level 1: kinder/prep Our Church and the Holy Spirit Background Notes for Teacher Reflection and Preparation STRAND

CHURCH: Body of Christ, Community of Disciples, Witness to Unity and Justice.



VALUES AND PURPOSES

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS

Participation In The Prayerful, Liturgical And Sacramental Life Of The Faith Community Making Connections Students will discover that many people belong to the Church. Students will begin to develop an understanding of Church as gifted by the Holy Spirit as a welcoming and caring community that gathers together to celebrate and to follow Jesus.

Strand

Core Doctrinal Concepts

Catechism Reference

God

2. God loves each of us. 5. We experience God in other people’s love for us.

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Church

1. Jesus invites people into community. 2. The Church is a community that celebrates and shares the life and work of Jesus. 3. Baptism welcomes people into the Church. 4. The Holy Spirit, builds, animates and sanctifies the Church.

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Our Church and the Holy Spirit

Pentecost

Celebrating the Gift of the Spirit

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STUDENT CONTEXT Students come to school knowing that they belong to a family and other communities. Their understanding of ‘family’ will have been shaped by their experience. To have an understanding of the Church the children need to understand that they can belong to more than one family or community e.g. the school/parish community and that such communities can be groups of people who work, play and/or celebrate together. This sense of belonging will be developed by their experience of their class as a welcoming, celebrating community. This understanding can then be extended to the school and parish. At this stage children love stories and their daily life structured by routines and rituals. They are able to explore their experiences of belonging and of being welcomed. Their ability to use symbols, words and images in communication is rapidly developing. The concepts developed throughout this unit are of interest to them and are appropriate as they become involved in the school community.

THEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND FOR TEACHERS • Early followers of Jesus emphasized that families were the key building blocks of the spiritual family of God’s chosen ones. In a sense they saw the entire Christian community as the household of God’s family. Most primitive Christian gatherings for prayer and celebration of the Eucharist occurred in ‘house churches’, with ordinary Christian householders hosting and presiding over the sacred rituals. • In recent decades, Catholic congregations have been actively reclaiming and re-emphasizing the traditional notion of the family household as a ‘church of the home’ and a ‘church in miniature’. This is an appropriate point from which to develop a sense of the church as community. The church is often referred to as a true community of Christ’s followers, especially in the celebration of the sacraments and in other communal acts of worship and through the living witness to Christian values. (Ekstrom, 2000, p 52).

SCRIPTURE Mark 10:13-16 – Jesus Blesses the Little Children Some people brought their children to Jesus so that he could bless them by placing his hands on them. But his disciples told the people to stop bothering him. When Jesus saw this, he became angry and said, “Let the children come to me! Don’t try to stop them. People who are like these little children belong to the kingdom of God. I promise you that you cannot get into God’s kingdom, unless you accept it the way a child does.” Then Jesus took the children in his arms. Isaiah 49:15b-16a - The Lord’s Love Even if a mother could forget, I will never forget you. A picture of your city is drawn on my hand. You are always in my thoughts!

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Planning a Learning Sequence

Our Church and the Holy Spirit

1. Identify some groups to which they belong. 2. List a variety of people who belong to the Church. 3. Identify ways in which we celebrate as Church.

The Church is a celebrating community that shares God’s love.

4. Gather together as a group and participate in a prayer time.

Example: That the students will experience and begin to value a sense of belonging within a community. The Holy Spirit is the gift from God that enables us to be like Jesus.

Focus Question Example: What does belonging in a community tell me about God and God’s love?

Understanding Goals • In the church community there are many different people. • We can celebrate as Church in many places. • We celebrate in our family, classroom, school and parish. • We can feel that we belong when we celebrate as a Church community. • Pentecost is a key time in the Church Year. It is part of the Easter Season and is the time we remember when the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus’ Apostles.

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Demonstrated when students:

Level Focus

Overarching Goal

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Indicators of Learning

5. Retell the story of Pentecost.

Suggested Assessment Tasks • Draw a picture with the heading ‘I belong to…’ Children can include school and parish groups as well as family and sporting groups. They could label these groups or have an adult scribe for them. • Give a ‘news’ talk describing a group they belong to. • Complete a series of Y charts, ‘Belonging to a Family’, ‘Belonging to a Class/School community’, ‘Belonging to a Church/Parish community.’ • Children create a patch to contribute to a class paper patchwork quilt that illustrates what it means to belong to their Church/Parish community.

Suggested Learning and Teaching Experiences Focusing Activities • Set up a photo display of families. Try to include a variety of families doing a variety of things e.g. picnics, birthday parties, a baptism etc. Children could add to this collage during the following weeks. • Listen to and reflect on appropriate songs/hymns/ contemporary music. • Share a poem or story about belonging and families from the list of Literature Resources. Learning Activities • Paint/draw family pictures. Discuss what families do together and create a word web or an acrostic poem about families. • Make a plaque ‘I belong to the _________ family’. • Display a whole school or class photograph. • Role play some of the things different family members do. • Visit the Church and make a chart to show the similarities between the church building and a house.

• Make a mural of people who make up the school/ parish community.

• Invite the parish priest or member of the parish to talk about the parish community.

• Plan a prayer celebration. Make invitations to their family members and members of the Church/Parish community.

• Make a ‘Y chart’ about belonging.

• Children take an active part in a class celebration by singing, reading, praying. Children draw the different way they participated in the celebration.

• Make ‘gift vouchers’ for your family. • Sing and learn songs about belonging. (see suggested resources below) • Plan a prayer celebration. Make invitations to their family members and members of the parish community.

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• Invite children to bring family photo albums to school.

• Use a prayer response “Come Holy Spirit, fill us with your love.

• Read contemporary stories which reflect a theme of belonging.

• Make a class book about the Pentecost event.

• Discuss how to make the Sign of the Cross. See Appendix 1 for Drasko’s explanation about teaching this Sign. • Review Easter/The Resurrection when Jesus made the promise to his friends, “I will send the Holy Spirit.” This showed Jesus love for them.

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• Use Godly Play for retelling the Pentecost event Volume 4, Lesson 13, The Mystery of Pentecost. • Discuss how gifts eg wisdom, kindness are shared by people who love others and try to be like Jesus. • Record in picture form elements of gifts they each have. • Discuss promises, in the light of Jesus promise to send the Holy Spirit and how Jesus’ apostles were changed. Find out what the Apostles did after Pentecost. Link other apostles with the Pentecost event eg St Paul, the Saint who is patron of their school, people they know. • Determine our gifts from the Holy Spirt and how these are evident. • Discover symbols of the Holy Spirit, fire, wind, colours. • Introduce some key words – change, mission, promise, helper, advocate, comforter. • Blow bubbles and fly kites to see the action of the wind without it being seen.

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• It may be possible to introduce the word ‘Mystery” in reference to God.

• Make a cube with sides stating activities for daily use eg speak nicely, be happy, be helpful, be friendly, share, be kind. • Make a powerpoint Jesus saying , “ I will send the Holy Spirit.”

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Resources

NB: OP means “Out of Print’

Community Resources Parish Priest or Pastoral Associate. School Principal. Member/s of the parish.

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Teacher Resources Catechism of the Catholic Church. (2000). (2nd ed.). Homebush, N.S.W.: St Paul’s Publications. Hari, A., & Singer, C. (1993). Experience Jesus today: Understanding the Gospel. Strasbourg: Editions du Signe. [OP] Hari, A., & Singer, C. (1993). Discover the Old Testament today. Strasbourg: Editions du Signe. [OP] Hari, A., & Singer, C. (1997). Alive in the Spirit today. Chelmsford: Matthew James. [OP] Liddy, S., & Welbourne, L. (1999). Strategies for teaching Religious Education. Katoomba, N.S.W.: Social Science Press. The CEV Bible Catholic Edition Wintour, R. (1998). Sacred celebrations: Liturgies for children. Brisbane: Mountjoy Enterprises.

Student Resources McCallen, A.J. (1976). Listen! Themes from the Bible retold for children. London: Harper Collins. McCallen, A.J. (1979). Praise! Songs and poems from the Bible. London: Harper Collins. [OP]

Literature Bourgeois, P., & Clark, B. (1989). Hurry up, Franklin. Sydney: Ashton Scholastic Graham, B. (1997). Queenie the bantam. London: Walker. Graham, B. (c1985). First there was Frances. Port Melbourne: Lothian. Graham, B. (2001). Let’s get a pup! London: Walker. [OP] Gleeson, L., & Smith, C. (1997). Where’s Mum? Norwood, S. Aust: Omnibus Books. Goldsack,G. & Walker,S. (2004).My dad is great. Bath,UK:Bright Sparks Hunt, N., & Niland, D. (1990). Families are funny. Sydney: Collins. [OP] Loh, M., & Rawlins, D. (1997). Tucking mummy in. Gosford, N.S.W.: Scholastic. Watson,J. (2003). Grandpa’s shed. Gosford, N.S.W.: Scholastic. Watson, J., & Hodder, W. (1989). Grandpa’s slippers. Sydney: Scholastic. [OP] Whybrow, I. & Birmingham, C., (1999). A Baby for Grace. London: Kingfisher. Wild, M. (1998.). Rosie and tortoise. St. Leonards, N.S.W: Allen & Unwin. Zamorano, A., & Vivas, J. (1996). Let’s eat. Norwood, S.A.: Omnibus.

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Music Farrell, B. (1997). Circle song. On Great gifts [CD]. Dee Why: Willow Connection. McRae, M. (1985). God’s circle of love. On As one voice for kids [CD]. Manly Vale: Willow Connection. Millward, M. & Halloran, D. (2001). Joy for you and me. On Great stories and songs [CD]. Brookvale: Willow Connection. Walker, C. (1991). We are the Church. On Calling the children [Tape]. Portland: OCP Publications. Walker, C. & Freeburg, P. (1994). Jesus loves the little children. On Stories & songs of Jesus [CD] Portland: OCP Publications.

World Wide Web / Internet

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Treasures, New and Old. http://vision.cangoul.catholic.edu.au Scripture: a search engine for the NRSV translation.http://www.devotions.net/bible/00bible.htm The Vatican: includes a detailed index for the Catechism of the Catholic Church. http://www.vatican.va/

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APPENDIX 1 Teaching The Sign Of The Cross Drasko Dizdar When teaching children to make the sign of the cross I say something along these lines:

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We open our hand – because an open hand means that we are ready to give and to receive – and we place it on the top of our forehead, above our eyes, to remind us that God is always above and beyond anything that our minds can “see” or understand. And there we name God as “Father”, because God is the one we come from, the one who loves us.1 Then we plunge down with our hand, all the way down to the centre of our body: our belly-button, which is where we were once connected to our mother when we were in her womb. This is also the place where the womb is in women, where babies grow and come to life; and so it is the right place to name God as “Son”: because in Jesus God became the “Son of Humanity” (or “Son of Man”), God becomes one of us, and one with us. Why? So that we can rise and become one with him: we can become what he is: one-with-God.2 And this is why we now raise our hand up to our left shoulder and then make a wide sweeping gesture right across our chest (where our heart and lungs are) and name God as “Holy Spirit” – which means: God’s own Self, because a person’s “spirit” or “breath” (the word means both things at once) is their own self “alive and breathing”, as we say.3 The “Amen” with which we end is an ancient word from the language Jesus spoke, and it means something like a very strong YES!, or “So be it!”. It is our way of reminding ourselves of just what we said as we began to make the sign of the cross: we say Yes to the invitation to move into the very mystery of God for us: “In the name of...”

A “name” is how we know someone. Stepping into “the name” of God as Father, Son and Spirit is like stepping into the mystery of who God is for us. And who is God for us? God is the one who loves us absolutely from before we even came into being – the “Father”; the one who shows us just how completely we are loved because he is like us so that we can be like him: Jesus, the “Beloved Son”; the one who IS that love between the Father and the Son: the Holy Spirit that lives in us and in whom we live and move and come alive just like Jesus: one-with-God. Notes 1. When teaching teenagers and adults, I would add: God is named here as “Father” because the “Father” is the archetype of the “distant source”, the Transcendent Holy Other – as distinct from the Intimate Other, the “Mother archetype”, who is the All-encompassing One-with-whom-we-are-one; and in Christian theology that is the Holy Spirit. 2. When teaching teenagers and adults, I would add: The Christian archetype of the “human” is the woman Mary: the “Virgin Mother of God”, i.e. the completely free and whole person [=“virgin”] in whose very flesh [=“mother”] God’s desire that we become one-with-God [through “divinization”] is realized by God becoming one-with-us [in the “incarnation”].) 3. When teaching teenagers and adults, I would add: the whole horizon of our being, our history and our very humanity is permeated and animated by the life-giving Spirit in whom we receive our being. The Holy Spirit is, then, rightly called “our Mother”, as she is in the Syrian church, and by such theologians and doctors of the church as St Ephrem. The Holy Spirit is God as we “know” and “experience” God – namely as the Love that unites the Lover and the Beloved in the one triune and indivisible God.