As families and educators prepare to transition into the middle of summer, efforts to keep the Catholic liturgical year vibrant at home and in the classroom are receiving a seasonal boost. The popular faith-based resource platform Catholic Icing, in collaboration with Real Life at Home, has announced the release of a complimentary July Saint of the Day Calendar printable. Designed to make the rich traditions of the Catholic calendar accessible and engaging for children, the newly available resource brings daily reminders of holy men and women directly to home altars, prayer tables, and classrooms.
The announcement comes as part of the broader outreach efforts associated with the Catholic Icing Monthly Membership, a subscription service that provides continuous creative content to help families live out their faith throughout the year. While the core materials of the monthly membership rotate regularly, platform creators decided to select one decorative printable Saint of the Day Calendar from each month and offer it to the public as a free download. With July rapidly approaching, organizers determined the timing was ideal to share the mid-summer calendar, which was originally featured in the July 2025 membership package.
Liturgical living—the practice of integrating the rhythms, seasons, and feast days of the Church into daily domestic life—can often feel overwhelming for parents and teachers. Organizers note that many families struggle to find the time or resources to keep up with changing church seasons, sometimes leaving holiday decorations up months after a liturgical period has ended. The new free printable aims to lower the barrier to entry, offering a simple, visually appealing way to maintain a connection to the faith without requiring extensive preparation or crafting supplies.
The July Printable Saint of the Day Calendar set includes two standard U.S. letter-sized pages featuring a Litany of Saints for July, with a dedicated saint or blessed listed for every single day of the month. To accommodate different aesthetic preferences and reading environments, the set provides two distinct font choices. Families and educators can easily display the pages by placing them in standard 8.5-by-11-inch frames, pinning them to refrigerators, or hanging them on display lines. Beyond serving as decoration, the calendar is designed to serve as a daily prompt, encouraging children and adults alike to look up the lives of the featured saints and incorporate brief discussions about their lives into daily routines.
In addition to celebrating individual saint feast days, the month of July holds a special designation within the traditional Catholic calendar. The entire month is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, a major focus that complements the various saint celebrations occurring during the summer weeks. Catholic Icing provides a wide array of supplementary resources, including themed recipes, activity pages, coloring sheets, and craft ideas centered on the Eucharist and the Precious Blood, giving parents numerous avenues to engage children during the summer break.
For educators and parents looking to take a more structured approach to seasonal celebrations, the platform also offers comprehensive planning tools. Among these is Weaving the Faith, a liturgical living ebook and binder system designed to help families organize resources, track sacrament anniversaries, and build a customized library of faith-based activities that can be reused year after year. The system serves as a central hub for organizing everything from major church feasts to everyday prayer table decorations.
The free July Saint of the Day Calendar is currently available to subscribers of the platform’s weekly newsletter. Those interested in obtaining the download can request the files directly through the Catholic Icing website. While the offer requires newsletter sign-up, participants retain the option to manage their subscription preferences at any time, though creators hope families will choose to remain connected to receive ongoing weekly inspiration for liturgical living throughout the year.
As families and educators navigate the transition from summer break into a new academic and spiritual season, the creators behind the popular faith-based platform Catholic Icing are offering a new resource designed to keep the liturgical year front and center. In an effort to make Catholic traditions more accessible, the platform has announced the release of a complimentary, downloadable Saint of the Day Calendar specifically tailored for the month of August.
Developed in collaboration with Angie from Real Life at Home, the platform’s monthly membership program routinely focuses on crafting printables that combine aesthetic appeal with practical utility. These resources are specifically created to help families and teachers enrich their home altars, prayer tables, and learning environments. While the comprehensive material collections rotate monthly for subscribers, the team decided to make one of their decorative Saint of the Day calendars available to the public at no cost as part of a special outreach initiative.
August is traditionally regarded within the Catholic Church as a month dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, offering a rich tapestry of feast days, devotions, and historical commemorations. According to the creators, the newly released calendar is designed to help parents and educators introduce these milestones to children through daily engagement. The free August set includes two distinct U.S. Letter-sized pages featuring a complete Litany of Saints for the month, listing one holy figure for each day. To accommodate different preferences for home or classroom display, the download provides two font options. Users can easily frame the pages, mount them on refrigerators, or place them on clipboards to serve as a daily visual prompt for prayer and reflection.
The release of the August calendar coincides with a broader effort by the platform’s creators to provide structured guidance for parents seeking to incorporate the liturgical year into daily family life without feeling overwhelmed. Many Catholic parents report feeling intimidated by the prospect of keeping up with perpetual feast days, often citing a lack of time, uncertainty about where to begin, or the common challenge of letting seasonal home decorations linger long past their appropriate months. To address these hurdles, the platform offers structured monthly memberships that deliver pre-planned printables, home altar decorations, themed recipes, coloring pages, and child-friendly crafts directly to subscribers prior to the start of each month.
Beyond the monthly subscription service, the platform maintains an extensive library of supplementary materials designed to support long-term liturgical organization. Among these is a comprehensive liturgical living binder and ebook titled Weaving the Faith, which is intended to help families customize their spiritual calendars year after year. The resource serves as a centralized repository for organizing feast day celebrations, sacrament anniversaries, and prayer space materials, allowing households to gradually build a sustainable library of Catholic traditions.
The August calendar specifically highlights the month’s primary devotional focus on the Immaculate Heart of Mary. To help children connect with this monthly dedication, the platform features a variety of hands-on projects and crafts tailored for the end of the summer season. Among the featured activities are custom tie-dyed shirts bearing the Immaculate Heart motif and simple chaplet rosary crafts designed to be accessible even for younger children. These projects are intended to bridge creative play with traditional Catholic devotions, providing a tangible way for children to interact with their faith.
For those interested in obtaining the complimentary August Saint of the Day calendar, the resource is currently available through the platform’s weekly newsletter subscription service. While the download requires newsletter registration, subscribers retain the option to manage their communication preferences at any time. The release reflects a continued emphasis by Catholic educators on providing practical, aesthetically engaging tools that simplify the integration of sacred traditions into modern family routines.
In the quiet, often isolating aftermath of profound loss, individuals frequently encounter a complex and perplexing emotional landscape. This reality is at the heart of a recent reflection published by The Compassionate Friends (TCF), a national non-profit organization dedicated to supporting families after the death of a child. Authored by TCF Chief Executive Officer Andy McNiel, the piece explores the enduring human paradox that joy and sorrow can—and often do—coexist within the same heart, challenging the notion that grief must completely eclipse every other human emotion.
The publication draws upon a timeless literary source to frame this emotional experience: Kahlil Gibran’s renowned 1923 poetic work, The Prophet. Specifically referencing the passage On Joy and Sorrow, the text highlights Gibran’s observation that the capacity for joy is often forged in the very depths of sorrow. “When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy,” Gibran wrote. “When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
For many people navigating the early stages of bereavement, however, these words can initially feel abstract or even unreachable. McNiel notes in the article that when individuals experience this emotional paradox in real life, it frequently triggers feelings of guilt or unease. Experiencing a momentary lift, sharing a laugh, or finding a brief connection to daily life or other people can feel like a direct contradiction to the immense pain of their grief.
In the immediate wake of a profound loss, the world often appears entirely altered. McNiel illustrates this sentiment through the words of a nine-year-old boy who, speaking with a counselor a couple of years after the death of his brother, described his altered reality simply: “Since my brother died, my life lacks luster.” This sentiment, expressed across various ages and circumstances by those experiencing deep loss, captures a common hurdle in bereavement: the feeling that finding purpose, enjoying a simple moment, or forming meaningful connections is no longer possible.
Yet, organizations like The Compassionate Friends emphasize that despair is not the final chapter of the grief journey. TCF serves as a living network of individuals who have faced what many consider an unimaginable nightmare and have ultimately discovered a path toward renewed meaning, community, and moments of joy. Crucially, this process does not imply a return to life as it was before the loss, nor does it mean that grief simply disappears with the passage of time.
Instead, healing involves a strenuous, often messy process of adaptation. McNiel points out that there is no secret pathway or shortcut around the pain. Rather, through persistence, handling life one moment at a time, and navigating the complexities of coping, many individuals gradually learn to carry both joy and sorrow simultaneously, mirroring the wisdom found in Gibran’s poetry.
This ongoing adaptation underscores a message of encouragement for the bereaved: finding personal agency and emotional footing is possible at any stage of the grief process. These developments do not replace the love or the memory of the person who died; instead, individuals learn how to integrate their grief into a transformed life. They build space for new experiences, meaning, and purpose alongside their sorrow.
This shared reality is precisely where the strength of community takes root. McNiel emphasizes that no one needs to walk the path of grief entirely alone. Through organizations like The Compassionate Friends, individuals find a network where others can extend a hand of support, and where they, in turn, can eventually reach out to support others who are hurting.
To help foster this community and provide ongoing education, TCF offers a variety of programs, resources, and outreach initiatives. Among these is a recent webinar titled Living, Coping, And Grieving After Profound Loss, which features personal stories and perspectives from a panel of experienced individuals navigating long-term bereavement. Additionally, the organization has recently launched a broader awareness campaign titled I Know Someone, designed to foster connection and understanding around the experience of profound loss.
Andy McNiel brings extensive professional background to his leadership role at The Compassionate Friends. Holding a Bachelor of Arts in Religion and a Master of Arts in Counseling, McNiel has spent three decades working as a bereavement support professional, trainer, author, and non-profit leader. Throughout his career, he has facilitated support groups and provided individual care to bereaved people across all age groups.
His professional background spans hospice care, regional and national grief organizations, and the development of safe spaces where grieving individuals can connect with peers who share similar experiences. Widely regarded as an educator and thought leader in the field of bereavement, McNiel lectures and presents keynotes extensively on topics related to grief, loss, and personal wellness. He is also the author of Understanding and Supporting Bereaved Children: A Practical Guide for Professionals, alongside numerous book chapters and articles focusing on grief and loss across the human lifespan.
Furthermore, McNiel’s expertise is recognized through his involvement with several prominent national and international organizations. He serves as a member of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) Advisory Board, acts as a national trainer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and is an active member of the International Workgroup on Death, Dying, and Bereavement.
Through leadership, shared storytelling, and community-based resources, organizations like The Compassionate Friends continue to provide essential spaces for individuals learning to navigate the intricate, lifelong journey of living and grieving after profound loss.
