CHILDREN’S FORMATION

The Catechesis of the Good Shepard

The people of St. Matthew’s Church strive to respect, name, nurture, and be led by the child’s innate relationship with God in Christ, the Good Shepherd. We follow a Montessori-based approach to children’s religious formation, THE CATECHESIS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD (www.cgsusa.org), which aims to provide a place where children can grow closer to God in their own time and at their own rhythm.

The Atrium

The ATRIUM is a place of prayer, where work becomes conversation with God. It is a carefully prepared room containing beautiful materials designed to communicate the immense value of the Word of God, as well as the child: handmade dioramas of Jesus’ life and teachings; a model altar and baptismal font for reflecting on liturgical signs; timelines of sacred history; meditative items related to everyday living; and writing and art materials. Children are free to choose their own work, in the belief that the Holy Spirit is at work in each child, prompting the child toward the activity s/he needs.

We group the children by age, using the Montessori approach:

Good Shepherd Atrium – Preschool and kindergarten

True Vine Atrium – Grades 1,2, and 3

St. Francis Atrium – Grades 4 and 5

Adult Catechists

Each atrium has at least one fully trained adult CATECHIST, who listens and guides the children in giving and receiving the gifts of God.  One role of the catechist is to present biblical and liturgical themes to the children, encouraging them to reflect on a theme and showing how related materials are used.   Parents are invited to assist in the atrium.

Sunday Format

10:00-11:15 am – Children preschool – 5th grade gather in their atria/classroom.
10:00 am – Coffee in the community room for parents
10:30 am – Holy Eucharist begins.
11:15 am – Children join their parents during the Eucharist.

Family Celebrations

At the beginning of each liturgical season—Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost— children and parents gather for a Family Celebration. The children create their own symbolic materials to live with in the context of family life during the coming season. A catechist presents the meaning of the symbols and ways for the children and their parents to use them prayerfully at home.

Orientation for New Families

We are thrilled you have come to our web site. If you are interested in visiting or enrolling your child in the atrium, feel free to contact Pam Moore, Director of Children’s Formation (PamMooreSTM@aol.com, 847-869-4850 ext 4). Before the child’s first Sunday, a brief orientation allows the child and the parent to become acquainted with the atrium and its materials and to ask questions.

Listening to God with Children

“It’s always up and down, up and down.” “Sometimes you want to say thank you and other times you want to say I wasn’t so good.” “When you get a gift you say thank you to God; and when you forget, you say that.” “It’s both.” “It’s just the way it is – up and down, up and down.” So went the children’s responses to the prayer of the Pharisee and that of the tax collector (Luke 18: 9 – 14).

The Pharisee’s prayer was clearly boastful. Standing up front he says, “I thank you, Father, that I am not like other people – crooked, lying… I give ten percent of all I own to the poor… I’m not anything like that tax collector over there.” The tax collector on the other hand remained in the back. Not daring to raise his eyes, he beat his breast, saying, “Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Have the children missed the point of this parable? I don’t think so. They just accept the complexity of being human with enormous simplicity. They know their need to say thank you as well as the occasional: “I messed up.” It’s just the way it is in our life with God and one another.

With Lent on our doorstep and its annual appeal to repentance and prayer, I wonder if becoming like a child as Jesus implores simply means being open to the process of growth and transformation embodied in children and easily recognized as the norm by them. It is a process that has its ups and downs and is not entirely under our control. Children seem to accept this dynamic effortlessly. May the rest of us be blessed with the same during this season of lengthening days and hope of resurrection within us.