Hi everyone,

We had a very full informative session today, and once again the kids were engaged and beautifully behaved. Perhaps early mornings are a great time for young brains to absorb new learning?!

We started with a quick check that they all knew how to do the sign of the cross correctly, and had a practice of saying the Act of Contrition. A few kids know it off by heart already. Although we will be saying it all together reading it from the projector at their First Reconciliation we do encourage them to learn it off by heart for when they celebrate Rite 1 reconciliation in the future. Please help them with this if you can.

We then talked about the 10 Commandments. They were given finger clues to help them remember the order. For example, 2 fingers make a v for vain for the second commandment, and 4 fingers make a salute to remind them to obey their parents for the fourth commandment. I challenged them to teach you what they learnt, hope they give it a go!

Next we talked about sin. Original sin (from Adam and Eve that is washed away in the Sacrament of Baptism) and actual sin. Actual sin is sins we have committed ourselves. There are 2 types, mortal sin (big, serious sin) and venial sin (little, less serious sin).

We talked about free will and how our conscience helps us know what is right and wrong. In small groups we discussed some scenarios of choices that could be made and identified which choice our conscience would think was best.

We then quickly went through an Examination of Conscience based on questions linked to the 10 Commandments. eg for 1st commandment I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me/put God first – did I remember to say my prayers every day? Did I make time for tv or friends but not God?

So we fit quite a lot into our hour today, and I encourage you to follow up this learning with them during the week if you can manage it. Ask them if they know all the Commandments in order, using the finger tricks to help them. Quite a few kids didn’t seem too familiar with what a conscience is at first so you may want to check with your child.

Hope you all have a great week, see you next Sunday at 8:15am.