Since the child, particularly the religious life of the child, is central to the interest and commitment of the catechist of the Good Shepherd, the catechist embraces Maria Montessori’s vision of the human being and thus the attitude of the adult regarding the child; and prepares an environment called the atrium, which aids the development of the religious life.
What is Maria Montessori’s vision of the human
person?
“Everyone accepts the fact that the adult is supposed to play a role in forming the child, but who knew that the child is supposed to be forming the adult, just as much.” Maria Montessori
Maria
Montessori saw as one of her greatest discoveries was the planes of human
development. This is when she recognized that the human person underwent a
profound change as they entered different stages of their life. Though this
understanding it is possible to see why some expectations of children are
unreasonable at some ages but very necessary at others.
When you look at the planes,
you can see the horizontal line of life, which indicates the age of the child.
The lines that form the triangles show how the child moves towards a greater
sensitivity to the needs of their age and then away from that intensity as they
move toward the next plane. Montessori observed that development is intense at
the beginning of a plane, peaks, and then tapers down to the next plane, in
preparation for the beginning of a new stage of development.
For
the first plane of development the
goal is self-construction or to build a self.
The
goal of the second plane of
development is building the social self and how to be in society. No longer
does the child need just the immediate family. Now the child is ready to
explore the larger society and learn how to be with others and with other
families.
The
goal of the third plane of
development is the birth of the adult self. It is another creative period, the
creation of what is most valuable in their adult personality.
The
goal of the fourth plane of
development is the vocation, recognizing and giving back to society.
Within
each plane there are specific sensitivities given that facilitate the
achievement of the goal. The last characteristics of that each plane builds on
the previous plane before it. So a plane that was not fully completed carries
into the next plane. Life goes forward not backward. So as adults assisting
children, we want to help children achieve the fullness of each plane of
development.
The
first plane of development is the most important phase in the life of the human
person. Sofia Cavalletti called it the Golden Age of Relationship, the period
of falling in love with God.
Two Conditions for any
Human Development
Montessori
said that there were two conditions necessary for any human development to
occur.
First, the child’s intimate, positive, loving relationship
with the people and things in his/her environment. It’s so important for this
first plane of development. The child being brought into this complete,
unconditional, totally accepting and loving relationship.
The second element is freedom.
All
humans have certain tendencies or behavior patterns that drive the fulfillment
of the fundamental needs. No matter the location, culture, or ethnicity, all
humans throughout history have followed the same natural laws that lead to
actions and interactions with the environment and each other.
All
humans are driven:
To Explore- to know
To Orient – to find one’s place in the world where one feels
loved and wanted
To Order – to put things in their place, physically and
mentally
To Observe and to Abstract
To Work
To strive toward Self-Perfection
To Exactness
To Communicate – to express one’s self, to be understood,
which leads to sharing, cooperation, and preservation of our knowledge, skills
and achievements
To have Self-Control
What then should the attitude of the adult be
regarding the child?
When it comes to the time for more
formal learning the environment most children are placed in is a school of one
sort or another. In a traditional school classroom the primary relationship is
thought to be between the teacher and the child. In the Catechesis of the Good
Shepherd, we believe that God is the teacher, he works through the environment
and the materials to help the child to form a personal relationship with him.
The role of the adult is that of a guide or servant, waiting for the time to
give a new presentation to allow the child to go deeper into their prayer with
the Holy Spirit.
The Catechist is not the teacher.
The Catechists role is to prepare the environment, to provide the child with
materials that will help the child to draw near to God.
As adults, we seek to serve the child
in this regard. To enable them to come into God’s presence and spend time with him by themselves.
It is not unusual that in this
environment, the children can become so absorbed in their work that
the adult can step aside and wait until they are needed.
What is the prepared environment, the atrium, and
how does it aid the child’s religious life?
Montessori noted that the environment itself is a teacher;
the children learn much more from interaction with their environment than they
do from the direct instruction of their teacher.
If our aim is to help children to
enjoy their relationship with God, we must ask, “What kind of environment can we create that will respect
and cultivate the child’s needs and capacities at this level
of their development, especially in terms of their spiritual development?”
We want to create a space where it is
okay to be small. Where a child can function independently, enjoy freedom of
movement, freedom to repeat works over and over on one’s own without interruption etc.
The Atrium environment is not a classroom. Cavalletti says, “It is not a place of religious instruction, but of
religious life.”
The Atrium does not replace the church. It is to initiate
the child into the life of the church and needs to be the work of the whole
church. Cavalletti says, “The initiation of a child into the
Christian life is not a work that can be fulfilled by the catechist alone, nor
by the parents alone. It is the whole Christian community that proclaims
Christ, and the child must enter into contact with the whole Christian
community. The catechist’s work must be sustained and
confirmed by a community that lives what the catechist proclaims.”
“Everything
in the Atrium is either a passage to prayer or prayer itself”
The Atrium is a place of Prayer and
Worship,
a place of quiet and peace, a place of retreat. A place where quite
spontaneously, work and study become meditation, contemplation and prayer.
It is more like a church than a
classroom. It is not so much a place of instruction, as Holy Ground, where
Christ can be encountered in word or action at any moment.
To be a Catechist in the
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd requires a commitment to many hours of
preparation, materials making and then working with children. May people ask
why, when many “programs” for children in the church utilise volunteers and
follow written and prepared programs with activities and worksheets prescribed
for each week of the liturgical cycle, why do we ask for so much preparation?
There can be many ways
to answer that question and I do not think this article will exhaust them all.
The Catechesis of the Good
Shepherd uses an approach very different to that used in our schools at this
time. It is not so much an opportunity to educate our children in the faith,
but rather introduce them to the person of God in a unique relationship. To act
as a matchmaker between God and the child and allow the children to fall in
love with Jesus the Good Shepherd. Many people have grown up being filed with
information and tested to check on their recall. All of that is useful and
necessary. But consider when we have fallen in love, did it happen through
knowledge or was it through relationship? Adults who become Catechists
sometimes find they learn about their faith as if for the first time, seeing
through the eyes of children the beauty of our traditions and the words of
scripture in a new way Through the
formation experience we allow adults to discover for themselves the richest
treasures God has to offer and we also help them to learn to step back and
allow their children to make the same connections for themselves.
There is no lesson so
well remembered or treasured than the one we discover for ourselves. Can you
recall everything you have ever learned? What are the things you remember the
best? Could it be those things where you made the connections, the discoveries
for yourself? Like the person who discovered the treasure in the field and sold
all they had to have it or the merchant who searched all his life for the most
precious pearl, we want your relationship with Jesus to be a precious gift that
you personally invested in.
During the formation,
the participants will learn about an approach to learning discovered by Maria
Montessori and also some Sacred History Theology. Interspersed with this some individual
presentations will be given (the same as those given to the children)
demonstrating the way we allow the children to continue to meditate on the
small lessons of scripture, liturgy and practical life. There is time for
prayer, sharing and also materials making. All of these will help to form the catechist,
just as the time in the atrium for children helps to build the child in their
personal relationship with God.
When we work with
children in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, we do not follow a program. We
do not have a curriculum that must be covered in a set amount of time. Some children
will never work with or be given all of the presentations. We observe and
follow the needs of each individual child, offering to them as gift various
presentations as they grow in their understanding and relationship of God and
as they grow as people in our community. As their abilities increase, they gain
new skills which we provide opportunities for them to master, to help them do
it by themselves. As one may imagine, it can be very difficult for some people
to let go and let God be the teacher, with no measurable outcome. Sometimes we
are blessed with glimpses of the work of the Holy Spirit in the response of the
children, through their personal prayer and artwork. For the most part we are
useless servants of God and the child and perhaps one day we may see the fruits
of our labour.
The Catechesis of the Good
Shepherd is an approach to the religious formation of children.
It is rooted in the Bible,
the Liturgy of the Church and the educational principles of Maria Montessori.
Children gather in an atrium,
a room prepared for them, which contains simple yet beautiful materials they can
use to help answer interior questions like:
“God who are you? How do you love us?”
About the Environment
“Like the environment of the Church, it is a place where the child can listen to the proclamation of the Good News, meditate on it and begin to live it according to the child’s own rhythm.
Different from the environment of the Church, the atrium is not only a place for announcement and celebration: it is also a place for work.
It is a particular environment in which work easily becomes meditation and prayer.”
Gianna Gobbi, 2000. (Listening to God with Children)
How can the atrium nourish a child’s faith
development?
The Catechesis of the Good
Shepherd is not so much a curriculum as an environment. Through the use of the materials
in the environment the children are introduced to God.
The purpose of the Catechesis
isn’t to teach children about God through
information about scripture or liturgy. Rather the focus is on introducing children to an experience of God
through scripture and liturgy.
The atrium is a special
place for children. It is a place of prayer and meditation, not a classroom for
instruction. It is holy ground where Christ is encountered through word and action.
It is a place of worship and community—religious life.
Every work in the atrium is either a passage to
prayer or prayer itself.
The Materials
The materials used in the
atrium have been designed to meet the vital needs of each age group of the children.
This is based on their capabilities according to the research of Maria Montessori.
They are in a size that
will comfortably fit the child and sensorially appealing; made of natural materials
(such as wood, metal and clay) and as much as possible are hand made by the catechists
themselves.
The room is set out in
a way that conveys the centrality of the parable for each age group; the Good Shepherd
for ages 3-6 and the True Vine for ages 6-12. Arranged around these are the Eucharist,
the sacraments, scripture and geography works.
The 3-6 Child
The 3-6 year old child
is particularly capable of receiving and enjoying the most essential elements of
our faith: the announcement of God’s love in the person of the Good Shepherd who
died and is risen.
Materials they work with
help make the mystery of God concrete. For example, a geography work of a 3D relief
map of the land of Israel, establishes Jesus as a real person in time and space.
Their sense of wonder and
delight are nurtured through selected parables on the mystery of God’s kingdom:
they may wonder at how something as small as a mustard seed can grow into a large
tree.
Their desire for knowing
the names of things and ordering things in their environment is met in work such
as the altar where they learn the names and lay out items as they are arranged at
Mass.
The 6-12 Child
The parable of the True
Vine is the central meditation for children in this age group.
The work here responds
to the need of the older child to know their place in their relationship with God,
family and the wider community.
A range of moral parables
provides the opportunity for meditation on God’s love and enduring forgiveness.
Their love for detail is
ministered to through breaking open different parts of the Mass and exploring it,
deepening their knowledge and love of the Eucharist.
Timelines focusing on salvation
history from Creation to Redemption to Parousia nurture their vivid imagination
and their fascination with time; the past and the future. This leads to the wonder
of all the many gifts we have received from God, culminating in God’s gift of his
own life through Jesus.
There is an emphasis on
our response to God’s amazing generosity and the responsibility that comes with
receiving these gifts.
2019 has begun in the
atrium here. We open our doors to some familiar faces and some new faces on
Thursday. The Catechists have been preparing the space readying the materials,
buying new supplies, remaking and repairing some of the works.
We look forward with
anticipation to a year of sharing the love of the Good Shepherd with the
children and learning from them some new insights into the secrets God has hidden
for us to discover for ourselves.
The atrium is a sacred
space made especially for children to discover and grow in their relationship
with Jesus. Our role as Catechists is to guide them and prepare opportunities
for them to find Jesus. We allow the Holy Spirit to work in the materials and
environment to awaken their hearts to God. So, our role is not as a teacher but
as a servant, a matchmaker between the child and God. Like a servant we look
for openings to invite the children into a deeper relationship. We observe
their interests and abilities and match the work to them.
Some children arrive
with a plan of what they will do, others need some time to adjust to a quieter,
slower environment and may need help to make initial choices. Some children
need to move, we look for work that involves movement. Some like the challenge
of a puzzle, we have works that meet that need. Still others are opening up to
the joys of writing and reading. All of the materials in the atrium have been
chosen by children to meet their deepest needs and to encourage them in their
life of prayer.
In the first few weeks
after a long break, the children often need some structure to reacquaint them
to the sacred space. Older children decide on what they think will be appropriate
rules for their community to work peacefully together. If the atrium has been
changed, we give a short tour so they can easily find the materials they know.
New children are welcomed, and more experienced children help them to find what
they need.
The rhythm of the
atrium generally begins with work time, during which they may receive a
presentation and concludes with a prayer time where they can respond to what
they have experienced that day. Presentations are dictated mainly by the
interest of the children and by the liturgical cycle. Not every child will
receive a presentation every week, or the same presentations as the other children.
Whole group presentations are rare, with most given individually or to small groups.
Children keep a record
of any art or prayer responses in a prayer journal or folder, which at some
later time they take home. Some children create a lot, others none or hardly
any. We are privileged to bear witness to their growth in prayer and
relationship with Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
In the atrium we introduce
the children to the liturgical year firstly by looking at the colours of the
liturgical seasons. Children in level 1 are introduced to the colours for
Preparation (purple), getting ready for a feast. The feasts of Christmas and
Easter and their seasons are white. Ordinary time (green) is introduced as the
growing time, a time to allow the “food of the feast” to nurture our growing
relationship with God. The other colour (red) is for the Holy Spirit and the feast
of Pentecost.
Children learn the liturgical cycle firstly by observing the colours used during the celebration of Mass.
As children progress
through the atrium we look at a circular liturgical calendar. This highlights
the cyclical nature of the liturgical year. The calendar has a small prism for
each Sunday of the year (ours also includes an extra prism to represent
Christmas Day as that does not always fall on a Sunday). Essentially this work
is a puzzle that the children pull apart and reconstruct. However, this
provides time for the children to reflect and notice different elements of our
liturgical cycle. Little facts such as Easter is longer than Lent. Ordinary Time
is very long, why would that be?
The liturgical calendar in the atrium
There are also things
to research further such as Easter is not always on the same date so how do we
know when it will happen? The numbers of the Sundays in Ordinary Time don’t
match the number of prisms, why would that be? When we attend daily Mass the
priest sometimes wears other colours, why?
The Liturgical Calendar acts a a catalyst to discovering more about the liturgical cycle and life in the church.
The calendar is just a
starting point for discoveries about life in the church.
Many adults make
observations too such as the calendar does not progress in a clockwise
direction. Why would we have it going counter-clockwise? Could it be that God’s
time is different to our time?
As we approach the
three main feasts of our church year, Easter, Christmas and Pentecost, we celebrate
with the children. These celebrations are not just parties with gifts and food.
They are solemn celebrations looking at what the event is. With the children we
enter into the special time that we are celebrating. At Easter, this may take the
form of a re-enactment of the Last Supper and/or a Liturgy of Light
celebration. Prior to that, during Lent, we bury the “Alleluia” and save the
word for the special day when we proclaim the resurrection of Jesus. During
Pentecost we meditate on the gift of the Holy Spirit and consider what those
gifts mean for us in our lives and how we can call on those gifts to help us
build God’s kingdom. During the Christmas Celebration we often have a lead up
during advent culminating in recalling Jesus being incarnate and also longing
for him to come again. Due to our long Summer break, this often happens a few
weeks prior to Christmas Day. Our CGS friends living in the Northern Hemisphere
will also celebrate the feast of Epiphany, recognising the gift given for all
people.
Some ideas for prayer cards.
Parents may be able to
foster a sense of the liturgical year in their homes by preparing for the
children a small table for prayer. Provide cloths in each of the 4 liturgical
colours that the children can place on the table according to the season. Add a
candle and perhaps a small statue of the Good Shepherd, the Holy Family etc.
Children enjoy spending time in quiet prayer or communal prayer, including
songs and hand made prayer cards. Ideas for short phrases can be taken from
words used in the Mass such as “Amen”, “Alleluia”, “Thanks be to God”, “Holy,
holy, holy”, “Thy kingdom come”. Other ideas can be found in the book “The Good
Shepherd and the Child a Joyful Journey”.
The Good Shepherd and the Child A Joyful Journey – this text has lots of great insight into using CGS in your home and is a core text for the CGS Catechist.
The prayer of children, particularly children under the age of 6 years, is quite different to that of the prayer of adults. It is spontaneous and includes silence and reflection. Consider a very small child silently watching an insect in the garden or concentrating intently on some task they are doing. This silent contemplation is a form of prayer. Very young children express their prayer in the joy of experiencing everything as new and wonderful. Their spoken prayer is that of thanksgiving and joy.
Gianna Gobbi in “Listening to God with Children” (p118) expresses it this way:
The child’s prayer can be very brief, such as “Jesus”, “Goodness”, “Light”, or “Amen” and is often followed by a long silence. Furthermore, the spontaneous prayer of the younger child is exclusively a prayer of praise and thanksgiving, rather than a prayer of petition. Thus, we hear: “Thank you for the light!” “Thank you for everything!” “Thank you because I am one of your sheep!” “Jesus is wonderful!” “My body is happy!”
This time of building their relationship with God is so beautiful and precious, we do not like to impose upon them our adult worries about the world, about our sin, our needs. We try to allow the children to continue to grow in the wonder of the new life they have been born into and grow in their natural praise and joyful thanks for all they have.
This does not mean that we neglect more formal prayer with children at this age. Through the prayers found in scripture in the prophecies and psalms, in the Infancy Narratives, the children are introduced to the language of prayer. They are in a time of their life where language is developing, and it is important for them to be exposed to the beautiful language of prayer.
“My soul magnifies the Lord!”
“The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need.”
“Thy Kingdom come!”
Later when they are a bit older and begin to see how we must work in community to serve the body of Christ, children enter a moral stage of development. Then is the time when children more naturally pray prayers of petition. Until then, let us join with them, sensitive to their needs, in joyful thanks and praise to our God.
lts. It is spontaneous and includes silence and reflection. Consider a very small child silently watching an insect in the garden or concentrating intently on some task they are doing. This silent contemplation is a form of prayer. Very young children express their prayer in the joy of experiencing everything as new and wonderful. Their spoken prayer is that of thanksgiving and joy.
