Ideas for Celebrating the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (Jan 25)

January 25 is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle. Since we've "adopted" St. Paul as our family's patron saint for 2012, I thought I'd share with you some ideas (some of which, are not originally mine to claim) for celebrating today's feast. (I tried Googling for ideas, but there seems to be only a few posts about it.)

We won't be able to use these ideas today though, since Timothy joined his Papa Anthony on a "mission trip" to Baguio to prepare for the Couples for Christ Magnificat Weekend Retreat (their FIRST ever trip together as father-and-son. I'm a bit nervous about it, but totally ECSTATIC too!) I hope we could still do them though, even on a different day. I'm really grateful to God for reminding me about "what is essential" through St. Paul's conversion.

Here are some ideas:

1. From Catholic Cuisine: "Although the story from the Acts of the Apostles doesn't mention St. Paul falling to the ground off his horse, it seems that is how the scene is always artistically rendered. After all, falling to the ground from a standing position hurts, but it isn't as dramatic as a fall from a horse!" 

Image source here.

a. Make horseshoe cookies and include other "horse-themed" dishes in the family's meals.
b. For snack time, prepare something horses eat, like celery or carrot sticks with dip.
(Find more ideas from Catholic Cuisine by clicking here.)

2. Read Bible stories about St. Paul. Tim's current Bible is "My Favorite Bible Storybook for Early Readers." We got it from Booksale, and although it's not a Catholic children's Bible, it's really good - Tim loves "reading" it with us! I like that the stories are a bit more detailed than those in our other Bible storybooks.

Alternatively, we plan to read (for the nth time!) the comic book about St. Paul that we bought a while back at the St. Paul's bookstore at Ali Mall in Cubao. Maybe we'll do some role-playing while we're at it! ;-)

3. Do St. Paul-themed activities. Catholicmom.com has some good ideas from their 2008 archives on celebrating "The Year of St. Paul." You may find these resources helpful:


Resources for Children and Families:

Year of St. Paul Lesson Plan from CatholicMom.comOSV St. Paul "Giant of the Church" - interactive stories, quiz and more
OSV St. Paul Crossword Puzzle
OSV Take Out Kids Page for Year of St. Paul - filled with several great ideas and activities for families
OSV St. Paul Coloring Book for Kids
OSV "Year of St. Paul" poster
St. Peter and St. Paul Coloring Page

4. Watch videos about the Conversion of St. Paul. You can find these on YouTube. Here are two such videos:




Here's a music video about "Saul of Tarsus." (Note: Our internet connection is kinda spotty now, so I wasn't able to view the video - I hope you can do so without any problems though!)


Happy Feast Day everyone! To God be all the glory! ;-)