The Kinder Report - Day Two

Okay, so, yesterday was 'Catechetical Sunday' which meant I *had* to attend the 10:45 Mass. I *hate* the 10:45 Mass. It's the 'Charismatic' Mass, of which I don't approve! :p My Mass doesn't need drum stings and guitars and...frelling 'kumbayah'. *shudder*

But I had to go, because that's when they were 'commissioning' us. Never mind that by that time we'd already taught two classes...

Hmph. So, knowing my personal distaste for this Mass, I still went to the 7:30 Mass, which I quite enjoy. It's smaller, quieter, we seem to get the, I don't know exactly the word I want here, but 'itinerant' priests. Not Fr. Pat or Fr. Anthonio, who are our parish priests, but rotating priests. Which is nice, because I get a different kind of homily every time. There's no music, so everything is either chanted or spoken, and the priest actually speaks the Eucharistic prayers loud enough for us to hear, which they don't do at the later Masses.

Then, class.

The kids had a 'Safe Environment' class that day, if their parents signed them up for it, so we knew ahead of time that this was going to be something of a wash day, because we wouldn't have all of the kids. The kids who didn't sign up stayed in class (and some of the ones that didn't show last week were there), so we sort of went over some of the same things, had the kids who hadn't been there make their name tags, etc.

Oh! And prior to class starting, while we were waiting for everyone to get there, the girls and I got into a discussion of the different ways I could wear my scarf! :)

We went through the Our Father, and the Ten Commandments again - one of the other classes put up a 'Ten Commandments for Kids' poster, which I loathe. It's not right! It doesn't even explain the Ten Commandments in kid friendly terms correctly! I'll try and take a picture of it next week so you can see it, and tell me if I'm over reacting or something. :)

We read from the Reconciliation book (they have little two page stories that introduce the concepts - like Catholic, sacraments, etc.) and discussed it.

We pulled words from the word box - we got Bible and creed. We ask the kids what they think the words mean, and then explain a little more, depending on the answers. Bible is fairly obvious, and we pulled out the kids New Testaments so they could see that part, and start to learn how to use it.

One of the 'new' kids, M, was flipping through, as we went over what the Gospel's were, and asked about Acts, Romans, etc. So I explained a little about St. Paul and the Epistles (I didn't actually use the word epistle, now that I think about it, but I explained that they were letters he had written to different churches/people.) It was cute, she found Philippians and told me she had a friend who was from there, from the Philippines. :) I explained they were actually two different places, but she still thought it was neat that the names were so close.

Then, when we were discussing a little about how the Gospels were the story of Jesus' life, M asked if God the Father was different from Jesus, so we got to explain the Trinity. I used the whole, you Father is father to you, son to his parents, and a friend to his friends, but he's still only one person. I can't decide if I'm happy about it or not. It's not my personal favorite metaphor, but it's the one that sprang to mind, and given the age group, how it makes sense to me isn't the best way to explain it. They got it though, so we're good!

(Also, funny, one of the boys, D, when he's reading, every time he has to say 'God', he pronounces it 'good'. It's cute!)

And, at the end, while we were waiting for the parents to come pick up kids, they told us our class was fun!

Then I had to go to the Mass of Doom, which gave me a headache (stupid drums/woman with too much perfume/lack of food), and stand up in front of the church (which just makes me uncomfortable! How close is too close to the altar?) So, I got to receive twice, but other than that, fie on the 10:45 Mass.