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Guest
My daughter is in 1st grade at a Catholic elementary school. It covers PK-8. I’m glad she’s there in a place that will focus on both academics and catachesis.
This week, the pastor instituted weekly adoration for the children. From all grades, the students come to pray before the Blessed Sacrament once a week. The older grades will be doing it for at least an hour, while the younger grades for less time.
I’m somewhat concerned about how this is being done, and have some serious doubts about its value in children as young as my daughter.
I asked my daughter about it, and she said it’s called adoration, and that the children have to come in and say a prayer while kneeling, and then after their first prayer they can stay kneeling or sit on the pew. When, I asked my daughter if anyone explained to her what adoration is. She said no. So I tried to explain to her that the priest takes the body of Jesus (referring to how during mass the bread and wind become the body and blood of Jesus). She nodded, and I can’t say for sure whether she got it.
While I’ve read online documents from groups like Children of Hope that argue that weekly adoration is a way to promote love of our savior in young children, I am deeply skeptical of its value in children. While a lack of understanding of the Real Presence is a major problem in the church, I think that it’s as much of a problem that people mechanically know how to perform the liturgy but don’t have a significant understanding of what it means.
Adoration is a wonderful thing, one in which I take part several times a year. However, it’s a contemplative act on the mystery of the Eucharist, and I think that developmentally, most children are not ready to engage in mystic contemplation until they’re older – probably high school. While seven is considered the age of reason in terms of moral responsibility, abstract conceptualization – as is needed to participate actively in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament – seems not to be possible until the teenage years.
The school had previously had the children participate in adoration on a monthly basis. Now, with the weekly adoration, it seems as though it’s cutting into the rest of the curriculum.
I spend a lot of time with my daughter in catechesis at home. We have talked about why Jesus died, his initiating the Kingdom of God, and how as citizens of the Kingdom of God we are called to a life of love and service. I try to take my daughter to participate in service projects on a routine basis. To me, I’m building her up to an understanding that we’re actively participating in the body of Christ, as St. Paul instructs us.
To me, it seems that if the school has time to devote to Eucharistic adoration, it might better spend that time on other activities to which children might better related – for example, writing letters to people in hospice, visiting nursing homes, or even making sandwiches for the local homeless shelter. These are concrete activities that young children can understand, and feel good about.
I would much rather my daughter be engaged in concrete Kingdom-building exercises at this stage, and allow the love of Christ to grow in this manner.
Thoughts?
This week, the pastor instituted weekly adoration for the children. From all grades, the students come to pray before the Blessed Sacrament once a week. The older grades will be doing it for at least an hour, while the younger grades for less time.
I’m somewhat concerned about how this is being done, and have some serious doubts about its value in children as young as my daughter.
I asked my daughter about it, and she said it’s called adoration, and that the children have to come in and say a prayer while kneeling, and then after their first prayer they can stay kneeling or sit on the pew. When, I asked my daughter if anyone explained to her what adoration is. She said no. So I tried to explain to her that the priest takes the body of Jesus (referring to how during mass the bread and wind become the body and blood of Jesus). She nodded, and I can’t say for sure whether she got it.
While I’ve read online documents from groups like Children of Hope that argue that weekly adoration is a way to promote love of our savior in young children, I am deeply skeptical of its value in children. While a lack of understanding of the Real Presence is a major problem in the church, I think that it’s as much of a problem that people mechanically know how to perform the liturgy but don’t have a significant understanding of what it means.
Adoration is a wonderful thing, one in which I take part several times a year. However, it’s a contemplative act on the mystery of the Eucharist, and I think that developmentally, most children are not ready to engage in mystic contemplation until they’re older – probably high school. While seven is considered the age of reason in terms of moral responsibility, abstract conceptualization – as is needed to participate actively in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament – seems not to be possible until the teenage years.
The school had previously had the children participate in adoration on a monthly basis. Now, with the weekly adoration, it seems as though it’s cutting into the rest of the curriculum.
I spend a lot of time with my daughter in catechesis at home. We have talked about why Jesus died, his initiating the Kingdom of God, and how as citizens of the Kingdom of God we are called to a life of love and service. I try to take my daughter to participate in service projects on a routine basis. To me, I’m building her up to an understanding that we’re actively participating in the body of Christ, as St. Paul instructs us.
To me, it seems that if the school has time to devote to Eucharistic adoration, it might better spend that time on other activities to which children might better related – for example, writing letters to people in hospice, visiting nursing homes, or even making sandwiches for the local homeless shelter. These are concrete activities that young children can understand, and feel good about.
I would much rather my daughter be engaged in concrete Kingdom-building exercises at this stage, and allow the love of Christ to grow in this manner.
Thoughts?
