EARLY
CHILDHOOD –
KINDERGARTEN
IN
GOD’S IMAGE
Module
16 –
Walking in the Light
The
catechists and the resources offer ways to assist the
children of this age level to connect with the events around the
Advent-Christmas-Epiphany Seasons. The
theme of waiting is key to what Advent is about.
Even with little children it is important
not to celebrate Christmas before the event.
A Key Advent Activity:
ADVENT
– ADVENT-URE
With
the song, “Walking Toward Christmas” as the common
thread, the children meet the key persons and images involved in the
circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus ---Tree, Mary and Joseph,
Stable,
Jesus, Star. It is suggested that the
manger scene is set up gradually in the gathering area (catechetical
space/classroom), using the above mentioned figures.
The children are encouraged to make a little banner at
home with
their families. Jesus and the star are
not put into the scene until Christmas.
Other
activities suggested:
- The Waiting Gift - to empohasize that Advent is about
waiting
- A Family Advent-ure - a box that children take home to
share at Advent time together with their family
- Footsteps to the Light - add a footprint for each day in
Advent
- The Waiting Circle - the Advent Wreath
- Advent/Christmas Celebration
- The Giving Star - Epiphany - to be experienced after
Christmas, closer to the Feast of the Epiphany
PRIMARY CYCLE - Years
1,2,3
The Primary Cycle (years 1,2,3) invites us to ask the
question: “How can we best assist young children to enter into the
mystery of
the nativity of the Lord Jesus?” The
themes of Unit 4 in all three levels of the primary cycle invite the
children
to enter into the hopes and expectations of the season of Advent so
that the
promise of God’s coming may become part of their lives.(see Catechist
Manual – p. 115, Year One).
YEAR ONE –
ADVENT/CHRISTMAS/EPIPHANY
UNIT 4 – God
Dwells Among Us.
More
than just telling the story of the birth of Jesus, the
children are invited to “dwell” in the story. They
become in touch with the meaning of the birth of
Jesus through many
rituals and symbols – Advent Wreath, Christmas Eve Mass, gift giving,
Christmas
tree, crèche, Christmas family meal, Christmas carols, etc.
In Year I, the
children are presented the story of how God
chooses Mary to be the mother of Jesus. (Theme
10). After hearing the
story of the Annunciation, the children are centred with the prayer,
the Hail
Mary, and invited to learn it by heart.
The children
are invited to share in Mary’s joy. (Theme
11). The children are invited to a guided
meditation of a visit
with
Mary. They share through conversation
how they get ready for the Feast of Christmas and explore new ways that
it can
be done in their families.
In Epiphany
(after Christmas) the theme invites the children
to celebrate God-With-Us. “The magi
story reveals that God is with all people of goodwill.”
(Theme 12) – see p. 139 manual.
A
Key Advent Activity:
To assist children in
celebrating the season, there is
ongoing ritual activity, ADVENT – ADVENT-URE, the same as in the Early
Childhood resource, ‘In God’s Image’. Within
this activity, links are made with the home to
involve the family
in the child’s preparation for the feast of Christmas
With the song, “Walking Toward
Christmas” as the common thread, the children meet the key persons and
images
involved in the narrative of the birth of Jesus – Tree, Mary and
Joseph,
Stable, Jesus, Star.
Each week, one
part of the story is toldCatechists are encouraged to
gradually set up the manger scene in a gathering space with the
children, using
the above mentioned figures and images.
YEAR
TWO – ADVENT/CHRISTMAS/EPIPHANY
UNIT 4 – Let’s
Treasure God’s Presence.
The
Year 2 resource offers a catechesis centred on the
Eucharist. Throughout the year, the
focus is on the four main parts of the Eucharistic celebration – the
Gathering
Rite, Liturgy of the Word, Liturgy of the Eucharist, Sending Forth. In Unit 3, the children look at the main
elements of the Liturgy of the Word – “We listen to the Word, we
treasure the
Word, we respond to the Word.”
The Advent Unit 4 uses this same terminology.
The
children learn that Mary is one who listened, responded, waited and
gave birth
to God’s Word in the annunciation, visitation and birth of Jesus. (Theme 8). Like
Mary, they and we are all invited in Advent to
listen, to treasure,
and to respond to God’s Word. In Theme
9 the children reflect on how Elizabeth treasured and responded to
God’s
word. In Theme 10, the children
discover how John the Baptist responds to the Word
Following on an Advent theme
from Year 1, the children
reflect on the theme of waiting for the coming of Jesus.
A Key Advent Activity:
The first theme in Unit 4 (Theme 8)
introduces the Advent Wreath as a symbol of waiting.The
children are invited to make
their own story candle for their story wreath, one for each
week. The candles will each illustrate the
Advent
Scriptures. The fourth story candle
will illustrate the Epiphany story (Theme 11.
In themes 8 & 9, the children
celebrate God’s Word in Advent through processing, singing, listening,
responding in ritual using the Advent wreath and candles.
In Theme 11, the children celebrate Jesus as
gift from God to the World through the Christmas and Epiphany stories. Through ritual and story, the Advent wreath
is transformed into a Christmas wreath of stars, symbolizing the gift
of Christ
himself coming to light the darkness and to nurture our lives.
YEAR THREE –
ADVENT/CHRISTMAS/EPIPHANY
UNIT
4 – The Holy Spirit Comes Upon Advent People
Year 3, In
the Spirit We Belong,
explores our
belonging to the Church gathered in the Holy Spirit.
It focuses on how the Holy Spirit is active in the Church
and in
creation, and in our lives. God’s
people are meant to be gathered as one and the Holy Spirit is
constantly active
in gathering us all.
The Advent
Unit 4, focuses on how
the Holy Spirit
comes upon Advent people. In Theme 7,
children meet Isaiah, the prophet who spoke about the coming of
Emmanuel:
God-with-us. They discover that Mary
and Joseph are persons upon whom the Spirit of God rests.
How Mary and Joseph respond to the work of
the Holy Spirit leads the children into looking at their own actions
and moving
forward into doing everyday things for others and to work together for
others.
In Advent, the children are asked to prepare a welcoming space for God.
A Key Advent Activity:
Through ritual activity and
celebration around the
Advent Wreath and the Christ Candle, the children enter into some of
the
Scriptural narratives of Advent/Christmas: the Annunciation story, the
story of
Isaiah’s call, the story of Joseph’s call and his part to fulfill God’s
dream.
A progressive
activity flowing
through the unit is a manger scene created by the children. Blackline masters 7-12 contain pictures of
Isaiah and of the traditional crèche figures, which are coloured
and made into
stand-up figures for the class crèche and for their family. The figures can also be molded from clay.
Theme 10 invites
the children into
the mystery and wonder of Christmas by:
o
hearing the Christmas story – Luke
2:3-20
o
by moulding themselves into clay
figures to be placed
around the Advent wreath, and to talk about the way God gathers people
to
remember and celebrate Jesus’ birth
o
by celebrating God’s spirit in the
Epiphany story
through procession, singing, hearing the Word, and ritualizing how God
is
dwelling among them.
YEAR
FOUR – ADVENT/CHRISTMAS/EPIPHANY
UNIT
4 – A Light
Shines in the Darkness
In the Year 4
resource, Come and See,
the children
meet Jesus through the living experience of Gospel witnesses, persons
who knew
Jesus, and explore what it means to be a disciple and friend of Jesus
today.
In Advent
Unit 4, the children
explore the meaning of
darkness and light. They reflect on
Advent as a season of longing and waiting for the great light: Jesus
Christ,
God-with-us.
In Theme 7, the
children learn that Advent
is a season of
waiting in hope, and they reflect on how they are signs of hope in our
world. In Theme 8, John the Baptist is
introduced as the one who paints the way to Jesus, bearing witness to
the
light. The story of “Hubert the
Earthworm’ is told, as a story of a tiny star and a great Light. The children give thanks for John the
Baptist who painted the way to the true light, Jesus.
In Theme 9, the children are offered the Scripture from
Isaiah
1:16, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a
branch shall
grow out of his roots and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him…” The tree stump introduced in Unit One
becomes the Jesse Tree, in Advent.
A Key Advent
Activity:
- to assist the
children in their
understanding of the meaning of the Advent/Christmas/Epiphany seasons,
there
are on-going rituals and celebrations that focus on the symbolism of
light in
our Christian tradition
- .the children
together assemble an
Advent wreath and learn the meaning of the various parts of the wreath
- the children
prepare symbols to
represent Jesus’ ancestors which become part of a Jesse Tree activity. The Jesse Tree helps the children know the
story of David and all the other important people who were part of the
Jesus’
story.
In Theme 10 the
children enter into the
Christmas story,
identify people of light in their Christmas experiences and explore the
epiphany narrative and its light motif. They
are invited to think about themselves as
people-of-light. They create an Epiphany
star for the group,
gathering around the Christ candle where they acknowledge their need
for
epiphany stars and light in their lives.
YEAR
FIVE – ADVENT/CHRISTMAS/EPIPHANY
MAY
WE BE ONE
UNIT
4 – The
Church Awaits the Coming of the Lord
In Year 5, the
catechetical emphasis is on
community,
focusing on “how the Church is a gathering, a communion of people from
all
nations in and through the spirit of God.” The
Scriptures tell of “God’s desire to be in touch with
us…” The focus of Advent Unit 4 is
the
spirit of hope that we have as Christians, in spite of obstacles, so
that the
promise of God’s coming among us may become part of our lives.
In Theme 7, the children focus
on our call
as Christians to
be people of hope. They listen to the
messages of the prophet Isaiah and of John the Baptist.
These were messages of hope:
- a woman to give birth to a child,
named Emmanuel,
God-with-us
- the people to prepare for God’s
coming by repenting,
being baptized and being transformed into a new people.
In
Theme 8, the children meet Mary as one
who gives hope in
God’s promise and experience the Advent mysteries of waiting and
hoping,
longing and expectation.
In
Theme 9, the children recall ways that
Christians
celebrate Advent. They recall the
persons of Isaiah, John the Baptist, Mary and all those faithful to the
promise
in our lives. The persons of
the Jesse Tree and the saints of the Church
are included in the discussions with the children of those faithful to
the
promise of the Covenant.
A
Key Advent Activity:
To support the
Advent ritual
activities, the children make an Advent wreath and weave baskets of
hope that
speak of the spiritual hopes they have for themselves and for the world.
By way of
celebrations and ritual the children:
o
celebrate a blessing of the Advent
wreath (pp. 124-125
of TM)
o
celebrate Mary’s response to God’s
message (pp. 130-131
of TM)
o
celebrate the promise of Advent, by
proclaiming Luke
1:46-56 and ritualizing its meaning around the Jesse Tree and the
Advent
Wreath.
In theme 10,
the children explore the symbol
of the star of
Epiphany and its significance; the meaning of Epiphany and covenant
through
scripture stories. Jesus is shown to
all nations in the world. The promise
of the covenant is for everyone.
YEAR
SIX– ADVENT/CHRISTMAS/EPIPHANY
YOU
SHALL BE MY
WITNESSES
UNIT
4 – God So
Loved the World
The
Year 6 resource explores how
young Christians,
rooted in the Christian tradition, are witnesses of God’s justice and
love. The resource “presents how God’s
covenant with the peoples of the earth is reflected in moral existence
by the
witnesses of love, justice and compassion.”
In
Advent Unit 4, the children explore and
acknowledge
infidelity of God’s people to God’s covenant with Moses.
In Theme 8, they meet the prophet Jeremiah
who tells us how the unfaithfulness of the people made the prophets
speak out
on God’s behalf. The prophets remained
hopeful that the darkness of the infidelity of God’s people would turn
into
light. The children research a number
of women in scripture who kept this hope alive. In
Theme 9 the children meet again the prophet Isaiah, who looked
for signs of hope in Israel. Advent
celebrates this hope in God’s coming. In
Theme 10, the children encounter Mary and Joseph as
“incredible
keepers of the covenant”, as people who kept hope alive.
Mary is presented as the embodiment of hope
expressed by the prophet Isaiah in his writings.
Theme 11 concludes the Advent-Christmas
season, which ends
with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. In
this theme, the children celebrate the epiphany of
Jesus through the
wedding feast at Cana. Jesus is the new
covenant between God and his people, and his covenant is as exuberant
and
excessive as the abundance of wine.
A Key
Advent Activity:
In Theme 8,
the
children recall and
experience Advent colour, Advent rituals, Advent prayers, Advent music, Advent people and Advent themes. They discover women from the Bible who kept
hope alive.
The Year 6
symbol, the lantern is
placed near the Advent wreath and becomes the source of light for the
Advent
candles. An Advent gift box is
decorated for the receiving of donations of food/clothing etc. for the
needy.
The children
prepare and
participate in the rituals that celebrate Advent with the following
themes:
- the promise of a covenant written
in our hearts
- the dawning light that is Jesus
and spoken of by Isaiah
- the fulfillment of the promise
through Jesus
The children
explore Mary’s song of
praise (the Magnificat) and learn about the qualities of St. Joseph.
The celebration (pp. 132-133 of TM) reflects
the persons of Mary, Joseph and Elizabeth
The
children are invited to make an epiphany lantern to use in a ritual
blessing at home.
YEARS
SEVEN TO TEN – ADVENT/CHRISTMAS
YEAR
7 – BELIEVE IN ME – Appendix 4 – pp. 399-405 (Catechist Manual)
YEAR
8 – STAND BY ME – Appendix
4 –
pp.
387-393 (Catechist Manual)
YEAR
9 – BE WITH ME – Appendix
6 – pp.
330–335 (Catechist Manual)
YEAR
10 – CHRIST & CULTURE – Appendix 6 – pp. 368-370 (Catechist
Manual)
In
Years 7,8,9,10, instead of Advent being a
separate unit,
the theme of Advent is included in an appendix at the back of the
Catechist
Manual. The resources have a slight
variation in the different level for the different forms of Advent
activities. There are ideas for the Advent
wreath, Jesse
tree, bulletin board suggestions, lectionary themes, Christ our Light,
gift
drive, care pairs, letters to St. Nicholas, Advent prayers and
celebrations…..etc.
In Years 7 and
8, there is a section on the
Liturgical Year
in Appendix 2 which gives a background on the celebration of the
different
seasons of the Church Year. In Unit 7
of Year 7, the emphasis is focusing on the credal statement – “We
believe in
Jesus…who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the
Virgin
Mary.” This is well suited for the Advent
season. The young adolescents will
encounter a central doctrine of the Christian faith:
the Incarnation. They
will explore the call of Mary, her response to God, and the
implications of the
gift of grace in her life as well as in their own lives.
In Years 8,9,10, it is suggested that the
catechist continue
presenting the regular unit themes, but integrate ideas from the Advent
section
(Appendix 2) to help the young people prepare their hearts during
Advent for
the celebration of the feast of Christmas.
Prepared
by
Mary Comeault
Diocese
of Saskatoon
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