BUSY BAGS: Treating Our Children as Part of the Community and Nurturing Their Faith

If you’ve ever brought a toddler to Mass or sat behind one, you know that keeping them content at church can be a daunting task. As a parent, it’s easy to feel as though your child is a disruption at Mass. In our parishes, we want you to know that your child is welcome and belongs here, no matter how fussy they are. At St. John, the Stewardship Committee came up with a way to help parents keep their young children engaged. You’ll notice as you enter the church that there are Busy Bags available for preschool-age children.

Margie Kirk-Schuh, a retired teacher, helped facilitate the Busy Bags. Designing activities that actually enrich a small child’s experience at Mass was the perfect way for her to offer her time and talent to the parish. She is passionate about treating children as part of the community.

“Those children belong there,” Margie says. “It’s not just that they can be there, but they belong there, and we need to nurture them as members of our parish and church community.”

The Busy Bags offer the children board books, coloring pages, and photo books with pictures of things in the church. Margie has also made paper dolls from photos of the priests so that the children can dress them in the proper vestments. Another item in the bag is a book of activities related to the Mass. When Margie designed these activities, she had one of the priests look them over to make sure they were liturgically accurate. Through these thoughtfully-designed activities, children can relate to the Mass in an age-appropriate way.

“Now parents have something to take into the church that will enrich their children’s experience,” Margie says.

In addition to giving the children something to do, the Busy Bags are there so that parents know that their children are welcome and wanted in the parish. Margie has always remembered that Fr. Zach Weber used to say, “if the church isn’t crying, it’s dying.” Even if it isn’t always easy to bring a child to Mass, or to stay focused when there are children around you, it’s more important that they are there, being loved and catechized, than behaving perfectly.

Margie has enjoyed using her teaching experience to design the bags. She also cleans and maintains the bags every week. If the bags tear — a sign that they are well-used — she repairs them and returns them to the church.

“My goal is to use my talents and to contribute what I can in that manner,” Margie says. “It seems like something I’m called to do.”

Although Margie has mostly worked behind the scenes, she has seen that the bags are being used more as families return to Mass. Parishioners have mentioned on social media that the bags have truly been a game-changer in bringing their children to Mass.

The next time you come to Mass with a small one, borrow a Busy Bag and know that forming your child in the faith is a gift to them and to the Church!