Dinner Party with the Saints Reflection
by author Woodeene Koenig-Bricker
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Do the saints know each other?
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What do the saints talk about?
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Do we eat in heaven?
These questions niggled at the back of my mind for years. I knew the theological answers, but I wasn’t asking theological questions. That’s the bailiwick of more erudite minds than mine. I was just running up and down the halls of my imagination, peeking into doors of fantasy.
What if the saints didn’t all know each other?
What if they had a “meet and greet”?
What if the meeting was a potluck dinner party?
It was from those ponderings that Dinner Party for the Saints emerged.
As I created the guest list, I wanted to make sure that there was gender equality, racial diversity, different eras, and a mixture of religious and lay folks. I also wanted to include some well-known saints, but some lesser-known ones as well.
Once I sent out the invitations, it was time to let the saints do the talking. I brought them together as they waited for the Guest of Honor to arrive and “listened” to their conversations. I added some factual information and biographical details and watched the party begin.
One thing remained. I’m not a cook, but I knew a simply superb, professionally-trained home cook—Celia Murphy. When it came time to add recipes, she offered to create them for me. Not being a fool, I jumped at her offer of help. The recipes she presents make the Dinner Party a truly “heavenly” meal.
In this book, the saints share their lives, their stories, and their food. I hope that you find attending their Dinner Party as much fun as I had creating it, and I hope that you come away having learned something new about these holy heroes.