When I was 14 years old, I started volunteering in the nursery and then, a year later, became the assistant teacher in a PreK. I have been volunteering in children's ministry ever since—serving in many churches and teaching various types of children's curricula. Fast forward to four years ago: Steven+ asked me to become Incarnation's Children's Minister. When we first met to talk about our curriculum, he was very open to me searching for whatever was the best fit for Incarnation and suggested that I look into Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) during my research. I had never heard of it but was willing to look into anything! I took to the internet and read what I could. I learned that CGS is a Montessori-based faith formation program, but couldn't find a lot of information online. I reached out to the Lead Catechist at Church of the Redeemer in Greensboro (they use CGS) and asked if I could meet with her. She eagerly agreed, and I drove down to meet with her.
When I walked into the space (called the Atrium), I knew I had walked into a sacred space. The primary goal of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is to "foster the child's relationship with God and to prepare them for greater participation in the life of the church." That's what I saw when I walked into that Atrium; I saw a place where children could come to encounter God on their own terms. It was a sacred space, prepared specifically for children at their developmental stage, a space where children could come to understand both scripture and liturgy. This is something I see every week in our Atrium—children encountering God and growing in love and understanding for Him. It is such a gift to be present for these moments and to be a vessel the Holy Spirit uses to draw the children to the Good Shepherd.
CGS was created in Italy in the 1950's by two women, one who was a theologian with her doctorate in Hebrew and the other who had worked with and studied under Maria Montessori as she developed the Montessori Method of education. CGS gets its name from the parable of the Good Shepherd in John 10, where Jesus says that he is the Good Shepherd and calls his sheep by name and they respond to him. This is the core of CGS—with each scripture reading the children receive, they are called to listen to God's voice and then to respond to him. Each lesson, we declare God's words, relying directly on scripture and expecting the Holy Spirit to be the true Teacher. We declare the word to children, as it is written, giving them what is most essential. Next, we provide physical materials that correspond with the child's developmental stage. Sometimes these look like dioramas, a miniature altar, matching cards, or large timelines. The materials vary greatly, but are always meant to provide what is essential for the child. These materials become tools for prayer and contemplation, and the children return to them often, contemplating the scripture and coming to know Jesus better.
Serving in the Atrium has been a gift to me and the other catechists. We have each seen our own understanding and relationship with Christ deepen through this work. The Atrium truly is a sacred space, a place where all who enter are called to a deeper relationship with the Good Shepherd. Incarnation currently offers Level I (3-6 year olds) during the service every Sunday (until the Passing of the Peace) and Levels II and III (6-9, and 9-12, respectively) during the Sunday School hour. Please don't hesitate the reach out to me if you are curious about CGS, I love talking about this!
Katherine
Scripture Reflections
We all have heard (especially the last three weeks) Jesus’ declaration in John 6 that he is the bread of life, but we likely don’t feel what the original audience would have felt when they heard this. After all, most of us probably don’t think of food as integral to our relationship with God. In fact, even the thought that food is integral to our relationship with God is a little weird!
One of the core themes of the Bible is that God feeds his people. In the beginning, God gave Adam and Eve the trees of the garden to eat. When Noah left the ark, God gave Noah the right to eat meat. In the wilderness, God provided manna and quail. Through the prophets, God declared that he would prepare a great feast for his people. Throughout the Bible, God offered food to his people, demonstrating both his care for them and their dependence on him. Food was how God tested and instructed his people—it was how they showed their trust and willingness to obey. With food, he marked them as set apart for him (hence the weird laws about what they could and couldn’t eat). Food was also a symbol of their future, when they would feast with their God.
(All of this is in stark contrast to the various pagan accounts, which taught that mankind existed to provide food for the gods. The Biblical account is the exact opposite of the normal pagan beliefs. That God created man and woman and then fed them would have struck most pagans as backwards, too good to be true.)
All of this food-instruction reaches its culmination in Jesus’ declaration that he is the true food. A Jew listening to Jesus would have heard much more than we do. Jesus was saying, in effect, “All of that was pointing forward to me. I am the true provision, the true place where faith is tested, the true place you are humbled, the true place God cares for you, the true place you are marked as different from the world, the true feast to come.” His words are staggering; they are blasphemous if they aren’t true.
We need our imaginations enlarged! Our God provides for us because he offers himself as food. We are called to consume him in faith so that we become a part of his life, and this humbles us and tests our faith—we want to provide for ourselves, we don’t want to need God. That the provision of life for the world is the Son of God, who gave himself away in death for us to consume, is staggering, unthinkable, humbling. We live because he died. He is the food offered for the life of the world.
Steven+
The Beginning of Fall
My guess is that many of you feel the approach of fall—perhaps because the thermometer hasn’t hit 90 degrees for a while (I am hoping this trend will continue!), but more likely because of the change in activities. The last few weeks of summer are usually a hectic whirlwind as the final moments of vacation-time collide with the beginning of new seasons at school and work. If your house feels like ours, the transition is well underway.
There are lots of moments when the secular calendar is out of sync with the Church’s calendar, and summer is one of them. Summer lands in Pentecost Season every year, and summer is a feast season in our country, even though Pentecost Season isn’t. In the moments when the Church’s calendar and the secular calendar don’t line up, we can feel the tension of being citizens of heaven even though we live in the kingdoms of this world. We are exiles, waiting for the moment we go to our true home. Living under two calendars is actually a fantastic reminder of this!
But in the fall, the secular calendar begins to line up with Pentecost Season, and the tension is relieved (at least until Advent). Pentecost Season, which is often called Ordinary Time, is the long season of ordinary discipleship. It is focused on living our normal lives faithfully by being missionaries at work, at school, and in the home and by participating in the regular rhythm of the Church’s worship and prayer. The Spirit is given to the Church at Pentecost, and what flows out of this is ordinary life, lived faithfully, as God’s witnesses in the world. Going back to “ordinary life” in the secular sense fits the Church’s focus in Ordinary Time.
Over the next couple weeks, you will hear about the ordinary patterns of discipleship that we will be engaging in this fall. Bible studies are being revamped, New Members’ Class begins again, Sunday School restarts, Small Groups kick off—pay attention to emails and announcements! But before those announcements, there is the more important reminder:
Pentecost Season is about living our ordinary lives in the power of the Spirit.
As fall gets underway in your home, don’t lose track of this core element. In the Spirit, our ordinary lives become more than we can imagine. The ordinary activities of each day become acts of worship, discipleship, and mission as we are filled with the presence of God.
Steven+