Medals

During Lent, I try not to shop much. It's part of my plan to simplify my life and to give myself more quiet time for prayer and reflection, and maybe in some sense to give up a pleasure. Although I don't particularly enjoy online shopping, shopping with friends is a pleasure for me. Sometimes Katie and I shop online together, which is a lot of fun. (As long as it doesn't get out of hand, shopping is an allowable pleasure--one I can "take back" after Lent.)

But I do allow myself a little shopping time for Easter gifts. So that was why I was over at the Catholic Child website this morning. A couple of weeks ago, I realized that Meghan doesn't have a patron Saint medal. This is strange to me. I'm not sure how it happened because all of our other children received medals as infants and wore them pinned to the backs of their shoulders to Mass and at other times. So how I missed this with Meghan and didn't even notice for 20 months is a mystery to me. One reason may be that we don't have a Catholic gift shop or bookstore here, so I don't have occasion to see this type of item unless I go looking for it on the internet. Another may be that my focus has been spread a bit thinly among the needs of our oldest two children, Matthew struggling with asthma, that little thing we call home school, and baby Meghan for awhile now. I have been putting out fires, as they say, but not much else.

No matter the reason, I resolved to rectify the situation and find a St. Margaret Mary or St. Therese medal for Easter. And I was very excited to see the Saints Alive sterling silver medals. These look like they are good quality medals. Even better, they offer more than 120 Saint names. I was delighted to see some hard-to-find ones like St. Thomas More and Old Testament Saints like Benjamin and Daniel. I do wish the St. Margaret medal said "St. Margaret Mary" instead, but I suppose not every Margaret, Meghan, or Maggie is a Margaret Mary. :)

If you are looking for a medal for an Easter or First Communion gift, you might like to take a look. They also have around 50 different patron Saint statues and rosaries (the rosaries are more expensive). Nice to find so many in one place.