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Sheila Sims Iding
When I first came up with the idea of mass crosses it had one purpose. It was to make mass special. It was to set it apart from anything else we did at school. Not that mass isn’t special without my intervention. It’s just that 6 year olds sometimes need a visual. Something that says “this makes it special”.
I got the idea from when my boys were very little and we would go to mass. We had a mass bag of books that were only used at mass. Even if they asked for them at other times, they had to wait to use them at mass. That made those books special. That set those books apart. And, in turn, it made mass time more special…and set it apart too.
So when I became a teacher the idea of mass crosses was born. Wooden crosses (like Jesus’ cross), with their names on it and beads showing the liturgical colors. This first week of school we try them on, we talk about the liturgical colors and their meanings and we even play with them a bit. Yes…we play with them. This is their one chance to play with them. Play with the beads, twirl the cross, twist the string. One chance to explore what that would be like.
Because soon each cross would be blessed with holy water. Soon the cross would be more than a religious symbol, more than a piece of jewelry, more than beads and string. Soon it would be a blessed holy item. That makes it special. That sets it apart.
So when we wear them to mass they are NOT allowed to play with them at all. I once had a teacher tell me that she thought I was making a mistake. That 6 year olds cannot sit through a mass and not play with a cross and beads hanging around their neck. She could have been right. But I wanted to believe differently. And it turned out that I had a right to believe differently. Most every first grader for 8 years has risen to the expectation of respect for a blessed holy item…for their own mass cross.
So today Fr. John came to our classroom just like he has the first week of school for so many years. He came with prayers and Holy Water to bless their mass crosses for them. And as they stood in the prayer circle they carefully gathered the mass cross in their little hands. I thought of all the things those little hands would hold today from pencils and crayons, to sandwiches and cookies, to jump ropes and monkey bars, to the hands of teacher walking in line to the hands of a parent at pick up time. But for that moment there was a cross, some beads, some string, some sprinkles of Holy Water and a special blessed Holy item right there…in their little hands.