Over the past week, the House of Brigid has been focused on the teaching of children. On Tuesday night we had our second teaching Mass, where Emily and I, in conjunction with the school’s chaplain, celebrated a Mass with the First Holy Communion class and their parents, exploring and explaining a part of the Mass to the children each time we meet. This time, we focused on the Liturgy of the Word and what the Gospel means to us and to the children. Sometimes as a liturgist its hard for me to return to the basics without feeling like we’re not getting to the heart of the matter; that we are not teaching them what really needs to be conveyed. However, we were really touched when one mother told us that she didn’t know the Mass could be so beautiful; that she had never received anything like this when she was a child. It was a great affirmation of a completely new programme; one that will no doubt only continue to improve as it is continued.
The other event that we had was another class Mass on Thursday. It was a votive Mass for the Saints, and it was a great way to talk about the universal call to holiness and how we are all called to be saints. The 5th class did extremely well, and I am continually impressed with the student’s Prayers of the Faithful and the gifts they wish to offer at the Mass. It has shown me that one of the best ways to engage children and teach them is to ask them to be creative and to give them permission to make something their own.
Looking on to next week, we’ll be quite busy as we prepare for Thanksgiving and our own preparations for our House pilgrimage to Fatima afterwards. Having been born on the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima, I am particularly excited about this, but I’ll leave it to next week’s bloggers to talk more about it.
