Mustard Seed

The CGS material for the Infancy Narrative of the Annunciation.  They keep it simple: even a jug on the table would distract children from the essentials of the narrative.

I wrote this in March, but forgot to post it.  More to come soon:

Earlier this month was the first of 8 weekends which will constitute Level One (ages 3-6) training in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS).  What a blessing and a privilege the weekend was.  The sole Episcopalian there, I sat with 10 Roman Catholics (mostly moms and several auditing who had done the training before) on my right and 10 Eastern Orthodox students (one EO priest, and one dad, yeay!) on my left.

The prep/clean up area of a CGS Atrium in a Catholic church

 The two trainers (formation leaders) were Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox women respectively.  They patiently led us through the background and essentials of the program, along with initial, core presentations like Altar I (there are 3 presentations of the model altar, for each age group: 3-6, 6-9 and 9-12), liturgical colors, signing the cross, and practical skills like "pouring" and "wood polishing."

Always familiar figures to greet you in any Atrium

Initial observations:

1. I learned that Maria Montessori, a strong Roman Catholic, envisioned her education style being brought ultimately "to the altar."  Sofia Cavaletti and Gianna Gobbi achieved that with CGS.  Upon returning home, I reread Berryman's Complete Guide to Godly Play, Volume 1, rediscovering how very well he shows the "lineage" of Montessori-based relig ed for children, including how Godly Play fits into the family tree.  A mustard seed story indeed.

The materials for the presentation on liturgical colors - tiny chasubles hang over the crosses as they are presented (folded underneath) 

2. How beautifully the child brings our Christian traditions together!  There were only two presentations (altar, liturgical colors, signing the cross) where it made sense to divide our group up into east and west.  I decided to go with the west, but kept an eye on what the EO leader was sharing.  They have 6 liturgical colors (adding gold for feasts of the incarnation, and blue for Marian feasts).

A southwest Austin home transformed years ago into a Montessori school,
with CGS Atrium just behind the right wall, above - sublime!

 3. My role as catechist/storyteller has to start with my spiritual disposition.  If I am not in a spiritually healthy, quiet place myself, then I will have greater challenges in the Atrium on a given day.

The Atrium includes Montessori materials, which point to the care of a sanctuary, its holy vessels and vestments

 4. I am impatient but still drawn to the slow, to the methodic, to order.  The child I was, is still in there.  Children are even more so drawn to order and language, esp at 3-6 years of age.  The language we catechists/storytellers use is not about how many words, but which words.  And how we deliver them.  I can afford to use less words.  A Montessorism: Let your words be counted.

CGS presentation of the Mustard Seed parable - "Would you like to see some mustard seeds?"

Working in the Little Church

 
I've long been drawn to the concept of a model altar.  So my kids and I worked on setting it up this past Advent.  When it comes to choosing work, we talk about working in the "little church."  I allow two at a time to work there, since there is some giving and receiving in the work.

Churches have all kinds of hidden goodies.  The "presider" in the photo is wearing an old Christmas tree skirt that functions as a perfectly good chasuble.  There was also a box of old altar hangings, some of which turned into great stoles.  I had to remind them that these items had once been blessed for use in the church.  But then again, how much more respect are we showing these items when we have our children work with them; as opposed to stuffing them in a box for the attic, or worse, tossing them.

I keep unconsecrated wafers in a ziploc bag for them to work with.  I am still looking for a chalice.  We added an advent wreath to go in front of the lectern.

I recently visited the CGS Atrium at St. William's, Round Rock, TX.  Here is their version.  The children in our program seemed to move right into every role in the Eucharist, including handing out lectionary sheets (bulletins) to each other.  I am constantly amazed at the ease with which children approach the Work of the church.  I think grown ups call that the Liturgy.

The Great Family - Genesis 12-18

[Standard Desert Box intro, then:]

When the flood was over, all of God's creatures went out in all the four directions of the earth to fill it up with life again.

They often gathered along the rivers.

The people lived in small villages, and then cities.  One of the most ancient and greatest cities was called Ur.

In the city of Ur, the people put their trust in many different gods.  There was a god of farming, a god of money, a god of the sky, a god of the sun and so on.

But there was one family who put their trust in the God who made all those other gods.  This god was called the Lord God.  The man of the family was called Abram, and his wife was called Sarai.

They moved from Ur, down the river, to a city called Haran. 

When Abram was 75 years old, he heard the Lord's voice, You and Sarai leave your country and all the familiar things in your life, and go to the land I will show you.

The Lord God was telling them to make big changes in their lives.  Abram trusted that the Lord would always be with them, wherever they went.

So, Abram and Sarai left everything that was familiar to them: their uncles and aunts, their cousins, their beautiful home, their comfortable furniture, and they obeyed the Lord.  They set out for the place that God would show them.

Abram's nephew, Lot, also went with them for a little while.  When they got to a place called Shechem, they built an altar, because they knew the Lord was there.

Then, Lot decided to go a different direction and make his own life.  That was okay with Abram and Sarai.  They said goodbye to Lot.

Abram and Sarai headed into the desert.  There was not a big river there.  In fact there wasn't much water at all.  They walked toward a place called Canaan.  They took sheep and tents.  

They finally came to a place called Hebron, to make their home.  It was near the Oaks of Mamre.

[place tree next to them]

One night, the Lord God brought Abram outside.  He looked up into the sky.  The Lord told him, I am going to make a covenant, a promise with you.  You will become the father of a great family, and Sarai will be the mother.  The members of the great family will be as many as there are stars in the sky, and grains of sand in the desert.

Your name, said the Lord, will change to Abraham, which means father of many; and Sarai's name will change to Sara, which means princess.

One day, three visitors came to visit them in the desert.  It was the Lord.  Abraham and Sarah welcomed them, and made a great feast for them.  Then the visitors said, Sara, you will have a son.  She laughed, because she was so old.  How can I have a child? [pic below is child's view]

But Sara did have a boy, and she named him Isaac, which means laughter.  Isaac married a woman named Rebecah, and they had children, and those children had children.  And so on.  God kept His promise.  Abraham's descendants did number the stars in the sky, and grains of sand in the desert.  And guess who one of those descendants was, many many years later?  Jesus.

But that is another story.

Now, I wonder...
what part of this story you liked best?
what part is the most important?
where you are in the story? or what part of the story is about you?
if there is any part of the story we can leave out and still have all the story we need?

The Tabernacle (Exodus 25-27) - A Summertime Story

Some Sundays, everything goes perfectly in Godly Play.  This photo represents the crowning moment of one of those days for me.  Two siblings in beautiful harmony, doing their work together, with the Tabernacle story.

Here are the pieces we used for the story, in addition to the Desert Box: 

a basket from Ikea to hold everything except the plywood; 

three rectangles of plywood; one dowel rod to hold the veil;

4 rectangles of fabric to go roughly with the materials described in Exodus 26 (I tried to choose different textures, patterns; the fine linen being an iridescent blue); 

wooden or cardboard boxes with a stick or two to paint gold; 

12 unconsecrated communion wafers; basket of about 8 people of God; 

a Menorah ordered from Christianbook.com

Without further ado, here is the text I wrote, with Berryman's script as a guideline, for this story, broken into parts.  Each Sunday, I have introduced a new piece of "furniture" that God tells Moses to put in the tabernacle.  So far the kids have heard the full story three times, as I add a new item each Sunday.

[Storyteller's perspective]

[Standard "This is the Desert Box" intro] then: There was a man named Moses. God chose him to lead His people.  Moses led the people of God out of Egypt and through the Red Sea.   

These are some of the People of God.  Now, they are in the wilderness.  God gave them something special in the wilderness.  It was His Law.  The Lord God said, if you obey my commandments, things will go well for you.
Do not fear.  I will be with you in the wilderness.  And I will lead you to the Promised Land.
You will know that I am with you because you will have my Law with you.  And here is how you will carry the Law:

You will make a box out of wood and cover it all over with gold.  You will put my 10 commandments into this box.  It will be called the Ark of the Covenant.
Now here is something amazing that the Lord God said.  He said, you may not touch the Ark because it is holy.
Holy means like the sun.  Or like electricity.  We get light and great power from these things, but if we were to touch them, we would die.
God said do not touch the Ark or you will die.  To move the Ark, you may carry it by two poles.

Then God said, you will also have a table for the Bread of the Presence.  There will be twelve loaves you will give as an offering.  This table will also be covered all over with gold.
[Continue with Lampstand, facing Bread of Presence (a to-scale menorah I ordered from Christian Book Distributors, I think], Laver (at entrance to Tabernacle), Table for Incense (facing curtain), Bronze Altar].

Then God said, you will build a tent, a Tabernacle, around these holy things.  It will be made of wood [place the three sides around as you speak], and many beautiful curtains.

[make sure the sand is deep enough so you can get the thin plywood to stand up by itself]

The the Lord God said, you will put a special curtain between the Ark and everything else.  The place where the Ark is will be called the Most Holy Place.  The rest of the space will be called the Holy Place.

[I used a small dowel rod, and just drape the fabric over it as I tell the story]

God told the People of God to put many beautiful curtains over the wood to make the Tabernacle.  Some curtains were made of red rams skin...

some were made out of white goat hair...

and some curtains were made out of badger skin.

The people of God looked at the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle.  It was truly a holy place.  It was the place where God invited one person to meet with Him.  That one person was Moses.
Everytime Moses went in to the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, he would talk with God, and God would talk with Him.
When Moses came out, his face was shining.  The People knew that God was close to them.

Now, I wonder...
what part of this story you liked best?
what part is the most important?
where you are in the story? or what part of the story is about you?
if there is any part of the story we can leave out and still have all the story we need?