Religious Education in Year 4!

For the past few weeks Year 4 have been learning all about the Sacrament of Reconciliation and how it can help us to rebuild bridges of love and friendship to God.

This Sacrament has been given to us to confess or acknowledge our sins, seek forgiveness and be reconciled to God and one another. It is like a bridge. It helps Christians to live as followers of Jesus, knowing that forgiveness leads to joy and peace.

We have been thinking about why sin is a big deal and what actions and thoughts are sinful. 

Through the Gospel of Mark (12:30-31) we learnt that loving God and our neighbour with all of our heart are the most important commandments, and if we break these we must have contrition-which means to feel sorry for what we have done by examining our conscience and seek forgiveness.

We recognised that some sins are more serious than others and may take longer to forgive but we should always forgive one another as God always forgives us, no matter what sin we have committed, so long as we have contrition.

To celebrate the significance of Reconciliation, we held a Class Liturgy. This was a special time for us to pray, hear God’s word and build a bridge to God and Jesus.

Each table group chose Scripture linking to forgiveness such as The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, The Prodigal Son and the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.

We prepared the prayer table with special objects and lit a candle to create a calm and peaceful atmosphere. 

The children took turns to come up and read their readings for the class and then explained how each one links to forgiveness and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

We finished the lesson with a prayer of contrition to help us reflect on things we may have said or done which may have broken our bridges of friendship with God and each other and thought about how we can change our actions to rebuild these bridges.