How beautiful! Thank you for sharing this experience with us!
On All Saints Day, my son and I attended our regular parish, which we haven’t actually attended in a couple months because of our changed schedule on Sundays.
At the end of mass, our pastor drew our attention to a few display cases that had been hung on the wall near from the front of the church. They were full of first class relics of Saints that he had collected over many years. He encouraged us to come see them, to venerate and ask for the intercession of the Saints there.
My two Big Patron Saints – St Teresa of Avila and St Therese of Lisieux – were both among the relics there! I cannot express how blessed I felt praying there. Such a blessing!
I had several things touched to the relics. All were mine except 2 objects from someone that was very ill that physically could not attend. I will trust in the Lords mercy and understanding if this was not correct.
It is perfectly fine to give a third-class relic to someone who couldn’t be there. When my son was preparing for his first Holy Communion, we attended a presentation by Treasures of the Church – hundreds of first and second class relics in a prayerful setting. We brought a handful of medals with us, and touched them to the relics of the Saints on the medals when possible. All of them were touched to the reliquaries of the Apostles, our Lady’s veil, and the cross.
We gave each student in his class one of these medals, along with a note explaining that the medal was a third-class relic, what a third-class relic is and why they are special. We also gave each child a little information about the Saint on their medal.
It was a prayerful labor of love.
