Saints for LENT

Bernadette McCarver Snyder

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What Is Lent Anyway?

It’s a time to step aside and look inside! Inside where? Inside you! For hundreds and hundreds of years, the Church has set aside 40 days each year as a special time for Christians to pray and fast and give money to the poor. Of course, we should do that all year long, but Lent reminds us to do it now!

Lent can be a “secret garden”…a place to be quiet and think about God and God’s goodness…a time to stop, look and listen…an opportunity to plan how you can use your mind and heart to know God, love God, serve God and be friends with God.

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We offer this booklet as a Lenten way to become acquainted with a few saintly people whose lives are good role models for today’s children. These saints were ordinary people who learned how to work and pray in an extraordinary way. It’s important for children to know that this is the true way to change the world—not by superhuman feats of derring-do, but by ordinary lives lived in an extraordinary way.

Each story ends with a prayer-thought to serve as a Lenten resolution. This is a booklet of ideas and ideals—not just for Lent, but for a lifetime.

Wait Just a Minute!Do you think saints were boring people who knew

nothing about real life, real work and real adven-tures? Wait just a minute! You might be surprised when you hear their stories. And it will take just a minute to read each one.

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Would a Saint Have a Dog for a Bodyguard?

John Bosco liked picnics, acrobatics, music. He even knew how to walk on a tight-rope and do magic tricks! Maybe that’s why children loved him so much!

When he was a young priest in Italy, he took an old barn and made it into a home for poor boys who had nowhere to live. This was the first of many homes, work-shops and schools he founded so that neglected children could be educated and learn how to live good, Christian lives.

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One day, a thief attacked John Bosco, but a huge stray dog came out of nowhere to fight off the rob-ber. After that, the dog “Grigio” became the saint’s friend and bodyguard, defending him from danger. Warm-hearted, lovable John Bosco never had enough money, but he always had plenty of friends.

Dear Jesus, help me be like St. John Bosco—always ready to be a friend, always ready to enjoy life with music and laughter and a “little bit of magic.”

Would a Saint Live on a Wild Frontier and

Feed Pigs?Have you seen movies of the Wild West days,

when towns had dirt roads, log cabins, cowboys and Indians? That’s the kind of place where a nun named Rose Philippine Duchesne went to start a school.

Her wealthy family lived in an elegant home in France, but she decided to give up everything to

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go to America as a missionary and work with the Indians. When she got to Missouri, frontier life was very hard, but she always volunteered to do the worst jobs, such as feeding the pigs and starting the first fires on winter mornings. Sometimes it was so cold in her room that the ink froze in her pen when she tried to write a letter!

But Mother Duchesne was a wonderful teacher and happy in her work, and she became famous for opening the first free school west of the Mississippi River. She was canonized a saint in 1988.

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Dear Jesus, help me be like St. Philippine Duchesne—willing to volunteer to do hard jobs, try new things and journey forth to new adventures and new frontiers.

Would a Saint Be Curious and Become a Scientist?

A long time ago when ev-erybody believed the earth was flat, Albert the Great proved to his students that it was round! He was one of the first scientists and one of the greatest—even though he lived before the invention of telescopes, microscopes and other tools of science.

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Saints for LENT

This book, along with many other Creative Com-munications for the Parish products, is available on

and

By Bernadette McCarver Snyder. Illustrations by Jeff Carnehl. Design by Jamie Wyatt. © 2017 Creative Communications for the Parish, a Division of Bayard, Inc., 1564 Fencorp Dr., Fenton, MO 63026. 800-325-9414. www.creativecommunications.com. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. ST8

Saints for Lent will enthrall children as they learn that the saints were a lot like they are! The saints had many of the same struggles and fears—and they weren’t born saints! This refreshing and engaging booklet includes prayers and shows how the saints lived very ordinary yet holy lives. Children (and perhaps even adults!) will be excited to see that they can live saintly lives, too, especially during Lent!

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