Going Sideways - New Evangelizers

The kids were just right tonight in 6th grade Catechism class.

Every year the children in my catechism class need a month or so to acclimate to how class works. The first meeting is always leaden- they don’t know me and are cautious and reticent. But tonight they were fully alive, and this high will last through the end of April.

The lesson plan began with the Shekinah Cloud over Mt. Sinai, and would run through the Golden Calf to the Meeting Tent. Which is plenty interesting, but extra spark was in all the digressions prompted by kids’ questions. For example, I was explaining how the Levite men were put in charge of offering sacrifice after the other tribes blew it with the Golden Calf:

“Were the Levite women priests too? Good question, no they weren’t, just the men. But who sacrificed the lambs at the first Passover? The elders! Yes the elder men. All the way back to Abel, the men did the sacrificing. So what did the Levite women do, they didn’t have to work? Sure they worked, they ran the households, that’s work. But I mean work that makes money. Maybe they did, but it would be connected to running the household. Hey, there’s a great bit in Proverbs about that called the Good Wife…here it is:

“Who can find a woman of worth? Far beyond jewels is her value.
Her husband trusts her judgment; he does not lack income.
She brings him profit, not loss, all the days of her life.
She seeks out wool and flax and weaves with skillful hands.
She picks out a field and acquires it; from her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She watches over the affairs of her household,
Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband, too, praises her:
“Many are the women of proven worth, but you have excelled them all.”

“That sounds just like my wife. I kiss her and tell her she is the prize of a lifetime. But her work is much bigger than just what she may make and sell. And a Levite priest could hardly tend to his sacrificing business if his wife was not running the household and tending to the family’s business.”

It’s gonna be another good year.

Copyright 2015, Christian LeBlanc

Christian LeBlanc

Christian LeBlanc is a revert whose pre-Vatican II childhood was spent in South Louisiana, where he marinated in a Catholic universe and acquired a Catholic imagination. During his middle school years in South Carolina, Christian was catechized under the benevolent dictatorship of Sister Mary Alphonsus, who frequently admonished him using the nickname "Little Pagan." After four years of teaching Adult Ed and RCIA, he returned to Sr. Alphonsus' old classroom to teach Catechism himself. Married to Janet, the LeBlancs have five children and two grandsons. Christian and Janet belong to St. Mary's Parish in Greenville, South Carolina. Christian also posts at Amazing Catechists and his blog, Smaller Manhattans. He is the author of The Bible Tells Me So: A Year of Catechizing Directly from Scripture.