The lucky Sunday kids got to meet last week, even though their Wednesday counterparts were iced out. This week was a very individualized one for both Level I and Level II. In Level I, some children did their own work utilizing materials they had seen before, while others received new or "refresher" presentations. "The Presentation in the Temple" is a favorite of mine, since the materials include a baby Jesus that is held by Mary, and then moved into the arms of Simeon. It is a beautiful passage and also striking in its forshadowing of the sufferings and great mission of that small child. This is no ordinary baby!
Level II saw some children who worked with the "Flight into Egypt" work that was presented the week before. This is one of the great beauties of atrium work, because no presentation is "over and done." As Father Harris quoted Vatican II on Sunday, the Scriptures are God's word to his people and when coupled with prayer, meditation on Scripture is a conversation with God! Using the materials, even very young children can enter into this conversation!
Two presentations in Level II were done with individual children. One 3rd grade child is very interested in the geography of the Holy Land, and had spent many weeks working with our Land of Israel pin map. We started working on the first geography packet for the Ministry of Jesus. This was quite a work, as it involved reading about different miracles of Jesus, looking up the location in the Bible, and plotting the city on the map. What surprised me was how well the child knew the locations of the cities. The child didn't even look at the control map when plotting the cities of Cana, Tiberius, or Bethany!
The other presentation was with a child who was a bit nervous about Reconciliation. She was very anxious to have me show her our Reconciliation card work, and reminded me of this at the beginning of class. She said, "When you finish showing me, I will ask my mom to take me to the priest." She even wrote a sweet prayer to Jesus asking him to make her unafraid to talk to the priest about her sins ("Because I love you so much, Jesus.") This is a great material for discussion about this Sacrament that can be so frightening for us all as it is a great reminder of the mercy and gift of God that comes to us in such a special way in this Sacrament.
That's all for this week! I hope that we get to meet with all of our children this week. God Bless you all!!
Mandie DeVries
CGS Catechist & Director of Faith Formation
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