Quick Links Missals Hymnals Music Finder Catalog Quick Order Entry Web Specials Site Map E-News Sign Up

2006 Lent/Easter
Children and the Easter Symbols of Fire, Wind and Water
Gospel Action Figures
Keep It Simple . . . The Way Jesus Did
Helping Children Connect Lent to Easter
Music Suggestions for Liturgies with Children - Year B

Mary Jo Tully

In recent years, experiential religious education has come unto its own. It has been hailed as incorporating the principles of learning and as recognizing the need to form as well as inform. The new National Directory for Catechesis reminds us that “human experiences provide the sensible signs that lead the person, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, to a better understanding of the truths of the faith.” At the same time, experiential catechesis has been criticized and even condemned as being responsible for two generations of religious illiterates.

God Provides the Experiences
One of the early errors in the implementation of experiential catechesis was the religious educator taking on the responsibility of providing experience for the children. They baked bread with the First Communion class, took children on nature walks to see creation and, too often, tried to take the role of a parent. But we learned—learned that God provides the foundational experiences in the very living of life.

Little children have not lived long enough to have had many of the experiences that evoke interior wisdom. Consequently, it is important for us to know what experiences they have had and to know something of the way they experience faith.

Early Religious Learning
Those who catechize in the primary grades are only too aware that religious learning begins long before they see the children. It is unlikely that any of you were taught religion before you went to school. Instead, you seemed to have caught it. You learned your prayers by praying. You discovered Jesus, his mother, and the saints through the religious objects in your home. You learned about God because he was part of the concern of your family, your neighbors and even the larger world.

Today, the structure of the family, the neighborhood and the nation has changed. When I hear first-grade teachers deploring the fact that children come to them without knowing the sign of the cross or without having heard the name of the Blessed Mother, I hear something much more than an anger that their parents aren't teaching them. I am hearing them decry the fact that there are many children who do not have the construct into which they can place religious learning. They do not have the sort of experiences that will make the catechist’s words meaningful. It is, after all, a simple task to teach the Sign of the Cross. Children can be taught to repeat absolutely anything, but their ability to remember is not a sign of their understanding. Teaching the Sign of the Cross is simple. It is much more difficult, demanding, and time-consuming to teach them to value the holiness of a human name so that the name of the Lord will fill them with delight.

How Children Develop in Their Faith
Pre-school children, kindergartners and most first graders have participatory faith. They believe in God in much the same way as they believe in Santa Claus. They believe in God because—and if—mommy and daddy believe in God. For the most part, children’s intuitions and feelings about God, Jesus and the church are projections of their parents.

Some would say that the development of literal or mythic faith begins as a result of natural development at about the age of six. The truth of the matter, I think, is that this growth is a direct consequence of entering formal education and learning new ways to think. This is one of the reasons that teaching first grade religion can be especially difficult. The children move from intuitive and participatory faith to literal faith at that time and the catechist needs to be aware of the signs. They can repeat the story of Noah and the Ark but never reach the religious truth that God is always saving his people. Instead they focus on the details. If you name the animals, they will name the animals. At this time, it is extremely important that you not teach children using hyperbole and simile; that you not teach them what will have to be retracted. The natural consequence of the way children believe is that when what they have believed begins to erode, they begin to question whatever else might seem a figment of someone's imagination.

Throughout elementary school, children widen the circle of their belief sources to include parent-substitutes: older friends, clergy and primarily the teacher or catechist. This is a time to teach the stories of Jesus. Children of this age have no understanding of deeper symbolism. They learn to think abstractly very slowly.

At about the age of 12 or slightly before and into adulthood, children become concerned with the interpersonal need they have for approval by their peers. They want to belong and seek that cohesiveness through harmony, agreement and uniformity. This is a great time to teach practice and doctrine and creed because they provide identity and a perception of belonging as members of a church. The values of significant others help the young adolescent to develop a set of personal values. They find their security in a community of people who think like themselves.

Experiencing Prayer and Liturgy
At this same time (11 or 12) children begin to develop the ability to think metaphorically and poetically. This is the time when they can look at the deeper meaning found in the Scripture stories. They can think about the creation story with an eye to its religious truth rather than contemplating how long an Old Testament day might be. They can discover, for instance, that a God who is always saving his people is a more important religious truth than the latest theory on where Noah’s Ark might be found.

This ability to experience and value metaphor is closely related to children’s ability to experience liturgical celebration positively. It is, if you will, a graced time to do some serious liturgical catechesis. Clearly, our efforts at prayer and liturgy should reflect our own deep respect for this heightened sense in the child’s experience of the church at prayer.

It is important to know how the faith of young people develops because it helps us to recognize the experiences that belong to them. The role of the catechist has never been to provide experience for the children. God does that. Our role is to cast the light of faith on that experience, to name it and to join the children in praising God for his actions in their lives.

Mary Jo Tully has been the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Portland since 1990. Before coming to Portland, she was the Director of Religious Education in the Archdiocese of Chicago and the author of the Focus on Faith Religious Education Series. She was a Catechetical Consultant for Sadlier's WE BELIEVE program, teaches at Mt. Angel Seminary and writes a Scripture column in The Catholic Sentinel.