"Pray For Priests" a daily reminder for children

I had wanted to do something special on our family altar for the children in the Year of the Priest. A daily visual reminder that we must pray for them. The way I've designed it IS unusual but there is quite a deep meaning to it, one that the children should grasp and understand.

Here is what I bought to build this:

- MDF board {I used a laundry basket to trace a half sun onto it. I made the sun rays from this board as well}

- piece of timber for the base {I just searched around for an old piece as was going to be covered}

- I bought an assortment of colours/patterns of scrapbooking paper {all bought half price on special}

- suitable glue

- MDF Alphabet cutouts

- Rub-On Alaphabet Transfers

- little stick-on ladybirds and bees {could be any symbol of nature and life}

- screws {to screw the sun MDF board to the back of the base timber}

I have always been taken by and pondered upon this incredible quote by Padre Pio:

"It would be easier for the earth to exist without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass."

I wanted this quote to be the 'theme' of presenting the words, "PRAY FOR PRIESTS" to my children. The Base upon which the words sat, represented the fertile earth that is warmed by the sun. I had scrapbooking paper that made a lovely representation of that.

I then had the words themselves covered in a paper that contained, flowers, plants and birds..God's nature and creation that thrive upon the fertile earth and are warmed daily by the sun. To give an extra 3 dimensional feel to it, I added the cute little ladybirds and bees! {I read somewhere recently that bees are diminishing in numbers on this earth due to chemicals and polution in nature and then in turn if that happens, plants and pollination will be affected.}

We too, are part of this element of creation, we live off the fertile earth, we need the sun to live...in the spiritual realm the priests feed us and sustain us with the sacraments of the Church, with the Body and Blood of Christ.

" Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. " John Chapt 6

Then behind the words we see the sun, that supports the fertile earth and the creation that lives upon it. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is where we receive the Son of God Himself, His Body, Blood, Son and Divinity. The lovely quote of Padre Pio's is written across the Sun and ties the visual presentation together.

Here it is on our family altar, each day the children are reminded that Priests give us the one thing that Padre Pio says we cannot live without, something that is even more essential than the sun!

Children can comprehend that - the sun is essential to our existance, they are aware of that fact.

So it is a powerful quote that allows us to know that we CANNOT live without the Body and Blood of Christ, they were Christ's own words in scripture.

Priests are "Alter Christi's" and in Christ they give us His Body and Blood, how can we ever fully show our gratitude?

We can pray and sacrifice for them daily.