Fun, Spring Cleaning, and St. Brigid’s Day
By Robert Fontana
(reprint from 1/31/2016)
Faith can be fun for kids and adults alike. In fact, if it is not fun some of the time, even for us older folks, faith will lose its power to touch our imaginations and enrich our lives. One way to keep faith fun in the home is to select a few of your favorite saints – perhaps those saints with whom your children share a name or with whom your family has a cultural connection – and plan to celebrate their feast days in your home with good food, a children’s version of the saint’s story, and some sort of prayer ritual.
We Fontanas like to observe the Feasts of St. Joseph (March 19) who is the patron saint of Italy, St. Clare (August 11) and St. Francis (Oct 5), and of course, our Irish patrons (Lori’s side of the family) saints Patrick (March 17) and Brigid (Feb 1).
St. Brigid’s feast day is Thursday, February 1, which, in Ireland, also marks the first day of Spring. So on St. Brigid’s Day we are going to gather with family for some good Irish stew and some good Irish faith-fun, including the following prayer service:
Begin with this Prayer to St. Brigid
Saint Brigid, daughter of Ireland and lover of Jesus, draw us by your prayers into the living flame of God’s love. Help us to clean our hearts and homes of all that is selfish and sinful. Pray that we will be attentive to the poor and spiritually abandoned, that we will practice the Beatitudes in good times and bad, and that the warmth of God’s love will animate all that we say and do.
Each member of the home then takes a bandanna, handkerchief, or even a cloth napkin in hand and walks through the house, dusting the furniture, TV, books, and lamps, etc. singing “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”
When the house has been thoroughly dusted, all go outside and tie the cloths on the branches of a shrub or tree (or porch railing). Then together, pray this prayer:
All: St. Brigid, come this day to our home and hearts; come by the power of God and be our guest. And help us, dear Brigid, to wipe away the dust of too much “me, and my, and mine” that we might love others with a selfless heart. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Our Father…
Return to the house for dessert (Irish mint ice cream!)
