The pastoral officers Stefanie Rosenwick and Regina Feijão (front, second and third from left) met with representatives of the institutions involved for the preliminary discussions.
© Elbracht
With “Letters of Love”, the six Catholic daycare centers and three primary schools, in cooperation with the pastoral officers, want to encourage children to talk about death and farewell. The project idea comes from the Munich art teacher Marielle Seitz.
Lippetal – “Hello Grandpa, how is it in heaven? I love you,” one slide reads. The writing is still clumsy, a childlike drawing of an angel completes one of the many “love letters” printed.
“It’s about the topic of mourning and saying goodbye,” says Regina Feijão. In front of her is the companion volume to the project of the same name that she and Stefanie Rosenwick are carrying out as pastoral advisors together with the three Catholic primary schools and all six Catholic kindergartens.
“’Love letters’ are love letters, but also letters to life,” explains Stefanie Rosenwick, the coinage of the Munich art teacher Marielle Seitz, whose project offers children a playful approach to dealing with death.
take farewell
Everyone has had to say goodbye at some point, to a person or an animal. The “love letters” are foils for Braille, as light as parchment paper. “So light that they can fly into the sky,” says Feijão, and as durable as beeswax wraps.
Children can paint and write on it to the deceased. The pastoral speakers want to sensitize the little ones to pay attention to the good memories and to write down what they like to remember – anonymously. “The topic is on the curriculum in primary school, and our project is linked to the religious education lessons in the fourth year,” continues Rosenwick.
How children mourn
Feijão and Rosenwick met with the daycare center teams in advance. They presented the project and the materials, including comfort cases with books and more. And they discussed farewell and death and how children grieve. What needs to be taken into account and where the pastoral advisors can provide support. Rosenwick works in the bereavement pastoral, Feijão in the family pastoral. The two complement each other.
“It’s about becoming capable of speaking. When something happens to the children. When parents come and say that grandma or grandpa has died,” explains Rosenwick.
According to her, the project idea was very well received. “It can help educators talk to families, parents and children. And it can help catch things.”
It can help educators talk to families, parents and children.
Stefanie Rosenwick, Pastoralreferentin
From March 4th, the older children paint in the facilities, and on March 18th they hang up their “love letters” in public. In Hovestadt this will happen at the cemetery because it is more sheltered from the wind, in the other places at the churches.
The foils are attached so that they can move in the wind and flutter upwards towards the sky, where for some the dead linger. “It’s sensual. You can hear the foils rustling. You can hear rain dripping on them. They are translucent and appear one way and another completely different depending on the background and sunlight. “They are transparent so that the background can be seen,” says Feijão, describing the effects.
Rustling exhibitions
Parents or grandparents with children and anyone interested can view the exhibitions for four weeks. The project will end on April 19th with a closing ceremony in Herzfeld in the St. Ida Basilica. From 2:30 p.m., hands-on stations will be set up for the children. At 4 p.m., as part of a liturgy of the word, the slides we brought with us are put into a package and sent away.
“Love Letters” is a non-profit project by Marielle Seitz, the Institute for Creativity and Pedagogy and the Jesuit Church of St. Michael Munich. The package goes to Seitz and students who are researching the topic. The project was deliberately placed during Easter, the time of death and resurrection.
2024-03-03 07:40:57
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