Eucharistic Congress to include fun for kids

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

On Sept. 22, the Albany Diocese will do just that with a children’s activity tent at the Hearts Aflame Eucharistic Congress, which will be held at the Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville.

The children’s tent will be open from 12:15-2:30 p.m. Children and their parents can enjoy games, crafts and activities.

“It’s a great opportunity to really talk about what’s at the heart of our faith, Jesus and the Eucharist,” said Lisanne Jensen, coordinator of the children’s tent. She said she “didn’t want to only provide crafts, so we have a variety” of activities to offer.

That list includes “We are the songs and we are the stories.” Led by MaryAnn Louison of Catholic Charities and Rachelle Cotugno, a music teacher from St. Mary’s Institute in Amsterdam, children will hear stories related to the Eucharist and then learn songs with accompanying hand movements.

The faith formation program “Catechesis of the Good Shepherd” (CGS) will be led by Andrea Reno, who leads CGS at Blessed Sacrament parish in Albany. CGS is described as a “hands-on method of faith formation” that uses “child-size furnishings and models representing people, places and objects found in Scripture.”

Children can make leaves to place on a “gratitude tree,” reflecting their thoughts on the Eucharist and ways they are thankful. Other activities include creating stained-glass windows from tissue paper, an opportunity to “make your own monstrance,” word searches, bracelet-making and rosary-making, and Eucharist-themed worksheets and puzzles.

The tent is not a drop-off area, so children should be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Mrs. Jensen explained that the games are “intergenerational” and that “we want to involve the parents, too.

“At a young age, [children] are so curious,” she noted. “They just want to learn and they have so many questions. It’ll be a fun way to learn together as a family.”