Clever ways to teach the sacrament of reconciliation?

[Annemariels]

I will be reviewing the sacrament of reconciliation with my 4th grade ccd class tonight. Does anyone have any unique and clever ways to do this?

 

[Eucharisted]

Use the confessional to describe Confession.

The door is the Door of Mercy. The sinner goes to meet the merciful God. The will is the door of the heart: so, too, the Divine Will is the Door of the Divine Heart. This means the sinner does God’s Will when he goes to Him for Mercy. It also means he should not be afraid, for the sinner has entered into Jesus’ Heart, which is the Source of Love and Mercy.

The screen is the Priest. The sinner confesses to Jesus through His servant. Even if the screen is dirty, the confession is still valid. And the priest acts in the Person of Jesus: Jesus uses his lips to speak to the sinner, He uses his hands to bless and to absolve the sinner, and He uses his ears to hear the sinner’s confession of sins. Though He is God, Jesus acts through His creature.

The kneeler is Humility. The sinner must be humble in Confession. Humility is necessary to receive God’s Mercy, for God dose not listen to the proud. The sinner must trust in God, giving Him all of his sins, throwing them into the Heart of Jesus, where they will be consumed by His Love and Mercy like tiny twigs thrown into a great fire. If he dose not confess all of his sins, than the sinner dose not receive God’s Mercy, for he has chosen himself and his reputation over God.

The window is Contrition. The sinner must be contrite to receive God’s Mercy. Just as a window must be clean in order for light to pass through it, so too must the sinner be sorrowful for his sins and resolve, by God’s grace, to not sin again in order to receive God’s Mercy. Contrition is a fruit of humility, whether it is perfect (for God’s sake) or imperfect (for fear of hell). Imperfect contrition suffices in Confession, for Jesus sympathizes with the sinner and He is eager to give him His Mercy.

 

[kage_ar]

Know that there is a good chance that most of those kids have not been to Confession since last time the CCD class went, and some have not been since 1st Communion.

Do a basic review - here is what you do, here is a cheat sheet with an act of contrition…

Teach the story of the prodigal son. Go to the dollar store or on line to Autom and buy some rings. After they go to confession, put a ring on their finger.

 

[IrishAm]

I would always practice “confession” with the class. And, because children have a way of being terribly honest even when told “now, just make up sins, don’t tell real ones,” there was the risk of it becoming too real. So they would choose from the “sin bucket” and that would be the confession – “you are Pinnochio and you told 6,453,421 lies since your last confession.” “You are Wylie Coyote and you were mean to the Road Runner 17 times since your last confession.” “You are the Road Runner and you smashed Wylie Coyote 17 times since your last confession.”

It made them laugh, which is always a good thing with 4th graders . . .

 

[Joannm]

Use the confessional to describe Confession.

The door is the Door of Mercy. The sinner goes to meet the merciful God. The will is the door of the heart: so, too, the Divine Will is the Door of the Divine Heart. This means the sinner does God’s Will when he goes to Him for Mercy. It also means he should not be afraid, for the sinner has entered into Jesus’ Heart, which is the Source of Love and Mercy.

The screen is the Priest. The sinner confesses to Jesus through His servant. Even if the screen is dirty, the confession is still valid. And the priest acts in the Person of Jesus: Jesus uses his lips to speak to the sinner, He uses his hands to bless and to absolve the sinner, and He uses his ears to hear the sinner’s confession of sins. Though He is God, Jesus acts through His creature.

The kneeler is Humility. The sinner must be humble in Confession. Humility is necessary to receive God’s Mercy, for God dose not listen to the proud. The sinner must trust in God, giving Him all of his sins, throwing them into the Heart of Jesus, where they will be consumed by His Love and Mercy like tiny twigs thrown into a great fire. If he dose not confess all of his sins, than the sinner dose not receive God’s Mercy, for he has chosen himself and his reputation over God.

The window is Contrition. The sinner must be contrite to receive God’s Mercy. Just as a window must be clean in order for light to pass through it, so too must the sinner be sorrowful for his sins and resolve, by God’s grace, to not sin again in order to receive God’s Mercy. Contrition is a fruit of humility, whether it is perfect (for God’s sake) or imperfect (for fear of hell). Imperfect contrition suffices in Confession, for Jesus sympathizes with the sinner and He is eager to give him His Mercy.

This is a very good idea, but most of our kids go face to face. Any ideas on how to transpose the above to a face to face situation.

 

[Annemariels]

Go to the dollar store or on line to Autom and buy some rings. After they go to confession, put a ring on their finger.

I am so sorry, but I don’t know what the ring symbolizes. Can you tell me?

Also, thank you everyone for brainstorming for me. You have shared some great ideas!

 

[raindr0ps]

A lady at my parish just did this for our second graders a few weeks ago:

buy some prisms.

get something black and greasy (shoe polish or something)

black out the room.

get a flash light

shut of the lights.

explain that the prism symbolizes each of them- their souls- and the flashlight is God. The light coming from the flashlight is God’s grace.

Shine the light through the prism, explain how with God’s grace you can color the world with His love! etc.

Then put a little of the grimy black stuff on the prism. Explain how this is sin. Now there’s not as much of God’s grace shining through you! You’re not able to receive the light and let the light make the world beautiful, because you’ve got sin on your soul.

Put a little more black stuff on, talk more on sin

Keep adding grime until eventually the light is barely shinning through at all.

Then it’s “confession” time! Take a white cloth and wipe the sin off! Explain how when we go to confession our sin is gone totally, etc and we’re made pure again! yay! (shine the light through the prism some more)

Then I’d turn on the lights and review the logistics of confession so that they know what to say/do when they go in there.

 

[raindr0ps]

I just realized that you already had your class. I hope all went well!

I just remembered another analogy that a teacher of mine did when I was in 4th grade:

Take a huge clear jar/container- this is our soul. Fill it with water. Explain that the water is God’s grace.

Take some rocks. These are sin. When we put rocks into our soul we loose God’s grace!

Then have another bucket of water there. Confession takes the rocks out of our soul and fills us up again! (dump the new water back into the bucket)

 

[Annemariels]

Please, keep the ideas coming! You have shared some WONDERFUL ones!

 

[kage_ar]

I am so sorry, but I don’t know what the ring symbolizes. Can you tell me?

Also, thank you everyone for brainstorming for me. You have shared some great ideas!

You teach Christ’s lesson of the Prodigal from Luke 15.

You then have all the children go to Confession.

When they come out of Confession, they get a ring, to remind them of the Scriptural lesson about repentance.

""There was a man who had two sons; 12* and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.’ And he divided his living between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. 15 So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have fed on * the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ * 22* But the father said to his servants,** ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand,** and shoes on his feet; 23 and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; 24* for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to make merry. "

 

[LilyM]

Do address the fact that a lot of these kids will probably be scared to go to confession too. For one thing, even a lot of adults get bashful about the priest thinking worse of them for hearing their sins or something. For another they might be worried about the seal of the confessional not being absolute. And after all, most of their experiences of telling an adult that they’ve done something wrong end with them getting into trouble, no?

So remind them of a few things -

a) priests go to confession themselves, so they know how hard it is and they know that we are all sinners, and won’t think worse of you, and aren’t there to punish you in any way

b) priests have pretty much literally heard it all in the confessional

c) the seal is absolute - the priest can’t even mention your confession to YOU again without your permission!

d) priests are human - like everyone they have good and bad days, so if a priest is mean or anything in the confessional, remember firstly that you might have just caught them at a bad time for them and secondly that there are plenty of other priests out there and not all are the same!

 

[nodito]

Do address the fact that a lot of these kids will probably be scared to go to confession too. For one thing, even a lot of adults get bashful about the priest thinking worse of them for hearing their sins or something. For another they might be worried about the seal of the confessional not being absolute. And after all, most of their experiences of telling an adult that they’ve done something wrong end with them getting into trouble, no?

So remind them of a few things -

a) priests go to confession themselves, so they know how hard it is and they know that we are all sinners, and won’t think worse of you, and aren’t there to punish you in any way

b) priests have pretty much literally heard it all in the confessional

c) the seal is absolute - the priest can’t even mention your confession to YOU again without your permission!

d) priests are human - like everyone they have good and bad days, so if a priest is mean or anything in the confessional, remember firstly that you might have just caught them at a bad time for them and secondly that there are plenty of other priests out there and not all are the same!

These are great lessons. I would add: remind them that the priest can’t make them reveal their sins to anyone else. He won’t make them tell their teacher if they cheated on a test, for example, or tell their parents if they broke or stole something.