Every year at the end of October we have a very special celebration for the children at our weekly prayer meeting – an All Saints Celebration. In their catechism classes that month, the children are taught about the saints and how they help us with their intercession. The lives of different saints are discussed and the children learn about some of the heroes of the Church. Each child is encouraged to choose one of the saints and learn more about their life. Then they are to dress up as that saint and be prepared to share a little about the saint’s life before all the adults assembled.
On the chosen day, as the prayer meeting gets underway, a wide variety of creatively dressed children start to arrive. You can spot a little St. Francis with a stuffed lamb under his arm, a Mother Teresa with her blue and white sari, a St. Therese the Little Flower clinging to a bouquet of roses, and a Padre Pio with his crucifix and rosary. This year a pair of identical twin brothers each dressed up as St. Martin de Porres (see photo above), complete with dark greasepaint on their faces. Many times it’s hard to tell who the child is dressed up as, and you just have to wait until the time of the speeches to find out who this little person is trying to be. As the excitement builds, the musicians begin singing, “Oh when the saints go marching in…” and the children march around the room in their colorful array. When it is time for them to share about the saint they chose, some kids speak confidently from memory, others read the information from a card, some sing a song and still others get stage fright and the teacher has to do the explaining.
The celebration concludes with Mass honoring all the saints. Then as the children leave, they are all given a bag of treats to enjoy at home — a satisfying reward for a job well done.