LAST year, during the uncertain times of COVID-19 restrictions, Brisbane’s Lawrie Knott started emailing prayer reflections to educators who work in Catholic kindergartens and long-day care centres.
Mr Knott works for Centacare’s Catholic Early EdCare as a co-ordinator fostering learning and identity.
He found there was high demand for the prayers he was sending, and as requests kept coming, the seed of an idea was planted.
“People came forward with prayer requests for special meetings, requests for grace that could be said with children before lunch … all sorts of prayer requests,” Mr Knott said.
“I kept getting these requests and so I decided to gather as many resources as I could and put them together in a booklet.
“And as I started working on the project, it got bigger and bigger.”
Mr Knott could see the significance of his growing collection of prayers and reflections for educators and children – it fitted perfectly with the nurturing principles of Catholic Early EdCare.
“One of the main aims of writing that book is to help children grow spiritually,” he said.
“It’s a resource created to make it easier for people in our services to experience prayer and to encourage the children to experience prayer.”
Mr Knott doesn’t claim to have composed all the prayers contained in the final 67-page book – rather, he has curated a useful collection drawn from many sources.
“It’s a one-stop resource that I will give to all of our staff,” he said.
The book is entitled “Into the Light”, reflecting Mr Knotts hope that these prayers and reflections can be a vehicle that draws people in the Catholic Early EdCare community out of the darkness and into the light.
“Hopefully in our services – in our longday care centres, our kindergartens and our outside school hours care services – staff will put a copy of the book on their prayer table.
“If they want to say a prayer at the start of the day, there’s a book that will have a dozen (morning prayers) that they can choose from.”
There’s further scope for the book because organisations everywhere are starting meetings and events with an Acknowledgement of Country and a prayer.
“Into the Light” is a useful resource for this.
It also contains reflections that are stories with a message and can be used to prompt an audience to think about a topic more deeply.
There are traditional Catholic prayers, uniquely Australian prayers, and prayers for people who are hurt, sick or in need.
Mr Knott worked closely with Centacare’s marketing team in Brisbane to produce the prayer book.
He believes “Into the Light” could have wide appeal amongst Australian educators.
More book details are available from Catholic Early EdCare’s reception on (07) 3367 6300 or contact childcare@catholicearlyedcare.qld.edu.au
