29 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
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
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 the St. Pope John Paul II Novena
Family Liturgy
Family Prayer
Prayer to St. John Paul II
Oh, St. John Paul,
From the window of heaven, grant us your blessing! Bless the Church that you loved and served and guided, courageously leading her along the paths of the world in order to bring Jesus to everyone and everyone to Jesus. Bless the young, who were your great passion. Help them dream again, help them look up to the heavens again to find the light that illuminates the paths of life here on earth.
May you bless each and every family! You warned of Satan’s assault against this precious and indispensable divine spark that God lit on earth. St. John Paul, with your prayer, may you protect the family and every life that blossoms from the family.
Pray for the whole world, which is still marked by tensions, wars and injustice. You opposed war by invoking dialogue and planting the seeds of love: pray for us so that we may be tireless sowers of peace.
Oh St. John Paul, from heaven’s window, where we see you beside Mary, send God’s blessing down upon us all.
+ 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
Set intentions for your family Novenas and Rosary
Pray the scheduled Novena
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
1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.604 The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. the tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:605
As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.606
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 8)
Dear Saint John Paul,
You preached: “People are made for happiness. Rightly, then, you thirst for happiness. Christ has the answer to this desire of yours. But He asks you to trust Him. True joy is a victory, something which cannot be obtained without a long and difficult struggle. Christ holds the secret of this victory. . . In order to sing God’s praises we must re-learn the language of humility and trust, the language of moral integrity and of sincere commitment to all that is truly good in the sight of the Lord.” Once again, in simple words, you teach us that nothing is more important than life with Christ.
Lord, Jesus Christ, grant me the gift of a humble heart so that I can respond to Your call to take up the Cross and follow You each day as Your disciple. I will strive to preserve the unity in my household through my actions of peace and understanding. Through the intercession of Saint John Paul II, please grant me the gift of healing that I earnestly implore.
+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