After the work
Less to write, more to notice.
Recording presentations should not take longer than the presentations did. The catechist’s attention belongs with the child.
For Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
A quiet record of the atrium.
Our Atrium helps catechists keep the prepared environment, well, prepared. Record presentations, follow each child’s path, and let the work itself remain the focus.
Made in Singapore · used at one parish today.
Illustration · placeholder pending illustration craft
Illustration · placeholder · felt strip / City of Jerusalem
What is CGS
The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is a way of being with children before God.
Developed by Sofia Cavalletti and Gianna Gobbi in Rome in the 1950s, CGS draws on Maria Montessori’s pedagogy and holds that even a young child has a real religious life of their own. The catechist’s task is not to teach but to help the child meet God.
The work happens in the atrium, a quiet space set aside for the child. Materials are simple and made by hand: wooden figures of the Good Shepherd, a felt strip of the City of Jerusalem, parable cards on a mat. The catechist presents a parable or a gesture; the child returns to it in their own time.
We serve the catechist who keeps this space.
For catechists
Three things the tool tries to do well, and nothing else.
Each child’s path
See where each child is, follow where each child goes.
A clear view of what has been presented, and what is still to come. The catechist follows the child.
For the atrium
The catechist is the audience.
Built quietly, for the people who keep the atrium.
Made in Singapore
Built for one parish, then the next.
Our Atrium began with a Google Sheet that catechists struggled to update. Ten catechists at one Singaporean parish use it now, in place of that sheet. We grow only as fast as catechists ask.
Read the founding note