Lesson Two

 

Today we had our second faith formation.  It was fun!  Everyone enjoyed it! And this time it took half an hour.  I think that's just right for a six-year-old and her ten-year-old sister.  I know that it takes me days to prepare and it's over in 30 minutes, but I enjoy the preparation.  

We started with music playing in the background--"Down to the River to Pray".  And while we worked the older one kept singing "Down to the River to Pray."

We began by blessing ourselves, especially the six-year-old who off how well she knows how to bless herself.

Religion:

We talked about how we knew about God: Bible, Church, and Traditions.  I told them that the Bible was a Book of many books: letters, songs, stories, laws, poems, history, etc.  To prove this we made a craft.  I gave them pictures to paste into their own book.  Each book contained a poem, a picture, a letter, a cartoon, a word search, and a story.  Then I explained that if I said I don't like your book, you'd ask what I didn't like, i.e., the story or the picture or the poem, etc.  So no one can say they don't like the Bible because there too many different genres in it.  

Church:

I reviewed the white statues on the facade of the church.  I showed them the statue of Mary in front of the rectory and the statue of St. Therese of the Flowers, next to the church.  We then related St. Rocco's Festival stories.  We have the statue of St. Rocco on the other side of the church.

Mass:  

They didn't remember that the Mass is the Last Supper.  Well, it so happens that last weekend was the girls' uncle's birthday.  I reminded them that they brought a tomato pie that they made.  One aunt made the birthday cake.  Another aunt brought shrimp.  Everyone had a job to do.  This discussion segued nicely into the different jobs people at Mass do: priest, deacon, altar servers, lectors, cantors, choir, ushers, and ministers of Communion.

Prayer:

I taught them that game: here's the church, here's the door, here's the steeple, open the doors and see all the people.

A craft was next.  The older one traced the younger one's hand and on each finger she wrote who to pray for: the thumb is closest so we pray for the family, the pointer finger points us the way to go, so we pray for teachers, the tallest is for our president and our pope, the ring finger is our weakest so we pray for the sick, and the last is for ourselves.  We can't forget to pray for ourselves.

Song:

We closed with Amazing Grace.  I didn't have to teach it to them because they already knew it.  Nana sings it all the time.  Now they know two songs.