Communion of Saints Wall

 I updated our Communion of Saints wall recently.

I had taken down all the holy cards and pictures when the new windows were installed.  Silly me stacked them on top of each other so when I went to put them back up the tape took the layer of holy card with it.  Faces, hands, clothes - missing.  Holy cards - ruined.

I got smart this time and laminated EVERYTHING!  I picked out fewer holy cards so I could have more room for the Church Suffering and the Church Militant.

 Our tour begins with Darren and I surrounded by our parents and, in my case, grandparents.

 There are three different colors of hearts on the wall.  The lighter pink is our family and Godparents who are not related to us.  The brighter pink is my side of the family while the more coral(?) colored pink is Darren's side of the family.  The picture above shows Blase, Stephen, and Cormac's names as well as Darren's siblings and families.

 This is Rex and Brech's part of the wall.  The "Baby" hearts you see are those families who are expecting this year.  We will put up new hearts with the baby's name on it after they are born.  I think I will have to replace all my family's names at that point because I am out of that color of heart.  I'm ok with doing that because this time I'm going to be smart and buy a truckload of the same color.  Below Brech's name you can see my siblings who are either not married or are too young to be married.  Since we will not be having anymore children they won't be honored to be Godparents for us.  That does break my heart a bit, but there are plenty of babies coming in the family yet and there will be more than enough opportunities for Godparenthood then.

This is the girls' corner.  I'm not sure if you noticed, but the Godfather and/or husband is always on top.  I did that on purpose as a way of showing respect to their role as main provider of their family or that Godchild.  I do believe that the Godfather's role is comparable to the father's role in a family.  The Godmother is more so the heart of the two for sure.

Did you notice the squares on all of the kids' names?  Those would be the names of the priest which baptized them.  The kids are always asking who baptized them so I found this to be an easy way for them to remember who that priest was and also remember to pray for them.  The only person who is on the board twice is our good friend, Fr. Corey Litzner.  He baptized Gianna for us and then we asked him to be Kiara's Godfather.  The only person on the board THREE times is Darren's former parish priest when he was growing up and the priest who was in residence in my hometown.  (Since our family attended the TLM in Rapid City, we didn't have him for our priest.)  His name is Fr. Arni Kari.  He baptized Rex for us when he was born and then we asked him to baptize Brigid and Kiara for us.  It was a great honor to have him baptize the twins.  Fr. Kari was amazingly helpful to our family when Mark died.  He said some of the most helpful and healing things for many of us.  To have yet another connection with him will always be a treasure in my heart. 

 

 That concludes our tour of the Church Militant (at least those of us on the wall).  For those of you who do not know who the Church Militant are - they are those of us still alive and working our way to heaven.  The Church Militant can help the Church Suffering and be helped by both the Church Suffering and the Church Triumphant.

The next stop is the Church Triumphant.  

These would be the saints in heaven.  They can help the Church Militant and the Church Suffering, but are in no need of help themselves as they have attained their reward of heaven already.

The Church Triumphant we have on our wall are some of our favorite saints.   These are the ones that mean a lot to us for various reasons, including namesakes, personal favorites, and chosen patrons.

 The final stop is the Church Suffering.

These would be the souls in purgatory awaiting the time until they are clean of venial sin and can enter heaven.  These souls WILL be saints.  They cannot help themselves, but the Church Militant and Church Triumphant can.  I try to stress to my children the value of including them in our prayers on a daily basis.  Who wouldn't want to have a bunch of grateful souls praying for you when they get to heaven?  My dad always included prayers for the most forgotten soul.  I try to still remember to think of and pray for them.

 This is a close up of some of those in the Church Suffering section of our wall.  While I put them in the Church Suffering section does not mean they are there.  It is with hope I put them there and with faith that I know God knows best.   I would love to know for a fact that I can move them up to the Church Triumphant section, but then I don't want to forgot to pray for them in my haste of assuming they are saints.  Better to pray for them and them not needing it than to assume they don't need it and wishing I had prayed. 

Off to the side of the Church Suffering is our short list of priests.  How did I choose which ones to put on the wall?  Well, if I had a card of their ordination or if I recalled their name from having them as our priests in the past - then I put them on the wall.  Some are there because they are my favorite priests, like Fr. Kenneth Dean, SSPX, or because they are considered special friends to us, like Fr. Michael Irwin, FSSP or Fr. Michael Driscoll, or because they are in need of prayers due to their current assignment, like Archbishop Alexander Sample (who is one of our favorite people too!).  If I had more room I would put every priest I have ever known on there.  There are so many and they are all in need of prayer.  We recall their names every day in our Prayer for Priests we say during our morning prayers.  The young man's picture at the bottom is the son of my kids' former swimming teacher from Michigan.  He was studying to be a priest and my boys thought that was the neatest thing.  I cut out his picture from the diocesan newspaper before we moved so we could remember to pray for him.  I need to add another name to our list - Mr. Ben Rivard, son of Gianna's Godparents and our dear friends.  He will be going to the seminary soon.  I have considered adding a special prayer for all the seminarians during our morning prayer time.  I am thinking this is the push I need to do it.  God bless all our priests, seminarians, brothers, and sisters who help us in so many ways!