This Holy Week! CGS-Inspired Prayer Presentation for Teens and Adults

Many adults in the parish have asked if there is an "adult version" of CGS. It seems adults are drawn to the materials and intriguing presentations of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

To that end, we are offering a unique Holy Week experience this year. As we celebrate the "birthday" of the Liturgy of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, it seemed appropriate to offer a prayer presentation on Holy Wednesday called:

The Holy Mass:

The Origin of the Eucharist & The Origin of the Liturgy of the Word

These two presentations (one from Level II, and the second from Level III) will be presented live and projected on a big screen. These presentations follow the roots of the mass all the way to the time of Jesus, and even further back in time.

The "direct aim" of nearly every presentation we do in CGS is this: to lead the child to fuller participation in the mass. I believe these presentations can do this for teens and adults as well. I know they have changed forever my own experience. I hope you will join us: April 4, 2012 @ 7pm in the church! (When we finish up, the Life Teen kids will go back to their regular class!)

God Bless,

Mandie DeVries, CGS Catechist and DRE

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