Valentines for Jesus!

I was lucky enough to have my CCD class on St. Valentine's Day!  How exciting that I was able to share the history of St. Valentine!

I planned a special craft to get them into both the Lenten spirit and help them understand what Valentine's Day is really about.

I was sure to wear red and I asked the class why I was wearing red for St. Valentine's Day.  They all answered "Love."  Now, we had JUST finished discussing liturgical colors last week, so I asked them to pull out their notes and see if they couldn't figure out why I might choose to wear red on SAINT Valentine's Day.

One of their hands shot up and she answered, "It's the color of blood.  Did he give his blood?"

Slowly but surely it began dawning on them.  One of my boys proudly said, "He was killed!"

I confirmed his deduction and taught them the word "martyr."  I explained that martyrs are a special group of saints who died because they loved Jesus so much.  I explained that in St. Valentine's time, it was illegal to be a Christian.  In some parts of the world, it's still illegal, even today!  The kids were floored.  One chimed in "That's stupid!  What if you only say good stuff about Jesus?"

From the mouths of babes...

I said that in some parts of the world, it's illegal to even mention Jesus' name because people believe that even the name of Jesus offends their god.  The people in charge don't want everyone believing in Jesus when they believe only their god is important.

It was like that back in St. Valentine's period as well, but instead of an invisible god, they believed that the emperor was god (or the son of god depending on which emperor we're discussing).  I likened it to everyone in the United States thinking that President Obama was a god.  They shook their heads in disbelief that anything so preposterous could ever have been true. 

Ah, but so it was!  And in some places, so it still is!  May we keep these persecuted Christians in our prayers.

With that, I told them the story of St. Valentinus (now known as St. Valentine) and why we send "Valentines" to one another.  Not one of them had ever heard the history behind this feast!  Can you imagine?

Anyway, as a special craft, I had them create little "Valentines for Jesus."  These were half Valentine - half Lenten preparation.  On each foam "heart" (they were given 10 each), I requested that they draw a picture / write a prayer or good act they could do to offer to Jesus as a show of love.  After all, we are all the "hands of Christ" and what we do unto others, we do unto Christ.  My class really did an amazing job exemplifying this through the choice of their offerings:

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Originally I had intended them all to glue the hearts into a wreath (as you see in the original picture), but their words / pictures extended too far in some instances, so I came up with the idea of a ladder.  I had them poke holes into the tops and bottoms of their hearts and they laced them together that way for a cute chain:

All in all, they turned out really nicely, and I'm really glad the kids had so much fun coming up with ways they could show Jesus they loved Him.  Now they've got ideas for Lent which was a great prep for next week's Ash Wednesday lesson!  Woo hoo! 

Seriously - I love teaching these kids.  I'm so blessed!