Click the images below for access to a bunch of gift guides & idea lists! You’ll find a lot of recommendations for men, women, and children – books, home decor, art, educational toys and resources, unique Catholic gifts and other favorites. Make sure you’re on my email list (box to sign up below) and follow me on Instagram @katiewarnercatholic for more gifting ideas. 

The post Ultimate List of Catholic Gifts appeared first on Katie Warner.

What is it?

Tea time is our family gathering each day in which we focus on goodness, truth, and beauty in our reading and discussions, specifically with an emphasis on faith formation. It’s basically our catechesis time of day, though we often throw in other subjects and learning, too (a current read-aloud, poetry, music or art study…sometimes [pleasurable] things we hadn’t finished earlier in our homeschool day [so, in our home, that generally means no math during team time]). When my dear friend Meg and I started First Faith Treasury Books years ago, we had a mission to form little disciples, and tea time is another incredible gift our family has uncovered that has also helped us in this beautiful discipleship formation process.

When is it?

We have tea time in the middle of the afternoon, right after “rest time” (which is the time of day when the kids are spending independent time either napping, reading, or listening to an audiobook while drawing or occupying their hands quietly). I think that the alone time preceding the family tea time actually makes the whole experience that much smoother, more enjoyable, and peaceful. Everyone is in a good mood and tea time actually gives the little kids a great energy boost to get through the rest of the day without the moodiness that sometimes sets in late afternoon!

Tea time doesn’t have to just be a Monday through Friday thing, though (and in our house, it’s not a guaranteed 5 day a week practice, as we sometimes have afternoon activities that shorten or shift tea time reading to a different part of the day). If you aren’t homeschooling, do tea time on the weekends (both parents can join then, too!). Honestly, even a once-a-week tea time is worthwhile and will create lasting memories made through shared conversation, stories, and faith.

What do you do?

Tea time always starts with Bible reading. I read one or two chapters/stories (the length depends on the Bible) and over a period of several months (go at whatever pace works for your family!), we read from cover to cover in whichever children’s Bible or study Bible we are using. Then we pick up another and start again. (I included some of our favorite Bibles in this list.) Last year, the two bigger kids drew pictures of the stories we had read — not necessarily daily, but at least once a week — and those pictures, along with a written narration of the story, were added to their own “Bible storybooks.” This year, they are orally narrating the story back to me each time after reading, and then we discuss/ask questions/apply the story and lessons to our lives! We are also enjoying Through the Year with Jesus to unpack the Sunday readings.

After Bible reading there is usually some sort of additional catechesis and learning. I listed some ideas below.

(PLEASE NOTE: We don’t do all of these things every day! If you’re just getting started, I recommend Bible reading + a Catholic picture book or some sort of additional catechesis + one more thing. That’s it. Build from there. We rotate through some of the things below every few weeks, and we also do some of these things at other times of day — family prayer times, meal times, morning lessons — but they all fit perfectly into tea time, too.)

Tea Time Resources

• Bible study
• Engaging religious picture books (a First Faith Treasury book or one from among the recommendations I have in my Amazon store – I still need to build this list as there are so many great ones to add; I simple can’t keep up!)
• Catechism study ( Lego Catechism of the Seven Sacraments [can’t recommend this enough!] or First Communion Catechism, for example. Kiddie Cat is best for the toddler crowd.)
• Saint study (again, I have some favorites in this list; we’re currently reading our way through this series!).
• Virtue study (I love these virtue cards!)
• Scripture memorization and recitation (this was the first set of verses we memorized)
• Devotional stories (these [book 1 and book 2] are our favorites!)
• Apologetics or other special topics (we use the What Is God Like books, McKeegan’s Old & New series, William Bennett books (like the Children’s Book of Virtue), the Treasure Box series (we have set 1 and set 2), Fr. Lovasik books, select stories from Angel Food for Boys and Girls, and others that I listed in the Amazon store to guide our learning and discussion).
• Mass part cards!
• Liturgical living! Tea time is the perfect time to incorporate liturgical living into your routine! This is often the time of day when we usually do some sort of craft, activity, game, or reading for a specific feast day or solemnity we are celebrating. Catholic Family Crate is my favorite resource for incorporating this into our tea time, along with these free Treasure Box emails.
• ***IF you have a religion curriculum you are following through your parish or as part of your homeschool, make this the content of your team time!

The goal here is to make learning and discussing the faith together as a family something enjoyable, memorable…an experience that everyone can look forward to, creating those positive associations between family togetherness and our beautiful faith.

Do you only read religious books at tea time?

We sometimes expand tea time into other subjects and topics (we’re all together and enjoying tea and good company — why not?!): maybe a novel/chapter book read-aloud (ideas here), poetry, music and art, science readers, manners study (my kids love these cards and the similar versions!), body safety and theology of the body conversations, and more. We are currently exploring our way through the Julia Rothman collection . Some of the added subjects make tea time more like “morning time” or “morning basket” which you can learn more about here.

The end of tea time is also a great chance to play a family game. Keeping with the faith-theming, we love the games from Catholic Family Crate and Holy Heroes.

If you are trying to incorporate a family prayer routine and don’t already have an established habit of morning, evening, or daytime prayer, tea time is a great time to pray together, too! I recommend starting tea time with Listening for God: Silence Practice for Little Ones – a great way to get the wiggles out and then focus on a brief silence and prayer time before launching into the rest of tea time. Tea time in our home usually encompasses part of the 3 o’clock hour, so I’d like us to incorporate the Divine Mercy chaplet more too, since it’s the hour of mercy! We are preparing for Marian Consecration with this beautiful book right now, too.

Where do you do tea time and what do you eat/drink?

We do tea time around the kitchen table. I try to keep the ambience enjoyable with a nicely set table/runner/centerpiece/seasonal or liturgical decor. In the Spring, we’ll cut flowers from around the yard so we have fresh florals and greens at the table. Sometimes I’ll light a candle. (I love CORDA candles as they have beautiful scents and great faith-theming! I also buy candles locally from The Zona Co.) But you don’t have to do this in a fancy way to make it enjoyable for you and the kids! It just adds a little extra.

We do, actually, drink tea! I buy herbal (non-caffeinated), fruity blends like these. I LOVE our tea maker and our Japanese cast iron tea set (I can’t find our exact model but these are all similar and kind of make me swoon for a new set!). The cast iron is so durable, which is helpful when I’ve got a three year old who may or may not tip the teacup on a regular basis. If you have a really little one and want to go with something more beginner-ish/tiny hands friendly, this set may be ideal. A fun drink in a unique cup really makes the tea time over here. My kids love it and feel so classy. If you aren’t going to drink tea, serve a drink that’s unique to tea time: lemonade, sparkling water, hot cocoa, etc.

We also have an afternoon snack with our tea. You can still have a healthy tea time! Cookies and scones are not a tea time staple here, but we do elevate the usual tea time snack (apple slices and nut butter, cheese and olives, veggies/almond flour crackers and hummus) to a tea time treat (these cookies are favorites, but I love to bake so the sweet treat is usually changing) on solemnities and special feasts (baptism days, family saint days)!

How long is tea time? How do you keep the little kids’ attention for the whole tea time?

The length of tea time varies widely here. It can last anywhere from twenty minutes to more than an hour. As you know with little ones (my kids are currently 7, 5, 3, and nearing 1 as I write this post), flexibility is a necessity! The tea and snack help keep the children’s attention for the first part of tea time, and then we bring out quiet activities to keep little hands occupied: coloring books (religious ones would be perfect for the faith-themed tea time like this one by Adelee Hude, the Brother Francis series, but my kids also do nature, art, or other interest- themed coloring books during tea time), sticker mosaics, molding clay, water beads , how to draw books, etc. I have more activities, ideas, and art supplies listed in my Amazon store lists. These activities are usually helpful if tea time goes beyond the faith formation/discussion time into read-aloud time and other learning, as mentioned above.

Where can I buy my resources for tea time?

For ease of access and simplicity of compiling lists, I share a lot of our tea time resources in my Amazon storefront via affiliate links throughout the article – BUT – GOOD NEWS! Bookshop is one of my favorite places to support and they have an ever-growing selection Christian and family-friendly literature. I like that I can buy from them without having to vet for faith-safe content. You can also buy many of these books and resources straight from the publishers (a lot of these books mentioned, for example, are from our own publisher, TAN Books.)

Can you give me some very simple, doable advice to start our tea time routine?

1. Grab a children’s Bible and a few great Catholic children’s books!
2. Gather the kids and sit around a kitchen or a coffee table with a cup of something unique to tea time.
3. Read, talk, pray, and be together. Tea time is about connection and relationship, learning and growing in faith together…and making memories. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or lengthy or complicated. Just do it, and let me know if you start seeing the fruits.

Don’t forget to invite friends and family to tea time, too (especially fun to do on feast days)!

Before You Go…

I am always adding to my favorite resources for tea time and faith formation, so the best way to keep in touch about what I’m loving (and what I’m publishing … I have some super exciting new First Faith Treasury titles coming down the pipeline in a few months that will all make perfect tea time reads!) is to sign up for my email list in the boxes below (if you haven’t entered the giveaway).

You can also find me on Facebook and on Instagram, and I would LOVE for you to send me a message or tag me in a post letting me know if this guide has been helpful to you…or what you’d like me to add or unpack next!

Can I share this in my parish’s e-newsletter or bulletin?

I know I have a lot of priests and parish staff who read and use the resources from this site (I am so glad it is helpful to you!). Please feel free to use the intro blurb and link to this article in your bulletin, on your parish website, or through your diocesan/parish/ministry email list. No need to reach out for permission – this is it! I’d love to see this tea time practice reach more families! It has been so transformative to ours.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Tea Time appeared first on Katie Warner.

**Looking for the Resource List I mentioned in my talk? Here it is!**

Enter the giveaway below to win *your choice* of any THREE of my children’s book titles:

Picture books: Father Ben Gets Ready for Mass, I Went to Mass: What Did I See?, Lily Lolek: Future Saint, This is the Church

Board books: Cloud of Witnesses: A Child’s First Book of Saints, The Word of the Lord: A Child’s First Scripture Verses, Kiddie Cat: A Child’s First Catechism Lesson, Let Us Pray: A Child’s First Book of Prayers

You can learn more about all of these titles and find links to buy them for the little ones in your life at FirstFaithTreasury.com!

Giveaway is open to summit talk listeners in the U.S. Winner will be contacted via email.

Looking for the Resource List I mentioned in my talk? Here it is!

If you want access to the other resources in my free resource library, or you want to get alerts when we release new children’s books or other helpful resources for Catholic families, feel free to pop your name and email in the boxes below!

The post Catholic Moms Summit – Giveaway + Resource List! appeared first on Katie Warner.

I love a good holiday gift guide, but – a goal guide? Now we’re really speaking my love language.

Here are some of my favorite resources to help you accomplish your spiritual goals in 2019 (and I’ve thrown in some resources for your kids, too):

To strengthen your prayer life

• Pray More Novenas (1): If you’re not signed up for this super handy email service, I highly recommend it. The lovely couple behind the ministry send novena prayers to your inbox so you don’t have to remember when to pray a popular novena or worry about skipping a day.
• A Parent Who Prays: A Journal to Guide You in Praying for Your Children (2): This journal is meant to help you pray in a more intentional, focused way for your children. It offers 52 unique, beautiful intentions to focus on in prayer for each week of the year, short saint quotes, Bible verses and prayers, along with some space to fill in personal intentions and spiritual bouquets. There are also versions for Grandparents, Godparents, Sponsors, Teachers, and a Spanish version. (Contact me through my website for bulk order inquiries.)
• Sweet Oak Kitchen abacus rosary(or similar) (3) or Catholic Woodworker mini prayer stand(4): These resources are ideal if you’re looking to pray the Rosary more but struggle to find the time to really focus on this devotion. The kitchen rosary allows you to pray as you go about your housework, while the prayer stand is perfect to pack and take along with you – along with your rosary (there are beautiful ones available through the same site) – if you travel for work or otherwise – a great tool to keep your prayer life on track even while away from home.
• Printable quick-reference prayer guide for families(5): a one-sheet with simple ideas for family prayer. This resource is easy to print, free, and can even engage children by allowing them to take part in guiding how and what the family prays together.

To read the Bible more

• Blessed Is She Catholic Journaling Bible(6) or The Great Adventure Catholic Bible(7): Sometimes it just takes a really beautiful Bible to breathe a little extra energy into your Scripture reading routine. These are two of my favorites that are both new and have unique features that will leave you craving time in God’s Word even more.
• Bible in a Year(8): Anything by the Augustine Institute is well worthy of landing on a quality resource list, and Bible in a Year is no exception. If you want to work your way through the entire Bible while reading solid, inspiring and informative commentary from some of the best Scripture scholars today, this book is for you.
• The Word of the Lord: A Child’s First Scripture Verses(9): this one is for the little ones in your life – a great primer to a full-length Bible, this board book has verses straight from Sacred Scripture accompanied by beautiful illustrations. It’s wonderful to have a good children’s Bible in the home, but if you also want to fill your child’s heart with inspiring Bible verses that are especially relevant to little ones, or if you want your child to start memorizing Scripture, you might really enjoy this book.

To enhance your experience of the Mass

• First, start with this short video by Fr. Mike Schmitz(10). He reminds the listener that Mass isn’t about us, it’s about worship. If you find yourself falling into the trap of expecting to be entertained at Mass or asking “What can I get out of it?” then this will help you reset your thinking and focus on what youcan give to God.
• Every Sacred Sunday(11): This takes the cake for the most gorgeous Mass journal. I recently finished working my way through the first edition and I couldn’t wait to open this up to review the Sunday readings each week. I ended up popping this journal in the car to review the readings with my husband and kids on our weekly drive to Sunday Mass.
• To Hear His Voice(12): This is a Mass journal for Catholic kids. If you’ve got Every Sacred Sunday or a similar journal, why not get your kids in the Mass journaling habit as well? Holy Heroes offers a free Sunday Mass prep(13) email service, which is another great resource for kids.
• Homily/Sunday reading podcasts (14): There are a number of good ones out there, and they really do help you dive deeper into the Scripture you will hear at Mass each week. I find listening to a good podcast one of the most important parts of my regular Sunday Mass prep, especially since my little children can innocently distract me from listening during the liturgy. Bishop Barron has a good sermon podcastwith short, powerful Gospel reflections and The Word on the Hill podcast by the Lanky Guysunpacks all of the readings and finds their common thread.
• I Went to Mass: What Did I See?(15): Our favorite picture book to read during the week to get us excited about going to Mass. Best for little ones. Think Brown Bear Brown Bear – but with all Catholic things.

To get to know the saints

• Saints name generator(16): This handy little resource will give you a random saint which you can spend the next year learning about, while imploring your new patron’s intercession. Have the whole family do it so you can take turns sharing about your saints with each other.
• Books like A Year with the Saints(17) (for adults) and Cloud of Witnesses: A Child’s First Book of Saints(18) (for kids): These are perfect resources to learn more about the saints and from the saints by immersing yourself into their very own words and writings.
• Saint dolls: These are so popular now – and for good reason. Kids learn so much through play, and many Catholic artisans have taken to producing beautiful wooden saint peg dolls on Etsy (like these, for example), and companies like Shining Light Dolls(19) also get adorable little saints into the hands of little ones (and the saints come with handy little cards explaining a little about their lives).
• Saint movies(20): I love the selection of saint movies for both adults and children on FORMED.org. Check with your parish to see if they have a FORMED subscription. If they do, they can provide you with a login code to access all of the great FORMED content for free.

To improve your marriage

• Forever: A Catholic Devotional for Your Marriage(21): I love a good devotional, but one I can do with my spouse is even better. This six-week devotional, inspired by Pope Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, will have you both reconnecting in an intentional way.
• Beloved(22): This video series, also from FORMED.org, is great for use at home or in a group setting. Recommend it to your parish or grab some couple friends and go through the series together.
• Popcak books: I think Dr. Greg Popcak from the Pastoral Solutions Institute and the More2Life radio program offers some particularly helpful books on marriage. I particular recommend The Exceptional 7 Percentand When Divorce is Not An Option(23). Don’t let the title of the latter steer you away if you’re in a healthy marriage; I found the strategies in the book excellent for all couples.
• Retrouvaille program/retreat(24): If your marriage is struggling and you feel like you need a lifeline, this is it. Don’t keep putting off help; this resource may be a lifesaver for you and your spouse this year.

To study the Catechism

• Catechism in a Year(25): Read the entire Catechism in a year with these Monday through Friday emails sent to your inbox.
• Lego Catechism of the Seven Sacraments(26): Such a neat book in terms of design, and the content is excellent, too. The adults will likely learn right along with the kids.
• Catholic Sprouts(27): My new favorite podcast for kids. Nancy, the host, will deliver short, catechetical episodes to your kids Monday through Friday each week. My kids look forward to listening to them every morning at breakfast.

To live the liturgical year at home

• Celebrate the Feasts e-book(28): This free e-guide offers a summary of each major solemnity, some reading recommendations, and simple ideas for celebrating. Keep it on your desktop for easy reference.
• Catholic Family Crate(29): This awesome subscription box service themes their crates and allows you to live the faith at home with your kids in a very doable way. [affiliate link]
• The Catholic All Year Compendium(30): This book was just released but was immediately popular based on its both comprehensive and easy to reference content for liturgical living at home.
• Observe the Ember Days podcast or year-round no meat Fridays: This podcastoverviews what Ember Days are all about and this articleexplains why abstaining from meat every Friday is a good Catholic practice that shouldn’t just be reserved for Lent.

To do more spiritual reading

• Best Catholic Books of All Time: Great reading list from Brandon Vogt. Try to pick one a month.
• com(31): A new line of picture books and board books for Catholic kids. Solid catechesis and adorable illustrations – there are several more coming out next year, so pop in your email if you want to know when new books release.
• Jacques Philippe books: These are usually my favorite spiritual reads. Start with Searching for and Maintaining Peace(32), The Way of Trust and Love, and Thirsting for Prayer.

Obviously this list is not exhaustive, so, please, feel free to share your own favorite resources to help you and others reach their spiritual goals this coming year.

The post The 2019 Goal Guide appeared first on Katie Warner.

As Catholic parents, grandparents, godparents, teachers, and guardians of our little children, we want them to develop a close relationship with Jesus and a deep love for God’s Word. Helping our little ones foster a devotion to the Bible from an early age is one of the best ways to plant seeds for a fruitful walk with the Lord over the course of their lives.

Here are some simple tips for reading Scripture with young children:

1. Don’t ditch the real thing! Scripture itself tells us: “…the word of God is living and active” (Hebrews 4:12). I love a good children’s Bible and it can be a helpful tool in the little years, but, grown-ups, don’t shy away from reading your young kids the REAL Bible. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we observe children at the feet of adults — even at the feet of Christ Himself — listening to the unwatered-down words of Scripture. Trust that their little souls can handle big truths. Maybe for now they simply listen, but this lays the foundation for understanding later.

2. Start small. Imprint little bits of biblical truth into your child’s heart. My favorite way to do this is by praying one short passage of Scripture with my children during our morning or evening prayer time. That little nugget of wisdom can be something to reflect on in our hearts or a launching point for discussion. We use this beautiful new children’s book every day to help us hear and pray (and memorize) the Word of God together: The Word of the Lord: A Child’s First Scripture Verses. That resource leads me to my next tip…

3. Utilize images. Children love to learn through art. That’s why I love The Word of the Lord – because a simple, gorgeous illustration accompanies each Bible verse, giving my little ones some image to focus on as they hear or read God’s Word. Use pictures to help the Scriptures come to life for your children, both in art and by encouraging them to close their eyes and form mental pictures of what they hear or read in the Bible.

4. Focus on stories. Most of us don’t start instilling a love for Scripture in our children by reading Leviticus at length (even adults might flee from that idea). But little children love Old Testament hero stories (i.e. David and Goliath) and Gospel stories (i.e. the parables). Focus especially on Jesus as the Good Shepherd; it’s one of the most relatable, comforting, beautiful images of Jesus for the young child.

5. Make Bible reading a daily habit. Teach your children that the Bible is the most important book in the house by reading it every single day. Let them see you reading it, encourage your young readers to read from the Bible themselves every day, and take time to read the Bible aloud together as a family during morning or evening prayer. Over time, you’ll see this family habit bearing much fruit in the lives of your children.

The post 5 Tips for Reading Scripture with Young Children appeared first on Katie Warner.

The post Prayer Room Tour appeared first on Katie Warner.

One thing I love about being Catholic is the emphasis we place on relationship with our heavenly friends, the saints. Their lives can inspire us and our children to heroic virtue, their writings and words encourage us in our own growth in holiness, and their closeness to God gives us allies we can approach in prayer, knowing they can place our needs at the feet of Christ.

Over the years, I’ve come to find saints who truly feel like close friends on my own spiritual journey, and I want my children to find their own companion saints as they grow and seek God’s will in their lives, too.

Here are some super simple ways I help my children befriend the saints:

1. Ask their intercession. This can be super quick and simple, like asking for St. Anthony’s help when something is lost (my almost 5 year old especially appreciates St. Anthony when a toy has gone missing), or reciting a saint’s name followed by “pray for us!” at the end of a family prayer. You can also invoke many saints together in your intercessory prayer by doing a “litany of saints” together as a family (our kids hold up their wooden saint dolls and we ask each saint to pray for us, before they return the little figurine to their small cathedral). Getting to know what each saint is the patron saint of can also help you, as a parent or grandparent, ask particular saints for their intercession throughout the day or in unique circumstances. For example, St. Rita is the patroness of impossible causes and hopeless situations – she might be a young child’s best friend in the middle of a tantrum! Or St. Joseph can be invoked by dad before he starts a project with the kids. We ask for Mother Mary, Queen of All Saints, to pray for us many times a day at our house.
2. Read saint-themed books. Our current favorite is Cloud of Witnesses: A Child’s First Book of Saints, our first board book in the FirstFaithTreasury.com series. It’s filled with simple but profound lessons from well-known saints; each page gives the child a short, memorable quote accompanied by a beautiful illustration of the saint who spoke or wrote it. We read one page together in the morning each day, repeating it a few times. It gives older kids and parents some beautiful wisdom to reflect on throughout the day, and for the little ones, those words can start to sink into their hearts as they gaze at the adorable pictures! There are so many excellent saint books out there from Catholic publishers these days. Reading is a great way to foster your child’s friendship with the saints. I share more of my favorite saint books here.
3. Celebrate their feast days. Celebrating the feast days of the saints really makes them come to life for children. It’s kind of like going to a friend’s birthday party – a special treat or activity can make the day so much sweeter for kids, and associating it with someone they know in heaven will make them enjoy a relationship with them that much more. Tons of Catholic blogs have ideas for celebrating their days – coloring pages, recipes from their native land, craft projects, and more.
4. Display pictures of them in your home. Frame pictures of your children’s favorite saints or display a small statue of them from your local Catholic bookstore in your child’s room. Just like you put pictures of your family around your home, make sure you have some pictures of close members of your heavenly family around, too!
5. Talk about their lives. Audiobooks like Once Upon a Time Saints, the Holy Heroes CDs, the Saints and Heroes DVD collection from CCC of America, and some of the great audio and video of the lives of the saints on FORMED.org are great catalysts for conversation with children about the saints. But you can even just weave in little bits of discussion throughout the day – asking questions like “What would this saint have done in this situation?” or “How can we practice this virtue, which saint so-and-so practiced so well?” Sometimes I will just say aloud to my young children, “I hope I can be as brave as St. Joan of Arc,” or make other comments about the lives and character of the saints, so they know that the saints are on my mind and that it’s good for them to be always thinking about them, too.

The post 5 Simple Ways to Help Your Children Befriend the Saints appeared first on Katie Warner.

I Went to Mass: What Did I See? available on Amazon and at TANBooks.com. Photo cred: CatholicWoodworker.com

In case you want to grab some of the products featured in the giveaway, here’s a roundup of everything featured! Make sure you follow me on Instagram @katiewarnercatholic, and follow @firstfaithtreasury for more chances to win goodies for you and your kiddos as we get ready to release our first board book, Cloud of Witnesses: A Child’s First Book of Saints!

Giveaway Partners and Featured Products

• Happy Nest Home Goods – Sacrifice Beads
• Not So Formulaic with Ginny Kochis – To Hear His Voice: A Mass Journal for Catholic Kids
• The Catholic Woodworker – Children’s Rosary
• Shining Light Dolls – St. Gianna and St. Maximilian Kolbe saint dolls

All of these Catholic business have awesome products and great people behind them, so make sure you check out their shops and products. I think you’ll find excellent gifts for you, your kids, or other family members and friends!

The post I Went to Mass Giveaway Partners appeared first on Katie Warner.

For a little while now, we have been using this helpful cheat sheet that I printed and laminated with ideas for family prayer. It sits on one of the bookshelves in our prayer room, serving as a useful and easy reference to guide our prayer every morning and night. My husband can simply glance over at it, choose one of the prayer ideas, and lead the way.

It’s especially helpful with little ones to have some simple ideas on hand of what/how to pray as a family. My kids can even take turns picking from the list, which helps them feel even more included in our family prayer time. I thought maybe some others would benefit from this tool too, so here you go!

Hopefully this printable will help you as it has helped us.

(Click the image below to get the printable version. And make sure you pop in your email address in the box below the picture, too, so I can send you some of my other favorite – and free – resources that we use as a family to have a more intentional faith at home.)

The post Ideas for Family Prayer – Easy Reference Guide appeared first on Katie Warner.

Favorite images from the Mass fill the pages of this beautiful book, helping children learn, label, and love what they see in their own church.  With the book’s upbeat cadence, whimsical rhyme, and adorable illustrations, children will delight right along with the little boy at all there is to see at Mass.

I Went to Mass is sure to become a classic for Catholic children everywhere!

A delightful tour through a Catholic church from the perspective of a little boy in awe of all there is to see and love at Mass, I Went to Mass takes a story approach to learning the parts of a church and things a little child encounters at Mass.

The sing-song, rhyming nature of the book will make it stick in the child s memory and make the book easy to recite by heart. Kids will be repeating the words of the book as they see these things (holy water font, the altar, the priest, statues, etc.) at their own parish church!

I Went to Mass provides great catechesis with adorable illustrations. The perfect gift for the 18-month to 6-year-old child in your life!

This beautifully illustrated treasure will be enjoyed by young children and parents as they prayerfully ponder the signs and images seen at the Mass. Truly it will help the children to a more fully active participation in the liturgy. It is a wonderful addition to any family’s library and a perfect gift. –Mary Mirrione, National Director for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in the United States

“I Went to Mass is a greatly needed treasure for children and the grown-ups who love them. With bright, detailed illustrations and inviting prose, this book offers your family a look at the many treasures of our faith present in the celebration of the Mass. Give your children the gift of I Went to Mass and find them excitedly anticipating the Eucharist!” – Lisa M. Hendey, Founder of CatholicMom.com and author of the Chime Travelers series

“What a charming, delightful delivery of catechetical content for the very young!  Not only does it present the child’s experience at Church in the sacramental setting of Sunday Mass, but it concentrates that content in repetition, with a definitive rhythm and even some rhyme. Very young children can “read” within the arms of their parents – cementing their “learning with love.”  Quick! I need two copies immediately for a grandson and a great grandson!” –Dr. Carol Younger, Author for WINE (Women in the New Evangelization), Retired teacher, counselor, administrator, and grandmother of eight

“I Went to Mass is a charming book that will draw little hearts into the joy of going to Mass. With gentle illustrations and warm prose, it is the perfect companion for every Catholic kid.” – Sam Guzman, founder of The Catholic Gentleman and father of four 

The post NOW AVAILABLE: I Went to Mass: What Did I See? appeared first on Katie Warner.