The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day [Hardcover]

Meredith Gould (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 2004

A practical, inspiring guide to Catholic observances and celebrations for the home.

For centuries, the Catholic Church has offered an abundance of splendid traditions that extend religious and spiritual practice into daily life. Now, Meredith Gould reintroduces these customs and rituals to modern Roman Catholics.

Using the liturgical calendar, The Catholic Home provides familiar and new ways to celebrate each season and its special days. Gould reviews major holy days, select saints’ days, familiar prayers, and suggests meaningful ways to prepare as a family for such sacraments as Baptism, Confirmation, First Eucharist, and Matrimony.

This book includes a concise history of each ritual and clarifies the meaning behind it by highlighting celebrations of Catholic holidays from different parts of the globe. Your family will learn to make Advent wreaths, Jesse trees, St. Lucy’s crowns, King’s cakes, All Souls altars, traditional foods, and participate in family devotions.

Throughout The Catholic Home, Gould’s down-to-earth practicality and sense of humor give the activities she describes modern relevance no matter how ancient their origins. Excerpts from the official Catechism of the Catholic Church are included to illuminate Church doctrine on matters of faith and ritual. This indispensable guide will appeal to Catholics young and old and inspire beloved family traditions to be handed down from one generation to the next.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Who better than a nice Jewish girl to tell Catholics how to celebrate their faith at home? Jews have always been known for a sensibly domestic-centered observance of their religion, and Gould, a Jewish-born convert to Catholicism, speaks from a unique dual perspective. Having lived in a Jewish home, she knows about lighting Sabbath candles, but also remembers when Catholics kept holy water and statues in their houses. In her own home, which she affectionately describes as "the Hermitage" and "Julian of Norwich goes suburban," she has revived traditions that fell by the wayside after changes wrought by Vatican II, and also established a multitude of new ones. Readers seeking to reinforce Catholic identity on the home front will find plenty of ideas, among them a how-to for celebrating Christmas when it actually arrives, instead of weeks before, and making Halloween holy by embracing it as the eve of All Saints Day. Gould's writing is light and airy, even irreverent at times, but her ideas are well-grounded and refreshing. She wisely reinforces her suggestions with excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and uses the church's sacraments and elaborate calendar of feast days and liturgical seasons as the skeleton of her book, trotting out bits of history and legend for added interest. Gould's engaging enthusiasm will doubtless have readers asking, "Who knew Catholicism could be so much fun?"
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Review

“The Catholic Home is clear, practical, and inviting; it will make every Catholic’s job easier visualizing how to bring the faith home.” —Frederica Matthewes-Green, NPR commentator and author of Facing East and At the Corner of East and Now

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (February 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385509928
• ISBN-13: 978-0385509923
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #550,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Despite academic training which included completing a doctoral dissertation, Meredith Gould never intended to write books. After grinding out academic journal articles during her decade as a Sociology professor, she graduated to writing for regular folks.

An essayist and lifestyle reporter for nearly two decades, Gould was published in magazines and newspapers -- when she wasn't writing public relations blather about pest control and wall coverings. Some sort of strange interior, possibly bio-chemical and definitely psycho-spiritual thing happened after her first book was published in 1998.

Why Is There a Menorah on the Altar: The Jewish Roots of Christian Worship (Seabury, 2009) is her seventh book. "I guess I'm a book author," says Gould, who is swift to point out that being a mid-list author is hardly lucrative. "Providing editorial services and communications strategy for the consumer healthcare industry pays the rent."

For literary relaxation, Gould blogs about the spirituality of everyday life at More Meredith Gould (http://meredithgould.blogspot.com). She's also the editor of The Virtual Abbey blog (http://www.thevirtualabbey.com) and currently serves as the abbess for that virtual community of modern monastics.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Handbook for families, November 18, 2005

By 

M. - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day (Hardcover)

I love this book! I grew up in a Catholic family and in Catholic schools. However, that did not prepare me for passing along Catholic traditions to my own children and to my converted husband. The fear of offending anyone(especially my non-Catholic relatives) made me a little hesitant to "let religious identity permeate our home". Gould's book encourages and instructs on how to do so. She has specific ideas, traditions, and even recipes for living a richer life within the Church.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Best for those Unfamiliar with Seasonal Rituals and Catholic Devotions, January 1, 2009

By 

Jennifer D. Walker - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day (Paperback)

I think this book would make a wonderful gift for someone who is either new to Catholicism, say entering RCIA or returning to the Church after many years absence, or for someone who is just easing into the celebration of seasonal rituals for the home, for the first time, and who does not want to be overwhelmed.

It might help to point out that this is a book which makes some pretty basic distinctions: that Catholics pray with the saints in icons, not to the saints in icons. It explains the Jesse Tree for Christmas, but strangely, has little information on the Advent wreath (though, to be fair, the author suggests that you can find lots of information, including the daily readings, online). It includes a few paragraphs on keeping a prayer journal, lists the station of the cross for Lent and explains the Rosary in a fairly minimal and introductory fashion.

The whole book runs to roughly 200 pages, not including appendices, but including non-seasonal information, daily devotions and honoring the sacraments, so that each seasonal celebration merits just a few pages. Today's solemnity, Mary, Mother of God, runs to a page and a half, a third of which is taken up by the entry heading. As the saying goes, this is not a fount of information that would drown an elephant, though it is a good, resourceful introduction for those individuals who are just beginning a deepening personal, sacramental life in the Church.

I, personally, would have loved to have discovered, in this book, more information on all the seasons: crafts for adults and children; information on home altars not just in the back of the book, but within every seasonal entry; more historical information, prayers and novenas and lots and lots of pictures! The Roman Catholic Church has been around for 2,000 years and Holy Mother Church's intense emotional and spiritual impact on art, culture and the home have produced profound artifacts of tradition, lore and devotion. This book barely skims the top of such an immense wealth.

Sadly, I have yet to find such a book. For those who are searching for such a tome, a good resource can be with fisheaters: fisheaters.com/beingcatholic.html as well as within Flickr, by searching for catholic altars, etc.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, accessible writing!, May 20, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day (Hardcover)

Meredith Gould's spritely, conversational writing style combined with her knowledge and passion for the subject make this book a winner. If you're Catholic and looking to better integrate your faith into your home, lapsed Catholic trying to find your way back to your roots, or just curious about why Catholics do the things they do, you'll enjoy this book.