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Our Family Values and Goals When my husband and I got engaged we sat down several times to talk about what we thought would be most important to have in our marriage. We wanted to have a common goals and values that would give our marriage purpose and really learn about what the other envisioned for our future family. These hopeful conversations not only gave us something to look forward to in marriage, but something to begin developing during engagement. These are the things that we found to be most important, apart from our own love and affections for one another, and in no particular order... The Sacraments Tradition Prayer Community In short, we valued celebrating our faith and being surrounded by people we love and care about. The topic of traditions came up a lot, there's a quality of comfort and connectedness that comes with them that we both value. When you celebrate something it's because see and affirm the good in the world or in your life as a gift from God. You immortalize that good by repeating the festivity, or tradition, because it is still meaningful and relevant! Josef Pieper states that, "a festival becomes true festivity only when it affirms the goodness of his existence by offering the response of joy." (In Tune with the World, 29). For us, our new life together as a family, and all that may come our way, is a gift from God. Our faith is a gift from God. Our existence is a gift from God. Our ordinary life is a gift from God. All of that is worth celebrating, and what a boring life to only work day by day, without any joy. Secular Calendar Meet Liturgical Calendar! It's no wonder we are itching for entertainment and excitement! The work week is so draining by the time we actually get home we use that little time to make dinner, accomplish the few tasks we may have to do, and muster up enough energy to crash on the couch and watch a couple episodes of our favorite show. I also know that we are not alone in that but as a true questioner I've asked myself many times, why am I allowing this secular routine to be imposed upon me? Other than the fact that we do like to get paid and eat, it echoed in my heart that that is not living. I'm going to take a popular phrase from Blessed Fulton Sheen and say that "life is worth living", and not just on the weekends! We found that by reprioritizing the secular calendar with the liturgical calendar our lives became more celebratory. We look forward to coming home from work to celebrate a feast day, to make a special dessert, or do some fun activity/ Catholic date night. Having those days peppered into our routine brought us into a closer relationship with each other, our family, friends, and ultimately with God. In short, it helped us to live out our family values! Catholic Liturgical Calendar One Doesn't Simply Outgrow Liturgical Living I started by doing what anyone else would do, I sat down and Googled it. I'm just going to be up front here, there was not a lot to work with and here is why. Liturgical living as a Catholic or even Christian cultural practice has been completely thrown to the wayside by modernism and most liturgical living resources have been tailored to younger school aged children. Even as a high school Theology teacher I sought out resources for teens to adapt and integrate into my classroom and couldn't find much. I've said this before and I'm going to reiterate my belief that liturgical living is for everyone, because the rich tradition of the Catholic faith is for everyone, even for us as adults. We don't just outgrow celebrating and living our faith, that is exactly what the Gospel message proclaims for us to do. I don't care if you are single, engaged, newlyweds, married with young children, married with grown children, or empty nesters, your life and relationships will be enriched by doing this. By rekindling this we just might be able to get our Catholic culture back but it first begins at home! Corpus Christi Procession Practical Tips & Tricks I started by thinking about what we each enjoy doing, as people, and as a couple. Then I reached into the wealth of family traditions that we have as well as cultural traditions. I took all of those ideas and organized them into three simple categories for celebrating a feast day. Food/Drinks Prayer Activities- Date nights, friend gatherings, games, movies, etc. Organizing makes my heart sing so I really enjoyed the next part! I took to making a calendar by sitting down and writing all of the feast days for that month that we wanted to celebrate. We looked at saints that meant a lot to us, solemnities, holy days of obligation, and other major feasts. Once I put those in the planner I then went back to look at traditions and asked myself these questions. First, does my family already have a tradition for this feast day that we want to continue? If not, what is the culture of this saint? Are there any specific traditions that the region used to do or still does? How can I recreate that at home? Is there a recipe, prayer, beverage, or activity that we could do? Remember, for activities/date nights lean on what you both already enjoy doing. If you like watching movies together, see if there is one about the saint. If you both enjoy cooking together, find a recipe true to the culture or region of that feast day. If you like hosting, have friends over and play a game, make a drink, or have pot luck in honor of that saint. Here are a few examples of things we do to get you started. St. Benedict of Nursia- July 11- We do a home brew, I gave my husband a kit many years ago and we both love craft beer. (Activity & Drinks) Sts. Aquila & Priscilla- July 8- For our family name day we started Aquilamas, a day where we have family and friends gather around to pray and eat. Celebrate your name days! (Activity & Prayer) Ember Days- Dates Vary- Fasting and abstinence as a couple in thanksgiving for the harvests. (Prayer) Solemnity of the Ascension- May 24- I made homemade whip cream and strawberry shortcake for our family picnic. (Food) Start imagining what this will look like for your own family, start by making small efforts. The sacraments are the first place to start, attending weekly mass (in person or virtually for now), and getting a routine for going to confession. Then with those graces find ways to fill your home with the joys of the sacraments.

Liturgical living during Quarantine has been absolutely delightful, I'm home for the summer and that can make it a lot easier to organize things. It feels like I have all the time in the world to sit down and meal plan, order groceries, invite friends over, and intentionally pray! This may be a really good time for you to begin too while life is a little slower. Despite my tendency to want to lounge for hours on end and watch my program, I have actually been able to motivate myself to organize all the liturgical living that we do without all the extra hustle and bustle. Starting off we had a lot of traditions to work with which was great, the Aquila family had already established so much and we were tremendously grateful to have that gift. I also had ideas of what I wanted our family to be in the routine of doing and so we were very committed to establishing two things for ourselves; tradition and prayer. However, I know that this can also be a very overwhelming endeavor especially if you are trying to get started because there is just so much information out there. Create Long Lasting Traditions Many associate liturgical living with catechetical crafts or activities to do on a saint's feast day, even I have resource lists filled with them. These adorable, catchy, and fun ideas are perfect for littles and young children learning about our faith, but I also like to remind people of something that I believe is absolutely key! Traditions are based on things that we value or believe to be supremely good so we hope to repeat them and pass it down for generations. They embrace the entire family or community in that shared value and elevate all of our hearts to God. These are things that your small children play a part in, your teenagers look forward to, and your adult children come back home for. To create something that withstands the test of time, think about what will bring joy and togetherness for your family and friends, then add in the cute and fun stuff. I Bet Your're Doing it Already! You're probably already living liturgically if you put up a Christmas tree, dye Easter eggs, or send a Valentine's day cards! See, I knew it! All we have to do now is create a deeper awareness of festivity and prayer (just like with Christmas and Easter) throughout our daily life. When I made this shift in mentality I couldn't help but ask myself, why am I only living the joy of these feast days three times a year? The Church wants us to experience the brilliance of our faith all the time! Life can become so routine, ordinary, and boring without bringing it to life with our love for God and holy people. "...feasts reach them all. The Church's teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart and have a salutary effect upon man's whole nature." -Pope Piux XI Where Do I Start? To organize ALL THE THINGS I started by looking at a few foundational pieces that I think would be good to consider when trying to take the first steps. You can make this your own and personalize it to fit your family! Remember, this is not a list of things to do entirely, but a place to get your thoughts going. Things to Consider 1. Your Sacramental Life/ Mass and Confession- All liturgical living is an extension of the graces we receive from the sacraments. Start by considering your own mass and confession attendance! *During quarantine time, if you don't feel comfortable going to mass pray the liturgy of the hours at home and make a spiritual communion.* 2. Holy Days of Obligation- This is an easy place to start, the days that are so important to our faith that the Church says we must attend and be together to celebrate so mark your calendar for maybe an extra day of mass in the week. For a list of these dates check out this link from the USCCB. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/canon-law/complementary-norms/canon-1246.cfm 3. Special Birthdays or Name Days- See what feast day is celebrated on birthdays or try to connect a saint name with the members of your family. There isn't a St. Steffani *yet ;) but there is a St. Stephen which is the male derivative of my name so we celebrate that. Since our last name is the name of a saint, Aquila, we decided to celebrate Aquilamas every year with family and friends. 4. Previously Established Family Traditions- If you grew up with a family that had even one or two traditions that you enjoyed, keep that and bring it into your own family life. I didn't grow up in a Catholic household but we had a few traditions that I loved so I have kept those and "baptized" them by adding in more Catholic elements. 5. Your Family's Culture- Many cultures have a wealth of Catholic history and tradition that I absolutely love tapping into. See what the locals do on a specific feast day that is dear to you. 6. Devotions- If you have a love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Rosary, or the Divine Mercy, just to name a few, begin celebrating feast days dedicated to those things or their visionaries. 7. Put Up a Calendar- I sit down every month and plan for the month to come. I open the USCCB calendar and I write every feast day that we want to celebrate in my planner, otherwise it is not going to happen! Then, if we don't already have a tradition for that day, I go online and I browse traditions that I think fit my family and we give them a try. If we like it then we keep it for the next year and if we didn't then we try something new. I kept a journal going of all the things we did so that I could remember for the following year. http://www.usccb.org/about/divine-worship/liturgical-calendar/upload/2020cal.pdf 8. Create a Home Altar- Designate a space in your home for prayer, you can check out my other blog post for details! https://www.hisgirlsunday.com/post/mass-cancelled-you-need-a-home-altar 9. Sacrament Anniversaries- Celebrate a Baptism anniversary by relighting the Baptismal Candle, or a First Communion anniversary by baking bread together, or a Confirmation anniversary by using the gifts of the Holy Spirit to share your faith! These are just some ideas but you get the point. Sacramental anniversaries help us to remember and more deeply devote ourselves to the graces we received on that day. 10. Meatless Fridays- Yes, it's still a thing! It actually still remains a universal law in the Latin Church and despite misconception, it was never abolished. Try to begin meatless Fridays with your family by offering up this small luxury as a penitential act. In order to more fully enjoy the feast we must also accept the fast. My Go To Ideas 1. Food- Something to eat. 2. Prayer- Something to thank God for. 3. Activity- Something for everyone to do together. Things to Remember You can start this anytime you want, it doesn't have to be at any certain time and you can add things in little by little. For a while we started small just with the traditions that were mostly already established from our own parents. Then the next year we added a few more and we also took some away which is perfectly fine! We realized that there were some things that we wanted to keep going forward with and things that we just knew wouldn't really last. In order for a tradition to be such it has to be seen as valuable and you're not a bad Catholic if you don't celebrate everything. If any of it has to be done it would be mass, confession, and holy days of obligation. The point of liturgical living is not to stress you out or create a longer to do list, but to bring a sense of festivity into your home life. I think we all need this, life can become so overwhelming, how sad if we never find a time or place to come alive. Our faith calls us to live our faith joyfully, so go for it! If you need ideas, resources, or updates then please stick around! You can find lots of help right here or on my Facebook @HisGirlSunday. See You in the Eucharist!

The Second Greatest Feast This Sunday the Church begins the second GREATEST feast of the liturgical year, Pentecost! It ranks just below Easter of course because what's Pentecost without the Resurrection? That's right! I used to think that Christmas would have been the second but I stand corrected. The name of this high feast comes from the Greek word for "fiftieth" and rightly so because we celebrate it fifty days after Easter Sunday. Some of you may refer to it as Whitsunday which comes from "White Sunday" and refers to the vigil of Pentecost when those coming into the Church would be baptized in white garments. Either way we are giving praise to God for sending the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the disciples just as He promised. My Theological Thoughts Jesus has ascended to Heaven and now the apostles are in the upper room seeking to learn how to say yes to God's will from Mary. Who better to learn this from than Jesus' mother, she knows her Son better than anyone and expressed her fiat with her whole life. Something else that I found interesting is that this great theophany happens in the midst of their humble prayers. A lesson that can be truly internalized when I think about remaining close to Our Lady in her virtue and example as well as seeking intimacy with God in my prayer life. God does not abandon us, that's what Pentecost proclaims to us following his ascension, and He provides what we need to have a real relationship with Him and evangelize. Of course we know there is the visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire, but there is also an internal, unseen reality which is the conversion and fervor of the disciples which had not been there before. They converted three thousand people that day, the same men that had not long before that denied Jesus. How can there be such a drastic change? The Holy Spirit. "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:1-4) Since this is an octave, which means that the Church celebrates Pentecost for 8 days, I want to equip you with prayers and activities to do with the whole family. Some of these will just be for a more engaging at home catechetical experience and others may begin meaningful traditions to keep for years to come. Pray as a Family Throughout the Octave The core of liturgical living must be prayer, taking what we experience in the Divine Liturgy as well as the sacraments and extending that grace and lived encounter to our homes. The Pentecost Sequence, "Veni, Sancte Spiritus" is something that can be prayed every day, perhaps in the morning before everyone begins their day. Come, Holy Spirit, come! And from your celestial home Shed a ray of light divine! Come, Father of the poor! Come, source of all our store! Come, within our bosoms shine. You, of comforters the best; You, the soul’s most welcome guest; Sweet refreshment here below; In our labour, rest most sweet; Grateful coolness in the heat; Solace in the midst of woe. O most blessed Light divine, Shine within these hearts of yours, And our inmost being fill! Where you are not, we have naught, Nothing good in deed or thought, Nothing free from taint of ill. Heal our wounds, our strength renew; On our dryness pour your dew; Wash the stains of guilt away: Bend the stubborn heart and will; Melt the frozen, warm the chill; Guide the steps that go astray. On the faithful, who adore And confess you, evermore In your sevenfold gift descend; Give them virtue’s sure reward; Give them your salvation, Lord; Give them joys that never end. Amen. Alleluia. "Come, Holy Spirit Prayer" Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of thy love. V. Send forth thy spirit and they shall be created. R. And thou shalt renew the face of the earth. Let us pray.  O God, who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same spirit to be truly wise, and ever to rejoice in his consolation.  Through Christ our Lord. Amen. "Prayer to the Holy Spirit" by St. Augustine Breathe into me, Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. Move in me, Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. Attract my heart, Holy Spirit, that I may love only what is holy. Strengthen me, Holy Spirit, that I may defend all that is holy. Protect me, Holy Spirit, that I may always be holy. OR! Follow this link to pray the Liturgy of the Hours together. Click to download the Evening Prayer printable PDF. https://www.catholicyyc.ca/uploads/6/5/5/7/65570685/0531_eve_sun_pentecost.pdf Pentecost Activities for All Ages Younger Kids 1. Make tongues of fire hats for the kids to wear. https://www.catholicicing.com/easy-pentecost-craft-for-kids/ 2. Learn how to make an origami dove and hang them up as decoration. https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/origami-peace-dove-instructions-2540776 3. Talk about spiritual gifts and vocations with your children. This link from the USCCB has full lesson plans for grades K-8! http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/educators-and-youth-leaders/lesson-plans/lesson-plans-for-national-vocation-awareness-week-grades-k-8.cfm 4. Celebrate diversity and the many tongues the disciples experienced when evangelizing that day. Learn how to say I love you in different languages. Older Kids 1. Give witness to your faith, share something about it on social media. 2. Do a charitable work today, encourage them to spend time doing a service project for a community they feel passionate about. This can be a great opportunity to develop spiritual insights and work can be a center for prayer. 3. For those confirmed, this is a commemoration of our own personal "Pentecost". Consider having your teen lead the family in prayer, learn something more about the saint they chose, touch base with their sponsor, or recall the story of your own confirmation with your children. 4. Discuss the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the gifts they feel they have, and/or discernment of vocations. This is a great article about how a Parish sparked interest in the priesthood and religious life for their teens. https://catholicexchange.com/parish-gets-teens-excited-about-vocations For the Entire Family 1. Red is the liturgical color for this season so give your dining room table or home decor a festive touch. Have the family decorate with streamers, construction paper/ tissue paper flames, or cut out doves to hang by the windows or above the table. 2. Light seven candles for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. 3. Put red roses out on the home altar to remind you of the Pentecost flame. 4. Consider having a priest or religious over for dinner, this is a great way of celebrating with other members of the Church community and raising awareness of vocations in your home. You could also do a potluck dinner with friends from varying cultures! I think I'll have to try that one next year, I love to host friends. 5. Everyone wear red today, this is an easy one! 6. Make red velvet cake... MMmmmmMMMhhhmmmmMM! This is one of my favorite cooking blogs, check it out. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/red-velvet-layer-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/ 7. Bonfire in the backyard anyone?! I need a backyard... This would be SO FUN for the family, invite some friends over, and roast some marshmallows! Thanks for stopping by again, I'm not sure which of these we will be doing yet but you can stay in touch and find out by following my @HisGirlSunday Facebook page. Praying for you this Pentecost!

When I was a girl some of my fondest memories involved being together as a family or with neighbors to celebrate Christmas, Easter, or the summer heat with a big bucket of crawfish & a game on in the background. There was something about the tradition, the routine, and the way my dad poured out his heart into hosting that brought me a sense of belonging and joy. I now see that it's no wonder I enjoy event planning and hosting, I love to see other people feel happy and taken care of. Sometimes I can vividly recall, even in my senses, the days my dad would get up on the house to hang our Christmas lights or the way my mom would so very intentionally and beautifully decorate our home for the holidays. We had a gorgeous cherry wood china cabinet that so regally displayed my grandmother's ruby red china set. In the bottom drawers of that cabinet we stored our nice holiday table settings and candles that we used for special occasions, and I can truly still smell the aroma from those candles when I think about opening its drawers. I also really enjoyed the family routine of landscaping, there was never a shirt that went without my dad cutting off the sleeves, the smell of fresh cut grass, the hot Texas air on my face, and the hopefulness of getting to ride on the lawn mower. Sometimes things in life will trigger these memories and I will catch a whiff of the china cabinet drawer, feel the softness of a shirt that reminds me of the cut off sleeves, or pause in the hot still air and shed a tear. As I got older and life began to change, as it realistically does, those traditions inevitably began to evolve until one day they seemed to almost entirely disappear. It was then that I realized we had traditions and routines in our family that were good, they brought happiness, but they weren't rooted in valuing tradition nor were they centered on Christ. I was not raised in a Catholic household, so it only naturally follows that our traditions were based on other things, like family routine, major holidays, & things we enjoyed together. I reached an awareness out of my personal love for Christ and the Church that maybe our traditions were being lost because they weren't built on the right foundation, the Sacraments. I tried to institute weekly family dinner, monthly game nights, prayer before meals, but it didn't stick. I realized that I was barely out of my teen years and I was attempting to establish something within a family that was already set in its ways. It's very hard to carry out traditions alone but as the years went by I learned, studied theology, researched varying traditions, and created little ones for myself. Along the way I met a lot of great Catholic friends and a wonderful Catholic guy, all of whom came from families that had their own traditions, most of them centered around the faith. I was invited in on these things sometimes with friends but as my boyfriend and I got more serious I became a part of many of their traditions. I remember facing a real spiritual obstacle at this point, I was finally a part of the Catholic traditions that I had been longing for so you would think I'd be over the moon, but really my heart was irritated. I was so, so internally mad because I felt out of place, these aren't my traditions, this isn't my family, this wasn't the way that I wanted it. I pushed back from God and the great gift of the village that He was providing to me. This was actually an answered prayer, all these people and their hospitality were drops of grace on a wound. I prayed often and stubbornly, like a petulant child, for God to help me accept what would become a new life of tradition for me. This was, after all, what I wanted for my own life and my own future family, and you know what God did? He answered yet another prayer! A handful of years went by with getting used to celebrating and learning new traditions with my boyfriend's family which we eventually took into our engagement, and marriage. I was gifted with a husband, a family of my own to celebrate the life of the Church with. We have had many conversations about which traditions we wanted to continue and new ones that spoke to our faith as a married couple. While I didn't know the term "liturgical living" this is essentially what we were doing and had been doing for years. We were celebrating feast days, solemnities, saints, and the life of Christ as a community and we thrived off of that. They have become an extension of living out the sacraments, an opportunity for fun in the monotony of daily life, and a constant reminder for spiritual growth. This has been one of the highlights of our first year of marriage which people don't often truthfully tell you comes with many challenges! I found more joy than I can express in carrying out cultural and familial traditions with my husband. Tradition, liturgical living, is for everyone and for the good of your faith & family. Peace & Good, Steffani

Thanksgiving is next week and we are about to enter into a season filled with family, friends, and traditions. While it may not be specifically Catholic to the culture, it is inherently Catholic in meaning. Thanksgiving in Greek is Eucharistia, Eucharist, the most precious gift of the Body and Blood of Christ which is the Thanksgiving sacrifice and meal. This means that the Mass is the greatest prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving that we can offer to God, our truest and most fitting response to His great sacrifice. Gratitude is therefore a core, and in my opinion undervalued virtue, of our faith and is at the center of our journey to sainthood. Look to Eucharistic Prayer II, “It is truly right and just, our duty and salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Father most holy, through your beloved son, Jesus Christ, your word through whom you made all things, whom you sent as our Savior and Redeemer, incarnate by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin. Fulfilling your will and gaining for you a holy people, he stretched out his hands as he endured his Passion, so as to break the bonds of death and manifest the resurrection.” It is our response to God for the many natural or material blessings that he has granted us but more than that it is our expression of thankfulness for the greatest gift, which is our salvation. In a real way I have tried to consider the question, how do I thank someone for dying for me? What could I possibly do that would be a sincere and proportional response to that? The saints have been my help in answering that question, and the response is to live a life loving and honoring in God in all that I do. Letting my actions be a true and authentic expression of my love for Him even in the midst of my fallen nature and through all of my daily experiences. On Thanksgiving, we do this together as a community with a Eucharistic focus, to be a people of gratitude for all that we have and really recognizing all that we may be taking for granted. Last Thanksgiving, I was immersed in getting married, but I am looking forward to combining some of our shared traditions! Here are a few ways that you can build your Catholic Thanksgiving Traditions. 1. The best way to make your Thanksgiving centered on Christ, the Eucharist, and community is to go to mass as a family! 2. My family was always very good about saying a prayer of thanksgiving together as a whole group, we did this in conjunction with blessing our food. 3. Stay at the table together, my husband’s family is so great at this, they take their time to enjoy each other! Don’t rush through the meal, talk, eat, play games at the table and take advantage of the time you have. 4. Go around the table and express words or stories of gratitude. How many "jokes" do we hear about the family feuds of the holiday season? Be bold, create an environment where we can share our blessings with each other and let your loved ones hear how you appreciate them, this can be a great way to nurture those relationships. Indulge in some quotes on gratitude! 1. "When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude." -G.K. Chesterton 2. "In all created things discern the providence and wisdom of God, and in all things give Him thanks." -St. Teresa of Avila 3. "To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything." -Thomas Merton 4. "Jesus does not demand great action from us but simply surrender and gratitude." -St. Therese of Lisieux 5. "The best way to show my gratitude to God is to accept everything, even my problems with joy." St. Teresa of Calcutta

This last Sunday was the beginning of Advent as I am sure most of you know by now with the change in liturgical colors, Advent wreaths, and social media posts. I could not wait, in fact I had been looking forward to this since October with the busyness of finally launching His Girl Sunday I just needed the calm and focus that this time brings. So I get to Mass, completely in the zone, ready to focus on preparing for Baby Jesus and the Gospel scared me to pieces! "Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, one will be left." (MT 24:40-41) The first thing that came to mind was that brilliant cinematic experience of a movie "Left Behind" (2014) starring Nicholas Cage. When I snapped out of that horrible memory I was brought back to the unexpected Gospel and I realized the irony. Wow, okay Lord, I get it, my life is just like the message from the first Sunday of Advent, always getting lost in the chaos, appointments, work, and obligations. While those things are inevitable I had just been caught spiritually napping! Of course I pray daily, fulfill my Catholic obligations, bring tradition into our home, teach Theology, etc. but that isn't what this Gospel is referring to. It's easy for me to be aware of Christ in those moments that are clearly and intentionally dedicated to Him, but what about the rest of my life and the many things that happen in any given day when I am completely immersed in things of this world or my own life? So I am clinging to these two words this Advent and hopefully creating a self awareness for the time thereafter... Stay awake in the hope of waiting, not just for the great mystery of the incarnation which we fix our attention on, but for the parousia! If that doesn't frighten you then I don't know what does, but I'll say this, nothing focuses my attention or motivates me more to get myself together than this message. Stop messing around, for lack of better words, my personality needs a kick in the pants sometimes! This isn't just a season of pumpkin spice lattes and Christmas movies, glad you can't see what's sitting on my desk, but a time to rededicate myself to an intimate relationship with the Savior. Since Advent begins the new liturgical year I have taken myself to prayer many times to decide on Catholic new years resolutions, a virtue or two which I make a point to think about in daily self reflection and one prayer habit that my soul an sanity needs. For a couple of years now I have tried to do this every quarter and I have found it to be very helpful in my journey. How very counter intuitive to our popular culture to have a season of peace, silence, and reflection and yet how much more joyous the season of Christmas because of it. Much like the waiting in this life for the joyous Christmas that will be Heaven. We are Advent people, longing in expectation and hoping for Jesus Christ's second coming.

Welcome to His Girl Sunday! My name is Steffani Aquila. I am a theology teaching, ballet dancing, Lucille Ball loving, old moving watching, small town girl in the big city livin’, bread making, event planner+blogger! This is a small business/ blog that I have created for the Catholic that wants an event planner or coordinator that knows and shares in all the richness of our faith. His Girl Sunday is a event planning and liturgical living service that wants to be a part of all life’s seasons by helping you to establish beauty, organization, and joy in Catholic weddings, liturgies, feast day celebrations, & sacramental parties. With my combined experience of event planning and my appreciation for tradition I have been able to help families, parishes, & couples to bring our faith into their celebrations, homes, and every day lives. Here you will find faith filled tips, insights, and creative resources for bringing the liturgical seasons into your “little church”. Through engagement and newlywed life I have found so much joy and strength by connecting our marriage to the Church through the Sacraments and Liturgical Living, and I hope to bring new tradition ideas to you and yours. Stay tuned for more blog posts! Your Girl Sunday, Steffani Aquila