I'm teaching 3rd/4th Grade Religious Education at my new parish church. It's such a gift. Our year long goal is to learn how to be "friends of Jesus" by following the Beatitudes and the Ten Commandments. Today's lesson was on "hearing Jesus through Sacred Scripture."
So what does the little Carmelite do? I taught 8 kids how to do Lectio Divinia! In the middle of reading some verses on friendship with Christ from the Gospel of John I start thinking "this is going is such a failure." Most of the boys couldn't sit still. Our classroom doesn't have walls (of course!) so it's super noisy.
I was shocked to discover, however, that my kids adored it. Two boys actually said they "they never felt anything like that in their life" and "something good came into my heart."
So these totally ordinary 8 and 9 year old kids ASKED to do Lectio Divino at every one of our future Sunday School sessions. Then they voted to designate Saturday as the first day as a class that they would try to read Sacred Scripture at their own homes. These guys were so eager, I had to track down two Bibles to give to kids that didn't have them at home. I mean, who knew an eight year old kid would ASK to take a Bible home?
It's so humbling to teach, because He does all the work. One of my fellow teachers is very concerned about all of the kids "who aren't here every Sunday." But I was telling my husband today "I'm totally amazed at the kids who ARE here. He's got them marked. He's got each of them lined up for some special plan."
What an honor to have a special time to pour love into these little souls.
(I'm extra blessed because Hannah is in my class. Jon stops by often with Baby Tess. Meanwhile, Alex and Maria are both really enjoying their respective religion classes.)
