Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Canberra Atrium

14/06/2025

Both our level 1 (3-6yo) and level 2 (6-9yo) groups have been celebrating Pentecost the last two weeks. The celebration is always very special as we read from scripture and ask the Holy Spirit to send us the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, piety, fortitude and fear of the Lord and lighting a candle for each. The children have been anticipating the change of our prayer table cloth to red! ❤️‍🔥

05/04/2025

“Our aim with this presentation is simply to invite the children into that upper room, to give them an opportunity to see and hear what happened on that very holy night.” - Gianna Gobbi, The Good Shepherd and the Child: A Joyful Journey

Sometimes the children are wiggly or it feels like they aren’t taking anything in, but we invite them anyway, and every now and then they might share with us what they are pondering. We had a few beautiful moments like that today as we listened to the scripture and prepared for the weeks to come 🕯️ Pray for us as we continue through Lent and into Easter with the children!

08/03/2025

Today we ushered in the season of Lent with a procession to change our prayer table cloth to purple 💜 Instead of offering our voices to God in song like we did in our Advent procession, we offered our silence and quietly made our way. Everyone was so careful! We also “buried” our Alleluia prayer card underneath… we won’t be saying it again until we change the cloth to white at Easter and sing our great Alleluia. It will be worth the wait!

The rhythm of the liturgical calendar is such a gift to all of us and what a joy to share in it with the children.

23/02/2025

Each year our Catechists are commissioned for our work in the Atrium. This year we were delighted to be commissioned and blessed by Fr Loi, the new Parish Priest of Our Lady of the Annunciation Parish.

We look forward to celebrating our family Masses with Fr Loi, and inviting him into our space to journey with us and the Good Shepherd. Thank you Fr Loi! 🐑

15/02/2025

We are very happy to be back in the swing of things for the year, orienting our new assistants and welcoming the Level 1 children back into the Atrium. After a long summer break the children are remembering how we behave in the Atrium, caring for our space and enjoying being back together.

Keep us in your prayers as we continue growing this year, we hope to have many joyful updates to share.

21/12/2024

Thank you to our team and to our families for a wonderful year. We finished off our time together today with a joyful procession to change our cloth to white! We are so grateful and will be praying that the baby Jesus is born in all of our hearts this Christmas✨

Keep an eye on your emails for a 2024 wrap up newsletter. Let us know if you’d like to join our mailing list! We will have a few hard copies at St John Vianney church tomorrow when we host morning tea after the 9am Mass.

God bless you & your families!

28/11/2024

Our liturgical season is changing soon.. one of our children’s first observations is the prayer table cloth changing colour!
🟣The table is set ready for our Advent procession
🖼️ A beautiful artwork of Mother Mary and the Child Jesus donated by one of our families

24/11/2024

Our Atrium will be hosting morning tea after 9am Mass on the 4th Sunday of each month at St John Vianney’s Waramanga. We had a lovely time this morning. Come along and chat to us! Next date: 22 December 🎄

09/11/2024

Some weeks nobody touches the flower arranging. Others we run out by halfway through the session and our prayer table is covered in beautiful blooms! 🌸🌼🌷

27/10/2024

A great article from the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne 😍

Have you ever visited a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium? There are currently five across Melbourne. It might be a classroom, an office, a side-room or even a corridor. You will see shelves at child height filled with trays and wooden chests. There will be baskets of small, rolled-up mats, little chairs and tables. Your nose will fill with the smell of sharpened pencils, of fresh garden flowers, of candlewax and clean tea towels. You may see hand-painted wooden figures; a shepherd and a sheepfold; a custom-made set of miniature chasubles in purple, green, red and white; a papier-mâché relief map of the land of Israel.'

As Children’s Week draws to a close today, Kate Moriarty takes a closer look at this beautiful children’s ministry, which makes space for children to have a living encounter with the Living God.

Read more: https://melbournecatholic.org/news/shepherds-delight

📷 Wooden figures used to present the parable of the Good Shepherd. (Photo by Ppvanderlee via Wikimedia Commons.)

@ Bayside Atrium

26/10/2024

There was a joyful busyness in our session today as we reunited for Term 4!

This week we enthroned our Holy Bible in our prayer corner. We talked about this most special book and how it contains secrets God wants to share with us. We each held the Bible very reverently before reading John 8:12a together - where Jesus tells us that He is the light of the world 🕯️ We also sang two of our favourite songs about light before the children went off to begin their independent work time.

During the session one of the children made her own song card and wanted to share it with the whole group at the end. By then our prayer table was covered in candles and flower arrangements that the children had added during the session, and we sang the song together. So special ✨📖

Keep us in your prayers as we enter Term 4, see out the end of Ordinary Time and enter Advent!