God's Prepared Environment

An important Montessori principle maintained in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is the principle of the prepared environment (one leg of the tripod: prepared environment, prepared child, prepared adult).

As a catechist and a Montessorian, I believe that the prepared child is out of my control because I cannot control the child's home life (unless I am the parent of said child); and that I do have control over both the preparedness of the adult (myself!) and that of the physical environment.

Well....

God has other ideas about who is in control of the prepared environment:

I missed picturing the making of snow angels in the parking lot ;) 

Here is our atrium one beautiful, if somewhat treacherous, snowy day. 

This particular day, the most appropriate prepared environment was the one created by the Father Himself.

It would seem God has the only properly prepared environment for His children! 

Anything I can prepare is a poor second - and I know He will still use it for His glory. 

All Faith Formation is Sacramental Preparation

Everything we do to explore our faith, to make it ours, to deepen it, to strengthen it, is preparation for reception of the sacraments.

Every Sacrament is a sharing in the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ.
And what is the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ, but the Paschal Mystery?

This photo taken from so far away, cropped from a much larger photo
Amazing what cheap cameras can do these days ;)

To prepare for this Paschal Mystery participation, we have to LIVE the faith of our ancestors: the Hebrews - longing for the Savior. Preparing to receive Him by listening to the words of the Prophets.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a Great Light.

The Hebrews had many dark times in their history; we too have dark times in our lives. There is always hope: the Light of Christ.


Previous post on "Prophets of the Lord"


As we spend this Advent preparing for the SECOND coming of the Lord, we can see in the prophecies clues to His first coming as well as clues to His second coming. We can see both the messianic message - and the moral message: how to prepare our hearts to receive Him, both in the sacraments and when He comes at Parousia.

"In the wilderness (of our own hearts), Prepare THE way for the Lord!"

Calligraphy - Introduction to the Children

We finally introduced our calligraphy cards! I am already making notes for upcoming changes, based on observation and feedback. But, I'd say - we are definitely in success-mode. Even the children who have not yet received presentations on calligraphy are taking more interest in creating beautiful work, in tracing some of the cards that are meant for tracing and copying.

Now that we have a dedicated area for calligraphy materials that only some children can use (must have had a presentation on it first so as to receive proper instruction - the same as with ANY material), the inspiration is provided for the other children who see the beautiful work done by their classmates, see the beautiful samples we have, see the beautiful materials and their desire to work with them.

These girls (among many others not photographed here) have been waiting two years to get their hands going on calligraphy. When they saw the title on the folder I had in my hands, this was their response.

But not just the girls are interested. Here is Legoboy proudly displaying some of his work. You'll have to trust me he did some work there - all capital letters practice, but he used the names of the other children in the room which I cleared from the paper. He has started calligraphy in the past, but with materials that weren't essential enough. He took a break for a time, waiting on me to have the keys ready, but continues to ask. Now we are ready - and so is he!

For some reason, this one surprised me with his interest. Perhaps he wanted to get away from continuing work with sacraments, perhaps he just wanted to work with me for a change of pace, I don't know. But there he was, ready to work with the calligraphy markers, when several others were done for the day after practicing their shaded writing.

The children have produced beautiful work - thus far, they have been working on their own names a lot - and I don't feel like editing them all. I'll get some of their work posted soon.



A concern presented to me: if the children are working on calligraphy, will they have time to work with the "core" materials?

Result based on observation: The children are inspired in their "core" work when they can do something SO beautiful with it. Calligraphy and illumination (which I am incorporating into our calligraphy practice) also connect us with our Church heritage - we have copies of the Book of Kells, Book of Hours, and other samples of historical and modern work. Our prophecies are written in beautiful calligraphy (done by one of our level 2 catechists) - and the children get to JOIN into that connection with other peoples of other times and places, the next atrium over and centuries away.

This is the work of their hands - with which, when their fundamental needs are fulfilled, frees their ears and hearts to hear the other teachings we have in the atrium.

We can drill them on the core material - but how much better to make it a beautiful experience :)

Science and Faith

While exploring our options with the History of the Kingdom of God material (how much science? how much faith? what is our focus here? what about the fact that the Catholic Church allows the Faithful to discern for themselves the age of the earth, not dictating it as a matter of faith ---- yet how many CGS formation leaders insist (because of that very teaching/allowance of the Church) on keeping the billions of years of evolution - when there are many Catholics who, um, believe the Bible.

I don't know who is right - who is wrong - who is prideful - who is humble.... What I do know is that if the Church leaves it open, then it is NOT for us to teach one way is wrong or another way is right.

What I also know is that we, as a modern world, are in a BIG MESS.


I chanced upon this article, that shows that 'knowledge' as translated in the Bible could have been translated as 'science'.
Who You Know is More Important than What You Know

And reiterates something I already knew (the Church teaches this too) - there canNOT be conflict between science and faith - because science comes from the Creator! Science is the study of HIS Creation - so as long as we are looking at the evidence without attempting to twist it to mean what it doesn't, there's no conflict here!


Now, if we could just leave out the "billions" and "millions" of years references in all the Kingdom of God material, so that it truly teaches the FAITH and doesn't suggest to children that their scientist parents who believe in 6-day Creation are nutties (yes, I know some children in this very situation), we'll be doing well.

:)

Three Branches of Our Church

The Church has three branches, all waiting for the moment of Parousia:

• Church Militant (us here on earth)
• Church Suffering (those souls in Purgatory)
• Church Triumphant (those souls who have already attained the Beatific Vision)

Each branch has particular roles and particular responsibilities. 

A small group of girls discussed this very topic last month.

And this month (actually on November 1st and 2nd ;) ), the Church lives it out very consciously.

The funny thing is - we Catholics don't fear cemeteries at night - we RELISH them!

Not much to see - it was DARK!!!

Candles were placed on the headstones or front of them; and each site was blessed with holy water. This work was done by the members of our parish - the Church Militant - the members of the Faithful here on earth. Following All Saints Mass (in thanksgiving for and honor of those who have attained the Beatific Vision and provided us examples here on earth), the cemetery can be visited in honor of All Souls (November 2nd - all those who have gone before us, including those we don't know are in heaven yet or in purgatory (and we pray they are not elsewhere)).

Chicken Nuggets in the Atrium ??? Yes - and Butterflies too!

If the reality of a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium is to aid the children in connecting with the Holy Spirit, providing the essentials and the depth and lots of time for nurturing that relationship....

then we have a God with one seriously *awesome* sense of humor. 

The atriums I have the privilege to be the catechist of tend to bring out the weirdness in all of us:
(some of the following samples are not necessarily "weird" as much as "what typical non-atrium child even has the opportunity to THINK of this stuff?" and/or are definitely out of the usual for the particular child at hand)

adapting a presentation: the people have turned their backs on God
they go to Reconciliation and come back to the Eucharist

replacing the History of the Gifts - with FOOD

The Bible is SO our favorite book ever! 

chilling with the Bible

spending hours, VOLUNTARILY, copying Scripture

squeezing level 3 legs under a level 2 table - OWWW!!!
(but they refuse to adjust their positions)

1st chance these L3 girls get = mad dash for the miniature altar

caught in action! Setting up the gestures work

still torturing themselves with the too-low table

what is SO funny about the Origin of the Liturgy of the Word !?

general antics

begging for a photo op
they were trying to hide their joy ;) 

yeah, we carry flames
a lot

yelling at the camera - and dancing by the baptism shelf

do NOT take photo-taking too seriously ;)
because seriously, that would be SO boring! 

atrium is NOT complete without the CHICKEN DANCE!

Tebow
because we can
they have 5 photos of variations on this pose
so they could get JUST the right one. 

Our God IS indeed an awesome God
but really - how many times do we need to SING it ;)
(in another atrium group, it is "All God's Critters"

Internalizing the Atrium:
if you can't walk on the line yet, eating is definitely the next best thing

nap on the large prayer table
(he's not really napping - but he wants us to believe he is)

the Mommy-"HUH"-look
us adults use these a LOT in the atrium

so what prompted the "Huh" look?
the merchant knew how to use his head ;) 

he is SO capable of smiling
he was smiling before the photo
he was smiling after the photo
he even gave me permission to take his photo
But do NOT smile! ;) 

making butterflies
(I heard these are actually centipedes?)

we're never sure what she's doing...
...at any moment

beautifully bright!

the butterfly sprouted more wings!!!

panting for the Life of Christ

just because she can

L3 children taking off with the catechist's camera...
and taking VERY cool photos!

roly-polies in the atrium!

singing 'Blunt the Knives' and 'Under the Lonely Mountain'
while creating an altar scene.
Sure, they're connected. Really.
Altar - Mountain
damaging the dishes - Jesus changing Passover
Yeah. Sure.
Longing for, even fight for, HOME.
That one I can buy. 

Explaining why a sheep was crying
(one of the sheep has a gray spot under his eye - it looks like a tear)
the explanation got pretty elaborate and I don't recall enough details
to be coherent - it included being lost and found though!
And he was OH so serious about it! 

Ta-DAH! Our beautiful prayer table! 

singing silent opera on the line
(because the line is silent)

tight-rope walking! 

So with all this FANTASTIC personality, how could I possibly even bat an eye at, much less question, the fact that the BOYS (just the boys - not the girls) walk around the atrium with our Bread from "The Story of a Bread" - silently and seriously processing around the room with it held in two hands like it is Jesus Himself being taken for the Sacrifice. When asked, no matter the actual question asked, the only answer they will give while the Bread is in their hands is a very quiet, "It's a chicken nugget."

what they typically do:
hold it
and walk around
serious faces

They call it a chicken nugget.

Yes, I'll be adding some wheat grain parts - gluing and polyurethaning.

But really. A chicken nugget. I'm not just batting an eye - I'm batting them both - multiple times.
A chicken nugget.
And they're SERIOUS.

Well, maybe not just SO serious: 

on display for this post
Catechist: What is it boys?
Boys: It's BREAD!
Catechist: Good answer!