CCD

 This year I was supposed to be a Catechist teacher for James' CCD class (he requested I teach his this year since I taught sissy's last year). Unfortunately the spot was already filled (James was sad, but he has some awesome teachers!) so I stuck with teaching Madeline's grade. Last year I taught the 2nd/3rd grade First Communion students...this year I am teaching 3rd and 4th grades. Fortunately we've been told that enrollment in religious studies at our parish has gone up! In the past many families pull their kids out of religious ed after they've received their Sacraments like Reconciliation and First Communion, I guess to them it's too much of a chore to bring their kids every week. But learning about our Faith should be a lifelong schooling! That's how I feel anyway.So James and Madeline will continue to attend all the way through receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation in high school until they are adults. Hopefully then they will decide for themselves to volunteer for different ministries, go to bible studies, etc.

Yesterday my students and I studied the chapter on "Christ Will Come Again", focusing on His ressurection, His second coming/final judgement and what we can do to "stay awake" in our Faith and lives for His second coming. I love this age group, because they are such in-depth thinkers. We talked a lot about this verse:

34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

It was great to hear all of their responses, thoughts and questions. Afterwards we made this poster to hang up in our classroom, they all helped color it. It reads:

Jesus Will Come Again
Name some ways you can “stay awake” for the second coming.

 Eyes open to serve God 
Being aware of our words & actions 
Participate in the Sacraments 
Listen to God’s Word

Lastly what was most awesome was that all of them understood these ways were not ways for us to earn our own way into Heaven, but proof of our Faith in Him and our responding to sanctifying grace! Some adults struggle with that concept, so I was proud my students "got it".

P.S. Had to share this cute conversation between Madeline and I as we walked from our car to CCD class. When we parked we saw that our priest, Father Kirby, had just pulled into the parking lot too. So when we walked by Madeline waved. :) As we kept walking she asked, "Mommy, what are those women called in our Church who are married to God?" "They are called nuns my dear, and we call them Sister So-in-so." I love that Madeline understands that priests and nuns devote themselves entirely to God and doing His work.

CCD

Today was the first day of CCD religious ed classes at Church this school year. It's also James' first time going to school. James has never gone to any preschool, daycare or taken any sports lessons where he's had to listen to a teacher or coach. I was a little worried how he would do, I even had a bad dream last night that he got put into the wrong class and that he was scared. Can't help it, he's my baby and I worry. He even had a few tears in the parking lot before we went into class because he was worried about me not being in class with him. But he did GREAT! He enjoyed the class and likes his teacher. Phew!

We feel really blessed and fortunate to belong to an awesome parish that has a wonderful private Catholic school as well as a great CCD Religious Ed program. It's so important our children learn and understand our Faith. Excited to see them go through their spiritual journey.

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Madeline started CCD at the age of 4 (3 months before her 5th birthday) and James started today at the age of 4 (2 weeks before his 5th birthday). Gosh the kids are growing so fast! And they really do look like siblings. 

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This is Madeline's 4th year of CCD. And this year she will be receiving her Sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion. And I am her class Catechist/Teacher! I am super excited to be teaching her and the other students about these Sacraments. I have 4 boys and 8 girls in my class and they all seem like great kids so far! It's going to be an exciting year!

joy and peace in believing

The Catholicism Project

I am so excited about this TV series that will be coming out this Fall. Like Father Barron says in this trailer clip, "We need to tell our own story"...I feel like I am apart of this Catholicism Project as I volunteer as a Catechist this new school year for our Religious Education CCD once again. The thing in my life that brings me most joy and peace is my God of hope (Romans 15:13). I want everyone to have that joy and peace, especially my family. We can all know this God of hope by learning from His teachings.

Evelyn's childhood bracelet from when she received her First Holy Communion. Madeline will wear it this year at her First Holy Communion.

Joyfully, I will be a Catechist this year for Madeline's 2nd grade First Holy Communion class. I am so incredibly excited Madeline will be receiving this Sacrament of Grace this year. I can't wait to help teach these children about God's divinity and how He is so giving towards us. Also excited James will start his first year of Religious Education CCD this year. Bless his little heart, with all the big, complex topics he's talked about of late including God, I know he is ready and eager to learn and understand more about God.

Catechism

Last day class party, missing 5 students but these were our great group of kids!

Well I just completed my first year as a volunteer Catechist Aide for one of our Religion Ed classes at our parish. Like I've said in the past, the primary catechists for children are their parents...I'm thankful the Church and the parents of these children trusted in me to also help in their education of our Faith, and the initiation of these young, smart minds to the fullness of Christian life. I truly enjoyed my time this year with these 3rd and 4th graders and Celina (the other Catechist), not only do I know these students learned more but so did I! 

We asked the students to write down in their journals about 5 things they learned this year - I was pleasantly surprised on how much they retained! Almost all of them expressed that they learned how the Holy Spirit worked in their lives. "The Spirit of God made me and the breath of the Almighty has given me life." Job 33:4. "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." John 14:26

We also taught the students the many Catholic prayers and creeds, as well as the stations of the Cross. These kids were so creative and we would often let them act these out. I will miss watching their silly skits.

For our class party I told Celina I would make the kids some goody bags. James and I drove to this wonderful Catholic store in North Austin - I can't wait to go back there and browse around some more. I was able to pick up these beautiful crucifix pendants and prayer cards for the students. This particular card in the photo had the Nicene Creed:

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us men and our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary , and became man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day He rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son, He is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. 

I will always keep these students in my prayers, that they may grow stronger in understanding and defending our Faith and His Church. I already signed Madeline up for next school year, she will be in the 2nd grade First Holy Communion class - I am so excited for her that she will be receiving this special Sacrament next year. I also told them I am open to volunteer again. James doesn't make the cutoff to start Kindergarten so he has one more year to go until he starts Catechism.

Madeline finished pre-K CCD!

Tonight was Madeline's last pre-K CCD class at our Catholic church for the school year. They will break for the summer and then she will start the Kindergarten CCD class this coming school year. Madeline's teacher, Miss Ruby along with her teaching assistants have been so wonderful with Madeline and her classmates. We are so thankful to her for teaching Madeline more about our Faith. 2 Timothy 2:2 (New American Standard Bible)
2The things (A)which you have heard from me in the presence of (B)many witnesses, (C)entrust these to (D)faithful men who will be (E)able to teach others also.

After each weekly class Madeline was sent home with a pamphelet "For My Family" that always had a section of "Praying as a Family"..I wanted to share some of those prayers under each of these photos from this evening. Their class had a pizza and hot dog party and Miss Ruby gave them a Stories of God's Love workbook, a cupcake and a bubble wand as gifts for completing their class. James got a bubble wand too! :)

Give thanks to God, who always loves us.
Give thanks to God for the gift of creation.
Give thanks to God for the gift of our family.
Amen.

Lord God, bless my family with your love. Amen.

Lord Jesus, Help us be generous and share our blessings with people who do not have enough food to eat. Bless us and our food. Amen.

Jesus is always with us.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Hail Mary,

full of grace,

the Lord is with you!

Blessed are you among women.

Amen.

Twinkle, twinkle little star,

The Magi saw you from afar.

Up above our Savior's bed,

Where Baby Jesus laid His head.

Twinkle, twinkle little star,

The Magi saw you from afar.

Jesus, we are your friends.

We honor you as the Magi did.

We will love and respect other people as you taught us to do. Amen.

Learning her Faith

Madeline is thoroughly enjoying her CCD class at church. She loves the songs that Miss Ruby teaches the class. They always do fun arts and crafts while learning about God. In this weeks class along with their crafts they were sent home with a Rosary. (Madeline and James already have beautiful rosaries from Uncle Kevin and Aunt Stormy that were blessed by Pope John Paul II while they were on their trip in Rome) Though Madeline does not grasp yet this tradition of devotional prayers, she enjoyed counting all the beads and I told her that the number of beads going round and round are a great example of the infinite times she can pray to God. Madeline is very devoted about saying her Bedtime prayer, we say it together but often times after I turn out the light and walk out of her room I can hear Madeline "talking" to God. :-) I love the coloring pamphlets she gets sent home with because on the back of them is a "For My Family" section with small inserts about sharing the bible story they learned that class, nurturing our children, living our faith together, reflecting on our faith and praying as a family. I noticed there was a website you could visit where you could find games and activities to do with your child and articles to assist you in nurturing the faith of your child. So I wanted to share the website: www.RCLBenzigerPreschool.com.

Madeline's been curious this past week on the subject of "death". It's actually been a bit of a struggle for me to explain to her in a way I think my 4.5 year old would understand and not fear. When she first brought it up she was very concerned about dying. But tonight in the car on the way home from CCD class she said to me, "Mommy when we die we get to go to Heaven to live with God, but Mommy where are we going to sleep in Heaven...we can't stay up all night with God!?". A few moments later she made a comparison and said, "Mommy since we all go to Heaven after we die, that means Mia (her best friend from next door) will go to Heaven too, but if Heaven is big like church with lots and lots of rows of seats...how will Mia find me in Heaven so we can play!?". You gotta love the thinking of a 4 year old. :-)