Morning Prayer

There are a lot of things that I love about the kids' school, but one of the things that I love most is Morning Prayer. The entire school gathers every morning in the courtyard to celebrate birthdays, sports accomplishments, school accomplishments, recognize students for various things, and, most importantly, to start off the day with prayer and reflection. This week Brett's Kindergarten class is leading morning prayer. It's about the sweetest thing you've ever seen. They look so little up there, but yet they've worked so hard to be able to read their lines in front of the entire school... 3 classes of each grade, grades K through 8, plus all of the faculty, plus parents. That's a lot of people! Oh yeah, speaking of parents, that's another very cool part of morning prayer - parents and siblings and anyone in the parish community are always welcome and encouraged to attend. Sometimes Kate and I go just because, or sometimes it's a friend's birthday and we want to be there to cheer them on, but it's always rewarding to go, and a great start to the day. Anyway, back to this specific morning prayer...

Kate looks so big and grown up here!  I can't believe she'll be in Kindergarten in a few months!!!

The readers heading up to get ready

Brett jumps when he's really excited :)

Getting his friends pumped up and excited too :) That's his teacher, Mrs. Lyles right behind him... yep, we love her lots!

I wonder what they're whispering about?  This is our good friend, C, from Three in the Nest!  She and Brett have gotten to be great buddies this year.  They're convinced that they'll marry each other some day.

There is Brett, reading his line, "Mary and Joseph take baby Jesus to the temple to be blessed."  The lady on the far left and the man in the middle are both assistant principals at the school.

Here they are leading the school in saying the "Hail Mary" while they do the sign language along with the words.  Mrs. Lyles is very big on sign language and Brett has really soaked it up this year!  He thought it was very cool when I already know the ABCs thanks to a boy that I grew up with in Greenville.

Leading the school in the Pledge of Allegiance

Heading back to join the rest of the Kindergarteners, but not without getting high five's from the older kids for a job well done!  

Last week the Kindergarten led the entire school mass in the big church and they sang a song at the end of mass - "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" - along with the sign language.  The 8th graders and Kindergarteners are paired up as prayer buddies at the beginning of the year and they meet once a month or so to do various activities.  At the end of their song, the entire 8th grade gave them a huge round of applause.  You could just see the pride in all of the Kindergarteners faces - it was so sweet.