Sunday, February 12, 2012

"Mommy. I want to be a saint."

Sadie had been following from the bedroom to the office and back again while I switched Paul's books from the office to the bedroom, and my books made the move into the new sewing room.   Suddenly she stopped, and made an announcement.  I tried my best to remember every word as she was saying it, in a very serious, passionate voice:

Sadie:  "Mommy.  I want to be a saint."
Me:  "Oh Sadie!  That's a really good thing to want to be.  That's the most important thing to want.  I want to be a saint too!  And I want you and Daddy and Mae Bae to all be saints too!"
Sadie (with a very serious expression, in a surprisingly passionate tone):  "I want to be a saint so bad!"
Me (hugging her):  "You can be a saint!  God wants you do be a saint!  Do you know what you need to do?  You need to pray and love God with all your heart!  And you can ask him to help you be a saint."
Sadie:  "Why do I need to love God?"  She's had a serious case of the Why's lately.
Me:  "Because he made you to love him.  And he loves you!"
Sadie:  "Dear God.  I do love you.  Please help....  New baby..."(along with a mixture of words I couldn't understand).  In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen!"

She spent the next ten minutes asking questions about God and why he loves her and then said:  "Are nuns saints?"  I told her that some saints are nuns and priests and some are just people like us.  She thought about that for a while and when Paul came home and we were eating our split pea soup she seemed to be concentrating very hard.  I'd asked her if she wanted to tell Daddy what she'd been telling me about earlier and after about a minute she said:  "I want to be a nun!"

I have to say I'm a big fan of the Catholic Children's Treasure Box.  The stories about Saint Therese have made a huge impression on Sadie and I feel like the conversations and topics she's bringing up are pretty much exactly from the books!  But it still completely surprises me when we have conversations like this (I have to think really hard to answer all her questions because she really thinks about the answers I give her and then asks more questions!).

I'm going to have to keep learning about our faith if I'm going to keep up with her!  If that's not motivation I don't know what is!

2 comments:

  1. The Catholic Children's Treasure Box series is phenomenal. I brought them for my second daughter when she was four and she LOVED them, still does actually. Last year I began reading them to my kindergarten religious ed students and they also loved the stories that I selected. I read one installment of St. Therese's story to my class last week and I was surprised when several of them shouted out "That was a great story!" when I finished. I even had a few tell me that they really like St. Therese. Her story had a similar effect on my middle daughter. I only wish there were more than 20 books available.

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  2. Your girls are so adorable and precious.

    We have the Treasure Box series but I never could get Cecilia into them. I do like them, but I think the fragmented nature of the books bothered her. Here's hoping the next one likes them better! :)

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