Loving Relationship
Good Shepherd program helps children 'find a home with Jesus'
By JOHN BURGERAfter setting a small model altar with linen, candles, cruets and a replica chalice, 4-year-old Anthony Narin and Harry Glass showed a visitor around the small, upper room at Nazareth Nursery in Manhattan. In quiet voices they have learned to use out of reverence for the place, they identified key places in the Holy Land on a wall map.
"This is Jerusalem, this is Galilee, this is Nazareth," they said, one repeating after the other.
On each of the three floors of Nazareth Nursery, a Montessori day care center on West 15th Street in Manhattan, there is also a raised-surface map of the Holy Land, showing the height of its mountains and the depth of the Dead Sea.
"This is so the children learn that Jesus was not a mythical figure," explained Sister Lucy Sabatini, O.S.F., director. "He lived in time and space."
The 53 children, ages 3 to 6, whose parents drop them off at the nursery each day, have a variety of such materials at their disposal: religiously themed art supplies, figurines of biblical persons, items found in church and multi-colored wheels showing the seasons of the Church year. Their teachers are trained to use the materials and read the Bible in a way which helps them understand the faith. Most importantly, according to Sister Lucy and others who use an increasingly popular method of religious education, they have an "inner teacher," the Holy Spirit.
Nazareth has been using the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for seven years to help children develop a loving relationship with God. Sister Lucy has been promoting its use in other day care centers, religious education programs and schools. She and two other experts in the catechesis just finished giving a two-year formation course for teachers, parents and administrators.
"We highly encourage use of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd," said Sister Joan Curtin, C.N.D., director of the archdiocesan Catechetical Office, which co-sponsored the course with the archdiocese's Department of Education and the superintendent of schools office. "It's a wonderful process to develop the faith and spirituality of the child. It's a very beautiful method to help young children find a home with Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and introduce them to the parables, to the life of Jesus and to the Church."
"I've never seen a program that respects the uniqueness of each child as this does," said Father Gennaro L. Gentile, pastor of Holy Name of Mary in Croton-on-Hudson, where the method has been used for five years. "The kids work at projects on their own; they're pleasant, not noisy. I would almost say they've found their center. There's a peacefulness that comes out of them."
Added Mary Durkan, coordinator of religious education at Our Saviour parish in Manhattan, who introduced the catechesis there while taking the formation course, "You are not sitting there teaching them; you give the Holy Spirit a chance to teach."
That's because the teacher prepares materials and the environment to bring out the meaning of Scripture. She also prepares herself by prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. There is a chapel at Nazareth Nursery, which is sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin.
Central to the catechesis is the presence of an Atrium, a room furnished with altar, tabernacle, sanctuary lamp and prayer book stand. Miniature chasubles hang nearby in the four major colors of the liturgical year.
"Everything in church speaks to you of God, and that's what the Atrium is supposed to do," Sister Lucy said. The room is a link between children's religious education, primarily coming from their parents and supplemented by catechesis lessons, and their going to church. It is a place of reflection and prayer where children can "learn to fall in love with God," Sister Lucy said.
The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd was developed in the 1950s by Sofia
Cavalletti, an Italian Hebrew and Scripture scholar. Based on the work of her teacher,
Maria Montessori, who developed a method of educating small children with learning games,
it is designed for children, ages 3 to 12.The program is used also by the Narnia Clubs, an independent catechetical program in Manhattan; St. Paul the Apostle parish in Manhattan, and St. Teresa of Avila parish in Sleepy Hollow.
At Nazareth recently, teacher Wilma Limbag gathered several children around a little table set with Bible, miniature paschal candle and a big shell full of water. "We're going to learn about baptism," she said in a soft voice as she proceeded to get the youngsters to think about the meaning of the objects used. "Do you have water at home? What do you do with it?"
The tykes had no problem answering Mrs. Limbag when she asked, "What happens when you don't drink water?" This gave her a chance to introduce the concept that God gives new life through water in baptism. She then took another shell and poured water over her fist, repeating the words used in baptism, "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." She did that for each of the children as they held out their fists.
Meanwhile, Karin Sweeney recounted the Nativity story, placing the corresponding statuettes of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the shepherds and the angel. She asked the five children gathered around her questions designed to encourage meditation on the mystery: "How do you think Joseph felt when he learned that he had to move? Was this an ordinary birth? Do you know anyone whose birth was announced by an angel?"
The catechesis makes liberal use of the parables of Jesus, which, Sister Lucy believes, are "supposed to open the door to a great adventure."
"It's inexhaustible, what you can learn," she said. "When I was learning the faith as a child, my teachers told me what the parables meant. And what happens when someone tells you what it means? You stop thinking about what it means."
So in teaching about the kingdom of God, teachers show the children a mustard seed and a picture of the huge tree it can grow into, or two piles of dough, one with, the other without, yeast.
Or the children are given little sheep figures, which they put into a sheepfold, while the Good Shepherd stands by the gate. Occasionally, the teacher hides one of the sheep and lets the kids search for it, reinforcing Christ's statement, "There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who have no need of repentance."
"Later, as they advance in the catechesis, they are able to equate the sheepfold with the Church," Mrs. Sweeney said.
From the spontaneous comments the children make, Sister Lucy and her teachers can tell that they are growing in the faith. Delia Mendoza recalled that after she gave her students candles during a baptism lesson, saying, "Receive the light of Christ," a boy offered, "We need the light of Jesus so we can follow all the rules."
"I thought, 'Wow, out of the mouths of babes...' " Mrs. Mendoza said.
Sister Lucy will give a formation course at St. Teresa of Avila School in Sleepy Hollow, beginning in November. Information: (212) 243-1881.