This is one of the joyful Mysteries of the Rosary, so I suggested to Tom that maybe we pray that particular decade of the Rosary.  He decided we should be more ambitious and say a whole Rosary instead.  But it seems weird to use the Joyful Mysteries on a Tuesday (which is usually for the Sorrowful Mysteries).  Can you mix and match??  Maybe we should just pray (sing?) the Magnificat instead.

July 4 - American Independence Day (not actually in the Catholic Calendar!)
Prayer for Government (because they could really use it)

July 8 - St. Elizabeth Queen of Portugal
Read her story in Lives of the Saints since it's pretty inspiring, and read Proverbs 31:10-31 which is part of the Mass Propers for her feast day.

July 14 - St. Kateri Tekakwitha (technically not in the traditional calendar, since she was only recently canonized).
Read a story about her life?  It's also St. Bonaventure's feast day, who would be good to learn more about.

July 16 - Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Maybe just tell Sly the story of this apparition.  He already knows about scapulars, since Tom and I wear them, and he recognizes St. Simon Stock, as he appears on the back of Tom's scapular.  We could also eat caramels, even though it's a *little* cheesy :-)

July 22 - St. Mary Magdalen
?

July 25 - St. James the Apostle
His symbol is the cockleshell (which has become the symbol for pilgrims), and shellfish are traditionally eaten for his feast day.  I think they're all pretty gross, though...so we might substitute shrimp.  I know, it's kind of a stretch. He's the patron of Spain...what's a type of Spanish food?

July 26 - St. Anne Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary
She is patroness of homemakers and mothers (among many other people).  She is definitely a Saint I can benefit from.  I'm still looking for a good way to celebrate her feast.  The Feast Day cookbook suggests cooking in the style of Brittany (in France), since there is a strong devotion to her there. hmm...not sure what that might be.  Perhaps we can do something with that mysterious bottle of "St. Anne water" my uncle gave us.

July 29 - St. Martha
Another patroness of housewives.  I would like to read her story in the Gospels.  Perhaps I could serve a dinner of savory soup and some good crusty bread (which I like to think is similar to the meal she made when Christ came to visit). 

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We'll see how this month goes.  I think Tom and I both benefit spiritually from these kinds of observances, and it might even teach Sly a little something.  Ideally, over time, it will become as natural to take note of the day's feast and act accordingly as it is to take note of the fact of it being "Tuesday" or "Friday", and perform the activities or errands proper to that day of the week.

I am more than open to hearing other suggestions!