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