The school community - an art gallery
Each day thousands of children enter school grounds around the country. Each brings her or his gifts, hopes, dreams, secrets, worries, frustrations... In this prayer we will look at each child, adolescent or young adult as a work of art in the making... who is relying on the staff to participate in this creative activity..... Let us gather, open to the Spirit who connects us to this art of becoming.....
Let us listen to Paul as he helps us explore the power of the Spirit in our lives...
A reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians There are many different gifts, but always the same Spirit; there are many different ways of serving, but always the same Lord. There are many different forms of activity, but in everybody it is the same God who is at work in them all. The particular manifestation of the Spirit granted to each one is to be used for the general good. To one is given from the Spirit, the gift of wisdom, to another the gift of knowledge, to another faith; and to another the gifts of healing, through this one Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another, prophecy..... But at work in all of these is one and the same Spirit, distributing them at will to each other. I Corinthians 12: 4-11 (adapted) It is the Spirit who is active in nurturing our Art Gallery... an Art Gallery that is forever being created as students live and learn in their school community throughout the school day. Let us listen to some wisdom from Kevin O’Shea about God as Artist
Sometimes I like to imagine God as an Artist. The First Artist. And I like to imagine us as God’s unfinished art-works. Yes, unfinished. God actually doesn’t do more than sketches, never completed ‘works’. God does first drafts. God does that so we can pick up what God has started and be creators ourselves, indeed creators of ourselves...... You are meant to recognise the unfinished areas in your self and your life, and listen to the music in the silences there. You are meant to see what could be there in the blanks, if you, not God, did something to put it there. The gaps are there, intentionally, for you to play with. They are to awaken our freedom and responsibility. God gave us freedom... he wanted us to become creative like our Creator. So we are called to be creative co-creators with God and finish the ‘work of art’ God wanted us to be from the beginning. Ponder this wisdom.... How is it echoing in your being as you listen and reflect. Share one idea with the person next to you....
One Art Work in the School Gallery
Into this empty frame place one of your students......
Try to imagine what he or she might be longing for.... What are your longings for him or her? How well do you know this student.... What are some ways you might reach out .... Let this music speak.. Hold the chosen student as you pray this song....
Often it is the small gestures of love, a sincere comment, that changes a child’s life.... Listen to this story.....
THE FREEDOM OF OUR DEEPEST SELF
A week later she walked between the rows putting the graded essays face down on each desk. As she laid my paper in front of me she paused and said, “Your essay made me cry”. It wasn’t much. Five words. I know I am a
writer today because of that moment. I knew that her evaluation meant something. In some respect we are always hoping for someone to see not only our talents, but our deepest self and the power it embodies. There are so many polite ‘no’s’ and ‘yes’s’ in our lives. In many ways we avoid the heart of things, and shy from what lies beneath the surface. Lending our lives to a deeper meaning and the emergence of truth is very different. It demands vigilance and commitment. It may involve choices that set us apart. This is what’s required to be ‘born again in the spirit’. From the heart of all things the Greater Soul asks us to pull our boats up on the beach, nets and all. Put those things aside. Follow me. (Paula D’Arcy – Daybreaks 2007) Nurturing our Deepest Self and the Power it Embodies...
The strength of a community is its diversity of gifts and talents...
Let us pray with Paul for a vibrant life-giving community....
The image of Midwife highlights the interdependence of the student teacher relationship... Students are also Midwives to our being and becoming.... Teachers are also masterpieces in the Art Gallery
|