Ways to encourage children to pray
The little ones at Ecole Notre Dame des Victoires ask for a “chapel pass” to visit the downtown San Francisco elementary school’s chapel during lunch and recess. The chapel, converted in 2008 from the old school library with a donation from a benefactor, has a red candle signaling the Blessed Sacrament’s presence and Rosary beads lying on the seats.
“It supports our commitment to prayer and helping our children appreciate a sacred space that allows them to sit and be, to listen to God,” said Notre Dame des Victoires Principal Mary Ghisolfo. “Just for a few minutes, it’s a time away from the hustle and bustle.”
Throughout the Archdiocese of San Francisco in parish religious education programs and in schools, the faith of children is nurtured in sometimes slight ways that call on traditional devotions and innovative practices to encourage children to pray.
“Prayer builds our relationship with God and that’s the most important thing we have in life,” said Sister Celeste Arbuckle, director of the archdiocesan Office for Religious Education and Youth Ministry. “It also builds the community of faith,” added Vivian Clausing, associate director of Youth Ministry and Catechesis.
At Holy Name of Jesus School near Ocean Beach and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, the first and second graders attend the school’s weekly Mass on Thursday with an older child as part of the school’s emphasis on teaching the faith in the context of loving relationships, said first grade teacher and assistant principal Linda McCausland. “They sit together, they sing together, they love each other, they hug each other,” McCausland said. “It is a wonderful empathetic relationship to build for the older children to remember what it was like to not know all the information, not know all the prayers,” said McCausland, who is in her 33rd year at Holy Name School. “The little ones want to know and they can learn by hanging around with the big ones. They’ll come back singing from Mass. It’s a wonderful, wonderful experience.”
The religious education program at Our Lady of Mercy parish in Daly City, Sister Fe Bigwas, RVM, includes food and parent involvement almost every step of the way in a popular program that involves around 300 children a year with classes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays to accommodate working families’ schedules. Whether it is the four prayer and faith sessions with families, teachers, and students the religious education program hosts throughout the school year or the mandatory first Communion and confirmation parent meetings and retreats, there is almost always a potluck, “always food,” Sister Bigwas says.
Often, helping parents renew their faith is a big part of teaching children to pray, says Michael Smith, director of youth and religious education at St. Dominic parish in San Francisco. Before many religious education classes, “children sit with parents and they sing a song together that we will do together through the season. We have the parents sit with the children so the parents see how to pray and do that at home with the children,” Smith said.
For older youth, particularly those preparing to be confirmed, Smith said the focus is on personal prayer. On the confirmation retreat to the Marin Headlands, the teens write a letter to God, “as a way to foster communicative prayer,” Smith said. They learn “not just rote prayer, but conversation with God,” he said. “They learn that prayer can be personal and private. They burn the letters at the end of the retreat so it remains between them and God, but offered to God as smoke rises up.”
At Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Belmont, the religious education program includes at least one high school age student in each classroom, said youth minister Kathy Grosshauser. “They have an opportunity to learn how to teach the kids, they go to Mass with the classes,” said Grosshauser, whose daughter, a junior at Notre Dame High School, is in her third year helping out in the third grade. “Every third class she puts together the lesson plan and works with the kids. This is giving the older kids a chance to spread their wings and share their faith.” A big benefit, Grosshauser said, is the high return rate of parish teens who have been confirmed and want to work in the program.
At Our Lady of Mercy, parents, teachers and students conclude the year with a special rosary and Mass to the Blessed Mother which includes crowning Mary with flowers and everyone, adults and children, bringing offerings of flowers to place before the statue of Mary, Sister Bigwas said.
Like Our Lady of Mercy, St. Francis Assisi in East Palo Alto offers catechism classes on Thursdays and Saturdays to accommodate working parents’ schedule. Nearly 500 children in religious education and the two-year preparation programs for first Communion and confirmation attend, pastor Father Lawrence Goode said.
During Lent at St. Francis of Assisi Church, children joined adults in enacting Stations of the Cross in the streets of East Palo Alto, with five different Stations of the Cross each Friday, as the mostly Spanish language parishioners went to 14 houses for each stations journey, each house representing one Station of the Cross, said Father Goode. “Last time I was out, there was a little boy. We had two flashlights. I gave one to this little boy to put on the image,” said Father Goode. “I noticed another little child, same age, about 10, kneeling with his head buried in his hands right in front of the image of the station and he was praying away. I was very impressed.”
Teaching prayers to children and youth
The Archdiocese of San Francisco has a prayer curriculum – prayers that each Catholic school and each parish religious education program teaches. Schools and parishes can add other prayers to the list, depending on the culture of the community and the spirituality of the parish and school, said Sister Celeste Arbuckle, director of the Archdiocesan Office for Religious Education and Youth Ministry.
Kindergarten: Sign of the Cross, Hail Mary, Guardian Angel Prayer, Blessing with Holy Water
First Grade: Our Father, Glory be to the Father, Grace before meals, Begin verbal Mass responses, Genuflection and ritual
Second Grade: Ritual and verbal Mass responses, Simple Act of Contrition
Third Grade: Apostles Creed, Begin learning ritual and process of the Rosary, simple litany responses
Fourth Grade: The Rosary, Ritual of Stations of the Cross, Morning Offering
Fifth Grade: Prayer to St. Francis, Ritual and prayers for each sacrament, Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Sixth Grade: Ritual and prayers for each sacrament
Seventh-Eighth Grades: Nicene Creed
By Valerie Schmalz
From April 16, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
