Liturgy Forms and Catechizes Our Children

“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life—for the life was made visible…” (1 John 1:1–2).

As the season of Lent approaches, we often hear or ask, “What are you giving up for Lent?” What if we ask instead, “What are you going to be for the rest of your life?” This is the challenge of paragraph 75, the cornerstone of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and, as the General Directory for Catechesis mandates, the norm for all catechesis. In preparation for the Advent/Christmas season, we reflected on the first two “pillars of catechesis” articulated in RCIA #75: catechesis and community. As our liturgical year moves toward Lent/Easter/Pentecost, we do well to consider the remaining pillars: liturgy and mission.

The Stories of Life
The liturgies of Lent/Easter/Pentecost provide a wellspring of opportunities for bringing children to liturgy and liturgy to children. The stories of Lent are the stories of life: children (and we) are tempted, they dream, they get thirsty, they know darkness, they fear death, and they long for transformation. While the descriptions of these experiences may require age-appropriate nuance, they touch the lives of even the youngest children. The stories of Easter are the stories of life that we share with our young ones: remembering, believing, celebrating, sharing meals, forgiving and being forgiven, being called by name, and being loved. Moreover, in the Spirit of Pentecost, all of us, from east to west and from oldest to youngest, are gathered into the great family of God and are sent forth to share what we have seen and heard, watched and touched with our hands, the Word of Life.

Helping Children Make Connections
As attentive parents, catechists and homilists, we are called to enable children to make the connections between their very typical, real, sometimes difficult, often wondrous young lives and the proclamation of the Word Sunday after Sunday throughout these liturgical seasons. What gifts the Lectionary for Children and the celebration of the Liturgy of the Word for Children are to us! If we trust the Word of God and engage children through good liturgy, they will discover how to live the rest of their lives.

Good Liturgy Is Good Catechesis
Good liturgical catechesis moves from daily experience—seeing, hearing, watching, touching—through proclamation and reflection to a new way of being in daily life and relationships that is transformed by the power of the Word. The “curriculum” for catechesis flows from the liturgical year celebrated Sunday after Sunday in the assembly of the faithful. As such, it flows from and leads to the table of the Word and ultimately from and to the table of Eucharist where the body of Christ is nourished and strengthened to be who we are: people of discipleship and mission, the body of Christ.

Let the Senses Experience the Wonder
Our riches are great and profound. During the coming months, we enter into liturgical seasons replete with signs and symbols, song and silence, and processions and challenges to change our hearts. We are called to walk in the world as people of the Gospel. Ashes, palms, cross, fire, water, oil, incense, bells, bread and wine, lament and alleluias mark our path. They are tangible; we see, hear, touch, taste and smell them. They are of God. With our children, let us look, listen, feel, and wonder as the ordinariness of these gifts of creation become sacrament of the Risen One in our midst. To our children, we who love them are sacrament of God in our midst as we guide them to enter into the liturgy and to live as Jesus taught. This is our mission. When we are faithful to our mission, our children, formed by liturgy and catechized to know themselves as the body of Christ will gradually come to know what, how and who they want to be for the rest of their lives. The foundations of their responses are in our hands. What are we going to be for Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and beyond?

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Holy Names Sister Miriam Malone is an author and teacher, known for her expertise in the areas of Christian initiation and liturgical catechesis. She founded SNJM FIRE for Ministry, which offers facilitation, in-service, retreats, and education opportunities for faith-based groups. She teaches at Holy Names University in Oakland, California.