Inside Liturgical Year books

IMG_0843Several curricula use My Path to Heaven for Lenten reading.  However, it’s not a sit and read on the couch in one sitting book.  It’s better as a daily devotional, and not a short one.  Each spread as you see below has a REALLY complicated Where’s Waldo kind of picture that is meant to be studied.  (There is an I Spy list in the back of the book for use after the child has studied the pictures.)  I think this book would work best if you ran off copies of the pictures for each child, assuming there’s more than one child participating.

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Each picture has a reflection and a set of things to do or think about.  It’s a form of the Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius.  It’s something that you will use over a series of days and weeks, which is one reason it’s well suited to Lent.

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The next book is sometimes used in the Easter Season.  It’s Jesus is With Us by Tarzia.

IMG_0847Each spread is a story from scripture that relates to the Eucharist or foreshadowed it.  My kids sit for the whole story, usually fascinated by checking out the noses on all the characters.  Check out the schnoz on that guy pointing .

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In our house, this book takes 2-3 sittings to complete.  It might be good for Easter Week.

Next you see a common Epiphany book, The Last Straw.  It’s really cute.

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Check out that adorable camel!

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The next two books are both by Gortler:  Just Like Mary and Little Acts of Grace.  They remind me of a combination between St. Joseph vignette-a-day books and their prayer books.  The Mary book is nice for May and Little Acts of Grace might be nice for children too young for the first Lenten book I mentioned.

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They’re not as formal and instructional as the SJPB books.  My kids can get through these in just a couple of sittings.  See a page from Little Acts of Grace below.IMG_0869

 

Here’s one from Just Like Mary.IMG_0870

 

And I just think this one is pretty!

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Here’s another from Little Acts of Grace.IMG_0872