Children Praying a New Story. A Resource for Parents, Grandparents and Teachers .Michael Morwood.  Kelmor Publishing. South Bend In. 2009

Michael Morwood’s previous books have received wide acclaim for helping adult Christians to re-imagine and re-evaluate their faith in light of the contemporary “story” about our universe. That story and Morwood’s writings challenge Christians to expand their notion of God beyond a localized, personal deity and to embrace belief in an all-pervasive Mystery beyond our human concepts. They challenge Christians to review any understanding of Jesus as the unique “way” to a localized God and to know him as the revealer of this Mystery in our everyday living and loving.
Morwood’s books have been especially insightful and helpful to adults struggling with prayer and ritual while radically reconstructing their Christian faith.
This book is for adult Christians engaged in this shift, now asking the vital questions:
How do we educate children into this new faith perspective?
How do we pray with them if prayer is not about addressing an external, listening Deity?

187 Pages.         Contents:

Introduction                                                               
1.   God and the Wonderful World of Young Children    
2.   School Days: What “Story” About God Will We Tell?      
3.   The Universe Story: Where We Came From          
4.   Jesus: Revealer of God’s Presence With Us
5.   Prayer: Deepening Awareness of the Divine Presence    
6.   Feast Days: Celebrating the Divine Presence
- Christmas
- Holy Thursday    
- Good Friday     
- Easter and Ascension     
- Pentecost                
7.   The Sacraments: Ritualizing the Divine Presence   
- Baptism            
- Confirmation           
- Reconciliation         
- Eucharist                  
8.   On Being Christian: A Reflection for Christian Educators

“The wonderful thing about Christian tradition is its many stories. It is just that some have been overlooked or ignored in favour of more dominant stories. It is important that adults who want to help children pray get to know the other stories and tell them alongside the stories that have dominated – in the name of fidelity to Christianity and a deeper appreciation of Jesus and his message. There is, for example, a dominant story about an elsewhere God; there is an even better story about an everywhere God. There is a dominant story about Jesus as connector to an elsewhere deity; there is an even better story about Jesus as the revealer of God-with-us in our living and loving. There is a dominant story about sacraments which emphasises dependence on men with special powers; there is an even better story about sacraments ritualising who we are. There is a dominant story about prayer reaching out to a listening God; there is a better story about prayer raising the mind and heart in awareness of a Divine Presence always with us. There is a dominant story about the institutional Church as the unique pathway to God; there is a far more truthful story about the Church being called to do what Jesus did – to reveal the sacred presence with all people in their everyday lives.
Let us immerse ourselves in these stories and bring balance to the imbalance we presently have.”     -  from the Introduction



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