Advent projects prepare students for Christmas

By JULIE KEANE, Globe staff reporter
December 11, 2003

With Christmas around the corner, Catholic schools of Diocese of Sioux City have been planning and participating in events to prepare for Christmas.

Students at Danbury Catholic are journeying each week through Advent. The students started in Nazareth the first week of Advent and will be making their way each week through different geographically stops until the week of Dec. 15 when they will reach Bethlehem. Each classroom becomes different stops - Nazareth, Lebonah, Jerusalem and Bethlehem - where the students sing and pray to help them learn about Advent.

"Our theme is 'journey to the future,'" said Kristy Liechti, principal of Danbury Catholic. "Every Monday we have a special service where the kids make the journey through Advent. We have a special prayer service in the class room and light the Advent candle."

On Dec. 19, the students will end the pilgrimage through Advent with a special journey to the church, which will be Bethlehem.

"The celebration on Dec. 19 will be based on making the journey and taking the journey with you in the future, which we are incorporating with the Catholic schools theme - taking your light out when Jesus is born and taking it out into the whole world," Liechti said. "I think it is really going to have an impact when we get down to the fourth week and we do the journey from the school to the church."

This year at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Fonda the students are doing something different to celebrate Advent and prepare for Christmas. The seventh and eighth graders are leading the advent prayer that takes place each day by the Advent wreath. The school also has an Advent wreath prayer for the whole school that is held weekly. The students also will be buying food for the needy and sending packages to the troops.

"We have a prayer pamphlet that the eight and seventh graders are reading from called "Opening Doors" that talks about all of the kinds of doors that people open during Advent and how that should make us get ready for Christmas," said principal Mary Ellen Nilson.

The teachers also meet and have prayer together. The prayer book that the teacher recite from is "Praying with the Word, Advent, Christmas and Epiphany."

Nilson said that the book talks about the hustle and bustle of the season and helps people get ready for Advent.

St. Mary's School in Humboldt has the Advent theme "let our light shine outwardly."

Students have been gathering by the Advent wreath each Monday to say a prayer and light the Advent candle. The students have also received a glowing star to be hung in the classroom to remind them that their presence is felt even when they are not there.

Sister Louise Scieszinski, principal at St Mary's said that along with the Advent prayer each week, students are making gifts for others. The students made care packages for parishioners. Students also made bird feeders for their feathered friends and will be making greeting cards for parishioners.

The students are hosting a musical program 'Once a Upon a Starry Night' that also correlates with the school's theme for Advent.

Students at Sts. Peter and Paul in West Bend are focusing on the needy in their county for Advent. During the week of Dec. 1, the students adopted a family in Des Moines. The students are also doing a food drive for a food pantry in Des Moines. During the last week of school in December, the students are saving their coins to be put in a jar that will be given to the food pantry.

"We put a large jar out and kids bring their change and we convert it to a check and we take it to the pantry," said principal Jean Hyslop. "The first year we did pennies for the pantry, the children filled it so fast we had to empty it. In our little school, we collect over a $100."

The students also have a prayer service each week with the Advent wrealth where they focus on the meaning of Advent.

The theme for the students at Mater Dei in Sioux City is hope. For each letter in hope, the students are planning a special event for Advent.

"We started making a chain of hope naming all the people we are going to help during Advent," said Carol Happe, assistant principal. "For the letter O, we are opening our hearts to Jesus. We are going to wear little hearts that say open your hearts to Jesus."

Students are taking a name off of the giving tree at church and buying a package for whoever is chosen. For the letters P and E the student will be putting others first and everyone praying from peace.

"At our Christmas program we are collecting coats for kids and then also we have a box for the food pantry," Happe said. "We are also writing Christmas cards to the elderly and the shut-ins in our parish."