The Gatekeeper
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, Level I October 12, 2012 - Level 1, Issue 02
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| Dear CGS Level I Parent, |  This coming week, Level I children will reflect on the parable of the Good Shepherd. Parents are encouraged to read the parable and reflect on it, as well. You can do this quietly on your own or with your child. Either way opens the opportunity for you to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. Maybe you have read the passage before. Listen carefully to what strikes you specially this time. Please note that newsletters will not be produced for each level each week of Atrium. We try to stagger and sometimes combine the news for levels so parents, especially those with children in multiple levels, do not feel over-loaded with reading. Please do not rely on newsletters as a scheduling reminder, but rather use the schedule magnets we handed out at parent meetings. The schedule is also on St. Teresa's web site. We may also start sending newsletter on Monday or Tuesday of a week, rather than targeting Friday (designed to fall in advance of all the week's sessions). This means that Sunday people might get their news after their child's session, and weekday parents get it before. Just trying to find the best approach for all. Please e-mail in advance of an absence to Kate Lynch (kolynchdre@gmail.com) and your catechist (see last week's e-news, accessible through the archive), both to ensure the safety of children and to help your catechists' time management. Your child is invited to another session during the week of an absence so they don't miss the experience. Session weeks begin on Sunday of any given week.
Peace,
Lina Hilko (editor)
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Falling in Love
| Level I Atrium offers the child time, space, and opportunity to fall in love with God through Jesus, the Good Shepherd. This provides the solid foundation for the child's later moral formation because their whole life and all its moral choices can be built on the child's knowledge that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, loves them abundantly, completely, and perfectly. Their life becomes a joyful response to that gift of love.
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Parable of the Good Shepherd
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Catechesis of the Good Shepherd initiates the child's relationship with the Father through his Son. We can read in John 14:6 Jesus' words, "No one can come to the Father except through me." Thus, the central proclamation CGS gives to young children is the parable-allegory of the Good Shepherd found in John 10:1-18.
The complete parable is presented gradually over the course of the six years of Levels I and II, with specific portions being provided at appropriate times, based on the child's readiness for the various pieces of the proclamation. Parents may read over the entire citation, but they should know that in reality this parable unfolds in a careful manner. (Specifically, the hired hand and the wolf aren't presented to the youngest children.) The youngest children will receive just the following passages: John 10: 3(b) - 5, 10(b) - 11, 14 - 16. The catechist may open by saying something like, "Jesus talked about being the Good Shepherd. I'll read his words from the Bible."
The sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. |
On Presenting Parables
| One of the harder things a catechist must do is to stop themselves from interpreting, explaining, or defining parables - to simply proclaim and facilitate the children's joyful discovery of meaning and purpose. Parables speak uniquely to each individual. The same parable can provide a different message at different points in one person's life. But the power of a parable can only work within a person if the catechist steps down and leaves space and silence. Parents, too, are invited to respect, with faith, the slow work of the Holy Spirit in their child.
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Feed My Sheep
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The Level I children can meditate further on the parable of the Good Shepherd in the Atrium by working with manipulative material. The materials include a beautiful stone sheepfold, two-dimensional wooden models of sheep, and a two-dimensional wooden model of the Good Shepherd.
I wonder if and when the opportunity arises at home to meditate further on the parable? What does such opportunity look like, keeping in mind that it may not use words.
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Feel free to comment on this information to Lina Hilko, LHilko@aol.com, the editor and/or Kate Lynch, kolynchdre@gmail.com, St. Teresa's Director of Religious Education. Thanks!
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