Blessed Sacrament Church, Cypress Hills, was piping with the joy and enthusiasm of 82 children for a two-week Summer Vacation Bible Camp in July. It was a delight for these children to begin each day by joining the daily worshipping community for Mass with Father Frank Shannon, pastor, as the celebrant.
This experience confirmed my deepest conviction that children are eager to know God, Bible stories and the Mass and to become acquainted with some saints who are our heroes and models for following Jesus’ ways. The environment was surrounded with many images and creative representations to help the children understand more visually. A variety of related activities, arts and crafts and games enhanced the core message to live as followers of Jesus.
In unexpected ways, there were moments when one realized the children had really gotten it. One day, a snack took the form of fortune cookies with biblical quotes. Each child read aloud his/her biblical text, and all were involved in discussing what it was saying about our lives. Some texts were “Without God nothing is possible; but with God all is possible,” “trust in the Lord always,” “I am with you in your going and in your coming.” The next morning’s responsorial psalm was “The Lord will never abandon you,” and the children made the connection to the messages in their fortune cookies!
As an opportunity to incorporate our call for the new evangelization into the entire experience, we studied Jesus’ call to His Apostles to be fishers of people. After silent reflection and prayer, the children were asked to write, on the image of a fish each had received, the names of children or families that they felt do not know God very much or do not come to church so that we can pray for them, asking Jesus to touch their hearts and bring them closer to Him. These were placed very seriously into a large fishing net and brought before the Lord in prayer. Some of their responses, sometimes quite confidentially shared, touched me deeply!
For me this opportunity has been greatly desired for some time. I personally attended Vacation Bible Camp back in Rhode Island when I was a child and absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend Catholic schools, but I faithfully attended weekly catechism classes, was involved in parish activities and eagerly went to Summer Bible Camp.
I feel that much of my religious vocation came from this experience and thus in gratitude to God for this gift, I wanted so much to voluntarily be involved during my vacation to make this experience possible in a parish. Father Shannon accepted my offer and my Religious Congregation of the Holy Union Sisters contributed with a grant to help make this the best experience possible.[divider]
Sister Alice is the coordinator for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) for the Brooklyn Diocese.