Happy Feast of the Eve of the Holy Day, or Happy Halloween!
We continued our tradition of focusing on the saints rather than the secular by having an All Saints Day party with our saintliest friends :) Actually, all of us in attendance were big sinners, but thankfully we have a God Who is big on mercy! And that's what our party is all about...remembering the lives of sinners turned into saints through God's mercy, and praying that we too can follow in their footsteps and join them in heaven someday. As Pope Francis says,
"To be saints is not a privilege for the few,
but a vocation for everyone."
Here are the highlights from the party:
St. Michael the Archangel eating roasted pumpkin seeds
Pumpkin seeds roasted with butter, garlic salt, and seasoning salt are one of my favorite traditions of this time of the year...yum.
Our three littlest saints:
Isaiah as St. Michael
Nathanael as St. Padre Pio
Dominic as St. Pope John Paul II
Our saint-o-lanterns...
The big boys didn't dress up this year, but they helped us carve the saint-o-lanterns,
and they also helped with the party games.
My friend Marika made this JPII costume and gave it to us when her son grew out of it.
It's probably the best saint costume we've ever had...
Thank you, Marika!
This shows one of the new saint games we did this year...
I explained to the kids the words of St. Paul in the Bible that to become a saint you have to
run the race and persevere to the end, even when life gets hard.
Then my son Joseph led the kids on a race around our property...
...The kids had to through some rocks...
...and then climb over some logs and to the top of the biggest boulders on our property where they were rewarded with some candy. I can't wait to see the prize that awaits each of us after we finish our earthly race and reach heaven at last!
We also played some indoor games like "Throw the halo around the saint"...
...and "The St. Therese game" where the kids had to drop roses from heaven (just like St. Therese continues to do) and get them to land in the basket with St. Therese's picture in it.
As always, the grand finale was the pinata.
We start with the littlest saints...
...even the angels like to battle the pinata...
...and the saintly little girls were some of the best sluggers...
...But St. Benedict gets the prize for breaking the pinata open.
There was plenty of candy for all the little saints
so that I don't think any of them will miss trick-or-treating too much.
But, no matter how you celebrate this week,
I pray that you take a moment to remember the holy saints
who have given us such great examples to follow
and who will intercede for us to help us run the race well!
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