At the Encountering Christ through Mary retreat, when asked to write my own personal Magnificat, I decided instead, to come up with an image. Words don’t come easy to me. I am more of a picture person. In place of a song of praise, I would have an image of praise.
I brainstormed times in my life when I had encountered Christ, categorizing them into three groups: times I had encountered Christ through the Sacraments, times of great joy, and “other” times I had felt the presence of God. I then tried to think of an element or symbol that depicted each of these three categories for my image of praise to God. On the day of the 2nd "Wing-off" more than one parishioner had prayed thru the day for a let-up in the terrible weather. Was it too much to hope for? Five minutes to start we headed over to Slyders - was that the sun breaking through? I'm sure it was! Whoa! Am I seeing a rainbow? YES, and it arced directly over Slyders. Rainbows make me smile - so does Fr. Satish.
Here are some encounters with Christ submitted by a one of I.C.'s Religious Education PREP classes - the children are all between 8 and 10 years old:
*My first time serving was when I was poured with Jesus' love! The visiting priest touched my cross necklace and I felt the Holy Spirit! Now I enjoy serving every time! *Sunset in the clouds. *When I sing and serve at church! I enjoy being invited to sing and serve the Lord! *When Jesus touched my heart when I was praying and singing. * The clouds remind me of God. *One time when my sister didn't know a Bible story I read from the Bible and asked her questions about them then she understood more. * I had two encounters with Christ. I had two dreams about him. One of the dreams I was brushing my hair in front of my mirror and Jesus came up behind me singing. A class of First Communicants aged 7 and 8 was asked, "How did you encounter Christ this week?" (though prayer, scripture, an act of kindness, a peaceful, joyful, scary moment, etc) and here are some of their oh, so sweet responses:
* My friend gave me chips at a soccer game. * At the dinner table and at bed when we prayed I felt God. Each time I prayed he was there. * I know he was with me when I fell face first on the cement and it hurt a lot. * When I was scared. * I won a soccer game. I know what the score was - it was 8 to 1- and we gave a fist bump to the referee - it was God. * My encounter with Christ was when last night we watched Dolphin Tale and my family watched, too. It was relaxing and fun. |
Archives
July 2015
Categories
All
|