Every evening for the past couple weeks I've been trying to get my husband and kids off the subject of football and jello at the dinner table. We seem to be able to hold fine conversations about the Nebraska Cornhuskers, our disdain for the Texas Longhorns and our bliss for having beaten Oklahoma State. Our family also has an inside joke about the topic of jello. It would not be worth my time to try to explain it to you but I'll have to admit it has caused me to giggle many times and has helped us bond through silly goofy humor.
But I have tried to get a little more serious at the dinner table as this is a sacramental year for Cole our 5th grader. He will be receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation in the spring and is in the midst of decision making and preparation. Several of these past evenings at the dinner table we have managed to sneak in a little saint talk. I have stopped those serious football conversations and silly jello jokes to ask Cole, "What saint are you thinking about choosing for your Confirmation name?" And then I couldn't help myself but indulge him with all my favorite saints that he could choose from: St. Augustine, St. Anthony, Padre Pio....and of course St. Francis of Assisi. Eric chimed in with St. Blaise who he dressed as for his saint party at school.
Cole couldn't seem to commit. Until...last Sunday evening because he had to fill in his saint sheet with the saint he had decided to choose for his confirmation name, it was due Monday. And......drum roll..........he chose.......St. Francis of Assisi.
I must say, with regret, I wasn't convinced that Cole put a whole lot of thought and prayer into this selection. I say this because the sheet he filled out asked a couple simple questions about the saint that Cole couldn't answer on his own. And I helped him fill it out so I feel because of this it was a last minute decision to choose St. Francis of Assisi. I hope I'm wrong though and maybe the Holy Spirit or his guardian angel whispered in his ear to choose him. I'm hoping Cole will find as the years progress that he indeed chose the perfect saint to lean on and emulate all through his life.
I couldn't be more tickled with his choice though. If you haven't read my previous October post on Saint Francis of Assisi please read it, you will enjoy that story I believe. If you have already read it you should know I recently made an edit to it, Saint Francis of Assisi is my husband Will's Confirmation name, not Padre Pio as I had written. I don't know how I got that mixed up.
Saint Francis is a great reminder to us about Peace and how to obtain it. If you haven't prayed his prayer for awhile I invite you to pray it now:
The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are
born to eternal life.
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