Books about Saints

Since our school is called "All Saints Academy" we love to learn about all the saints. I do this a variety of ways.

The most common is the Saint of the Day article from "Magnificat" Magazine. First we pray morning prayer together. Then we pray for all our intentions. After that we pray to the Holy Spirit to let his Word sink deep into our souls so that we become more like Jesus. Then after reading the daily Mass readings and using One Bread, One Body meditations published by Presentation Ministries, we go back to the saint of the day in "Magnificat". It is just the right length for our daily meditations. If I have it all together, I then help the children make a figure for their timeline books.

We also read longer saint biographies. I particularly like 2 that are out of print. They are Sixty Saints for Girls and Sixty Saints for Boys by Joan Windham. Joan is a British author who has quite a gift for story telling. The details of the saints' lives are probably fictionalized, but she does get the important facts right. After reading the boy's book, they wanted to hear the girl's book as well.

I have used the Lives of the Saints books by Rev.H. Hoever and published by Catholic Book Publishing for our daily meditations in the past.

I have used other saints books by Catholic Book Publishing in the past, but they don't have the detail that I like. The pictures are awesome, however.

I really like the Vision book series published by Ignatius. I use these for family reading time. I am less enthusiastic about the Tan series by Windeatt.

Another series I like are the Pauline Press series. They are continually publishing new titles. One that we read on St. Maximilian Kolbe was quite inspiring.

If you don't want to buy anything, I like the liturgical year feature at Catholic Culture. It is sometimes hard to locate on their website.

There are crafts and recipes and activities for saints feasts and other feast days. We try to really celebrate at least one special feast a month complete with craft and special recipe.

Other resources are the blog "Catholic Cuisine" and Building the Family Cookbook by Suzanne Fowler.