Feeling connected

Now is the time of year when many of the children in the lower elementary class are preparing for First Reconciliation and First Communion.  All the children in Miss Nieva’s class and those in the Afternoon Atrium Program are invited to participate in these preparations. We meet - children and parents - for five evenings to listen to and ponder the words of Jesus; and soon the children will spend three days on retreat. 

Truly, the children have been preparing to receive the gifts of reconciliation and of communion since they first began to work with primary atrium materials: the altar, the Good Shepherd, the prayers and gestures, the Last Supper, and more. During this time, a special box is placed near the prayer table in the atrium.  When children decide to prepare, they write their name on a small name card. They then place this card on a large prayer card which says, “The Good Shepherd calls his own by name.”  This prayer card invites all the elementary children to pray for those who are preparing.  After the celebration of reconciliation and communion, the name cards are added to the special box.  For over thirty years, the children of CFMS have added their names to this box.

Children share their insights with such anticipation. For example, when discussing recently with a second year student what the bread and the wine mean to her, she joyfully explained, “Jesus is with me.”  Last week we spent time with Jesus’ words in John 15, “I am the vine, you are the branches… Remain in my love.” We considered a vine plant, and the children named the different parts of the plant.  We talked about how it can be hard to distinguish between the vine and the branches, and we spoke of the sap that flows throughout the plant.  The children spoke of Jesus as the vine, of us as the branches, and of God the one who cares for it all.  We pondered the frequently repeated verbs, remain and bear fruit.   When I wondered how big this vine might be, one of the children exclaimed, “We’re connected to everyone and everything in the entire universe!”  Another child added joyfully that Jesus’ heart grows and grows to share his love with everyone.

The children celebrate, with reverence and joy, their connection to Jesus, their connection to each other as branches, their connection to all those who have come before them at CFMS and whose names are in the special box. They also feel connected to those they don’t know and pray for the homeless and those who are cold and have no place to go. The children extend this sense of connection and pray for the end of war and for Parousia to come, - the time when “God will be all in all.” They invite their parents to join in prayer, in silence and with words, for all those who they are connected to, giving thanks for the community that is our school.

Jodi-beth McCain