Mass/Sunday Worship & Lectionary Resources

Liturgical Calendar - Saints and Special Devotions

Also look for links under each Liturgical Season in Church Year.
Catholic Feast Days (Catholic Apostolate Center)
This website features profiles of saints, special devotions in the church, including those who are blessed and Marian devotions, and other important events in the liturgical calendar. This ever-growing website can serve as a reference to learn about the lives of holiness of saints throughout the whole Catholic Church.

Teaching Kids about the Liturgical Year (Sadlier) Free downloadable resource

Lectionary-based Resources for Families

52 Sundays (Archdiocese of Detroit) A dynamic guide to help families reclaim the Lord's Day with prayer, activities, food, and more! It offers simple and insightful ways for families to spend time together each Sunday learning more about the Catholic faith while having fun!
Worship@Home (The Pastoral Center) Build your own family worship service. An online resource will help you hold your own Sunday worship service at home if you are unable to attend Mass. It is based on and inspired by Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest: Leader's Guide (promulgated by the U.S. Bishops) and the Directory for Masses with Children (from the Congregation for Divine Worship). It gently coaches parents and their families through the age-appropriate prayer experience, and even makes it a little fun.
Catholic Gospel Coloring Pages and Worksheets for Sunday Mass (Catholic Mom) This website offers coloring pages, lesson plans for various age groups, words searches and more on the Sunday readings each week.
Catholic Kids Bulletin The Catholic Kids Bulletin worksheets match up to the weekly Mass readings in the Catholic Church.
The Church Year Dictionary (Prayerist.com) Church Year and Liturgical Terms and Definitions...they define fancy church terms for you!
Daily Lectionary Readings (USCCB) Lectionary readings for every day of the year are available online - in print, audio, and video. People can also subscribe to the Daily Readings RSS Feed, go to the iTunes store and type in "Daily readings from the New American Bible" in the search window, and listen to the Daily Readings on their computer from the RSS feed where you can play the audio using your mp3 player.
Holy Heroes Sunday Mass prep with videos, crafts and coloring sheets.
Weekly Lectio Divina (American Bible Society) A weekly framework for a faithful and respectful reading of the Bible, coordinated with the Catholic lectionary calendar. (English and Spanish versions)
Calendar of Saints Stories for All Ages (Loyola Press) This resource encourages family conversations about special feast days and Sundays of the liturgical year.
Sermon4Kids Coloring Pages, Puzzles and Worksheets
Sunday Connection (Loyola Press) The Sunday Connection provides useful background and activities (for children and the whole family) to better understand the upcoming Sunday's Scripture readings, helping connect the Scripture to daily life in a meaningful way.
How to Get Teenagers to Participate in Mass by Jared Dees (CatholicMom)
7 Tips for Teens (and Everyone Else) to Get the Most Out of Mass (Catechist Magazine)
How to Take Young Children to Mass (For Your Marriage)

Tools to Prepare Children/Families for Sunday Worship

20 Ways to get more from Mass (Catholic Digest)
These practical tips are offered for your consideration.

Is it Possible to go to Mass with Children? Tips for Taking Your Family to Church (Becky Roach)

The Mass Box
Mass box offers this free Pew Card that you can download and edit with your parish's contact information. They welcome families and assure families that God "put the wiggle" in our little ones, and that Jesus said, "Let the children come to me." They also encourage all parishioners to welcome families with little ones, sharing with us that "children are a gift to our church, and a reminder that our parish is growing". What a wonderful welcome! They have other free resources HERE.

Preparing Students for Mass (Joe Paprocki's Catechist's Journey)

Suggestions for Extending Hospitality to Families with Children (Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Nazareth Project)

Build-Your- Own Family Worship Service (Growing up Catholic Worship@Home Pastoral Center) This resource will help you hold your own Sunday worship service at home if you are unable to attend Mass.

More Than Just a Busy Bag: Helping Toddlers & Preschoolers Worship (Building Faith)
Participation in worship is a key marker for lifelong faith development, so how do we do this well for our littlest ones?
There are countless ways to nurture the faith of our youngest disciples and their families in worship:

by creating hospitable physical space,
by forming liturgy that includes all ages, and
by instilling a culture that recognizes without children present, we cannot fully be the body of Christ.

One simple way to foster worship participation is to reshape or enhance the “worship bag” that many congregations offer for children. What in this list of ideas (or ideas that these conjure up) might you offer in your parish or suggest to parents to bring with them to Mass? Great ideas for "Little Church" or Children's Liturgy of the Word, too!