In honor of All Saints Day, Father Alberic has asked the RE children to dress up as their favorite saint and process in before the 11:00 am Mass on November 3. That was a nice reminder for me to stop ignoring the wonderful friends we have in Heaven. Life has been stressful this year, and the strain is showing in our relationships - what better role models could I possibly call on?
So how do we make the saints a bigger part of our lives? In our home, we "strew." That means I'll pull saint books out and leave them in various places.
The bookbasket has a couple of picture books and
Footsteps of a Giant, an intersting book about
Charles Borromeo.
Next to the bed, a couple of books that have short stories, making for good read-a-louds right before bedtime.
In the bookcase, I've pulled some of my own favorites
out into the forefront. I'm hoping the teens will choose
to peruse some of these.
Maybe I'll finish The Four Teresas, which I put away
last year in favor of Walking with God ;-)
On the seasonal table, I put The Big Book of Women Saints
- it has some nice and really short biographies of saints who
are not so well known. The Book of the Twelve Apostles,
is one we read out of periodically but have yet to finish.
Picture books are by far my favorite, and most successful, way of strewing. They have visual appeal, are easy to pick up and read in one sitting, and often lead to further research.
We also revisit why we pray for the dead - 2 Maccabees 12:39-45 - and why we ask the saints to pray for us - Rev. 5:8
If you are curious about the custom of the upcoming holiday, Father Barron hosts Father Steve Grunow on his blog in order to present some insight into Catholicism and Halloween.
An excerpt from Mary Reed Newland's book The Year and Our Children can be found here and offers a suggestion for a fun Halloween party.
Personally, we've done All Saints parties, celebrated the modern notion of Halloween and nothing at all ;-) However, the kids love the idea of dressing up and are confirmed candy addicts, so it is really something they look forward to.
