Give me Jesus…

…It is not in a search for compensation that the child turns to God, but from a profound exigence (need) within the child’s nature.  The child needs an infinite, global love, such as no human being is able to give him…

…and in the contact with God the child experiences an unfailing love…the nourishment his being requires, nourishment the child needs in order to grow In harmony.  God--who is Love--and the child, who asks for love more than for his mother’s milk, thus meet one another in a particular correspondence of nature…

…In helping the child’s religious life, far from imposing something that is foreign to him, we are responding to the child’s silent request: “Help me to come closer to God by myself.”

Cavaletti, Sofia: RPC I, p. 45.                        
“I thirst…”   Jesus’ words from the Cross

• There are surely many presentations over the three year cycle.  What we do not have in CGS is a workbook or ‘activity pages’. The materials are not ‘teacher’s aids’ but exist to serve the child’s work with the presentation.  Both the joy of the child and repetition of use of any given material or work related to it is a sign that the presentation is ‘right’ for that child and for that age.  Across cultures, these presentations have stood up to these tests. The children’s work time is at least as important as the presentation itself, and it is in this time that the real reason for the materials is revealed.

• Each week in the atrium, time is set aside for the children to ‘work’ on their own.  This is a time when each child is expected to work independently and is meant to be a time of personal reflection, exploration and wonder.  The children are free to choose the type of work they wish, and often return to a favorite activity.  With each weekly presentation, there are unique materials used, as well as supplemental/enrichment materials available.  This gives the children many options to choose from.
  
  
• A catechist takes time to observe the children, individually, and to help them find work that satisfies them if they need guidance in this way.  Each child has a folder into which they can put their work, which they can take home each week or each month or so.

These are some of the work possibilities...

• Work with materials from one of the presentations, such as:
• Setting up the altar
• Working with the puzzle map
• Leading sheep out of/into the sheepfold
  
  
• Work with supplemental materials from one of the presentations, typically:
  • Tracing picture cards and making booklets
  • Tracing word cards or prayer cards
  • Coloring maps of the Holy Land, of the chasubles, etc.
  • Making collages for Baptism, the altar, the chasubles
    
    
• Practical life exercises: caring for our atrium, our selves,  and the environment, such as:
  • Watering, polishing plants
  • Dusting, sweeping
  • Polishing silver or brass (including the altar candle holders, model chalice or paten, etc.
  • Getting a drink of water

• Independent drawing or painting

• Making a prayer card with stencils, rubber stamps, or stickers

• Making a card for someone in the parish who is sick
  
  
• Reading a book from our ‘library’
  
  
• Praying by the prayer table