The Good Samaritan (The Sacrament Retreat)

The Good Samaritan, a moral parable in Level II, is one of the children's favorites.  It really creates a lot of discussion and thought for them.  The small box with the door represents the Inn.  My husband made the Inn and road.  I did the painting and decorated it with the rocks.  I would suggest getting the lightest weight wood you can use.  This is heavy.  I keep it on the bottom shelf but usually help the child put in on a rug or desk. The figures were purchased and I painted them.  

One of my favorite parts of doing these materials is finding the right box to keep them in.  I know
the children enjoy looking inside them and getting out the figures.  I usually find them in Thrift Shops or second hand stores.  That was a favorite pastime when I first started.  I usually cover the inside of the box with material.  Often the boxes are in pretty used condition and so I sometimes have to sand and stain them.  This one had a lovely old painting on the top.  I can't help but wonder where these old boxes have been.

The Sacrament Retreat (The Good Samaritan Presentation)

Two thousand years ago it was normal for people to walk miles to get to their destination.  They didn't have money for horses.  Soldiers had horses but ordinary people might have a donkey to ride or carry things for them.  People in Egypt and other parts of the world rode camels like the three Magi, but for the most part people were very poor and had little.  It was not unusual for them to walk during the night and knock on someone's door asking for food and lodging.  Even Jesus and his apostles did this.  Jesus told his Apostles that if someone invites you into their home, accept their hospitality.  That's how they traveled.  Now this is a model of the road from Jerusalem down to Jericho that was commonly traveled.  It was a desert road and a mountainous area with many big rocks that robbers could hide behind.  It was well known to be very dangerous where robbers left people for dead.  It was on this dark road that a man was robbed and left wounded on the side of the road.  (I show the man on the road and the robbers).

(Then I remove the robbers and talk about the Jewish priest who was walking down that road.)  He passes the injured man and doesn't help him.  Next, a Levite, (who I explain is like a Deacon) passes the injured man also, and he doesn't help him either.  I tell the children how the Jewish people were in slavery by the Egyptians for hundreds of years and when they were freed they had to make up all these laws and rules to live by as they'd never been free before.  Some of their rules weren't easy and some were difficult.  One was that you couldn't do anything on the Sabbath, even if it meant helping someone.  In fact, that is one of the reasons Jesus died on the cross.  He broke their Sabbath law and performed miracles.  (Now I move the priest and Levite off the road to the bottom of the road).

Next, the Samaritan and his Donkey come down that road but see the man and he is moved with compassion.  I then tell the children how the Jews had no respect for Samaritans as they were part Jew but did not worship their God of Abraham and those that did practiced their faith differently.
They would never speak to them.  (Now I light the candle and read the Scripture.)

Afterward I ask them what they heard.  "Do you think the Samaritan would have helped the Levite and the Priest?"  Then I give out the Maxim plaques, one to each child and ask them to tell me if their Maxim applies to this story.  Happily most times they are absolutely right.  They get it.  But even if they aren't it gives me a chance to go over that Maxim and explain how it doesn't apply and what it means.  I do this after each Parable and in that way we are reviewing the Maxims as well as the Parables.  All of the Maxims address behavior toward others and how to pray.

Now go to the "Insistent Friend" link for that presentation explained.

Flight into Egypt

 The Flight into Egypt is challenging but a lot of fun to make.  This is my daughter's work which she made for an atrium in Georgia while  staying with me.  She is an artist unlike myself.  It never ceases to amaze me how everyone's sculptures look so much different.  Also every sculpture an individual creates looks exactly the same.  It's like a person's signature.  Try as I will, I can't make my figures look any different, perhaps a little improved, but that's the best I can do.

Flight into Egypt is a Level II (6 to 9 year old) work.  The work also includes 3 panels with pictures showing Jerusalem, journey through the desert, and Egypt along with sign showing both directions.

    

 

 

 

 

Below are the materials that my husband and I made.  He did the three panels and the wooden sign.  I did the staining and painting, the figures and Scripture booklets.  I downloaded the photos and enjoyed choosing from all the images and reading about these places.  You really enter into the Scripture while doing these materials.
 

The Found Coin, a moral parable in Level II

The Found Coin

The three room building and figures were purchased unfinished and I painted them, stained, and decorated the inside of the building.  This parable is given in conjunction with The Found Sheep and very beautiful.

I bought a handicraft kit at Walmart which contained sequence and used a soft gold wire to make a necklace.  I then put one on another gold wire to represent the lost coin.  I made a small black pouch to keep them in so they don't get lost.








I glued down the little stools, tables,
basket, cup and bowl.  Only the basket where I put the lost coin is not glued down.  This is optional but it means a much bigger box.  Also, the older children read the Scripture and want to set up the coins and figures.  I think its distracting to fiddle around with all the furniture.  My husband made the tables and benches.

It said in the scripture that it was an earthen floor, so I spread some dirt in the paint and swept the
excess out.

This is the box where the materials are kept.

The Real Presence of the Good Shepherd, American and International - Level II

The Real Presence figures (2 sets) were cut out by my talented husband.   In addition were two sets of International figures.  These were purchased.  Two sets for two atriums.

Getting all the little pieces such as the chalices, patens, loaves of bread, altars, altar cloths for all four sets takes a while to do.  That plus painting and labeling boxes where they will be kept and a couple of sheepfolds really adds to the time spent.  If you don't stick with it until it is done, it gets too unorganized for storing and remembering where it is, for that matter.  

I am really excited to get all of this out of the house today and into the atrium.   This will complete the goals I made for myself this year.  Now I can enjoy my family this summer.

I really love the multicultural city where I live.  I realized in painting these that I had to represent almost as many different cultures as I did in the international set, so it was a challenge.

Speaking of different cultures, I had an interesting experience when putting these materials into the atria.  A young and obviously homeless man was laying asleep on one of the three benches that my husband had built in front

of the atria.  My approach startled him and he sat up immediately.  I asked him if he were homeless.  He didn't speak a word of English.  However, with some body language and a few Spanish words of my own I found out he was from Honduras and was 21 years old. He looked a lot younger.  I gave him a couple dollars, all I had, and asked him if he wanted me to help him.  He said, "yes."  I thought I'd call the Neighborhood Alliance which I thought housed people temporarily in need and fed them.

He was an illegal and that raised a question in my mind whether I am legally allowed to help him.  However, as a Christian, I am certainly going to as it is my moral responsibility.  But now I am curious as to how far we can go to help an illegal immigrant.  I need to look into that issue.

Father Marco appeared and said he was helping him but I couldn't get too much information from him, so I simply said to Father, "If you need anything, please call me."

The Insistent Friend/The Ten Bridesmaids - Level II

The Insistent Friend (The Sacrament Retreat presentation)

  As we begin our discussion, I first ask, "Do you know what Insistent means?"  It's the same as being persistent.  You are being persistent when you keep asking your mother over and over for something you want.  "Mom, I want to go to the movies, please?"  She may say you are being a pest. That's what persistent means.  Well, God wants us to be persistent in our prayer always.  He doesn't mind but he might take time to answer and we have to be patient.  So keep this in mind as we listen to the story.

The background information I review with the children once again on how the people traveled at night back 2,000 years ago and so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for a person to knock on your door to ask for food or shelter.   So this traveler knocks on the door but the man invites him in but has no food.  He goes to his neighbor's house to ask him for food and the man says his family is sleeping and doesn't want to be disturbed.  (Now I light the candle and read the Scripture.)

"Who knows the story of the Good Shepherd?"  My children always do because I refer to this story all year by asking, "Who is Jesus in this story?"  "Who are the Sheep?"  "What is the Sheepfold?"  It's the first Bible Story I read so I can have this advantage to explain parables.  I refresh their memory and it helps the others to understand.  I tell them that I'm going to ask the same question for this story and there are no wrong answers because every time you read a Bible Story something new is learned  that you never thought of before.  That is the beauty of the Bible.  No wonder these stories are so wonderful after thousands of years.  So when I ask, "Who is Jesus in this story?" I never know what they are going to say.  This year most thought it was the stranger.  So when they choose him, I show them a picture I have of Jesus knocking on the door.   I tell them that this shows Jesus knocking on the door of our hearts wanting us to love Him and pray to Him.  So that could very well be Jesus, I tell them.  Then another child says it's the man who opens the door and goes to the neighbor to ask him for food.  Then I tell them about something only Catholics do, which is "Intercessory Prayer."  That is when we pray to Mary or the Saints to go to Jesus and ask Him for help.  So this gives an opportunity to discuss prayer at length.  Finally someone chooses the neighbor who didn't want to be disturbed and seemed annoyed.   Well, I tell them that this is truly Jesus in the story because Jesus tells us in His parable that "Truly I tell you, that if the person doesn't answer him because of their friendship, he will certainly answer because of his persistence."  So the lesson here is that God will eventually answer your prayers if you just keep praying.  Never give up He's telling us.

Now I ask them who has the Maxim which applies to this story?  There are two maxims which apply perfectly and they are: "Ask and you will receive; Seek and you will find; Knock and the door will be opened unto you."  The second Maxim which applies is: "When you pray, go to your inner room, shut the door, and pray to your Father in Secret."  However, if any other children volunteer their Maxim I still accept it and explain it so that they understand the meaning.

The Materials:  My husband made the buildings on all of these parables and I stained them, also painting the figures and I made the Scripture booklets.  He made a decision on his own to open the door to the outside when it is actually supposed be like the door on the left, however now I can't use the rug in that room as the door won't open with the rug in the way.   So we may have to change that later.  The small rugs are actually small pouches from Indonesia which I cut in half.  The parable speaks to being "insistent" in prayer.  It also addresses "intercessory prayer" - praying for others or through others, such as the Blessed Mother and the saints.  I am always in awe along with the children at these messages coming directly from Jesus, himself, in such a personal way.

The Ten Bridesmaids, or "The Wise and Foolish Virgins."   The manual suggested painting an oil lamp on the top of the box.  I suppose this is to distinguish it from The Wedding Feast.  I also followed directions on what colors to use.  The same wedding banquet hall is used for both parables.  

I tell the children how the bridegroom would be walking most of the night to come to the wedding and it was the tradition that the bridesmaids would wait for him at night until he got there.  They feel asleep and half of them had their oil lamps go out and had to go to the store to get more oil.  But when got back the Bridegroom barred the door and only the bridesmaids that planned ahead with their extra oil pouches got into the wedding feast.

This parable is beautiful and hence makes it very clear that we need to be prepared and alert for His coming.  Don't wait until the last minute it teaches.  When my class heard this parable, one boy started squirming in his seat and his face was contorted in misery.  I asked him what was wrong.  He said, "Oh no, I do this all the time.  I always wait until the last minute for everything!"  So funny how these Bible stories really do speak to the children.

Liturgical Calendar

    
 2018 Revision

This photo is the corrected version of my Liturgical Calendar since writing this article five years ago.  Big difference and I like it so much more now.  It's much easier for the children.
I glued a very small shint of wood on the board to separate the large arcs separating "The Christmas Cycle" from the "Easter Cycle"  Where you see the "1st Sunday of the year" is where it's placed.  It's so helpful to the children so they understand the calendar.  Also, underneath the arrows I've painted the colors you see in the control above the calendar.  

   To present this work, I use plastic food storage containers and I'll ask each child to take out a certain number of green prisms making sure there are some for each child to place in their container.  I explain that the Calendar represents the Sundays we go to mass and explain the colors.  Then I have each child place their prisms back on the calendar.  This gives them the practice to do the work.  The containers make all the difference for efficiency and so they use them while they do this work independently.   I find that even Level I will try to do this with the containers while working alone.  Otherwise it's confusing and very awkward. 

There is also an artwork drawing of the calendar that they can color we keep under the table.  I have found that this year 2019 there are eight more "Ordinary time" (green) weeks before the "Preparation time" (purple) before Easter.  It apparently changes from year to year and this year it happens to be eight.  This was the direction we received to make this liturgical calendar to make only five.  I believe that I've seen there are a few more "Ordinary time" (green) weeks in the Easter Cycle as well.  I was disappointed when we realized this because it was so much work for my husband.  It isn't an easy project to make.  However, it gives the basic idea to the children.  I like to show them which green week we're on as we approach Lent and point to it as it is to the right of our prayer table.

I stained the entire project with an oak stain before painting the colors.  If you take the colored prisms out of the puzzle, it looks identical to the control calendar in the lid.

Topographical Map

The Topo map, as it is called in the Atrium, depicts three important times and places in Jesus' life.  The first is when the Angel Gabriel announces to Mary in Nazareth that she is to be the mother of God.  The symbol of a flame representing the Holy Spirit is glued on the control chart in Nazareth.   The second moment is Jesus' birth.  The children learn that Bethlehem was in a mountainous area and the Holy Family needed to climb from Nazareth to Bethlehem, a hard journey on foot.  A star is used for the birth and glued on Bethlehem.  The last is the place Jesus dies in Jerusalem shown as a cross.  These symbols are made of leather and painted. Sculpy clay or foam board would have been a good choice as well.  Also, a good map showing these various regions was needed as a model for accuracy.  Of course, the elevations are guessed at but the children like to feel it and think about it, which helps with their meditation.

There are corresponding stick pins with these same symbols in the small box to the left in the picture.  The children take the pins, which are paper clips and stick them in the holes for the correct city to match the important event.  The holes were made with a drill using a very small bit.

This map represents an ancient map of Israel and surrounding areas.  However, the children are fascinated by the mountains and the bodies of water.  They learn that the Dead Sea, the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee are all places where Our Lord preached as an adult and where he spent most of His life.  The Mediterranean Sea is the large body of water you see.

To create this work I found a large tray at Walmart and turned it upside down as I wanted the deeper side to create the mountains and to frame the map.  I used joint compound which I bought at Ace Hardware.  It's a pretty pastey material but I formed the mountains with it and it dried hard after five hours or so.  I let it sit all night to make sure all the moisture was gone before I began painting.

 I used poster board to create the control map and painted it to match the topo map inside the lid my husband made for me.  He actually covered it in leather and engraved "The Holy Land" on top.   This is usually presented right before the Nativity Narratives and the children really like it and go back to it again and again.