What are my children doing here, and what does it have to do with faith formation?
They are bowing to Jesus’ name.
About two weeks ago, we began re-reading Little Acts of Grace
during our morning
circle time. This gem of a book introduces young children to gestures, thoughts and
actions that can help to keep our minds and hearts focused on God. After reading the page in it about nodding our
heads in order to show love and respect when we hear the name Jesus, the
children and I played an impromptu game to practice the concept.
during our morning
circle time. This gem of a book introduces young children to gestures, thoughts and
actions that can help to keep our minds and hearts focused on God. After reading the page in it about nodding our
heads in order to show love and respect when we hear the name Jesus, the
children and I played an impromptu game to practice the concept.
Giving a Nod to Jesus
Since it was the week of the Feast of the Assumption, I told
a brief story about the Mary and her Assumption into Heaven. As I did, the children listened carefully,
and every time I said the name “Jesus”
within the story, they nodded their heads or bowed.
When I had finished telling my story, the children asked if we
could take turns telling more stories and bowing to Jesus. Of course, I agreed.
Luke began with
story about St. Anne, which he brought straight through to the Assumption. In doing so, he amazed me not only with how often he managed to incorporate Jesus’ name
so that Nina and I would nod or bow, but also with how he hit upon some of the
main events of St. Anne’s life, St. Mary’s childhood and St. Mary’s experience
as Jesus’ mother.
Upon listening to Luke’s narration, I found myself bowing
for more reasons than just to practice showing love and respect for Jesus. Indeed, I bowed my head with thanksgiving that
our Lord’s story is written in my son’s heart and how gifted I was at that
moment with his exuberance to share his six-year-old-understanding of it. What a
moment of simple joy and blessing!
Then, it was Nina’s turn as storyteller. Her choice of story – or, rather, song – was no
less moving for me. In her
sweet, five-year-old voice, Nina sang a self-composed song of Jesus’ birth
which transitioned into a chorus of “Jesus Christ lay down his life for us, for
us...” Nina sang with whole-hearted emotion. Wow!
When Nina’s turn ended, Jack
chimed in with his far briefer turn, which was but one word if I recall – “Amen.”
I could not have closed the morning’s prayer time and game
better myself!
Nor could I have
imagined the impact our brief impromptu game would have...
Since we first played Giving a Nod to Jesus in our front
yard, the children have requested to play it a number of times in the car. They have also carefully bowed their heads more
often at the mention of Jesus’ name during prayer time, faith story times and Mass.
A
"little act of grace" that even I had been too often neglecting, is becoming a
habit again in our home – one observed with attentive joy and love.
What little acts of love might
you revitalize in your own daily habits and those of your children? How can you make doing so fun as well as
faith-filled?
(If you receive this post via email and cannot see the linky, be sure to actually click over to the blog to read browse the rich catalog of ideas there.)
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