Holy, Holy, Holy Lord...

Our bedtime routine as I tuck each of my sons into bed a few minutes apart is to sing some songs of their choice from our current bedtime repertoire. Songs that are prayers, parts of our church service music, or easy hymn refrains. I introduced this a few years ago when the older son began resisting bedtime prayers. Over the last month or so our younger son, age 4 1/2, has been asking lots of questions during his songs, and tonight was quite a time.

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might.
- Mommy, what's 'might'? (before I could answer) oh, that's being strong (makes strong-man arm motions)

Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
(On to our next song, which I often sing after Holy Holy Holy)

Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth.
- Where is God? God is all around us (we'd talked about this before, and that was the best I could come up with!). Is Father D--- God?
[Me] No, Father D--- is a person. God is... God, and is with us all of the time.
[Son] Is God with all of the people?
[Me] Yes, God is with all of us all of the time.
[Son] God is right next to us, right?
[Me] Exactly! God is right next to every one of us.

Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks...
- Mommy, what is 'worship'?
[Me] It's giving honor; we worship, we honor... (I didn't know how to explain it off the cuff!)
[Son] (thoughtful silence, I hope)

...we praise you for your glory. Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world...
- (I knew this was coming) Mommy, what is sin?
[Me] Sin is when we do what we shouldn't do, the opposite of what we really should do, what God wants us to do.
[Son] Like when people hurt someone or kill someone
[Me] That's right, or when we say or do things that hurt people
[Son] Hurt their feelings, or hit them like this (mimes hitting!). That's not good.
[Me] That's right. That's sin. We should choose what's right.

...have mercy on us; you are seated at the right hand of the Father...
- Mommy, what does that mean?
[Me] It means Jesus is in a place of honor next to God the Father. He is God too, they are God together (arrgh, what have I gotten myself into!). (Now, mindful of the next phrase in the song) Jesus hears our prayers in a special way and brings our prayers to... to God. (mumble mumble)

...receive our prayer. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

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I had an inkling that this song might teach my kids something of the faith, but I had no idea it might go like this -- all in just a few minutes!

By the way, our current repertoire is

• "Holy, Holy, Holy"


• "Glory to God in the Highest"


• "All Things Bright and Beautiful" refrain


• "Our Father/the Lord's Prayer" to two different tunes (published one I learned in another parish, and our current organist/choirmaster's composition)


• "The Lord Is my Shepherd, I'll Follow Him Alway"


• The children's prayer, "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, bless this bed I lie upon," set to a charming tune.

Each season of the church year I try out a few new songs. The songs must be fairly quick to memorize, as there's very little light at bedtime in their room, and I don't want to mess with that for the sake of reading music or words. I'm reminded that I'd like the boys to sing with me again, at least more often.

Bedtime song as catechism tonight, I guess!

Some favorite resources

At the beginning of the church's program year, it's time to look for new resources. One of my favorites for a very inexpensive variety of items related to the church year is Creative Communications for the Parish.

For Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and Godly Play, the miniature chalice and paten offered by Our Father's House, or the full mini mass kit, or even the mini altar linens, might be of interest. I'd like to buy the chalice and paten for our Godly Play classroom's altar. We have a candle and a Bible, but the Eucharist is so important that I intend to add those core items. This is a good source.

At one point I had found an online source for a detailed liturgical calendar in the round that could be colored one way for a simple version of the liturgical year, or another much more detailed way for a complete version of the church year. I can't find it, but I'm still looking.

Beulah Enterprises offers a set of materials for telling our faith stories on a feltboard. Beulah Land is "imaginative spiritual play" in the same wonderful family of faith formation as Godly Play and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. I think the feltboard idea would also be wonderful for presenting stories to a large group, including even a church service.

Godly Play in all-ages Bible study

On a whim, I googled "Godly Play blog" and immediately discovered some great stuff that describes Godly Play way beyond the Sunday morning class for kids approach.

First, a blog entry by Australian blogger Darren Rowse about his experiment with Godly Play in an all-ages Bible study. The blog entry is the author's reflections on the experience. It's great! Godly Play - The Aftermath

Second, New Zealand blogger Paul Fromont describes doing Godly Play with a multi-family group over for dinner at his home. Godly Play - Cambridge

Blogger Brian Draper has some interesting things to say about Godly Play and children's faith formation. Child's Play?

Here's a blog about those "I wonder" questions from Godly Play going solo as part of a Bible study. Un-Bible Study

The Feast of the Transfiguration

My parish sponsored a quiet evening tonight, Transfiguration Meditations. I volunteered to provide related activities appropriate for kids and, as I put it, antsy adults!

The Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ is told in Luke 9, verses 28-36.

...as he was praying, the appearance of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became dazzling white.... a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my son, my chosen; listen to him!"

For Transfiguration and Imagination activities, here's what I put together.

A Godly Play story for me to present. Jesus Is Baptized (my version), with the desert box. (Connection to the transfiguration: parallel events, and "behold, my beloved son...")

Art, open-ended. Plain white paper and crayons, thin markers, colored pencils.

Art, structured. Photocopy of stained-glass-type Celtic cross design that's fun to color.

Visual/tactile. Two Godly Play presentation materials, the Faces of Christ (connection: important times in Jesus's life), and the Lenten puzzle inside its purple velvet bag (connection: future of Jesus, white as celebration color).

Prayers. Stiff postcard-size papers and markers to create prayer cards, with pictures and/or words, to be used in the Prayers of the People in the closing Eucharist.

Verbal/reading. Bibles, a card with the reference to the transfiguration text, and paper and colored pencils.

Just a few came in to try some of the activities. If there had been more, I would have presented the story of Jesus's baptism; sent folks to find something that interests them at the various tables, taken a break later to read aloud the text of the transfiguration; and let them get back to their work.

It didn't go that way, but I do like the activities I dreamed up. I may introduce two of these — making prayer cards, and reading a related Bible text — to my Godly Play class this year. Tonight I actually chose to write out the text of the transfiguration, and beforehand I made an example prayer card. The room was pretty quiet, we knew the other participants were elsewhere around the church and grounds in prayer, and writing out the central text felt like a meditation itself for me. Pretty cool.