Happy
Hallows’ Eve. It was quite a busy weekend
at the Penny household: getting the candy ready for evangelization, carving
pumpkins, putting the finishing touches on Dollar’s costume, attending the Fall
Fest at my parish… While these
activities might seem superficially pagan – they are fun activities that bring
us closer to God each year. I am of the
train of thought that Halloween needs to be taken back by Catholics. Maybe it’s the preschool teacher in me, the
one that used to sing songs to teach the letters of the alphabet or the high
school teacher in me that used parts of “The Simpsons” episodes as great
lead-ins to discussions on poetry and classical literature.
Learning is fun.
God is fun.
Last week in my class, we learned about the domestic church and how “we become virtuous by
being engaged, at as many levels as possible with other people who live the
life of virtue.” Other people help us in
our process of sanctification as do the activities that we do together. I want my nephew to have a positive
experience of his Catholic Church, of his Christian faith, of God. Thus, we have our yearly seasonal traditions.
We come
together and we mark our candy with “Jesus’ loves you” stickers. Sometimes we have really meaningful
discussions while we work, other times we race to see who can tag the most
candy in a minute. This year, one of my
nephew’s friends joined us and it was such a treat because he got to explain
our traditions to her; “You never put stickers on your candy? We always do
because we want more people to know about God.”
My heart did little summersaults because my catechesis is working, he
gets it!
Every year
he decides on a pumpkin design to carve and as we carve we read the
“instructions” for carving a pumpkin, “The Pumpkin Gospel,” a glow-in-the-dark
picture book that describes how God transforms us into beautiful creations. On Saturday, he read it out loud to his
friend then explained to her how God takes out all the bad stuff and fills us
with good stuff. This year it’s all
about his favorite game (Minecraft) luckily the characters are boxy figures
which are quite easy to reproduce so I am still the auntie who can do
anything. The pumpkin turned out great
and this year for the first time in his young life, he carved it all by
himself!
Read book and begin carving!
Happy carvers.
I drew the design & he brings it to life!
Finished product!
Sunday, we
attended Fall Fest at our parish in full blown saint costumes. This year he went as John the Baptist because
he wanted to learn more about the patron of the mission we created earlier in
the year. I happen to be the only adult
that also dresses up to the event. This
year I was finally able to wear my Saint Cecilia costume out in public to the
festivity, I always get a lot of compliments or weird looks from parents who
have lost their child-like spirit (smile)…
Creepy Crawlers Show.
Even Father gets in the fun!
Our new friend Little Mustard.
Saint Cecilia & John the Baptist.
One fat frog.
Maybe I
just have a gift for adding “a spoonful of sugar” to make activities more
meaningful. Or maybe I have learned that
God truly is everywhere not just in spiritual books or places; “For where two
or more are gather in my name, there I am in the midst of them….” Am not sure how much my nephew actually
learns through these moments, but I hope that as he grows up he remembers them
with great affection. Have a Happy
Halloween!
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