The Benedict Year › Reading Backwards from the Pascha › Unit 4 · The Sea
Week 16 · 11–15 January 2027 · Hilary
The sea
Unit 4 · The Sea: The largest unit and the heart of the year.
Session A · the reading
About 55 minutes. Open and read aloud before any framing: no introduction, no “today we’re looking at”. Scripture first, then the Father.
- Exodus 14:15–15:1; Exodus 15:1–21; 1 Corinthians 10:1–4
- Ambrose, On the Mysteries, chapter 3: the sea as the font
- Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses, Book II, the crossing of the sea
Session B · the argument
About 35 minutes, on another day. Never both in one sitting.
Unanswerable. Why does God harden Pharaoh’s heart?
Video. Exodus
The Tile Board
Add a card: The sea, with the passage and today’s date. Pencil a line to another card only if the child sees one.
Books this week
- A Catholic Bible with the deuterocanonical books
- Ambrose of Milan, On the Mysteries
- Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses
Optional: one piece of media
Song of the Sea (2014), with its story in Unlock! Kids: Irish Folklore. Watched together, with nothing said about why it was chosen; how the list was made.
Paul tells new Christians in Corinth that “our fathers” passed through the sea. The scriptural furniture arrived with the gospel, out loud.
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