Key Stage 2 Year 3
A Fertile Heart Receiving & Giving Creative Love
Love is creative. To have a fertile heart is to love, grow and make a positive difference.
04/07/2018
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Foreword His Grace George Stack, Archbishop of Cardiff Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel “The Glory of God is humanity fully alive”. Thus wrote St. Irenaeus in the 3rd century. His words remain true to this day. They mean that God is the creator of the gift of life. In that gift, each human person receives a share in His own creative love. His revelation in life and love, as well as through creation, is pure gift. This is the ‘grace’ of which we speak, in order that “we may have life and have it to the full” (Gospel of St. John 10:10). This truth lies at the heart of the Gospel. It is what it means to be truly human. The gift of life is bestowed by God in order that we may flourish and thrive. We do this in the first place simply by living with gratitude. We do it by responding to His love in a life of joyful communion with Him. We express it by actively engaging in the good of others so that mutual ‘flourishing’ may take place. The more we give, the more we receive. The ‘Gospel of Life’ outlined above is, indeed, ‘Good News’. It is revealed in every aspect of human nature and creation itself. This is the life-giving teaching we seek to hand on to our children who are “the messages we send to tomorrow”. The Rite of Baptism reminds us that parents are the first and best teachers of their children. The Catholic school exists primarily to educate children to receive and respond to God’s love for each one of them and for all. Our schools are designed to help parents fulfil their God given task of caring for their children in the school of love. The Catholic school is not just a place for professional education – existing for improvement in learning - important though that is. It is a place of formation, a place in which ‘lessons for life’ are imparted, received and shared. The whole school community teaches and learns these lessons in a truly Catholic environment. Human relationships are obviously at the heart of life and flourishing. We are made to relate to each other, body, mind and spirit. The physical, emotional and spiritual reality of our being are part and parcel of the ‘holy trinity’ of each one of us. Thus affective sexuality education is a crucial part of human formation. A Fertile Heart is the culmination of several years work of dedicated individuals [teachers, theologians, education advisers and parents] from within the dioceses of Birmingham, Cardiff, Clifton, Arundel and Brighton and Shrewsbury. They have worked tirelessly to create a resource which puts the human person and the flourishing of our pupils at the heart of the Catholic school. It is offered as an important aid to pupils, parents, teachers, governors and clergy to remind us all that “We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning God had meant us to live it” (Ephesians 2:10).
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Contents: Year 3 Y3 focuses on Jesus in John’s Gospel to develop the children’s understanding of who they are, and their relationships. In particular, we see how Jesus is our light and living water, helping us to grow like sunlight and water does plants. Home, school and church are our soil. Jesus also teaches us that he is the vine and we are his branches, and together we can bear much fruit (John 15:5). Module 3a: God is Our Father To understand the three steps to receiving and giving - starting with the Our Father. Module 3b: The Light of Truth To understand that what we think is the ‘way we are facing’: that knowing truth means we face the right way. Module 3c: Water of Life To understand that receiving Jesus, the water of life moves us towards God our Father. To see how this helps us to love, grow, and be healthy and beautiful. Module 3d: Marriage, God, man and woman To learn from the Wedding at Cana about relationship: with God, between man and woman, and with others. Module 3e: Increase and Decrease The stories of John the Baptist and of Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3 help us to see how living in the Spirit helps us to grow, and why being willing to ‘decrease’ means we can increase in love and happiness. Module 3f: Now that’s increase! The Raising of Lazarus in John 11 helps us understand the importance of trusting in God even when things are hard. We see how Jesus’ miracles help us to trust that if we decrease for him, he will increase in us. Module 3g: Unless a Grain of Wheat dies… To know what we mean by ‘a fertile heart’. To understand what Jesus means by asking us to die with him so we can live with him. This and the following modules really complement First Holy Communion preparation. Module 3h: Remain in my love To understand more how we can learn about the spiritual by reflecting on the physical. To know the importance of being faithful to God, ourselves and others. The remaining modules focus on John 15. Module 3i: Pruned to be pure To know that growth is sometimes hard, and that being loved by the Father helps me to cope with difficulties. Module 3j: Water, wine and blood! To have a fertile heart is to have a loving heart, united to Jesus’. By revisiting the Wedding at Cana, the Last Supper, and the Crucifixion, we see that Holy Communion and Mary’s Immaculate Heart help us in this. Module 3k: Commanded to be Joyful! To understand why keeping Jesus’ new command makes us happy. To know that we have been chosen by Jesus to ‘go out and bear fruit’.
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Year 3 Module c
3c
Water of Life
Learning Objectives
Success Criteria
To understand that receiving the water of life moves us towards God our Father. To see how this helps us to love, grow, and be healthy and beautiful.
1. I can see that Jesus is the living water of life, who helps me to love.
Step 1 Show pictures of different flowers, from different habitats. Include some beautiful weeds. Ask the children to comment on them. Do they like them? Are they beautiful? Which is their favourite? Then show images of dead flowers these should be the only ones they say they don’t like, and aren’t beautiful. Explain: In a way, we are like flowers. We are all unique and beautiful, though we may come from different places. We may have favourites, like our best friends, but hopefully we can see that everyone is beautiful. Flowers grow when they are alive and don’t when they are dead. They show us that growth, health and beauty go together, and it doesn’t matter so much if they grow a lot or a little - a sunflower isn’t more beautiful or healthy than a buttercup.
2. I can understand that our souls need grace like our bodies need water.
Jesus says, “No one can enter the kingdom of God, without being born through water and the Spirit.” John 3:5
Recap: We’ve talked about how plants and flowers need soil. And so do we: our ‘soil’ is home, church and school - places where we can grow. We’ve talked about how plants need light, which they open up to and grow towards. And we do too. Who is our light? Yes, Jesus - he gives us the light of his truth so that we open up to his love and face the right way. What else do plants and flowers need to grow? Yes, water. And so do we. Explain: To live, we need water to drink, but we also need ‘spiritual water’ which we call grace. We know what our ‘soil’ is, and we know who our light is. We now need to think about where this spiritual water comes from. In John’s Gospel we hear that it comes from Jesus. In fact, he is our living water as well as our light. John is telling us that Jesus helps us to grow, and be beautiful and healthy. Step 2 Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvmD4CRDFZI ‘Living Water?’ to 4:20. Discuss the story to check understanding. (Activity 1.) Explain: Jesus is our living water who helps us to love in practical ways, like when Maria asked Jesus to help her to be a good friend to Pei-Ling. Can we think of other times Jesus can help us to be more loving - even when it might be difficult? Allow time for discussion in pairs/small groups and take feedback. Often, when we talk about Jesus being the water of life, we are simply comparing his grace to water. But, there is one special time when the link is visible. Ask: Who remembers what happens at Baptism? Allow time for a brief discussion. Read John 3:5. Explain: Jesus is helping us to understand the connection between the real, wet water of our Baptism and the ‘spiritual water’ which we call grace. This is the living water in our story today. Baptism really does show 14
A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love
A child’s baptism
us that the physical and the spiritual are connected. Read John 4:14. John’s Gospel also tells us that “from his heart shall flow streams of living water” (7:38). This happened in a very real way on the Cross. Just after Jesus had died for us, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear “and immediately there came out blood and water” (20:34). Display a picture of the Divine Mercy, This picture is from a vision Sr Faustina had last century, in Poland. It goes with the simple prayer, “Jesus, I trust in you.” Ask how the picture makes the children feel, and what they can see in it. Explain that the two streams of light - red and white - represent this blood and water, and so represents truth and grace. (Activity 2.)
Suggested Activities 1. Ask the children to write down two questions they would like to ask the Samaritan woman about her meeting with Jesus and compare suggested answers.
Key Point
2. At home this evening, ask mum or dad to look up ‘The Divine Mercy picture’ and see if they like it. Explain to them what the red and white rays represent.
Jesus deliberately wants us to see that as plants need light and water to grow, we need his truth and grace. This way we grow to be healthy, happy, beautiful, unique children of the Father.
3. Learn/sing the song ‘Water of Life’ (2:30) https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=H30QEVBMndA
Step 3 Explain: this takes us back to our last lessons, about giving and receiving. Briefly recap giving and receiving a cuddly toy, giving and receiving love. We learnt that the most important part of life is loving. To receive love we have to be facing the person and be open to receive from them. To give love we need to be facing the person and move towards them. Then we learnt that Christ our light gives us the truth that faces us in the right direction and opens us up to love. He is light for the eyes of our soul. Today we have learnt that Jesus is also our living water who moves us towards the Father, helping us give love as well as receive it. Jesus being our light and living water means we receive truth and grace from him. He gives us the ability to truly receive and give love.
Jesus says, “The water that I shall give will become a spring of living water inside (you), welling up for eternal life.” John 4:14
An important part of what we have learnt is that, especially in relationship to God, we have to receive love so as to be able to give love. That’s an important truth about being human. Jesus first gives us grace and living water so that we can then love in return. (Activity 3.)
Summary Jesus is our living water who moves us towards the Father, helping us give love as well as receive it. Jesus being our light and living water means we receive truth and grace from him. He gives us the ability to truly receive and give love.
The Divine Mercy
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A Fertile Heart Receiving & Giving Creative Love
Want to know more? Give us a call, email us or complete the form on the website, see details below. 1 Newcastle Street, Stone, Staffordshire STl 5 8JU Phone: +44 (0) 1785 815110 Email: hello@fertileheart.org.uk Contact: www.fertileheart.org.uk/contact