Casa Dei Bambini retreat prepares young ones for key sacraments

A handful of children stretch out on the floor to hover over open bibles, highlighters in hand. A boy works to put the finishing touches on the vine he has ornamentally burned onto the side of a wooden candle holder. Several other children sit at tables, working needle and thread to decorate white garments with Christian symbols. A couple of boys sit at the base of a tree, reading in the dappled, early afternoon light. A pair of girls rehearse the structure of sacramental confession within sight of a basement chapel.

These were some of the scenes from a four-day mid-March retreat at the Casa Dei Bambini for children about to make their first confession and receive their first Holy Communion. According to Casa Dei Bambini co-founder and coordinator Angie Bielefeld, the group’s approach to catechizing children considers pursuits such as the garments and candleholders to be indirect aids to prayer. 

“We are at home in both spirit and matter,” said Bielefeld, a parishioner at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Wichita. “In our culture, movement has largely been removed from work. Fr. Ed Hays commented that the fall of man was the splitting of Adam. What was whole before was now divided: the intellect, will, and body. Through the work of our hands, we are helped to settle, to ‘pay attention,’ to concentrate through meaningful work and therefore to be more capable of listening and responding to the voice of the shepherd. We become whole again. Our intellects and wills are united.”

At their first confessions the next day, the children placed their baptismal candles in their customized candleholders, and after they completed the sacrament, a priest lit their candles from the Paschal candle and encouraged the children to keep the light of the risen Christ burning brightly in their souls. Then the children’s parents clothed them in their white garment, much as the forgiving father in the parable clothes his son in a robe.

A day later, the children processed down the aisle wearing their garments and carrying their candles for first Holy Communion.

Mustard Seed Work

Casa Dei Bambini started in 2018 as a nonprofit ministry open to anyone in the Diocese of Wichita. “Our mission and purpose is to serve anyone in the diocese who needs a home for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd,” Bielefeld said. “We fill in holes for parishes that may not be able to offer the catechesis in its fullness, or maybe they are unable to serve all of their children. We provide a place for families to receive this formation.”

The U.S. Association of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd website indicates the catechesis “was born from the joy of the children’s encounter with God. It has been observed that children of the same developmental stage, even those from widely varying cultural backgrounds, respond to elements of the Christian message in the same way.”

The site also emphasizes the uniqueness of the relationship between a child and God. “Children need their own place to foster the growth of that relationship,” it states. “The growth of this relationship is assisted by the adult, but is directed by the Spirit of God within the child.”

A group of catechists in the diocese had discussed something like Casa Dei Bambini for years, Bielefeld said, and in the years since its launch, the number of catechists involved in the ministry has expanded to about two dozen. Meanwhile, more volunteers serve in a variety of other capacities, such as sewing the white garments or providing other types of background support. The undertaking continues to grow.

“The Lord brought us together in different ways,” she said. “We serve the diocese and collaborate with lots of parishes. All of our funding comes through donations. Our ministry is completely volunteer, and the Lord has provided. We have never advertised, so I think people learn about it through word of mouth. The catechesis as a whole is a ‘mustard seed work’ that started very small and has grown. I don’t know how people find out about us, but they do.”

This year’s class of children that Casa Dei Bambini catechized for the two sacraments numbered 22, Bielefeld explained. “We have spent five weeks, with weekly meditations for them and their parents leading up to this retreat,” she said. “This environment has been prepared for the children and adults to come open their hearts and minds to hear God’s voice during these four days as they prepare to encounter him in the sacraments.”

According to Bielefeld, much as their preparation began long before the retreat, many children continue their catechesis at Casa Dei Bambini long after receiving those sacraments. The atrium, which is how the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd refers to the setting in which it seeks to cultivate and encourage the children’s relationships with God, has three levels of formation, after which many adolescents seek to remain involved with the community. 

“Many who graduate from level three don’t want to leave the atrium. They love it so much the next logical step is for them to become catechists themselves,” Bielefeld said. “Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is all about that relationship. Just as the younger children are falling in love with the shepherd, the older children are still falling in love.”

Hidden Treasure

According to Bielefeld, one of the most beautiful gifts Casa Dei Bambini catechists receive from the ministry is the privilege to serve and follow both the Lord and his children. “One of the most beautiful and unique aspects of this catechesis is that it sets the child up as our guide,” she said. “It calls us, the adults, to look at the children and allow them to lead us to God.”

Receptive adults can recognize children’s “essentiality, their capacity for prayer, their silence, their contemplation, their joy, and their eagerness for God,” she said. “All of these capacities can be seen as a treasure hidden within the child. Children have a way of being in the presence of God that is both unique and also a gift to the adult who stops long enough to notice.”

To illustrate, Bielefeld cites an example from the retreat. 

“The prayers the children wrote throughout the retreat reveal an interior agility by which their hearts have turned to God to listen and respond to him,” she said. They include: 

• “May the poor receive a cozy place to stay.”

• “May we listen to God in our hearts and help him to build the Kingdom of God.”

• “Thank you for the retreat and thank you for our work.”

• “We thank you for our life.”

• “That all of the first communicants remain on the True Vine.”

• “May the children and catechists of Casa Dei Bambini live peacefully in the sheepfold.”

To learn more about Casa Dei Bambini email [email protected] or visit www.casadeibambiniwichita.org. More information about Catechesis of the Good Shepherd can be found at https://www.cgsusa.org.