We're inside Jesus

During the lesson on preparing the chalice, the catechist said: "The wine represents Jesus. (Pour a full wine cruet into chalice.) The water represents you and me. (Pour one drop of water into the wine.) Now, what could this mean for us?" Silence descended as they stared at what had just happened. Then they burst out: "We're inside Jesus...We disappear; we're gone...Yes...No, we're still us...We become Jesus...No one can take us out of Jesus!"

No one can take us out of Jesus!

During the lesson on preparing the chalice at Mass in her atrium of 6-9-year-old children, the catechist said: "The wine represents Jesus." She pours a full cruet into chalice, then continues, "The water represents you and me." She stops again and pours one drop of water into the wine. "Now, what could this mean for us?"

Silence descended among the children as they stared at what had just happened. Then they burst out: "We're inside Jesus...We disappear; we're gone...Yes...No, we're still us...We become Jesus...No one can take us out of Jesus!"

We are in Jesus and He is in our hearts

In working with the preparation of the chalice, Kendall's response after talking about the wine being changed into Jesus was, "We are in Jesus and He is in our hearts." He then thanked God for waking his family up this morning.

We were talking about the Kingdom of God in relation to the preparation of the chalice and Xandro said that the wine is Jesus and the water is us. He then went on to say that when the water is mixed with the wine, we cannot see it. Then I asked, "Can we see the Kingdom of Heaven?" He said, "No, but it is there just as we cannot see the water in the wine."

The Chalice is Like Creation

Charlie, age seven, had been in the atrium for four years. Driving home with his mother, he mentioned that he had been doing the preparation of the chalice. During the lesson on the preparation of the chalice, the catechist says: "The wine represents Jesus." (She pours a full cruet into chalice.) "The water represents you and me." (She pours one drop of water into the wine.) "Now, what could this mean for us?"

Charlie's mom, a catechist herself, asked him what he thought "the mystery of the water and wine" meant. (His mom was thinking it meant that we are so small, and God is so great.) But Bobby said, "It's like creation: the water is the people, and the wine is Jesus and God. When everything was prepared in the world, people came last, just like the water is added last after the wine is prepared." His mom asked the other catechists whether any of them might have presented this idea to Charlie, but they hadn't -- he came up with it himself.