To be a Saint

A week ago today, my friend Sarah was here and together we were hastily assembling a couple of saints’ costumes for that evening’s dress rehearsal.

Correction: I was hastily telling her the ideas I envisioned, and she was calmly…efficiently…and beautifully creating them.

Thank the good Lord for gifted friends, eh?

Yes, it was time for my homeschool coop’s annual Saints and Scholars production. I hesitated a good long while before committing the children this year because 1) It involves the writing of several speeches; 2) It involves the memorizing of several speeches; and 3) It involves costumes.

And as you know, I do not sew.

In the end I relented because of my children’s earnest desire to participate. Who was I to discourage such enthusiasm? Who was I to inhibit the making of new-friends-for-life in heaven?

And in the end, it all worked out. (It always does, you know.)

This year’s theme was “The Saints of Pope John Paul II”. Did you know that he has canonized more saints than all of his predecessors put together? What’s more, I do not doubt that the moment he entered the celestial realm, Pope John Paul apologized to all the other would-be blesseds & saints he never got around to! (Not really, but I’m sure that if he could have, he would have canonized many more holy people.)

My kids chose (with the assistance of a very biased momma) the following saints:

Saint Margaret Mary (not a saint of Pope John Paul II, but–ahem–a personal
favorite of yours truly) and her spiritual director, St. Claude de la Columbiere;

And our beloved Saint Padre Pio. (I think he is officially known as just
“St. Pio”, but I can’t help calling him “Padre.”)

I am always happy, in the end, that I pushed myself a little harder and took on the challenge of this production. Of course, I owe a ton to my friend Sarah Jane, and also my husband who is an expert speaker and who worked with the children…calmly, efficiently, patiently, nightly…to help them get their lines down.

(And then, when all was said and done, he bought us seven large orders of french fries on the way home from the performance! That alone made it all worthwhile. 🙂

It’s true that our only desire should be to be a saint. It is my great hope that the friends we make in heaven will show us the way…daily.

All for the Greater Glory of God,