Saint Classroom Activities

Have the students do a bit of research on one of the favorite saints.

Ask them to make a Saints Day Card using either an 8x11 sheet of paper or construction paper folded in half.

The top part of the card should contain the name of the saint with a picture or drawing representing the saint.

Inside, there could be a brief biography of the saint and/or a prayer to this saint written by the student. They could also explain why they have chosen this saint - what do they find appealing about this holy person.

On the back of the card, ask them to draw a symbol that represents this saint. Under the drawing, they could explain why they have chosen this particular symbol.

Explain the following points to your students:

• God is the one who calls people to become Saints;
• Saints are people who love God and others - you can't separate one from the other;
• Saints show their love for God by loving others;
• the love that Saints have for others is an echo, a reflection of the love that God has for others;
• Saints find out how God is calling them to love by being attentive to the needs of people in the world they live in;
• the lives of Saints tell us something about God: when God calls certain people in certain situations to love in certain ways, God is telling us what is important in God's eyes.

For example, Mother Teresa of Calcutta served the poorest of the poor, the dying, the children who would otherwise have been abandoned or aborted. If God called her to do this, what was God telling the whole world through Mother Teresa? The ministry of Mother Teresa proclaimed this love of God in the midst of what Pope John Paul II called the "culture of death". The ministry of Mother Teresa was therefore both a sign of God's love and a message to the world.

What was the "message" of God to the world given through Therese of Lisieux? or Saint Francis of Assisi?

Saints in the Supermarket, a feature of the online edition of the Saint Anthony Messenger, has a more extensive reflection on sainthood and provides a number of links to online resources to facilitate this reflection.