Celebrate Saint Teresa of Calcutta's with Food and Faith Learning

Saint Teresa of Calcutta's feast day is this week on September 5th.  If, like me, you are planning your meals and lessons for the week and would like some ideas for celebrating and learning about Mother Teresa, you may wish to take a peek at the bevy of ideas I shared last year.    Indeed, I am doing just that myself, smiling as I recall how unprepared for the canonization of Saint Teresa of Calcutta I was last year after having been mostly quarantined with my family the week prior, yet how beautifully the day turned out. 

Right before the canonization, I threw myself into collating wonderful idea after wonderful idea for celebrating the day and, then, extending our learning throughout the days that followed.  Doing so paid off with a fruitful, if simple, canonization breakfast using what we already had on hand, a second meal focusing more on geography, and chatting about missions, and further learning activities throughout the week.

Our Saint Teresa of Calcutta Breakfast

Since Mother Teresa wore a blue and white sari, we decorated our table with a white lace tablecloth and white candles with blue duct tape stripes.  These decorations became a teaching moment, too, because, when the children noticed the stripes on the candles, I shared excerpts of The Significance of Mother Teresa's Three Striped Sari with my children as we chatted about their symbolism.

I also printed out Jessica's canonization cupcake toppers, free at Shower of Roses, to put into our Canonization Waffles.  The quotes on these became copywork later in the week.

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On the canonization day, we had Van's Gluten-Free Waffles, So Delicious Coco Whip, and Chocolate Silk in the house as well as some fresh blueberries, defrosted strawberries and raspberries, maple syrup, and Earth Balance "Butter".  Thus, we opted to turn our typical "Assumption Day Waffles" of into  Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta fare.

Included in the symbolism we chatted about were the following ideas:

• The brown of our Chocolate Silk reminded us of our earthly humanity.

• The blue and white of berries and Coco Whip remind us of multiple things - the heavens, the colors of Mother Teresa's sari, and Mother Mary's colors (which are the colors Mother Teresa purposefully chose for her sari). 
  
  
  

  
• The red of berries called to mind hearts, and, in turn, the daily love and compassion Mother Teresa lived with, hearts for the poor (including the poor in spirit), hearts for Jesus, etc.
  
  
  

  

  
  
• The syrup reminded us of our Lord's sweet love poured out on the world, often through the "yes" of people who do small things with great love.
  
  
  

  

• The roundness of our waffles may reminded us of the earth, and how we are called to live our lives here with love for one another.  It also brought to mind the eternal joy of being in Heaven with Jesus. (For a circle has no end.

Our prayers and reading included:

   

the Mother Teresa excerpt from our copy of Loyola Kids Book of Heroes, which my oldest read to us.

and revisiting the Living Faith Kids: Meet Mother Teresa, which we had picked up at church the week prior. 

We will also prayed the Mother Teresa's Nazareth Prayer for the Family

A Taste of India

Later during the day, I ran our for some easy-Indian food and was thrilled that our local store carried Amy's Indian food, so we could enjoy some geography and culture in our day of celebration, by taste-testing different dishes without me having to do much more prep than cooking up extra rice and putting frozen dinners in the oven. 

At this meal, we revisited more of Living Faith Kids: Meet Mother Teresa, found India on a small globe, chatted about how Mother Teresa's missionaries spread their work throughout the world, and chatted more about how we could be missionaries in our everyday lives.

We also, of course, enjoyed taste testing different Indian fare and each picked out favorites among the dishes we tried.

It was a yummy, educational, and faith-filled meal!

And More

We also, of course, watched parts of the canonization online.  Then, later in the week, we did more reading in library books, and spiced up our regular S.K.I.L.L. T.I.M.E. + lessons with Saint Teresa of Calcutta-inspired activities.

St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.

This kiddo (above) loves to read, and we all enjoy living the liturgical year with symbolic eats, prayers, readings, and resources. So, if you have recommendations for ones relating to Saint Teresa of Calcutta's feast day (or any liturgical feast), please do take a moment to share with me.  Thanks!