Children's Catechesis: Helping Children Pray with Scripture

How can we make Sacred Scripture come alive for the children we teach? Is simply reading the verse or parable to the students enough? St. Jerome wrote, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” How can we help our students not to be ignorant of Sacred Scripture and instead come to appreciate and be immersed in it? Scripture may be used in prayer, as a means of meditation or guided imagery with younger students. Begin with a short, familiar parable or Scripture reading. In our example we will be using the passage in which Jesus blesses the children, Matthew 19:13-15. To help the children who are visual learners, we can show a picture of Jesus with the children. Slowly read the Scripture passage to the children. Ask the children to close their eyes and imagine they are there with the children in the passage.