A five-year old child kneels at a prayer table with the crucifix, touching it gently, looking at it for at least five minutes. He points to Jesus on the cross and tells the catechist, “I wasn’t playing at the prayer table; I was talking to God. My dad died, but I know that he lives.”
This is a story from one of our parishes in the Diocese of Helena that offers the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS). “The whole thought behind CGS is the child already has a relationship with God. We are meant to help that relationship grow,” explained Dawn Brannman, the Religious Education Director at Saint Mary Catholic Community in Helena. That’s what makes CGS different from other RE programs. “We don’t teach them to pray, we are accompanying the kids. It’s God teaching them. We will give them a presentation then tell them to talk to God about their questions.”
Unlike a typical textbook based RE program, CGS provides children with hands-on materials to introduce them to Scripture and the liturgy in a developmentally appropriate way. In other words, CGS profoundly respects who children are and how they learn. Children, especially young children, learn by doing, rather than by traditional instruction. When we provide them with materials which allow them to interact, for example: the parable of the good shepherd or a moment in Mass; they internalize the meaning of these scriptures and liturgical acts . . . And the children respond to it with joy.
A recent article in Aleteia describes the program beautifully: “CGS is more like Lectio Divina for children. Trained catechists prepare a special environment to help children come to know God and spend time in prayer and contemplation. The children hear, touch, and work with materials that help them understand the life of Jesus, stories from Scripture, the liturgical year, and things of the Church. These tactile experiences, set in an environment of peaceful quiet, offer each child a space where they can talk to God and draw closer to Him on their own. Their relationship with the Good Shepherd is nurtured in a very special way.”1
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is the fruit of a 50-year collaboration between Sofia Cavalletti (a biblical scholar) and Gianna Gobbi (a Montessori educator), who opened the first “atrium” in Rome in 1954. And it is built on the educational principles of Maria Montessori. It has grown and spread to more than 65 countries and now, it is being introduced in the Diocese of Helena. St. Francis Xavier Parish (Missoula) was the first to offer CGS within our Diocese in 2018. Since that time, nine other locations have sprung up and more are working on acquiring the training needed.
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is taught in three levels: Level 1—3-6 year olds; Level 2—6-9 year olds; Level 3—9-12 year olds. There are currently nine parishes/schools in the Helena Diocese with CGS programs. Most of these locations offer Level 1 only at this point, but not only are the number of parishes bringing this program to their children increasing, so are the levels being offered.
The teachers are called “catechists” and the classroom is referred to as an “atrium”. Items used in the atrium are handmade and painted by parishioners. It requires many volunteers, so CGS becomes a parish-wide event. The catechists must undergo a personal formational experience with 90-100 hours of preparation (per atrium level) in the Biblical and liturgical themes that correspond with the developmental stages of the children. They implement a servant leadership role, using facilitation instead of direct instruction techniques. “CGS is what God put me on this earth for,” Michele Dexter, the Director of CGS at St. Francis Xavier told us. “It opens up our faith and encourages wonder and awe.” The catechist’s job is to mediate an encounter between the child and the Lord . . . and then step back.
At Saint Mary’s, nearly 60 parishioners signed up to help make the items used in the atrium. Everything used in the atrium was made by parishioners. One person made an altar that looks just like the altar at Saint Mary’s! Each project was accompanied with a prayer that they were asked to focus on while making the item; bringing Jesus into the very construction of the tools used in the atrium. In this way, the Good Shepherd encompasses the entire parish.
Trina Matthews, a catechist at Divine Mercy Academy in Belgrade shared, “When the child is able to meet Jesus in this stage of development, meeting him with joy and basking in that gift—they want to return that gift of joy to their community. They learn who they were meant to be and that they are beloved of God and then they can give Him to the world. It’s discipleship and it starts with the little ones.”
Defining success for the CGS doesn’t come with hard numbers; it comes from the stories we hear of the impact on the lives of the children who participate. Parents have shared that their children are much more prayerful in Mass . . . remember these are three- to six-year-olds! The children learn to meditate, they use their imagination and put themselves in the scriptural scene. They are learning to become quiet and reflect. It’s a heart and mind connection.
At Saint Mary’s, each CGS family is given a home altar with a bible and the liturgical colors. One family disclosed that as soon as they set it up their child said, “Okay Mom and Dad, I need to be alone now. I have a lot of praying to do,” and she prayed there for half an hour!
The catechists at Divine Mercy Academy share similar children’s stories, or as they call them, “pearls”. A four-year-old child, after being presented with the City of Jerusalem 3D-map, sat down next to it and said, “I’m going to really enjoy being in this city.” In a different atrium, a catechist shares the story of a five-year-old who was learning the Found Sheep lesson. The child asked, “Jesus calls the sheep by name; what are their names?” She started naming the sheep after her family members and suddenly realized, “The sheep are us!”
These stories—and so many more—move our hearts and define success as hearts that open and fill with the joy of Jesus. Trina from Divine Mercy Academy expounded, “It’s been extremely positive and hope-filled because we have this door that has opened in front of us and so many graces are pouring through.”
“Let the children come to me and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”
— Luke 18:16-17
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¹ https://aleteia.org/2025/04/09/the-book-of-wine-and-flowers
“Pearls” from the Atrium
“It truly is a work of the Holy Spirit!”
Our thanks to catechists from Divine Mercy Academy, St. Francis Xavier Parish, and Saint Mary Catholic Community for sharing the stories of children’s faith—or ‘pearls’ as they call them. We were permitted to see the Holy Spirit through the eyes of a child as we researched this article and what a profoundly beautiful experience it was! As one catechist shared, “What I have learned through the Good Shepherd training has changed everything for me. My faith isn’t just knowing religious facts, and children are much more spiritual than we give them credit for. Who Knew? Well . . . God Did!” We hope you’ll enjoy these “pearls”.
Divine Mercy Academy (Belgrade)—St. Anne Atrium
I am still struck by the child who was given the cenacle presentation and as we were wondering what Jesus meant by “This is my Body; this is my Blood”, she made the connection that because we hear those words at Mass from the priest, the priest must be like Jesus and the people at church must be “Jesus’s friends” as the apostles were whom Jesus so greatly desired to share the feast with.
A four-year-old child, after being presented with the City of Jerusalem 3D-map, and after working with the materials, sat down next to it and said: “I’m going to really enjoy being in this city.”
I have one child who just turned six who loves to sing but has only recently done so in front of others. When I first noticed her singing, she would make up her own songs while reflecting at the Model Altar or at the Gestures table and she would sing quietly while frequently looking over her shoulder. Just this last week I asked if anyone had a song they wanted to sing as we gathered at the prayer table to begin our session. She confidently said yes and led us in song. It was evident to me that she has grown in her relationship with God as well as confidence in expressing her faith openly.
As an assistant, I was reading the Found Sheep presentation to a three-year-old who wanted to work again with the materials. I asked him, “Ah, the Good Shepherd is Jesus, right?” He said, “Yes!” Then I said, “I wonder who the sheep are?” He looked at me and said, “The sheep are the ones who the Shepherd protects!”
St. Francis Xavier Parish (Missoula)
Level 1- a young three-year-old had just heard the presentation of the Good Shepherd. Afterward, she went to that work and holding the little book upside down, read, “the sheep love the shepherd” and “they have names too.” Amen.
Level 2- Joe loves to set the altar table. Today after listening to the Our Father Presentation, he set the altar table once again, only this time when I asked him if there was anything he would like to say to Jesus, he said “I want to pray The Our Father like we did before.”
Level 2- Two boys heard the Parable of the Leaven. When asked, “How is this like the kingdom of God?” one said “The yeast is alive, and we live alive in heaven.”
Level 2- One girl put together the words from the Gospel reading to the places on the Jerusalem City work. She was very excited.
Level 2- On her own, Mary made a book titled “A little bit of the Bible”. In it, she copied from the bible the first words of Genesis.
Level 2- A child did not know what work to do. She took a bible and a scripture card of all the Parables and along with assistant catechist looked up the verses then matching the verse with the appropriated work.
Level 3- I was helping elsewhere and let my teenage assistant watch over the children. When I heard them singing, I took a peek and there they were, four girls singing “One Bread, One Body” at the prayer table which was set beautifully with flowers and candles.
Saint Mary Catholic Community (Helena)
I was giving a presentation to one of the children about the basic articles at Mass. We have a small San Damiano cross on the altar, he picked it up and said, “I could look at this forever.” And he did sit and pray with it for a long time!
A parent told me that her son excitedly exclaimed at Mass, “Fr. has a chalice!”
We were talking about Advent and where the kids saw purple at Mass. A four-year-old children was very happy to say, “the priest’s chasuble was purple!”
During Advent, children that are at least four years old are given a presentation on the Liturgical Year. We have a Liturgical Calendar, and each week of the year is represented by a small piece of wood. The wood [on the calendar] is the color of the liturgical season. Kids can work with the calendar by counting the weeks in each season and placing them on the calendar. One of the things that we learned in our training is that we are not to correct the children if they are not working with the material in the way that we presented it to them. We are to trust in the Holy Spirit that they are communicating with God however they are working. One of the children was working with the calendar and suddenly made a loud noise that sounded like a bomb! I went over to him and asked him to tell me about what he was working on. He had taken the small pieces of wood and stacked them on top of each other. When I asked him about his work, he told me that he had built special cannons that were shooting the Holy Spirit all over the world and that he was praying for everyone in the world.
I was giving a presentation on the parable of the mustard seed. I asked why Jesus may have told this parable. One girl thought for a minute, and she said, “It’s was probably because we are supposed to be growing closer to God every day. Some days we are small, but if we keep growing every day, our faith will be big!”