Annunciazione

We have ummm, bird tabernacles (Latin, little dwelling) in the front yard. Here's one we just put up, art by my wife:

Inspired by the Annuciation by Alessio Baldovinetti :

(With colorful wings inspired by artists such as Fra Angelico and Jan van Eyck.) 

Integrated Arks

Anything understood in isolation is not really understood.  Knowledge exists as a continuum even though we may learn it as discrete bits.  Even something as obvious as a fork isn't fully understood without reference to knives, spoons, types of food, etiquette.  Remember the blind men feeling the pachyderm: a rope! a treetrunk! a fan!   That's no way to learn faith, as a mere concatenation of facts.  So a constant goal of Wednesday Sunday School is to show the kids broad relationships which connect small bits of what they mostly already know.  They should learn to see the whole integrated Catholic Elephant.

Last week as part of the lesson plan we discussed the Monstrance (like Spanish mostrar, to show) and the Tabernacle (the little tavern, the little house). This week we started with some review which began with Noah, and ended back at the Tabernacle, like so:

Y'all remember last week we were talking about this thing [on the far right I draw a little house with a cross on top]...what is it? A tabernacle.  Yes, a little tavern, a little house.  Whose house is it?  Jesus' house.  Yes.  He has a house because he lives with us.  I like tabernacles that look like houses, because that's what they are: houses.

Hey, who was Noah? (this sort of abrupt change of subject always perks them up) Noah put all the animals in the Ark!   Yes! And umm, how long did it rain?  40 days!  Yep. Jesusinthedesert?  40 days! Israelitesinthedesert? 40 days...no 40 years!  Ha, I almost got ya!  Y'all are too smart! So, Noah put 'em all in what?  The Ark!  Which is?  A big boat, a ship.  Yes....is this an Old Testament or New Testament story?  Old!  Yes, how do you know?  'Cause Jesus wasn't born yet!  Right.  And the Old Testament was mostly written in Hebrew, which I bet ya'll forgot.  I remember!  OK, good...I believe you.  Well, the Hebrew word for ark doesn't mean boat or ship, it means container, more or less. (תֵּבָה tebah: a chest, a coffer, a box, a vessel.  I don't mention the word to the kids; this is fyi, dear catechist.) How do we know this container was a boat?  'Cause it had to float!  Right.  [I draw the Ark on the far left.]

Let's see now...what did Moses' momma do when he was born?  Moses?  Yeah, we're talking about Moses now....well?  She hid him!  Yes, why? The king was killing all the babies. All the babies? The ones two years old, the boys.  No wait, you're talking about King Herod, that's a good guess, but that's when Jesus was a baby, not Moses.  C'mon, where was Moses born?  In Egypt.  So the king was called?  Pharaoh. Yes.  The Israelites had moved to Egypt a long time before Moses because there was a drought...why would they think there would be food in Egypt in a drought? Because the Nile river is there. Yes. The Israelites stayed there after the drought and were fruitful & multiplied so much that Pharaoh got nervous and decided to kill all their firstborn boys.  That's why Moses' momma hid him.  But she couldn't hide a growing baby forever, so what did she do?  Put him a little boat and Pharoah's daughter found him. Yes, Moses was put in an ark, a container, made of reeds. [to the right of Noah's Ark I draw a very bad reed boat with a baby in it] Of course the container floated on the Nile, so we know it was....a little boat! Yes. Hey, what did the Angel of Death do to the Egyptians on Passover? Kill all their firstborn sons! Yes...see, it was payback for Pharaoh killing the Israelite firstborns years before!

So Noah and Moses both used arks which happened to be boats. Their arks contained precious, valuable things. Noah's contained what? All the people and animals!  Yes, and Moses' ark contained...?  Just Moses. Yes, just the baby, but a baby is very precious thing.

After Pharaoh finally let Moses' people go, they wandered in the desert for...40 years!  Yes, and in the desert they made a box to hold their precious things.  What do you suppose the box was called? Umm, an ark? Yes indeed, the Ark of the Covenant. [To the right of baby Moses I draw the Ark with the angels and the carrying poles] In that Ark they kept some miraculous food, manna; the Ten Commandments; and Aaron's staff. (They are fine on the manna and commandments; Aaron's staff is new to most of the kids.) The box, the Ark, held all their God Stuff. God the Father doesn't have a body, but God's spirit was in the box along with the Stuff. The Ark was so precious the average person couldn't touch it, so they carried it with these poles.

While wandering around the desert, the Israelites' houses were tents.  Because God dwelled with his people, his family, they had a tent-house for him too: in English it's called a tabernacle...imagine that.  The Ark stayed in the tent unless the Israelites were on the move. Later on when King David made Jerusalem Israel's capital, they built the Temple for the Ark to stay in.  They always felt kind of bad that God had to live in a tent for so long.

By the way, the Ark disappeared long before Jesus was born; nobody knows if it exists anymore.

All these Arks are in which Testament?  The Old Testament!  Yes, but now we're going to learn about another Ark which has to do with Jesus; so it'll be in...the New Testament!  Yes, and if the Ark of the Old Covenant was in the...Old Testament, yes, then the Ark in the New Testament must be called...?  Ummm, the Ark of the New Covenant?  Yes genius, let's look at the Ark of the New Covenant. [I pull out my plastic fetus.]  This is Little Baby Jesus before he was born.  He's not God's Stuff, like manna, he's God. But he's not born yet, kinda weird-looking...is he still God?  Yes.  Right...but how about when he was conceived and only the size of this dot, was he God then?  Yes.  Right, he was Jesus as soon as he was conceived. And so far we've seen that God's Stuff, even God Himself, gets put in an Ark for safe keeping on Earth.  Where's Little Baby Jesus before he was born?  What?  C'mon, what was Jesus' container before he was born? Where was He? Oh...in Mary? Yes, growing in Mary; what's the Ark of the New Covenant then?  Mary?  Yes, we might say specifically Mary's womb, where babies grow. [between the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle I draw Mary with a baby in her tummy]  You know: "blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." Like baby Moses, baby Jesus was a precious, valuable thing.

After a while Jesus was born; he wasn't in Mary anymore. And nowadays on Earth where is Jesus' ark? Well...in the tabernacle? Yes, just like when God dwelled spiritually in the ark & tabernacle in the desert with his family, Jesus is physically with us in his little house, his tabernacle. Manna was in the old ark; Jesus in the Eucharist is in the new ark. So we see that after thousands of years God's children, that's us, still make arks and tabernacles for Him to live with us.

So why do we call the church God's House?  'Cause that's where he lives.  Yes, with his family.

 

Oh yeah, the image at the top: I couldn't find a picture of integrated arks, so I used this image of integrated arcs instead.

 This article is also available at the Amazing Catechists website.

Anastasis 2

This article is also available at the Amazing Catechists website.

Teaching the tired Wednesday-night crowd can take a lot of energy, a lot of work.  One of my favorite tactics to conserve teaching energy is to use art...oops, I mean Art.  Content-loaded Art carries part of the teaching load for me, I just have to point stuff out and run the discussion.  And the best Art can be used more than once per year, building on prior exposure in earlier lessons, thus making new lessons easier to learn. Plus using the same image to teach different concepts helps the kids integrate the knowledge into the Big Catholic Picture.

Yes, that's fine as far it goes....but what Art, exactly?  Mmm, let's look at an example.

Here's a fresco of a standard Eastern Christian image known in English as the Harrowing of Hell; in Greek, the Anastasis (ανάστασις), the Resurrection. [Hey, let's check out the Greek on the fresco: Over Christ's head is HANAcTACIC,  Anastasis (the odd-looking T is a contraction of a lower case s and and a capital T). To the left is IC, short for IECUC, Jesus; to the right, XC, you guessed it, XRICTOC, Christos. I wonder, considering all the time a fresco or mosaic takes, why save 10 minutes by abbreviating? Am I digressing?]

In the Anastasis we see Jesus, descended into Hell (Sheol). He tramples the gates of 'Hell,' and beneath them lie shattered locks and keys. Darkly visible, Death lies bound and conquered, a captive.  Grabbing them firmly by the wrists, a vigorous Jesus forcefully yanks out Adam & Eve.  Adam is the oldest man in the picture, the patriarch.  Following Adam are old King David (now there's an expert sinner...can you say Uriah and Bathsheba?  The kids know the story), young King Solomon, and John the Baptist (the 'Forerunner'), whose long hair gives him away.  Sometimes John also wears a rough garment, or carries a scroll indicating his status as Jesus' herald.  Waiting their turn behind Eve is her son Abel (the 'Protomartyr') with his shepherd's crook, and (I'm guessing) Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah.

The almond-shaped object behind Jesus is a mandorla (Italian for almond), which shows up in all sorts of images of Jesus, from paintings to cathedral entrances.  It predates Christianity, has some pretty complicated meanings.  I tell the 6th graders that in the West it usually symbolizes Mary's womb and leave it at that.

This Anastasis is in Istanbul, not a common destination; but if you ever visit St. Mark's in Venice, keep an eye out for the Anastasis there.

So that's the picture, and here are some occasions that I use it as a teaching tool:

1. To discuss Easter.

2. To explain what the Nicene Creed means when it says "He descended into Hell."

3. To explain in the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man where Lazarus was as he lay in the Bosom of Abraham.

4. To show that after death, Heaven or Hell have not been the only options. This helps in understanding Purgatory and the concept of Limbo (if it comes up).

5. Learning about Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and Hell.

6. To show the Eastern Catholic understanding of when the Resurrection begins, and in general to make the kids aware of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

7. Discussing saints and their attributes (Peter's keys, e.g.).

8. To comment on the Transfiguration: if heaven wasn't available yet, where were Moses & Elijah hanging out before their chatfest with Jesus?

The great thing about teaching from a picture like this one is that for any of the above 8 topics, I don't need any notes...the lesson plan just says 'Anastasis' at that point.  I pull out the pic, and it remembers for me.

And it's a very easy way to review on the fly as well.

Love Creates

A standard theme in Wednesday Sunday School is that love creates. Begin with God. God is Love; hence, God creates. God is all Love, thus God creates all. As Dante observed, "L'amor che muove il sole e l'altre stelle/  Love that moves the sun and the other stars."  Acting as God's agents, husbands and wives love. Their love creates children. All people love; they create all sorts of stuff. Humans are so love-infused they create all the time, can't stop themselves. And sometimes God's creativity is most winsomely revealed in the most offhand things people do.

I'm thinking especially of the things people do on YouTube in venues where they're half-ignored.

To introduce a single example, I assume you're familiar with two small pieces of music (even if you don't know their names):

Gymnopedie #1 by Erik Satie  (short version)

and Take Five by Dave Brubeck

Once you're reacquainted with these two, listen to this beguiling bit.   It's all the more appealing for being performed amidst the clink, clatter & conversation of a banquet hall dinner. Ofttimes the smallest, most unremarked stuff can be shot through with God's grace.

Even if no-one is really listening I imagine He is happy.     

Presbyopia

This article is also available at the Amazing Catechists website.

Teaching the tired Wednesday-night crowd involves two overlapping issues: what material is going to be learned, and how to get the kids to learn it. The 'what' comes from the lesson plan which is done before class. The 'how' is more a matter of sticking to some rules (not for the kids...for the teacher) about keeping the kids engaged, such as:

A recap of where we left off last week, which leads into this week's topic.

Asking constant questions to elicit the children's participation and keep them alert.

Asking leading questions to steer the discussion.

Asking ridiculous questions to jolt their brains into an answer.

Refining a good rough answer into something more germane to the subject.

Giving an answer only as a last resort due to time considerations.

Regular encouragement for good efforts.

Review of past material as part of learning the new material.

Some repetition.

Connecting catechetical knowledge to the wider word of "regular" information.

A bit of concluding review.

Here's a recent bit of class that shows these concepts in action:

"Y'all remember last week we were looking in Acts of the Apostles to see how the the Apostles organized the Church after Jesus went up to heaven. Quick review now, instead of a President, congressmen, governors & mayors, the Church has other offices...what's the top office?  Pope.  Yes, what is it in Greek? Papa!  Right, the Father; and after the papa, there are... bishops. Yes, which in Greek is 'episkopos' (επίσκοπος, fyi), like telescope, periscope, and microscope, (far-see, around-see, little-see, fyi) and it means what?...the umm, the seer? Close...you remember, it's 'overseer'. Oh, yeah. C'mon say it, bishop means...Overseer! Yes.

Now we get to the next office in the church which is....? No guesses?  Who runs our parish, the bishop? Does he run around the state every Sunday saying Mass as fast as possible in all the churches? Ha, no! So, who takes of business at the parishes? Oh, the priests! Yes. Priests are next."

"Class, remind me please, who was going to sacrifice Isaac?  Abraham.  Yes, and who killed the ram instead? Well, wasn't it still Abraham?  That's right...just checking.  And who killed all those lambs at the first Passover?  Moses?  Moses ran around all night killing lambs?  Oh...it was the fathers or the grandfathers.  Yes, whoever was the oldest man in the family. Then later on out in the desert all the tribes but the Levites worshipped the Golden Roach, and...it was a Golden Calf!  Oh yeah, right, a calf...an image of a made-up Egyptian god.  Anyway, God said, "All you Calf-worshipers can't be trusted to make a proper sacrifice. From now on y'all have to pay the Levite men to do your sacrificing for you." That's why the book of Leviticus is full of blood'n'guts: the Levite elders offered sacrifices for a living. What do we call people who offer sacrifices? Umm, sacrificers? Well, that's not what I'm looking for. What's Fr. Newman's job? His job? Yeah, is he a bus driver? Ha, no he's a priest. OK then, what does he do at Mass? Do come along, we just learned this last month....the angel carries a pizza to heaven...oh, he offers bread and wine? No, he offers something better, not $10 worth of bread and wine...oh, Jesus' body and blood! Yes, the Paschal Lamb who was...sacrificed! Yes, so what do we call people who offer sacrifices? Umm...priests? Yes, all those Levite elders were priests; they offered sacrifices. Fr. Newman offers the sacrificed Jesus so he is...? A priest. If you don't offer sacrifices then...? You're not a priest! Yes."

"Hey, I read an interesting article today When You Can't Seem to Get Used to Bifocals - WSJ.com; here's the opening sentence:

"Presbyopia, which typically starts in the early-to-mid 40s, is an aging of the eye's lens that results in an inability to focus on nearby objects. Symptoms are blurred vision, a tendency to hold reading material at arm's length and headaches when doing close work."

"I have presbyopia [on the board]; I can't see stuff close-up anymore. Presbyopia is Greek, it means old-eye. What might 'Presby-' mean?  Old?  Yes, old.  The Greek word for an old man, the eldest, is Presbyteros [on the board] (πρεσβύτερος, fyi).  Remind me please, in the days of Abraham, and at the first Passover, who did the sacrificing? The fathers? Yes, the elders; and if they did the sacrificing then they were also...? Priests? Yes [on the board under presbyteros], but since being a priest wasn't a special job until the Israelites worshiped the Calf, they were just elders. If I fix a toilet at home, I'm not called a plumber, it's just something I do as the eldest man in the house. But if I make a mess and water sprays all over the place, my wife will be like God after the Calf: "You made such a mess I don't feel good about you fixing leaks anymore...I...want....a....? Plumber! Yes, who I have to pay!

So an elder who sacrifices is a plumber!  What? He's a priest!  Oh. Oh, yeah, an elder who sacrifices is a priest. Let's look at presbyteros again, what's it mean? Old man. Yes, let's say elder [on the board next to presbyteros] in this case. Presbyteros is a very old word, a few thousand years old or so. We use it all the time in English but it's changed so much we don't recognize it anymore. It's gotten shorter, look: [I rub letters out of presbyteros so that it reads presbyter--]. That's like the word Presbyterian. Presbyterian churches are run by elders but not bishops and popes. But it got even shorter: [more rubouts] pres--ter. Nowadays it's real short: pres--t...what's that word now? Is it priest? Yes, good (having the word 'priest' right under the diminishing 'presbyteros' means at least one child will get it quickly). So when we say 'priest' we also are saying.... elder? Yes, good. Hey, who's the President? Obama? Yes, where's he from, a big city....Washington? No, where's he from? Umm, Chicago? Yes, Chicago. In Chicago they elect elders, who are right under the mayor. They call them 'aldermen', it's just a way to say 'elder-men'. Kind of like the way our priest-elders are under the...bishop? Yes.

So, the top office is....?  Pope! Meaning...papa!  Next is...bishop!  Yes, meaning...overseer!  Yes, and next are...priests, yes again, which comes from the Greek word for...elder!  And who sacrificed the Passover lambs?  Elders!  Yes, geniuses, elders who functioned as priests!

This isn't the end of the discussion, which next treats deacons, and concludes with some comparison of the complete hierarchy of the Catholic Church (Jesus-Pope-Bishops-Priests-Deacons-laity) to other churches which have a partial heirarchy. But these few minutes should be adequate to show how the texture of the learning experience is determined by the teaching rules.

That pic at the top shows a recent archaeological discovery: the Ax of the Apostles.

5x8=55

6th grade catechism has four more class meetings this year.  The kids have been easy to teach, as usual; we are on schedule, and may even be half a period ahead on course material.  I have little mini-lectures (2-5 minutes) ready to fill in classtime if we finish a lesson plan early, and sometimes within these little bits lies the framework (a cadre, that's right!) of a bigger lesson.  A recurring theme in our class is that humans are comprised of body & soul; therefore God uses physical things to convey spiritual things.  This idea of physical media conducting divine power pops up constantly when discussing miracles, Sacraments, even Jesus Himself.  Thus far it's only mentioned as part of some other topic, e.g. Baptism.  But in the last few days I've been thinking about treating the concept comprehensively this year if class time permits, which I expect it will.

It's a great subject to teach visually, and instead of making a written lesson plan, I sketched out the little schematic below on a 5x8 legal notepad:

First see the bottom, I show the fundamentals of media.  On the left are writers, actors, musicians, anyone who wants to communicate something to others. In the middle is a TV and a book.  We'll discuss how the TV and the book (and by extension theaters, newspapers, radios, etc.) "channel" the ideas in a way that other people can perceive them with their bodies.  The ideas aren't physical, but the media are, and the way the audience accesses the ideas is through their physical natures: eyes and ears, mostly.  On the far right is a person, i.e., a body'n'soul which represents those who will receive what's being mediated.  The body'n'soul pic emphasizes the oneness of our physical and spiritual natures....not unlike the oneness of Christ's divine and human natures.  The kids see the body'n'soul 20 times a year, if not more often, so they know what it means.

Now, at the upper left we start with a standard cartoon of God the Father.  Lines of divine power stretch from Him through assorted Old Testament media in the middle (manna, water from the rock, Elijah's cloak, Naaman washing in the Jordan, and Eisha's bones) to the representative human on the right.  All of the Old Testament examples set a precedent for New Testament and Church examples to follow.  At my prompting, the kids will tell the stories more than I will. The kids have heard them all, so I have a lot of flexibility as to how much time can be spent on Moses' stick, Elijah's cloak, etc.  I have props for some of these miracles & can act them out.
Once we're done with the Old Testament, we'll discuss how Jesus Himself is a prototype Sacrament in that he, physically God, connected directly, physically with people in a new & profound way.  This is shown by the lines running  from God the Father to the Son.  In case there's any confusion, Jesus is always drawn with longer hair than his father; the kids know how to tell them apart.  Jesus is drawn twice because he is a mediator, and also something which is mediated...he's an exception to the overall scheme in that respect.

Having understood Jesus as a new baseline for physical mediation, we'll discuss the miracles he worked.  The tassel healing, clay on the eyes, and the loaves & fishes are miracles chosen for their emphasis on the physical world.  They are noted as the "Jesus on Earth" miracles.  They set a baseline for the Sacraments of the Church, which itself also has a physical and spiritual nature.

Now we'll review the 5 sacraments shown, focusing on the physical media, and why each is appropriate for what it conveys spiritually.  Time permitting, we can first discuss Paul's rag and Peter's shadow as well; they effect a nice transition from Jesus' miracles to the Church's miracles, but they aren't critical.  I don't expect to treat them if time is tight.

I plan to draw all this on the board as I've sketched out.  I'll work from left to right instead of up and down due to the board's orientation, and do the media fundamentals first, not last.  I'm aiming at having 25 minutes to do this: 2 minutes for general media, 7 for Old Testament, 8 for Jesus, 8 for Church & Sacraments.  A quick look at the schematic will tell me if I'm fast or slow.  And if I do get the chance next year, I can very easily expand this to a full 55-minute discussion.  Now that I think about it, 55 minutes might be more reasonable, but it can be adjusted for time.

This post is also available at the Amazing Catechists' website.

The Ineffable Bow

In Wednesday Sunday School we emphasize the importance of being properly disposed at Mass: the fast, no serious sins, reverence. Because we all have bodies and souls, it's not enough to be spiritually reverent, but physically reverent as well:

"Y'all know that you have to show respect at Mass? Yes, we know. So tell me, then, how do you show respect? Don't talk. Yes, and? Don't fool around or daydream. Yes, pay attention and participate. Don't be like my daughters when they were 14 years old [I portray them: look at fingernails; fiddle with missalette; sigh; look at ceiling; mumble hymn; look at people; fiddle with hair; cough]. Why does it matter what your body is doing? Well, if you act bored you're probably bored. Yes, if your body is bored or disrespectful, so is your soul.

But you can't see your own body being slack. Who sees me be inattentive if I'm bored or tired at Mass? God? Well, yes, but who else? Who else? Yes, am I at church by myself? No...oh, other people can see! Yes, and if people are trying to pay God some attention and see me slouched and half-asleep, how does that affect them? It makes it harder for them. Yes, it's discouraging for them. Suppose the priest sees me paying no attention to his sermon? He'd feel bad. I bet he would. But I will never know in this life who I discouraged by my poor behavior at Mass.

On the other hand if bad behavior can discourage other people, reverent behavior can....? encourage people? Yes, and I know that to be true. When I was your age, 12 or so, this was my parish.  In fact, this was my classroom, but that's not part of the story. Sometimes we attended an evening Mass. There would usually be only one or two altarboys, and no music. It was a quiet Mass, and not crowded. I was usually tired and bored, since I didn't especially pay attention to, or understand, much of what went on. Well on this particular night, there was just the one altarboy, I guess he was about 16. When we began the Creed he was standing still with his hands folded like so [I play the altar server], like all of us; I don't know why I noticed him. Anyway, you may recall from being at Mass, when we recite the Creed, we bow at this line: "by the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man." When we got to that  line, he bowed. And his bow was...perfect [and I bow as I remember him bowing]: not fast, but not too slow; not halfway, but a full bow. Eyes open, but not with a blank stare. Bowing always seemed a bit weird to me, but he looked completely comfortable, as though bowing reverently was the most natural thing in the world. Time stood still for him and me. It seemed like heaven had come down to Earth for a few seconds. Then the line was done, he gracefully straightened back up, Mass continued.  That altar server showed me by his bow how seriously he took Mass, made me want to take it seriously, too. Most of all, I sensed he bowed for reasons invisible to me, but not to him. And it was the first time I saw holiness, experienced what I call a Holy Bubble. 

Soon after, I became an altarboy (and learned a lot of Latin).

Now here I am, 40 years later. I go to Mass and I remember that altar server. I don't how I would have turned out if I hadn't witnessed his reverent bow all those years ago. So y'all think about that little thing he did and what a big deal it has been for me. You'll never know what little thing you do at Mass will have a great impact on someone else, for better or worse.

This article is also available at the Amazing Catechists website.