Preparing Heart and Home: An Advent Gift For You

adventcover

I’ve been re-working my seasonal Advent plans and I’m eager to share the plans with you.

It is completely free to download, print and share.

Non nobis – Ad majorem Dei gloriam!

As always, this booklet contains:

  • The rich liturgical history of the season of Advent.
  • A week by week planner which contains a daily listing of the liturgical feasts and customs appropriate to that day. Each day contains book ideas coordinating with the daily feast, and Advent customs which used to be a part of an overall Catholic culture, a culture we are all trying to reclaim.
  • Booklists for you to consider.
  • Room for you to jot down new books you’ve found or books you’d like to add to your daily reading.
  • O Antiphons listed with a link to a prayer companion for praying the O Antiphons.
  • The booklet contains daily plans and ideas from the 1st Sunday of Advent through January 10 (the Feast of the Holy Family) – covering Advent and the Christmas season.
  • This booklet is compiled by a lay Catholic who is faithful to the Magisterium and teaching body of the Church. This booklet is not affiliated with an approved ecclesiastical source.
  • This booklet is in pdf format – you are free to download, print, read on your tablet (most tablets will allow you to view a pdf in your ibooks or kindle app) or computer. By all means share with your friends! Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!

A few of the updates this year:

  • A new cover, which I hoped would look nice if you’re viewing and following your plans on your tablet.  It’s far from professional – but I hope it invites recollection and preparation.
  • I updated the dates for the planner to reflect this year’s calendar.
  • I added page numbers at the bottom of (most) pages – I found myself looking for them frequently, so I hope the addition is a help.
  • If there is a difference between the Extraordinary Form and Ordinary Form calendars I noted that on the planner.  Both calendars are represented.
  • I added space to journal plans, ideas, extra books, and craft ideas after each week’s plans. I hope this makes the planner useful and personal to you and your family.
  • I streamlined and simplified the colors (and amount of color) used so that if you print, there is less drain on your color printer. My printer thanks me – and so will yours!
  • All books are now linked at the end of this post.
  • This is a 20 page booklet – keep that in mind for printing purposes.

I’m sharing with a prayer that as you prepare your heart and home this season, this humble little offering will serve only to bring you and your family closer to Our Little Lord, whom we await in joyful hope.

Click the image below or the link following this text to download the 2015/16 Advent plans.

Click to download –> Preparing Heart and Home – Advent & Christmas (2015)

Preparing Heart and Home - Advent & Christmas (2015)

The Advent & Christmas Booklist

What follows is a collection of books our family has enjoyed over the years. Many of them are included on the plans. This is not an exhaustive list! We don’t read all of these each Advent season – we choose a few to enjoy. Collect books for your Advent basket a little at a time, keeping choices lovely and reserving enough quiet to prepare for the season. (Please note that I am an Amazon affiliate and most of these links are through Amazon – if you click through these links I do earn a very small amount. Thank you!)

The Juggler of Notre Dame books

Board Books

Books which may be a blessing in your own home liturgical celebrations:

  • True Christmas Spirit by Rev. Edward J. Sutfin – FREE version is linked; I formatted the free text so it was easier to read and print – you can print it by clicking here –> true_christmas

We wait!

 

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16 Comments

  1. Thanks you for your efforts in compiling this resource! If you ever revise again,this graphic designer respectfully suggests replacing all the script typeface ( with a nice serif font) Very hard to read, although the I could blame the combination of iPad and my aging eyesight.

    1. Thanks Terri! I’m definitely not a graphic designer so these things don’t jump out at me as readily – I just liked the pretty fonts when I built the original document for myself. 🙂 I actually thought about revising the fonts for this year but then ran out of time. Your comment affirms my initial impulse. I’ll have to work on that! Thanks for your input!!

    1. This is a great document that will bless a lot of homes. Thank you so much for sharing. I am going to for sure pass this around to friends and use my own.

  2. Thank you for this! I’m learning more about advent and my newly discovered faith, so this list is helpful. I wonder, (and this may be posted in the wrong place), are there any devotionals or books that you’d recommend for a woman? Specifically, what I’ve seen in my own searching includes a lot of things aimed at women who are mothers, and I may not be a young woman, but I don’t have any children yet, and I’m not married, so I find that the options are rather limited. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

    1. Hi Susan and thank you for your very kind comment!

      I don’t have any devotionals that are specifically geared toward ladies, but I heartily recommend the The Sermons of St. Francis de Sales: For Advent and Christmas (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0895552612/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0895552612&linkCode=as2&tag=wildfandmarbl-20&linkId=ZRS3EPRXYWMSRHQD) for a lovely reflection during Advent.

      Also, I know it’s pricey (typically between $55-$75), but it’s a prayer book I use every single day – year after year – and the Advent reflections are so wonderful! I enjoy them every year and uncover something new that I needed to hear and apply to my spiritual life every single year. The book to which I’m referring is a devotional that follows the liturgical year (note that it follows the 1962 calendar) and provides a daily reading for every single day – every season, not just Advent – of the liturgical year. It’s a gem! Divine Intimacy by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=divine%20intimacy%20father%20gabriel%20magdalen&linkCode=ur2&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Adivine%20intimacy%20father%20gabriel%20magdalen&tag=wildfandmarbl-20&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&linkId=NR7L2GKYUTPAWDHK).

      Those are my two Advent devotional recommendations. If I could only purchase one book, it would be Divine Intimacy because the reflections are so wonderful and helpful, and the book follows the entire year, every year. Mine never sits on the shelf. It’s always in my little prayer basket.

      A very blessed Advent to you, Susan!

      1. Thank you so much. I’ll look into these. I very much look forward to your posts. This is a lovely blog and you’re such an inspiration.

  3. I know this is an old post, but I’m going to leave a comment anyway. 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing your Advent/Christmas booklist. Just picked up Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Catholic Children (1-20) for FREE at a local church bazaar! So excited!

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