Special Assistant and Consultant
Amanda Messinger, an AMI certified Montessori teacher and catechist in Levels 1-3, will share, on a part-time basis, her wealth of insights
regarding the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) and the Montessori Method. She studied CGS with Rebekah Rojcewicz
and Catherine Maresca and gained valuable experience working with them as a catechist and teacher at Christian Family Montessori School in Mount Rainier. Her long-time career as a Montessori teacher
has helped to make her an expert in the Montessori component of CGS. For several years, Amanda has directed all three
atrium levels for a Roman Catholic community in Virginia. Recently (September 2009) she and her husband moved their community's
atrium into their home after the original space for the atrium became unavailable. Amanda is also a founding member
of the Center for Children and Theology.
Amanda did her undergraduate work at Duke University and holds a M.Ed. from Cleveland State University. Besides
her impressive background as a Montessori educator and
Good Shepherd catechist, Amanda has a gorgeous singing voice and performs semi-professionally on a regular basis.
Participants in the course will be delighted to hear Amanda singing a basic repertoire of atrium songs, copies of which
are provided to each catechist. As a note of interest, Amanda's husband Mike, a patent
lawyer in the District of Columbia, has taken training in all 3 levels of the Catechesis;
currently he directs children in the level 3 atrium of their Catholic community.
In 2004 ,Mike and Amanda, along with
their 2 sons, Kevin and Conor, were honored to host two teens from Northern Ireland.
The teens were from the same town but from opposite camps: one Catholic and one Protestant. Amanda and her family
thought it was a wonderful experience to promote peace and understanding between members of two groups of people who
sometimes have difficulty getting along. Leave it to Amanda and Mike to then travel to Northern Ireland where they were able to get the families
of the boys together! A good time was had by all.
In recent years, Mike and Amanda have been involved with the Cyprus Friendship Porgram. (See the link on our Home page,
up at the top, to access the brochure.) They have hosted teens from Cyprus and have done this every summer since
2010.
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*Catherine Maresca trains catechists nationally and is Founder and Director
of Center for Children and Theology in Mount Rainier, Maryland.
She spearheaded the creation of Christian Family Montessori School (CFMS), which began in her living room, and for many years,
with a break in-between, she has been the Director of Religious Education for CFMS.*Rebekah Rojcewicz trains catechists nationally
and is Director of the Good Shepherd Center at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Rebekah was the
very first Montessori teacher and CGS trained catechist for Christian Family Montessori School. She is one of Sofia Cavalletti's official translators
for her published works in English.
