A class of Year Six schoolchildren from Our Lady of Dolours, Mitchelton, in Brisbane, are about to visit the monastery of the Sisters of Mary Morning Star and they are buzzing with questions, reports The Catholic Leader.

“How much do they pray? My brother said they pray to Jesus for lots of hours,” one child says.

*Sisters of Mary Morning Star, Sr Claire and Sr Dulce Elie talk to the children before they head in for Eucharistic Adoration. PHOTO: Joe Higgins/Catholic Leader.*

Another wants to know what the inside of their house looks like and another wants to know if they “live an ordinary life”.

Perhaps the biggest question of all – “do they have mobile devices?”

The children excitedly chit-chat and cross from the schoolgrounds into the front garden of the monastery, which is right over the road.

It is the first time the Year 6 cohort will be heading into the front room chapel of the monastery.

One boy says his sister, who is in Year 5, had already been with her class the previous week.

He can confirm that the sisters are “all really nice”.

Two Sisters of Mary Morning Star stand at the bottom of the steps of a Queenslander home, which has been repurposed as a monastery, to greet the children with smiles.

The sisters ask the children if they know who they are about to visit.

“Jesus,” one student says and the faces of the sisters light up with smiles.

The sisters ask if the children know how to greet Jesus: “How do you greet someone you love?”

One student answers, “telling them, ‘I love you’”.

The students, guided by the sisters, head upstairs and enter into a space for Eucharistic Adoration for the next 30 minutes to an hour.

*Meeting Jesus: The children spend 30 minutes to an hour in Eucharistic Adoration. PHOTO: Joe Higgins/Catholic Leader.*

Year 5 students Owen and Alana had already been to see the sisters and loved it.

“I like how they’re so friendly towards everybody,” Owen says. “They’re so peaceful.”

Alana says she likes how “they’re so respectful, especially with God”.

She says the sisters have been teaching them about how to pray and how to love God more.

Alana said their monastery was peaceful and “full of paintings of God”.

Owen said when he prays in front of the Eucharist, he thinks about being closer to God and “feeling more connected with Him”.

Both of them “really want to go back”.

Our Lady of Dolours principal Tricia Howard said the sisters had a beautiful presence in the community.

She began her role as principal at the school about a year ago and soon found out that the sisters lived just across the road.

After having them over for a morning tea, they came up with the idea of bringing the children to the chapel for some time in Eucharistic Adoration.

Mrs Howard said since their initial meeting, the relationship has blossomed.

She said they have had children to the monastery, had the sisters come over to speak in classrooms and the children were always excited to see them.

Sr Jone Tamosiunaite said she hoped to show the children that “God is not a myth”.

“He’s not an idea; He’s a person, a loving person; a loving Father to whom they can go when they’re happy, when they have difficulties in life, and the one who carries them, leads them, never abandons them, a person,” she said.

She said the sisters want to help them develop a bond with God.

“It’s not about reciting prayers, it’s not catechism – there’s absolutely nothing wrong with reciting prayers and catechism – but if there is not this foundation of friendship with Jesus, reciting prayers makes absolutely no sense,” she said.

She said the sisters try to create a space for “silent prayer and a heart-to-heart” with Jesus.

Children, she says, are “absolutely capable of that; they’re naturally contemplative”.

Parish priest Fr Nigel Sequeira, who helped set the sisters up at the monastery in Mitchelton, said he hoped the school visits to the monastery could be another way for the children to experience the love of God in their lives.

He says experiencing the love of God is life changing.

Fr Sequiera says the parish and school are close and share a strong, common vision.

“We have the same goal, the same purpose and meaning – centred on Christ – we want to give a good education with a focus on Jesus,” he said.

This article by Joe Higgins was published in The Catholic Leader.