What is the Eucharist?
An apologetics children’s book that helps children at three different understanding levels, to understand and explain their Catholic faith. Each level of text goes deeper into the concept or question on each page to make the Catholic faith more accessable, even for very young children. At an age where they are constantly asking questions and learning, this helps to aid parents in answering the deepest questions while meeting their kids at their understanding level.
There is a secondary story about little mice who steal things from each scene, and then close to the end, have a change of heart because of the sacrifice of Christ, and bring everything back to the foot of the cross. They are loosely based on the story of St. Martin de Porris and his little mice!
St. Martin de Porris was a Dominican brother in Peru. In the monastery he lived in, the brothers were having problems with holes being chewed in their clothes and supplies, as well as little mouse droppings everywhere. His superior told him that he should use poison to kill the mice, but he couldn’t do that. One day, he caught a little mouse in the act. He gently picked it up, and looked it in the eye. He realized that the little mice were hungry, and just trying to survive. Martin told the mouse, “Look, little friend. You can’t be chewing holes in our clothes. If I promise to feed you and your friends, and I show you somewhere else you can live, will you leave the monastery alone?” Martin felt sure the mouse could understand. He brought the mouse out to the garden, and showed it a place it could live. Suddenly, many little mice appeared, and ran from the monastery to where Martin had shown the first little mouse he could go, and they began digging and making themselves at home. From then on, Martin would bring the little mice food in the garden, and none of the brothers had any more problems with holes (or droppings!) in the monastery again.