Reviewed by Lisa Lamarra

A book well worth owning is Around the Year with the Von Trapp Family by Maria Augusta von Trapp. First published in 1955, Sophia Institute Press gave us a lovely hardback reprint in 2019.

Often before I start a book, I try to find out a little about the author, which helps me read through his or her voice. Maria was raised in Vienna, Austria, losing her mother at two, and her next caretaker at nine. Her third custodian formed her to be atheist but fortunately for us, she discovered the Truth of the Church for herself while attending the State Teacher’s College. After graduation, she entered a Benedictine Abbey intending to become a nun. Apparently, God intended her elsewhere. She ended up married a few years later to widower Baron Georg von Trapp with his seven children to mother. The von Trapps had three more children in the ensuing years. Also fortunately for all of us, the Baron had befriended a musical priest, Father Franz Wasner, who subsequently directed the von Trapp Family Singers in concerts all over Europe and on to the safety of the United States, escaping the suffocating Nazi culture in 1939.

It seems that every part of Maria’s life helped her to see the necessity of centering the all-important family life around the liturgical calendar of Holy Mother Church. The greatest thing this book does is to bring out the joy of living fully in the arms of the Church. Maria shows us how to celebrate life with God, within the context of family, interweaving each liturgical season with our daily activities. Her writing style is very accessible: she gives a bit of historical background to the various Masses, processions, and feast-days, tells stories of some notable Saints, and gives meaning to the Sacraments. She offers her opinions on subjects dealing with both the secularisation and modern inventions affecting our world.

The book provides many doable activities for all ages, including recipes, games, songs, parent-led discussions, and suggested reading, all geared toward keeping one’s family, church, and community focused on and appreciative of the spiritual life. Nearly all customs come from Maria’s homeland. Of these she says: “Still our Austrian ones are an expression of a deeply held Catholic feeling, and they have grown out of times and from people who found it natural to carry over their beliefs into the forms of everyday life.”

Maria has given me a myriad of ideas. Some activities are not practical or possible for my family, such as walking to church, using real candles on the Christmas tree, or having our farm horses blessed in the Spring. I can adapt them, though, by walking my neighborhood with the family while praying a rosary, making other ornaments for the Christmas tree, or having our new car blessed. Other activities are probably ones families already have in their traditions: counting down the days to Christmas with an Advent calendar, covering crucifixes and statuary with violet cloth during Passiontide, and visiting the sick on Sunday. Other ideas are new to me: implanting into our children our European culture of music and literature little by little, devoting part of Saturday to going over the readings for Sunday, and learning folk songs and dances from various cultures.

What I take from Maria is the idea that sanctifying our daily lives is paramount. It has made me realize the tremendous importance of the family, which is the domestic church that helps us to consecrate every moment of our lives in gratitude to God. I highly recommend this book for every Catholic family bookshelf.