INTRODUCTION
Traditional family religious practices and customs were commonplace in the homes – everywhere with evidence of God – immersing ourself deeper with love for the Catholic faith. Unfortunately, our homes have gradually become infiltrated with the secular spirit and ideas and therefore diluting the Christian home. However, it is never to late to reintroduce traditional practices and customs into our lives and homes – this help us all grow together in love of the Catholic Faith and for our redemption.
The family home should be blessed to invoke protection over the mind and body of those who dwell within. Importantly, Holy water should be on hand in every Catholic home – normally your Priest will have a vessel at the rear of the church for people to pour into containers. There will numerous occasions that you may use Holy water during the course of the day. For example, before going to bed and before you pray the Holy Rosary.
Sacred furnishing (for example sacred pictures, statues, images, crucifixes) in the home is also an integral part of the home and should be blessed. If these items are blessed, they become sacramental. The Church prays, in blessing them, that ‘those that behold them may be led to contemplate and imitate the lives and holiness of those depicted’ and ‘that those inspired by the pictures to honour the saint in question, may by his merits, obtain grace in this life and eternal glory in the next’. Pictures of the Holy Family, the Sacred Heart, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints should feature in a Catholic home – these act as powerful reminders of the Truth and help to stir the soul, increase our devotion and to keep away distraction.
Similarly, crucifixes should adorn the walls in a prominent place in the home because it vividly expresses Our Lord’s love for us by his death, which should be kept before our minds in our daily lives within our homes. Therefore, at least one crucifix should feature in a common area – such as the Living Room – and have a Crucifix hanging over the bed in each bedroom.
Blessed Candles should be available for use in every home. This ancient and beautiful practice is typically used on the Blessed Virgin Mary’s May shrine and on the ‘throne’ of the Sacred Heart. Also they can be also used on special feast days and on religious anniversary celebrations in the home. The candle is rich with meaning; the wax represents the Body of Christ the wick represents His Soul; the flame represents His Divinity. A lighted candle also represents the Gospel of Christ, which stands for His Church.
Every Catholic home should have a least some form of a little altar or shine, a place for you, friends or family to kneel and pray. It should, of course, be blessed. It does not to be pretentious – simplicity is fine. For example, it could be a mantle piece or a little table or a even a bookshelf. The shrine just needs a well placed crucifix and a few candles and if possible a sacred picture. Overtime additional sacred items (statues and pictures) can be added to the shrine. It is also a beautiful addition to decorate the home shrine according to the liturgical season and to change the shrine tablecloth to that Season’s liturgical colours. For example; purple for Lent, white for Eastertide, blue for the Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary and red for the Month of the Most Precious Blood.
Fasting and abstinence is an important aspect of Traditional Catholic practice. Our Lord and His Apostles tell us to fast: to discipline the body so that we can focus more intently on the spiritual and we fast to do penance:
FASTING DAYS
All the days of Lent (except Sundays) until midday on Holy Saturday. Ember days – viz: Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays after Ash Wednesday, whit-Sunday, September 14th and third Sunday of Advent. The Vigils of the Assumption, All Saints and Christmas Day (except when these feasts fall on a Monday) – the Vigil of Whit-Sunday.
ABSTINENCE DAYS
All Fridays of the year (except when Holy Days of Obligation and December 26th fall on a Friday). All Wednesdays of Lent. Ember Saturday in Lent. The Ember Wednesdays. The Vigils of the Assumption, All Saints and Christmas Day (except when these feasts fall on a Monday).
Ember Days occur four times a year, the Church sets aside three days to focus on God through His marvellous creation. These quarterly periods take place around the beginning of the four natural seasons. The Ember Days were definitely arranged and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085). However, the origins of the Ember Days date from before the 3rd Century and the fourth season was certainly added by the 5th Century because Gelasius (492-496) speaks of all four. Traditionally, the Ember Days are days favoured for priestly ordinations, prayer for priests, first Communions, alms-giving and other penitential and charitable acts, and prayer for the souls in Purgatory.
EUCHARIST FAST
The Eucharist Fast was 3 hours before receiving communion when the 1962 Roman Missal was in force. However, under the 1983 Code of Canon Law it is now 1 hour.
The most helpful religious practice in the home is prayer. During each day some time should be set aside to pray, perhaps the Holy Rosary (with family or friends). Pope Saint Pius X said: ‘The Rosary is the most beautiful and richest of all prayers to the Mediatrix of all grace; it is the prayer that touches most the heart of the Mother of God. Say it each day’. Among the daily prayers that can be fitting is the litanies, grace before and after meals, morning and evening prayers, and the daily examination of conscience at night and the Angelus.
In 1946, Monsignor Hellriegel said ‘the liturgical year is a sacred cycle of solemnities by which we commemorate and celebrate annually the ‘Work of Redemption’ wrought by the Man-God Jesus Christ for the glory of God and the sanctification of men of good will’. Similarly, the Pope Pius XII in 1947 stated in the encyclical on the Sacred Liturgy - Mediator Dei:
‘The Liturgical Year devotedly fostered and accomplished by the Church is not a cold and lifeless representation of the events of the past, or a simple and bare record of a former age. It is rather Christ Himself Who is ever living in His Church. Here He continues that journey of immense mercy which He lovingly began in His mortal life, going about doing good, with the design of bringing men to know His mysteries and in a way live by them.’
If the Church lives and breaths in the cycle of the Liturgical Year, it should seem natural for the practices and customs of the home to follow the changing feasts and seasons.
SEASONAL CUSTOMS
ADVENT
It is customary to pray a Novena to the Immaculate Conception starting on November 29 and ending on December 7, the Vigil of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Advent Embertide – the 1983 Code of Canon Law rescinded this fast altogether.
CHRISTMASTIDE
Christmas Eve (before the Vigil Mass) is a day of fasting and abstinence (except when these feasts fall on a Monday). However, the 1983 Code of Canon Law rescinded this fast altogether but traditional Catholics still keep the fast.
On the Feast of the Epiphany blessed chalk is used to inscribe the first letter of the names of the Magi over the main door of the house, connected with Crosses, over the inside of your front door (on the lintel, if possible). Then write the year, breaking up the numbers and the year so that they fall on both sides of the initials. It should look like this, for example: 20 C+M+B 13. The ’20′ being the millennium and century, the ‘C’ standing for the first Wise Man, Caspar, the ‘M’ standing for Melchior, the ‘B’ standing for Balthasar, and the ’13′ standing for the decade and year. It is also popularly believed that the Kings’ initials also stand for “Christus mansionem benedicat” (“Christ bless this house”). This serves as a reminder throughout the year that, as the Epiphany blessing say – the home should be the ‘shelter of health, chastity, self-conquest, humility, goodness, mildness, obedience to the commandments, and thanksgiving to God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.’
TIME AFTER EPIPHANY
When Candlemas (Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary) arrives a sufficient number of blessed candles should be obtained for use in the eventuality of a sick-call by a Priest and also to be burned on great feast days and baptismal anniversaries.
SEPTUAGESIMA
The Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday are known as ‘Shrovetide’, from an old English word ‘shrive’, meaning ‘to confess’, a name gotten from the tradition of going to Confession in the days before Lent started.
LENT
Vigil of the Assumption is a day of fasting and abstinence (except when these feasts fall on a Monday). However, the 1983 Code of Canon Law rescinded this fast altogether but traditional Catholics still keep the fast.
On any Friday during Lent a plenary indulgence is granted the Christian faithful who, after Communion, devoutly recite the pray the En ego (The Prayer Before a Crucifix) before an image of Jesus Christ crucified. On other days of the year the indulgence is a partial one.
The fourth Sunday of Lent is a break in an otherwise penitential season (similarly the third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) is as well). The vestments for this day will be rose and flowers may adorn the Altar. This day is called ‘Laetare Sunday’ (Mothering Sunday ). The name ‘Laetare Sunday’ and takes its name from the opening words of the Mass, the Introit’s ‘Laetare, Jerusalem’. Traditionally, and still is the practice is Traditional Parishes in the UK, individual’s bake a Simnel Cake, which is blessed by the Priest on Laetare Sunday and later eaten on Easter Sunday. The Simnel Cake consists of 11 balls. These represent the 12 Apostles minus Judas.
Lenten Embertide – the 1983 Code of Canon Law rescinded this fast altogether.
Lenten Fasting – the 1983 Code of Canon Law rescinded this fast altogether.
EASTERTIDE
The month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen of Heaven, on the last day of this month. At the beginning of May, a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary at church is crowned with a wreath of roses, and the same are laid at her feet. Little girls and boys dress up in their best and one child carries the crown on a cushion to the statue and another child is chosen to crown the statue. In our homes, we can honour the Blessed Virgin Mary by crowning the Statue with flowers at the home shrine, for the entire month of May. If you do not have a statue of Our Lady you can place flowers around a picture of her.
Vigil of Whit-Sunday – is a day of fasting. However, the 1983 Code of Canon Law rescinded this fast altogether but traditional Catholics still keep the fast.
Whit Embertide – the 1983 Code of Canon Law rescinded this fast altogether
TIME AFTER PENTECOST
Michaelmas Embertide – the 1983 Code of Canon Law rescinded this fast altogether.
Vigil of All Saints Day – is a day of fasting and abstinence. However, the 1983 Code of Canon Law rescinded this fast altogether but traditional Catholics still keep the fast.
All Saints Day – This is a Holy Day of Obligation on which we celebrate the Church Triumphant — all the Saints in Heaven, canonized or unknown.
All Souls Day – The Roman Rubics (1962) permits three Holy Masses to offered today, the glorious Sequence “Dies Irae” (also used in Requiem Masses, i.e., Masses for the Dead) will be recited after the Epistle, Gradual, and Tract (“Dies Irae” means “Day of Wrath”). Traditionally, the faithful visit a cemetery and pray for the dead:
Eternal Prayer:
English: Eternal rest grant unto him/her (them), O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon him/her (them). May he/she (they) rest in peace. Amen.
Latin: Réquiem ætérnam dona ei (eis) Dómine; et lux perpétua lúceat ei (eis). Requiéscat (Requiéscant) in pace. Amen.
Many individuals pray a Rosary nightly for the dead throughout the Octave of All Saints, replacing the Fatima prayer with the Eternal Rest prayer.
Ember Days occur four times a year, the Church sets aside three days to focus on God through His marvellous creation. These quarterly periods take place around the beginning of the four natural seasons. The Ember Days were definitely arranged and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085). However, the origins of the Ember Days date from before the 3rd Century and the fourth season was certainly added by the 5th Century because Gelasius (492-496) speaks of all four. Traditionally, the Ember Days are days favoured for priestly ordinations, prayer for priests, first Communions, alms-giving and other penitential and charitable acts, and prayer for the souls in Purgatory.
Ember days are days of fast and abstinence but this practice has been rescinded (1983 Code of Canon Law), however, it is still a great opportunity to observe this practice, as it was traditionally done by our parents and grandparents etc. This is a praiseworthy practice because it continues our Tradition and it is a powerful tool for prayer.
About Juventutem UK
Juventutem UK is for young Catholics adults (18 – 35) who are attached to the Traditional Sacraments
Connect With Us
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates.
