The Saints

Refer to our Sunday Experience pages to find different prayers to pray as a family sometime during the week as well as setting up a prayer space and other activities as a family.

For the Learn do the following:

1. Watch Video at the top of the page. (if you want more resources, or are interested in learning more about the topic click on the Extra tab).
2. Click on the appropriate grade for your child.
3. Read the "relates to..." section at the beginning.  This is helpful to understand what to convey to your child is important about this lesson.  It will        help make the lesson both an intellectual and a lived lesson.
4. Read through and familiarize yourself with the sample script. 
5. Teach your child the lesson, either using your own words or the sample script.
6. Either discuss the questions with your child (best option), or have your child write out answers to the questions.
7. Have your child do the activities and/or do the activities with them.  
8. If working with a parish return the appropriate material in the way they have requested.


All Content for "The Way", Learn, is original content and copyright of the Diocese of Kalamazoo and may not be copied, reproduced, or used without prior written consent of the Diocese of Kalamazoo.   © 2020 Diocese of Kalamazoo

Relates to Jesus: Jesus is our role model in how we are to live the faith. The Saints became saints by following Jesus' example and we are called to do the same.

Relates to my Faith: Sainthood is achieved by living lives of virtue. We look to the saints to pray for us to help us imitate them in their virtuous living.

Sample Script:
A Saint is a special person who loves God with their whole heart and does what God asks them to do. The Church declares someone a Saint once they’re in Heaven when they have lived an exceptional life that helps to teach us. A Saint lives a holy life and serves as a great role model to you and me. You know how a role model is someone that you can look up to, and someone who we want to act like because we admire them. In life we have all different kinds of role models like fire-fighters, doctors, nurses, superheroes, our friends, our teachers, and especially our parents. These people do amazing things, they know a lot, and they inspire us to be better people!

 As Catholics, we need role models too, because they help us to learn how to live a holy life and make the right choices even when it’s hard. The Saints are role models because they live lives of virtue following Jesus Christ. Virtue means they have good qualities like being patient, caring about others more than ourselves, and being strong in doing the right things through hard times. But sometimes even the smartest, the strongest, and the nicest people don’t know what to do or aren’t able to do certain things without some help from others. That’s why we have the Saints to show us the right way to live, to remind us that we are not alone, and to give us the help that we need by praying for us. What do you do when you know you need help with something? You ask for help! You can always pray to God to ask for help with the biggest problems, the smallest problems, and everything in between. God loves you so much and He always wants to help you.

God also knows that we love to help one another. When someone you love is in trouble you want to help them don’t you? God lets us help the people we love by spending time praying for them and asking God to help them with their problems. We can also ask other people to pray for us and our loved ones! God knows people are always better when they work together instead of by themselves, so He gave us friends and families. That way we can live together and do good work together. That’s why God lets us also ask the Saints to pray for us in Heaven! In Heaven they are very close to God, closer than you can even imagine! They want to help us by praying for us and asking God to help us and the people we care about, so the Saints love when we ask them for their prayers.

By learning about the lives of the Saints and asking them to help us by praying for us, you can become a Saint too! God wants all of His children to become Saints, so they can be as close to Him as possible and help teach others to do the same. Anyone can become a Saint! Some Saints were simple workers like St. Joseph who was Jesus’ foster father. Others were great kings like St. Louis of France. Anyone can be a Saint. You can too! By following the Saints as role models, practicing lives of virtue just like they did, and asking them to pray for us, we can be amazing Saints just like they are. The most important thing a Saint can do is keep God at the center of their lives and do what He asks them to do.

Questions:

What is a virtue? What kinds of virtues do you have or want to have?
What is one way God lets us help people we care about?
How do the Saints help us in Heaven?
Who can become a Saint?
What is the most important thing a Saint can do?

Activities:

Talk to your child about your favorite Saint and how they lived a life of virtue following God.

Have your child draw a picture of their favorite Saint or a Saint you’ve talked about.

Ask your child if they know someone who needs help. It could be a really big problem or a really small problem. Spend some time as a family this week praying for that person and ask for a Saint’s intercession in the prayer.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, we know there is a trinity because of Jesus’ revelation. This shows us that God must be love (that is what binds the trinity) and reveals all of Jesus’s actions within a familial relationship of God.

Relates to my Faith: There is only one God, we do not worship multiple gods, or seek God as a genie, but go to the one who created all things and shows us what love is.

Sample Script:
Just like you have best friends who help you out when you need something and help you to be a better person, the Catholic Church offers us Saints to become good friends with, so they can help us to be better followers of Jesus Christ! What are some good things you like about your best friends or something you would look for in a good friend you would want to be around? Maybe you’d like them to be kind to you, someone you can have fun with, someone really funny, really smart, or very helpful? Maybe it’s hard to describe why you like your best friend so much, because they’re so special to you and they are so unique that it's hard to describe it with words!

Every person is different, completely unique even! Everyone has different strengths, almost like superpowers, that let them do awesome things with their lives. God loves to see us use the gifts He has given us to do amazing things with our lives! He wants to help us by working with us to do those amazing things and even give us more gifts! When someone asks God to help them in life and becomes very close friends with Him, they are able to become a Saint in Heaven with Him after they die. They try their best to spend their whole lives following Jesus just like you and I are trying to do, and even though they make mistakes, God helps them to succeed and they accept His help, so they can be with Him after they die! Even though they aren’t on earth anymore, they get to live forever with God in the most beautiful place you can imagine.

The Saints are always praying for us while in Heaven and trying to help us become Saints too, so that we can be in that wonderful place with them and with God. Since they are still living with God, even though they aren’t on earth anymore, we can become friends with them, by praying to them, asking them for help, and taking time to learn about their lives and the amazing things that they did. When we do this, it’s just like becoming good friends with somebody on earth! We can learn from each other, help each other when things are hard, and we can even play and have fun together.

When you become good friends with somebody, don’t you want to share that gift with your other friends? Isn’t it so great when you can have all your friends together? Following the Saints and growing close to them is very similar! When you start to become friends with a Saint, it’s a great idea to share that gift with your other friends by telling them about it! You can talk to them about why you are friends with this Saint and the amazing things that he or she did in their life of following Christ. Maybe they’re already friends with a great Saint that they can tell you about too! Learning about different Saints is an awesome way to learn about all the different ways that you can be holy. The best thing about the Saints is that they show us how to follow Jesus. They help us to find the amazing and unique way that you can follow Jesus with your own gifts.

Questions:

How is a Saint like a friend?
Why is it so great to tell other people about the Saints?
What is the best thing about the Saints?
How can you become a Saint?
What is one of your strengths?

Activities:

Ask your child about some things they like about their friends or that they like to do. Talk about a few Saints they might like to learn about and pick one to read about with them a few nights this week. Spend some time praying to that Saint with them.

Ask your child to draw a picture of what they think Heaven will be like with all their friends, the Saints, and Jesus together.

Have your child practice telling you about a Saint as if you were one of their friends. Encourage them to share with someone else they feel close to.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus desires that all might be children of God, living as His holy sons and daughters, so that eternal life might be had.

Relates to my Faith: Holiness, to be lived, needs to be prayed for, practiced, and lived on a constant basis. The grace of God available in the Church, especially through the Sacraments, are our best tools for achieving holiness.

Sample Script:
When we learn about the lives of the Saints, it’s easy to think that they did amazing things with their lives all on their own without any help. We normally think this way because the older you get, the more things you want to be able to do on your own. As you grow, you learn more, grow stronger in your body and in your heart so that you are able to do more things! It’s really good to grow, to be independent, and to learn how to be your own person. No matter how old you get though, you will always need help. That won’t be because you are weak or because you’re doing anything wrong. It’s just because people aren’t made to do everything on their own. We need other people to help us do things that are too big for anyone to handle. Sometimes we don’t need help, but just having someone else to help us just make whatever we’re doing better! This is one of the reasons the Saints are such an awesome gift that we have. We can always ask them for help when we need it, so we know we’re never alone.

When we’re trying to follow Jesus and live the way He teaches us to live, we need more help than we do with anything else. This is because just like human beings aren’t made to do things without other people, we’re also not made to live our lives without God. God made us out of love which means He wants to have a relationship with us. He wants to live with us and help us with even the smallest things we do! He also wants to let us do amazing things with the gifts that He gives us. The Saints are awesome examples for us because they do amazing things, but they know they can’t do it without God’s help. The Saints rely on an amazing gift from God to help them called grace.

Nothing else in all of creation has the same closeness and love that God and mankind are able to share. Because we are made to be so close to God, we are able to receive the love of God in a special way called grace. Grace is a something God gives to us that helps to make us good and holy just as God created us to be. It’s something God gives us, almost like a superpower, but even better! It gives you the strength to do the right thing even when it’s hard and it helps you to know the right way to help people. These are gifts we can’t earn like a reward. God gives them to us out of pure love as a free gift. We should always ask for God to send us His grace. The Saints ask for God’s grace all the time because they know how much they need His help. The Saints love to receive help from God and God loves to help them.

Just like any other gift or present we receive during Christmas time or our birthdays; God doesn’t force us to take it. He doesn’t even force us to use it! We have to choose to accept God’s gift of grace and do good actions with His help. Because of our relationship with God, we are able to know His great love for us and also respond to that love, by doing little things every day that show God we love Him too. This doesn’t mean we need to do really big things all the time to become a Saint. Saint Therese of Lisieux became a Saint just by doing “little things with great love.” The most important thing is that you keep asking God for help, remembering how much He loves you, and looking for ways to love Him and the people He places in your life.

The Saints were not perfect, and they made mistakes just like we do, but they accepted God’s gift of grace so they could show God’s love to the people around them, and that’s what makes them so amazing.

Questions:

Why is it important to ask for help?
Who can we get help from?
What is grace?
Do the Saints need to ask for help? How do the Saints ask for help?
What makes the Saints so amazing?

Activities:

Talk with your child about one thing you need help with that you want to ask God’s grace for. Ask your child what they think they might need help with. This week, ask your child to pray for what you need help with and promise to pray for what they need help with.

Talk about a Saint’s life from the perspective of how much he or she needed help. Good examples might be St. Francis of Assisi who went through a huge conversion through grace or St. Joan of Arc who received incredible gifts through grace to do what no one else could do.

Find something to do together where you can take note of how doing the work together makes the activity so much better. It can simply be doing a craft, playing a game, or working together to prepare a meal, etc. Reflect together on how that experience parallels how much better our lives are when we work together with God and invite Him into our daily tasks.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus unites Himself to humanity by entering a baptism like ours and shows us that our life toward sainthood begins by opening the doors of grace.

Relates to my Faith: Striving to live a virtuous life includes remaining faithful to the Church's teachings even after we fall; returning to God with contrition, seeking forgiveness, doing penance, and seeking virtue once more.

Sample Script:
The Bible tells us that God created mankind “in His image and likeness.” Being created in God’s image and likeness is a great gift that no other creature on earth has. One of the biggest gifts that comes from being made in this awesome way is our free will! A Saint is someone who knows they are made in the image and likeness of God. They use their gift of free will as much as they can to do the right thing and do what God asks them to do.

The gift of our free will allows us to make the right choices even when it may be difficult. Free will means you have the freedom to make good choices or bad choices. Nobody can force you to do the wrong thing. You always have the power to do what’s right! Can you think of a time when you wanted to do something you shouldn’t, but you decided to do the right thing anyway? Maybe you did an extra chore your parents didn’t ask you to do. Maybe you said something nice to one of your siblings or your friends. Maybe you forgave somebody who hurt you. Maybe it was something as little as saying no to an extra piece of cake because you know it wouldn’t be good to eat too much. You were able to do all those good things because you have the gift of free will! This power lets us be heroes and lead amazing, inspiring lives.

Saint Teresa of Calcutta is a Saint who lived not too long ago and by making little choices with her free will, even when it was hard, she became a hero that the whole world admired for her goodness. She started out as a little girl who went to school and Church just like you do. One day on a trip with her family when she was still little, she heard a call from God to join a religious order. Even though it was hard and meant she had to give up a lot, she said yes to what God asked her to do. When she was old enough, she became a nun and worked teaching at a school. One day she heard another call from God to found a religious order devoted to serving the poor. This was another hard choice that meant she had to leave behind her old life and go to serve the poor by herself. Even though it was hard she got permission to found this order and went to Calcutta which was a very poor city in India with many sick people who were suffering. St. Teresa went down to Calcutta all by herself and devoted herself to caring for these sick people, one person at a time. She showed them love and care just like Jesus would have. Eventually other people wanted to follow St. Teresa and do what she was doing. Today her order called “The Missionaries of Charity” is all over the world, but it all started with her saying yes to God and helping one person at a time! Amazing big things always start by doing good little things.

You might not be called to join a religious order, go to another country, and serve the poor, but God does have a special plan just for you! Just like Saint Teresa, you can do amazing things with your life by using your free will to do little things even when they are hard. Even by just helping out around the house or being nice to your friends at school, you’re using your power of free will to show God’s love to the people around you which make Him very, very happy.

Questions:

What does free will mean?
What does that have to do with being a Saint?
Who was Saint Teresa?
How did she use her free will?
How do you show free will?
 

Activities:

Talk with your child about little things you both can do differently to show the people around you that you love them. It could be something big like giving someone a special gift, or even something small like saying some kind words someone might need to hear.

Talk with your child about a problem going on in his community or social circle. She if you can both come up with small things that he or she might be able to do to help make that problem a little better.

Spend some time in prayer this week asking God to help your family know what His will is.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus shows us the face of God and shows us the path we are follow to be His children.

Relates to my Faith: Our faith shows us that as much as we are able to remember God at each moment of our life, the closer we grow in relationship with Him and properly order our relations with our brothers and sisters.

Sample Script:
What do you want more than anything in life? Why do you do what you do? Most people would say that they want to be happy, or they would say they want something because they believe it will make them happy. There is not a single person who doesn’t want to be happy. Most people spend their entire lives looking for some way or something to make them happy. Ultimately, there is no thing and no person that will be able to make us truly happy. What is limited and finite doesn’t last forever, so any happiness that comes from it will only last a little while.

Sometimes we keep trying to put more things in our lives to make us happy: whether it’s more friends, more games, move activities, less activities, or whatever it may be, we try to change the things in our lives because we think it will finally make us happy. These things may help! Sometimes a good friend is just what we needed to remember that we are loved and that we are not alone. A game can help to relax us and to spur our imaginations or creativity. Sometimes we need to see ourselves do really well at an activity like our sports and clubs, or step back from our tasks to refocus on what’s really important. These are all good things, and too much or too little of anything, even good things, isn’t healthy for us, so sometimes we need to focus on those parts of our lives. However, even if we managed to get everything perfect, we would still find ourselves unhappy and unsatisfied.

Ultimately, what’s going to make us happy goes back to what we are made for. If you think of something simple like a tool, you can imagine a tool is at its best when it’s being used for its purpose, for what it’s made to do. A hammer might not make for a very comfortable pillow at night, but it’s an amazing tool to fix a broken door with a few well-placed nails. Human beings are also best when we are living according to what we are made for, and it’s when we get confused about our purpose that we are the most unhappy. You see, you and I aren’t made for things that are finite things. You and I were made for infinite and everlasting happiness. God made you because He loves you. We were made to be in a loving relationship with God. Every human being desires this relationship, they want to be with Him forever, because that’s what they were made for. Sometimes this is easy for you and me to forget. Some people are never told about the amazing purpose they were made for, so it’s easy for them to think that their happiness belongs to something else in life.

It’s important to know that God wants you to be happy on earth right now. He wants you to have an amazing life, to make great friends, to have fulfilling jobs and hobbies. He wants you to be happy in that way even more than you do. But these happy things aren’t meant to last. The only lasting happiness comes from our relationship with God, and that leads to a joy that nobody can take away from you. The greatest Saints were joyful even when they lost everything or even to the point of dying. They were able to be happy, because they knew that even if they lost their possessions or had to lose their life, something even more amazing and wonderful was waiting for them. God wants you to live with that same joy. He wants you to be happy no matter what because you know that you can be with Him forever in paradise. God wants you to have the happiness of a Saint, He believes that you can do it, and He wants to give you whatever you need to get there.

Questions:
What are some things in life that make you happy for a little while?
What can you do or already do to create lasting happiness?
How do you see God helping you to be happy even in the little things?
Why are the Saints able to be truly happy?
Who is called to be a Saint?

Activities:
Have your child do a brief reflection. It can be a written paragraph like a journal entry, a 5-minute voice recording, a video, a picture, a song, a poem, a conversation, or any form of reflection and expression that your child enjoys doing. Have them reflect on a time they were really happy in life and why.

Talk with your child about a Saint who was able to experience great joy even through great trials. Ask them if they think that’s possible for them. Make sure they know it is!

Do something for your child that you know will make them happy. Maybe something you haven’t gotten to do for a long time, or they wouldn’t expect you to do.

Plan something simple to do as a family that you all enjoy!

Relates to Jesus: Jesus' life points entirely to God and to others. This is the life of a disciple and brings about fullness, happiness, and ultimately sanctity.

Relates to my Faith: The Catholic faith is entirely pointing towards the other and shows that one's life of virtue is not kept solely for him but rather for the betterment of all, bringing as many as possible into holiness.

Sample Script:
The Bible tells us that God created mankind “in His image and likeness.” Being created in God’s image and likeness is a great gift that no other creature on earth has. Three of the many gifts that come from God creating us in this way is: first the gift of our free will, second being made to live in a loving community with other human beings, and third being made to live in relationship with God. A Saint is someone who knows they are made in the image and likeness of God. They use their gifts as much as they can and make it the center of their lives.

The first gift of our free will allows us to make the right choices even when it may be difficult. Our free will allows us to make sacrifices and give of ourselves to people we love. This power lets us be heroes and lead amazing, inspiring lives. God always uses His free will to do good. He used His free will to create us even though He didn’t have to. God the Father also used His free will to send His son Jesus, who is both God and man, so that He could free us from our sins and so that we can be with Him in Heaven. God does these things for us because He loves us, and He gave us the gift of our free will so that we can love just like He does. A Saint uses his or her free will to do the right thing and what God asks them to do as much as they can.

The second gift that comes from being made in God’s image and likeness models the Trinity. You know that the Trinity means that God is three persons in one God. That means He is a community of love within Himself. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all love each other more than you can imagine! God made us to have our own communities of families, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and even the whole human race! He doesn’t want us to be by ourselves. He wants us to have other people to love. We all live together and our decisions of free will have the power to affect one another. Sometimes, we make the wrong choice which doesn’t just affect ourselves, but also the people around us. However, our free will gives us the power to choose to make the lives of the people around us better, and to give them great acts of love and kindness as gifts! A Saint is someone who chooses to love the people around them and help them to lead better lives.

The third gift of being made in the image and likeness of God, is that we are able to have a real relationship with God. While the plants and animals follow God’s will, they don’t get to have the same level of intimacy and love that God and mankind share. Because of this gift, we are able to receive the love of God in a special way called grace. Grace is a something God gives to us with His free will that helps to make us good and holy just as God created us to be. Just like any other gift or present we receive on special occasions like Christmas or your birthday; God doesn’t force us to take the gift. He doesn’t even force us to use it. Our free will gives us the ability to accept God’s gift of grace and make good choices with His help. Because of our relationship with God, we are able to know His great love for us and also respond to that love, by doing little things every day that show God we love Him too. A Saint is someone who knows they are loved by God and does everything they can to love Him in return.

Every human person is loved by God super abundantly, and every human person has a desire in their heart to love God and be with God forever in Heaven. The Saints are people just like you and me who know they are loved by God and want to love God in return, so they chose to use their gifts from God to make good and heroic choices. Some of them did amazing things, like St. John Paul the Great who was the pope of our Church for many years, traveled around the world, and inspired millions of people to be holy. Other Saints did little things with great love, like St. Therese of Lisieux, who lived as a nun in a convent and chose to do small gestures to show her fellow sisters that she loved them even if they were sometimes unkind to her.

Questions:
Why is it important to know we are made in the image and likeness of God?
What are some of the gifts from being made in the image and likeness of God? Why are they important?
How does a Saint use each of the three gifts?
What has God given us that gives us the ability to accept God's gift of grace?
Who is called to be a Saint?

Activities:

With your child, spend some silent time in prayer meditating on the creation story (Genesis 1-2:4). Pay particular attention to 1:26-31 when the story culminates with the creation of man in God’s image and likeness. Ask God to share with you what this means for your life. Write down any thoughts you may have afterwards.

Spend some time reflecting on how your choices have affected those around you. How much of those effects are negative and how many of them are positive? Ask God what ways you can have more positive effects from your choices.

Take a short walk outside, if only for 10 minutes. Reflect on how every aspect of creation gives God praise. Think about how you can use your free will to praise God in your life. Reflect on how amazing it is that you can have a unique relationship with the God of the universe.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus, in His salvific mission, came to save us all (past, present, and future), saving the saints of the past and showing Himself to be Lord of all.

Relates to my Faith: Whether alive or faithfully departed, we are connected to one another on our journey to meet the Lord. With faithful confidence, we can pray for the intercession of those who have gone before us.

Sample Script:
The Church is one wholly united body of Christ. This body does not only encompass those of us who are still here on earth, but it also extends even to those who have passed away, are in Heaven enjoying eternal joy with God and to those who are finishing their journey to Heaven in purgatory. These three “states'' of the Church are called the Church Militant (for those still on earth), the Church Suffering (for those in purgatory), and the Church Triumphant (for those who have reached heaven). Just as in life, all of us are at different stages of our journey towards heaven, but we remain united in our love for God and for one another. In the same way, when someone dies in the grace of Christ, they do not become separated from us, but remain a member of the body of Christ.

The Church Militant are called “pilgrims” and “wayfarers” because we are still on our journey towards our heavenly home. Even though we live on earth for this time, you and I were made to be in heaven with our God and our loved ones, enjoying eternal happiness. While we’re still here on earth, we are called to spiritual warfare against an imperfect world that has been corrupted by sin and death. Even though evil and suffering are grave realities we face every day, Christians live in the joy of knowing the war has already been won by Christ. We have the peace and hope in knowing that even when we suffer the ultimate loss, that is the loss of our lives when we die, that Jesus has merited and promised us eternal life with Him in heaven.

Christians spend our earthly lives preparing to accept this promise by modeling ourselves after Jesus, spreading the Good News of what He has done for us, as well as seeking to make this world more and more like the Kingdom of God. By doing these things, through the Sacramental and missionary life of the Church, we live in the sure hope of becoming Saints when we die.

Some of us when we die still carry sin with us that we haven’t been able to make atonement for. Even though we have died with these “lesser faults” and imperfections, God’s mercy allows for us to still be purified so that we can enter heaven. This state of the Church is called the Church Suffering because they are so close to the glory of heaven, but still have sins and faults that they hold onto. The process of letting go of these sins can be painful, but it is also filled with the hope, peace, and even joy of knowing that these souls are guaranteed to enter heaven after their time of being purified.

The Church’s teaching about purgatory stems from reading Scripture (see 1 Cor 3:15 and 1 Pt 1:7) and from the Tradition given to us from Scripture that teaches us to pray for the dead. We can help the Church Suffering but making sacrifices and praying for them to be able to enter heaven. The Church believes and teaches that we can alleviate their suffering and smooth their way into eternal heavenly joy. Some of us may one day be eternally grateful for receiving these prayers from the Church Militant, and it will be a wonderful day when we can see the souls we have been able to help and who may have helped us.

The Church Triumphant is made of the souls who have reached their final goal of enteral, everlasting bliss in Heaven!  As St. Paul says, they have “finished the race” and get to enjoy the fruits Jesus has won for them and of their own hard work done in their lives. Even though the Church might not have declared them capitol “S” Saints, every member of the Church Triumphant is a saint. They “spend their heaven” praying for us and bolstering the holiness of the Church on earth. The Church Triumphant helps us to pray and since they are so close to our Heavenly Father, it is meritorious to ask them for their prayers on our behalf.

Even though the Church is called by different names and can be categorized into three different states, death does not separate us from one another. We all still are able to live and love together by being united under Christ as the head of the mystical body that is the Church. One day we all hope to be together in heaven as the Church Triumphant. Until then, we pray for one another and continue to serve one another as each of us finishes our own race to enjoy happiness with our God forever.

Questions:
What are the three states of the Church called?
What do they each represent?
How do each of the three states help one another?
How are the three states of the Church united?
What is Church Suffering?
 

Activity:
Take some time to write and reflect about what might be keeping you from living a saintly life and entering heaven. Surrender these things to God, knowing He is bigger than any of your sins and faults. Ask Him what He would like you to do to be better. Ask a certain Saint to pray for the help you need.

Think of something that you normally don’t look forward to or enjoy doing like part of your homework, chores, or whatever it may be. Do your best to consciously offer up this activity for the soul in purgatory who needs it most.

Spend some time praying for someone who has passed away, asking that they make it to heaven and join the Church Triumphant! It could be someone you know or someone who has passed away in your parish.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus tells us to be perfect, just as our heavenly Father is perfect. The Saints did this, well, perfectly; we are perfect not by our own efforts but when we faithfully unite our self to Jesus, live by His love and mercy love and mercy, and show this love and mercy freely to others.

Relates to my Faith: Life in the Church gives us the roadmap to be a saint while also providing us the witnesses and tools to achieve this goal in our life.

Sample Script:
I want to share with you a very important message about following the Saints and becoming a Saint. You have been growing in maturity, learning so much, preparing for confirmation, preparing to go to the next stage of your life. Many people may be asking you, “what do you want to do with your life?” Maybe you’ve heard that question a lot already in the past few years. Maybe you feel really sure about what you want to do with your life or perhaps you’re still figuring things out. It’s entirely possible that you’ll change your mind a few times before you know what you are called to do. Maybe you’ve been learning about the lives of the Saints and the life of Jesus and you say to yourself “I don’t know if I can do that.” It’s very important to set goals for yourself. To have dreams and ideas of where you want to direct your life. In order to do this in the best possible way, I want to invite you to slow down your heart and your mind.

When was the last time you woke up one day and did everything perfectly? When is the last time you learned a skill in an hour and never had to work on it ever again? The best things in life take time. The longer you work at a sport or a skill, the better it gets. Nobody wakes up one day with a six-pack. None of the Saints woke up ready to take on the world. We hear a lot about the amazing things the Saints have done, but we hear very little about the long time it took them to get there. Even Jesus chose to wait until He was 30 years old to begin His ministry. He spent His time praying, learning, and loving His family. He did all the “little things” like you have already been doing.

Some people don’t really know what they want to do with their life until they get to college, others don’t even know after they graduate, while still others have known what they have wanted to do since they were little. You have time to figure things out.

Even when you find your calling and are doing the amazing work God has called you to do, you’ll still have tough choices to make and a lot to discover about yourself. God wants you to take the time to do those things. He wants you to give Him the space to come into your heart and help you make the right choices and become the best version of yourself.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you don’t need to think about the future at all. God wants you to really look into yourself and at the world to see what you want to do and what the world needs. This also doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be making time to pray and ask God to help you know His will for you and then listen to how He responds in prayer, at Mass, in life, and in the people around you. It’s important to take the time to do these things, so I am saying in this message is just that: take your time to figure it out. You don’t have to figure everything out right now.

There’s no need to rush your life away worrying. The Saints were able to change the world, because they entrusted their whole lives to God. They were able to do amazing things, because they had no fear, and they had no fear, because they lived a life centered around Christ, trusting in His promises. That is the kind of life God wants for you. One where you know that you don’t have to be afraid, that you can trust in Him to guide you and care for you. Make sure your relationship with Him comes first before anything else. That is the most important thing that the Saints did that we forget more than anything else. We make other things more important. Once we put God first in our lives, He can help us to figure everything else out. One step at a time. One day, you might find yourselves taking on the world like the Saints you’ve grown up admiring and wonder how you got there. One step at a time is how. God knows the way and He wants to start walking it with you, so let’s take His hand and the hands of the Saints and take His time on our journey to heaven. Be not afraid.

Questions:
What is the best possible way to figure out our goals and dreams?
How do the best things in life come about?
What kind of life does God want for you?
What kind of life did the Saints have?
How old was Jesus when he started his ministry?
 

Activities:

Take some time to make a comprehensive list of your hopes and dreams for your future. It can be big goals a long way away like graduating college or small dreams for tomorrow like playing your favorite game. Think about little steps you can take towards making those hopes and dreams happen. Ask God to help you know His dream for your life and what He wants you to do to make it happen.

Write down the things that may be causing you stress and worry in your life. Think about why these things bother you so much. Are they really worth the trouble? Are there little things you can be doing to ease your mind? Surrender these worries to God, knowing He cares more about your happiness than you do, that He has a plan for your life, and that He has promised to take care of you.

Be on the lookout this week for a friend or relative that is undergoing stress or worry. Ask him or her to tell you more, spend time listening intently, making sure you understand where they are coming from, then offer the message of this lesson to them without presumption, simply as sharing an idea that might console them.

Spend some time talking with an adult you admire. Ask them about their story, whether it’s their vocation, how they found their career, or generally how they’ve ended up where they are today. Take notice of how much time it took them to reach their goals, how many steps they’ve had to take, and how God has taken care of them.

Saints – Extra Page

Scriptural References (speaking mostly to prayerful intercession, a major role of the Saints, praying for us before God): Romans 8:26-27; Revelations 5:8; 2 Thessalonians 1:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Gen. 20:7; Job 42:8; Rom. 15:30-32; James 5:16-17; Heb. 12:22-24; Revelation 8:3-4

Catechism of the Catholic Church References: CCC nos. 946-959; 2683-2684

Articles:
 The Bible Supports Praying to the Saints | Catholic Answers

Videos:
 Why Pray to the Saints? (#AskFrBarron) - Word on Fire
Bishop Barron on Satellites and Praying to the Saints - YouTube
Bishop Barron on All Saints Day - YouTube
Do Catholics Worship Saints? - YouTube
All Saints Day Pep Talk - YouTube
What is Stopping You from Becoming a Saint? - YouTube

Extra Narrative (for deeper study):
A Saint in the Catholic Church is someone who exemplified heroic virtue and exhibited a primary and central focus on the will of God during the course of their life. Saints behold the face of our Heavenly Father, existing in Heaven with Him who they sought to ardently imitate during their earthly life. To be an official “Saint”, the Church with the guidance of the Holy Spirit undergoes a thorough investigation into the life of the man or woman. While looking for the presence of grace within the life of the individual, the Church also looks for miraculous works performed through the intercession of the individual, showing the faith and relationship that the one in question has with the Triune God.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, referring to the Saints as “A Cloud of Witnesses”, has this to say in paragraph 2683: “The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today. They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were ‘put in charge of many things.’ Their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.”

Continuing in paragraph 2684: “In the communion of saints, many and varied spiritualities have been developed throughout the history of the churches. The personal charism of some witnesses to God's love for men has been handed on, like ‘the spirit’ of Elijah to Elisha and John the Baptist, so that their followers may have a share in this spirit. A distinct spirituality can also arise at the point of convergence of liturgical and theological currents, bearing witness to the integration of the faith into a particular human environment and its history. The different schools of Christian spirituality share in the living tradition of prayer and are essential guides for the faithful. In their rich diversity they are refractions of the one pure light of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is truly the dwelling of the saints and the saints are for the Spirit a place where he dwells as in his own home since they offer themselves as a dwelling place for God and are called his temple.”

This communion with God, which is truly the call or vocation of each and every person, is where we find life in its fullness. By virtue of our birth and with the grace given to us at baptism, we are given the foundation to seek God and to be His holy children. Striving for holiness in this life and living a life of prayer, faith, and charity puts us on track to spend eternity in the presence of God as His holy saint.

The Church speaks of the Communion of Saints, which consists of these holy men and women who while existed in different times and circumstances, and had their own unique set of gifts and talents and shortcomings, hold in common as one the same love of God that graced them to live life heroically for Him and for others.

We especially, as sons and daughters of God through our baptism are given that same grace to cooperate with so that we can live holy lives and strive for the same sainthood. Further, we can have confidence in praying for these Saints to pray and intercede for us, knowing that they are united with Jesus Christ, the only mediator with God the Father, and that their unification will bring us that which is of the loving will of God.

The communion that exists between the Church on earth and the Church in Heaven is best understood in what is called the three states of the Church. In the opening lines of paragraph 954 from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we hear the Church remind us that “[w]hen the Lord comes in glory, and all his angels with him, death will be no more and all things will be subject to him. But at the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating 'in full light, God himself triune and one, exactly as he is"'.

These states of the Church Militant (the faithful, living souls in the Church today), the Church Suffering (our dead brothers and sisters who, having died in the friendship of Christ, are being purified of any of their sinful imperfections that remain before entering Heaven), and the Church Triumphant (the Saints in Heaven who praise God for all eternity) are not silos that cut one group off from the other. Rather they are interconnected through faith that is the same in every time and season.

Further, “[a]ll of us, however, in varying degrees and in different ways share in the same charity towards God and our neighbours, and we all sing the one hymn of glory to our God. All, indeed, who are of Christ and who have his Spirit form one Church and in Christ cleave together” (CCC, 954). So again, all are united whether walking the earthly journey or sleeping in the peace of Jesus Christ, as these souls remain constant in faith with Christ and together form His Body the Church.

The Saints offer us an example of which we model our own lives by, as their lives were dedicated to and pointed directly at Jesus Christ in what they thought, said, and did. So our unity with the Saints, while sacramental and spiritual, is also practical and physical. We read the stories of their lives and pray that they intercede for us so that we can have the grace from God to carry out our lives in a fashion after these holy men and women while using our own gifts and talents as given to us by God Himself. The Saints are truly are brothers and sisters in living the devout Catholic life.