Collective, week 2

Another beautiful week of educating my children in a purposed place of nourishment, focused on the paideia of the Lord. While the weeks and days pass with plenty of hiccups and speed bumps, those are not the things which take paramount place in retrospect. Looking back, what comes to mind are the moments of pursuing joy, story, music, fellowship, and wisdom. What a grace this is!

I give a lot of credit for that (especially beyond the practice of grace, repentance, and forgiveness regularly) to our routine of Collective. If you haven’t read anything about what a lot of homeschooling moms call “Morning Time,” please allow me to highly recommend my friend & mentor Cindy Rollins’ newest book, A Liturgy of Love. This very sweetly, beautifully, winsomely describes and defines what my family pursues in our Collective hour both on our own at home most days but also now every Wednesday at our co op, Paideia Studies.

I would love to share with you what we have been enjoying in these settings. It is so hard to succinctly share it in just a simple blog post. There is no way to flesh it out and give it dimension, complete with scent and sound… but this is at least a tiny glimpse.

Paideia Studies Collective, Week Two:

Devotion: Questing for Truth—discussing the council of Nicaea, the Nicene Creed, and the theme of needing to divide words and the Word with valor & verity.

Verse: Psalm 86:8-10, 15 “There is none like You among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like Yours. All the nations You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name. For You are great and do wondrous things; You alone are God… But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

Catechism: New City Q1-2
Q. What is our only hope in life and death?
A. That we are not our own but belong, body and soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ.
Q: What is God?
A: God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in His power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth. Nothing happens except through Him and by His will.

Creed: Nicene Creed

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made;
who, for us men, and for our salvation, came down from Heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the virgin, Mary,
and was made man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;
He suffered and was buried;
and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;
and ascended into Heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father;
and He shall come again, with glory,
to judge both the living and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, and Giver of Life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son;
who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified;
who spoke by the Prophets.
And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church;
we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins;
and we look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.

Hymn: St. Patrick’s Breastplate

Psalm: 117 (canon by Dr. Erb) and 3 (to the tune of Amazing Grace)

Poetry:

In Praise of Dancing by St. Augustine

I praise the dance, for it frees people
from the heaviness of matter
and binds the isolated to community.
I praise the dance, which demands everything:
health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul.
Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people,
who are in constant danger of becoming all brain, will, or feeling.
Dancing demands a whole person, one who is
firmly anchored in the center of his life, who is
not obsessed by lust for people and things
and the demon of isolation in his own ego.
Dancing demands a freed person, one who vibrates
with the balance of all his powers.
I praise the dance.
O man, learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven
will not know what to do with you.

from Altus Prosator by St. Columba

Mighty powers of our great God
make the earth’s globe suspended stand,
its circle poised in the abyss
by God’s support beneath, and by
the Almighty One’s strong right hand.

Loop: Composer: Gregorian chant, Guido of Arezzo

Art: The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck, 1434

Home Collective, Week Two:
(in addition to what we bring home from co op)

Scripture:
Psalm (today was 49)
Proverb (today was 2)
John (today was 20)

Poetry:
(G) King Alfred’s War Song
(A) Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold
(E) The Wild Rose by Wendell Berry
(S) The Kite by Harry Behn

Song:
To the Word sea shanty (BibleReadingChallenge)
Psalm 69 (SacredPsalmody)
Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder (HappyHymnody)

Church History:
Radiant by Richard Hannula
Peril and Peace by Mindy and Brandon Withrow

Medieval History:
Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer
The Mystery of History II
A Child’s History of the World by V.M. Hillyer

Read Aloud:
Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Gray

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