“I hate going to church!” blurted a three-year-old child early in the atrium year.
The rest of the children said, “Me, too!”
Murita Chua said, “I wonder why?”
One by one, the children responded, “It’s boring!” “There’s nothing to do there.” “People talk and talk, but I don’t understand.” “I’m not allowed to talk or touch anything.” “People get mad at me when I walk around.” “I have to sit for too long.”
None of it came as a surprise to Chua, who works with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s Ministries and Outreach Office.
“These children were telling me that there is nothing for them in the church, and this is precisely the reason why Catechesis of the Good Shepherd exists,” she said.
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, simply called CGS by those who promote it, lets children open and close a miniature tabernacle, move the Good Shepherd and his flock around on a table, and pour water and wine into Mass vessels.
“It gives children a hands-on experience of the Church and helps them discover its beauty, goodness, and truth,” Chua said.
The program needs to be experienced to be properly understood, said Monica Perry, who oversees a new CGS atrium at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre. The “atrium” is the place where CGS happens, said Perry. Named for a church atrium – a courtyard or entrance outside a church – CGS serves a similarly transitional purpose.
Unlike a classroom, an atrium is a spiritual environment – “holy ground” where the child may encounter God in word and liturgy and is prepared for entering the presence of the “Holy of Holies,” the tabernacle containing Jesus present in the Eucharist.
The hands-on materials in the atrium encourage children to explore and deepen their experience of God at their own pace, and children are free to choose and work with carefully designed materials which transpose the Christian message into the language of the child – a language that is necessarily sensory based.
The new Edith Stein Atrium for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at the JPII Pastoral Centre was developed for the purpose of serving children, but also as a means of introducing pastors, CISVA principals and teachers, and the general lay faithful to the ministry, said Perry. It was formally blessed by Archbishop Miller during the summer.
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd was developed by Sofia Cavalletti, an Italian scripture scholar who insisted that the most pressing need of the young child is the need for God. CGS effectively meets this need, said Perry, and in the process also evangelizes adults.
For more information on CGS, or to schedule a tour of the atrium, email cgs@rcav.org.
