Catechist Tea

Just a quick post on a little something we started doing 3 (or so) years ago: Catechist Teas. Modeled after what one trainer mentioned in passing--that Sofia and her collaborators would often sit in the atrium after classes and drink tea while discussing the presentations, the children, and/or making materials--up to 10 of us meet once (or more) per month to do just that.

Lately, we have started to choose one presentation to focus on as the springboard for our conversation. Two months ago it was the presentation of The Presentation (in the Temple--a Level I presentation). Last month we looked at the International Eucharistic Presence (Level II), and ended up bringing together many different album pages and tweaking the presentation until it was "just right." Yesterday we looked at the Level III work, The Cardinal Virtues.

This is a good opportunity to revisit the presentations as adults and to be sure that we are on target with our direct and indirect aims and doctrinal content. The presenter usually reads the direct and indirect aims afterward and we all discuss on how (or not) the presentation mirrored those.

It's been a beautiful way to build a community and to get stronger in our own understanding and formation. These concepts are never outgrown... each is like the song we sing with the children in Level I: "It is the smallest seed that there is...[that] becomes a magnificent tree!"

"And the Kingdom is in the highest... and the Kingdom is o'er all the earth... and the Kingdom is o'er all the earth... And the Kingdom is inside of us."

God's Blessings,

Mandie DeVries, CGS Catechist & Director of Religious Education