Lenten activities bring awareness of season

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
Posted March 27, 2002

Students at schools throughout the Diocese of Sioux City are participating in Lenten activities to heighten their awareness of the season.

The students at St. John the Baptist School in Bancroft are learning manners and respect so that they are making a greater effort to say "please," "thank you," and "excuse me." The students are also learning to hold doors open for other students and adults. When a student completes one of these things, they are able to put a sticker up on a tree on a bulletin board in the hall way.

On April 17, Holy Thursday, students at Pocahontas Catholic School in Pocahontas and Our Lady of Good Counsel in Fonda will participate in a retreat day.

"We start with a prayer service in the morning and then we have four different sessions throughout the day," said Mike Pavik, principal of the two schools. "Students are divided into four groups and they rotate between those sessions throughout the day."

At one session students will visit with Father Dan Guenther of Holy Family Church in Emmetsburg, who will talk about the Vatican and Rome as well as some of the trips he has done there. Another session will be a video highlighting Easter and the Triduum. Students will also go to a session where they will engage in an activity that creates a wall display.

"We are working this year on trying to show the emphasis between generations from earlier church members to our time and how they have been the foundation of our lives," said Pavik about the display.

The final session is where the students will be making and designing Easter baskets that will be delivered to the shut-ins, the elderly and the residents of retirement homes in the area.

"It is an annual event," said Pavik. "It is something that the students look forward to. This year we are inviting the students from Our Lady of Good Counsel School in Fonda to this so they will take part in that event too."

The students in Fonda have Stations of the Cross every Wednesday. In both schools, Pavik organizes a Lenten gathering where they meet together as a school.

"I try to do a Lenten theme throughout each week with something different to try and keep the students focused on the Lenten trip and what we are supposed to be doing or not doing," he said.

The second graders at the Mater Dei Immaculate Conception Center in Sioux City put on a Last Supper Play on March 21 in the Immaculate Conception gym. Every Wednesday at 2:45 p.m. the students attend the Stations of the Cross.

The Mater Dei middle school will perform a Lenten musical prayer reflection on April 7 with show times of 12:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Mater Dei Nativity Center. This event is free and open to the public.

The musical will feature songs and stories from the musical Godspell. The production will include bits and pieces from the musical and will last about 45 minutes.

"We have been working on this for about three weeks now," said Sister Julie Tebbe, music teacher at the school. "It brings the Gospel of Matthew to life and puts it in present day times. It kind of connects it to present day."

As a school, the students at Christ the King School in Breda are saying the rosary once a week in grades 5-8. The grades are taking turns going to Mass everyday along with the all school Masses on Fridays. The students are also participating in Stations of the Cross every week.

"We made a bulletin board where the kids made a postcard type thing of what they were doing extra for Lent or giving up," said Olivia Haley. "We have that up in the hallway."

The fifth and sixth graders have a Lenten booklet that they talk about every morning and then they have activities to do.