A Mother Teresa Canonization Party

It all started with a table linen.

Well, really it was more of a coincidence, but we were thinking of cooking out with some friends over Labor Day weekend, and then I realized that Mother Teresa's Canonization fell right in the middle of the long weekend, and then I walked past my dining room table with my favorite table linen [the one I hunted down at World Market because I adored the blue and white stripes and it reminded me of Mother Teresa] and suddenly it clicked - what could be better than combining the two? So a Mother Teresa Canonization Party plus Labor Day BBQ it was.

I had way too much fun prepping for this celebration; apparently I'm far more into blue and white than I realized, and I gleefully kept coming across stuff in my wardrobe and decor cabinet that was just perfect. 

I love this gorgeous print from my lovely friend Gina at Someday Saints!

I also wanted to do something service-related in honor of Mother Teresa's work and mission, so we had each family bring an item so we could make "blessing bags," aka Ziploc bags with useful items to give to those in need. We did this once before with our moms group at church and it worked out really well; we usually just keep the bags in the car and hand one out if we're stopped at an intersection and see someone wit a sign asking for help.

To make sure there was ample entertainment for the kids, I found some fun Pinterest ideas relating to "helping hands" and combined a few of them, and got some free Mother Teresa printables here to color. I needn't have been concerned, as there was way too much excited running around and other fun happening for the most of the kids to sit down for a lengthy amount of tracing and cutting! But they're definitely activities worth saving in the event of a more captive audience in the future, should we ever be in need of a service-related craft.

Finishing up after the house was quiet.

[Ethan ad his matching outfit had already run off for bathtime]

We also had the canonization mass from Rome playing in the background, but got too busy talking to actually watch it. We'll have to have a separate watch party soon as a family to catch up on the real festivities!

And then there a whole lot of good BBQ food and fun to be had - and I was too busy having fun to take many pictures of the actual party besides the quick snap above of the blessing bags "assembly line" chaos. Even though I didn't get a picture, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fancy fresh strawberry-kiwi and cucumber-mint infused waters that Peter made. Fahbulous, dahling.

I'm thankful for such wonderful friends as the chance to share such a special day with so many great people. I've been a Mother Teresa fan girl since I was young, so it was a very cool experiencing the confirmation of her sainthood and revisiting so many of her simple yet powerful messages. Some of my favorites that never fail to put me in my place:

"The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread." -Interview by Edward W. Desmond in TIME magazine (4 December 1989)

"Don't look for big things, just do small things with great love....The smaller the thing, the greater must be our love." -As quoted in Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (2007) by Brian Kolodiejchuk

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." -Mother Teresa Reflects on Working Toward Peace (essay, Santa Clara University).

And so many more. No matter who we are, I think we can all take a lesson from this unassuming soul who didn't set out to change the world, but simply saw a need in front of her, in her own small corner of the world, and responded in love. I need the constant reminder that we can always, like her, look for the greatest needs in our own family and immediate community, and do our best to respond using the strengths we've each been gifted - we never know what the chain reaction might be. And hopefully, above all, we'll be reminded in our every day words and actions to be propelled by the kind of love that never fails to uphold the human dignity of others!