“Fervorino” is a wonderful Italian word that roughly translates to “pep talk” or “quick exhortation.”

Not sure about you, but just about every young parent we know would welcome a lot more fervorini—especially given all the challenges any day brings, the splintered attention span, and the sheer volume of interruptions.   

With all this in mind, we’re happy to recommend Living Beyond Sunday: Making Your Home a Holy Place (Amazon, $11.95). Clocking in at 97 pages in a booklet format, this fervorino will bless any parent with a new tool, a fresh angle, or inspiring insight. Each of the 10 chapters concludes with a prayer that encapsulates the key themes and lifts them heavenward.   

Co-authored by two couples, Adam and Haylee Minihan (parents of 4) and David and Pamela Niles (parents of 5), this little book can be enjoyed in a single 1-2 hour sitting, or as one of the authors put it, “about 8 minutes per chapter.”

Spoiler alert: we’re happy to share 5 takeaways from Living Beyond Sunday here, along with application questions for you and your spouse: 

1. “Bring glory to the ordinary, everyday acts of domestic life.” The authors state up front that this is why they wrote it, to “honor the ‘little things.’” It’s a needed reminder for all of us. How are we as parents living out this insight? Are we connecting God’s glory with our everyday life in the family? 
2. “Marriage…is the fuel that feeds the furnace of love in the home.” Rather than getting lost in strategies and techniques, the authors rightly point us to the heart of the domestic church: “Children deserve a home in which their parents’ love for one another reigns supreme so that they can grow up in a secure, loving environment.” What aspect of our marriage might the Lord be leading us to build, renew, or heal?
3. Dads & Moms: Unique and complementary missions within the family. With specific chapters for dads and moms, Living Beyond Sunday offers a refresher course on God-given roles within the family. In our marriage, do I honor, respect, and encourage my spouse in his/her unique roles?
4. Bring “the liturgical experience into your home” by “providing physical reminders of spiritual realities.” The authors provide practical and fun ideas for parents to develop “a sense of liturgy” in their homes, from home altars to celebrating feasts, to having “a structured prayer routine.” In our home, is the Church’s liturgy experienced in all the senses—from sight and sound to smell and touch?
5. From living the virtues to “holy leisure,” service, and hospitality, your home is the “physical manifestation of the process of sanctification.” How easy it is as parents to lose the sense that our homes are meant to be “set apart” from the world as a place of growth in holiness, or as the authors state, a “residential sanctuary” or “saint-making machine.” Is our home “an end in itself” or is it pointed outward in hospitality, which the authors call “the habitual disposition to invite others to share in the life and love of one’s own family”?

In their chapter, “Some Concluding Thoughts,” the authors write, “As St. John Paul II writes, “’To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others.’ Our homes can then become a slice of heaven, here on earth, working in perfect harmony.”

Amen!