The Gatekeeper
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, Level III
December 16, 2008 - Level 3, Issue 6 |
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| Dear CGS Level III Parent, |
I pray your Advent journey has brought you peace and joy. We are in the third week of Advent, marked especially by a pink candle and celebrating joy.
This week in Atrium, we will look at a depiction of the structure of the mass. It is a very high-level depiction, with almost no detail whatsoever. It serves as the basis for four other presentations which delve into the detail of different components, or periods, of the mass.
In our past two sessions, we have prayed especially for Isabella Feliciano, who is seven years old and in Level II. Isabella is very sick with leukemia. Some children have made and written cards for Isabella, and Sarah Coles has been delivering these cards when she visits Isabella. Please keep Isabella, her parents, and her brother in your prayers - this is very important to the family.
We hope to see many of the CGS children at the Christmas Eve family mass. If your child(ren) would like to participate in a special way at the beginning of that mass, please join the rehearsal that will be held just following the 9 AM mass this Sunday, December 21st for about 15 minutes.
Peace and joy,
Lina Hilko
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| Structure of the Mass |
Since the earliest level, many presentations of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd help the child connect to and understand the mass. Level I and Level II presentations revolve around gestures and articles of the mass. The articles of the mass are many, but include such things as the chalice (which holds the wine) and the paten (which holds the bread). These presentations meet the young child's need for vocabulary and help the child relate to the mass by seeing familiar objects.
Another set of Level I and II presentations educates children to read the gestures of the mass. Gestures are movements with meaning. For example, you can wave hello or good-bye without saying the words and still be understood. Some important gestures are the "epiclesis," a lowering of hands over the bread and wine toward the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer; the offering, the holding up of the consecrated bread and wine, which has become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer; and the sign of peace. Perhaps you've never heard the term "epiclesis." I certainly hadn't prior to CGS. If you are curious, consider asking your child about it. You can say you read the word (in this handy-dandy newsletter) but weren't sure what it meant. Why is it done? What does it represent? Ask them to point it out at mass. By the way, different priests have different styles. Watch for it and become a connoisseur of epiclesis styles.
Most Level III children have by now become very familiar with the articles and gestures of the mass. Now they will look at the mass more closely. The Structure of the Mass work has 49 color-coded tiles which the children ultimately place on a chart. Some tiles contain pictures of gestures which the child already knows. These will provide clues to the placement of all items. The children will discover that the mass is one prayer consisting of 49 individual prayers. Prayers include words, songs, and gestures. The children will visibly experience the complex order of the mass.
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| Unity |
For me personally, the structure of the mass represents a unifying tie for people of various times and places. Perhaps it comes from my Mexican background and the fact that I lived in Mexico for a period of my childhood. Necessarily, I have experienced and continue regularly to experience masses in at least two languages. When I was young, I knew the mass in Spanish but not in English. Then we moved here. Now, I know the prayers in English but have forgotten many in Spanish. But nonetheless, I can follow a mass in Spanish just fine. And even if I travel to a country whose language I don't know, I can follow the mass. I can actively participate. There's a unity about the mass. I like that unity, especially because it reminds me of the unity that we are working toward - the Parousia when God will be all in all.
Do any of you have that same experience? Does your child? We at St. Teresa's have the unique opportunity to attend mass right in our own parish in at least three different languages. So, if you ever want to experiment with this feeling of connectivity, you don't actually have to travel far at all.
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| Continued Conversations |
Have you ever talked to your child in any way about why or how mass is important to you personally? Have you ever shared stories of growing up? Or a story about a significant moment in your life that happened in the context of a mass? I mean, not in the heat of the moment when your child is saying they don't want to go to mass and, "Why do we have to?" But in some totally unattached moment. It begs the question ... have you ever really thought about why mass is important to you? Sometimes you can feel something, even pretty deeply and solidly, inside. But when it comes to speaking it to someone else, can you put words to the feelings or beliefs - appropriate words that really do your feelings justice.
I recently started reading a book called This I Believe. It stems from an essay series on National Public Radio. I just started last night, so I'm not far at all. But it raised my awareness of the power of words, but also the challenge of words. Imagine writing an essay, just a few hundred words, about what you believe. (It doesn't presume you believe only one thing, by the way. Each essayist writes about a specific area of belief, recognizing we all hold many beliefs.) When you must write something down, you really end up doing some soul-searching to get the message just right.
Does your child know what you believe about mass? Can you communicate it? Would you?
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| Archives |
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We have now established an archive of all these e-newsletters. You can access the archive from St. Teresa's web site. There's a link under the Catechesis section along the left.
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Please feel free to talk to me or email me ( LHilko@aol.com) if you have questions or comments or concerns about this information.
Sincerely, Lina Hilko
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