Catholic churches are spreading the news of a wonderful idea for Palm Sunday morning: Place any green branch, such as a simple one from your own garden, in a window or on your door on the morning of April 5. The Missionaries of the Holy Spirit have started this idea as a way of connecting us all in our celebration when we cannot go into churches.
 
I am already ready with the palm branch I received from a beautifully painted box outside Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Beaverton, OR.
 
While thinking about Palm Sunday, I went on a "signs of spring walk," an idea suggested by the High Desert Museum of Bend, OR. Searching for nests, nibbled grass shoots, half-eaten pine cones, and budding trees helped me to stop checking my phone for news updates as I fell into the calm of nature's updates. Sounds of squeaky hummingbirds and croaky frogs replaced the text buzz of the phone. I plan to take this walk again on Palm Sunday.

Nursing home residents are some of the most vulnerable to becoming seriously ill from coronavirus. At this difficult time, even their friends and families may have to stay away to keep them safe.
 
One way to help is to send cards of support. Children can draw pictures on homemade cards and write simple notes that they are thinking of both residents or staff. Adults can also send cards.
 
This USA Today article covers medical advice that sending items through the mail does not risk the health of residents. Be sure not to lick any envelopes. Simply Google the addresses of any nursing homes in your community.

If you want to write to Oregon, healthcare workers are battling the virus at the Oregon Veterans' Home in Lebanon and Regency Park Assisted Living in Portland (the Cedar Mill area near Beaverton). Sadly, one of the honored residents, a veteran in his 90s passed away from the disease.
 
Here is the text from a Facebook post from the Oregon Veterans' Home:
"Our honored residents and staff at the Oregon Veterans' Home have been overwhelmed by the kind words and supportive messages that have been posted online over the past few days. If you would like to send a more tangible sign of your encouragement and support for our honored residents and hard-working staff, a postcard or letter would mean the world to them.
Please send postcards or letters in an unlicked envelope to ATTN: Operation Well Wish, and please specify in parenthesis if your letter is for (Residents) or (Staff). Please do not address letters to specific residents or staff members. Address:
ATTN: Operation Well Wish (Residents or Staff)
Oregon Veterans' Home
600 N. 5th St.
Lebanon, OR 97355"
 
Here is the address for Regency Park where at the time of this post, three residents and two staff members have tested positive:
 
Regency Park Assisted Living
Attn: Activities Director
8300 SW Barnes Rd
Portland, OR 97225
 
Thank you for reaching out even as we have to stay in to keep these treasured individuals safe.

In a time when many of us have to remain apart for social distancing, in faith we still know that we are connected in spirit. One of my favorite saints/blessed holy ones, Blessed Julian of Norwich had a vision that Jesus surrounds all of us like an enfolded or wrapped blanket. We can trust that Jesus is always with us to protect us.  
 
Making a friendship bracelet is an easy and tangible way to show a circle of caring, protection, connection, and love. Jonah Larson is a young crochet enthusiast who has inspired me, my nephew, and a worldwide community with his lessons and patterns. Jonah's passion for crochet has helped him focus his attention in school, express his creativity, and connect with friends around the world. Find his friendship bracelet tutorial here. 

Seeking connection in her own time, Julian became inspired to share sixteen visions that she experienced when she fell so mysteriously ill that those around her felt she would die. After she recovered, she decided to start a new life of prayer, living alone in a small room attached to the Church of St. Julian, where she gets her name today. She gave advice to those who came to her for help and began recording her visions. Her "showings" are the first woman-authored book written in English that has survived until today. To learn more, visit the Friends of Julian.

In Frozen 2, Elsa, her sister, and her friends find a way to live in peace and balance with four "spirits" of nature: water, earth, fire, and wind. While at first, the theme of the story did not seem to relate to the Catholic faith, I began reflecting on the beauty of God's creation in these four forces. As I remembered the imagery from the film of simple symbols that reflect water, earth, fire, and wind, I began to think about Catholic saints who also represent these aspects of creation.
 
So, while enjoying the movie and creating a remembrance of water, earth, fire, and wind symbols, think about these four saints.

Earth: St. Francis
Lived in Italy in the early 1200s
St. Francis turned away from a life of wealth to pray with the poor and in abandoned places, in nature, and near animals. He found that he could have conversations with God in nature. One of his prayers is, "praised be you my Lord with all my creatures." He saw God's creation in all of nature around him, and he even considered the earth to be his sister. Pope St. John Paul made him the saint of ecology: the study of the ways that living things relate to each other and their environment. This wonderful website, Praying Nature with St. Francis of Assisi, is a guide to following St. Francis outside into contemplation.
 
 
Fire: St Brigid
Lived in Ireland, 500s
St. Brigid convinced a king to give her land for a monastery in the 500s in Ireland—even after he had told her "no" many times before. She and the sisters who followed her began burning a fire at the monastery to show the light of the Christian faith. St. Brigid wanted to connect to a tradition that had gone on before when priestesses had lit bonfires on the hillsides to honor a goddess. For hundreds of years, the sisters kept their fire burning until monasteries were attacked. But more importantly, they kept the fire of faith alive in their hearts.
 
Inspired to create a symbol of peace, Brigidine Sisters in modern times have started the tradition again, and it has become so important in Ireland that even the Irish President helped light the flame!  President Mary McAleese said that the modern St. Brigid's fire connects the history of pre-Christian, Catholic, and Protestant Irish people since the light once glowed before divisions into these different groups.  
 
Wind: Pope St. John Paul II
Lived from 1920-2005, born in Poland
"The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." --John 3:8
Pope St. John Paul II was born of the spirit. Like the wind sounding from place to place, he traveled the globe, spreading a message of hope to people in over 130 countries (https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/03/22/legacy-john-paul-ii). He kept journeying even as he became older and suffered from Parkinson's disease. With the Holy Spirit guiding him even in times when he felt in pain, he inspired the faith of millions. Because I am a tiny part in this story, Pope John Paul II is one my favorite saints. Before I was Catholic at the age of 25, I was fortunate to attend an outdoor Mass where he presided in Manila, the Philippines, one of the turning points in my decision to become Catholic as an adult.
 
Water: St. Veronica
Lived in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus
St. Veronica overcame fear to help Jesus at a time when he most needed compassion, when he walked carrying a heavy cross. She saw sweat and blood on the face of Jesus and wished to hand him her veil to wipe it away—a simple comfort. But Veronica must have felt frightened that if she offered help, the soldiers guarding Jesus might punish her. And she wouldn't have been used to taking off her veil in front of others.
 
Alone in the crowd, she did reach out and give Jesus her veil to take away the water dripping on his face. And this simple act made her a saint.

Make a Frozen 2 Symbols Banner
If you and your children have enjoyed Frozen 2, the elements in the movie can remind you of Catholic heroes, too. Here is a craft you can make to remember the movie and the saints (and there are others whose stories touch earth, fire, wind, or water!). 

You will need:

• Felt
• Ribbon
• Glitter glue
• Craft glue

1. Cut out four diamonds from the felt with this shape.
2. Use glitter glue to draw the symbols for each element. Before you begin, it can help to dot lightly with a pencil where you plan to place each shape that makes up a symbol.
3. Decorate the borders.
4. Glue a piece of felt to the back of each diamond (this backing will make the banner stronger).
5. Attach a ribbon for hanging with glue.

Hopefully without giving plot points away, I'd like to share a favorite moment from Frozen 2 when Anna, who after experiencing a devastating loss and reflecting for some time alone in a cold cave, decides nonetheless she must venture out to help save her kingdom. Despite tragedy, she must do "the next right thing." She takes one small step forward out of the cave toward rescuing those she cares about.
 
This moment reminds me St. Ignatius and his way of making decisions through prayer. In Ignatian spirituality, there are times of desolation, feeling farther from God, and consolation, feeling closer. During times of desolation, it can be harder to make decisions that follow God's call. But through prayer, it is possible, and kids can do this, too.
 
This Loyola Press article summarizes Ignatian spirituality for me so well. I'm eager to order Margaret Silf's book, The Inner Compass. For kids, if something bad has happened or they feel far from God, remind them to:

• Pray and ask for God's help
• Don't turn away from family and friends
• Don't give up on values they've always held true—such as Anna's love for her kingdom. Just wait.
• Help someone else. When they help someone, they will begin to feel better:
• Call a grandparent.
• Talk to someone new on the playground.
• Do a chore in the house without being asked.
• Care for a pet: Walk the dog, hold a rabbit, or empty out the cat litter box.

 
And remind kids that we don't have to be a princess saving a mythical kingdom to be doing small things to further the kingdom of God here on earth. 

Every year LA’s Religious Education Congress is my way to renew my faith. As I travelled there this March, I felt concerned that my family and I tended to focus on bad things that happened each day. While I have had a great tradition of saying the rosary, I wasn’t very consistent with my other prayer practice of writing in a prayer journal (ironic for a writer). 
 
But it’s beautiful that the Holy Spirit always helps. I attended a talk by Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, and one of the first things he said is that the best way to be holy is to be grateful. How simple and easy this could be. I would have thought holiness required great sacrifice or acts of significant compassion.
 
I actually wasn’t sure that I believed him. But then he gave the example of St. Therese, one of my favorite saints, who lived, what on the surface seemed to be a very ordinary life, but who always recognized the divinity in each moment. And I suppose that is what gratitude is, understanding the grace that is present in each moment that we are so fortunate to encounter. 
 
After this wonderful inspiration at RE Congress, I had to become practical. How could I make sure gratitude didn’t get shoved off my to-do list? I needed to find a way to put it on my phone. I found a fantastic app: Gratitude Journal 365 Pro, which at $1.99 is worth it. 
 
With the app, you can write a short bullet list of “gratitudes” for each day and include a photo (or not). What I like is that the gratitude can be just a few quick words. Sometimes my photo is as simple as a restaurant sign.
 
Then, I can go back and look at a calendar view and see tiny thumbnail photos of all my gratitudes. A dot indicates when I’ve added text only. I can also look at individual days or a list view. 
 
Here are some ways gratitude has happened for me:

• An animal that I see when I’m out running or something new in bloom, the way the seasons have changed
• Amazing moments like riding in a hot air balloon
• A shared memory with family or a pet: So many adventures with my daughter, my nephew explaining tactics for Pokemon Go
• An impactful moment at my healthcare data analysis job: We’re working on exciting projects like reducing emergency-room visits for chronically ill patients 
• Quote, image, or story from a saint on a saint feast day: I like this online Saint of the Day Calendar from Franciscan Media.
• A scripture quote or prayer from daily or Sunday Mass
• Something I’ve learned on a podcast during my commute (favorite podcasts are Smithsonian’s Sidedoor: bringing an oryx back from extinction; Oprah’s Supersoul Conversations: she has interviewed several Catholic authors)
• A moment of discernment: A friend of mine is so connected with the feeling that she is on the right path. She feels that when she sees a heart shape that it is a moment of grace that she is following her call from God. She photographs the hearts when she sees them. 

 
But what happens when there is just a bad day? Sometimes, I’ve created a gratitude moment. I thought at first that was artificial—until I realized it became meaningful for someone else. On a Monday, nothing particularly special had happened at work. I hadn’t seen anything beautiful in nature. It was just a blah day. I had nothing to enter in my gratitude journal. Then I had the idea that I could set out a candle and flower at dinner. My daughter lit up despite the bland Mondayness. Suddenly we had a gratitude moment! 
 
I wish that you will encounter many of them.

​Create a personal mini-wreath of prayer with Tiny Saints charms, composed of just those saints who reflect what you feel in your soul. I was fortunate to find the charms at this year’s Religious Education Congress in Anaheim, CA, but they are also available online (www.tinysaints.com). First, pray about your intention. Next, reflect on the simple images of the saints. I appreciate how modern and accessible they are. Then, read the succinct descriptions of each saint’s life on the back of the charm packaging or on the website.
 
For me, my prayer centered on finding a bold courage to write and share my faith with others despite some obstacles within my life. I wanted to rediscover familiar saints and become inspired by new ones. Now after arranging the charms simply with some beads, I pray about the saints’ stories and powerfully sense their intercession. Here are just two:
 
Mary Magdalene: I had known that she had first discovered the joy of the resurrection on Easter morning. But I learned that she is the patron saint of converts. I became Catholic at the age of 27 after a non-religious childhood in a loving family with a Protestant background.
 
Blessed Margaret of Castello: I had never heard of her story. Her family confined her in a room attached to a church simply because she had disabilities. But she found faith and friendship with a priest. She became a Dominican Sister, serving working parents by caring for their children. This service resonates with me, since one of my greatest joys was volunteering every week at a preschool for children of families facing adversity. I can’t even imagine the strength of Margaret’s faith and boldness in overcoming obstacles.
 
Stories like Margaret’s continue today. In a podcast by Timothy Shriver, Chairman of the Special Olympics, he testified powerfully how game participants vulnerably trust the world with their dreams in a way that many of us find difficult. (Find it at Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations.) Blessed Margaret must have trusted the Holy Spirit to lead her out of that dark room to a life filled with love and hope.
 
Your prayers are likely very different than mine, but that is the beauty of saints’ stories. We can find in them so many different threads of human experience, and I love the way that Tiny Saints bring those to us so simply. 

​More than 120 years ago at Christmas, in a monastery in northern France, a young Catholic Sister named Therese invited her other Sisters each to give back a treasured gift to God: a song, her smile, or her heart. Therese wrote these invitations on colored pieces of paper and presented them in a candlelit ritual.
 
As Thanksgiving and Christmas approach, we are thankful for the gifts of our talents that God has given us. But do we remember to give them back to God? To use them for his purposes? Or perhaps we have trouble noticing what our gifts are? Our family members and friends might be able to tell us.
 
Inspired by St. Therese's beautiful Christmas ritual, here is an idea for family members to celebrate their gratitude for each other's gifts and reflect on the invitation to discern ways to put them in practice for God's purposes.
 

1. Before a family gathering, cut leaves at Thanksgiving or bells at Christmas out of paper: enough so that each person can write one note for each other person. (Or you can buy foam shapes at a craft store like Michaels.)
2. Ask each person at the family gathering to write another family member’s name and a beautiful quality/talent that person has: a gift. The photo is an example of what my daughter wrote for some of our family members.
3. Collect each person’s qualities in an envelope.
4. Each envelope is an invitation for each family member to live out Jesus's message, becoming the person he or she is meant to be.

 
Each family member will receive a tiny leaf bouquet or cluster of bells that evoke her wonderful qualities. As she goes forward after the holiday, she might pray about the new ways those qualities might help those around her. 

Laura E Wolfe's wonderful new book from Ancient Faith Publishing, Sasha and the Dragon, frees a saint from history and brings him into the heart of a child, and into the hearts of our children. Sasha struggles with dealing with an ill grandmother and schoolmates who bully him. One night, troubled by these conflicts, he is attacked by a dragon, the fiercest monster under the bed. But Sasha's faith and prayer become real as St. Michael not only confronts this fear through a clashing battle but also gives Sasha a way to bring kindness to others as the story progresses. This picture book is a powerful allegory to inspire our children to pray to transform their fear (and all monsters under the bed) into a pathway for love.
 
Wolfe's imagery is beautifully spare, giving us background about Sasha, such as his move from the countryside to the city, in just a few words. Illustrations by Nicholas Malara are vibrant and powerful, sure to captivate the imagination of young readers. My only request is that I wish for more dialogue between Sasha and his grandmother or his classmates. I wish to hear more of his voice. However, this detail does not detract from the inspiration of Wolfe's theme that we are never alone in facing our fears.  

Please do take a look at the book on Amazon.

I am also captivated by the information at the back of the book about the art elements typically used to portray St. Michael the Archangel in the Orthodox tradition:

• Wings: symbolize the will to obey God, as quickly as possible
• The color red: for courage and also the resurrection
• A lance or other weapon: St. Michael is the chief of the heavenly armies

I've looked at some Catholic representations, and St. Michael has wings and is holding a lance, I'm not seeing the wonderful and vibrant red color. I am fascinated by what I can learn from other traditions, and I feel so blessed to have read Sasha and the Dragon. I am inspired to visit my nearest St. Michael the Archangel parish, and after quick research, I've learned there is one in Portland, OR. And recently, they have commissioned new artwork, including a painting of St. Michael slaying a dragon. I will be going to Mass and to get a photograph. 

For me and my daughter, Advent had always been a time of adventure, looking at calendars, doing activities on many days to find the joyful light of the season. Of course, we never achieved everything outlined, but we learned about saints, or did crafts, or read Bible passages together. Hopefully these were gentle adventures, and I didn't put too much of my admittedly Type A personality into it!
 
But this year, my daughter has turned 13. And as I brought out our Advent wreath, I reflected on the fact that we had moved from California to Oregon, and I also felt that I had not shown the best values of faith, hope, and love as I could have. The stress and pain of leaving my old home had broken me apart. Our new parish, while wonderful, is different in many ways from the one that we had left.
 
My daughter, who loves our new state and her school, nonetheless feels that God does not hear her. She prays but she feels that he does not help. Why is there still suffering? I answer that God suffers with us. That suffering is a challenge for us to confront with kindness. I tell her that God always helps but that we cannot always know the ways that he works—that we must wait for his story to write itself, to change, and to end. But she is not satisfied with these answers.
 
Please, EDGE programs in parishes, and I so appreciate the volunteers who feel called and gifted to work with age group…address the tough questions with preteens and teens. They need more than pizza and games. They are questioning their faith at the very core. This article, "Why  are 10-year-olds leaving the church?",  by Julianne Stanz resonated with me.
 
So in the beautifully creative Advent activity calendars and resources I found, I pulled out the ideas that could be appropriate for teens. I listed them in a spreadsheet, and here are some we tried, which might help in your family:

• Praying in Color by Sybil Macbeth: Write names of people you are praying for and then circle them. Decorate the circles simply with small shapes. Color in the shapes. It is not necessary to create an elaborate work of art. The idea is that the process is more meditative. We sat by our fireplace and worked on this. I hope that it got my daughter into a wider prayer space.

 

• Saying one decade of the rosary after lighting the Advent wreath: This was tougher for us for some reason although my daughter has said the rosary many times in the past. I like the idea of doing one decade.

 

• Baking cookies and sharing them with others: My daughter loved this, especially because her school had set up a Cookie Share event for teachers. I signed up to donate cookies for teachers, and my daughter eagerly wanted to help since she loves her school and her teachers.

 

• Giving Tree: We did the Giving Tree at our church, but this was tough for my daughter since at our old parish she used to help cut the ornaments and had a way to be much more involved. However, she saw a Giving Tree at a local animal shelter and got very excited. She picked an ornament there and got some cat toys.  

 
It was in the midst of finding the Giving Tree at the local animal shelter that I began to realize something about Advent with a teenager. But I had to have one other Advent experience to understand fully.
 
I spoke with my friends who participate with me in Centering Prayer (based on the work of Fr. Thomas Keating) as part of Contemplative Outreach of Portland. They have so much more wisdom than I do. I shared my daughter's questions about her faith, and this is what they said:

• "You must let go." (Even at the young age of 13?) "Yes!!"
• "This is her journey."
• "God will never stop calling her. You must let God call her."
• "Keep the guideposts there. Take her to Mass, of course. But the rest is up to her and God."
• "Let go. Find your smile. Don't be so hard on yourself."

 
I put away my spreadsheet of Advent activities. When I looked at my daughter surrounded by cats and kittens at the animal shelter and let the wisdom I'd heard reach me finally, I realized with teenagers that we have to follow their lead. Their Advent is like finding stepping stones through a stream.
 
This is Laura's Advent:

• Playing with a black kitten and a brown kitten
• Crushing graham crackers for cookies for her teachers
• Talking joyfully about her school that she loves
• Buying cat toys for a Giving Tree
• Wrapping every gift for her grandparents, aunt and uncle, and her cousin
• Appreciating the Simbang Gabi Mass (I think unexpectedly): more below

 
The Simbang Gabi Mass was the last stepping stone of our Advent. A Filipino Christmas Novena tradition, the 8th night we attended was held at Holy Trinity Church in Beaverton, OR. I was so happy to find this event, since I became Catholic after living in the Philippines for one year when I was in my 20s. In many ways the Philippines is my Catholic home. In California, it was a little easier to find Simbang Gabi Masses. Laura has become used to attending these.
 
The theme of the Mass, and this is how I know (since it was what we needed) God does hear us: God never lets us down. He always hears us. He always forgives us. Hope is found in someone who simply smiles. Fr. Rodel de Mesa was an amazing homilist, and I looked over, and my daughter was crying.
 
Four nights ago, I had a dream that I was walking in a beautiful deep green meadow. I had found the Oregon trail. I joyfully called out to Laura. "I've found it: the right path! Come here. I'll show you."
 
But she didn't hear me. She should have. She wasn't far away. She turned and smiled at me. I suppose that she has to find the right path on her own.