​Happy Saint Zita’s Feast Day on April 27! To celebrate her, I’m sharing a “Saint Sorter” activity I’ve created with Google Drawings.
 
Kids can learn about four different saints, including humble Saint Zita, who always found time to pray. As they hear the saints’ stories, they can sort through fun symbols of each saint’s life.
 
If they have access to computers, they can easily drag and drop (or if the class has one computer, the class as a whole can work together). Detailed instructions follow:

Prepare the Activity:
 
Go to this link to get the “saint sorter” featuring St. Patrick, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Juan Diego, and St. Zita: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1gd1-jwWfwx8Mujgui0Yb2g2Czl3WIBVeMvaokFr5LKU/edit?usp=sharing
 
Make a copy: Go to the File menu and make a copy.
 
Are you using a computer, either as a whole class or individually? If so, then you can move the symbols with a mouse. If not, print out copies. The print button is at the top.
 
Get information about the four saints. I’ve prepared quick stories you can read below after the "Read More" click. Or feel free to bring in your own resources.
 
Do the Activity: Four Saints and Symbols from Their Stories:
 
Younger Students:
Read only one story at a time. Pause.

"We have to save the earthworm," three children with shovels shouted. As excited as the kids were to dig a hole wide enough for the planting of their Earth Day peach tree, they all stopped when one boy spotted the wiggly, mud colored-explorer. With careful precision, he lifted the worm and a pile of dirt out. "Brother Worm," Franciscan Brother Mike said as he nodded. The other children cleared a space for the rescued creature.

Earlier at Danville, California's San Damiano Retreat Center' Earth Day event, the children had heard from Brother Mike how St. Francis felt all creatures, no matter how small, are our brothers and sisters. Right away, as they dug in the ground, the kids had a chance to become that family with all created things. 

I pray that this spirit continues to grow in their hearts as the peach tree they planted reaches to the sky. 

​In the Year of Mercy, at the Feast of Divine Mercy, it felt the right time to say a new prayer, a commitment to merciful love. I felt like I was taking a big step even though it could only be small as I was inspired by the Little Way of St. Thérèse. I am finding the more I become friends with her, the more she seems like the saint of opposites: young but wise, a little flower but with faith as strong as stone. And I know her way is little, and I have to keep trusting that Jesus is providing the wonderful, merciful, grace-filled big answers to the little steps I take.
 
During Thérèse’s life she offered herself to Merciful Love, just as I’ve tried to do. This offering is one of the main inspirations for Father Michael Gaitley’s 33 Days to Merciful Love: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat in Preparation for Consecration to Divine Mercy. A group of individuals at our church participated in this self-study retreat. So there I was on Divine Mercy Sunday at Mass saying my prayer.
 
I could ponder Fr. Gaitley’s book for 330 days. But for me, there are three things that I really love from the book after 33 days—plus one prayer experience I had that has guided me.
 
Gratitude
Perhaps you’ve seen the image of Divine Mercy shown to St. Faustina. Rays of white and red light shine out from the heart of Jesus. At the bottom is written, “Jesus, I trust in you.” It’s hard for me to do, since I tend to want to control my life. Early in the retreat, Fr. Gaitley speaks of asking a mentor, Fr. Seraphim Michaelenko, how he can live with trust.
 
You will love the simple answer of how to live with trust: “Praise and thank God in all things. That’s what the Lord said to St. Faustina.”
 
I thought that I had to go out and immediately do large works of mercy. Of course, I want to increase these. But I’ve found that thanking God for good weather, pretty flowers, and other small things throughout the day is increasing my trust.
 
Most importantly, I’ve started looking people in the eye and smiling—really thanking them by noticing their presence and their uniqueness. Every interaction becomes more of a chance to acknowledge that God is present in everyone and to thank God in a way for making that person unique.
 
Sacred Heart
In Thérèse’s offering to Merciful Love, she wants to console the sacred heart of Jesus. I want to find out more about this devotion, especially since June is coming up and is the month of the Sacred Heart!
 
Prayer to Want to Pray
Sometimes I don’t feel as faithful. I can’t find words to pray. Or I’m at Mass, and I find I’m just thinking about what I have to do next. Thérèse’s words can help me. At our weakest, we can just pray to want to pray.
 
My Inspirational Prayer Experience
During a faithful time, the prayer experience that set me on the way to the retreat happened on Holy Thursday during Adoration. While watching a young teen pray, I felt all the way through my fingertips, “There is an ocean of mercy without judgment, and hardly anyone knows.”
 
Whenever I doubt, I return and return to this space of prayer, this memory.

​My daughter and I have dug up some Irish potatoes—See’s Candies Irish potato candies! We couldn’t believe how realistic they were, in terms of how they looked and felt. Here are our real-time comments as we tasted and reviewed the candy:
 
My daughter:
Commenting on the cocoa on the outside, “It’s like actual dirt on your hands.”
“The things on the outside, the eyes I guess, are soft.”
“It tastes sort of bland like a potato.”
“The texture is like a heated potato.”
 
My comments:
“This looks exactly like a potato. The wrapper makes me think of grass. It’s so festive.”
“I’m impressed with the realism.”
“I think the ingredients are nougat, nutmeg, nuts, and cocoa.”
“This is a great food disguise.”
 
So what are See’s St. Patrick’s Day Potatoes? Here is the official description from the box of these joyfully creative candies:
“Fluffy white chocolate and English walnuts, coated in milk chocolate, cinnamon and cocoa powder. With pine nuts ‘eyes’.”
 
We recommend this fun tasting experience. 

St. Patrick loved the shamrock, since its three leaves in one plant reminded him of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit together making up the Trinity. So I’ve become inspired to celebrate the shamrock as many ways as I can this St. Patrick’s Day: through a prayer, food, a word search, and a hike to search for a shamrock-like plant.
 
My new St. Patrick’s Day Activity Page, http://www.sherrysknowledgequest.com/saintpatrickactivity.htm, on my wildlife viewing site gives all the details:

• A word search with shamrock and other symbols of St. Patrick
• A craft that helps kids pray in three ways as they make a shamrock
• Photos and a link to a Pillsbury shamrock-shaped bread recipe: yum!
• An idea for a hike under the redwoods to look for our local shamrock-shaped plant

 
But after all this, my daughter and I want to check out another dirt-dwelling Irish symbol, the potato. We’ve heard rumors that See’s Candies has a potato candy for sale this time of year. We’ll report back if we find it.