First Reconciliation & Beyond Leaders Guide

Description

First Reconciliation and Beyond is a resource for Catholic parishes. The Leader Guide contains everything a catechist needs to lead one parents' session and four children's sessions to prepare for celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation. The emphasis is not just on "first reconciliation" but the ongoing experience of growing in relationship with Christ and the Christian community. The sessions focus on the theology, scripture, symbols, and experience of the sacramental ritual. The book includes age appropriate activities and discussions for both younger (ages 7-8) and older (ages 9-11) children.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Philosophie et théologie
• Catholic
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Church Publishing Incorporated
• Date de parution: 01 février 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781606741757
• Langue: English

Extrait

FIRST
RECONCILIATION
and BEYOND
Growing in Friendship with Christ
LEADER GUIDE
Revised Edition
Steve Mueller Editor

Morehouse Education Resources
A division of Church Publishing Incorporated
Nihil Obstat: William C. Beckman, M.T.S. Censor Librorum
Imprimatur: Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. Archbishop of Denver December 22, 2004
The imprimatur is an official declaration that a book or pamphlet is free from doctrinal and moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed.
2005 by Morehouse Education Resources
All rights reserved. No part of this publication except the handouts for parents and children may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible: The Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version. 1991 by the American Bible Society. Used by permission.
The English translation of the Rite of Penance 1974, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. (ICEL). All rights reserved.
Morehouse Education Resources a division of Church Publishing Incorporated Editorial Offices: 600 Grant Street, Suite 630 Denver, CO 80203
Cover Design: Tom Castanzo
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978-1-60674-175-7
CONTENTS
Reconciliation: Sacrament of Healing and Growth
What Distinguishes This Resource
1. Liturgical Catechesis
2. The Sacramental Principle
3. Parents Ownership of the Process
4. The Beyond Dimension
How to Use These Books
The Leader Guide
The Parents Session
The Four Children s Sessions
The Review Session
The Child s Book
The Family Activity Book
Catechist s Background
Resources for Learning More about Reconciliation
Formats for Offering the Sessions
Parents Session: Helping Parents Prepare Their Child
Enrollment Ritual
Children s Sessions
1. Jesus Invites Us to Be His Friends
2. Sometimes We Fail to Be Good Friends
3. Jesus Makes Us Friends Again
4. Jesus Sends Us to Make Peace With Others
Review Session
Reproducible Handouts
The Sacrament of Reconciliation through the Centuries
The Three Ways to Do the Rite
Reproducible Centerpiece Pattern
RECONCILIATION: SACRAMENT OF HEALING AND GROWTH
Forgiveness and reconciliation are essential characteristics of the Christian life because through our baptism we are initiated into friendship with God and fellowship with one another. This is the meaning of the Kingdom community that Jesus began and which continues today in the Church.
His Kingdom community exhibited a new lifestyle characterized by imitating God s love for us in our love for others. The Kingdom community follows God s example of unlimited forgiveness, especially as celebrated in the sacrament of reconciliation ( Catechism of the Catholic Church [cited as CCC ], #1440-70). We imitate God s forgiveness of our sins by forgiving others who sinned against us ( CCC, #1440-45).
We believe that through Jesus Christ the world has been reconciled to God and now all Christians share this mission of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5: 17-21). Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of this ministry of reconciliation ( CCC, #2844). We also seek out those who have separated from us to reconcile ourselves with them ( CCC, #857-65). Being a Christian is a continual adventure in forgiveness!
The Christian life demands continual, life-long conversion (in Greek, metanoia, to change one s mind, outlook or attitude) to become a more responsible Christian. It demands aligning our world with the vision and values of God as exemplified in Jesus. It requires continually striving to make our relationships better.
The command and challenge of forgiveness is deeply rooted in the Lord s Prayer. We ask that God forgive us as we forgive others. But it is impossible to imitate the divine model from outside; there has to be a vital participation, coming from the depths of the heart, in the holiness and the mercy and the love of our God ( CCC, #2842). If we are full of anger, resentment and grudges, we will be unable to accept God s forgiveness or to strive effectively for just and peace-filled relationships in our families, communities and the world. Only when we release negative feelings can we accept God s forgiveness and let it flow from our lives into our communities.
Forgive and forget is a much misunderstood phrase. To forget in this sense does not mean to wipe an offense out of our memories. It means that we do not let the memory of it prevent us from loving the person who hurt us. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin ( CCC, #2844).
The Church has been created by the mercy of God to build a new way of relating based on God s love. It can flourish only if those who receive this mercy continue to exchange true forgiveness. Forgiveness cannot be earned, but it can be lost-only the forgiving receive forgiveness.
WHAT DISTINGUISHES THIS RESOURCE
First Reconciliation and Beyond: Growing in Friendship with Christ is a sacramental preparation resource offering everything that a catechist, the child and the family need to prepare for celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation.
Several unique emphases characterize this approach to the sacrament of reconciliation and its effect in the lives of those who celebrate it. These effects reach out beyond the immediate celebration and beyond the immediate family.
1. Liturgical Catechesis
An outsider wanting to know what Catholics believe might wisely look to how we pray. The ancient saying lex orandi, lex credendi means that the law of prayer establishes the law of belief. In other words, we come to understand the mysteries of the faith through our rites and prayers. This makes good sense, because images and actions are more easily remembered; they affect people more than words. Therefore, this resource takes as its starting point the rite of reconciliation because catechesis leading up to a particular celebration should be based on the theology, scripture, experience, symbols and gestures that make up that ritual.
So, the Leader Guide, the Child s Book and the Family Activity Book consist of four sessions that follow from the Church s Rite of Penance (#5) and the parts of the rite (#6). They explore the key symbols: the Christian assembly composed by penitent and priest, the Bible, the dialogue of reconciliation between priest and penitent, and the dismissal of the penitent to lead a better life. (See Sharing the Light of Faith: National Catechetical Directory for Catholics in the United States [Washington DC:
U. S. Catholic Conference, 1997] #123-26 and CCC , #1422-70). As Vatican II s Constitution on the Liturgy reminds us, The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the font from which all her power flows (#10). It is therefore the privileged place for catechizing the People of God ( CCC, #1074). Liturgical catechesis aims to initiate people into the mystery of Christ by proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the thing signified, from the sacraments to the mysteries ( CCC, #1075).
Thus we try to give parents of those celebrating first reconciliation not only information, but a sense of awe and wonder before the mysteries of God s presence in the universe, in others, in the events of their lives and in the sacramental celebrations of the Church. Liturgical formation must explain what the Christian liturgy is, and what the sacraments are. It must also, however, offer an experience of the different kinds of celebration and it must make the symbols, gestures, etc. known and loved ( General Directory for Catechesis [Washington DC: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1997] #87).
2. The Sacramental Principle
The Catholic stance has always been to seek out God s presence in the persons, places and events of our daily lives. Nothing is more characteristic of Catholicism than its emphasis on this principle of sacramentality, namely, that only through the visible and tangible can we encounter the invisible God who is truly present and active in our world. We also employ this principle of sacramentality to understand the mysteries of Jesus Christ, of the Church and of the Church s seven sacraments as realities specially imbued with God s presence.
Hence, we encourage parents to develop this sacramental vision and then communicate it to their children. Their doing so continues a rich history. St. Augustine expressed the sacramental principle when he declared that There is nothing that cannot become a sacramental encounter. The Catholic vision sees God in all things, as St. Ignatius Loyola phrased it, and understands the Church s seven sacraments as specially graced rituals through which we experience the hidden presence of God.
Through these Church rituals, we encounter Jesus in his saving work ( CCC, #774). But unlike the sacramental signs of our daily experience, these sacraments confer the grace they signify ( CCC, #1127-28). Since reconciliation with God is thus the purpose and effect of this sacrament ( CCC, #1468), those who celebrate the sacrament of penance or reconciliation obtain pardon from God s mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion ( CCC, #1422). The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God s grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship ( CCC, #1468).
3. Parents Ownership of the Process
The intent of this resource is to prepare children for the sacrament of reconciliation. It opens ways to see not only the sacramental moment in church b