A Summer Bucket List for Catholic Families

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! Memorial Day is 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! 

In 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 usual fun-in-the-sun activities, our family also really wants to prioritize living our faith together this summer. We know firsthand how easy it is to have good intentions but little follow-through, so putting prayer and service on 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 it will help us make prayer and service a high priority and 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 and have fun all summer!

Catholic Activities to Grow in Faith, Family, and Service  

1. Visit an Adoration Chapel

2. Make sack lunches for a local soup kitchen or homeless ministry

3. Do yard work for an elderly neighbor

4. Make a pilgrimage to your Cathedral (or a nearby basilica or pilgrimage site)

5. Pick wildflowers, write a card, and take them to a homebound parishioner

6. Make a meal for someone in your parish who is sick or just had a baby

7. Invite friends over for a backyard barbecue and family rosary

8. Go through your clothing and toys, and share with a young family or donate to a local charity

9. Find area free lending libraries and leave books about saints or the Faith

10. Pray the Stations of the Cross outside

11. Visit a cemetery and pray for the dead

12. Go to Mass and Confession on the First Fridays of the summer

13. Pass out bottles of ice-cold water at a local event or charity

14. Stay up late and pray Night Prayer under the stars

15. Harvest some of your garden produce for a soup kitchen or to share with someone in need

16. Make dinner for your parish priests or invite them to your house

17. Host a lemonade stand on behalf of your local pregnancy resource center

18. Have a movie night and watch The Chosen

19. Offer an afternoon or evening of babysitting to a family with young children

20. Take your grandparents to Mass and breakfast on the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne

21. Go on a hike and pray the Rosary (inspired by John Paul II and Bl. Pier Giorgio)

FUN FREE LIST DOWNLOAD

What's on your Catholic summer bucket list this year?

Copyright 2022 Megan Swaim
Images: Canva