Family-Friendly All Hallows' Eve Service

Below is a short liturgy that can be used as a vigil on All Hallows’ Eve to watch and prepare for All Saints’ Day. It may be led by anyone, and leadership can be spread out among family members or friends. Our family plans to light up our fire pit, roast some hot dogs for dinner, and do this service before heading out to Trick or Treat. You may use and adapt it however you like! If you missed my faithful beginner’s guide to All Hallows’ Eve, you can read that first here!

There are three options listed for the scripture readings: The Valley of the Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37), The Witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28), and The War in Heaven (Revelation 12:7-12). Each reading depicts things that are “spooky” coming under the authority of God. For very young children, I recommend Revelation 12:7-12, which is both the shortest, and the least frightening (in my opinion). The Witch of Endor can be read as a “Readers Theater” with different people taking the parts of the narrator, Saul, the witch, and Samuel.

A Vigil For All Hallows’ Eve

Officiant Light and peace, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

People Thanks be to God.

Officiant Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one lights a lamp to put it under a bushel, but on a lampstand where it gives light for everyone in the house. And you, like the lamp, must shed light among your fellow people, so that they may see the deed you do, and give glory to your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16

Lord Christ, your saints have been the lights of the world in every generation: Grant that we who follow in their footsteps may be made worthy to enter with them into that heavenly country where you live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.

People O gracious light,* 

pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven, 

O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

Now as we come to the setting of the sun, 

and our eyes behold the vesper light, 

we sing your praises,

O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,

O Son of God, O Giver of Life, 

and to be glorified through all the worlds.

Reader Ezekiel 37:1-14 (Valley of the Dry Bones), 1 Samuel 28:3-25 (The Witch of Endor), OR Revelation 12:7-12 (The War in Heaven)

Preacher A short lesson or homily may be added here if desired. (Feel free to use my guide to All Hallows Eve)

Officiant Let us pray.

O God, you have called your people to your service from age to age. Do not give us over to death, but raise us up to serve you, to praise you, and to glorify your Holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say:

People Our Father, who art in heaven,
    hallowed be thy Name,
    thy kingdom come,
    thy will be done,
          on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
      as we forgive those
          who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.
    For thine is the kingdom,
    and the power, and the glory,
    for ever and ever. Amen.

Officiant Let us bless the Lord.

People Thanks be to God.

*This is an ancient Christian hymn known as the Phos Hilaron, translated to “O Gladsome Light.” It is often used in Anglican liturgies at the end of the day, as the sun goes down.

**This liturgy has been adapted from A Service for All Hallows’ Eve in The Episcopal Church’s Book of Occasional Services (1994) as well as An Order of Worship for the Evening from the Book of Common Prayer (1979).

A Beginner’s Guide to All Hallows' Eve

All Hallows’ Eve is just around the corner, and while many of us celebrate Halloween with Trick-or-Treating or parties, its less common to celebrate October 31 as an actual day of Christian worship. So what is All Hallows’ Eve, exactly? It’s a term we hear a lot this time of year, but might think is interchangeable with “Halloween.” That’s true in a way—the word “Halloween” comes from shortening “Hallow’s Eve”—but it’s not just that. For Christians, there is a rich history here to take hold of.

What is All Hallows’ Eve?

So, let’s start with the basics. What is a hallow? Well, hallow simply means holy, as the Lord’s Prayer suggests (“hallowed be thy name”), so a “hallow” is a holy person—a saint. All Hallows’ Eve, then, is the eve of All Saints’ Day—the day the church remembers all the women and men from St. Peter to St. Augustine to St. Thérèse—who have modeled holiness for us throughout the history of the church. All Saints’ Day is followed by All Souls’ Day on November 2, the day the church recognizes all the faithful departed—that is, every person who has ever lived and died in Christ, whether the church officially recognizes them as a saint or not. On All Souls’ Day, many churches hold services that specifically remember loved ones who have died in the last year.

For over a century, the Church has observed All Hallow’s Eve as an evening vigil to watch and wait for these two holy days that honor the friends, family, and heroic saints who are now part of the “cloud of witnesses” spoken of in Hebrews 12:1, cheering us on from heaven as we run the race set before us. All Hallows’ Eve is similar to Christmas Eve in that we are eagerly and festively anticipating the holy day that follows.

So, to recap: October 31 is All Hallows’ (Saints) Eve, November 1 is All Saints’ Day, and November 2 is All Souls’ Day. Got it? Good!

Where did it come from?

So, now that you’ve got the basics, you might be wondering how witches and goblins came to be associated with these holy days on the church’s calendar. Likely because October 31 through November 1 was the date of a Celtic festival called Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest season. The Gaels believed that beginning at sun down on October 31, the boundary between the dead and alive thinned, and the dead would return home seeking hospitality among the living. If the dead were not appeased, they would wreak havoc on livestock and crops, causing sickness and famine. So on October 31, the Gaels would don costumes, light bonfires, and imitate sorcery practices in order to ward off evil spirits and appease the dead. All hell would break loose and these festivals would often devolve into nights of havoc and terror.

In 835 the church supplanted this pagan festival, setting All Saints Day on November 1, the same day as Samhain. They replaced the havoc and mischief created by the evil dead on Samhain with a hopeful watching, waiting, and celebration of the holy dead, God’s saints.

This history presents us with two views of death: one as terrifying and haunted, the other as hopeful and holy. The church has chosen the latter, and on October 31 we make a party out of it. All Hallows’ Eve is an opportunity for Christians everywhere to celebrate the work God has done in and through his saints, and that neither their stories or ours will end in the grave.

5 Ways to Celebrate All Hallows’ Eve

The question isn’t whether we should celebrate All Hallows’ Eve, but how we ought to celebrate it. Here are some ideas:

1. Attend a Church Service: Though it’s more difficult to find Protestant churches that hold All Hallows’ Eve services, I assure you, they do exist! When I was at Duke, the Chapel always had a beautiful candlelit vigil at 10:30pm on Halloween, with readings from the lives of saints and a bonfire outside afterward. One year, Brendan and I got roped into holding torches up in the rafters of the chapel for this service, and it was one of my coolest experiences in grad school. If you can’t find a Protestant service, I’m sure our Catholic brothers and sisters would welcome you for an ecumenical worship experience.

2. Saint Costumes: This, of course, mostly applies to children. Whether they are going to a party or trick-or-treating, dressing up like a saint is a fun way to highlight our Christian heritage. I think Joan of Arc of the Archangel Gabriel would be way cool. Personally, my daughter wants to be a lawn gnome, and I think that’s okay, too. Posting a link to saint costume ideas below!

3. All Hallows’ Eve Party: There are many ways to do this, but one of my favorite things I’ve done in my years of ministry was hosting an All Hallows’ Eve party that included a hunt for candy in our church’s cemetery. On Easter, we also held our egg hunt in the cemetery, and in both instances, it was a beautiful way of celebrating the power of life over death, and the communion we have with saints in heaven and on earth.

4. All Hallows’ Eve Bonfire: Before or after Trick-or Treating, light up your fire pit, and share some prayers around the fire (like I wrote about here!), remembering the saints, and thanking God for their witness. Let this bonfire contrast stand in direct contrast to the bonfires of Samhain. You can even let your kiddos chomp on their candy while you do it.

5. Trunk or Treat: I’m going to be honest, this is my least favorite option for both practical and theological reasons. Practically, who actually wants their kids to get an insane amount of candy as quickly as possible??? Not me—give me the neighborhoods with houses a block apart, and we’ll go home after 5 houses, thanks! Theologically, my experience of Trunk or Treat is that they are often more about resisting Halloween, and not about embracing All Hallows’ Eve. That said, I appreciate that they are a fun way to dress up and provide candy from safe and trusted sources. I also know that with a little creativity, Trunk or Treat can be hosted in a way that celebrates All Hallows’ Eve, with saint-themed trunks or costumes, or perhaps even just a short time of worship and education about the holiday.

I’ll be posting a simple family-friendly All Hallows’ Eve service that can be done at home or at church tomorrow. Make sure to submit your email below if you want it to come directly to your inbox!

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Additional Resources

1. Saint Costume Ideas

2. For a succinct, yet thorough explanation about the history of All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints’ Day from an Anglican perspective

Roasting S'mores over Holy Fire

Fall has finally arrived here in Texas—at least for this week—and the most exciting part of this for me is not the sweaters and the pumpkin patches and the football games. You can keep all that. I put up with 100 degrees for three months so I could at long last go hiking and camping and…sit around a bonfire.

Bonfires never disappoint me.

In high school, all of our friends would drive 30 minutes out to Brendan’s house in the woods, build a huge fire, throw aerosol cans in, and run for cover as they exploded. Please, please do not ever do this.

Seeing as I’m still here to tell about it, though, not all my experiences involving fire are so reckless. I remember sitting around one with 15 or so friends in high school and on a whim suggesting we share something we loved about each and every person. I was half kidding and all the teenage dudes rolled their eyes, but everyone humored me and two hours later there wasn’t a dry eye left.

In grad school, Bren and I would go camping often with friends, and while I loved hiking along the Blue Ridge, the best memories were made once we had gotten back to the site, eaten dinner, and settled into our chairs around the bonfire. Away from cell service and exegesis papers and Hebrew flash cards, there was something about the fire that made our conversation more honest, more direct, as if the flame burned away the pretenses you hold with even the closest of friends.

When I was in youth ministry, nothing made me feel more like their church momma than preparing the graham crackers and chocolate as students roasted their marshmallows. One by one, they would come and place their marshmallows on the graham cracker in my hands, pull the stick out, and take the s’more to devour. There was a sort of rhythm in it, a liturgy of sorts, as if they were coming forward to receive bread and wine. Looking back, I know now what I couldn’t name then—that we were indeed participating in a divine grace.

Now as a parent, I get to make new bonfire memories with the same guy who I used to throw aerosol cans in the fire with at 16. Last weekend when the temperature finally dropped, we made use of our fire pit for the first time. The girls roasted stale marshmallows (which were still good once hot!), while Brendan and I tried to enjoy our wine while also keeping a 3 and 5 year old from falling in.

We all stared into the flames and told stories, and then Amelia began wondering aloud why the flames and smoke rise toward the sky. I hadn’t planned for it, but it became a simple yet beautiful conversation about the symbolism of fire in our faith. We talked about how fire both warms and purifies us, about how the candles in church represent the light of Christ and the flame of the Holy Spirit, and how the smoke rises up to heaven just as our prayers and praises rise up to God.

I watched the girls tilt their heads upward tracing the smoke until it vanished among the stars, knowing I had just witnessed their understanding of God widen even as it deepened. It seemed like the only thing left to do in that moment was say our bedtime prayers right there around the warmth of the fire. We closed with the Lord’s Prayer as we always do just as the last flames began to flicker out.

Bonfires never disappoint me.

Maybe next time we will tell them about how God met Moses in a bonfire, and how the very ground he stood on became holy in its blaze (Exo. 3:2-4). We'll tell them how God led his people out of slavery and through the desert with a pillar of fire by night (Exo. 13:21). We’ll explain how God was with Israel in the fire of their sacrifices (Lev 6:12-13), and with the church in tongues of flames at Pentecost (Acts 2:3), and how God is with us even now roasting s’mores in our backyard.

I know it seems simple, but might I recommend praying around a bonfire this fall? With your family after dinner, or with your youth group on a retreat, or with friends and a drink in hand.

Pray compline, or bedtime prayers, or good ol’ fashioned popcorn prayer, and see how your experience of God deepen even as it widens.

Prayer for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month. If you don’t know this pain personally, it’s likely you love someone who does. Even if you prefer to grieve privately, you need not grieve alone: we are ever and always grieving with God “for God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns” (Psalm 46:5). Below is a prayer written for grieving the loss of a pregnancy or infant, along with additional resources for corporate and private worship.

A Prayer for Pregnancy and Infant Loss

My God, My God, why has my body forsaken me?

My womb commits mutiny against my very soul,

and I am empty.

Who holds the mother when she cries?

Where can I go to escape the bitterness

of a life never lived?

Cradle me in your bosom, my God.

There I will find my Comfort

gathering all with empty wombs and arms and hearts

under the shadow of your wings.

There I will find my Hope

through your Child who died

and is risen now and forever.

Amen.

Isaiah 26:17-19

17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth
    writhes and cries out in her pain,
    so were we in your presence, Lord.
18 We were with child, we writhed in labor,
    but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth,
    and the people of the world have not come to life.

19 But your dead will live, Lord;
    their bodies will rise—
let those who dwell in the dust
    wake up and shout for joy—
your dew is like the dew of the morning;
    the earth will give birth to her dead.

Further Resources

ChurchPublishing.org offers a series of liturgies and prayers related to childbearing, childbirth, and loss. While many are written for corporate worship, pages 14-18 include a service for the private use of individuals, couples, families or small groups: https://www.churchpublishing.org/siteassets/pdf/liturgies-and-prayers-related-to-childbearing/enrichingourworship5.pdf

Service At the Loss of a Beloved Animal

I am about to tell you one of the meanest things I ever recall doing in high school. Please try not to hate me.

I was 15 years old and away at summer camp, rooming with a girl a year or two younger than me. She was sweet and lovely, and she was a “horse person.” You know what I mean, right? One does not just own a horse—one loves, eats, breathes, sleeps, and dies for their horse. One is a horse person. I say this with love and affection for all my relatives and youth I’ve pastored who are horse people.

So, my roommate was a horse person. And naturally we started talking about…you know, horses. And over the course of this conversation she mentioned something about pets in heaven, and I, being the brilliant biblical scholar I was as a sophomore in high school, knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that such an idea was absolutely ridiculous.

Obviously I could not keep this information to myself. So, I, knowing full well that she was a horse person— that she loved this horse more than anything in the world—blurted out with glee and certitude, “Wait, you do know that animals don’t go to heaven, right?” She was crushed. She excused herself from the conversation and stepped out into the hallway, where I could hear her crying on the phone to her mom.

It was only years later when I got married and adopted three pets in six months, that I found myself remembering that conversation and wondering not only why I had been such a complete and total jerk, but also why I had been so certain animals don’t go to heaven. After all, isn’t the vision Isaiah gives us of heaven that of a lion lying down with a lamb (11:6)? And doesn’t Paul suggest that all of creation will be redeemed (Rom 8:19-25)? Look, I’m not definitively saying that all dogs go to heaven, but I’m not not saying that either. And I don’t think anyone can definitively say that…especially not 15 year old, jerk Alissa.

My grandfather was a wonderful, joyful man, and he loved animals, even though I never heard him admit to it. He feigned apathy for the cat he and my grandmother took in, but I often caught him chatting to that cat like an old friend, affectionately calling him “buddy.” My grandfather didn’t even try to hide his enjoyment of our 70lb. golden retriever, Henry, even though Henry—poorly trained as he was—repeatedly jumped on him whenever Grandpa would walk into the room.

A few months after he died, Amelia and I were talking about how much we missed PapPap when all of a sudden I saw a light go on in her head. Her eyes lit up and she said excitedly, “Hey! Maybe when Henry dies he can be PapPap’s dog in heaven.” I’m not an expert in childhood development, but I have learned that when children have something to say about spiritual matters, they are usually on to something. Amelia knew how my grandpa and Henry loved each other, and she knew that heaven is a place where we are reunited with our loved ones. I hope she’s right, and I think we have good reason to hope it.

That said, the point here is not what happens to animals when they die, but what we do when it happens. The point is that pets matter. They matter to us, and they matter to God, and when they die, we ought to mark that death, not only because we need to grieve, but because perhaps the God who created them and called them good does too.

It can be difficult to know what to say—or maybe you feel funny saying it. So, I’ve put together a short service that can be used to say goodbye to and/or bury a pet that has passed. It can be led by anyone—especially children—and readings may be distributed among family members. I hope it helps gives expression to your gratitude and grief for a beloved pet some day in the very distant future.

Liturgy for the Loss of a Beloved Animal

Opening Prayer

O God, you created all that is, and you love all that you have made: we come to you this day in grief and with thanksgiving. We grieve the death of our beloved N., who has been our companion for so many years, and we thank you for the gift of their presence among us as a sign of the richness of your creation and of the generosity of your love; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A Reading from Isaiah

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

A few words of remembrance may be offered.

“What I loved most about ______”

“I won’t forget the way s/he________”

Praying in unison:

Let us pray:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

A burial, or scattering of ashes may take place here, while singing the following hymn.

Hymn: All Things Bright and Beautiful

                        All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small.
                        all things wise and wonderful, the lord God made them all. 

                        Each little flower that opens, each little bird that sings,
                        He made their glowing colours, He made their tiny wings. 

                        chorus            

                        The purple headed mountain, the rivers running by,
                        the sunset, and the morning that brightens up the sky. 

                        chorus           

                        The cold wind in the winter, the pleasant summer sun,
                        the ripe fruits in the garden, he made them every one. 

                        chorus

                        He gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell
                        how great is God Almighty, who has made all things well.

                        chorus  

Closing Prayer

God, your blessed son, Jesus, told us that not even one, tiny sparrow is forgotten in your sight. Give us eyes to see the good in all you have created, and hearts to love and serve you. Amen.

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More Resources and Prayers

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/service_at_the_loss_of_a_beloved_animal.pdf

https://www.stmartininthefields.org/wp-content/uploads/Service-at-the-Loss-of-a-Beloved-Animal.pdf

Recipe: Pineapple Curry Fried Rice

Here’s the thing. I don’t love to cook. Brendan doesn’t love to cook. So we make things that are fairly simple and can be doubled and frozen—cook once, and eat twice. On top of that, we try to make things that are reasonably kid-friendly, inexpensive and healthy. If it uses one pan, even better. There are so many boxes to check off in our house, that when I find something that does, I have to tell the world.

Enter Pineapple Curry Fried Rice. You won’t regret it. You’ll want to use a large pot or cast iron skillet, especially if doubling the recipe. Pots that have a large surface space on the bottom for frying are best. I use a 7qt dutch oven, which I love and use multiple times a week.*

Ingredients

4 cups COLD cooked rice (about 1.5 cups dry)—preferably long grain jasmine

4 eggs beaten

4 tbs canola or coconut oil divided

1 small onion

1 tbs minced garlic

2 tbs fish sauce

2 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp all spice

1 20oz can of pineapple chunks (reserve juice)

1 16 oz bag of frozen broccoli (OR frozen peas)

Handful of raisins

1/5 cup of lightly salted cashew halves

Directions

1. Cook rice in advance and cool in refrigerator. We often cook the day before.

2. Drain pineapple and reserve juice. Add fish sauce to pineapple juice.

3. Heat 1 tbs oil on medium-high heat and cook eggs. Set aside and keep warm.

4. In same pan, heat 1 tbs of oil and add diced onion and minced garlic. Cook for 2 min or until onions are yellow. Add frozen broccoli (or peas). Once broccoli is cooked through and water has cooked off, move to one side of pan, allowing room for rice.

5. Reduce heat to medium. Add final 2 tbs of oil and add rice, stirring frequently. Pour in pineapple-fish sauce mixture. Add curry powder and all spice.

6. Once rice is warm, add cashews, raisins, eggs and salt to taste.

Optional toppings

Cilantro, shredded coconut, sriracha, lime, soy sauce—Add chicken for extra protein

Notes

We double this recipe and freeze the leftovers. It reheats well in the microwave, but would probably be even better on the stove with a tablespoon of water and oil so it doesn’t dry out.

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Francis and the Leper: A Children’s Lesson for St. Francis Day

The feast of St. Francis on October 4 is one of my very favorite saint days to celebrate with children. From taking your pets to an animal blessing to making a pine cone bird feeder in honor of the (arguably crazy) man who preached even to birds, there’s no shortage of fun activities and larger than life stories to make St. Francis come alive for children.

While Francis’ devotion to all creatures great and small is a huge part of his legacy, focusing solely on it can have the unintended affect of domesticating and pigeonholing (pun intended) a man who clearly refused to be tamed and defied categorization.

While Francis was gentle, he was not docile: taking his father’s money to build a church, stripping naked in court, confronting a wolf, receiving the stigmata. These are not the actions of a sweet ordinary man who just happens to be a Christian Dr. Doolittle. Francis was bizarre and radical and there’s so much more to him than puppies and kittens.

One story that demonstrates Francis’ radically compassionate nature is his encounter with a leper before his dramatic conversion. I love the parallels between this story and Jesus’ encounters with lepers, and how it models compassion, empathy, and listening to the Holy Spirit. Below you’ll find a short lesson that can be modified for children between the ages of 2-10. If you’re familiar with Godly Play or Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, you’ll recognize the story and follow up questions follow a similar format. I also had to include the Francis coloring page because I love that it has his prayer printed on it—a great one for older kids and adults to memorize!

The Story

There once was a man named Francis. He was born a long time ago in Assisi, Italy around 1181.  His father sold very beautiful and expensive clothes, and had lots of money to buy Francis anything he could ever want. Francis wore fancy clothes, and he went to big extravagant parties where there were long tables of delicious food and drink. Everyone danced and laughed all night without a care in the world.

But not everyone lived like Francis. In Francis’ town there were people called Lepers. Lepers had a terrible disease called leprosy—it caused them to have sores all over their body that were very painful and also very contagious. Nobody wanted to catch this disease, so they would stay far away from lepers. When people saw a leper on the street, they would turn and walk the other way. Absolutely no one touched a leper. One day, Francis was riding down the road and he saw a leper. He was terrified of getting the disease, so he quickly turned to go in the opposite direction. But as he turned, something stopped him. Francis remembered the story of Jesus healing a leper in the Bible, and he knew that he couldn’t just walk away. Francis felt compassion for this leper who had not been touched in years. He imagined what it would be like to have no one to hug you when you are sad, or pat your back when you are sick, or shake your hand to say hello— and he knew he could not simply walk away. Instead, Francis walked right over to the man, and kissed him! Then, Francis emptied his pockets and gave the leper all they money he had.

Francis left the man but he always remembered him. Not long after that, he devoted his life to serving the sick and the poor. Francis gave away all his fancy clothes and money. He had no home and he ate only what people gave him. Then he traveled around the country telling anyone who would listen—even animals—about Jesus’s love for them. He helped so many people and loved God so much that the church named him a saint. We know him today as St. Francis of Assisi.

Wondering Questions

Ask these questions curiously, and slowly, allowing time for children to respond, even if the pause feels awkward. You’ll notice they aren’t really questions, but “wondering sentences” that invite children to respond imaginatively to the story. Try to let their answers sit without correction or judgment.

I wonder who the leper was? I wonder if he had a family or friends?

I wonder how it felt to never be touched?

I wonder how the leper felt when Francis kissed him?

I wonder why Francis gave away all of his money and belongings? 

I wonder if Francis ever missed his things after he gave them away? 

I wonder if someone has ever helped you when you were sick or in need?

I wonder if you have ever helped someone like the leper who was sick or in need?

Closing Prayer

Loving God, help us to follow in the way of St. Francis by loving all of creation with our whole hearts and caring for those in need, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Going Deeper

Francis kissed the leper because he remembered the story of Jesus healing a leper in the Gospels. Read Mark 1:40-45, and discuss why Jesus healed the leper (1:41), and the similarities between the actions of Jesus and Francis.

Activity

St. Francis gave all he had to the poor—even the clothes off his back. Help your children go through their closet or toy chest and find things to give away.

Children’s Books about St. Francis

Demi. St. Francis of Assisi. Ages 4+

Denham, Joyce. St. Francis of Assisi. Ages 5-10

Feri, Giuliano. The Prayer of St. Francis. Ages 3+

Paterson, Katherine. Brother Sun, Sister Moon. Ages 4+

Wildsmith, Brian. St. Francis. Ages 4+

Michaelmas and Guardian Angels

September 29 is Michaelmas (Michael + mass just like Christ + mass = Christmas), the feast of St. Michael and All Angels. If I’m being completely honest, angels are an elusive topic to me that I rarely think about because reading Revelation weirds me out a little bit.

But this year Amelia is attending a Catholic school and she’s had to memorize The Guardian Angel prayer, a classic for Catholics. I’ll admit, I had my qualms with it at first: the rhyming felt kitschy (jokes on me—it was actually written by a monk in the 11th century) and directing prayers to an angel upset my Protestant sensibilities (we can discuss that another time). Nonetheless, Amelia had to learn it, so we taped it to the door and read it each morning before she left for school.

And you know what? Reciting that prayer day after day changed something in me. That small act of praying so directly for God’s angels to protect my five year old before I send her out the door each morning eased anxieties I didn’t even know I had. Anxieties about her safety, about her not making friends, about whether or not the friends she made would be good ones, and—if I’m being honest—about her being the victim of another school shooting. I’m an Enneagram Six, and worst case scenarios are constantly flashing in my mind.

But reciting that prayer every morning became an act of holding those fears and worst case scenarios up to God and releasing them. It’s a reminder that when Amelia walks out our door, she is in God’s hands, that I am in God’s hands, and that this whole crazy and sometimes terrifying world is, too.

So this Sunday, I’m going to suck it up and read Revelation 12 and be reminded once again that in the battle between God’s angels and the forces of evil, God wins. Always. And then we are going to keep praying that little prayer each morning even though we don’t have to anymore.

If you’d like a copy, you can download it here. I even wrote a Protestant version for all my kindred spirits.

And if you’d like resources on celebrating Michaelmas, I recommend this Step-by-Step guide as well as this post on Michaelmas Traditions by Haley Stewart, who runs a blog called…wait for it….Carrots for Michaelmas.

Happy Michaelmas!

Christmas Pageant 2018

What's Next?

Seven years ago, I graduated from Divinity school thinking I would work for a year or two, pay down student loans, and return for a PhD. Six years ago, I took a job at a church on a whim, and never thought about that PhD again. Five years ago I had a baby, and then I had two more, and I became so busy balancing motherhood and ministry that I never thought about my ten year plan again.

Two months ago, we packed up our first house, loaded up our three pets and three kids and moved halfway across the country to Texas. Today, I find myself in a new town, a new house, and with a very different life than I’ve ever known before. I am now, for the first time ever, the designated, full-time, Stay At Home Parent.

I thought staying at home with my children would be difficult, and it has been, but not in the ways I suspected. I thought the constant onslaught of diapers and dishes and snack dispensing would be the challenge. These things are difficult—and I have tremendous respect for the parents who have been doing this long before me—but, for me, the hardest part of this shift has been the identity crisis. The wondering who I am if I am no longer a Director of Christian Formation at a 200 year old church in Hillsborough, North Carolina. The loss of a ministry and a job I loved. The mourning of who I was and the people I left behind.

But.

It’s also been so, so good for me to hit pause. To close my eyes, take a long deep breath, and dream up new dreams for myself—even if they scare me. For the first time in years, I have the space to ask God, “What’s next?” and “Who am I?” And of course the answer is, I’m still me. I just have to figure out how to be me in a new place.

So that’s what I’m going to do. Be someone who creates space for people to ask questions about God and find answers. Someone who empowers others to live faithful, intentional and abundant lives in Christ. Someone who talks about beauty and liturgy, children and parenting, practices and traditions, books and culture, our homes and what we do in them, and how all of these things can form and shape us in the way of Jesus. I’ll just be doing it in a new place: here, at Chapel of the Little Way.