From My Nameday—Come for Dessert by Helen McLoughlin, 1962, Liturgical Press.
Sections: Introduction How to Observe a Nameday Names Program for a Nameday – St. Joan of Arc
INTRODUCTION
My Nameday--Come For Dessert is an invitation to parents to celebrate the family's namedays. It contains the names, feasts, and symbols of our Blessed Mother and the saints, prayers of the liturgy, and appropriate desserts for the celebration of the sanctoral cycle of the Church year in the home.
A nameday commemorates the feast of the saint whose name we received at baptism. To the Church's mind, the day of the saint's death is his real feastday, and that is the day usually assigned as his feast--his birthday into heaven. In some countries and in most religious orders it is customary to observe name-days instead of birthdays.
On a child's nameday, "Come for Dessert" is a popular way to entertain. It is economical, festive and meaningful, and permits the family to splurge on a fabulous dessert without inflicting lasting wounds on the budget. It can be a "little evening"--a time for a party and a prayer for the child in the company of friends, a time for pleasant conversation for the grown-ups to accompany them.
Namedays are a means of strengthening the faith of our children, of drawing them closer to the Communion of Saints. The extra work on the parents' part will be amply rewarded. "A little more and how much it is; a little less and what miles away."
In the thirteen years from kindergarten through high school, children spend 13,000 hours in school (five hours a day); 37,960 hours asleep (eight hours a day); and 62,920 hours awake at home or elsewhere. The chief problems parents face are how to make a Christian home in which the children may pass their waking hours, how to teach the lessons of the faith over and beyond the catechism, how to counteract the secular influences of television and radio.
The Sisters, Brothers and teachers in our schools teach Christian doctrine, it is true; but parents must teach "religion." And the bulk of the work should be done before the child is six years old. Our Catholic educators can only build upon the foundations of Catholic training inculcated in the home. One of the ways to create a supernatural atmosphere in the home and to train our children in the faith is by the celebration of namedays.
Namedays enrich a child's thinking and create feelings of security, reverence and love of tradition which come from links with the past. They bind the members of the
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family closer to each other, to God. and to the saints; they are a means of sanctifying the home, fulfilling the command of the bishops of the United States: "Christians must make their homes holy."
The nameday dessert may be served as formally as you like. It is most attractive at the dining room table, covered in its Sunday best with linen, polished silver, good china, and candles. A low centerpiece decorated with a symbol of the patron saint will provide beautiful decor. The table may be set with placemats, nameday napkins (MS, see Abbreviations), and place-cards marked with an attribute of the saint or a verse from the Bible easily taken from the Mass of the patron.
At a gathering too large to be seated, let the table be set as a buffet with a taller and more imposing centerpiece, perhaps built around a statue or paper cut-out of the child's patron saint.
Serve the most beautiful cake or pie in your repertoire, or a dessert frozen in a symbolic mold, nameday punch for the children, and coffee (perhaps Irish coffee, see recipe) for the grown-ups. Just before the dessert is served, the family and guests pray the Collect of the day for the nameday child. A copy of the prayer may be typed or printed by hand for each guest.
HOW TO OBSERVE A NAMEDAY
The impetus for keeping namedays must ordinarily begin with mother. She can stage a nameday celebration just as successfully as she whips up a cake. Nothing happens on a nameday unless she makes it happen. The triduum beforehand, the vigil prayers, family attendance at Mass on nameday morning, the fun of the dessert party are the result of conscious planning born of a love for the traditions of the Church.
Family observance of namedays adds to the richness and completeness of life. Namedays like holidays give variety to our years; furthermore, they are a stabilizing influence, bringing the family together and uniting it to the Church Triumphant. So let's have namedays, even if they do make another job for mother.
"How do you find the time?" mothers ask. "Something less important must go undone," is the answer. Namedays need not be all work and no fun. The solution lies in systematic planning. Like all other household activities, advanced planning relieves the pressure. It is easy to work out a nameday routine that will become a family tradition. Change the routine here, change it there, but keep the same outline from year to year. Done in this way, the celebrations are easier to manage, and children will love the program the more for its familiarity. They will feel a part of it. As they grow older, they will take the whole thing out of mother's hands.
Establish a nameday closet. As namedays roll around, acquire permanent fixings which can be tucked away in labeled boxes or in a drawer. Here can be stored special nameday symbols and table decorations, crowns, gummed seals, ribbons of appropriate colors,
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odds and ends that are needed for dramatizing the life of the saints and a nameday wreath for feasts (MS, see Abbreviations).
A special party pantry, or at least a shelf, is also a good idea. In a short time its resources can turn any dessert period into a nameday celebration. Such a shelf should hold colored straws, marshmallows, gum drops to make a crown for Elizabeth, Margaret, Henry, Kenelm, or Louis; perhaps a gummed alphabet; Cake-mate in colors to write the patron's name on a cake; silver dragées to make a rosary on a cake for Catherine, Dominic, or any Dominican saint; chocolate bits to form musical notes for a David, Vivian, or Gregory; paper napkins to be crayoned; and even such things as animal crackers.
For instance, for a small Daniel or Mark, lions in cookie form or gummed-seal lions may be used to decorate cupcakes. Put a candle on the top, with the lions encircling it (this is also for Leo, Marciana, Jerome, Natalie)--and you will have a nameday celebration in no time at all. It is well to have party balloons and paper plates on which the symbols of saints may be painted with nail polish. With such materials on hand, it is possible to celebrate namedays without trouble or expense.
Chart the Church year for namedays. Your religious calendar will serve as a reminder if you circle the dates of your family's patrons. We cannot stress enough the importance of such activities; in themselves they may seem to be of no consequence, but seen in a broader perspective they have great spiritual value. Anything which unites our children more closely to the Communion of Saints is worth the effort it costs a mother. It is an ordinary household chore which can have supernatural significance.
In organizing a successful nameday party, one which your children will enjoy and remember, there are a few rules to be observed. First, invite no more children than can be comfortably managed; second, keep the party short and snappy. Plan the time so that a few games may be played before refreshments--always a quiet one to end with. It is best to give prizes to the winner of each game at a small child's party; crayons, soap bubbles, modeling clay, yo-yos, or candy are suitable.
The table is the center of attraction at these parties; the child's patron and his symbols will dictate the party theme.
The nameday vigil: a period of quiet. The preceding suggestions were meant to give the assurance that the celebration of your child's nameday need not involve much feverish preparation. In fact, a spirit of quiet and calmness should pervade the household on the vigil. Romano Guardini in Meditation before Mass (Newman Press, Westminster; Maryland [Editor's Note: This book has been reprinted by Sophia Institute Press under the title Preparing Yourself for Mass] stresses that such a period of composure is the "prerequisite of a liturgical holy act"--in this case, holy Mass on the nameday feast of your child. This period of quiet may be devoted to a reading and explanation of the Mass of the day, or at least of the Collect [Editor's Note: The Collect is the Latin term for the Opening Prayer of the Mass. This prayer is also said in the Liturgy of the Hours.] Often
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the Mass text in honor of the child's patron--pope, bishop, abbot, martyr, holy woman or virgin--will suggest symbols and verses for the place-cards to be used at your party the next day.
The image is a reality; the mind can only attempt to plumb it. The image is richer than the thought; hence the act by which we comprehend an image, gazing, is richer, more profound, vital and storied than the thought. People today are over- conceptualistic. We have lost the art of reading images and parables, of enacting and understanding symbols. We could relearn some of this by encouraging and practicing the power of vision, a power which has been neglected for too long (Romano Guardini, ibid.).
For teen-agers this period of quiet should be devoted to reading the life of the saint or studying the missal for the Mass of the feast. It is also a time to help the younger children with artwork. Parents too must become aware of the mystery of the feast. They must revere and pray to their children's patrons daily, must express love for the heavenly protectors after whom they have named their children by a joyful celebration of the heavenly birthdays of the family patrons.
Again Guardini gives the clue:
From the liturgy it is clear that the (name) day does not begin with the morning, nor with midnight, but on the evening before with a vigil. (It need by only a period of quietness, a decade of the Rosary to ask our Lady and the child's patron for his needs, and, if possible, a prayer in the child's own words.) There is a profound insight into this. It is not a question of the astronomical, but of the living day. The one is mathematically exact fraction of time which begins with a certain second, regardless of what takes place in it; whereas the other, the living day, is a continuously renewed form.
Then when does the nameday begin? One could say at the moment of deepest sleep, when life is at its stillest, on condition that sleep itself begins and moves and ends properly. Sleep is profoundly influenced by the hours that immediately precedes it. Therefore the problem of a happy nameday begins on the vigil, the evening before (Guardini, ibid.)
It is for parents to find how to meet this challenge, to find time in schedules already overcrowded. (This obviously means curtailing TV.)
Family participation in Mass is the most important part of the nameday--a miniature of the Mystical Body at the Lord's table. Early in the Mass, at the Collect, the family seeks God's graces for the nameday child through the intercession of his patron. They receive God's word, glorify Him, and place the child's particular needs at the feet of Providence. At holy Communion they see God the Father's hand proffering sacred nourishment which all readily accept that they may "have life."
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The Lord received in holy Communion lingers to hear your desires for your nameday child, to pour out the love of His Heart, to bless him or her in a special manner, and to give life everlasting. "If anyone eats of this Bread, he shall live forever; and the Bread that I will give is My flesh for the life of the world" (John 6:33-57)--ideal for nameday vigil reading and meditation. It is most important that parents understand the significance of Christ's coming in the liturgy. It is not the dessert or the baubles or the party, but Christ's coming to yourselves and your nameday child that makes a feast.
What are the Christian implications of this word, feast? The dictionary says a feast is "a religious festival or celebration." Before accepting that definition, however, we must remember that our society has lost touch with certain ultimate mysteries. "We are rationalists and psychologists, and reduce everything to the intellect or moral plane, or to the subjective level of experience," Guardini says (ibid.). Then he proceeds to give his definition of a Christian feast. "To wait for our Lord, to invite Him, to go to receive and honor and praise Him, to be with Him, drawn into the intimacy of communion with Him (and through Him into communion with the nameday saint)--that is the Christian feast," and the true meaning of a nameday.
The celebration at home, the agape, or nameday party which highlights the child's patron and his attributes by special desserts and decorations, the Collect prayer at the party--all are dependent for their effectiveness upon understanding the meaning of a Christian feast. What good is a feast to children surfeited with sweets? To get the full effect of a nameday feast, give youngsters the opportunity to fast from desserts on the vigil, or better still, during a triduum before the nameday. After a day or two without a dessert, the nameday cake looms twice as beautiful and tasty.
NAMES "I will give him a white pebble, and upon the pebble a new name written" (Apoc. 2:17).
A name is a badge of individuality. As long as an infant is nameless, he is amorphous. When he receives a name by which he can be identified, he enters upon a subjective existence. To the ancient Israelites a person's name was an expression of his personality. Throughout Old Testament history the significance of names passed as an accepted principle. Thus the conversion of Abram to Abraham ("father of many nations," Gen. 17:5) was proper to the covenant of circumcision and ratified God's benediction. "And it came to pass on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him by his father's name, Zachary" (Luke 1:59)--this verse recalls the Hebrew custom of naming the male child eight days after birth.
The conferring of a baptismal name has profound significance. The new name indicates the deep transformation and renovation of the soul through the waters of baptism, the sacrament of supernatural rebirth. A person receives a new name because he is new creature reborn in Christ. A name may be given casually from sheer circumstances or with some thought. But once given, it stands for the depths of a child's being.
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Patrons. Canon law admonishes the priest that "a Christian name must be chosen for the one to be baptized, and if he cannot secure this being done, then he himself must add the name of some saint to that given by the parents, and enter both into the baptismal register." [Editor's Note: The 1983 Code of Canon Law states in Can. 855 "Parents, sponsors and the pastor are to see that a name foreign to a Christian mentality is not given."] The Roman Ritual also urges that in baptism "no improper, fabulous, or ridiculous names be given, nor those of false deities or godless heathens, but as far as possible only those of saints by whose example and under whose protection the faithful may be inspired to lead holy lives" [Editor's Note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church still reflects the importance of a Christian name: 2156 "In Baptism, the Lord's name sanctifies man, and the Christian receives his name in the Church. This can be the name of a saint, that is, of a disciple who has lived a life of exemplary fidelity to the Lord. The patron saint provides a model of charity; we are assured of his intercession. The "baptismal name" can also express a Christian mystery or Christian virtue."] As early as 400 A.D. St. John Chrysostom urged parents to adopt the names of saints for their children, not those of ancient heroes, reminding parents of the great spiritual benefits that would accrue to their offspring from the example and intercession of their heavenly patron.
When a child is placed under the protection of a saint, that saint becomes the child's patron or patroness. The words are derived from the Latin pater (father) through the word patronus. Patron is a generic term embracing sponsor, benefactor, advocate. In ancient Rome, when a slave was liberated by an aristocrat, the slave became a client of his master. In this new state the slave gained a protector, and the master a right-hand man who could be trusted. This new father-son relationship gave rise to the term "patrons."
Today the word is in quite common use. Top-flight television artists have their patrons who help them to get started toward stardom. The baker, the grocer, the dry- cleaner--all need our support, or as they sometimes put it, "your esteemed patronage." It is reasonable that creatures of eternity should need patrons superior to the patrons of earth. Born in the slavery of original sin, we Christians, made freemen and sons of God by baptism, need heavenly patrons to protect and care for us.
Holy Mother Church realizes our need for such heavenly patronage; the liturgy abounds with prayer-formulas invoking their intercession. Pope Pius XII wrote in Mediator Dei:
There is further reason why the cult of the saints in heaven is valued by Christian people, that is, so that they may employ their help, and that they may be raised up by the protection of those in whose praises we delight. And from this, it may be easy to understand why the holy liturgy offers us many formulas of prayers in which it invokes the assistance of the saints in heaven.
In some of our heroes, His apostolic zeal is resplendent; in others, His fortitude even to the shedding of blood, in some that constant watchfulness is conspicuous with which they awaited their divine Redeemer; and in others glowed a virginal
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radiance of soul and the modest sweetness of Christian humility. Finally, in all the saints burned a fervent love of God and their neighbors.
All these beauties of holiness the holy liturgy places before our eyes in order that we may gaze upon them for the good of our souls, and in order that we may be inflamed by the example of those in whose merits we rejoice. Therefore, we should conserve innocence in simplicity, union of heart in charity, modesty in humility, diligence in administration, watchfulness in helping those who are laboring, mercy in cherishing the poor, constancy in defending the truth, justice in the severity of discipline, that there may be no lack of any virtue which is proposed to us as an example. For these are the footprints which the saints, going back to their heavenly homeland, have left for us, so that following always closely in their footsteps, we may follow them to their blessedness.
This belief in the desirability of modeling one's life on that of the saints, and the belief that one may invoke their aid and be heard is sometimes difficult even for Catholics to understand. Often it is heatedly denied by strangers to Christian tradition. Some ask where in holy Scripture can be found the slightest justification for naming a child after a patron saint, for believing that the saint will protect the child.
Nowhere in Scripture will be found one word to condemn the practice of asking the saints' protection. On the contrary, the Bible states that saints do pray for us and that, by the doctrine of the Communion of Saints and the duty of praying for another, the Catholic position is justified.
Already Genesis (18:18) tells of God speaking about the mutual blessings of Abraham's children; further we read how God predicted that Abraham would "pray for you, and you shall live" (Gen. 20:7). The Israelites implored Moses to be their mediator with God (Ex. 20:19). Friends of Job bade him: "Call now! Will anyone respond to you? To which of the holy ones will you appeal?" (Job 5:1). These were spirits other than God. God said to Eliphaz: "Let my servant Job pray for you; for his prayer I will accept not to punish you severely" (Job 42:8). In Jeremiah (15:1) God tells the prophet that He is too disgusted with the people even to hear the prayers of Moses and Samuel for them. Of Jeremiah himself Onias said: "This is he who prays much for the people and for all the holy city, Jeremiah, the prophet of God" (2 Mach. 15:14).
Christ Himself described the rich man condemned to suffering in the next life as interceding for his relatives on earth (Luke 16:27-28). In Acts (12:5) we read how the Christians poured out prayers that St. Peter might be released from prison. In his epistles St. Paul speaks constantly of his prayers for those to whom he writes and asks for their prayers in return. And St. James tells us: "The unceasing prayer of a just man is of great avail" (James 5:16). St. John declares that in his vision of heaven he saw "the prayers of the saints ascending before God from the hands of an angel" (Apoc. 8:4).
Among the Church Fathers, St. Augustine offers this testimony:
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Christians celebrate the memory of the martyrs with religious ceremony in order to arouse emulation and in order that they may be associated with their merits and helped by their prayers. But to none of the martyrs do we erect altars as we do to the God of martyrs; we erect altars at their shrines. For what bishop standing at the altars over the bodies of martyrs ever said: We offer to Peter or Paul or Cyprian? Mass is offered to God who crowned the martyrs, at the shrine of the martyrs, so that the very spot may remind us to arouse in ourselves a more fervent charity toward those whom we imitate and toward Him who gives us the power to do so.
St. Thomas Aquinas justifies the practice as follows:
Prayer may be offered to a person in two ways, either so that he himself may grant it or that he may obtain the favor from another. In the first way, we pray only to God because all prayers should be directed to obtaining grace and glory which God alone gives, according to the psalmist: 'The Lord will give grace and glory' (Ps. 83). But in the second way, we pray to the angels and saints, not that through them God may know our petitions, but that through their prayers and merits our petitions may be effective.
Devotions to the saints in other faiths. Not only Roman Catholics but their Eastern Orthodox neighbors also invoke the saints. In The Orthodox Church Bulgakov writes:
The saints, in constant relation with us, pray for us and aid us in all our life. They are in mysterious relations of love with the glorified Church and with the earthly militant Church. This is the Communion of Saints. It is loving aid and assistance, and intercession by prayer.
The cult of the saints occupies a considerable place in Orthodox piety. The saints are our intercessors and our protectors in heaven, and, in consequence, living and active members of the Church Militant. Their blessed presence in the Church manifests itself by their pictures and relics. They surround us with a cloud of prayer, a cloud of glory of God. This cloud of witnesses does not separate us from Christ, but brings us nearer, unites us to Him.
Those who reject this cult suffer great spiritual loss; while remaining near to Christ, they lose true relationship to Him. They are destined to remain spiritually without a family, without race, without home, without fathers and brothers and sisters in Christ. They traverse the way of salvation all alone, each one for himself, without looking for examples and without knowing communion with others.
Anglicans, too, believe in direct invocation of the saints. In their English Hymnal is the verse:
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O saint of God, beloved, And placed on His right hand Thy prayers be like a rampart As 'gainst the foe we stand.
The archbishops of Canterbury and York drew up a report on Christian doctrine in the Church of England containing these words: "It is impossible to declare that the departed saints cannot hear our prayers; and we, therefore, must not condemn as impossible direct address to them as a private practice, provided this be to ask for their prayers whether for ourselves or others."
In his book, The Faith of England, Canon A. H. Reeves writes:
The lives of the saints on earth are the supreme achievement of divine grace. So close is their union with Christ that in them He lives and prays, suffers and dies in self-offering to the Father. That life which He re-enacts in every one of the baptized, He lives to the full in the saints. For this reason, the Church honors the saints as the most glorious handiwork of God's grace and asks their prayers before God's throne as of those who are especially pleasing to God.
A Presbyterian minister who lived in the apartment above us used to wear a Celtic cross. When we challenged him, he said that it was the symbol of St. Colmcille of Iona, patron saint of Presbyterians. Upon checking we found many instances of public pilgrimages by Protestants to saints' shrines in England, including one to St. Alban, protomartyr of England. On pilgrimages to the shrine of St. Aidan on the island of Lindisfarne, Protestants made the final steps barefoot, like the monks of old. The bishops of Newcastle, Edinburgh, and Jarrow led the processions in cope and mitre. Thousands of pilgrims received St. Aidan medals. St. Christopher-tide blessings are imparted to travelers and vehicles by the Church of England.
English newsmen observe the feast of their patron, St. Francis de Sales, with the celebration of the Eucharist in London's Church of St. Mary-Le Strand. And not long ago we read that the Anglican Boys' and Girls' Club of Holy Trinity, Charlton, was "placed under the patronage of St. John Bosco." We mention these devotions of Protestants in order to encourage those in mixed marriages to celebrate their children's namedays in the home. It is to be regretted that so many children grow up in a puritan atmosphere which stifles any knowledge and love of their patron saints, depriving youngsters of this precious heritage.
Home shrines. From the day of his baptism the Catholic child should be prepared for full participation in the life of the Church. This involves much more than learning by heart a few truths from the catechism; it is a life in itself.
The home is the place where religious sentiment should be nurtured, where children are free in the expression of their religious instincts. Ideally each child should have a good medal of his patron, and, if possible, a statue or picture to be placed on an altar at his level; in this way he can bring flowers and candles to the shrine. Some of my happiest memories are of the religious processions in our home in which we carried flowers to a
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patron saint's altar. An exceptionally beautiful Madonna which looks like carved pressed wood costs but is inexpensive and is unbreakable. Medals of any saint may be ordered.
The Collect: telegram to God. Patron saints should be prayed to. Any formula that springs from a child's heart will do. We use the Collect of the Mass for our nameday family prayers. Many of the Collects are included in this book; others may be found in your daily missal.
The Collects, especially the ancient ones, are masterpieces of prayer if one considers their structure, the harmonious cadence of their phrases, and the profound doctrine which they express. They are usually composed of three parts: praise, petition, and conclusion. The first part invokes God and offers Him praise, or gives a short exposition of the mystery of the day. In the second part we ask for our needs through the merits of Jesus Christ, our divine Head, and the intercession of a patron saint.
The mark of a saint. It is the mark of a saint that he fulfills the highest ideal given to man and is at the same time a friend and an inspiration. Saints tell their namesakes what is possible for them, whether one has one talent or ten, whether one lives in sorrow or in joy, in days of menace, or in time of hope. They combine almost impossible weakness with strength, darkness with joy, self-denial with profound humanity and affection. Regardless of the era in which they lived, saints remain ever contemporary in that they reveal the everlasting Source of happiness, the secret of how to turn the commonplace into something perfect and unique. Each saint somehow manages to find the true cross, the emblem of life and hope.
The saints are waiting to welcome and guide the faithful through the Church year. Dr. Pius Parsch tells us in The Church's Year of Grace.
Let us lovingly take their hand and retain their company during the Church year. How will the saints benefit us? By their lives and example they become our teachers and models, stars in the night skies of life by which we may sail a straight course to God. Moreover, they plead and intercede for us in heaven, a mediation we ask for again and again in the liturgy. Nevertheless their greatest function is to act as mediators of grace. By reason of the Communion of Saints, they supply the graces we still lack. They are the chosen vessels of divine grace; not their virtues but God's love makes them great. When we go to meet the Bridegroom at the holy Sacrifice, they lend us their wedding garments to cover our nakedness. It is with their merits, and even in their stead, that we appear before God at Mass and in prayer. . . . As the eagle coaxes her young toward the sun, so the saints must draw us upward from the hollows of earthly life toward the divine Sun reigning in heaven (Vol. 1, p. 381).
Little-known saints. Our names tell a story. Perhaps it is the story of some well-known saint like Augustine, Dominic, Catherine, or Therese. Saints are the hardest people to write about because they are saints; few writers have succeeded in making their lives come to life.
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Of many saints after whom our children are named, very little is known. Over the centuries a thick mist has spread between Christians and these men and women who sanctified their time and won for themselves the crown of eternal life. The lives of many are shrouded in legend, much of which we find hard to believe. Toward such hagiography we might apply the Italian saying: "Se non e vero, e ben trovato--If not true, it is at least very apt."
What shall we tell our children about saints of whom little is known or who have only sugar-coated lives? We might do best to say something like this: Your patron saint loved God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. He cherished our Lord, meditated on His words in the gospel, ate His Body at the altar, and counted on Christ's merits to be saved. He let the Holy Spirit guide his actions. He was humble, sought the last place, obeyed his superiors, was merciful, practiced mortification and patience He prayed without ceasing, restrained his passions, considered himself unworthy of the graces received, and believed that he could never do enough in response to God's goodness or to merit heaven. Far from seeking in his supernatural virtues a pretext for eluding the natural law, your patron avoided lying, double-dealing deceit, stealing, and flattery. He was always straightforward and regarded all his brothers as having been created for God and not for himself.
It is true, some of the miracles ascribed to the saints are hard to believe. Yet are not the miracles performed by our Lord and the apostles sometimes regarded as "hard to believe"? Just before His ascension, Jesus predicted of His followers: "They shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover" (Mark 16:17-18).
Supernatural power abides in the earthly remains of the saints "They cast the body into the sepulcher of Eliseus. When it had touched the bones of Eliseus the man came to life and stood upon his feet" (4 Kings 13:21). Wonders like this take place in the twentieth century even as they did in past ages and justify the veneration which the Church teaches her children to pay to the relics of the saints.
PROGRAM FOR A NAMEDAY
St. Joan of Arc Before dealing with specific saints and offering suggestions for the celebration of their individual feastdays, we would like to describe how we keep the feast of St. Joan of Arc in honor of our Joanie's nameday. This will perhaps give you some ideas as to how to adapt different practices for your own nameday observances.
To keep the nameday of St. Joan of Arc [feast, May 30], we begin on the eve of the feast. The children are busy making symbols for decorations and writing verses from her Mass on place-cards. Because St. Joan has a number of attributes, we select a different one each year and so have opportunity to vary the decorations. One year it is the fleur-de-
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lis which she bore on her banner as she went into battle; another year it is fire to commemorate her death at a burning stake. Then again it might be her motto, "Jesus, Maria," which we use to decorate place-mats, napkins, and even the cake.
Children love repetition and ceremonial. Nothing touches a child's heart quite so deeply as a fitting celebration of the feast of the saint whose name he bears. This need not be a costly affair. You may be able to do no more than attend holy Mass on the feast, pray the Collect of the day, and have a nameday cake. From these simple delights a child learns to love and imitate his or her patron.
Our Joanie bears the Irish form of her name--Siobhan (pronounced she-vawn), which means "white spirit." For one nameday we found place-mats and napkins decorated with white doves. For a centerpiece we used a piñata, a Mexican pottery basket covered with papier-mâché to resemble a dove, the symbol of Siobhan. A baptismal candle with symbolic designs on it heightened the significance of the nameday party.
Our special nameday punch was called "Licking Punch" by the children when they were small. To six small bottles of 7-Up, a pint of sherbet (raspberry is best) is added. The punch is stirred and served before the sherbet melts. A mixing bowl can be used instead of a punch bowl, or the punch can be poured from a chilled pitcher.
We have a mold with a fleur-de-lis which we use for the feast of St. Joan of Arc, for French saints, and for feasts of Our Lady. Tin-lined, the mold can be used to bake a small cake to top a larger one, or to make frozen desserts.
A crown made of gold paper is used for a saint's day version of "pin the tail on the donkey." Blindfolded, the children try to pin St. Joan's crown on her head in a print of the saint. The one who comes closest wins a prize.
A special Irish dance, for which the prize in Ireland was a cake garlanded with flowers, is popularly supposed to have given rise to the saying "take the cake," in the sense of beating out all comers. Since dancing contests are not feasible in a city apartment, we devised a quieter contest. Our children and their friends compete by singing to decide who will "take the cake."
Fire is another symbol that children love. We float tiny flames on salad oil in a platter bearing a statue of the saint. Called Halo Wicks, these tiny wicks in cork bases can be bought. The piñata swings from the ceiling, and each child is blindfolded and given a chance to strike it with a stick in the hope that the favors and gifts for the nameday guests will come tumbling down when the dove is broken.).
The Collect (Opening Prayer) from the missal is said as a prayer with the grace before dessert. The children sing "Happy Nameday to You" as the nameday cake, topped by a symbol and lighted candle, is brought to the table. Here are the prayers we say for St. Joan's feast:
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Father: Alleluia, alleluia. You have played a man's part and kept your courage high. The Lord gave you firmness of resolve and your name shall be ever blessed, alleluia (Jud. 15:11).
All: Pray for us, St. Joan, holy woman that you are, and the Lord's true worshipper, alleluia.
Father: What though I walk with the shadow of death all around me? All: I will not be afraid of any harm, for You are with me, Lord Jesus.
Father: Let us pray. O God, who in a marvelous manner inspired Joan the maid to defend her faith and her country, grant at her intercession that Your Church may vanquish all her enemies and enjoy abiding peace. Through Christ, our Lord.
All: Amen. Christ conquers, Christ reigns!
In Liturgical Piety (Notre Dame University Press), Father Louis Bouyer gives a pattern of praising God that is suitable for nameday prayers. It consists of a psalm, a Collect, and a brief pause for the personal needs of the nameday child. (St. Benedict warns that personal prayers should be short in order to bring the mind to God and not leave it exposed to the danger of idle thoughts.)
Psalm 150 Father: Praise the Lord in His sanctuary, praise Him for His firmament of strength.
All: Praise Him for His mighty deeds, praise Him for His sovereign majesty.
Father: Praise Him with the blast of trumpet, praise Him with lyre and harp.
All: Praise Him with timbrel and dance, praise Him with strings and pipe.
Father: Praise Him with sounding cymbals, praise Him with clanging cymbals.
All: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
A personal prayer for the nameday child is said aloud if he or she is small; for an older child the prayer may be mental. To this is added the prayer to the nameday child's patron saint. Some of these specific prayers are given throughout this book; others will be found in the "Common" for bishops, popes, martyrs, bishop-martyrs, virgins, virgin- martyrs, and confessors [Editor's Note: The revised sacramentary has Commons for
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Martyrs, Pastors, Doctors of the Church, Virgins and Holy Men and Women]. When no prayer can be found, the following may be said:
Father: Let us pray. O Lord, You are the loveliest melody of our choir. You have commanded that the songs of our heart should be rendered now by wind instruments, now by strings: grant that while we are singing with spiritual desire, we may be admitted among the everlasting choirs and praise You together with all Your saints.
All: Amen.
A personal prayer for the nameday child is said aloud if he or she is small; for an older child the prayer may be mental. To this is added the prayer to the nameday child's patron saint. Some of these specific prayers are given throughout this book; others will be found in the "Common" for bishops, popes, martyrs, bishop-martyrs, virgins, virgin- martyrs, and confessors. When no prayer can be found, the following may be said:
Father: Let us pray. Dear heavenly patron, whose name N.... is proud to bear, always pray to God for him (her) Confirm him (her), in the faith. Strengthen him (her) in virtue. Defend him (her) in the fight that he (she) may deserve to conquer the malignant foe and obtain eternal glory.
All: Amen. Christ conquers, Christ reigns!
Girls who keep this feastday are Joan; Jeanne, Jehanne, and Jeannette (French); Juanita and Nita (Spanish); Johanne and Hanne (German); Giovanna, from which Yvonne is derived (Italian); Jovanna (Portuguese); Ivanne (Russian); Jenny and Jesse (Scottish); and Siobhan (Irish).
St. Joan of Arc's shield, which a child may make for her home shrine or family altar, has a white field, gold fleur-de-lis, and the words, "Jesus, Mary." The fleur-de-lis, emblem of the kings of France, may be cut from gold paper or foil. The arrow which pierced our saint's breast and thigh in the two battles which she led is also suggested as a symbol.
The nameday dessert might appropriately be the lamb cake (see Lamb Cake) decorated with the fleur-de-lis or with the motto from her shield. To accomplish this we suggest "Cake-Mate," a gel that writes like a pencil on frosting (available in supermarkets or from MS, see Abbreviations); or you may use gummed letters available at most stationery stores. The flambé dessert could also be used, or the crown cake given below.
We found a picture of St. Joan of Arc in a back issue of Realite, a French magazine. Later, after the picture had been punctured by pinholes in a game of "pin the symbol on the saint," we found a ceramic wall decoration of St. Joan by Oudin imported from France; this is an object of art as well as devotion. A miniature figure (not a statue) of Joan of Arc for about $6.00, a charming nameday gift.
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The Little Art Shop carries Roualt's Joan of Arc, a reproduction of modern art, and medals by Fernand Py ranging from $1.50 to $8.00. CCA (see Abbreviations) has a handsome statue which is fairly costly but a treasure to last a lifetime. Bastien LePage's Joan of Arc can be obtained for $.50 from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA, see Abbreviations).
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