Dream Big DreamsThe start of school is the time of big dreams for you and your students. Encourage their dreams. Lou Holtz, former football coach at the University of Notre Dame, writes about how students can make their big dreams come true through a series of smaller daily choices. He names this his WIN formula—“what’s important now.” The message is a practical one for students with all types of interest. Coach Holtz writes:You want to graduate tops in your class, or be an All-American? Then ask yourself twenty-five times a day, “What’s important now?”You wake up in the morning—“What’s important now?” Get out of bed.You’re out of bed—“What’s important now?” Eat breakfast. You need your strength.“What’s important now?” Go to class.“What’s important now?” Sit in the front row. Be prepared.It’s time to practice. “What’s important now? Use the weight room. It’s there to help you get stronger. You don’t use it because someone’s looking, but because you know you’ve got to get stronger.When you’re out Saturday night and there’s opportunities for alcohol, or sex, or drugs? What’s important now? If your dream is to be outstanding in whatever field you’ve chosen, then “what’s important now” is to avoid these situations.—from A Teen’s Game Plan for Life by Lou Holtz Student Writing ContestHave your students write a 300-word essay that answers the following questions:What dreams do your students have?What practical steps are they taking to achieve their dreams?How can they apply the WIN formula to their own goals? We will choose three winning essays and award the following prizes:• 3rd Place: 1 copy of A Teen’s Game Plan for Life by Lou Holtz• 2nd Place: 1 copy of A Teen’s Game Plan for Life and a 2008 Notre Dame “The Shirt”• 1st Place: 30 copies of A Teen’s Game Plan for Life for the entire class and a 2008 Notre Dame “The Shirt”Attach essays and send by e-mail to:Michael AmodeiDeadline is Monday, October 6, 2008Prizes will be announced at the Ave Maria Press Teacher Enrichment Day on Saturday, October 11.
On August 27 and August 28, the feast days of two Catholic saints—mother and son—are celebrated back to back. It figures.St. Monica could be called the "persistent mother." A North African woman living in the fourth century, Monica was married to Patricus, a pagan, through the arrangement of her family. Monica endured plenty of emotional abuse from her husband, but her greater challenge was her oldest son, Augustine.When he was a child, Monica taught her son the Catholic catechism and how to pray. When Augustine grew seriously ill, he requested Baptism, but when he began to recover, Baptism was forgotten.Later, as a student in Carthage, Augustine came to follow a heretical teaching, Manachaeism, that claimed that the body was evil while the soul alone was good. He also liked to party, and he lived with his girlfriend and their son. Monica was so disgusted with Augustine that she would not let him eat or sleep in her home.Mother and son rarely spoke to each other. Still Monica continued to pray for Augustine after a bishop told her that it was better to talk to God about Augustine than to Augustine about God. The bishop also told her: "At present the heart of the young man is too stubborn, but God's time will come. It is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish."Augustine's time came some years later. In Milan, Augustine was inspored by the preaching of the Catholic bishop there, St. Ambrose. Soon after, Augustine became torn between living chastely and his past sinfulness. Augustine went out to an outer garden at the place where he was staying. He threw himself on the ground under a tree and cried out, "How long, O Lord?" Will you always be angry with me? Remember not my past sins."Just then Augustine could hear the singing of a neighbor child on the other side of the wall. The child kept repeating the same verse over and over, "Tolle lege! Tolle lege!" which means "Take up and read!" He got up, went inside, and found the Bible opened to Romans 13 where he read: "Let us throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh' (Rm 13:12-14).Augustine was baptized by Ambrose on Easter Sunday in 387. Soon after, his mother died. She said shortly before her death, "I do not know what there is now left for me to do or why I am still here. All I wished to live for was that I might see you a Catholic and a child of heaven."Augustine lived chastely from that time on. He was ordained and named bishop of Hippo. St. Augustine is one of the great scholars of the Church. He is a Doctor of the Church.His mother has not been forgotten either. St. Monica is the patron saint of mothers and fathers and of all lost and wayward children. And the church recently moved St. Monica's feast day to August 27 so that it would be near her son's the following day.ActivitiesGive each person a Bible. Ask them to randomly open to any page, as Augustine once did. Encourage a period of quiet meditation. Then go around the group asking each person to tell which words, verses, or longer passages spoke to them on the pages they opened to.Ask the students to write a story about a person they know who, as St. Augustine once did, needs conversion to a Christian lifestyle. Tell the students to used fictitious names in their writing. When they are finished, collect all of the stories. Get permission to read some of the stories aloud.Journal QuestionIf you asked your parents to tell the one dream they have for you, what do you think they would say?
Yes, in the Olympic spirit and with the knowledge that school and parish programming is upon us, consider this outdoor icebreaker as a way to bring a class or group together, raise money, and have some fun.What's Needed: a large football field with at least one goal post softball, 6 hula hoops, several cones, plastic baseball, plastic baseball bat, four-square ball a scorekeeper for each event other items for any other games you chooseDescription:In "Pay and Play Olympics" teenagers pay a quarter to participate in each field event. Scores are recorded for each person at each event. At the end of the competition, a percentage of the event profits (e.g., $1) is given to the person with the winning score. Listed below are some events you can include for this outdoor event. Feel free to add some others!
Obstacle Course.Mark an obstacle course with cones around the football field and surrounding area. The course may include running up bleachers, climbing over a low fence, navigating a patch through bushes or woods as well as running on the field. Record the times for each participant.Softball throw.Set up six hula hoops in three rows of 3, 2, and 1 in a pyramid form on the 50 yard line of the field. Have the participants remain behind a line (e.g., the the 20 yard line for stronger throwers, 35 yard line for weaker throwers) and throw a softball aiming for the hula hoops. Allow three throws per quarter. Award points based on particular hula hoops where the ball lands. Home Run Derby.Use cones to set up three "home run lines" with a graduating value of points as follows: 10, 5, 1 based on distance.Give each batter five swings for a quarter. A fly ball landing in one of the sections give that number of points. Total all of the points for five rounds to give a person a score.Rubber Ball Field Goal Contest. Using a rubber dodge ball, have the participants attempt field goals through the football uprights. Allow them three kids per quarter and to choose the yard line from which they will attempt the kick. The only rule is that the ball must be kicked from the ground (no punts). record the yard line of the farthest successful kick for each person.
As you begin a new semester, the Church is celebrating a special jubilee year dedicated to St. Paul. It began on June 28 and will run until June 29, 2009. Pope Benedict XVI hopes the Church will draw inspiration from St. Paul on the two thousand year anniversary of his birth.St. Paul was the Church’s greatest missionary. Though he experienced fear at his momentous task, he persevered and eventually suffered martyrdom. Pope Benedict hopes that all will be inspired by St. Paul during this year and be able to overcome all kinds of fears.We encourage you as you plan lessons on the Year of St. Paul to share them in the comments section of this post as a service to all who share your ministry.Here is some information to help to get you started:The Catholic News Agency offers a two-minute video on the Life of St. Paul:
The Life of St. Paul(excerpted from Encountering Jesus in the New Testament by Michael Pennock)Saul of Tarsus—the future St. Paul—was an extraordinary disciple of Jesus Christ. Thirteen out of twenty-seven New Testament books are attributed to him, though scholars today agree that St. Paul probably only wrote seven of them—Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, Philippians, and Philemon. Six other letters—2 Thessalonians, Ephesians, Colossians, and the so-called “pastoral letters” 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus—were likely penned by close disciples of Paul or by his admirers who wanted to keep his apostolic legacy alive. Collectively, these six letters are called Deuteropauline, or secondary, Pauline letters. The teaching in these letters, however, represents the kind of thinking Paul would have used to address later problems that crept up in the various first-century local Churches. The practice of using the master’s name to gain support for one’s own teaching was an accepted practice for disciples in the ancient world. Who was St. Paul? Paul’s own letters, and the Acts of the Apostles, give us a fairly detailed portrait of the man. Saul of Tarsus of the Jewish tribe of Benjamin was born approximately AD 10 during the reign of the Emperor Augustus. Tarsus was a city in Cilicia. Like many Jews of his time living outside of Palestine, he had both a Jewish name and a Roman name. The Jewish name was that of the first king of Israel, Saul, who was also from the tribe of Benjamin; the Roman name Paul (Paulus) was a well-known family name. Paul received an excellent Greek education in Tarsus. He also learned the trade of tent making there, an occupation he often used to support himself during his later missionary activity. As reported in Acts, Paul was also a Roman citizen, an important fact that spared him a beating in Jerusalem and ultimately led him to Rome for a trial. His upbringing in Tarsus made him familiar with Gentile religions, philosophies, and customs. This knowledge would help him in later life to preach the Gospel of Christ to Gentiles. In Acts, Luke tells us that, as a young man, Paul studied to be a rabbi in Jerusalem under the famous teacher Gamaliel. Paul was a strict Pharisee, trained in the Law, and willing to persecute anyone he thought was deviating from true Jewish practice. Thus, Paul was among the leaders who persecuted the early Christians. After a time of persecution of Christians, around AD 36, Paul received a dramatic revelation from Christ on the road to Damascus. The glorified Lord spoke to Paul in a blinding light, identifying himself with the Christians Paul was persecuting. Paul was subsequently baptized by Ananias and then spent some time in the Arabian desert before returning to Damascus. In 39, Paul took a brief trip to Jerusalem to meet Peter and James. He then returned to a city in Cilicia—possibly Tarsus—and remained there for nearly four years. In approximately AD 44 Barnabas invited Paul to help minister in Antioch, the third largest city in the Roman Empire (after Rome and Alexandria) and the future base of his missionary activity. After he had worked there for a year, the Antioch church sent Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to help the Christians of Judea during the time of famine. Between 46 and 58 Paul engaged in three extensive missionary journeys, depicted on the map, and described below: Journey 1 (46-49). On the first journey, Paul and Barnabas visited the island of Cypress and the Asia Minor locales of Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia. They established churches in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. At the end of this journey, in 49, Paul attended the famous Council of Jerusalem. There he argued for the inclusion of the Gentiles into the Church without their first converting to Judaism. Journey 2 (50-52). Antioch was the starting point of the second journey. Accompanied by Silas, and later by Timothy and Luke, Paul revisited the churches from the first journey, then passed through Galatia, went to Macedonia, and made his way to Europe preaching in the following cities: Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea, Athens, and Corinth. He wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians from Corinth. He returned to Antioch by way of Ephesus and a side trip to Jerusalem. Journey 3 (54-58). Again, this journey began in Antioch. Paul revisited the same areas as the second trip, but remained in Ephesus for three years, perhaps where he was imprisoned for a time. There he probably wrote his letters to the Philippians, Philemon, Galatians, and the first letter to the Corinthians. In early 57, Paul left Ephesus for Troas and then went to Macedonia where he likely wrote the second letter to the Corinthians. He eventually made his way to Corinth where he stayed for three months and from there wrote the Romans. On a return trip to Jerusalem in 58, Paul’s enemies had him arrested. After two years detainment in Caesarea, he finally made it to Rome around 61 where he was under house arrest for two more years. The Acts of the Apostles concludes in AD 63 with Paul in Rome happily preaching the Gospel, though under house arrest. One tradition has Paul martyred under Nero in 64 about the same time Peter was killed. Another tradition claims he was released from prison, traveled to Spain where he preached the Gospel, and returned to Rome where he was again arrested and then beheaded by Nero in the year 67. Paul’s life is an unparalleled adventure story of commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. He eloquently describes his motivation, “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal 2:20). Paul felt this divine love so deeply that he felt compelled to preach this good news to everyone. Because of his call to spread the Gospel, he founded countless churches, opened the Gospel to Gentiles, wrote faith-rousing letters that teach us yet today, and inspired loyal disciples to continue his work of instruction and encouragement by writing letters in his name. Paul was a model disciple of Christ, worthy of emulation for his courage alone. He wrote:Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep; on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure. And apart from these things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led to sin, and I am not indignant? (2 Cor 11:24-29).
More Resources:The Vatican link on the Year of St. PaulThe Catholic Culture website offers many valuable resourcesSeveral introductory articles are linked at the St. Anthony Messenger American Catholic website.Don't forget to attach lesson plan ideas for the Year of St. Paul as you develop them. Your colleagues will certainly appreciate your efforts.
Rev. Bosco Peters, an Anglican priest from New ZeaIand has forwarded a link to a blog focusing on ecumenical issues, especially in the area of liturgy with links to other blogs with many good articles on spirituality. He invites high school Catholic theology teachers to peruse his sites for helpful links. He wrote:
I run an ecumenical liturgy and spirituality website "Liturgy" with resources on the Three Year Sunday lectionary, weekly reflections on significant, historic prayers, monasticism, the Liturgy of the Hours, lesson suggestions, and much more. For the school context, there are resources for both classroom and chapel. I have been teaching (though not continuously) in Catholic, Anglican, and state schools since 1980, and have been chaplain to an Anglican boys' school for over a decade.
There are many useful links – and if you want to link your school, Religious Education, or chaplaincy website, or from a parish or personal blog – just let me know.
