Nicole and I took on a task bigger than we’d speculated when we decided to take on a Joyful Mysteries of the rosary Service for the 3rd class students of Kennedy Park Primary School. We’d imagined every child as having their own ‘job’ and everything flowing as smoothly and effortlessly as a piece of satin cloth. Initially, we’d created little dialogue scenes for a cast of 25 actors/actresses to perform between each mystery, found a selection of crafts for the two classes, and picked a beautiful Ave Maria to teach all the children. Well, here’s how our first time dealing with the energetic classes went:
The “two-verses-one-chorus” song that we’d aspired to teach them became the “can-we-get-through-one-chorus-successfully?” song. It took a few rehearsals but they finally got their grip on the chorus (Nicole and I took care of the verses) and that was plenty for them to handle.
We found a few coloring book pages representing the various mysteries, so we enlarged the pictures and made little posters for one class to color. That went great! The tissue paper flower craft that I’d found did not blow over so well in their not-so-delicate little hands. By the end, I had many children holding their projects above their heads, tissue paper shredded around them and pipe cleaners bent even more than pipe cleaners are meant to bend. But at least we got a few beautiful flowers for the service. (And I realized that heartier materials are much better suited for the hands of 8 year-olds.) 🙂
Finally, after slimming down to only 10 actors, we worked with a few children at a time on where to stand/how to speak etc during their short mystery dramatizations. When we turned around, the direction to “sit on the bench and wait your turn” must have somehow reached their ears as, “please get as far away from the bench as possible while still remaining connected by some tiny corner of a limb.” Children were splayed out on either side of the bench, mostly on the ground and mostly in pig-piles the Fighting Irish would be proud of. Nicole and I just stared wide-eyed at each other while the bench of 3rd classers morphed into a human replica of Medusa’s hair.
Alas, it was a much-needed lesson on how the minds and attention spans of children work. And you’ll be glad to hear that with a few more rehearsals and a little more work on our part, the service went swimmingly! We prayed all five of the joyful mysteries led by groups of students, and watched each scene playing out before our eyes. The attending parents were beaming at the little faces of the third class, the students belted their hearts out during the Ave Maria, and Medusa’s hair even calmed down to a wiggle. As a last-minute surprise, Noel from the parish donated rosaries to each and every student, so they could pray along and have a little keepsake as well. Yay Noel!
One more story! Nick and I have been helping quite a bit with the teaching masses for the students who will be receiving their first communion later this year. This mainly involves us running the powerpoint and talking about the different parts of mass and Emily running around the church with a wireless microphone quizzing the children on various parts of the liturgy. This week, when discussing the practice of “gathering”, we put up a picture of a wedding, with a bride and groom waltzing down the isle. I asked what was portrayed in the picture and hands shot into the air. The dialogue went something like this:
Emily: So, what does this picture represent?
Child: A wedding.
Emily: Yes! And how do you know that this is a wedding?
Child: Umm….because……because the girl is wearing a wedding dress and….umm…they boy is wearing…………a boy wedding dress.
Congregation: (erupts into giggles, Emily tries to keep a straight face as she looks up to the picture of a man wearing a tux.) Nobody tell that man that he’s wearing a dress, k?
Anywhohow, we have a cast of visitors arriving for the weekend, including Brigid from ND (studying in Dublin) and Jamie (Nicole’s friend living in Switzerland), so we’re neck deep in preparations for our Halloween party on Sunday eve. You know, we’ve gotta show people how to really do Halloween properly! “Pun-y” costumes, creepy-lookin’ food, and Thriller. Swing by (if you dare) to try a witch finger, a mummy bite, some orange goo and other exciting delicacies. Pictures are sure to follow! Speaking of which, I’m realizing I need a picture, so here’s one of some of the things we all missed from the US, which a recent visitor was SO very kind to bring along.
