1. Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet.
Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace.
2. Love before us, love behind us, love under our feet.
Love within us, love over us, let all around us be love.
3. Light before us, light behind us, light under our feet.
Light within us, light over us, let all around us be light.
4. Christ before us, Christ behind us, Christ under our feet.
Christ within us, Christ over us, let all around us be Christ.
5. Alleluia.
6. Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet.
Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace.
An indirect aim of so much of our atrium work is "fuller participation in the liturgy" - but what is the liturgy?
The general consensus is that the original Greek word from whence we obtain the word Liturgy refers to the "work of the people" on a variety of levels - all of which seem to imply a "great work" or "great service" (it costs something in some regard).
Within Catechesis of the Good Shepherd album pages, we are of course referring to the Liturgy of the Church: the Holy Mass and all the sacraments.
What is "fuller participation"?
An understanding, an appreciation for the mystery of what we can't fully understand, praying the appropriate portions of the Mass with the priest (some of us attend Masses where the servers pray all the responses for the people - but the people can pray them in their hearts). Fuller participation opens us up to more fully offer ourselves to God, opening ourselves up to the gifts He wishes to bestow in us primarily through His Son through the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, but also in all the graces of the Holy Spirit through all the sacraments, all the methods of prayer, truly being with Him and living for Him.
Local Background:
The local parish where I serve as the sole level 3 catechist is part of a 4-parish cluster, rurally located, served by one priest. The archbishop has made a decision to merge the 4 parishes into one, effective the first Sunday of Advent this year.
For the time being, this means nothing direct for the atrium spaces I utilize each week (level 3 and level 2) nor for the children I serve (I only have children from 2 of the 4 parishes - the two that were originally clustered when I first moved here to establish the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in these two parishes). The current priest intends to maintain and grow the CGS the atriums - I learned this morning (as of the day I am actually typing this) that he has mentioned to the DRE about building a second level 3 atrium in the near-ish future.
Yeah. We have multiple atriums - in addition to multiple sessions in each! How awesome is that!? (and how confounding for those of us trying to keep up!)
Within the 4 parishes, there is one parish school, utilizing two of the parish's school buildings; but each church has its own "old school building" where they used to have their own school. The operating school has a level 2 atrium on-campus, with their level 1 atrium located at the other parish who has the pre-k/K classes. The atriums I use are located in the biggest of the "old school buildings" - we have levels 1, 2, and 3 here. Some of the most beautiful atrium spaces in the country, if I can so give such credit to the dedicated catechists, families and parishioners who have made it happen.
These atriums serve the non-parish-school children of all 4 parishes in levels 1 and 2; in level 3, I still only have the children of the original two parishes - at some point in the near future, the remaining children will join us as well; for now, the 4th-6th graders at the other 2 parishes still receive book-based faith formation along with the 7th-9th graders.
If that doesn't get zany enough, there's more - I leave it there though ;)
See why we need to be one parish?
All Saints - announced this past week as the new parish name. Beautiful.
The last Sunday of this liturgical year is the end of the Year of Faith. The 4 parishes will be celebrating ONE Mass only for the weekend (ordinarily each parish gets one Mass each - 2 are on Saturday and 2 are on Sunday) - and utilizing the local high school auditorium to make it happen. The weekend liturgies the week before will be the last ones as separate and unique parishes; the following week (first Sunday of Advent), the liturgies will be celebrated as they have been for the last many months of the 4-parish cluster - but the parishes will have new names, named "the (original name) campus of All Saints" or something along those lines.
As you can imagine, the merging of the parishes has caused a serious loss of peace amongst many of the parishioners - and yes there are appeals being filed - but we will be one Church - we ARE ONE CHURCH.
The children from all 4 parishes will be singing a song of peace at the combined liturgy. For some reason I simply cannot get this tune INTO my head, so we invited the level 2 catechist (also the musician for 2 of the parishes) to please-please-please work with us, because I am so slacking on this task!
Our work in the atrium focuses on fuller participation in the liturgy - the liturgy of the WHOLE CHURCH.
I pray for the needed peace in these rural communities, each with their own identity and culture and history - and I pray the children in our atriums can take all that they discover about themselves and their relationship with the Holy Spirit into their families and into their own futures.
1. Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet.
Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace.
2. Love before us, love behind us, love under our feet.
Love within us, love over us, let all around us be love.
3. Light before us, light behind us, light under our feet.
Light within us, light over us, let all around us be light.
4. Christ before us, Christ behind us, Christ under our feet.
Christ within us, Christ over us, let all around us be Christ.
5. Alleluia.
6. Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet.
Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace.
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