Create Art and Pray for All Souls

Do you have creative kids?  Have you lost a loved one?  Then, this idea is for you!

Make a calendar to remind you to pray daily for our beloved dead.

It's super easy to do.

Simply create an image that reminds you of November, and, then, glue it and a calendar grid onto a piece of cardstock.

You may also want to expand this art project into a full lesson, teaching (or reminding) your children about All Souls Day, the monthly dedication to pray for the dead, opportunities to help the dearly departed through gaining an indulgence for them, pairing your project with Eternal Rest copywork or with a STEAM design challenge.

Or you can make it into an art, faith, and poetry lesson as we did this past week in our Art, Music, and Poetry club.

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We began our club with a brief prayer, and, then, got right into reading about Paul, Jean, and Herman Limbourg in Artists that Shaped the Renaissance.


After chatting briefly about the Limbourg brothers, the time in which they lived, and their art, we did a picture study of Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, October, a beautiful artistic work created by the Limbourg brothers between 1412 and 1416 as a part of a Book of Hours.

The children were wowed by the detail within the reproduction on page 19 of Artists that Shaped the Renaissance.

Then, we looked at a modern Liturgy of the Hours book, chatting about what it is and how it is used before pausing to read a portion of it. 

We read and briefly discussed a psalm, asking the children what stood out to them in the psalm, both in terms of poetic devices and from the perspective of being Christians listening to the Living Word.

Finally, we adapted the art project for Lesson 4 in Artists that Shaped the Renaissance in order to create watercolor paintings of things that remind us of November using watercolor pencils and regular watercolors.

When each of our paintings was completed, we affixed it to a piece of black cardstock and, then, cut out a blank monthly calendar grid to attach below it.

Viola!

Individual calendar pages to be used throughout November to pray for our beloved dead.

Now, we're jotting down names of our dearly departed to pray for on each day of November.  If you'd like us to add the name of your beloved dead to our prayer calendar, please just let us know. 

Here are a few more snapshots of our lesson time:

Also feel free to browse our other All Souls related posts.

 

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let the perpetual light shine upon them. And may the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.