Jenny Chocko sat at a small round wooden table in a red salwar kameez and a black scarf pulled lightly around her head. She had a sore throat and a congested voice, but was determined to complete the last 10 minutes of Sunday school for children at the Malankara Catholic Church in Long Island, a congregation made up of Indian immigrants from Kerala who follow Syrian rites, but reconciled with the Vatican in the early 20th century. Their service is held each weekend at The Immaculate Conception Center, a sprawling campus for the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, but technically in Douglaston, NY.

More than 30 families attended the two-hour service conducted in Malayalam, the language spoken in Kerela. Their children stayed behind for a half-hour class taught in English, in small groups by Chocko, several other church mothers and two nuns.

“Samuel was sleeping one day at a temple,” said Chocko, referring to the Old Testament prophet who is the subject of this week’s lesson. Stacy and Amal, both seven, and Christy, eight, climbed into the other seats at Chocko’s table. “Stacy, what’s a temple?”

Stacy, with haphazard bangs, a palm-tree ponytail, and two missing front teeth, hesitated a moment. Then she remembered, and jumped up. “It’s like a church!” she cried.

“So Samuel was asleep, and God called him.” Chocko continued reading, as her students followed along in Glory to the Triune God, a coloring-book style introduction to the Malankara Catholic catechism. The books are standardized and shipped over from India, complete with a young Indian boy on the cover, three fingers clasped, touching his forehead in prayer. Chocko looked up, “Who is God?” she asked.

All three children sat up straight and pointed upwards.

“And how does Samuel respond?”

“Say what you have to say, I’m hearing,” said Christy, a girl with pinch-worthy cheeks in earrings and a purple selwar kameez. “I’m listening,” Chocko corrected.

“And Samuel was a prophet,” Chocko continued reading in Lesson Eight; “Samuel Whom God Called.” “Who is a prophet?”

The children were stumped. “Is Garfield a prophet?” Chocko prodded. “Yes!” her students giggled and answered in chorus.

Chocko sighed and repeated, “Who is a prophet? Was Moses a prophet?” This time Stacy had an answer. “Someone who’s going to lead!” she cried.

Samuel is considered an important Old Testament prophet, and the last of the Hebrew judges in Rabbinical literature. His story is told in the Book of Samuel, and as a young child, he began to receive communications from God. A mysterious voice came to him one night, and on the instruction of his teacher, Eli, he responded, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth." Samuel foretold the destruction of Eli’s own sons, and went on to become the spiritual power of Israel.

“And what did Heli mean,” Chocko read, “when he told Samuel ‘If he calls you again, you shall say: Speak, Lord, for your servant hears?’ We should hear the call of God and do his will?”

“We should listen to God,” started Christy, as she stared in her catechism-coloring book at a purple-robed God holding a young Samuel’s hand. “And like, do what he says?”

“Yes,” Chocko smiled wearily. “So when you pray tonight, think about that.”