21 February 2013

Lunch with the Saints

About 12.30 pm each day, someone says, “Let’s have lunch!” and soon the girls are busy
making sandwiches and filling the kettle. In a matter of minutes, we
are seated around the kitchen table.

I
love this time of day when we gather after our morning activities. It’s a time
to touch base with each other and share some of our discoveries. It can also be
a time to read a book together, and have great conversations.
At
the moment we are reading an old out-of-print book called the Character Calendar. It’s a saint-of-the-day book. I downloaded it onto my tablet after my
friend Leanne recommended it. We have a more modern daily saints book on our shelf
which we could also read.
It
has only been taking me a couple of minutes to read the day’s entry, but the
ensuing discussions go on for much longer.
The
other day we read about Catherine de Ricci. The girls wanted to know more
details of her life, so I used my tablet to do a quick Google search, while we
were still at the kitchen table.  (Don’t you just love how modern technology answers questions so quickly?) We discovered St
Catherine received the stigmata and was able to bilocate. You can imagine the
interesting conversation that followed, as we talked about the various spiritual gifts God has bestowed upon his saints.
“Some
saints could levitate,” said Imogen.
“Levitate?”
asked Gemma-Rose. “Oh!” she added, once Imogen had explained further.
“When the older kids were younger, we watched a movie called The Reluctant Saint about St Joseph of Cupertino. I’m
sure he levitated too,” I said. “I wonder if that movie is available online.”
I
did a search and yes, it is. The whole movie (in one piece) can be viewed free on
Youtube.
On
the recent feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, we’d talked about St Bernadette. I have
read the book The Song of Bernadette, but never seen the movie. After a couple of
minutes searching, I found the film version at Youtube too.
So
now the girls are eagerly looking forward to watching these two saints movies.
They are B&W movies but I’m sure the girls will forget the lack of colour
once they are caught up in the stories. We will be able to watch them on our TV
using our Telstra T-Box, but I’m sure we’d cope watching them on my laptop or PC
if we had to.
Sometimes
it’s hard to fit everything into a day, especially when the girls have so many things they are working on. But every day we eat
lunch, and every day we sit at the kitchen table together. Lunch time is a
regular opportunity to share something interesting. And just at the moment, we’re busy sharing saints’ stories… We’re having lunch with the saints. Perhaps
you’d like to join us. And then later, we can gather on the sofa and settle
down together, and watch a saints movie. Doesn’t that sound like a wonderful
way to spend some time?
“Didn’t
Padre Pio have the stigmata too?” asks Charlotte.
“Yes, and
he could bilocate too,” I answer.
“Did
he levitate as well?” Apparently he did.
“But we don’t all need those sort of spiritual gifts to be saints.” 
The discussion continues…

Sue Elvis

I'm an Australian blogger, podcaster, and Youtuber. I write and speak about unschooling, parenting and family life. I'm also the author of the unschooling books 'Curious Unschoolers', 'Radical Unschool Love' and ‘The Unschool Challenge’. You'll find them on Amazon!

6 Comments

  1. It sounds blissful, Sue! Did you know there's a full length movie about Padre Pio on YouTube, too?

    The T- box sounds really useful. I find the iPad wonderful for going on rabbit trails but the T-box would be good for family movies.

    God bless, Sue:-)
    PS. One of our readings, at the moment, is the saints book you gave us for Christmas.

    • Vicky,

      I didn't know about the Padre Pio movie on Youtube. We actually have one on DVD. I think it's called "Miracle Man". I wonder if it's the same one you saw. Also, I know there's some real life footage of Padre Pio on Youtube. That would be interesting to watch.

      Our TV reception is hopeless except through the T-box, so we use it all the time. We also hire direct streamed movies through it, and use it to record programs. Youtube can be accessed directly through the T-box. The only thing I don't like is the tiny keyboard which is fiddly to use!

      I was thinking about that book we gave you only last night. I'm glad to hear you are finding it useful!

      God bless!

  2. Sue!! We LOVE saint movies!! We have also watched "The Reluctant Saint", (watched at a friends house), "The Song of Bernadette", (borrowed from the library), we watched "St Rita" on EWTN, and I am the proud owner of "St. Therese de Lisieux". The Padre Pio movie is on youtube… oh, and of course "The Passion" I have on DVD and it's also on Youtube. I would love to own more of the saint movies. 🙂 I am personally fascinated by saints who were mystics and/or had the gift of the stigmata! 🙂

    • Susan,

      We have a number of saints movies we haven't yet watched. Can you believe that? We found some for sale for about $10 each, though others were more expensive. I really must search the shelves and put the movies where we will see them and then we might actually watch them. But first, I can't wait to see the ones I found on Youtube. I can remember how good The Reluctant Saint was.

      We have The Passion on DVD but I must admit that I have only watched it once. It is very difficult viewing but I guess that's why it is so important to see it.

      I was really looking forward to the release of the St Therese movie and then I was a little bit disappointed. The facts in the movie don't seem to be quite accurate. Maybe the producers just simplified things to make it easier to film. The actress playing St Therese was very beautiful but I thought she looked too old as a child and that kept distracting me. I am easily distracted! I shouldn't let these things worry me. It was a visually beautiful movie, wasn't it? It is wonderful that film producers are making movies about saints.

      St Rita? I shall have to look that one up!

      God bless!

    • Stephanie,

      We are very blessed to be able to spend time lingering around the lunch table talking. And then we can choose to watch a movie if we want to. I often reflect on how fortunate we are. Homeschooling is good!

      Now I can't decide which movie to watch first. I might leave that decision to the girls!

      God bless!

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