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 known as THE CATECHESIS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD (www.cgsusa.org). The primary aim of the Catechesis is 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, especially the parables of the Kingdom of God; 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. The children are free to choose their own work. This freedom of choice and movement corresponds to 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
Pam Moore’s email: PamMooreSTM@aol.com
Adult Catechists
The children and the adults who work in the atrium are partners in giving and receiving the gifts of God. The adults, called CATECHISTS, are guides and colisteners more than teachers. The catechist is like a matchmaker between God and the child, stepping back when the two connect. 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.
Each atrium has at least one fully trained catechist. Parents are invited to assist in the atrium. If you would like to volunteer, please email Pam Moore: e-mail needed.
Sunday Format
9:30 am – Children in the Good Shepherd and True Vine Atria (preschool through third grade) gather with their parents for the Family Catechesis.
9:30 am – Fourth and fifth graders gather in the St. Francis Atrium.
10 am – Good Shepherd and True Vine Atrium sessions begin for preschoolers through third graders.10 am – Coffee in the community room for parents
10:30 am – Holy Eucharist begins; fourth and fifth graders attend.
11:15 am – Preschoolers through third graders join their parents during the Eucharist.
Family Catechesis
9:30–10 am
Parents are their child’s first and primary theological guides. Our Sundays therefore begin with parents and children together for the FAMILY CATECHESIS in the assembly room (just inside the Lincoln Street door). Family Catechesis is a half hour of informal singing and reconnecting, celebrating birthdays and baptisms, recalling the significance of the current liturgical season, and transitioning to the atrium and the liturgy. A presentation from the atrium occasionally is offered.
Family Celebrations
At the beginning of each liturgical season—Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost— children and parents gather for an extended Family Catechesis time. 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. We call these moments FAMILY CELEBRATIONS.
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 (info@stmatthewsevanston.org, 847-869-4850 ext 4). Before the child’s first Sunday, a brief orientation allows the child and the parent an opportunity to become acquainted with the atrium and its materials and to ask questions.
The Nursery
The nursery, located on the second floor near the atria, is open 9:30 am–noon every Sunday during the academic year. The nursery is staffed by three professional nannies who eagerly tend to the needs of our littlest ones. Many parents retrieve their child during the church service so the family can receive communion together.
Parents are welcome to keep their child with them in church and take the child to the nursery only if the need arises. The service is broadcast into the hallway if the child needs a brief break, and the back of church has ample room for toddler movement.
Children in Church
This is our motto and our reality. Many children attend the Sunday Eucharist. Although the atrium time for younger children overlaps the 10:30 am service, children are always welcome to attend the entire service and especially are welcome to receive communion with their parents. We are committed to the progressive involvement of children in the life of the Church. For example, children in the St. Francis Atrium can serve as acolytes, and many children participate in service ministries such as food preparation for the Night Ministry.
The Children’s Table
To assist the children to gradually absorb the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feel of the liturgy, there is a CHILDREN’S TABLE at the back of church, where the children can choose from carefully selected coloring materials and books. This, of course, is the adult’s point of view. For the children, these physical activities are a way to participate in the life of the worshipping community. Their confidence and joy as they gather their materials reveal a strong sense of belonging.
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.
