I’ve been working on an explanation of All Saints’ Day that my children can understand. We’re going to start reading it tomorrow (Thursday) and read a section each day as part of our family morning prayer time. Here are the sections:

1. What is a saint? (on holiness and wholeness)
2. Lots of Different Saints (on the variety among God’s saints)
3. How to Be a Saint (on The Communion of the Saints and the Beatitudes)
4. Welcoming the Saints (on the question, why do so many saints die for Jesus?)
5. Death and the Saints (on why sometimes it’s not easy to want to be a saint)
6. Dealing with Scary Things and Halloween (self-explanatory)
7. Today is the Day! (on doing small things with great love)

Here is an excerpt:

“You may think that to be a saint, you have to be big and do big things for God. This is not true. You need to do the same things that all of us followers of Christ are trying to do – whether we are old or young, big or small. We are trying to ‘do small things with great love.’

That is what Mother Teresa, a saint who worked with the poorest people you can think of in Calcutta, India, told us to do. She also said, “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” When we love each other, when we share and serve and honor one another, we change the world. We live like saints, even in our family, in our home.

This is the first year I’ve done this, so I’m sure I’ll be revising as we read it aloud. But, I thought I would also make it available to you (and I welcome your feedback as to how it can be improved). Click on the link to download a pdf copy of Welcoming the Saints.

Header Photo by Elijah O’Donnell on Unsplash