Encouraged to Follow the Path of Jesus

HOLY DOOR  Lorraine Scandarito, coordinator of religious education and director of Children’s Ministry at Resurrection Parish, Randolph, talks to students about the Jubilee Year of Mercy, before tapping a small hammer to open the colorfully decorated “holy door” behind her — in reality, Resurrection’s artful interpretation of the actual Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, which pilgrims can visit during the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

Randolph parish uses ‘holy door’ to teach youth about Year of Mercy

RANDOLPH  The soft tap of a small hammer echoes through a hallway in the ministry center of Resurrection Parish here on a Sunday morning in December. Shortly after, a new “holy door” — decorated with colorful handmade cartoon-like images of Biblical scenes that depict God’s mercy — opens up at one end of the corridor. A class of eager fifth-grade religious education students gathers in front of the beautifully adorned “holy door,” waiting for their opportunity to walk under its threshold.

The group of about 30 boys and girls, including 10-year-old Juliana Sophia, passes through the “holy door” — in reality, Resurrection’s artful interpretation of an actual Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. Last month, the “holy door” in Randolph invited first- to fifth-grade students to imagine stepping into another world — through Holy Doors at the Vatican and countless churches around the world, including two in the Paterson Diocese, that penitent pilgrims can visit during this Jubilee Year of Mercy. This imaginative, interactive lesson also helped the children to realize that they can walk into the forgiving arms of God and share that mercy with others at anytime — not only during the Holy Year in the universal Church.

“It [the ‘holy door’] made me feel welcomed and loved. It made me think that anybody can go to Jesus and talk to him and about ways that I can me more merciful to other people,” said Sophia. The walk through the “holy door” served as only the start of a Jubilee Year of Mercy spiritual journey in miniature for these students, who made the pilgrimage a class at a time over two Sunday mornings last month. They followed small cutout footprints placed on the floor — to encourage them to follow the path of Jesus — down to the end of the hallway corridor. At that point, students encountered a poster of Pope Francis with a quote from him: “Let the Church always be a place of mercy and hope, where everyone is welcomed, loved and forgiven.”

“This Holy Year of Mercy asks us to follow God’s example of loving, caring and forgiving. We can all come up with ways to do this — give food and clothing to people in need, visit people who are sick or lonely, forgive others who hurt us or comfort those who are hurt physically, mentally and spiritually,” Lorraine Scandarito, Resurrection’s coordinator of religious education and director of its Children’s Ministry, told the children on the spiritual journey, which she devised and led. “We also can tell others about God and how much He loves us and wants to have a close relationship with us.”

Again, the children followed the footprints up to the center’s second level, where they met another image — this one of the Divine Mercy, which St. Faustina, who promoted a devotion to Divine Mercy, had originally painted. Along the way, Scandarito explained many aspects of the Holy Year and God’s unending mercy and encouraged participation by the students by asking them questions. The pilgrimage concluded with the children returning to their classrooms and completing a follow-up activity that reinforced the lesson. They colored in a church on paper and placed a small foam heart at its front doors to remind them to love others as Jesus teaches us to do, Scandarito said.

“I wanted the religious education curriculum to catch the pulse of what is happening in the Church today — the Year of Mercy,” said Scandarito, who found inspiration for the activity from material online. “It was interesting, visual and interactive and more than a lesson in a book. It got the children out of their seats and doing something,” she said.

The students, she said, were “awe-struck,” as they passed through the “holy door— actually a double door that leads from a hallway of the parish ministry center to a stairwell. Scandarito had created two panels each of three Biblical scenes on the door in a whimsical cartoon-like style to appeal to the young people. They show Adam and Eve embracing the apple of temptation on either side of the snake that represents Satan; the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary and telling her that she will bear a son, who will be the Messiah; and the Prodigal Son and his father embracing with wild abandon. The Holy Door in Rome also displays depictions of these Biblical scenes, she said.

“These pictures [on the ‘holy door’] are important, because our story begins with Adam and Eve, who sinned and disobeyed God, which broke their close relationship with Him. But because God loves us so much, He gave us His only son, Jesus, to save us from our sinful ways and bring us back to a close relationship with Him,” Scandarito told students. “The story of the Prodigal Son shows us how much God loves us even when we mess up over and over again. God is always there to love and forgive us and celebrates, when we are truly sorry for our sins and want to do better in the future,” she said.

The “holy door” at Resurrection also reminds visitors that they also can make a pilgrimage to two designated Holy Doors in our diocese during this Holy Year: one at St. Margaret of Scotland Church, Morristown, and another at Holy Rosary Church, Passaic. Last month, Scandarito opened the “holy door” in Randolph with a small hammer — similar to the small silver hammer that popes have used to open the Holy Door in Rome.

“It was wonderful,” said Roberta Wurst, a first-grade catechist, while watching her students in class finish the art activity that ended the experience. “It was hands-on and visual — the way kids learn. It had meaning for them. They grasped what they were learning.”