I recently received a report from a catechist (Kim) who has been doing reflective prayer (meditation) with 4th graders. What follows is a summary of their responses to 3 simple evaluation prompts: the thing I like most about our prayer times together is… / What I have learned about myself and my relationship with Jesus during our prayer times is… / Additional comments…
Here’s what 4th graders are saying about prayer:
The thing I like most about our prayer times together is…
1. When we meditate
2. Meditating because it gets me relaxed and thinking about Jesus
3. When we get to close are eyes and think about different times with Jesus
4. When we close our eyes and imagine something
5. Hearing about God’s word and meditating
6. When Kim reads us stories and the time were she has us go to a place to spend time with Jesus
7. Talking about Jesus and closing our eyes to be with Jesus
8. The stories that Kim reads to us
9. That we get time to reflect with God and Kim is a great teacher
10. I feel very connected with Jesus when we are there I feel that he is in the room and praying wit us to God
11. I get to be comfterable and think about God
12. When we mediate and read stories
13. We close our eyes and relaxe
14. When we red from the bibble
15. That we relax and are able to think about God and Jesus
16. That I get to pray to Jesus
17. My favorite thing would be meditating
18. That we get to relax and be with Jesus
19. That we can talk to God land Jesus
20. When we medatate
21. Reading stories and closing eyes to say hi to Jesus
22. Closeing are eyes and talking to Jesus for awile
What I have learned about myself and my relationship with Jesus during our prayer times is…
1. That I should love others and pray and a lot more things
2. That you should be respectful and be caring for others
3. He is a very dear friend of mine
4. How to become closer to God
5. He saved me from sin
6. That Jesus is nice and did a lot of things for us
7. Talking about things I don’t want other people to hear
8. He loves me more than I thought
9. That we are all sons and daughters of Jesus and Jesus is always open to talk to
10. That to keep our relishonship with God strong we should pray, be nice to others, but most of all treat others how we would like to be treated or act like Jesus
11. I can count on Jesus to be there when I need him
12. Jesus sacrificed him self for forgiveness and for us. We love Jesus and all he has done for us
13. I’ve learned Jesus is really close to me and I will always love him
14. That he makes feel special
15. Jesus has loved me no matter what I did and he always will
16. That he is my friend
17. That I feel I’m a lot more closer to Jesus and I feel I actually belong here
18. That Jesus chooses each of us to do our part to help our community grow and love Jesus
19. No matter where you are Jesus is with you
20. We sometimes make mistakes but they just help us to try again so we can do what we need to do right
21. Jesus is here with me
22. Jesus helps me learn and show me the way I should be going
Additional Comments…
1. Praying with Kim is fun
2. I like praying
3. I wish I could do it all day every day
4. I think it’s very fun
5. You are great teacher
6. I love spending time with Kim
7. I have a lot of fun doing it
8. I liked when we went into the church and talked about Jesus death
9. Kim makes the learning experience fun and special
10. I love to go to prayer time with Kim she is a great person to do this with and I know God really loves her
11. I can’t wait until the next time we prayer agin
12. The prayer time we had was really fun
13. Kim did a very nice job doing this!
14. God is a source of happines
15. Blank
16. Blank
17. I love prayer time with Kim! She’s the greatest!
18. When ever our teacher says we are going to pray with Kim, we all get really exited to go and pray and be with Jesus
19. Blank
20. Rilygn is very fun with Kim thank you Kim J
21. I love love LOVE that time with you Kim closing eyes reading stores awesome
22. I love praying whith Kim
Thank you Kim & Joe for sharing these comments!
It confirms what I have always felt in my heart, that Children have a natural longing to encounter God. My experience in the past few years has been that even those who are diagnosed as hyperactive respond well to the chance to meet God in the quiet experience of meditation and prayer. Too many children have lives that are so cluttered and noisy (because of their connections to i-pods, cell phones, tv and internet) that they don’t have the space in their lives to listen to the quiet invitation of God.
Peace
Maura
Amen to that, Maura!