It's suppose to be real

Tara, age eight, during a parish Christmas pageant rehearsal:"It's not supposed to be cute, it's supposed to be real."
She refused to participate but arranged to read her own prayer at the end of the pageant which included a reference to Jesus, the True Vine.
Tara is an outspoken child and loves to perform. To refuse to be in the pageant indicates very strong feelings.

We need to be grateful

A group of 9-12-year-0ld children were reflecting on the parable on the Workers in the Vineyard. Judith immediately said, "We need to be grateful for what we have, and not be jealous of others. Like the children in Haiti (referring to children in an orphanage we were collecting clothing and raising money for) are grateful for food and probably not jealous of us."
The context of discussing plans to help the Haitian children immediately before the lesson nudged Judith into a more immediate, or current, understanding of the parable.

A kindergarten aged child shared this reflection with her mother: "Mommy, have you ever had a thought like, if you combined all of the words in the world into a word or a sentence, it might say something like God's name?"  A few minutes later, she added that "or if you combined all of the pictures of things in the world -like the houses and the cars and the street and everything on the whole earth and even inside the earth - maybe you could look at it and it would be a picture of God or heaven."

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.”