Living the Liturgical Year Well: New Year to the Baptism of Our Lord

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Happy New Year! As Anne would say: “isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” It is the same for this new year! It has no mistakes in it yet! How truly refreshing and enticing. Let’s lay the foundation for our best year yet! At the beginning of the new year the Church presents us with four beautiful feasts to start right: Our Lady as Mother of God, the Feast of the Epiphany, the Feast of Baptism of Our Lord and the month of January is dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus!

Mary, Mother of God

If Mary is the mother of God, that means that she is our mother too. I have always had a great devotion to Our Lady, and she has been an amazing intercessor in my life. I would like to introduce you to a beautiful devotion that has impacted my life a lot.
On January 1st, the Church celebrates Mary, Mother of God. It is a Holy Day of Obligation. The Church “forces” us to begin the year with our Mother, to entrust it to her and cling to her under the title of Mother. How beautiful! Mary is our Mother, she listens to us, she intercedes for us and will guide us, if only we spend the time to listen in return.

The letter

I mentioned this in a previous post already, but it is so good that I have to bring it back up.
The Church encourages us to welcome the new year under the tutelage of Our Lady. A family tradition that I learned growing up and that I truly cherish is to spend some time on New Year’s Day with Our Lady. As a family we take some quiet time, at home or at an adoration chapel to write a letter to Our lady. First, as it has been a long standing tradition, we open and read the letter we wrote to her the previous year. The number of answered prayers are always astounding! I always start the letter with Thanksgiving before petitioning her for very special and dear intentions. This is a time to really spend with Our Mother and to reflect on the past year and on what the new year might bring. We then put the letters into sealed envelopes and place them under a statue of Our Lady in our home, entrusting our hopes to her.

Holy Name of Jesus

Each calendar month has been dedicated by the Church to a certain patronage. The month of January is dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus. Paying attention to these dedications is the perfect opportunity for catechising ourselves and our families. The Holy Name of Jesus contains all the Love, Hope and sweetness imaginable. It is the Name we call upon in our distress and in our rejoicing. THE Name. It is the Word made flesh. The Holy Name of Jesus encompasses the whole mystery of the Incarnation and of our salvation. We can teach our children this short ejaculation to both praise His Holy name and invoke it: “Blessed be the most holy Name of Jesus without end!”. It is so short and can be repeated over and over throughout the month. The Church encourages us to remember Jesus’s name and invoke it especially during January. Month of the Holy Name of Jesus Overview.

Optional Memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus

January 3rd is the 10th day of Christmas, calls for the celebration of the optional memorial of the Holy name of Jesus. Years ago I found this beautiful little board book containing the Names of Jesus: The Saving Name of God the Son by Jean Ann Sharpe, illustrated by Fra Angelico. It is beautiful, my toddlers love to look at it while we pray the Rosary and it has been treasured in our home. At some time that day we will pray the Litany of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. It is so beautiful! Then we will conclude with a simple but meaningful craft that will grace our prayer altar for the rest of the month. We add the different titles of Our Lord on the rays. We use the titles found either in The Saving Name of God the Son or in the Litany of the Most Holy Name depending on how much time we have.It remains on our prayer altar to focus on for the month of January.

Epiphany

This beautiful feast of the visit of the Magi concludes the Twelve Days of Christmas. This is the last day our Christmas tree will be up, the house will be tidied. Only the Nativity scene will remain until the Baptism of Our Lord, the conclusion of the Christmas season, for another week. But for a last hurrah the children will find just one more picture book under the Christmas tree. The Three Kings will be placed in the Crèche and we will enjoy some Kings Cake, the French way. We will close the day with the traditional blessing of our home.
For more activities for the feast of Epiphany checkout the January 2025 Bookworm or Booklover memberships.

Epiphany picture books

Are you ready for this? This is a fun one!

• We Three Kings, by Gennady Spirin. The lyrics of the carol with stunning illustrations.
• Amahl and the Night Visitors, by Gian Carlo Menotti, illustrated by Michele Lemieux. Beautiful story of a lame boy welcoming the Magi for a night.
• Small Camel Follows the Star, by Rachel W. N. Brown, illustrated by Giuliano Ferri.
• The Last Straw, by Frederick H. Thury, illustrated by Vlasta van Kampen. By far my favorite! Hushmakaka’s complaints have become part of our everyday.
• This is the Star, by Joyce Dunbar, illustrated by Gary Blythe. A fun repetitive story, I try to read it as fast as possible without tripping on the words. Laughs guaranteed.
• The Legend of Old Befana, by Tomie dePaola.
• Baboushka and the Three Kings, by Ruth Robbins, illustrated by Nicolas Sidjakov.
• The Story of the Other Wise Man, by Henry van Dyke.
• The Story of the Three Wise Kings, by Tomie dePaola.
• The Christmas Star, by Marcus Pfister.
• They Followed a Bright Star, by Joan Alavedra, illustrated by Ulises Wensell.

I hope you enjoy this list and its many treasures as much as we do!

The Baptism of Our Lord

This beautiful Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord by his cousin, Saint John the Baptist, ushers the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and of ordinary time. As we are all a little burnt out by the weeks of celebration, we usually celebrate this feast quietly. We will take down our Christmas tree, but the Creche remains until February 2nd and Candlemas and the feast of the Presentation. We will have a candlelit dinner, with very special candles. The children’s baptismal candles are used even if we only light them for a short time, to make them last. The renewing of our baptismal vows at Mass and at home create a wonderful opportunity for catechesis and taking some time to look at each child’s Baptism pictures. It is a beautiful and quiet end to a most magnificent season.

I wish you a beautiful new year and a wonderful end to this beautiful Christmas season and beginning of Ordinary Time.
Love,
Mattie