The Catholic All Year Compendium: Liturgical Living for Real Life

This is a wonderful book, full of wisdom and common sense that teaches creative and practical ways to incorporate liturgical living into your life and the home. Of course you can’t follow every one of her ideas and suggestions (and she is the first to admit that), but the book is comprehensive that you have a wide variety of ideas and traditions to learn from and choose what you want to incorporate into your life. Her ideas about St. Nicholas/Santa shaped the way we presented the concept to our kids and we’ve put her ideas into practice for a more focused Lent and sacred Easter season. The book reads easily, is well organized, and speaks to the beautiful traditions and depth of our Catholic faith. I learned so much about different feasts, saints, traditions, and history of our Church. Even if you don’t plan to actively apply many of her activities (at least right now), this book will help you think about how to shape your life with liturgical living in mind and it will definitely increase your love and understanding of the Church and Her history and traditions. As a mom of young children, it’s been so helpful to start navigating liturgical living with kids and figuring out how we want to (slowly) incorporate liturgical living into our family life. I can see so many ways in which such an approach will bear fruit for all of us and help us to grow in and deepen our faith. I highly recommend this fantastic book, and advise buying a hard copy you can mark up and reference continuously year after year. My only caveat is that sometimes the book can be a bit overwhelming because there is so much here. But, that’s why she recommends taking the ideas you like and leaving those that don’t appeal to you, frequently reminding us that many aspects of liturgical living are optional, while also reminding us of those sacrifices and devotions that are not. Highly recommend!

I love this book, and the companion book! I started using these books regularly, starting at the beginning of the litugical year. The author makes things so easy to understand and relate to, and her ideas are great! I've used many of her suggestions with my family, and my kids (1.5-6) enjoy the foods and activities she suggests. Even my husband, who is a convert and never experienced these rituals growing up, is more than willing to participate. Last week, he blessed our doors with chalk for Epiphany, and today he led us in renewing our baptismal promises. Even as a cradle catholic, I have learned more about living my faith in daily life. Such a great resource, and I recommend it to everyone, no matter your age or the age of your children!

I am so appreciative of this book, which provides so many great ideas for introducing Catholic traditions to our family's life. It is organized around the liturgical year and has something for about 2-3 days per week. It will explain what saint's feast day it is and give you an idea about how to celebrate that day with your family. I found that this book was a lot easier to use as a guide to liturgical living than any other book out there. Also, check out Kendra's website and blog! Great ideas there too and additional prayers and calendars etc to help live out the liturgical year at home. Catholic traditions are not just for church on Sunday - they are for home life too!

Where was this book when I was a young mom? So many helpful ways to weave the faith into the day, according to the season and the liturgical year. Not only are the explanations clear and concise, but the writer has a lovely sense of humor that pokes its head now and again, making this book a delightful read.

This book, together with the “Prayer Companion,” has been incredibly helpful in helping me understand and live the liturgical year. Entering the Church later in life, I often struggled to connect the saints, feast days, and traditions, but the author explains everything with clarity, warmth, and humor. Reading the daily entries has become a cherished part of my morning, and they’ve deepened both my understanding and my appreciation of the Catholic faith. A joyful and inspiring resource for anyone who wants to bring the rhythm of the Church year into daily life. Highly recommended.

I love this book! I’ve been following Kendra’s blog for many years now and was so excited when she announced her book, and it was even better than I’d hoped! She has an amazing sense of humor and offers great practical advice to incorporating more of the rich traditions of the Church and celebrations of so many feast days into normal, crazy family life. She includes saint feasts both ancient (Catherine of Alexandria, St. John the Baptist) and modern (St John Paul II, St Gianna Molla, St. Teresa of Calcutta), so you get both a rediscovery of old celebrations and get to be part of the process for creating new ones. This book will be one of my “go to’s” for years to come!

I like this book because it's an easy read. It's laid out perfectly. It has a lot of good history and information, however some of the ideas to do as a family are just plain silly. For example, eat eclairs on Saint Claire Day. Serve "round food" on the passion of St John the Baptist, and a "head of lettuce" some of these ideas I think are kinda silly. There are also some really good ideas though. So if you can overlook some of the silly ones, this book may be for you. I think all in all it's a good start to young families trying to live liturgically

This is such a treasure of a book! Kendra gives so many great ideas for so many different feasts, solemnities and liturgical seasons. I reference this book all the time! I enjoy Kendra’s fun but clear writing style and her passion for liturgical living. It’s worth noting that many of the suggestions (but definitely not all) are focused on foods or desserts, and though we have dietary restrictions, I still can make some variation of the food or treats. Or, I can create some of my own ideas from what is written.

I have known the catholic all year blog for some years now and am delighted, that there is now a book about it. Kendra Tierney writes in a very personal kind of way about her experience with the liturgical year of the catholic church. She shares many personal stories, ideas, experiences of what worked for them and what did not and witty stories, but also church teaching and biblical basis. It is a must have book for anyone looking to implement the richness of living in the liturgical year of the catholic church.

I was a little nervous that this book would be solely aimed at the US audience but Kendra Kierney makes it clear from the start that she is living in the US and is a stay at home mum but this book is written for everyone who wants to live liturgically. I like Kendra’s writing style and approach to the domestic church and liturgical living and rather than feeling like you can’t possibly do everything you are encouraged to do what works for your family in your situation. I highly recommend!

I love the honest and open writing style. The author does not pretend it will always be easy or perfect with children, but gives some simple and easy to achieve tips and ideas for how we can work on our domestic church.

Kendra brings the liturgical year to life in this book. The pages are filled with practical ways to incorporate the Catholic traditions and celebrations into your home life. Personal anecdotes, historical references, and bite size pieces of catechism shows us the "why" behind the "how." As a mom of four, I appreciate the ease with which Kendra approaches liturgical living. The appendices alone hold a wealth of information at your fingertips. It honestly feels as if a good friend is guiding you through the all planning that needs to be done. I intend to use this as the backbone to planning out our homeschool year! Thank you so much, Kendra for such a wonderful resource.

This book is well written and well thought out, which I expected from Kendra having followed her for a while. It’s big enough to contain a load of information while not being so big as to be overwhelming. She writes in an engaging, conversational tone which makes the information easier to remember in my opinion. If you want to add anything to your repertoire or just want to know what on earth ‘liturgical living’ is, you can’t go wrong with this book.