Prayer Life

Students at The Good Shepherd Catholic Montessori participate in a variety of liturgical and worship celebrations.

Weekly Opportunities

Weekly Mass
Each Friday, GSCM students, staff, and many parents celebrate the source and summit of the Catholic life, the Eucharist. Students from grades 1-8 attend weekly Mass. Kindergartners join us at Mass during the second half of the year.

Students participate fully in preparation and liturgical ministries for the Mass. Liturgical ministries for children include call to worship, lectors, altar servers, and gift bearers.

Non-Catholic students and students too young to receive Holy Communion are invited to receive a priestly blessing during distribution of Communion.

Liturgy of the Hours
Students in the Adolescent program are invited to pray Lauds (morning prayer) once a week in the Adoration chapel. This prayer gives students a chance to be immersed in the psalms and in Scripture, praying in a way our Lord himself would have prayed as a child.

Monthly Opportunities

Monthly Exposition & Benediction
Once a month there is opportunity to spend time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament during our Exposition and Adoration. This opportunity is available to students, faculty, staff, and parents.

Altar Guild
Students in grades 2-6 can join Altar Guild to give of their time to beautify Jesus’ home in the chapel as a way of showing their love for Him. Twice a month students provide a joyful service that blesses the entire school community while growing in their own faith and friendships. Students across levels eat together, pray together, and work together.

Ongoing Opportunities

All Day Adoration Chapel
Students and teachers have the opportunity to visit our Adoration Chapel before, during, or after school. We welcome families to spend time with our Lord as well.

Classroom Prayer
Each classroom has a prayer table as a focal point for regular classroom prayer. When beginning a new liturgical season, the prayer table is set with the new liturgical color and appropriate images in the context of a procession. During regular communal prayer at the prayer table, the younger students enjoy songs, brief scripture readings, silence, and spontaneous spoken prayer.

Older students take on more and more leadership for planning, organizing, and leading daily communal prayer, incorporating selections from the following elements: singing, Scripture, psalms and canticles, spontaneous petitions and prayers of thanksgiving, formal prayer, and silent prayer.

Reconciliation
The Sacrament of Reconciliation is offered two to three times per year, especially during the seasons of Advent and Lent.

Liturgical Living
In harmony with the universal church, the life of our school follows the liturgical year. Seasonal celebrations are integral to the children’s experience. These celebrations include:

All Saints Day
St. Nicolas Day
Epiphany

Stations of the Cross
Last Supper Celebration
Seder Celebration

Liturgy of Light
Pentecost
May Crowning