Where is the Kingdom of God?

There was a lengthy discussion of the Kingdom of God and just WHERE it was. This took place mainly between two boys of the second grade. This was the outcome:
Nicholas, 8: It's like each one of us has a part of God in us - like a piece of puzzle. When we put ourselves together, we see god.

Bradley, 8: Yeah! It's like Legos; you have all these separate legos and no directions. But when you start getting them TOGETHER, you get a new creation.

The whole universe!

The catechist was presenting the gestures of peace and breaking of the bread from Mass to a group of 9-year olds. A low round table covered with a white cloth held a plate (model paten) and unbroken bread (model host). After reflecting on the gesture of peace, the catechist invited everyone to stand around the table holding hands. He remarked, “Our standing like this is a way of representing the unity of the peace we experience from Christ. Is this peace just here in our atrium or our own church?”

Several children immediately replied, “No, it’s over the whole world.” Blaine exclaimed, “The whole universe!” Chris wordlessly brought a model of the sun and solar system and placed it beside the prayer table. (He brought this model from the Montessori classroom connected to our atrium).

It makes us grow - like the seed

During a presentation of parable of the leaven with a 6-9 group I asked, "Do you think the kingdom changes anything in the world?
Felice, 6, answered, "It changes us."
"How?"
"It makes us grow - like the seed."

The Leaven Grows

When doing the work exploring the parable of The Leaven, Janie, age 7, prepared two bowls of flour mixed with water. One bowl contained yeast, and the other did not. Janie said, ”The Leaven rose like Jesus going to the Kingdom of Heaven.” After doing The Leaven work again later, she enjoyed a new meditation work using clay and formed a table with the bread on it. She said “The leaven grows and the Kingdom of Heaven grows and my bones grow.” She also wondered about heaven, “If it had towns for all the people and each town had a grain of leaven, it would use the hair and skin of God and everything would grow and be made of God.”

Beth sat in the doorway watching the Fettuccia work in the hall. She said, pointing to the candle lit beside the Bible, "That's my birthday candle" and, pointing to the long ribbon, "That is my birthday present." Then she wrote,
" I (heart) God he is cool.
And he is watching us
I believe in him
he is ril (sic) "real"
he made me
he is mageic."

The Fettuccia is a 50-meter long ribbon that gives the elementary child an impression of the vastness and unity of the kingdom of God. The following responses were offered during this presentation to the children:

Una (6): “God gave us the gift of the whole world. What gift can we give to God?”
Catechist: “What could we give him?”
Una: “Gold.”
Catechist: “Gold. Could we give Him anything else.”
Una, then the other children: “Our love. Our kindnesses, gold, (other responses).”

Towards the end of the ribbon, a figure of a human being and a hand represent the first human beings, created in God’s image. Nolan (6), while reflecting on the figure of the human being and the hand, remarked “We help God create!”

God is Great

Kent, age 7, did The Gifts work, and explained that his favorite gifts were those on outer space and the fragrances. He illustrated a Kingdom of God Gifts booklet saying “God is great. He prepared for us.”

Oscar, age 8, was at home with his mother. She was creating a flyer on connecting the atrium, home, and church for families. Oscar shared some of his ideas:
1. Light a candle at dinner and think/talk about comparisons with light
and Jesus.
2. Say Grace at every meal. Think about God's gift to us and us saying
thank you. Think about how we can say grace always. (Silently at a friends
house or at school). If you didn't say grace you wouldn't be saying thank you to
Jesus for the wonderful food.
3. For older group: At church - listen to the words the priest is saying
and "connect all the parts together in your mind".
4. For older group: Notice all the symbols of light in the church (ie.
sunlight shining through the window onto the cross, because that to me is
like God shining in upon us during mass - and sometimes you can even see
a shadow of Jesus from the cross within the sunrays and that is Jesus and
God together as they are together, - shining down upon us.

Tricia, age 6 drew a four page booklet:

Page 1 - smiling Jesus on the cross
Page 2 - chalice
Page 3 - paten
Page 4 - Altar, chalice, paten, candles. She referred to the last drawing as "The Last Supper".