Listen to Gospel reflection at this link: http://www.ctredeemer.org/april-22-2018/
All of us here today have lived through the wake of the most significant time of change and transition that the Catholic Church has experienced in over 500 years, namely the reforms brought about by the Second Vatican Council held in the late 1960’s. Though profound and life-giving, it was a bumpy transformation to say the least. I’m reminded of the Chinese curse that says “May your children be born in a time of transition.”
The Catholic Church is a big ship that changes course about as fast as an iceberg. So, understandably, it took a bit of time to absorb and then develop engaging and sound curriculum to update the Baltimore Catechism that was in place since 1885.
Since then Catholic Faith Formation programming has improved steadily, but is still very textbook/classroom oriented, which works for some, but not for all.
A couple years ago, I was invited by a friend at Gesu Parish in Detroit to observe their elementary program and quite frankly, I had my mind blown…and all our education staff has followed suit, one by one, taking the training and (thankfully) becoming obsessed right along with me.
It’s not a change so much in content – but in style and we are going to give you a little taste of it today, but I want to introduce it a bit first…
It’s called The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) and is an approach to the faith formation of children ages 3 through 12 that grew out of over 40 years of research and careful observation of children by Sofia Cavalletti, a Hebrew & Scripture Scholar, and her collaborator, Gianna Gobbi, an expert in Montessori education.
It began when Sofia, quite content in her role as a scholar and professor, was asked by a neighbor to give some religious instruction to her child. At first she declined saying she knew nothing about children. But, the mother was persistent and Sofia eventually gave in and her experience with this 7-year old was to change the rest of her life. She saw and studied in that child (and many others afterwards) a way of being in the presence of God that is both unique to the child and a gift to the adult who stops long enough to notice.
They identified two key moments in the learning process:
First the child passively receives the lesson being offered by the catechist.
The second moment begins with a series of wonder questions designed to help the child ponder and chew on what they have heard so as to internalize it and make it their own. Such as "I wonder what Jesus meant when he said the kingdom is like a mustard seed?" or "I wonder why the merchant gave up all of the other pearls just to get the one?"
In service to this second moment, Sofia & Gianna found that young children learn best through working with their hands, so central to this CGS method is what is called the “atrium”: a sacred, prepared space containing homemade, simple, beautiful, materials that help keep the child focused, such as small models of various objects we see inside the church, dioramas and figures of stories from the bible, maps of ancient Israel, and many other things that I hope you will come see for yourself after Mass today at our official ribbon cutting and blessing of this sacred space for our little ones.
These materials or “works” are not an aid to the teacher but a help for the child in that second moment of learning: they help the child prolong…..alone with the inner Teacher (God)….. the meditation begun with the adult.
CGS has two pillars: Scripture & Liturgy…our story and our prayers….
Scripture is essential in passing along our collective wisdom gleaned from the experience of God in our lives, and this witness is critical because as theologian Michael Himes says “Christianity is not a series of conclusions that any one of us could have reached by simply sitting down and thinking about them very seriously and carefully for a long time. Christianity is a story about a particular person and set of events in a particular place and time in history. It is a report that requires that someone bring us the ‘good news.’ We need to hear it from someone else.” Scripture is our story.
The second pillar is our Liturgy. Bishop Ken Untener once said “If you want to know what we believe listen to what we pray.” For centuries our Mass has offered a highly visual, sensory and symbolic yet concrete means through which we experience the sacred; connecting two levels of reality by imbuing very simple, humble things like water, bread, wine and oil with deep spiritual meaning. So, our liturgy is, for our children, early training in imaginative, non-literal, spiritual thinking, fostering an ability to reverence the inexhaustible mystery that God is - what Sofia calls an “interior agility” that is central to all spiritual development.
Since beginning CGS, my youngest daughter, age 6, has become very alert and interested in the details of our liturgy and enjoys explaining things to me at Mass. “I know why the priest is wearing purple, do you?”
A few weeks ago I was holding her during Mass, thinking she wasn’t paying attention as she rested her head on my shoulder and when Joe said “And then he took the chalice” she pulled away from me and with big eyes excitedly said “I know what a chalice is Mom! (I wonder what she thought it was before?!?).”
When she recognizes phrases like "The people in darkness have seen a great light!" she gasps and agrees in a church whisper. "I KNOW THAT."
The goal of time in the atrium is to foster wonder, prayer, and provide an environment for the child to be able to hear our Good Shepherd call his or her name…because that is the seed that lasts and grows.
I’m guessing most of us know the power of hearing that still small voice within, as rare and elusive as it might be at times, especially in our busy, noisy, screen-laden world. We can know every little factoid there is about Jesus and Catholicism, but if we haven’t heard our name called in love by God, nothing takes root…nothing grows.
So, with that, let’s listen and chew on the good news of Jesus. I invite all the children to join us up by the altar…(CGS Good Shepherd lesson by Michele)
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