Question #1
Submitted by: Amy Brochu
I am looking for help in preparing the
children (16 this year) for reconciliation, eucharist, and confirmation.
I wish to cover more catechism. Please send me advice/experiences
that would assist my goal. Thanks.
Answer #1
Submitted by: Gerard Pottebaum
Dear Ms. Brochu:
Your request for help in preparing
children for the sacraments prompts these thoughts:
As presented in the Rite of Christian
Initiation of Adults (RCIA), the Church proposes that the proper
order in which children should also receive the sacraments is
Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist. Parish practice, however, varies.
Some parishes have children participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation
before first Eucharist; some delay Confirmation until the children
reach adolescence. You will find publishers that provide programs
to accommodate almost every situation. Without debating the order
of reception, no one argues with the document’s emphasis
on the Liturgy of the Word as primary in the sacramental initiation
process. This view compliments that of another Church document
issued in 1972, the Directory for Masses with Children, which
implicitly follows this over-riding principle: we should do what
is to the spiritual advantage of the children we are serving.
The primacy of celebrating the Word
and serving the spiritual needs of our children raises some basic
questions: what is the child’s relationship with God? How
can we nurture that relationship? Everyone seems to agree, children
already have a spiritual life before they enter any formal instruction.
They already have "encounters" with Jesus—they
experience hurt, rejection, joy, wonder, anger, all the pleasures
and pains that are part of the human experience through which
God's self-disclosure comes to us. When we gather with the children
for the celebration of the sacraments, in what sense can we say
we create an encounter with Jesus?
Consider this: Children already
have experiences of God's presence in their lives, including transcendence
and transformation. However, they don't have the language with
which to express, share, or explore those experiences with others.
When we tell children biblical stories, we provide them with access
to metaphors and images that (we believe) are worthy of the experience
children already have had. Our role is to tell the story and get
out of the way. To the extent that this happens, the child may
at a particular celebration "encounter Jesus"—
or come to discover "Yes, yes! That's it! And let me tell
you more about what being with God is like!" We don't need
to tell the children what to hear, nor what they're supposed to
"get out of the readings" and thereby "create an
encounter with Jesus." We are servants of the Word. The Spirit
provides the rest.
(Adults often ask, “How can
we pass on the faith to our children?” The way that question
is phrased suggests that we don’t think children know who
God is until we tell them. We overlook the observation Jesus made
about children: that they already possess the kingdom. He also
noted that unless we become as children, we will not enter the
kingdom. If children already possess the kingdom, then what are
we passing on to them when we “teach them the faith”?
Now that we’re adults, what happened to the kingdom that
we possess as children?)
When we gather for the liturgy of
the Word, which is an integral part of each sacrament, we use
ritual to make tangible what we believe lies hidden in the human
experience: that is, God is always speaking to us through human
experience. So we gather and tell the stories of encounters with
God. We do what children do naturally when they engage in fantasy
and play through which they deal with the ambiguities of the human
experience. Through story, they give or find order in a world
that is otherwise in chaos. Through play, they try on (act out)
various ways of being in the world.
We do the same thing in our liturgical
playtime: When we tell the story of God's love, of the life and
work of Jesus, we engage the imagination in finding and giving
meaning and order in a world that is in the process of being created
out of chaos. (We really do share in the making of the world.)
We believe Jesus shows us the way "to be" his presence
in the world today, and to continue his work in the world, through
the power of the Spirit.
Children have an innate knowledge
of this Word becoming flesh, of intimacy with God. They are (as
we all are) relational creatures who need to belong, to be recognized
and respected for who we are, to feel safe and secure (physically,
emotionally, spiritually). Children are at home with the sacred,
awed by mystery. They believe without having to see. They know
without explanations. They're at home with the union of matter
and Spirit. This sense of awareness in children is what we want
to tap into and awaken when we celebrate the the Word and sacraments
with childen. When we come to see the presence of Word made flesh
in us, we are ready to act that out by taking his flesh and blood
into our own and becoming one with him.
All of which leads us to consider
the expression: "Breaking open the Word" when we celebrate
the sacraments -- which has to do with breaking open our lives,
giving up our hold on life, cracking through our shells of self-indulgence,
and indifference toward others, so that we might discover another
Presence within and around us, the one who seeks intimacy with
us in our very flesh, the one whom we speak of as "the Word
made flesh" in us. Our children can help us to re-discover
this way of knowing and being with God and one another. In this
sense, when we “prepare children for the sacraments,”
we are as much served by them than we serve them, if we listen
to God with and through them.
In a very practical way, we try
to respect the child's original vision of God in sacramental preparation
programs when we engage children in reflecting on the scriptures
as we do in the SUNDAY
Liturgy Planning Guide, though the use of the inquiry method.
If you do not already have these materials, you can download samples
at our website: www.treehaus1.com. You might also want to download
samples of GOD'S GREATEST GIFT, a first Eucharist preparation
program that makes celebrating the Liturgy of the Word "foremost"
in drawing children (and adults) into the life and work of the
Christian community. This program also emphasizes how reconciliation
and the gifts of the Spirit are an integral part of the celebration
of the Eucharist.
I hope you find these reflections
helpful in approaching children and coming to know God better
with and through them.
