Bibles!

I love Bible Presentation day! Each year we give our first graders (and those who are older and are new to atrium) a Bible of their own. The children use their Bibles year after year in the atrium - looking up passages and marking favorite texts. You can read more about this tradition, and how it makes sense developmentally and in light of our work in atrium in the post First Grade Bible Presentation. Here are a few more pictures from our presentation this year for you to enjoy.

The Bible in the Prayer Corner

Last week in the True Vine Atrium we gathered for a celebration of the Holy Bible in the Prayer Corner. This is the first time we have had this celebration - it is well established in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, but I somehow missed it over the years. After preparing for the celebration, we had a procession and set our prayer table. We talked a bit about how precious the Holy Bible is, and that it contains the Word of God for all people. Each person held a Bible and we noticed that they come in many different shapes and sizes, and even in different languages! We remembered that even though we may not be able to read the words, the meaning is the same. We read a verse from the Gospel of John, and concluded with a song.

This was a lovely reminder that Jesus is present to us when we listen to Scripture and it lifted up the significance of the Bible in the life of the atrium. I look forward to making this a tradition in our atria in the years to come!

A Day in the Atrium

On Sunday in the True Vine Atrium I presented the "Synthesis of the Holy Eucharist" material to one child who will be moving up next year. It was a pleasure to see how much he knew about the individual moments of our service and to help him put all of the moments and prayers in order. I love this material! Working with it helps us all to understand that our service of Holy Eucharist is many prayers that together make one great prayer. You can see a photo of the completed work above.

I also presented "How to Use the Bible" to the whole group, and everyone had a good time exploring and marking their Bibles. We talked about Bible citations, and practiced using them to find scripture passages that we know well, such as the Good Shepherd and the Empty Tomb.

I took some photos during work time and thought I would post them here. The children weren't working with the materials much but it was a quiet and peaceful morning!

Finger Knitting is very relaxing.

Enjoying a good book about the gifts of the earth.

Painting a cross.

Writing a letter for Mother's Day.

Completing an art project.

Putting together a 3D model of the Temple 

in Jesus' time that I brought back from Israel.

This is an ongoing project that I'll post about another time.

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The Junior Choir sang beautifully during our 10:30 service!

Thank you Junior Choir!

First Grade Bible Presentation

Last Sunday Rev. Peter and I had the joy of blessing and presenting Bibles to our first graders and to two children new to the atrium! These are working Bibles that the children will keep in the atrium (after exploring them at home). Each child (first grade and above) has his or her own Bible, and it travels with them throughout their time in Christian Formation at Christ Church.

Children in the True Vine Atrium are in a sensitive period for language, and many are learning to read. Although we have explored scripture frequently with the younger children, we take advantage of this sensitivity to language by giving each child a Bible of his or her own to explore, and we present materials to the children that describe how the Bible was written and how it is organized. We also present lessons on how to find a passage in the Bible.

In the True Vine and Golden Thread Atria we have supplies for making bookmarks with ribbons or with card stock to mark favorite passages or to note the passage we are working with more easily, and each person can write in his or her Bible.

We look forward to giving the children their Bibles each year.  I hope you enjoy seeing a few pictures of this lovely moment in our parish!

Making Connections: Maxims

The Maxim Box sits on the left and the Bible Box on the right in the photo above.

Several months ago I had a lovely experience with a child in the True Vine Atrium that I haven't had time to share. N. is relatively new to the atrium, and hasn't attended a Church in the past. It is so amazing to share in another person's first encounter with the Bible and the theology of the Church. We know that God is in relationship with every child, but to be with a person as they put words together with their experience and begin to understand the world through the lens of faith is really special.

In the previous month we had been working with the Bible, and learning to read and find Bible citations. On this particular day, we were working with the maxims. The maxims are short sayings, usually from Jesus, that teach us something about how we should live. N. was very interested in the maxims. After spending time looking up and contemplating several maxims, he decided to make maxims of his own. He pulled out the materials we have on hand to write out and decorate a maxim and got to work.

Materials for decorating maxims.

After finishing his first maxim, he brought it over to show me. He had written "Love Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit." Interestingly, he used the same citation system that we use with the Bible (listing a chapter and verse), and used his own name as the name of the book! He was very excited about the prospect of making more maxims and creating a booklet. I asked him how he would decide what to write. He thought for a minute and then announced that he would read the maxims of Jesus and put them into his own words, which is just what he did. He worked diligently for the rest of atrium (and the following atrium too, I might add!). His maxims were lovely, and we had some great conversations about them.

In addition to the wonderful work that N. did making his maxims, I was touched by a moment of prayer that we shared afterward, which I will write about in my next post!

Making Connections: The Bible

I've already written about a great moment in the True Vine Atrium last Sunday.  Things were just clicking in there!  Another surprising moment for me came when one of the boys was looking at the book we have placed on the lectern.

"Hey, this is only the New Testament." he said.

"That's true," I replied.  We talked about how the real lectionary has readings from the Old Testament as well as the New Testament in it, and that we always hear both in Church.

As he flipped through the book he noticed Hebrews.  "Hebrews -- That must be one of the letters!" he said.  He put the book down and walked over to the nearby Bible Box (which is a material with wooden "books" inside for every book of the Bible).  He quickly pulled out the book for Paul's letters, ran his finger down the list, and said with joy, "Yep-here it is!  It's a letter!"

Lately the Bible Box has been a great point of reference for the children. This is the second time in two weeks that a child has spontaneously gone to the Bible Box to understand something about the Bible!  I think that is really exciting!