One of my favorite weeks of the year is during our children’s arts and music summer camp. On this day—the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary—we’re concluding our fifth annual camp. Each year’s camp is different in its own way, and this year’s camp was spectacular. We benefited, most especially, from the artistic gifts shared by our summer seminarian, John Hager, who took on the bulk of the coordination of the camp and also led the children in engaging art projects. A testimony to the cleverness of these projects was the fact that most of the children were intensely working on their artwork for thirty to forty minutes at a time! We were also blessed by the help of our camp staff and parishioner Sarah Austen. (By the way, John Hager’s last Sunday with us is this coming Sunday, so please plan to be present to celebrate John at coffee hour after Sung Mass.)
In eight years of working with children as a parish priest, I have learned so much. I have become more aware of the limitations of my own knowledge because, when working with children, one must really understand a theological concept. Children pose questions that are often difficult to answer. But even more importantly, they remind adults to engage with their imaginations. This past week, stories about Jesus and the Bible rubbed shoulders with artwork of unicorns and water snakes and inscriptions in various languages. Some of the most complex theological concepts were summed up in ways no adult would ever put forth. I was immensely pleased to hear children in our regular Sunday formation classes spouting forth their Biblical knowledge while understanding deeply the events of Jesus’s life.
Watching the activity and life at this year’s summer camp, it’s hard to imagine that there was no children’s formation program here five years ago. But now, children who sing in choir and hear Godly Play lessons together on Sundays, spend time with each other outside of church. Real community has formed in our very midst. This is all the work of the Holy Spirit. Children’s formation has been revived at Good Shepherd because nearly five years ago a mother wrote to me out of the blue (and during pandemic) to ask if we had children’s formation classes. I said, “not at the moment, but we’ll start something.” The arrival of this family to our parish was a pure gift of the Holy Spirit. It’s so with those coming to our chorister program, as well as some of the children who attend camp. One of our youth, who is currently preparing for Confirmation, came to Good Shepherd through children’s summer camp four years ago. Being at Good Shepherd has taught me that the growth of the parish will occur not, primarily, through our own innovative plans or superhuman efforts, but by God’s impetus, whereby people find a parish that we’re indeed working hard to maintain, steward, and build faithfully.
It is extraordinarily fitting that we conclude our summer camp on this Major Holy Day, when we celebrate the life and witness of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Through her openness, humility, and acquiescence, the Word of God was born into the world. Mary is, as the Eastern Church reminds us, the God-bearer. Mary, in some sense, points us back to the children we all were at one time. In my office, there is a lovely icon where Mary holds the infant Lord in her lap. He seems to be bursting with energy, straining to slip out of her arms. Surely he is in wonder about being a new person in the world. In a world that is sometimes far too serious, and thus far too angry, bitter, and resentful, can we meditate for just a time on the mystery that in Christ, God experienced the playfulness, buoyancy, and creativity of a child? Over the past week, through free play, art, music, and imaginative engagement with theology and Scripture, I caught glimpses of the richness of the Incarnation.
On this feast day, I hope you will spare some time to join us in celebration with a Procession and Sung Mass. We will sing wonderful Marian hymns and delight in the almost supernumerary honoring of the Blessed Mother, one who sought no praise and glory in her earthly life and who always in that life, and in the legacy of icons, points to her Son, our risen and ascended Lord. Come and celebrate, as we’re joined by friends from Saint Mark’s, Locust Street, and stay after for a wonderful potluck supper. Come and sing of Mary, and recall that it’s only by becoming like a little child that we can enter the kingdom of heaven.
Sing we of the blessèd Mother
who received the angel's word,
and obedient to his summons
bore in love the infant Lord;
sing we of the joys of Mary
at whose breast that child was fed
who is Son of God eternal
and the everlasting Bread. (text: George B. Timms, 1910-1997)
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle