The Seven Faces of Easter (Part II)

(See Part I here.) I find that the Seven Faces of Easter are the most compelling stories (or set of stories) in our Godly Play “library.” More than any other story, I find the children in the circle (and the adults) are always focused and attentive. I never hear “We already know this one…” or some similar comment.

And yet, this particular year, we didn’t even schedule this story to tell during Lent in our class of 3rd-5th graders. I’m not sure why, as we were all in agreement to focus on some parables of Jesus. (As it turned out, a new parishioner gave us the wonderful gift of doing a Stations of the Cross for this age group, so we did cover the stories; we just did it outside of the “Godly Play” box.)

When possible, it is ideal to set up a Godly Play classroom so that the circle of children and adults are surrounded by the stories: the sacred stories, the parables, and the liturgical stories. Although our classrooms have many odd angles, we are able to do a good job of surrounding the circle with the stories on their shelves.

It is nice, too, to surround ourselves with this story, the Seven Faces, every time they enter this classroom.

 As in our liturgical worship, the practice of our worship should involve all the senses.

 This year we just happened to leave out the words of this story. That, however, doesn’t mean that the story isn’t there.