Montessori and CGS
We believe it's time for the union of Montessori and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.
For decades, Catechists of the Good Shepherd have mourned the unfathomable richness lost when Montessori studies neglect its founder’s Catholic roots, just as Montessorians have intuitively sought a way to serve the vital spiritual needs of the child.
Dr. Maria Montessori believed that both the wellspring and summit of education is the spiritual life. She believed the educational method she discovered found its ultimate meaning and highest expression in service of the child's relationship with God.
In Barcelona, Dr. Montessori began developing the materials and environment to serve the child's religious life, his life in the Church. This work was continued by Sofia Cavalletti and Gianna Gobbi, now called The Catechesis of The Good Shepherd.
A new life began there—that of "The Little Ones Living in the Church." At the same time, the Montessori Method was furnished with a long-sought opportunity of penetrating deeper into the life of the child's soul, and of thus fulfilling its true educational mission.
Maria Montessori
The Child in the Church
Meanwhile, the application of the method followed in my "Children's Houses" produced this excellent fruit—the Church almost seemed to be the end of the education which the method proposed to give.
The "silence" observed in class, to accustom the child to recollection, here found its application. It became the interior recollection observed in the House of God.
Their actions were practically repetitions of what they had learned to do in the classroom…the end of effort patiently sustained, giving them a pleasing sense of joy and of a new dignity.
Maria Montessori
The Child in the Church
The Montessori Method and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd are an organic whole, as the Child himself is an organic whole.
To truly be an aid to life, education must serve the development of the entire person. The spiritual life is the core of the human being.
The separation of one from another has seen Montessori education spread throughout the world, but leaves Montessori missing its core. What is a human being without his soul? If I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge, but do not have love…
Without God, Montessori becomes vulnerable to the culture and cannot fully understand the dignity of the Child or the adult's role in his service.
The human potential is so great and vast. Only when it abides in the Vine can it reach full flower and bear everlasting fruit. We are humbled and so excited to begin this long-desired work, for the glory of the Father.
They nearly always speak of [religious instruction] as if it were a special school "subject." My answer to all this is that I should not regard it as a "subject" at all. The preparation of the child for his full participation in the life of the Church is a much wider thing than the learning by heart of certain intellectual truths. It is a life in itself.
Maria Montessori
The Child in the Church