Children s Mi nistr y U pdate Office for Family & Parish Based Catechesis YEAR C: LUKE Ordinary Time From the Editor Greetings to all! Here we are again with another edition of the newsletter. A busy few months have passed and I have so much to share with you in this edition. Volume4 Edition4: 2010 A few weeks ago I attended the Catechists Conference in Perth which was entitled Remain in My Love It was very beneficial to have been there. I met lots of catechists whose main role was working with state school children after school catechesis classes. They face the same concerns about how to involve the families in the life of the parish and ignite enthusiasm, just as we do here! Please read my detailed story on page 3. No doubt you were caught up in the festive celebratory atmosphere of the canonisation of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop! It was wonderful to see the media s interest in that auspicious occasion which alerted all Australians, regardless of religious affiliation to the significance of seeing Australia claim its first saint. I was part of the hundreds in the Cathedral, who watched the telecast live from Rome. It was overwhelming to see the canonisation take place as I had never seen one before and I realised just how significant it was in the eyes of the Catholic Church worldwide, let alone especially for South Australia. I felt privileged to have been part of that historical event and so satisfied that Mary was deservingly recognised for her amazingly humbling work and service! The annual cathedral visits have been going well. This initiative, started by the Archbishop, has taken place for last past few years and it is an opportunity for children of catechetical age and mostly those children preparing to receive their sacraments, spend time touring the cathedral and then have time speaking with the Archbishop. It is a pleasant afternoon shared by all. I would like to see some parish groups take up the invitation next year. Looking at this office s calendar, there are only 2 events remaining for you to be involved in for this year. Firstly, the Share n Swap/ Planning 2011 workshop which will be held on Friday 19th November. This will be a time to celebrate and share in all the great work done this year, an opportunity to share and take away some new ideas and activities to plan the season of Advent/ Christmas with and also be a time to forward plan for next year. It will be a chance for you to tell us how we can best be resources and support your work and meet your needs. I will pass on some great ideas I gained from my time in Perth also, so please make time to come along. Inside this edition Relationship With God 2 The Last Post 2 Detailed Events 3 Resources 3 Detailed Diary Dates 4 Your Parish Story 4 Catechist Prayer Page 5 Diary Dates ADVENT/CHRISTMAS & PLANNING for 2011 WORKSHOP 19th November BLESSING OF THE CRIBS MASS 28th November Secondly, the annual Blessing of the Cribs mass which will be held on Sunday 28th November at St Francis Xavier Cathedral. This is always a special celebration to signify the start of Advent with it being a child centred focus. This is an opportunity for children to bring their own family crib to be blessed or they may want to make their own and have that blessed. The Archbishop really enjoys seeing the children and their families at this mass. Hope to see you there! Please refer to our website for useful resources to help assist you in your planning for this coming Advent/Christmas season. Wishing you much renewed enthusiasm and energy in your ministry In God s Blessings, Carmen
A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD What does it mean to enter into a personal relationship with God?...A relationship with God is the same as a personal relationship between two friends. If our friendship is real, we welcome God into our lives and the way we live our lives will then reflect that we want God in our day to day living. We can not earn a relationship with God as it comes as a gift of God s love and mercy to us because we are created to be relational beings. It is natural for our spiritual growth and our relationship with God to change with time. As we go forward we will always find more more knowledge and experience of God that will stretch us and strengthen us. Having a relationship with God helps us to find increasing amounts of inner love, peace, patience and faithfulness. To meet God does not mean we have to see God physically but rather, we can encounter God with the eyes of understanding at a much deeper level through creation, others and scripture. God meets us in places of the heart, in the wonder and awe of life. We know that having a relationship with God means also entering into a relationship with Jesus. We can know God because God is revealed through Jesus who healed the sick, fed the many, loved deeply and taught wisely. The apostle Paul understood the necessity of a Christ-centered relationship with God in his writings in 1 Corinthians 1:1-9. Paul had come to know Jesus as the mediator between God and humanity, hence it is in the face of Jesus where we find the face of God who accepts us as we are and loves us too much to ever leave! Our relationship with God further extends our relationships with others as an opportunity to live out our baptism and allow Christ to open us out to his pure receptivity to God. In reading scripture, the Bible does not refer to a personal relationship with God as such, but it does show the importance of learning to love, trust and know a very personal God. Page after page suggests that it is who you know that counts and that who you need to know is God. Jesus himself prayed to his father, this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent Jn 17:3. In the busyness of everyday life it is easy to forget that God calls each of us into personal relationship. God doesn t need help to relate to us but we often need help to foster our side of the relationship. Each person meets God in his or her own experience, for God is there present in the ordinary moments of each day. For some an awareness of God comes through creation. We might have a deep sense of the wonder of God as we walk along the beach or attend to our garden. Others find connection through people, the smile of a stranger or the hug of a child. Through these brief encounters we are reminded of the unconditional love of God. Some meet God through Scripture as they imagine themselves present in a Gospel story or notice that a particular word or phrase touches the heart. Many people find music to be the preferred pathway to connecting with God. St. Augustine reminds us that when we sing with an open heart we pray. For many Catholics the Eucharist is the place where God is experienced as most strongly present. We gather as community to remember the life, death and resurrection of Jesus present in our midst. It is by paying attention to these moments of meeting God and reflecting upon them that we grow in our relationship with God. We then discover that God is much closer than we think. God cares for us, loves us and enjoys being with us. As we notice this more and more in our own lives we are increasingly able to invite children into this kind of noticing. An important part of our role as catechist is to invite children to faith. Let us take pleasure in discovering together the God who dwells in our midst. Val DeBrenni REMEMERANCE DAY: THE LAST POST In military tradition, the Last Post is the bugle call that signifies the end of the day's activities. It is also sounded at military funerals to indicate that the soldier has gone to his final rest and at commemorative services such as ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day. The Last Post is one of a number of bugle calls in military tradition that mark the phases of the day. While Reveille signals the start of a soldier's day, the Last Post signals its end. The call is believed to have originally been part of a more elaborate routine, known in the British Army as "tattoo", that began in the 17th century. In the evening, a duty officer had to do the rounds of his unit's position, checking that the sentry posts were manned and rounding up the off-duty soldiers and packing them off to their beds or billets. The officer would be accompanied by one or more musicians. The "first post" was sounded when he started his rounds and, as the party went from post to post, a drum was played. The drum beats told off-duty soldiers it was time to rest; if the soldiers were in a town, the beats told them it was time to leave the pubs. Another bugle call was sounded when the officer's party completed its rounds, reaching the "last post" this signalled that the night sentries were alert at their posts and gave one last warning to the other soldiers. The Last Post was eventually incorporated into funeral and memorial services as a final farewell, and symbolises the duty of the dead is over and they can rest in peace! www.awm.gov.au Page 2
DETAILED EVENTS T H E C A T E C H I S T C O N F E R E N C E I was happy to attend a 3 day conference for catechists in Perth. The draw card for me was the keynote speaker Dr Maurice Ryan, whose books I had used in my previous role as a teacher of religious education. He was fabulous! He likened the role of the catechist to being a living branch whereby in our ministry we embrace the truth that as Christians we live through, with and in Jesus Christ. Our ministries are the work of Jesus in the catechist s work bringing about the kingdom of God. Catechists bring the richness of their experiences to their work, their skills and their commitment to the deepening of the faith. Catechists are the bridges that cross between family, parish and faith. There were a number of workshops for us to choose from, all interesting but time was limited. In taking part in the creative strategies workshop, I came away with many varied strategies and resources useful for breaking open the Word with children which are easy to use, require a little effort to set up, are inexpensive and will engage all children! I plan to incorporate the new ideas in my work with you next year in the hope to lessen your load and inspire you with new ideas when working with your children and families. MARY MACKILLOP CANONISATION On Monday 18th October, 1,350 people gathered to celebrate the wonderful event that was the canonisation of Mary MacKillop, now known as Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Amongst those gathered were students and teachers representing each Catholic school in South Australia, a group from the sisters of St Joseph and staff from the Catholic Education Office. It was a glorious day with a very moving liturgy in the Cathedral to begin the celebrations. We then walked over to Victoria square to form a human cross with all the children taking part. (as shown in the photo) Everyone enjoyed lunch from Subway whilst being entertained by the many talented bands from the various Catholic colleges. A great day was enjoyed by all! The aim was to have a festive, memorable day to mark our first Australian saint and I am happy to say that we achieved our aim, the children had fun and knew the reason why they were there!! PHOTO SOURCE: THE ADELAIDE ADVERTISER BLESSING OF THE CRIBS MASS This annual mass to signal in the beginning of the Advent/ Christmas season will happen on Sunday 28th November at 11am in the Cathedral. This is always a special mass with it being a child centred celebration. It is an opportunity for children to bring in their commercially made family nativity cribs or their hand made Nativity cribs to be blessed by the Archbishop. All the children are invited to process in with their cribs and then take part later in the mass when the blessing occurs. The host school this year is Whitefriars school at Woodville, who will sing in the choir and make nativity cribs at school that will be part of the mass. This will be followed by morning tea in the hall where there will also be a display from Pauline Books and Media with items available for purchase as well as a display from a local artist who makes nativity dolls and Christmas figures available for purchase. Please come along and encourage your parish families to participate also. RESOURCES Special Times With God : Family Devotions With Young Children By: David & Naomi Shibley RRP: $19:95 Available from www.johngarratt.com.au/ph:1300650878 Page 3
Office for Family & Parish Based Catechesis Catholic Education Office 141 South Road Thebarton PO Box 179 Torrensville Plaza SA 5031 Ph: 08 8301 6110 Fax: 08 8301 6842 We re on the web www.adelaide.catholic.org.au/sites/parishandfamilybasedcatechesis Detailed Diary Dates 2010 ADVENT/CHRISTMAS & PLANNING FOR 2011 WORKSHOP When: Friday 19th November Where: Catholic Information & Resource Service (CRIS) 112 Kintore Street, Thebarton BLESSING OF THE CRIBS MASS When: Sunday 28th November Where: St Francis Xavier Cathedral, Wakefield Street, Adelaide city For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God. St Teresa of Avila We are in the midst of planning an intergenerational / parish social day for the 1 st Sunday of Advent. It will begin with a Mass followed by group activities with the children. One group will be making Christmas decorations, one group cooking / decorating Christmas cuisine, one group helping with the BBQ lunch; one group learning Christmas carols and another group over on the school oval playing games. The children will be supervised by different groups from the Parish, e.g. the Antioch group and the youth who are going to WYD in Madrid next year; those on the PPC; the CWL ladies; the dads and other men doing the BBQ and outdoor activities and some of the musoes teaching some fun Christmas carols. We re hoping the teachers from the school will also be involved and I ll be meeting with the Principal. It has been suggested that those who are leading the activities might like to fancy dress in a Christmas theme. The day will end with a concert of the Christmas carols. Like I said, this is still in the planning phase, but these are some of the ideas that I ll be putting to the planning group. There may possibly be other ideas after we have our meeting in a week s time. The children will make a nominal payment to be part of the activities and the proceeds will help with the cost of the WYD pilgrimage. There will be an invitation sent out to all the parents of the children who attend Star of the Sea and we will be involving as many as possible of those children in the Mass which gets the parents there!! I ll also be inviting all of the children who have celebrated the Sacraments since I started, and who don t attend the parish school. That s quite a number on its own. e.g., last Sunday my group of young musoes (aged 7 15) sang and played at the 9:30 a.m. Mass. Out of the 9 present, only 3 attend Star of the Sea school! I m quite excited about the whole thing, so please pray that it goes well. Joan Walsh..Henley Beach parish Your Parish Story Page 4
Catechist Personal Prayer Page As we look at the life of Mary MacKillop we see a woman who perseveres in the journey of faith despite the suffering that she endures. There are times when Mary comes close to despair, she is no stranger to suffering. In her life she experiences hardship and poverty, the death of loved ones, sickness, the breakdown of a close friendship and unjust criticism; yet through it all she places her trust in God. Mary finds strength and meaning in the cross of Jesus. Like Jesus she finds the courage to enter into suffering rather than to run away from it. She is known as St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Matthew 16:24-26 Then Jesus told his disciples, If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Let not your crosses make you unhappy. Look upon them as stepping stones to an eternity of happiness, and value them as the most precious present from a good and loving God. (Mary MacKillop, 28.2.1890) How readily do I embrace the crosses in my life? Take a moment to reflect in silence upon these aspects of your life. In this moment first name, then try to embrace the crosses in your life God is there in the midst of them.