Prayer Life
One of the most active areas of our classroom this year has been our class prayer table. While I was slow to use it effectively at the beginning of the year, as the year progressed I found it to be very engaging and rewarding to change the prayer table to match themes that we were currently following in our religion curriculum or to match themes of the liturgical calendar. During all of our table transitions, the 3 objects that were ALWAYS present were a bible, the rosary, and a candle. I light the candle at the beginning of every prayer session and remind the kids that the light represents the light of God and His Word in our lives. The walls surrounding our prayer table have many printed prayers that the kids can refer to at any time. In Religion class I typically have the students gather around our table, put on instrumental music to get them calm, and then I start with a prayer and special intentions. After special intentions then we move into having conversations about our weekly topic or theme. After class discussions, if there is anything that needs to be changed on the table I let the kids be active in changing out the prayer table pieces and then we talk about the symbolism of the objects on the table. Below are pictures of our prayer table and how it changed throughout the liturgical season .
Classroom Prayers
We have many prayers that we regularly use in the class. The bulletin board directly above our prayer table is covered in morning prayers, traditional prayers, lunch prayers, and end of school prayers. There is a new prayer leader each week that gets to pick our daily prayers and they stand at the front to lead the class. We always wait until everyone is quiet and respectful before we will pray and be dismissed. Here is an example of our "after lunch" prayer:
"We give you thanks Almighty God for these and all of the gifts that we have received through Christ our Lord , Amen. " Morning Prayers |
Staff Prayers
We often pray together as a staff in our staff meetings or at special occasions. I really enjoy being a part of such a strong faith community and joining together for those prayers and intentions. Our staff is very supportive of one another. If a staff member is going through anything difficult we always email the staff asking for everyone to join in prayer for our loved ones.
There was one morning in particular where I was able to feel the overwhelming power of prayer and staff community: we were meeting in the gathering space for a quick morning prayer and we had all joined hands to ask for special intentions. When it came around to me I was suddenly overwhelmed with grief because my grandmother had passed away the day before and I hadn't told any of my staff members yet. Upon tearing up during my intention the whole circle of staff surrounded me with hugs and support and we said a special prayer for my surviving Grandpa and for our family. It was a powerful moment with my staff members and that is one prayer that I will always remember and cherish as it really touched my heart.
There was one morning in particular where I was able to feel the overwhelming power of prayer and staff community: we were meeting in the gathering space for a quick morning prayer and we had all joined hands to ask for special intentions. When it came around to me I was suddenly overwhelmed with grief because my grandmother had passed away the day before and I hadn't told any of my staff members yet. Upon tearing up during my intention the whole circle of staff surrounded me with hugs and support and we said a special prayer for my surviving Grandpa and for our family. It was a powerful moment with my staff members and that is one prayer that I will always remember and cherish as it really touched my heart.
Special times of prayer
There were many opportunities this year to come together as a class and pray during times of local, national, or global disasters. When there is something drastic going on in the news I often gently inform the kids about the incident, then we join our hands together and bow our heads as I say a few words asking for God's grace upon those effected by the crisis. Then I ask the kids if any of them would like to add anything to the prayer, and we usually end it with a choral prayer such as the Our Father.
Tweeting and Reading
One way that I often get a "quick fix" of some religious insight is by going on my twitter to read short bible passages from pages such as the Pope (@Pontifex), Bible Scripture (@Scripture_Truth), and The Gospel Daily (@The_Gospels). I find that many of them instantly speak to me or that I can relate to them in some way. I also often open up my YOUCAT book that I got from Faith Mentorship and flip through a few pages in there as well. I also have 2 really awesome children's bibles that I will sometimes pull out and just read for fun before settling down to sleep.
Often after a long day I turn on worship music while I am working, and it is amazing how often I find myself stopping what I am working on to listen to the words because they seem to be speaking right to me. I am somebody who really connects well to music and so listening to the messages in the songs has proven to be a very therapeutic form of praying for me.