Summer Archives - Diocese Events

How do you keep your Catholic faith strong during the Summer?

Lis Luwia July 4, 2019

I can almost taste the sun-kissed sweetness of Summer: cold ice cream dripping down the cone at a parish picnic, an exciting book club meeting to talk about our latest Catholic fiction novel at the coffee house, and a happening carnival at the parish down the street playing (safe) music that my kids can dance to.

It’s a time when there’s more freedom, more sunscreen, and more time for friends and family. How can you best spend that time and where?

Make your vacation Catholic! When you’re planning a vacation, consider making the vacation a pilgrimage to a certain shrine or Catholic landmark. Sometimes, shrines even have accommodations similar to hostels.

Attend Catholic events and activities in your home diocese or while traveling. Now you can find the Catholic festival, concert or retreat happening in your area or the diocese next to yours easily. Sign up for notifications at dioceseevents.com!

Make a Catholic staycation! If you want to stay home for a vacation, make your own personal Catholic retreat in the comforts of your home. Start with daily Mass, confession, and add the rosary and quiet time during the day. Have the kids watch a Catholic movie or listen to a Catholic audiobook from formed.org while you get some down time with the Lord!

Find God in your environment! Wherever you go, God is there. When you go for a hike, say a prayer and listen for God’s voice. Find the little moments throughout the day when God speaks to you and make sure to slow down enough so that you can truly listen.

Pray daily and practice a new devotion. If summer has your prayer life in a spiritual slump, be sure to start the day with a Morning Prayer and offer your day to God. You may also find it helpful to start a new devotion like praying the rosary daily or praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet everyday at 3 o’clock.

Celebrate feast days with daily Mass, crafts and Catholic recipes!Get your creativity on while celebrating our saintly brothers and sisters in Heaven!

Check out specific ideas to help your Catholic kids keep and play in their faith this Summer!

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Post updated 7/4/2019

Summer Activities for Catholic Kids

Lis Luwia July 3, 2019

This Summer, create special moments to help your kids connect and grow in the faith. Here are some ideas and activities to keep your summer Catholic!

Check out Catholic events and landmarks in your area (or wherever you are traveling to)! You can attend Bible studies, conferences, Bible camps, retreats, and festivals just by searching within the right diocese. For landmarks, I simply type in “Catholic shrine” or “Catholic cathedral/grotto” into Google maps on my phone and it gives me some ideas of places close to me. Just double-check the websites that these are indeed Catholic and and open at the time you want to visit!
Plant a faith-focused garden! Here are some ideas to decorate your garden as a prayer space and flowers the symbolize Our Blessed Mother. You can also get an outdoor statue of Mary and plant flowers around her. Finish it off by saying or singing a prayer and placing a crown made of flowers on her head. What kid wouldn’t enjoy that?
Need an indoor idea? How about some family time putting together a puzzle of the Last Supper or a puzzle featuring Mary and the angels?
Build a time capsule by collecting some prayer cards, write down prayer intentions or letters to Jesus, and small statues or Catholic toys and bury them to open next year. Your kids will love digging a hole and rediscovering their treasures next year!
For the older kids, make a scavenger hunt! Check out these neat ideas and printables to create a Catholic scavenger hunt from Ave Maria Press.
Create something fun in the kitchen using Catholic feast day-inspired recipes. You can see some ideas on Pinterest here and even more on Catholic
Check out these Catholic crafts ideas for when the kids have had just enough sun and need some time to focus on a project (like this St. Francis bird feeder). These are also great ideas for starting a park day together on certain feast days. Bring the supplies, let the kids do a faithful project, and let them run around and be crazy!

I hope these ideas give you a good direction for fun and faithful activities for your Catholic kids to do this Summer. For more ideas, please follow us on Pinterest and follow our Catholic kids Facebook page!

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7 Ways to Decorate your Catholic Garden as a Prayer Space

Lis Luwia November 18, 2018

Make your garden a prayer and Catholic meditation space

You love gardening or you want to bring the beauty of your faith to your outdoor living areas but you’re not 100% sure how. You could easily add some statues of Catholic saints, but how can you make a meaningful prayer space in your backyard garden?

Hopefully, you find the solution to your Catholic prayer garden or are sparked with an idea while reading this. I’ve compiled several ways you can use your garden as a prayer space. This is a perfect way to enjoy prayer outdoors… and if you have these in the front yard you could be evangelizing to your neighbors without ever having to open your mouth!

Here are 7 Ways to Decorate Your Catholic Garden

1. Start with symbols

What are some things that are symbolic in our faith? Lilies are symbolic of purity, the Annunciation, and the Resurrection. You might also notice images of saints holding lilies too. St. Agatha and St. Thecla carry palm branches and if you have a special devotion to St. Therese of Lisieux, roses are the way to go since they are her signature flower! Check out our post on flowers to symbolize Mary in your garden.

Catholic prayer garden — Image sourced from Pinterest, stbridgeteastfalls.org

2. Make it Interactive

Make an interactive prayer space to walk the rosary through your garden. You can decorate the ground with stones to help you pray and meditate on the mysteries as you spend some peaceful time outside.

3. Have a Place to Sit

I know what you’re thinking… where are you going with this? Well, make or buy an outdoor pew bench! Here is an example of how to make a simple one, you hand person you! (Just make sure to use outdoor paint and outdoor fabric if you use/make cushions.) It actually doesn’t look all that hard, as long as you have all the right hardware and some time set aside!

Or purchase pews from an old parish when they replace them. I’ve seen this happen to a couple of parishes and it’s a great time to grab them! Keep an eye on parish bulletins or ask your parish secretary if he/she knows of any churches replacing their pews. You can also find some in secular stores sometimes, but they’re not often referred to as pews there.

4. Make a Shrine for Your Statues

It’s easy to put a simple statue in your garden and it’s set! But, why do that when you can create a full-on shrine for your favorite saint or create a mini-grotto for Mary in your own backyard? Use your imagination and check out these examples on my Pinterest board (Outdoor Catholic Decorating) to get your ideas flowing!

Stations of the cross outdoor decorations

5. Have Your Own Stations

Purchase your own outdoor stations of the cross and place them throughout your yard. Wouldn’t that be amazing to walk your own Stations of the Cross in your own garden at 3 p.m. throughout Lent? (Here’s the collection I found picture above.)

6. Make a Resurrection Garden

Making a Resurrection Garden is an awesome project to do with kids. Check out this DIY Resurrection Garden to do with kids and here is a grown-up version for you to do on a bigger scale. Be sure to close the tomb on Good Friday and open it again with a celebration on Easter. That would be a great time to plant your flowers around the tomb to celebrate that He is Risen! (Pin this idea for later)

7. Offer a Prayer Box

Have you ever seen those personal lending library boxes in the front yards of your neighbors? I love the library, but what if you could take it one step forward and make a prayer box for your neighbors? Create a little slot, offer paper and a pen and you’re set to go! Don’t forget to check your box and pray for your neighbors! What an act of beautiful charity!

I hope your creative juices are flowing! Check out the rest of my ideas on Catholic Decorating (indoors & outdoors) and follow us over on Pinterest! >>HERE<<

Updated 3/9/20

10 Flowers to Plant to Symbolize Mary in Your Garden

Lis Luwia July 6, 2018

10 10 Flowers to Use to Symbolize Mary in Your Catholic Garden

If you’ve ever considered planting a garden for Mary, you’ve probably looked at some pictures online and considered buying a statue of Mary, if you don’t already have one. But how do you decide which flowers to best decorate her garden with?

(Image courtesy of Fingalo, Wikipedia Commons. This post may contain affiliate links)

Here are 10 Flowers to Plant that Symbolize Mary that would be perfect in your garden!

Also Recommended >>> 7 Ways to Decorate your Catholic Garden as a Prayer Space

1. The White Lily “Annunciation Lily” symbolizes Mary’s Immaculate Purity.

2. The Violet symbolizes Mary’s humility “regarded by the Lord”.

3. The Monkshood “Our Lady’s Slipper” symbolizes Mary’s graceful Visitation trip to visit Elizabeth in the hill country: “All her steps were most beauteous.”

4. The Thistle-Down is also a Visitation symbol due to its graceful movement in the air.

5. The Rose symbolizes the Blessed Virgin of prophecy, “the Rose wherein the Divine Word was made incarnate.

6. The Daisy symbolizes “Mary’s Flower of God” (Jesus)

7. The Periwinkle represents the “Virgin Flower” and the blue color recalls her fullness of grace.

8. The Columbine represents the dove of the Holy Spirit, Mary’s overshadowing, indwelling, divine Spouse.

9. The Pansy symbolizes the Trinity (first revealed to Mary) and is also called the “Trinity Flower.”

10. The Everlasting symbolizes Mary’s eternal loving mediation in heaven.

Plus, a bonus (which isn’t exactly a flower) is the Strawberry which symbolizes the “Fruitful Virgin”, in flower and fruit at the same time.

Enjoy your gardening and get creative with faithful symbols! These are also great flowers to leave at the foot of the statue of Mary at your church!

Post last updated 3/9/20