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.  

It's a wonder that not many people know about St. Camillus, who built an order of priests who cared for the sick and dying on battlefields. These ministers wore red crosses on their black cassocks, symbols of hope in places of brokenness. Susan Peek's young adult novel helps us remember the story...here is my review.

In another great addition, A Soldier Surrenders, The Conversion of St. Camillus de Lellis, from the God's Forgotten Friends Series, Susan Peek challenges us and her protagonist, Saint Camillus, to search in our hearts for the true meaning of courage. The book opens at the heart of the story, introducing us to the most important person for Camillus, his father, who is battle-tested and inspirational. The two have been on a journey as mercenary soldiers.
 
Interrupting his brawling ways, due to a wound that won't heal, Camillus becomes an orderly at a hospital in Rome. Some of my most favorite scenes took place here, and I would have liked even more details of how healing would take place in the 1500s. Here, another orderly, Curzio, challenges Camillus' soldierly definition of courage as strength and honor, instead pointing out that it is mastering oneself and following the call of God. I love Peek's realism here in how she portrays characters. There isn't an easy answer for Camillus, and he can't listen fully to his friend's words at this time in his life.
 
With a quick pace and plot turns, Camillus sinks back to old ways of fighting and gambling as readers look into a soul, that like Camillus' wound, struggles to heal. I wondered how Camillus could ever make his way back to the places I believe he needed to needed to go.
 
In summary, this beautiful novel left me with two images of courage: crescent-shaped swords clashing against men paid to fight and a man simply comforting another, a stranger, in his dying moment on a battlefield. This second image is the cornerstone of Saint Camillus' eventual legacy. As Camillus follows both paths, the reader does as well, a unique reading journey. Highly recommended. 

Not only has award-winning author Annemarie O'Brien created World Reads, a blog of international-themed books (see my last blog post), but she has also collected an amazing virtual library of books about kids' best friends, dogs, along with wild counterparts, wolves, foxes, and coyotes. There are stories about friendships between children and Shetland Sheepdogs, Border Collies, St. Bernards, almost all types the dogs you can think of, and my favorite, wolves.
 
I met Annemarie at the Bay Area Book Festival 2016, and she invited me to share The Wolf and the Shield: An Adventure with Saint Patrick, over at Dog Reads. Please see the interview at https://annemarieobrienauthor.com/2016/08/q-and-a-with-sherry-weaver-smith-the-wolf-and-the-shield/

Award-winning author Annemarie O'Brien has created World Reads, a vibrant blog of interviews from writers who have written stories set in 38 countries all around the world. Click from Afghanistan to Japan to Yemen to discover children's adventures that will inspire cultural awareness and travel dreams.
 
I met Annemarie at the Bay Area Book Festival 2016, and she invited me to share my latest book, Search for the Hidden Garden: A Discovery with Saint Therese, over at World Reads. Please see the interview http://annemarieobrienauthor.com/2016/08/q-and-a-with-sherry-weaver-smith-search-for-the-hidden-garden/.

"I still feel the profound and poetic impressions that were born in my soul at the sight of fields enameled with cornflowers and all types of wildflowers. Already I was in love with the wide open spaces. Space and the gigantic fir trees, the branches sweeping down to the ground, left in my heart an impression…" From Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux
 
In Search for the Hidden Garden: A Discovery with Saint Therese, I wanted to plant the landscape where the characters have their adventure with some of Therese's most favorite symbols. A dream I have is to bring some of these into my own garden. One of the easiest would be to paint a symbol on a white stone.
 
Here are some garden flowers, trees, and decorations that Therese mentions in her autobiography. You can consider adding these to your own green space, even a potted plant on a desk, a container garden, or a backyard:

• Little white flower: Therese's father gave her a little white flower on the day she told him of her wish to enter Carmel. He told her how much God cared in bringing it into the world and preserving it.
• Cornflowers
• Fir trees
• Roses
• Daisies
• Lilies
• Apricots
• Flowers in the shade of a cross
• White stone: Therese quotes Revelation 2:17 in her autobiography, "there are deep spiritual thoughts which cannot be expressed in human language… similar to… 'the white stone I will give to him who conquers, with a name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it.'"
• Birds' nests
• A swing
• A statue of Mary
• Old trees
• Snow: Therese always loved snow, especially as a symbol of her January birthday. What about a paper snowflake?

Book Review
 
Older teens and adults can discover a forgotten saint, and his lost values, through reading The Last Viking by Susan Peek. Peek offers one of the wonderful promises of historical fiction, guiding us in understanding what we have in common with those in the past. But also critical to sound historical fiction, she challenges us to consider if we've really made progress, when we compare how we might make our moral decisions with those made by compelling characters of the past, especially her hero, Magnus, an Orkney prince. I know a book resonates with me when I still am contemplating it days later, and the steps and the course the main character takes at the end challenge me.
 
Throughout the suspenseful plot, readers trace the paths of other characters who are well-drawn, especially Magnus's brother, Aerling, and Norwegian noble, Kol Kalison. Peek does much of this shading through a winning way with dialogue. At times, some action scenes take place "off camera," which I might have preferred to have described real time, but the author may have done this to create more suspense and to keep the pace going. I also would have liked to read a few more details of setting: the landscape, the warships, and their weapons, but again Peek's great way with dialogue and quick pace won me over. A last point about the writing is that since there is a particularly violent scene toward the end of the book, parents of younger teens who are a bit more sensitive might want to read ahead to ensure it's appropriate.
 
In short, Susan Peek has found her calling—to allow us all to discover and now remember holy men and women through her God's Forgotten Friends series. Through the gift of her storytelling, I'll always remember St. Magnus's singular strength, not the triumph of battle but the mercy of forgiveness.
 
Activities
 
Year of Mercy: It seems that St. Magnus can be a wonderful guide for us in this Year of Mercy. This novel is also particularly appropriate for young men—who might not otherwise be connecting to this theme. It could be a great gift.
 
Tracing History: The characters in the novel travel from Orkney to the coastal waters off Norway and Wales. Even Scotland is a setting. Other islands are mentioned. Teens can research history and geography as a jumping off point from the novel. Just a quick Google search revealed at least several churches in Britain dedicated to St. Magnus, and I'm eager to try to find at least one on my next trip! 

​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.