Experience With Catholic V.b.s.

[eagle_eye222001]

Okay so my question is this. If you attend a Catholic Vacation Bible School (V.B.S.), should there be material in it to definitively mark it as a Catholic V.B.S?

Due to certain circumstances, I have been around a certain Catholic Church's V.B.S. and within all the decorations and pamphlets, there is nothing that would lead one to believe it was a Catholic V.B.S. versus a basic Christian V.B.S.

One could tell that it was basic Christian......but that's it. In fact, there are a couple posters on the wall with Bible quotes, and on at least two of the posters, it cited the verses from the King James Version. Now, while I will admit that there is some truth in the KJV as I have learned that some of it can be used in Apologetics to defend the Catholic faith, however why is a Catholic V.B.S. emulating a Protestant Bible? I mean.....are we trying to be Protestant or Catholic?

Now a Catholic V.B.S. doesn't have to completely filled only with things that are solely Catholic, but it would be good if there were parts of the V.B.S. that distinctly displayed Catholicism.

This V.B.S. was a themed one from Liguori.

[url="http://www.liguori.org/vbs/"]http://www.liguori.org/vbs/[/url]

After looking at the website, while they include Peter in a bit, they do not showcase the papacy at all and a Protestant would be perfectly fine with the presentation of Peter. Apparently some posters quote the Catechism but I did not see any such posters at the camp.

Now I was not around for everything for the camp so I cannot say with absolute certainty that there was no obvious Catholicism in it.

My main point in this is that I wish the V.B.S. was explicitly Catholic. While the Liguori themed one does have a couple posters that quote the Catechism, that is the only thing that can be directly tied to Catholicism and I think we can do way better.

Personally I would try to integrate the Rosary, Saints, and Sacraments more. Or at least try to make the V.B.S. an obvious Catholic integrated one anyway.

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[TeresaBenedicta]

Yeah... this can be tricky.

'Cause in all honesty, there aren't a lot of GOOD, pre-made Catholic V.B.S. programs for a parish to buy. So sometimes it turns into, "Well, we can buy this poorly done Catholic VBS, or we can try and make our own, orrr Hey Look, a really nice protestant one!"

I think my parish has used Protestant ones in the past.

But again, that has its own dangers. There may be something that goes [i]against[/i] Catholic teaching, or, there just may be nothing distinctly Catholic about it at all.

I think what we have done has been to incorporate Mass in the morning, & a decade of the rosary before they leave. When I taught the 2nd graders, I was teaching them the Morning Offering, and I offered a special prize for all the kids who had it memorized by the end of the week. Little things like that. Adapt the program a bit.

But I think it's fairly common to use Protestant ones.

[icelandic_iceskater]

we usually do use a protestant one. They still hold truth, and we'll throw in those strictly catholic belief's where they fit.

This year we're using a VBS put out by a catholic publisher, but there really isn't much in it that's strictly catholic.

[princessgianna]

[quote name='icelandic_iceskater' post='1923032' date='Jul 17 2009, 06:52 PM']we usually do use a protestant one. They still hold truth...[/quote]

sadly though so much is still lost!

[quote]and we'll throw in those strictly catholic belief's where they fit....[/quote]
That's cool. Obviously though the kids learn about Catholicism not just this "basic" Christian idea-right?

[jiyoung]

I find that a lot of parishes do use a Protestant format. My parish has created its own in past years, and it's been very explicitly Catholic. It ended with adoration every day, and the content itself was very Catholic as well--one year on the Joyful Mysteries, another year on the Sacraments, etc. One of our priests had been coordinating it, but since he left we haven't really continued it, I think

[Angel*Star]

I know there is a company (I think in California) that has several Catholic VBS curriculum. However, I don't know VBS themes are chosen and I wonder if they are even offered as an option.

The other think in my part of the country is Protestant Churches offer their VBS free or very cheap. While the Catholic Church is pricey, especially if you have lots of children.

Last year, my older daughter was a teacher and began teaching the kids prayers in Latin. They loved it!

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='eagle_eye222001' post='1922962' date='Jul 17 2009, 04:49 PM']Okay so my question is this. If you attend a Catholic Vacation Bible School (V.B.S.), should there be material in it to definitively mark it as a Catholic V.B.S?[/quote]
Yes.
I don't know when we as a Church decided that the way the protestants did things was so much better, but we could certainly make VBS programs (and youth groups and hymns and architecture and so forth) just as well (if not better) than they can. Why we insist on adopting everything they use is lightyears beyond me.

[princessgianna]

It's because people were taught squat and therefore know nothing about defending the Faith or even about the Faith. Hopefully that is changing though!

[icelandic_iceskater]

I don't have a problem with VBS not being inherently catholic. Truth is Truth, regardless of whether or not it's specific to Catholicism. At my parish, I have no doubt that Catholicism will come out during discussion group time. (e.g. the theme "forgiven by Jesus" = confession) but I fail to see how it can be wrong if strictly catholic belief's are not the focus.


*edit* granted, my parish just has 1.5 hours for VBS... 20 of which is discussion/learning time. If it were an all day VBS, I'd def try to have it more centered on educating in the catholic faith.

Edited July 18, 2009 by icelandic_iceskater

[princessgianna]

I guess the problem comes in as we act like we are almost afraid to be Catholic. Maybe it's different where you come from. But I think too many times treasures (saints, Mary, Papacy, ect) are thrown in the closet and forgotten. -Not to mention that people are not being taught the Faith anyway. ~JMHO

[Angel*Star]

[quote name='icelandic_iceskater' post='1923167' date='Jul 17 2009, 11:21 PM']I don't have a problem with VBS not being inherently catholic. Truth is Truth, regardless of whether or not it's specific to Catholicism. At my parish, I have no doubt that Catholicism will come out during discussion group time. (e.g. the theme "forgiven by Jesus" = confession) but I fail to see how it can be wrong if strictly catholic belief's are not the focus.


*edit* granted, my parish just has 1.5 hours for VBS... 20 of which is discussion/learning time. If it were an all day VBS, I'd def try to have it more centered on educating in the catholic faith.[/quote]


I am seeing a lot of restlessness from people (including myself) who were not taught the faith. Now, as adults, after wasting 12 years of mish/mash, we must learn what it means to be Catholic and be able to defend our faith. VBS is a great opportunity to encurage Catholicism. How do we expect our children to remain Catholic if we only teach them basic Christian truths? They have no reason to stay. And we are doing them an unjustice.

[icelandic_iceskater]

[quote name='Angel*Star' post='1923198' date='Jul 18 2009, 12:38 AM']I am seeing a lot of restlessness from people (including myself) who were not taught the faith. Now, as adults, after wasting 12 years of mish/mash, we must learn what it means to be Catholic and be able to defend our faith. VBS is a great opportunity to encurage Catholicism. How do we expect our children to remain Catholic if we only teach them basic Christian truths? They have no reason to stay. And we are doing them an unjustice.[/quote]
very true, but teaching the faith is one thing. Having the kids learn and understand it is another. And it's a l o t harder than it sounds.

Kids are at different levels. I'm at a small parish, and we have to put the four, five, and six year olds together. It is not easy to engage such a wide range of ages. It takes three times of hearing something in order to learn it... often times, you're lucky if you can get two in. And the kids will only listen to one. The parents make little effort to teach their children at home, even when you send home review sheets and whatnot. <<<ok, so that may be a generalization. But it still holds true for most. The logistics of imbuding their little brains with these Truths is muchos harder than it seems at first.

I'm not trying to make excuses... chatecises in America definatley needs some major renovations. But somethings, as a teacher, there's only so much that you're capable of doing. Especially when all you have for help is inexperienced, untrained, but oh-so-willing, highschool students.

[Angel*Star]

While I admit we don't need to teach the whole Catechism in a week (1/2 days at that!), but what about praying the rosary at the end? I saw that in an earlier post. They should bring SOMETHING home that is Catholic and defines it from the local Protestant church down the street. Otherwise, why not send your kids there and get it for free?

[icelandic_iceskater]

I guess that's partially relative to what you are able to do with your vbs... Ours is only 1.5 hours long, so we can't afford to throw in a 20 minutes rosary. Not without omitting something else. There is also the issue that 5 year olds cannot sit still through 20 minutes of something that they do not understand. We tried doing a decade with some kids few years back when we had a Marian themed VBS. In the amount of time we had, most of the kids were not able to understand it.

paying for VBS- I gotta admit, that is pretty lame.

[brokensparrow]

[quote name='Angel*Star' post='1923198' date='Jul 17 2009, 08:38 PM']I am seeing a lot of restlessness from people (including myself) who were not taught the faith. Now, as adults, after wasting 12 years of mish/mash, we must learn what it means to be Catholic and be able to defend our faith. VBS is a great opportunity to encurage Catholicism. How do we expect our children to remain Catholic if we only teach them basic Christian truths? They have no reason to stay. And we are doing them an unjustice.[/quote]

I am one of the restless ones. Now that I'm older and dipped a little deeper into Catholicism (although I'm still on the surface) I'm amazed with how rich it all is and I feel like I've wasted so many years and wonder why no one showed all this to me.
But the truth is that I definitely wasn't ready for all that and if someone had shown me (and I'm sure some would have been willing to do so) I probably would not have listened.
That being said, I think it's still important to talk about some very Catholic things though like the Eucharist, Mary, and the saints. So kids at least have some foundation to build off of when they seek more.