St. Benilde’s Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program allows children to discover their faith

Pictured above: In the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd approach to faith formation, children have the freedom to choose “works” such as handling replicas of priestly vestments (Photo by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald; to view more photos, please fo to the Clarion Herald’s Facebook page)

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

Sitting on the floor of their peaceful “atrium” learning space, St. Benilde kindergartners listened attentively as their Catechesis of the Good Shepherd teacher, Audrey Huck, talked about the four seasons of the calendar year –  spring, summer, fall and winter.

Huck told the youngsters that the church also has four seasons, each signified by a different color: green for Ordinary Time, the weeks in which Catholics “grow” in faith; purple for the preparatory times of Lent and Advent; white for extra special celebrations such as Easter and Christmas; and red for Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit “fires up” our hearts.

“Mrs. Audrey has set up the prayer table with green today, because we are in the growing time,” Huck said, referring to a small table that the youngsters could set up with a Bible and holy images to have some quiet prayer time.

As Huck announced the church seasons, she unfolded miniature replicas of priestly vestments in the four liturgical colors, hanging them on a small display frame. After leading her kindergartners in a song called “Purple and Green, Red and White,” Huck reverently refolded the tiny vestments and told the children that they could take them out later in class if they wished, reminding them to re-fold them for the next user.

“Our task as the catechist is to accompany them and follow their lead as they contemplate and fall in love with God,” said Huck of the Montessori-based Catechesis of the Good Shepherd approach to religious education, which makes learning about Jesus the hands-on work of the child.

“Children choose the works that capture their interest, and we present materials to them as needed,” Huck explained.

Self-guided learning

The kindergartners had a lot of options as they wandered around the atrium. In the Liturgy section – set up to resemble a church’s sanctuary with a miniature altar, lectern and tabernacle – students, working individually or in pairs, opened a cabinet in their “sacristy” to find Mass-related items such as an altar cloth, chalice, paten, crucifix, cruets and candles.

Next, the students prepared the altar, with Huck and her fellow catechist, Anita Delaup, staying nearby to light the candles and name each sacred item as it was handled.

The altar was dismantled as quickly as it went up, with the children snuffing out the candles and putting away everything for the next students to use

“I’m just blown away by how quickly they seem to catch on,” Delaup said. “Today, when I mentioned the paten, a student said, ‘This will hold the bread that becomes Jesus’ body when he died on the cross for us.’ That’s the answer she give me! She’s (already) relating the paten to Jesus’ body on the cross!”

In the atrium’s “Practical Life” section, more than a dozen fun options tested students’ fine-motor skills: They used pincers to divide up different-colored balls, strung beads, unscrewed lids, poured water and made pictures on a pegged board with elastic bands.

They made construction-paper vestments in the four liturgical colors, placed wooden beads to create a floor rosary and snipped and watered their atrium’s plants in a work called Leaf Polishing.

“The Practical Life materials help the children master important life skills and grow in concentration,” Huck said. “This prepares their hearts so that they are ready to listen to and enter more fully in a relationship with God.”

Some sections of the atrium are not yet open to the children because they have not yet been presented, Huck said. For example, the “Geography” area holds a table-size relief of Jerusalem labeled with the city’s major landmarks. This visual will be used to remind the young explorers that “Jesus was a real person” who lived a real place, Huck said.

Another atrium section, to be introduced in the roll-up to Easter, holds all the items used in baptism, complete with a miniature font and Paschal candle.

“(Seeing the items) builds anticipation,” Huck said. “Then, when they finally get to do it, they’ve been looking at it for so long they’ll be really excited!”

Parishwide effort

Huck said the program, currently in its first year at St. Benilde, was “a labor of love” carried out by the whole parish. Last spring, wish lists were placed in the bulletin asking for donations of items such as tables, lamps, child size furniture, shelving and vases.

“We also had a paint party in the summer which was very well attended, pulling the community into helping us with the many hand painted items,” Huck said.

Parish seamstresses sewed vestments and altar linens, while carpenters volunteered to craft furnishings such as the altar, lectern and tabernacle (the latter designed to resemble the real tabernacle in St. Benilde Church). Other donations came from the St. Vincent de Paul, Rosary and Altar societies.

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is provided to St. Benilde students in grades pre-K3 through kindergarten, and to children ages 4-7 who are not enrolled in the school.

“Every time we use the atrium, there’s at least one child who is crying because they don’t want to leave,” Huck said. “They just love being here!”

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