Guide to Putting Together a Liturgical Binder

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How to create a liturgical binder in your catholic home. Plus, I’m sharing my favorite resources for  planning out a feast days and devotions within your own domestic church. 

This post has been updated from its original publish date of July 26, 2016. It has been updated with more information, updated images, and new recommendations.

I have been wanting to put together a detailed liturgical binder/ planner for quite some time and now that my children are getting older, I figure now is the time to get it going.

I had a small and simple one put together, but as my children are learning more skills, I’ve decided to include more activities to our binder.

This post will include some of those items, as well as some ideas on creating your liturgical binder at home.

How to Create a Catholic Liturgical Binder

In addition to our binder, I have a tote with decorations for various celebrations. Some examples are special table cloths, statues that I don’t keep out year round, but are brought out for special feast days, various decorations, etc.

So, for example I have stations of the cross for lent, an advent wreath and O Antiphons typed up for advent, a statue and shamrocks for the feast of St Patrick, wheat and grapes for Holy Thursday, etc.

One big project that I’d like to accomplish before next lent is to sew some purple coverings for our statues and pictures for passion tide.

In my binder I have a list of our patron’s feast days, family name days, birthdays, anniversaries – all organized by month.

For each month, I’ve divided them into tabs which includes: holy cards or pictures, devotions, coloring pages, activities for that month.

Some activities that you can do with children/toddlers:

• Marian Tea Party
• May Crowning
• Family Devotions
• Epiphany Party
• Jesse Tree with Bible Verses
• All Saints Day Party
• Visit Cemetery – Prayers Offered on All Souls Day
• Sacrifice Beans in a Jar for Lent
• May Day Baskets in Honor of the Blessed Mother
• The Baby Jesus Crib – children can add straw every time they make a sacrifice.

The possibilities are endless and can vary each year or you can include special family traditions as well.

This site has a ton of great coloring pages that can be printed off for children.

Some examples of family traditions that we do are:

• Hot Cross Buns are made on Holy Thursday morning.
• Lamb and a Mediterranean style dish are made on Holy Thursday evening; including unleavened bread.
• Lamb cake is made for Easter.
• Our children leave their shoes out for St. Nicholas to leave out the night before his feast day.
• A Mexican style feast is made on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
• Advent Wreath is brought out and we say specific devotions before our family meal during the season of Advent.
• We celebrate the twelve days of Christmas.
• And many more…

You could also include homeschool lessons around various feast days. Examples could be:

• Blessed Mother or saint diorama.
• History/Religion lesson on the true meaning of the shamrock & Blessed Trinity for the feast of St. Patrick
• Arts & crafts -saint or with a specific feast day theme.
• Easter garden – great sensory lesson!
• Lacing Rosary for the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary
• Plant a vegetable garden while studying the story of creation.

Use your creativity as a guide.

And when all else fails, there’s always Pinterest!

Another great resource that I like to browse for ideas is Catholic Cuisine. This site has a lot of great ideas for celebrating feast days with food. Another great way to get children involved.

In each month’s tab, I have all of my ideas by each feast day typed out. I take notes of ideas that I want to include and update our list periodically.

I also include master copies of specific activities or coloring pages that I’d like the children to complete. I also find it helpful to add notes of what is included in my tote by those specific feast days.

Another great resource is using this book, Around the Year with the Von Trapp Family.

It has inspiration for following the liturgical seasons throughout the year. 

Liturgical Binder Planner

I put together this 20 page planner pack and it is available now for purchase. View more info about this liturgical planner here.

Does your family have a liturgical binder set up already? Share your ideas.

I’d love to see what systems other families use. What are some of your favorite family traditions centered around the liturgy?