August Feast Table

It’s the beginning of another month, which means it’s time for a look at the August feast table.  I’m constantly moving it around, searching for the perfect home.  It has moved, yet again, this month.  The bookshelf in the living room just looked messy and because it was out of the way, the kids never interacted with it.

The feast table has now found a home on our revamped entry table (all I did was paint the frame of the mirror white and switch the console table for a larger dresser).  The basket of books is kept on the floor next to the table (do you see it peeking out there?) so it doesn’t clutter up the entry, but the books remain at hand for our family devotions.

Did you notice I brought my Mary statue in that I purchased in May?  It is all about using what you have on hand, and since this month is all about Mary, I thought it fitting I brought her in for a stint on the feast table.

I was on a huge organizing spree last month and cleaned out one of the top drawers to house our Morning Basket materials.  This school year, we will begin family devotions at 7:50 and cap the time off with a short cooperative learning session before our school day starts.  We’ll work through the books in the bookbasket during our read aloud hour after lunch.

I’m 8 months into my feast table challenge, and I’m still fine tuning things.  It just goes to show that if something isn’t jiving for your family or home, but you feel it is a worthy endeavor, try, try again.

• Here is why I started the feast table in our home
• Here is how we do family devotions around the feast table
• Here are all the feast table posts thus far
• Here is the planner I use to keep track of all those special feast days
• Troubleshooting the feast table

Monthly Dedication:  The Immaculate Heart of Mary

August Feast Days:

(Look at all the awesome feast days this month!)

• 1st- St. Alphonsus Ligouri
• 4th- St. John Vianney
• 5th- Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major
• 6th- The Transfiguration
• 8th- St. Dominic
• 10th- St. Lawrence
• 11th- St. Clare
• 12th- St. Frances de Chantal
• 14th- St. Maximilian Kolbe
• 15th- The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• 20th- St. Bernard
• 21st-  St. Pius X
• 22nd- Queenship of Mary
• 23rd- St. Rose of Lima
• 24th- St. Bartholomew
• 25th- St. Louis
• 27th- St. Monica
• 28th- St. Augustine
• 29th- The Passion of John the Baptist

Our August Feast Table Book Basket:

• Take it to the Queen  (monthly dedication) ( A lovely allegory relating Mary’s role to children of any age!) ^*
• Mary, the Mother of Jesus by dePaola  (monthly dedication) ^*
• Mary, Mother of Jesus by Joslin  (monthly dedication)   ^

• The Cure of Ars:  The Priest who Outalked the Devil  (4th) (I’m not always a fan of the Vision books as they are a little too simplistic and aren’t necessarily the most beautiful literature.  I find there to be a variance from book to book in this series.  This is one book I’m not particularly crazy about, but it does give a nice overview of the saint and is what we have on the shelf.) ^
  
• St. John Mary Vianney:  The Holy Cure of Ars (4th)
• A Story of St. John Vianney (4th)
• St. John Vianney:  A Priest for all People (4th)
• The Cure of Ars:  The Story of St. John Vianney (4th)
• St. Dominic and the Rosary (Vision book) (8th)
• St. Dominic:  Preacher of the Rosary and Found of the Dominicans (8th)
• Francis and Clare Saints of Assisi (11th)
• Clare and Francis (11th)
• A Story of St. Clare (11th)
• St. Maximilian Kolbe:  The Story of 2 Crowns (14th)
• St. Maximilian Kolbe:  Mary’s Knight (14th)
• St. Pius the X:  The farm boy who became Pope (21st)
• St. Rose of Lima (23rd)
• St. Louis and the Last Crusade (25th)

Check out Marian Must Reads for Young Catholics for more book ideas in honor of Mary!

(^ denotes books we own or have read, * denote books our family has enjoyed)

 Our Family’s August Plans:

You’ll notice our family will be doing more for the August feast days than usual.  The beauty of creating lasting traditions is that it gets easier to add more over time.  We have done the letter for John Vianney and the Heavenly Whipped Cream for the Assumption for some years, so I don’t even have to think about them.  The other feast days will be quite simple, just creating meals centered around the day – we all have to eat anyway!

An Image for the Immaculate Heart

I’ve wanted to get a tasteful set of images of the Immaculate and Sacred Hearts to display in our home.  I don’t know if I’ll purchase anything, but I’m going to take some time looking.  I’ll let you know what I find!

A Letter for St. John Vianney

I occasionally write letters to encourage our priest, and my favorite day of the year to do that is on St. John Vianney day.  Is there a better way to celebrate?  This year, I’m going to get this kids in on my tradition.  Update:  here is what we ended up doing!

A Grill out for St. Lawrence

Keeping it simple, we’ll plan on burgers and hot dogs in honor of St. Lawrence.  Legend says that he was burned on a gridiron and then made the cheerful remark, “Turn me over, I’m well done.”

Italian for St. Clare

St. Clare is the patron saint of my little girl.  I always struggle to know exactly what to do for this feast day.  It seems appropriate to have Italian since St. Clare was Italian (and little Sally loves Italian!).  We have no books about St. Clare, so I will be picking up one of the above to gift my little girl on the feast day.  Any other suggestions?

Polish Fare for St. Maximilian Kolbe

Husband is of Polish heritage, we’ll break out some old time Polish fare for the feast of St. Maximilian.  Maybe we’ll Americanize it and have our family favorite American Pierogi (I’ll be adding bacon on top since it isn’t a Friday!).

Heavenly Whipped Cream and Fruit for The Assumption

Our family tradition has been to have whipped cream with something (waffles, fruit, ice cream sundaes, etc.) for the Feast of the Assumption.  The connection may be loose, but the whipped cream reminds us how Mary “rose” into heaven ad it is somewhat heavenly!

Grasshopper dessert for the Passion of St. John the Baptist

Another namesake and patron saint in our home is St. John the Baptist.  We’ll concoct some sort of grasshopper dessert.  Sounds like a refreshing summer time dessert!  (I’m looking to makeover this Grasshopper Parfait recipe into something with a little less pre-made ingredients.)

I’m pining over this honey hive cake mold, but can’t justify spending the money (or allowing it space in my small kitchen).  Think of all the ways you could use it through the liturgical year.  There are enough feast days associated with St. John the Baptist to make it worthwhile.  Maybe someday!

Learn about St. Rose of Lima

I’m starting something new and working on learning something each month about one of the saints or liturgical feast days.  Last month, I learned about Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and celebrated with homemade carmel sundaes.  This month, it was a toss up, but I decided to learn more about St. Rose of Lima.  I’ll be getting the above book about her and adding it to our bookbasket for the month.

Other August Resources:

Fodder for August from Catholic Cuisine

Shower of Roses Booklist (this is very extensive and includes Catholic St. anthologies and some out of print books, which my list does not)

All of our Feast Tables so far

Catholic Family Devotions centered around the Feast Table

Why we have a feast table

The Catholic Planner

Free downloadable Catholic Feast printable when you subscribe