Education to Prayer

 When the children come to the Atria on Sunday mornings and Monday afternoons, they take a moment to prepare themselves to enter into the classroom.  They hang their coats on hooks in the hall, get a drink from the water fountain, and greet their friends in the hallway.  When they are ready the children come to the door of the Atrium and bless themselves with holy water from the fount hung at child-level.  

Our Catholic faith provides us with rich symbols and rituals to help us to enter into the mystery of our relationship with God.  Children are particularly attuned to these symbols and rituals.  When the catechists and I forget to refill the holy water, the children invariably remind us.  The ritual of blessing themselves is important to them.

Children love actions, and this action speaks to them of who they are and who they are called to be.