Does your family make a Summer Bucket List? Megan Swaim has 20 ideas for families who want to celebrate their Catholic faith all summer long.
We’re coming down the final stretch: summer break is almost here! My children are looking forward to lazy summer days and endless hours of riding bikes and playing in the water, and I’m looking forward to being able to get into better chore routines. And also spending time together—I promise I’m not forgetting that!
The past few years I’ve seen these great “Summer Bucket Lists” passed around the internet full of fun ideas for making the most of school breaks and warm weather. You print your list, add some of your own ideas, and then spend the summer checking off the boxes—make s’mores, visit a museum, catch fireflies, read in a hammock … these lists can be quite comprehensive!
But beyond the normal fun-in-the-sun activities, our family also really wants to prioritize living our faith as a family this summer. We know first-hand how easy it is to have good intentions and little follow-through, so putting prayer and service into our Bucket List will remind us of our goals and help keep us accountable. If, at the end of the summer, we’ve been to the pool every week, but the Adoration chapel only sparingly, the list will tell us. I’m hoping that it will help us to make prayer and service a high priority and also get us excited to do these things together.
If you’re making a Summer Bucket List for your family, here are 20+ ideas to help you live your Catholic faith together all summer!
- Visit an Adoration Chapel
- Make sack lunches for a local soup kitchen or homeless ministry
- Do yard work for an elderly neighbor
- Make a pilgrimage to your Cathedral (or a nearby basilica or pilgrimage site)
- Pick wildflowers, write a card, and take them to a homebound parishioner
- Make a meal for someone in your parish who is sick or just had a baby
- Invite friends over for a backyard barbeque and family rosary
- Go through your clothing and toys and share with a young family or donate to a local charity
- Find area free lending libraries and leave books about saints or the Faith
- Pray the Stations of the Cross outside
- Visit a cemetery and pray for the dead
- Go to Mass and Confession on the First Fridays of the summer
- Pass out bottles of ice-cold water at a local event or charity
- Stay up late and pray Night Prayer under the stars
- Harvest some of your garden produce for a soup kitchen or to share with someone in need
- Make dinner for your parish priests or invite them to your house
- Host a lemonade stand on behalf of your local pregnancy resource center
- Have a movie night and watch The Chosen
- Offer an afternoon or evening of babysitting to a family with young children
- Take your grandparents to Mass and breakfast on the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne
- Go on a hike and pray the Rosary (inspired by John Paul II and Bl. Pier Giorgio)
What's on your summer bucket list this year?
Copyright 2022 Megan Swaim
Images: Canva
About the Author
Megan Swaim
Megan Swaim is an Indiana girl on an east coast adventure. A former high school youth minister, she now gets to minister full-time to her three young daughters and her husband Josh. Megan spends her days homeschooling at the kitchen table, drinking iced coffee, and exploring coastal Virginia.
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