OH WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN! Communion of Saints

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1 OH WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN! SCRIPTURE & CCC: Matthew 25:21 Hebrews 12:1 Revelation 7:9-17 CCC CCC CCC 2683 SUPPLIES NEEDED: Blank notecards Video/DVD player or projector/screen Pens/pencils Posterboard Baskets Slideshow of saint yearbook photos GOAL The purpose of the Edge Night is to use the lives of the saints to inspire the youth while also giving them a chance to respond to the universal call to holiness. EDGE NIGHT AT A GLANCE This Edge Night addresses the statement in the Creed, I believe in the communion of saints. This Edge night will focus on the role of saints in the Church as well as the intercession of our patrons in heaven. However, holiness is not simply reserved for priests, religious or saints. We are all called to be holy we are all called to be saints. The youth will be challenged to examine their own lives and see how they can grow in holiness and what areas need to change. The youth will see that the saints are also great role models for us as Catholics. The Edge Night begins with a pep rally. The youth will look at a video yearbook of the the saint most likely to The night progresses as the youth learn about the lives of the saints and how their lives fit into the universal call to holiness. In particular, there will be a witness about a person that lives holiness in their everyday life. Finally, the night ends with a prayer involving the intercession of the saints. BEFORE THE NIGHT Make a video yearbook of Saints. Have pictures of saints with a quote, saint most likely to You can do saint most likely to party (St. Augustine), saint most likely to levitate (St. Joseph of Cupertino), saint most likely to give you the shirt off his back (St. Maximillian Kolbe), saint most likely to be a veterinarian (St. Francis of Assisi), saint most likely to be your teacher (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton), saint most likely to a florist (St. Therese the Little Flower), etc. Have the slideshow playing as the youth walk in. ENVIRONMENT Make a pearly gate for the youth to walk through as they enter the room. Decorate with clouds around the room and have someone at the front gate welcoming everyone to heaven. Have a slideshow playing of yearbook pictures. The yearbook should be, saint most likely to Have all the Core embers dressed as their favorite saints. Crispin s When the Saints Go Marching In is a fun song to have playing in the background. GATHER OPENING MUSIC See song suggestions in Media Suggestions sidebar. W E LCO M E & INTRODUCTION 1. Welcome and introduce new teens. 2. Recognize and celebrate any youth or Core celebrating a birthday by singing Happy Birthday. 3. Present a brief overview of the session. OPENING PRAYER This prayer should be based on the overview of the session. Ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and understanding about the theme/topic for the night. If applicable, call upon the patron saint of your parish for intercession for the night as well. 56

2 PEP RALLY Have a couple of really enthusiastic Core Members come forward and lead a heavenly pep rally, encouraging everyone to win the race for heaven (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Get the group cheering, doing jumping jacks, moving around, etc. If some of your high school teens are on a dance, cheer or other school spirit team, have them lead cheers and get the middle school youth excited about the night. Change up some of the popular cheers to include the saints (Give me a s ; Give me an a ). SMALL GROUP CHEERS Each small group will create a cheer about a particular saint. Give each small group a small biography of a saint (see book Saintbook from Life Teen or and read through it together as a small group. After the group has had a chance to read about the saint, create a cheer or chant about the saint. If possible include what he/she is the patron saint of and/or what the saint is best known for. LARGE GROUP PROCESS Have as many small groups as possible present the cheers to the large group. Have the Core Team judge their favorite cheer. PROCLAIM SCRIPTURE PROCLAMATION Revelation 7: 9-17 PROCLAIM TALK I believe in the communion of saints Take a poll. How many of you want to go to heaven? (Most hands should go up) How many of you want to be a saint? (Some hands may go down) How many of you want to be holy? What is the funny thing about all three questions? They are all essentially the same question. How many want to go to heaven? Probably all of us. But when asked how many of us want to be holy and become saints, we become a little more hesitant. What is a saint? By definition, a saint is anyone that is in heaven with God. So if you don t want to be a saint, you don t want to go to heaven. How do you become a saint? By being holy. Universal Call to Holiness Jesus has called all of us to be saints to be holy. He said, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). We think of saintly people as being great martyrs, hardcore pray-ers or really old people. We think of them as being perfect and we have a hard time connecting with them because we don t think they are like us. We don t realize that there are saints who lived normal lives. St. Dominic Savio died when he was 15. St. Augustine liked to party and MEDIA SUGGESTIONS: Song: Tears of the Saints by Leeland (Sound of Melodies, Essential Records) Song: When the Saints Go Marching In by Crispin (Were You There?, Springtime Productions) Song: Litany by Matt Maher (The End and the Beginning, OCP) Edge Video: Saintly Minute: St. Thomas Aquinas (Edge Video Support 2) Book: Saintbook by Life Teen Website: 57

3 NOTES: OH WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN! was known to hang around with prostitutes until he had a conversion. St. Gianna Molla was a mother that sacrificed her life for her daughter in the 1970s. Her children and husband were at her canonization. St. Maximillian Kolbe was a priest who gave his life in a Nazi Concentration Camp so that another man with a family could live. St. Francis of Assisi came from a wealthy family before he took a vow of strict poverty. (This may be a great place to share your favorite story of a saint. Share a brief bio of the saint and why he/she is your favorite saint. If the Core Team dressed up as a saint, have the Core Team share who they picked and why they picked that particular saint.) Many times, we don t realize that we have the grace from God to be a saint. Holiness has nothing to do with spiritual gifts, being a priest or nun, being really old or living a long time ago. Being holy is about living every day of your life for God. Some days we may do really well and other days we may fail, but as we strive to be holy, we turn back to God, seek reconciliation and strive to do better. Being holy begins with the little things in your life: praying, attending Mass, and being kind to your friends and strangers. If you go to heaven, you are a saint. God wants us all to be saints; we are all called to holiness. We are all called to learn to fall in love with God and to seek and follow His will. He gives us the grace to be holy. Role of Saints in the Church Why does the Church recognize particular saints in heaven? The Church wants us to have many role models. Even more so, the Church wants us to pray with these saints for the same grace and zeal that they had. Why do Catholics pray to saints? Why not just pray to Jesus? First of all, we do not pray to the saints, we pray with the saints and ask them to pray for us. Also, we do not worship saints like we worship Jesus. We honor and venerate saints for pointing us to Jesus. Asking a saint to pray for you is not that different from asking a friend or a family member to pray for you. The saints are in heaven. The Scripture that we read states that the great multitude is in heaven proclaiming the glory of God. If we have brothers and sisters in heaven, why can t we ask them to pray for us? In fact, they are closer to God and in a greater position to intercede than we are. The saints give us the model for how to get to heaven. Many different saints show us many different ways to God and many different ways to be holy. We may never have the word saint next to our name in a book, but we are still called to find ways we can live our lives, everyday, for Christ. We can look to the saints to learn ways to be holy. By following the example of St. Francis of Assisi, we may discover we are too dependent on our material goods and they get in the way of our relationship with God; or the example of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (the Little Flower) and learn to serve people in every small way that we can. There are saints we can ask to pray with and for us regarding anything we are going through in our lives: studying/school, struggling with 58

4 purity, vocations, family issues, travel, music, sports, etc. There are some great web sites you could look read to find out who the patron saint of each of these things. At home, do a search Catholic patron saint of. Read about the saint, ask that saint to pray for you, but more importantly, find out how you can grow in holiness by following his/her example. WITNESS TALK Have a Core Member or a high school teen give a witness talk about how they strive to be a saint in everyday life. BREAK SMALL GROUP PRAYER As your small group begins say a prayer for the group and the activities for that session. SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION In your small group discuss the following questions: 1. What does a universal call to holiness mean? How is that supposed to be lived? 2. Did you ever think of yourself as a saint? What are some things that you need to do to become a saint in your everyday life? 3. Who is your favorite saint? Why? 4. How can you relate to the story shared about the personal witness that a Core Member shared? How can people who live a holy life point us more to life with God in heaven? 5. Who is someone you know models holiness? Who are your Christian role models? SAINT BIOGRAPHY Each small group should select the life of a saint to profile. This can be the same saint from the beginning of the night or you may have the youth select another saint to learn about. Again, you can use the book Saintbook from Life Teen or the website Read about the life of the saint and discuss why the youth believe he/ she is a saint. Also discuss how each member of the group can ask that saint for intercession and how each member can do something tangible during the week to model his/her life after the saint. Have the small group create a poster about the saint. Share important information about the saint, what he/she is the patron saint of and the small groups challenge to model their lives after the saint during the week. Select a spokesperson to share about the saint to the large group. NOTES: 59

5 ANNOUNCEMENTS: 1. OH WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN! ADAPTATION IDEAS: If your Core Team cannot dress up as saints, have pictures of saints on the wall. Instead of praying to the saints at the end of the night, have the saints pray for you. Place the name of 50 saints in a grab bag, along with what they are the patron saint of. Have each middle school youth draw a saint out of the bag. Instruct them that this is now one of their patron saints and that they should pray ask that saint to pray with him/her. SEND LARGE GROUP SAINT PRESENTATIONS Have as many small groups as possible share about the lives of the saint that they learned about. BANQUET IN HEAVEN Walk the youth over to your church or chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is held. Focus the youths attention on the altar. Explain to them that at Mass, all the saints in heaven are present at the altar of the Lord s Sacrifice. We are united to the saints every time heaven kisses earth in the Mass. The saints never stop praying for us in heaven and they will present our requests to the Lord whenever we ask for their prayers. Give each youth a blank note card and a pen/ pencil. Invite the youth to write down their prayer intentions and then, one-by-one to come up and place it in a basket around the altar. During this time, play Litany of the Saints by Matt Maher or if possible, have a musician present to lead the youth in singing the litany. Encourage the youth to sing/chant pray for us after each saint s name is sung. SUMMARY CHALLENGE Before the middle school youth are sent home they will be challenged to remember: 1. A saint is anyone that is with God in heaven. The Church recognizes specific saints to give us examples for our faith. 2. We are all called by God to be with Him in heaven and therefore, we are all called to be saints. This is the universal call to holiness. 3. We should pray with the saints and ask them to intercede for us because they are our brothers and sisters in heaven. 4. This week, find specific ways that you can model the life of the saint(s) you read and discussed during small group. TO THE PARENTS OF Tonight we discussed the communion of the saints. A saint is the term used to describe someone that is in heaven with God. The Church recognizes certain saints so that we have role models that point us to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. We honor and venerate saints because of the lives that they lived and because they point us closer to communion with the Holy Trinity. Just as we can ask our friends to pray for us, we can ask saints in heaven to pray for us as well. We are united with the saints in every Mass. Some discussion questions for the ride home: 1. Who were some of the saints that you learned about? What was the coolest story and why? 2. How do the lives of the saints apply to you? What can you do to be more holy in your everyday life? 3. Which saint would you like to pray to more? Is there a saint that we could adopt as a patron for our family?