Happy All Saints

All Saints Day has become one of my favorite holidays. 

After the happy hustle of Halloween, I love the chance to celebrate heroes of the Church as a family with a slower-paced day.

This year we started out with a special breakfast: a delicious sweet potato baked oatmeal with whipped cream and sprinkles.  

Saint-in-training E-Bear

During breakfast, we talked about favorite saints and how we each want to be a saint for the Lord.   G-Bear remembered her all-school Mass from the year before, how she had helped to lead the "procession of saints" with the other kinders.  Then, she led her brothers in a round of "When the Saints Go Marching In!"

Saint-in-training G-Bear

Father H's message during Mass was especially encouraging:  our Christian faith is not for already "perfect" people, but for those of us who want to become saints with the help and grace of our loving Lord Jesus.  We can look to saints who have gone before us for encouragement and inspiration in the ways that they loved the Lord and followed Him.

Saint-in-training Buddy Bear

After church, we celebrated with friends over First Friday donuts.  After school, I let each of the kids choose a saint prayer card and coloring book at our nearby church bookstore.

One of our favorite All Saints activities is making armor of God paper dolls from Ministry to Children based on  Ephesians 6.

After I read the Bible passage about God's armor, we talk about how the saints are examples of people who put these words into action.  Hopefully, as my kids grow older, I'll be able to use this activity to teach them about how righteousness, truth, saving faith, the gospel of peace, and God's Word are the real armor that we can wear everyday.

For now, I think it is enough to admire our favorite saints as heroes for their faith and loving actions.

Hopefully, we'll be hard at work putting these words into practice!  

Happy All Saint's Day!