October is one of my favorite months of the year.  Many of my favorite feast days are in this month along with of course, Halloween.  The month starts with the feast of the Guardian Angels on October 2nd.  As a child, I always loved stories about the angels and to know that I had a special angel made me feel so safe.  October 4th is the feast of St. Francis.  The beautiful stories of Francis’ love for animals and the earth warm my heart.  This year it will be a special feast day for our new pope, Pope Francis.

October is Respect Life month where we remember that all life is precious in God’s eyes.  How fitting it is when this month is filled with feast days that promote the respect and dignity of all life.

As a teacher, I have to admit, I loved Halloween.  I found this day filled with creativity for children.  I loved Halloween poetry, ghost stories and the many beautiful, creative art ideas that my class was able to make.  I never could just leave it at that.  In my eyes Halloween was the eve of all saints so we spent the month studying our patron saint.  After all the research was finished, we put on plays or parades of saints for the Feast of All Saints.  What a joy it was for the students and their teacher to know so much about the saints!  I think we are all saints in process and as teachers, catechists, parents, grandparents etc. we need to remind ourselves that each child is precious in God’s eyes and our task is to guide that child to be a future saint.   Enjoy October!!!