Many children in the Catholic Church worldwide celebrate all Saints Eve on the 31st of October befo-re the festival of All Saints by dressing up in costu-mes of the saints. In our faith we commemorate all those we call hallow or holy ,who have lived a life in Christ Jesus and are now in the Communion of Saints in heaven. For yet another year the children of Calvario parish enthusiastically participated in All Saints Eve ,dressing up as their favourite saints. Whilst reflecting upon the virtues of the saints the children break away from the growing commer-cialism of modern society in the Western world which confuses their personal identity and worth. By dressing up as saints they are able to fully re-flect upon the importance of the soul and a pure life following Jesus which ultimately leads to a place in Christ’s everlasting Kingdom. The main aim of each Christian is to reach heaven and who better for the children to imitate than the saints who are our ideal mentors and models, who show us how to live our faith. As the saints were totally human they set an excellent guide line making us realise that sanctification with God’s help is not unachievable. This year the heavens opened ,due to the incessant rain so the children consequently celebrated in the school rooms downstairs .which were packed to the hilt. They chose to dress as numerous saints inclu-ding Saint Martin de Pores , Saint John Paul 11, Saint Gemma ,saint Maria Goretti, Saint Francis of Assisi , Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Saint Joseph, Saint
Teresa of Avilla, the Little Flower, Saint Peter saint Josephine Bakhita and many more. Some also dres-sed as those holy individuals who are in the process of beatification or canonisation, like our beloved doctor from Madrid , D. Jose Galvez Ginachero , Gianlucca Firetti and Alexia Gonzalez – Barros . We had so much kind help with this event that to be honest it superseded all are expectations. A large team worked ardently behind the scenes including the mothers of young children who have just re-cently joined our parish. During the event I think that everyone appreciated the fact that the path to achieving sainthood begins by freely offering our services to the Lord. I would like to thank all tho-se that helped to make All Saints Eve at Calvario a successful evening including all the families who took part and Father Rafael for his great enthu-siasm and loving care towards the spiritual forma-tion of the youth , I also would like to thank the Catechists and our costume makers whose skilled hands made this wonderful authentic costumes in a very short space of time. Hopefully year after year we will be able to continue celebrating this soul inspiring event.
Esperanza Riol Catechist.
