Matzah, wine, a perfect lamb, and bitter herbs are some of the most important parts of a traditional Jewish Passover meal. On Thursday, March 24th, our class set up their own rendition of the Passover feast to celebrate a Christian Seder Meal. The Christian Seder is a remembrance of the Last Supper that Christ celebrated with his Apostles the night before He suffered and died for us. Celebrating this meal together with their families enabled the children to solidify their understanding of the significance of the Last Supper, its connection to the tradition of the Passover meal, and helped them gain a greater appreciation for Christ’s sacrifice to redeem mankind. As has been a custom for second grade in the past, the students’ families each contributed to the meal by bringing parsley, boiled eggs, meat, matzah, grape juice, charoseth, and horseradish. Led by Mr. Greg Johnson as “The Father”each child participated in relaying the story of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt and their preparation for their deliverance from slavery through the text read during the traditional Passover meal. When coming to the part of the meal when Jesus took the bread and wine and shared in these substances His own Body and Blood with His disciples, the soon-to-be-communicants were able to see the tradition of the Catholic Mass come to life. In commencement of the special meal, the students partook of lamb cake and the “not-so-bitter” parts of the meal, rejoicing in the start of the Easter Tridium and the closeness of their individual upcoming First Communion masses.
