A Stranger and You Welcomed Me

A catechist in a Level II class shared a story this week of what happened when a new child came into the atrium.

The other children were very excited to welcome the new child (it was our 6:45 session), and during the class, got busy preparing for that evening's closing prayer.

As it turned out, they had spent their time making letters out of paper and cutting them out and tying them together so that they spelled a word. When they rang the bell for prayer (which signals to the class that it is time to put away work and come to the prayer table), they hung the word over the front of the Good Shepherd tapestry hanging above the prayer table.

"WELCOME."

We are constantly humbled by the children's spontaneous joyfulness in living the gospel.

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’

Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’

And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Matthew 25:34-40

Silence

With some recent articles about what Pope Benedict has to say about silence, I thought it might be a good time to talk about silence in the atrium. Thank you to Ms. Lynn, a Level II catechist at our parish, for passing these on to me!

In Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, the mantra is "simple and essential." We meet about 25 times per year. We have to make sure that the most essential formation happens for the children in that time. But one of the most essential parts of that formation is to make the child comfortable with prayer--not just spoken prayer, but most importantly silent prayer.

As Mother Theresa said: "The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service. And the fruit of service is peace."

In the stillness of our hearts, we become aware of the guest of our soul.

I suppose that is why CGS formation trains us to start this work with the smallest child. You would be amazed to see how peaceful a 3 year old can be for a few minutes of silence. This week in my class, a fourth grade boy asked if we could make silence for the whole class time. We got to about 7 minutes before entering our presentation for the day. I was impressed, though, at how much more focused the children were after the time of recollected silence.

As an aside, that same 4th grader was very disappointed to discover that he only had a few more years in CGS. "Isn't there a Level 4? Can you make one?"

God Bless you and your families,

Mandie DeVries, CGS Catechist and Director of Religious Education

The Hinging Virtues

Many of our 10+ year old kids are getting to see my favorite work in the Level III atrium: The Cardinal Virtues. The presentation lays out the 4 Cardinal Virtues.

The first three: Justice, Prudence, and Fortitude are the virtues that push us to do the good. The last one: Temperance, is the virtue that holds us back from over-indulgence.

The word "Cardinal" comes from the italian word that means "hinge." This is important because our whole lives "hinge" on the degree to which we have (or have not) these virtues.

As the children are introduced to the "sister virtues"--they see that virtues like meekness, patience, gratitude, and humility all relate somehow to the Cardinal virtues.

To the left is the box that was made for this work. We have a Level III catechist who wrote out all of the virtues (cardinal and sisters) and their definitions on the back, as well as the arrows pictured below. This is a great part of CGS because that catechist is probably the most familiar of all of us with these virtues because of her hard work in preparing this for us.

This part of the Virtues work is my favorite! The children are invited to read stories from the bible and make their own judgments of whether or not the actors in the scene were exemplifying or deficient in a virtue. The little arrows have plus and minus signs on them for the children to point to the parts that they notice a + or - for the virtues.

This helps them to see the world in the light of the virtues. The more we can, with God's help, develop the virtues in our life, the better our world will work. (Just like the hinges on a door!)

Until next time!

Mandie DeVries, CGS Catechist & Director of Religious Education

The Sacrifice of Isaac

This week sees the pinnacle of our Abraham study. "The Sacrifice of Isaac" encompasses Genesis 22:1-19. Abraham, living among cultures whose ultimate worship to their gods was human sacrifice--the sacrifice of the firstborn, it must have been a sacrifice that Abraham almost expected that his God would require of him.

Yet, the One True God, the God of Life does not will this sacrifice from Abraham:

"Do not lay your hand on the boy,” said the angel. “Do not do the least thing to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you did not withhold from me your son, your only one.” Genesis 22:12.

Abraham does offer a sacrifice, but as he prophesied to his son, "God Himself will provide the lamb for the offering." And as we dive into the typology (the study of the connections between Old Testament, New Testament, and the future) of this event, we see the the Lord did indeed provide the offering--the final sacrifice: His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He also bore the wood for the sacrifice on his own shoulders as did Isaac, and Jesus also showed the obedience of Abraham in his sacrifice.

Typologies always look to the future as well, though this one can be harder to see. One day, however, we will all offer perfect praise to God--as we offer our whole selves without reservation to his greater glory!

God's blessing on your families,

Mandie DeVries, CGS Catechist and Director of Religious Education

Reasons it is OK to be late to Atrium... (True story)

We had a child come in a little late to atrium last week, and she apologized to her catechist but said, "My grandma said we had to be late today."

The catechist was a little surprised and said, "Oh, okay. Why is that?"

"Well, as we were driving up tonight, the sun was just setting and it was so beautiful that Grandma said we just had to sit and watch it. She said that watching God's beautiful sunset was more important than being on time today."

The catechist smiled and said, "Your grandma is right. In our class, we are practicing taking time out and thinking about God and thanking him for his blessings. Your grandma is doing that in the real world!"

Way to go, Grandma!

More on Abraham... And a serious sidenote.

Level III kids in some of our atria continued their study of Abraham this week, and we finally hear about the birth of Isaac. Abram was 75 when God promised him a son, and he is 100 years old when the promise is finally realized with his wife Sarah. Kind of makes our 3 week wait seem a little weak! In the coming weeks, we'll dive in to the significance of the "Sacrifice of Isaac." Stay tuned.

In a couple of Level III classes this week, the children chose to discuss (at their own level) the tragedies of the past weekend. I invited one of our catechists to share her experiences in talking with the kids: (Thanks, Melissa!)

~ Mandie DeVries, DRE

From Melissa: This past week, we spent time in our Level III atria talking about some serious issues that have been facing our children in the past week or more. As you know, there were two suicides in the Johnston school district last weekend.

You may not know that we have several families in our parish from this school system who were affected. Because of my history as a substance abuse counselor and having worked with youth around the city, I felt comfortable discussing the subject with our kids.

We talked about the impact suicide has on a family, a school, a church and the community at large. We touched on the emotional state of the people involved and the lengths that need to be taken to intervene. We talked about the Catechism of the Catholic Church and what our faith tells us about the issue. We talked about bullying and our role as Christians in this and other situations our youth face. But most of all, we talked about God's never ending love for us.

I encouraged the children to take full possession of their membership in Christ's body and to always, always know that there is a way out of any situation through God and Church. I told them that along with their parents, the entire Religious Education staff is there to help them sort through any difficulties they may have, and that we could always bring in our Pastor, Father Harris for them as well.

During the late class, Father happened to be available, and came in to speak to the children and answer questions about the topic. I was glad to be able to discuss this in the manner we did. Our children are rich in their knowledge, understanding and faith. We were able to bridge some of their questions and hopefully to instill a belief that we as a staff, are also here to help.

If you have any questions at all or want to discuss further, please feel free to send me an email (and I can send you my cell # if you'd like to chat).

Thank you for the amazing opportunity to live in the protection and guidance of our Good Shepherd with your children.

Melissa Hill, Level III CGS Catechist

Level II--Parable Work

Parable work continues on from the Level I into the Level II atrium, but in a deeper way. The child (as you may have noticed!) is building a capacity for synthesis--drawing conclusions from many stories, and by the age of 7 is strongly rooted in a sensitive period for justice (read: they are concerned with what is "fair.")

One parable work the younger ones (and some older) are seeing in Level II is the synthesis of the growth parables. This presentation draws together the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, two favorites of the children--especially those who have seen them since they were 3 years old! The children wonder together with the catechist at the lesson these parables have for us about the Kingdom of Heaven. A few insights the children come to:

• There is a mysterious power at work in both the seed and the leaven that causes the growth and "leavening" of the tree and bread.
• In both cases, the seed and the leaven seem small and insignificant. The Kingdom must also have this appearance: starting small, not seeming so important, but then it becomes something greater, something beautiful.
• We also start small--in our mother's wombs! We did not cause our own growth, could that same mysterious power be at work in us? What is this power? (The children all know and answer: God!)

It is a privilege to sit with the children as we think about these parables together. Catechists will tell you that no matter how many times they sit and listen with the children, there is always a discovery of something new and beautiful in the parable.

He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” Mark 4:30-32

He spoke to them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.” Matthew 13:33