Religion- Week 1

This week in Religion we discussed the Sign of the Cross, the Liturgical Year and Liturgical Colors, and Our Lady of Sorrows.

I started off by reminding the children that we should say a prayer before we start anything. We used the prayer written by St. Benedict, which is still said by all Benedictines before they start anything, and also at the beginning of the prayers said during the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours).

O God come to our aid,
O Lord make haste to help us.

This prayer is also said during Morning Assembly, and we will be saying it at the beginning of class each week. I'm hoping this will instill a lifelong habit of always seeking our Lord's help before we start something.

I then talked to the children about the Signum Crucis (Sign of the Cross) and how we sometimes say this prayer without even thinking about it. It's easy to forget why we are doing it, because we do it so much.  I reminded the children why it's such an important prayer, and what we should think about when saying it and crossing ourselves. We also talked about different times when we should make the Sign of the Cross. The older children were given a handwriting sheet of the prayer in Latin, to help them learn it. Please check if your child was able to do this in class, and if not, have them do it at home.

The children were then given an explanation of each Liturgical Color:

White- White is the color of Light and represents the Light of the World: Jesus. You see White when we are celebrating a feast in honor of Jesus.

Purple- Purple is for the seasons when we prepare for a great feast. These are penitential seasons, when we should be doing some sort of penance. We listened for all the "P's". Purple, Prepare, Penance

Green- Green is for the Time After the preparations and celebrations. A time where we take all that we learned during the purple and white seasons, and use that information to grow in our love for Christ and His Church. We noticed how Green and Grow both start with "G". (Some children were surprised that we're supposed to be learning during these seasons!) :)

Red- Red represents Love and the Holy Spirit. We see red on the great feast of the Holy Spirit: Pentecost. We also see red when we are celebrating the feast of a Martyr. Someone who loves God so much that they were willing to die for Him. 

I also briefly discussed when the children would see Rose and Black at Mass.

We then talked about the calendars we see in our homes, and how Mother Church has her own calendar, too. The Liturgical or Ecclesiastical calendar. I showed the children a Liturgical Wheel, and they noticed right away that it was colored with the same colors we had just discussed. We talked about the different seasons, and then they were given their own Liturgical Wheel to color. The Benedictines had a simpler version of the wheel with a cover on it, attached with a brad, so that they can spin it and find the correct season that we are in.

Lastly, in the older classes (1st-6th) we talked about Our Lady of Sorrows, and discussed each of her 7 sorrows. They were given a sheet that had a picture of each sorrow and were instructed to color and paste these to the blue paper they had. Most children did not finish this in class, and were asked to finish it at home for homework. They can either use the pictures to make a timeline on the blue paper, or they can cut them out to use as a game. Just shuffle the cards, then try to put them in the correct order of when they happened. The Benedictines were given a coloring page of Our Lady of Sorrows to color at home.

Next week, we will be learning about the Priest's Vestments! :)