Blessings First....
This week, Paul is attending Totus Tuus at St Thomas Aquinas in Charlotte. Thotus Tuus is a program that sends four young people (college age) into a parish to teach children about their faith. It is very easy to use - basically the parish says yes, they want a Totus Tuus team to come, they provide a space and the children and ta da! the program is ready to go. The team has two men and two women. In the morning they work with children in grades 1 - 6 in the evening they work with older kids - grades 7 - 12. They aren't flashy, there isn't alot of fluff. It is alot of talking. Broken up into small segments. The team all rotate among the different grade levels. They work on getting to know the kids and on modeling enthusiasm for being Catholic. It is pretty orthodox in it's teaching about the church. The children (all 85) go to daily mass.
Paul has learned the names of some (if not all - I haven't actually asked if he knows all of them yet) mysteries of the rosary AND the corresponding fruit of the mystery! I know the mysteries, but even I never memorized the fruit of the mystery!
The pastor has also made available the sacrament of reconciliation and all of the 3 - 12th graders were given the opprotunity to have their confession heard.
It is amazing to me what a difference this made for overall attitude among the children....The 5th and 6th graders went yesterday and the overall attitude of the entire group was affected. As a whole, they were much quieter and more attentive to the adults in charge. Today, I think, the 3rd and 4th graders go to reconciliation.
If only the 1st and 2nd graders could go......
Which leads me to my grumbles - the largest group (this is really a mixed blessing) is the youngest group - about 1/2 the kids are in 1st and 2nd grade. They cannot recieve communion yet, they cannont go to confession yet. And they need Jesus more than any of the rest of us! The challenge is that they are the wiggliest. It makes me just a little crazy because these kids (my own included) really struggle with being able to sit in one place for more than five minutes. And then to absorb what is being taught to them? I really think only a fraction is getting through. Add to that the difficulty of sitting through a daily mass....
Fortunately, there are about 10 total adults within the Totus Tuus program, and after the first day's disaster mass of wiggly disruptive young boys, we all chose a boy to sit with during mass and we didn't sit anywhere near each other. Huge difference - for the better.
The encouragement I get though is that my dear little one is not that different from the boys in his peer group.
The fear I have is that he is easily a follower.
The encouragement I have is that he recognizes who the trouble makers are, and he doesn't choose to sit with them, they choose him. So perhaps he could be a leader. I have to figure out how to harness this power for good.
But for the moment, I have to get up and get moving! Another day of fun and excitement is ahead!
P.S. Totus Tuus is Latin for Totally Yours - it was Blessed JP II's motto.
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