Rose’s Gift

My first year teaching kindergarten, I gained a whole new level of respect for Catholic parents of young children. The term “herding cats” could certainly have been applied to my first few attempts at taking my energetic class to Mass and adoration. Leading my 21 students up to the steps of the sanctuary each week for adoration was an act of radical trust every time. When I didn’t have a child trying to push over his friend while he was kneeling, I usually had at least one who was dangerously close to giving himself a “second baptism” in the parish’s large (and, to be fair, rather inviting) baptismal font.

What made this group particularly challenging catechetically was the fact that about half the class was not Catholic and many of them were not baptized. Everything was new to them, and I didn’t know where to even begin when it came to teaching them the faith. The textbook I had been given was sound, but it presumed that the children already had an impressive theological foundation for five- and six-year-olds. Taking my worries with me into the chapel at the end of that first week, I surrendered my plan for the year and asked the Holy Spirit for clarity in how to proceed.

His answer was clear: Bring them to me.

Returning the textbook to the shelf, the initial proclamation of the Gospel became the order of the day for that day and every day that followed. Every topic we explored in God’s lesson circled back to the person of Jesus and the goodness of God as a loving Father. This time together quickly became their favorite lesson of the day, only to be topped by our visits to Jesus. Knowing how important it was for my students to have this special time with our Eucharistic Lord, I was committed to making the regular “field trips” to the parish church, but I didn’t know how much of what I taught them was sinking in.