Crazy Catholic Question #142: Montessori

Crazy Catholic Question #142: Who is God? Where was I in the very beginning (before I was born)? How did I get here? Who was God with in the beginning of creation? Was God by Himself? Where is my grandmother who has died? What is life? Do you like life?

We hear these and many other questions from our children. When we consider our answers, we can remember Maria Montessori who said “joy is the indicator of interior growth, just as an increase in weight is the indication of bodily growth.” Just as the mother knows that the food she gives her child is good because her child grows, so also the joy the child manifests when encountering certain religious themes indicates that these themes correspond to deep, vital needs.

As we begin our Summer Faith Formation with our CTR children this Monday, we ask for your prayers and thank you for your continued support and care of our staff and catechists as we work to plant seeds that will be nurtured by this community in the years to come among our little ones. In the spirit of our shared work of providing good, nourishing spiritual food for our children, I’d like to share this short excerpt from Dr. Sofia Cavalletti, the originator of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd method of Religious Instruction from her book “The Religious Potential of the Child” volume two.

“We first focus on the mystery of the Kingdom of God, as communicated through several short parables: the mustard seed, the yeast, the seed of grain, the pearl of great price and the hidden treasure all found in chapter 13 of Matthew’s gospel. We believe that because the parables present essential themes about the nature of reality, they help one become oriented to reality…The mystery of the reign of God is the mystery of life itself: the mystery of a marvelous energy at work that causes growth and transformation, a movement from the “lesser” to the “more.” And this mystery carries within it all that is most beautiful and precious. As the child awakens to life, he or she needs to be oriented to it. In observing very young children, we cannot help but notice how compelled they are to reach out and touch the things around them. But this need for physical knowledge of his or her surroundings is not the only need of the child; there also lies, deep within, an all-engaging, through unexpressed question: What is life? To hear this question, we need not wait until the child can formulate it in words. Rather, we must “hear the question” in the intensity of the child’s response to the answer being offered. Clearly the question does not arise from mere intellectual curiosity; the very way the child receives the answer indicates to us its importance.

The gospel tells us that the life force that compels the universe and ourselves always toward the “more” is the kingdom of God. The giver of this life force is God. Our God is a God who gives. We can say that the gospel meets the vital need of the child, or illuminates the need, with the presence of a person and love. The gospel transforms a fundamental experience of being alive into a personal relationship.

The silent question of the child, What is life? Leads us to several parables that answer in a form and a language suited to the child. The form of the parable is allusive in nature and offers an answer which is substantive but, at the same time, open-ended. The form of the parable invites ongoing reflection. The child’s response of deep satisfaction and joy occurs when the hunger to know the reality in which he or she lives is fed with the gospel message.”

Send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" to dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at: www.crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com.

For more on Montessori's legacy: https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/06/29/montessori-schools-are-exceptionally-successful-so-why-arent-there-more