Wednesday, May 28, 2008

My Little Passionist

Inspired by lovely images of little girls making "fairy crowns" and having tea parties in fields of flowers, I asked Miriam this morning if she'd like to make a crown and play dress-up.

"Yes!" she cried, in raptures. "I want to make a crown of thorns!"

A crown of thorns.

"And I will not be sad like Jesus. I will make Jesus feel better!"

Yikes. A budding Poor Clare in our midst.

So, we got out the brown and black construction paper, cut out hundreds of small triangles, and glued them to a black band. The effect is rather ghastly, but the child loves her crown of thorns.

Disturbingly perhaps, she insisted on naming each "thorn" after a member of her family or play-group. There is a mommy-thorn, and daddy-thorn, a Tracy-thorn, an Emma-thorn, etc... I'm not sure what the mystical implications of this exercise were, but I'm sure it will add unto her sanctifcation!

4 comments:

Melanie Bettinelli said...

Wow! Sounds like my patron saint, Rose of Lima.

Maybe naming the thorns connects to the idea of offering up suffering for those people?

Erika Ahern said...

I hope that's the case, Melanie. She does like to make every one feel better.

The alternative interpretation: Each person named is a "thorn in her flesh"!!

Melanie Bettinelli said...

The "thorn in the flesh" interpretation did occur to me, but does seem much less likely. Though the bright side to that, I suppose, is that she's already learning to "offer up" her sufferings caused by the minor annoyances of her family members.... Which makes me think of St. Therese who always made an extra effort to smile at particular sister who she found especially tiresome. When the sister asked St Therese why she smiled so at her, what did she see, Therese said she saw Christ. See I can put a positive spin on any interpretation. :)

Erika Ahern said...

Thanks for the positive spin! Miriam's personality is very Therese. :) I have high hopes and a little "fear and trembling". How awesome is motherhood!?!?