We’re nearly getting into the week of the O Antiphons in the Divine Office, or daily prayer of the Catholic Church. They are the antiphons (short prayer or phrase), said just before the Magnificat from December 17 to December 23. I love these, they such a beautiful and deeply meaningful part of our Judeo-Christian story.

For my CathFamily editor gig we explained a bit more about these antiphons and made up these sweet O Antiphon Christmas baubles.

These are perfect for craft-challenged parents like me. It’s too easy, print out the template, cut them out and hang them up! One word of caution – they are too fiddly for younger children to cut out, do it yourself, it’s worth it for the 3-D effect.

O Antiphon Christmas Baubles.

There are additional prayer cards for older children or adults:

O Antiphon Prayer Cards.

And if you’d like to do a short prayer service with the kids in the last week of Advent, you can download that as well:

O Antiphon Prayer Service.

This should be one of the most beautiful weeks of the year, but it is often one of the most stressful with all the things we have to do, wrapping up work projects before the holidays, last-minute shopping, ferrying children (and ourselves) to various events…

At least we can do small things like these to restore our sense of peace and joy in this special season. In fact, I find that the best things are usually the small things.