In the Catholic faith, we honor people as Saints (
see here for more information on how Saints are canonized) "who lived heroically virtuous lives, offered their life for others, or were martyred for the faith, and who are worthy of imitation." (that line is taken from the USCCB.org link). We venerate relics in remembrance of these incredible and faithful souls and we ask for their intercession for us from heaven.
This year, on the feast of All Saints, we were blessed to attend Mass at a parish that has in their possession about 60 relics of various Saints.
We honored and remembered our favorite Saints by creating litanies that we prayed that month at bedtime together.
Kayla created a Saint BINGO game that we all played on All Saints Day and for many days afterwards (because BINGO is awesome!).
An all-time family favorite is our "Saints Go Fish" game. It's actually a "memory" game, but our kids prefer Go Fish to memory so we use them as a Go Fish game instead.
I put together a few jars (Shower of Roses website has so many great ideas for these!) filled with candy and snacks that related to different Saints. The animal crackers were St. Francis of Assisi, for instance, because he is the patron Saint of animals.
The kids all guessed how many of each item was in each jar. They got to grab either a small handful for one packaged candy from any jars of which they guessed closest.
We also used them for BINGO prizes.
All Saints line-up for this year (left to right):
Sophie: St. Dymphna
Ava: St. Helena
Kolbe: St. John Paul II (in his Father Wojtyla days)
Elise: St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Kayla: St. Philomena
We attended an All Saints spaghetti dinner at our parish with friends. Elise and Jane are St. Michael and St. Therese.
Kayla is St. Joan of Arc Sophie tried out St. Michael too
For the feast of All Souls Day (Day of the Dead) and through the month of November in a very special and intentional way, we honor those who have died, especially in our families, and pray for their souls.
This year the girls insisted on an Ofrenda.
We decorated flags to add to the ofrenda.
We had a lot of family members to pray for so we had an ofrenda bulletin board as well.
The finished product. It was a beautiful reminder to pray all month (and beyond).
Right around the feast of All Souls, we had a Coco family movie night. Chris made three kinds of homemade tamales and he made these "choco tacos" with fake lettuce (colored coconut) and tomatoes (maraschino cherries), and sour cream (whipped cream) plus meat (chocolate ice cream).
