We can pray this season for both heroes and villains

By Phillip Garside
NOLA Catholic Parenting

We are beginning the preamble to a dramatic interplay of light and liturgical season that will continue until Pentecost.

This preamble opens with a month of devotion to the rosary and then transitions through All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day into a thematic month of prayer for the souls in purgatory.

All the while, the radiance of summer light and spiritual light moves to the recognition of hope amidst cosmic darkness.

The mindful parent will stealthily sculpt a narrative that prioritizes these firm foundations of the season for their children. This way, when they are old enough, the child will discover spiritual investment in things worth celebrating as they put away the things of children typified by the season’s secular holidays.

So, dutiful parents must ask themselves, what is worth celebrating?

First, there is the Queen of Heaven and all her subjects. During October, it is worth subtly reminding our children of select members of her court whom we will celebrate on Nov. 1.

All Saints’ Day is an extremely rare type of holiday in Catholicism in which the laity gets a choice. It is a day when we can decide who it is that we wish to honor. The point of the holiday is to recognize that the hosts of heaven number far beyond the official canon of saints.

There’s the frequent urge to venerate our recently deceased ancestors, which is beautiful. But as families, this is an opportunity for us to be creatively expansive using the liturgical calendar.

As we meditate on the mysteries of the rosary during this season of light under the Queen of Heaven, we can consider who among the dead we, in our family, think exhibits true Christian virtue enough to be a saint.

The Harrowing of Hell – the triumphant descent of Christ into hell between the time of his crucifixion and resurrection – extends that invitation to the entire scope of human history. The outpouring of God’s grace through baptism by desire makes the pool of candidates truly “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people and tongue.”

This is an excellent time to reaffirm both the particular values of our family and the mercy of God, which is not limited to a relatively small list of people. Whom do your children relate to? What virtues of Christ do those heroes exhibit?

The month of October is a good month to discuss the mercy of God and what virtues these heroes demonstrate that indicate they “made it,” though they may not be officially canonized. Then, when Nov. 1 comes, your family can celebrate both them and their virtue.

As the light wanes, we can shift our theme from heroic virtues to hope over despair. November is a month to pray for the souls in purgatory. Catechesis of children concerning purgatory does well to dwell on God’s mercy rather than punishment. Purgatory is a period of adjustment allowing us to become the type of creature who can enjoy heaven.

To understand what this means, a family may want to take this time to dwell on whoever we regard as the villains of history. No matter how much we may loathe them, they are creatures of God.

Since there is no canon of the damned; we are free to pray for their souls. This teaches our children to see our common bond as beloved of God. It teaches them to follow the injunction of our savior, “Pray for your enemies.” Lastly, it teaches them to hope in the profound power of God’s mercy. Even as times get darker and darker, creation itself assures us there is always the promise of light.

Phillip Garside has lived on the Gulf Coast his entire life. His spiritual formation took place at the hands of the Jesuits and the Carmelites. Both imprinted upon him their charism of contemplation in action. While Phillip enjoys his morning meditation on the hagiographies of each of the daily celebrated saints, the readings from the Liturgy of the Word and the Office of Readings when the sun comes up, he sees his task as maneuvering these meditations into a creatively sculpted lived experience among his family, his profession, his parish and in society as a whole. He and his spouse Rebecca have three children.