Tips – March 15, 2020

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From Kim Kwee:

A Space for Prayer

I wanted to write this for our parents with young children to support them while we are physically separated from our church family. Catechesis of the Good Shepherd has many lessons, comforts, and joys that we can invite into our homes. The first thing that parents should know about Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is that we do not teach the children about God – we believe that children already have a relationship and love of God and our task is to simply not to spoil it. From this perspective, it’s not about what you do, or, more importantly don’t do.

In the children’s Atrium, we create a space where they can hear and be with God. That is something we can do in our homes as well. Creating a space for prayer can mean a lot of things that don’t seem like spiritual “learning,” but they teach stillness and satisfaction.

• Encourage children to care for plants in the home. Watering and cleaning the leaves are things the children do in their Atrium.
• Give them sorting tasks that encourage slow and careful movement.
• Make a special time for prayer that can be out loud, or, as Louise says, “in their hearts.”

In the children’s Atrium at church we have a table with a basket that holds all the objects that children see in our big Atrium. The children are always free to set this table and we use it during our prayer time. At home, I gave Olive a small wooden stool to be her table. I gave her a basket, a handkerchief to use as a cloth, a small brass bowl that makes a nice ringing sound, a candle, a ceramic sheep Christmas ornament, and her baptism rosary. She likes taking time to take the things out of the basket and arranging them on the stool. I let her do this without interrupting or correcting her – this is her work and it is holy. I light the candle for her (she knows that she is not allowed to touch the matches or to pick up the candle). I simply ask her to notice the light and wonder about the light. She has said some beautiful things and I want to respect her privacy, so I won’t share them here, but sometimes we just look at the light and that’s enough. I ask her to say a prayer either out loud or in her heart. I just listen. Sometimes she doesn’t want to do prayer time at all and it’s never a fight. I don’t think prayer time has to be at a certain time, but for us, we needed silence and stillness after bath time, so that’s when we did it.

I didn’t want to point you to lessons or give instructions, because I’m not really trained, but in the absence of communion with each other at church, I wanted to reach out. I am really going to miss you and your children. I’m looking forward to being with you all again.

Peace,

Kim