Read This Before Going Trick Or Treating!

Hi everyone! I know it’s been a long time since I’ve written! Life has been super busy for me lately so I’ve had to put blogging on the back burner for a while!

There is so much I want to write about and eventually as time permits I hope to get to it all! For now I just wanted to quickly share a conversation the kids and I had this morning on the way to school:

5 year old daughter: “Mom, some people don’t celebrate halloween but we do right?”

Me: “There is really nothing to celebrate on halloween but we have fun with costumes and trick or treating. Tomorrow we will celebrate the saints!”

9 year old son: “Yea and when we go trick or treating today we’re going to pray a Hail Mary(silently) for the family before we ring their door bell like we did last year.”

Me: (I totally forgot that we started doing that last year) “yea..It’s such a great opportunity to pray for people!” (And then this idea just came to me!) Hey how about this year you guys bring a notebook and after they give you a treat you can say something like “Thank you! Would you like any prayers? We’re taking down prayer requests if you would like for us to pray for any intentions”.  You can write them down in the notebook and we can pray for those intentions tonight!”

All the kids: “yea that’s awesome let’s do that!”

So that’s the plan for us!

On a sidenote – The first time I heard of people asking strangers if they need prayers, was from a priest of Regnum Christi. Regnum Christi organizes a mission every year during lent where young adults carry a cross on the streets of downtown Chicago asking people if they have prayer requests. They write the prayer requests down and attach it to the cross they are carrying. I’ve heard stories of people breaking down and crying after being asked if they need prayers because they were touched by the experience and so thankful for it. The priest that mentioned this to me actually started his discernment into the priesthood after experiencing something very similar.  I wouldn’t think something like this could be efficacious unless I heard about this from this priest.

I’m not expecting anything dramatic to happen, but I’m hoping at the least we bring Christ into the minds of people who may never even think of Him and that we bring a smile to those who often do!

There’s a few things I like about this idea.

1. I like that this helps the kids get comfortable with doing things differently.
2. I like that they are proactively doing something great/beneficial with something that was meant to be just fun.
3. I like that by asking people if they have something to pray for they could possibly touch some hearts and be stirrers of grace.
4. I like how this will create lasting memories for our family and that we can add this to our list of family traditions.

I wanted to share this in case anyone else thinks this is a good idea and wants to do the same or some variation of it!

God bless!

Update: We did it! It was such a great experience! My two older boys first went trick or treating with their friends and they had such a great time! They didn’t ask for prayer requests during that round since we wanted to be around when they do it. 

After they came home, they grabbed a notebook and we headed out to our neighborhood. The kids were a little nervous at first but once they figured out what they each wanted to do they got all excited again. My oldest son (9) did all the talking. My second son (7) wrote everything down. My daughter (5) was the notebook holder. :)

They did such a great job! All the kids said “trick or treat” and “happy halloween” and after they were given candy they all said thank you and then my oldest (with a huge smile on his face -probably because of all the candy he just got) would say “Do you need any prayers? We are taking down prayer requests for any intentions you would like us to pray for 😊” It flowed so perfectly and didn’t sound awkward at all. I was so proud of him for being so confident! 

One woman actually got teary eyed and asked for prayers for herself. I totally didn’t expect that kind of reaction! Some people said “no, thank you”. Others asked for prayers for sick family members and some for family members who recently passed away. 

Everyone was very nice and grateful. It was a really good experience for us all! 

We prayed the rosary before bed for all the intentions we received. Of course the kids favorite part was all the candy!

I think it went really well and they said they want to do it again next year!  

PS – although this was a good idea for our family, it’s not necessarily a good idea for everyone since kids are all different and depending on age and temperament and other variables, some kids may not be comfortable with doing this and that’s totally fine! 

I hope everyone had a great halloween with their families!