Liturgical Catechesis: Saints and Sacraments

For Confirmation class tonight, I had them summarize the Sacrament of Penance from last week , and we briefly discussed Anointing of the Sick.  Since it is November and proper to discuss the Saints, I opened, with this group of Hispanic kids, by asking who had done something special over the last few days (the Days of the Dead in Mexico are Oct. 31, Nov. 1 and 2) Sure enough, two students had gone with their families to visit the graves of relatives in cemetaries. 

We talked about remembering the dead, and about the special role of Saints, how people become Saints and all the basics... with stories, questions, etc... and then I told them the story of a modern person on his way to sainthood - a young priest from Mexico, who thought the sacraments were so  important that he defied the government ban by the corrupt president on Catholic celebrations of the Mass and sacraments, and the prohibition against priests, to bring the sacraments to the people.

Blessed Miguel Pro, who was martyred for the faith in 1927, was a brave young man - and certainly a role model. We then watched this powerful short Spanish-language clip which summarizes his entire story, taken from the feature movie Padre Pro:


We then talked about what could make a person give their life for the faith - and I told several short stories of martyrs. I told them of other saints... and of St. Augustine, whose mother, St. Monica, had prayed for his conversion until he finally turned his dissipated life around. I mentioned the classic Butler's Lives of the Saints book... and on that note, I promised more next week...  One young lady was obviously intrigued. She came up after class and asked for the full reference for the book.  Hooked!