To Kendra Tierney, liturgical living means bringing Church traditions associated with liturgical seasons home from Mass “so that it’s not just something that we do on Sunday.” Rather, it becomes part of everyday life with families, she said.
That goal became more important when she and her husband had children, and she realized she wanted to start passing on information about the faith. As her oldest children started asking questions about faith, she said she needed to figure things out, such as successfully encouraging her children to pay attention at Mass and sit through a rosary.
Kendra Tierney
“I also realized there’s a whole other side of the Catholic Church that I hadn’t heard of at all,” she said. “All these beautiful feast day celebrations and funny patron associations, and foods and celebrations that are associated with different feast days all over the world.”
Tierney recently spoke with “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley about how her family celebrates feast days and their faith.
Tierney said that if she presents “the tough things,” like fasting, to her children, she’s giving them an incomplete picture of the Catholic faith. “It also is joy and celebration,” she said, so she now incorporates those elements into her home. “I want … my kids to look forward to different saint days and the different foods that we’ll eat and the different outings that we have associated with particular feast days each year as a way to start that conversation around who these saints are and how they can inspire our lives,” Tierney said.
At the feast of St. Michael and the archangels, for example, Tierney brings out “liturgical food puns.” Goose is traditional for that feast day, but she usually serves a whole chicken or Cornish game hen with asparagus spears. And flaming hot Cheetos so the kids can challenge each other to eat them, she said. “And then you have to have something with blackberries,” she said, “because the traditional story is that when St. Michael threw Lucifer out of heaven, he landed in a blackberry bush.”
Having children dress up as particular saints for All Saints Day is fun and a great way to learn about saints, Tierney said. But “the cool thing” about All Saints Day is that it celebrates “all of those people who are in heaven who don’t have a feast day on the calendar.”
“So, it’s such a beautiful time to talk with kids about who do we know and love, who we think, we have reason to hope is in heaven,” she said. “And this is that person’s feast day today. This is grandma or a brother or sister who passed away as a baby,” she said.
During the interview, Tierney describes the month of November being dedicated to the holy souls in purgatory, and an eight-day holy souls indulgence. To learn more about the indulgence and other ideas for celebrating liturgical seasons, including Advent, Tierney’s favorite, listen to this episode of the “Practicing Catholic” at 9 p.m. Oct. 21, which repeats 1 p.m. Oct. 22 and 2 p.m. Oct. 23 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
To view resources for learning about and practicing liturgical living in the home — from Tierney’s blog to books and a manger with straw for baby Jesus — visit Tierney’s website, catholicallyear.com.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Ryan Hamilton, government relations associate for the Minnesota Catholic Conference, who discusses legislative priorities ahead of the elections and how to practice faithful citizenship; and Father Tom Margevicius, director of worship for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who discusses the Communion rite during his latest Mass Class.
Listen to their interviews after they have aired:
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