Making Connections: The Fettuccia

On Sunday in the True Vine Atrium we went downstairs to unroll the Fettuccia. We gather for this presentation every year, and much of our work in the atrium for the first through third grade child connects to this impressionistic lesson. You can read about this presentation in the blog post The Fettuccia. With this work we offer the child a glimpse into the vastness of the History of the Kingdom of God, and an awareness of its three great moments: creation, redemption, and parousia.

After seeing the presentation this morning, we returned to our atrium and everyone began to work. A little later in the morning, I presented the Liturgical Calendar to one of our first graders. This bubbly boy is a joy to talk with, and we were moving through the calendar together quite companionably. Suddenly, he surprised me by saying "If Jesus died again the light would go out of the world forever." He proceeded to tell me all that he imagined would happen - the sun would go out, and the animals and plants would die. It would be dark and all the people would be cold. He said much more, but I was so surprised by this turn in conversation that I honestly can't recall it!

After he finished telling me about this scenario, I agreed that this would be a very bad thing. Then I asked him if he remembered the three great moments of the History of the Kingdom of God and we talked about them together. He remembered "parousia" and we talked about God's promise that Christ would come again and at that time God would be all in all. There would be no more tears, or pain, or death and the whole earth would be filled with the love and joy of God. This seemed to satisfy him and he began talk again about the Liturgical Calendar material.

At the end of atrium as we were gathered at the prayer table, I prepared the group to make silence together and invited the children's prayers. My young friend from the Liturgical Calendar work indicated that he would like to pray and he waited in silence until it was time. Then he astounded me, praying, "Thank you God for all hope."

As so often happens, I was reminded that in the atrium God and the children themselves offer so much more than I can ever give. Thank you God for all hope.

Atrium Beginnings

Flower arranging is a peaceful work.

For me it has been a very joyful beginning to atrium this year! We've had two wonderful new children to draw into our atrium and many lovely returning children to guide along the way. We are blessed to have Marilyn Wright joining us in the True Vine Atrium this year. Marilyn was one of my first Catechesis of the Good Shepherd trainers and she is an accomplished Montessorian and catechist. Her deep understanding of the Catechesis and her gentle guiding spirit are making such a difference in our atrium this year and I find I am already learning so much working with her.

As we begin the new year, we've been creating opportunities for the children to become engaged in the materials provided in the atrium. There are such riches in each work to be discovered. We present each material to the children, but often the deepest learnings are made by the children themselves while working on their own. It was a joy to see the children working peacefully with many different materials this week. I am so thankful for all three of our atria and for all of our beautiful materials made by Christ Church's catechists and parishioners!

I took a few pictures of our little group working on Sunday and thought I would share them with you here. We have made a beginning!

Many hands have set the model altar already this year.

Deep concentration is needed to find the unfamiliar names of Israel on the pin maps.

Matching the cards describing the articles we find on
 the altar is a work that seems to satisfy the children.

The Good Shepherd is a familiar friend to children
 moving up from the Good Shepherd Atrium.

Material Making in the Summer Months

It's been quiet on the blog this summer, but I've been as busy as ever with the Catechesis! In June, Lynn and I completed our Level 3 training with a wonderful seven day session in Saginaw, Michigan, led by the amazing Donna Turner. It was a fabulous experience, and it feels great to be familiar with all three levels of the Catechesis.

Seeing all the Level 3 works inspired me to return to Level 2 with a new eye. I've been revisiting album pages and thinking about materials. The new online material manual (available to catechists at the National Association website) makes it really easy to work through materials to see which pieces may have changed or may be missing from the atrium. Many of our tracing packets needed to be updated, and as a result I have been spending my evenings tracing and coloring. I'm enjoying it!

A few weekends ago several Christ Church Catechists and I attended a Regional Gathering for people with an interest in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd held at St. Gabriel's Catholic Church in Concord, Ohio. It was great to connect with other catechists and spend time together. A special blessing for me was the chance to hear Betty Hissong speak about some of the influential leaders of the Catechesis. Betty is one of the pioneers of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and an amazing and faith-filled leader herself. It was a fun morning, and I was so glad to participate.

I've also been working on our calendar for fall and connecting with teachers and catechists. September 15th will be here before we know it! I can't wait to begin again!

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.

Making Connections: Holy Week

On Palm Sunday, our last atrium gathering before Easter, I walked through the City of Jerusalem work with our first through third graders. This is a work most have seen before, some of them many times, and a new work for a few. Unlike many presentations which are offered to small groups, we did this work all together, quietly walking through the last days of Jesus' life, his death and resurrection, using the map of the City of Jerusalem as a touch point.

I've presented this work in this manner for the last few Palm Sundays and I am always moved by the peaceful, serious manner the children bring to it. This year, thoughtful comments and questions peppered the presentation, and the group moved through the work slowly and deliberately.

When we were finished I invited any additional thoughts the children would like to share. No one offered anything and I encouraged them to continue to ponder the work in atrium and in the days ahead. Several children asked to put the work back together and the others returned to other parts of the atrium to finish their own work.

I sat by as two children put the pieces back where they belonged on the topography map. One of the two is a first grader, and I watched as he gently and silently replaced one of the wooden pieces. Then softly, as if he breathed the words, I heard him say "Thank you, Jesus."

The Good Samaritan

The Sunday before last we had a very small group, and I presented the Good Samaritan material to a few children for the first time. The children were really engaged with the work and made some wonderful observations. I've been enjoying one reflection ever since.

We've talked a lot about the History of the Kingdom of God, and the children know about parousia - the time yet to be when Christ will come again and God will be all in all. I was thinking of this when I wondered with the children what it would be like if everyone was like the Good Samaritan. In a joyful voice, one child said, "it would be the Earth of God - all in all!"

I just love that!

Epiphany Celebration

With Epiphany falling on a Sunday, we had to work with several interruptions in the True Vine Atrium last week. Children and catechists were coming and going to lead and to observe the Chalking of the Church and procession at the 10:30 service.  Somehow, we still managed to have a very nice morning together!

In honor of Epiphany, we prepared a little celebration for our atrium. To be clear - this is not a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd work, but something we put together ourselves based on an idea from a friend.

We had pondered the scripture and worked with the material of the three wise men the Sunday before Christmas. In atrium last week we remembered the significance of strangers from a foreign land coming to honor Jesus. We wondered at this sign that Jesus' light wasn't just for people in one country or even in one time but for all people and all time. In fact, since that day Jesus' light has spread around the world and across time to us today!

To celebrate this good news, children who were not involved in the Church celebration had the time to choose a country and make a flag to represent it and it's people. We hung these flags in our prayer corner.

After returning from the celebration downstairs, we talked again about the gifts the wise men brought to Jesus and their significance and passed around little samples of each gift. For our celebration, everyone took part in a procession, led by children carrying the Good Shepherd statue and our star lantern. Children carried the three gifts and we sang "We Three Kings" as we processed in and set the prayer table. Once gathered we prayed together, with the children offering special prayers for the countries represented by the flags, and other countries of the world.

It was a sweet morning, and a welcome reminder to me that God can work through imperfect plans and less than ideal schedules!

Advent in the Atrium

We are having a really lovely advent in the True Vine Atrium! The children have been working so well with real focus and joy. All of the History of the Kingdom of God work that we did this fall has made a big impact on how we are seeing the infancy narratives and prophecies. I've been amazed by the depth of the connections the children are making.

On Advent two, we took a look at the prophecies we learned in Level One of the Catechesis and began to synthesize them. I wrote about this presentation and a bit about the role of prophecy in a previous post. The conversation was so rich this year - and the children quickly pointed out several themes they saw in the prophecies. They talked about "little and big," the presence of light and darkness, and the Kingdom of God in the prophecies.

Later in the morning two children presented the scripture and material telling of Mary's visit to Elizabeth to the group. As we pondered what more we might learn about Mary from this moment, we compared the very humble way that Mary saw herself with the amazing role she was given by God. One child connected our work with the prophecies and our thoughts about Mary together in a beautiful way: He said that God took all of that light and the whole kingdom of God and put them in Mary! I've been thinking about his words ever since. What a blessing it is to be in the atrium in advent!

Altar Cards

Recently the National Association of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd made it possible for members to subscribe and view our material manuals online instead of in print format. These material manuals include clear directions for making the materials and now have pictures of the original materials from Rome. They are really incredible! I've been visiting every material in the manual before presenting it this year, and have learned so much! The manuals represent a tremendous amount of work, very thoughtfully done, and I am so grateful. 

While looking through the manual for the True Vine Atrium, I came across these cards which present pictures of the articles of the altar and their significance.  I had to make them right away! Somehow I missed these cards in my training, and as soon as I saw them I knew that they would meet a real need in the children, and allow them to synthesize what they have learned about the altar in a new way. I offered the cards to several groups of children last Sunday and I could almost see the connections being made in their minds as they worked. After matching all the cards, the children asked if they could add the articles from our sacristy cabinet to the work. They were very satisfied with the material!

I can't count the number of times that the "rightness" of the materials has been proven to me since I began working with the Catechesis. Sometimes, the way a work is presented or made doesn't make sense to me and I am tempted to change it. But I consistently find that the wisdom of the materials comes to light when I see the children at work. Other times, I'll find that something I have sensed is not working is actually being done wrong! Or, as in this case, I'll find that a need I am only vaguely aware of has already been addressed with a material I have yet to discover! I've come to trust the wisdom of the Catechesis and the 50+ years of observation, experimentation, and prayer that it represents. I'm so blessed to be a part of it! 

History of the Kingdom of God

On Sunday in the True Vine Atrium we will be opening this box once again to contemplate the History of the Kingdom of God. You can read more about this presentation in a post from last year called The Fettuccia. We began this work last Sunday when I narrated the history for small groups of children to ponder. This week we will take over the first floor with our very long ribbon and meditate once again on the unity and vastness of the Kingdom.

If you have a child in the True Vine Atrium please do what you can to bring him or her this Sunday, and be on time! We will keep working with the History of the Kingdom of God throughout the atrium year, but this is an impressionistic lesson and there is no substitute for being there when the ribbon is unrolled!

Communal Prayer

This year I've been making some changes in Communal Prayer in the True Vine Atrium. For the last several years, the children have been leading a fairly structured service of songs, prayers and readings at the end of each atrium. This has been fine but unremarkable.

Last summer when I was training for Level Three catechesis I realized that this type of formal prayer was intended to be used with the 9-12 year old children. Communal prayer for the 6-9 year olds is meant to be an expansion of the open and spontaneous prayer practiced with the youngest children. This was a huge surprise to me! But I was relieved to learn that I've been doing this "wrong" because I felt intuitively that we weren't meeting the children's needs with our prayer service, and that we could probably be doing much more by doing less.

Since we began meeting in September I have been experimenting with a more relaxed prayer time. Generally I have been picking a few songs to sing together and reading a psalm from a prayer card, or a piece of scripture that is meaningful. I've begun inviting a bit of spontaneous prayer from the children and it is going well. Up to this point, I've been leading (with a little help from the children), but now that we are becoming accustomed to this style of prayer I will be asking children to take the lead. I still feel unsure about what this prayer time will look like, but I believe we are on the road, and I will keep looking to the children to lead the way!

We've been incorporating children's artwork into our prayer time when possible.  Last Sunday we had two lovely prayer cards copied by the children that we read and prayed together. I took some photos and have included them in this post for you to enjoy.

Below you can see the prayer table from Sunday. Our flowers were brightly colored and very attractive to the children! Every flower was used and the table was brimming! It makes me happy just looking at it!

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!

Recent Projects

Last Sunday we completed a project we've been working on for about six weeks in the True Vine Atrium. I brought this 3D model of the Temple in Jesus' time back with me from Israel with my third graders in mind. I loved the large scale model of first century Jerusalem that we saw in Israel, and the children have enjoyed seeing pictures of it and learning a bit more about the Temple in Jesus' day. 

The puzzle was almost impossible (there were a ton of small pieces and the directions weren't very helpful) but the children were determined and worked intently on it each week. The persistence of a core group of children paid off when the last pieces of the puzzle were added on Sunday! We are thinking about painting the Temple with our watercolors, and then I hope to bring it downstairs to the Great Hall so that the congregation can see it. Lynn (a catechist from the Golden Thread Atrium) saw the Temple and wanted one for her group. I was able to buy one in the U.S. from Judaism.com. I hope our fourth, fifth, and sixth graders are ready for a challenge!

Another interesting development in the True Vine Atrium has been the use of Stockmar Modeling Beeswax by the children. This is a wonderful product! It is very soothing to handle, doesn't dry out, leaves no residue on your hands, and it smells great! I bought it this year to use with children who find it difficult to sit for a presentation. We have had it on a bookshelf and have been quietly putting it into the hands of children who might benefit from using it during presentations and prayer time. Several weeks ago, the children discovered our stash and brought the whole box down from the shelf. They have been happily sculpting ever since. There were several interesting creations this week. 

The first was this beautiful sculpture of the Holy Family. I love the smiles on Mary and Joseph's faces and the way that Jesus is so carefully wrapped in his blanket.

Another piece complete this week was this sculpture of Jesus on the cross. As the artist was showing us his work, one of the children commented that Jesus looked like an angel. This prompted some thoughtful looks and comments from the children. The artist went on to create another figure of Jesus as a baby, but I wasn't able to get a picture of it. We have been disassembling our art work at the end of atrium so that others may use the modeling beeswax the next week. 

Only two more Sundays of Christian formation at Christ Church before the summer rest. We have many children moving up this year. They will be recognized during our final celebration on Sunday, June 3rd.

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.

****

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

Thank you Junior Choir!