The Seven Sacraments for Children Coloring Pages

The Catholic faith is rich with prayers, devotions, traditions, sacramentals and many other elements that can be used to grow your relationship with God. The seven sacraments are pillars of the Catholic faith and mark extraordinary portions of our life. It is essential to treat these life-altering milestones as such, especially if we expect our children to understand the significance of each sacrament and it's meaning. My goal as a parent is to make sure I have immersed my children in as much of their Catholic faith as possible, in hopes that they will love it as much as I do.

"The Sacraments are the salvation of those who use them rightly, and the damnation of those who misuse them."
- St. Augustine 

How do we accomplish such a huge responsibility? First, we must make sure that we ourselves are well versed in the information that we are teaching to the younger generations. Do you know much about the sacraments?

Here are a few quick basics:

• There are seven sacraments; Baptism, Penance, Eucharist, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick, Marriage and Holy Orders.
• These seven sacraments are broken down into several different types; The Sacraments of Initiation, The Sacraments of Healing and the Sacraments of Service.
• The Sacraments of Initiation are Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation.
• The Sacraments of Healing are Penance and Anointing of the Sick.
• The Sacraments of Service are Marriage and Holy Orders. 

Although I said this was some "basic" information. How basic does this sound to children? Probably not very relatable and not very intriguing to young minds... yet.

Children retain more knowledge if they are able to play and create memories. Most of us were baptized as babies and the sacraments of Penance and Eucharist are given to us early in the elementary years. That is three out of six of the sacraments you are able to receive by the time you are 8/9 years old!

I state three out of six sacraments because you cannot receive Holy Orders and be married as well. There are exceptions, of course, but that is a little much to explain to children in this age group.

Illustrating the importance of these milestones can be difficult and hard to comprehend for young children if you are not able to portray these sacraments in an easy to comprehend state. I was contacted by my friend, Sherry, from Personal Creations about sharing some wonderful and captivating Sacrament Coloring Pages that can assist the teaching of the seven sacraments to children and make them more fun to learn!

Sherry has said...

"I hope these coloring pages give joy to families and teach children the milestones of Christian life. From baptism to marriage, these coloring pages are a delightful way to celebrate the many stages of a spiritual journey with God."

I was thrilled to be able to have a quick lesson with my boys on the Sacraments and share these coloring pages with them. I can honestly say that they both enjoyed it! I have a seven year old and a ten year old. They had requested I join in the coloring fun since we do have nights where we pull out all the art supplies and have "craft nights". 

My youngest son loves games! He had asked me if we could use these pictures to make a game. I told him, "Of course we can!" We created a Matching Sacrament Game by printing two of the coloring pages that summarized all of the sacraments and cutting them out. We now have a Liturgical Game that my son is very proud of because he did all the coloring and cutting and I have a game to play with him that will teach him about the sacraments. Definitely a Win, Win!

My older son is more of a perfectionist and insisted that he make the pages look as life like as possible. He had to use the perfect combination of crayons, markers and colored pencils to get each page looking like a masterpiece.

Having an activity that was intriguing to both my children was such a blessing. They are at those ages where it can be difficult to find something that reaches them at their own levels and yet keeps them on the same task. It turned into a nice family evening.

Advent is just a few short days away. What a great way to anticipate the Christ child's birth by learning more about the seven sacraments with your families. If you are interested in these beautiful Sacrament Coloring pages, please check out the link to Personal Creations here. These wonderful coloring pages will help establish a great love for the sacraments in your children and help explain some of the more difficult aspects of the sacraments in a child's way.

Quiet Faith: Reconciliation

It's the start of a new year. A new year means all things are new, bright and clean. Reconciliation is like the start of a new year and is an act of quiet faith. To be completely honest, the quiet faith required for Reconciliation is terrifying to me. I am so grateful for this wonderful Sacrament but I am overwhelmed with the immensity of the act of complete forgiveness that leaves your hear and soul quiet so that it is prepared to hear God speak. 

I am a cradle Catholic and when I was growing up we went to Reconciliation very consistently. My father would bring my entire family to our local parish every first Saturday of the month. We would wait in the line outside the confessional and just wait. There was no talking. There was only silence. I remember realizing this quietness at a young age, before I was old enough to participate in the Sacrament, and thinking it was odd. Church was a quiet and reverent place but this silence was different than anything I have ever experienced.

I would watch people come and go from the Confessional. Some were quick, others took a very long time; Some parishioners left smiling and others left in tears. My mother was one of those who often left in tears. Seeing all these grown people that I admired, loved and looked up to in such an emotional state after leaving the confessional had a huge impact on me. Those were my first memories of Reconciliation. After that, I remember attending my Catechism classes to receive my first Reconciliation and being so terrified of the confessional. I was petrified of admitting all the not so nice things I had done, said and thought throughout my short 7 years of life. I had convinced myself that I must be the most horrible person in the world.

The day that I received my First Reconciliation was a life changing experience for me. I actually cried while I waited to go into the confessional and when it was my turn all I remember is opening the door and hearing silence. As I entered the confessional, I completed my blessing and even (with a huge burst of courage) decided to sit in front of the priest versus behind the screen. As I began speaking to start my confession, I again started crying. I apologized to the priest expressing that I was so scared that God would hate me for admitting all the sins I had committed, especially the ones I committed on purpose.

I will never forget the priest, Fr. Grotchen, who took my hand and smiled at me. He explained that the entire purpose of Confession was to reconnect with God. He listened to me pour my little heart out and many many tears. He told me that I should never be afraid to speak to God because God is always longing for me to return to him just like the story of the Prodigal son. He told me that when I did my penance to be calm and quiet and God would wash away all my sadness and restore me to grace. I was shocked when he told em to be "calm and quiet". It has always stuck with me.

Since my First Reconciliation I have been to MANY confessionals and I have had an abundance of sins to confess but I will always remember that the quiet that I was once so afraid of, is nothing but God's way of connecting to me in my heart and cleansing my soul. You have to embrace the Quiet to feel God speak to you.

Truth be told, I am still scared of Reconciliation and I have made it one of my resolutions to embrace this Quiet Faith and attend it more often. It is even more important now because my oldest son has received his First Reconciliation and loves it. I don't want him to lose that love for the Sacrament that makes us new again. I am so proud of the gentleman he is growing into and the love he has for his faith.

Oddly enough, I decided to pick a saint at random to learn about and pray for spiritual guidance throughout this year. I drew the name Saint Jan Sarkander, the martyr of the confessional. I'll share more on this amazing saint later. I know God is asking me to come to him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and I know that he gave me this saint to help me find him where I am most fearful to go.... into the Quiet, because I feel unworthy. Where do you find the quiet in your faith? Is it a struggle like it is for me?

This is my post for The Zelie Group’s new link-up, “Getting To Know Us”. We invite you to write a blog post (or two!) or post on social media about what “Quiet” means to you during the month of January. Link up and use the hashtags #thezeliegroup, #tzg_quiet and #tzg_gettingtoknowus to connect with us. 

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