28 October
Calendar Overview
Calendar: Ordinary Time
Liturgical Color: Green (Life, hope, anticipation)
Month: The Most Holy Rosary
Season: After Pentecost (Roman Rite)
High Feast: The Feast of All Saints
Simon & Jude, Apostles, Feast
Daily Preparations
Remove all items from the home oratory except the crucifix
Begin purchasing thirty-one (31) long-burning candles (vigil and pillar)
Prepare an art bin supplied with crayons, colored pencils, or markers
Arrange candles on the home oratory
Light candles every night for family oratory
Find or Print St. Pope John Paul II 9-Day Novena
Order donuts (Soul Cakes) for All Hallows Eve
Children prepare costumes to dress up as their favorite Saints
Rituals
Feast Day
Go to Domestic-Church.com and select an activity to do for the Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude
Little Flower Bowl
Find or purchase a large bowl or 5-quart glass jar (this will be your Little Flower Bowl)
Find or purchase many fabric flowers or create your own origami flowers
Create a list of little acts of love that you can do individually and as a family. This list will help guide your family in what they can do for one another or for your community to show and share God’s love.
At the end of the day, during supper or evening time, you will review the little acts of love you have done as a family and place your “little flowers” in your Little Flower Bowl.
Gallery of the Saints
Every evening, for evening Rosary, pull out the Saint coloring sheets and color a picture of a Saint as you pray.
Tape up the pictures of the Saints around your home as if you were hanging family pictures, create a gallery of the saints, or post the pictures any and everywhere!
Novena
Pray a St. Pope John Paul II Novena
Family Liturgy
Family Prayer
Prayer of St. John Paul II for Guidance
Oh God, You are our Creator. You are good and Your mercy knows no bounds. To You arises the praise of every creature.
Oh God, You have given us an inner law by which we must live. To do Your will is our task. To follow Your ways is to know peace of heart. To You we offer our homage.
Guide us on all the paths we travel upon this earth. Free us from all the evil tendencies which lead our hearts away from Your will. Never allow us to stray from You.
Oh God, judge of all humanity, help us to be included among Your chosen ones on the last day.
Oh God, Author of peace and justice, give us true joy and authentic love, and a lasting solidarity among peoples.
Give us Your everlasting gifts.
+ Amen.
Family Supper
Place your Little Flower Bowl on the table
Talk about the little acts of love you did that day as you place your “little flowers” for God into the Little Flower Bowl
Read a very short section from The Imitation of Christ
Family Formation
Catechism
Part One Section Two I. The Creeds Chapter Three I Believe In The Holy Spirit Article 12 I Believe In Life Everlasting III. The Final Purification, Or Purgatory
1030 All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
For older youths and adults
For children
Family Oratory
Just before the Family Prayer, place thirty (30) candles on the home oratory
Each candle should represent a soul in purgatory or a struggling, hurting, lost, or suffering soul you are praying for
Light the candles
Pray Novena
Pray the Rosary
Family Prayer
Healing Novena for the Intercession of St. John Paul II - (Opening Prayer)
Merciful God, I pray with thanks and gratitude for the great spiritual gift of Saint John Paul II’s apostolic life and mission. Through his heavenly intercession, please grant the following petition(s) . . .
[State your request(s) Here].
Grant also that I may grow in love for You and proclaim boldly the love of Jesus Christ to all people, through Christ, Our Lord.
+Amen.
Novena Continued: Healing Novena for the Intercession of St. John Paul II - (DAY 7)
Dear Saint John Paul,
You preached: “The goal and target of our life is He, the Christ who awaits us – each one singly and all together – to lead us across the boundaries of time to the eternal embrace of the God who loves us.” Help me, dear Saint John Paul, to remember that life with God is the highest and greatest of all goals. In every moment of my life, help me to be focused on my relationship with Christ, so that when my earthly journey ends, my eternal life with Jesus will begin.
God the Father, in humility, we offer our lives to You in the service of others. May we be like Saint John Paul II in proclaiming our faith and trust in You, so we will be blessed and can fulfill our Christian vocation. It is through our weakness and illness that You have touched our lives, and we now seek Your goodness and mercy to be healed.
+Amen.
Conclude with the Rosary or the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be prayers.
Rosary
Parents lead the family Rosary (or stream a Rosary from YouTube or the Hallow Prayer app)
As the family prays the Rosary, pass out the coloring sheets
Pass out the crayons, coloring pencils, or markers
When finished praying, hang up pictures of the Saints around your home