Celebrating St. Lucy, a Young Woman of Faith!

To be a woman of faith, even when you're just beginning to think of becoming a woman someday, means to reflect the light of Christ so brightly, that people see past your clothes and your friends and your plans. People see not just who you are right now, but who you were meant to be.  It means to grab Jesus so tightly, it's hard for even you to tell where his work stops and yours begins.
-Calee M. Lee, author of Women of Faith

With St. Lucia Day coming up on December 13, I wanted to tell you about a beautiful new picture book that celebrates not only St. Lucia, but twelve other brave women saints as well!

The book is Women of Faith, written by Calee M. Lee and illustrated by Lisa Graves. Each of the saints is featured with her own story, a short prayer and a luminous watercolor portrait.

Calee's sweet introduction at the front of the book about her "friends" from both Orthodox and Catholic traditions is heartwarming. She gives a beautiful explanation about why we call them saints, and she writes directly to her young readers who will want to hear these stories over and over again...

I would like to introduce you to some friends of mine.  As girls, I'm sure they were funny and brave, just like you.  The loved flowers and their families and the chance to play with friends.  As they grew, they learned to be brave and kind and love everyone around them.  From this, we can know them hundreds and hundreds of years after they died

I'm enthralled with the exciting stories and their pairing with Lisa Graves' gorgeous medieval-style paintings.  The book's large 8 and 1/2-by 11-inch format showcases the illustrations perfectly.  

Young girls will be drawn to the portraits of these early Christian women saints and martyrs from around the world (prettier inside and out than any Disney Princesses!), who lived and died so courageously.

Included are St. Genevieve of Paris, St. Brigid of Ireland, St. Hermione, and St. Barbara, to name a few.

Now I'll leave you with a prayer for St. Lucia'a Day:

O Saint Lucy, your faith in God was a light in the world.  Give me that same light in my soul so that I may avoid evil, be brave in performing good works and hate nothing more than the blindness and darkness of evil and sin. Pray to God for me that my eyes will see clearly and that I will use them for God's glory.