Oct 17
The Saints Go Marching!
by Kelley Van Lanen
The saints go marching into church for the All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day celebration at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Bark River, MI.Preparation for the celebration begins when DRE Kelley Van Lanen has each grade in the parish’s program choose a saint to study. Each group prepares a presentation on their saint and one or more students from each group dress up as the saint they studied.
Children enjoy this assignment and each group takes the project in a slightly different direction. Kelley was amazed when ALL the children from one class dressed up. Other classes have created large framed pictures so everyone could see what their saints looked like.
The celebration—for all children in the parish religious education program, their parents and guests, and for all parishioners—begins in church with an opening prayer service. Starting with the kindergartners and ending with the sixth grade group, the children take turns presenting their saints’ stories.
Then everyone is invited to a nearby conference room to pray for those souls in purgatory and those who have died. In the conference room, Kelley displays a huge cardboard heart on an easel. She also provides a table with felt-tipped pens and stacks of hearts cut from construction paper. Children and their guests write the names of their deceased loved ones on the cut-out hearts and use glue sticks to paste the small hearts onto the large one. Kelley also provides two tables with copies of appropriate prayers and lighted (electric) candles. A kneeler in front of each table invites people to pray for their deceased loved ones and for all those named on the heart.
A social—with baked treats, coffee, and juice—follows. Kelley reports that everyone truly enjoys the celebration.
Kelley Van Lanen is the DRE at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Bark River, MI.
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2011, Peter Li, Inc. This article may not be reprinted or reproduced in
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