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Engaging Faith

Practical Lesson Ideas and Activities for Catholic Educators
Archived - May 2022

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This Is My Life Discussion Activity

Design a handout with the following headings (the boldface words). The headings can be designed creatively on the page in different typefaces and fonts. Pass out a handout to each student and then read each of the sentence starters that go with the headings. Pause between sentence starters to allow the students to think of a memory and to write down a word, phrase, or symbol that reminds them of the memory. My Success Stories The first time I knew someone was very proud of me was . . . My greatest accomplishment this school year was . . . My most recent success is . . . Learning the Hard Way A lesson I had to learn the hard way was . . . Childhood Favorites As a kid, my favorite thing to do with my family was . . . As I kid, my favorite outdoor place to play was . . . Family Summer Fun The best vacation experience I had was . . . Grown-Up I first realized I was no longer a child when . . . You Are My Hero My childhood hero was . . . My hero today is . . . Special Gift The most special gift I ever received was . . . God’s Presence A time I recognized God’s presence in my life was . . . Disappointed The greatest disappointment I ‘ve ever had was . . . After you have read the sentence starters and the students have marked their papers, ask them to pair with a partner for sharing. Read a category. Tell one person in each group to begin sharing, uninterrupted. Allow a few minutes and then call “time.” Tell the other person to share. Repeat the process for each category, alternating between the two partners to begin sharing. At the end of the discussion, call on volunteers to share one interesting memory they heard from their partner. Alternatively, have each person write a short summary of the favorite memory they heard from their partner.

Remembering the Easter Stories

The Resurrection of Jesus is the central mystery of our faith. As St. Paul write, if we do not believe in the Resurrection wholeheartedly, then “empty is our preaching; empty to our faith” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Divide the class into eight small groups. Have each of the groups recreate from memory some details of various Easter Gospel stories. Each group should discuss all of these stories without looking up the references in the Bible. Share the following “headlines”: “An Amazing Discovery at Sunrise” (Mark 16:1-14) “An Earthquake, an Angel, and a Guard’s Tale (Matthew 18:1-15) “Peter, John, and the Holy Shroud” (John 10:1-10) “The Mysterious Gardener” (John 20:11-16) “The Third Traveler on the Road to Emmaus” (Luke 24:36-49) “Can a Ghost Eat Fish” (Luke 24:36-49) “Thomas the Doubter” (John 20:19-20) “Fish Fry on the Shore” (John 21:1-14) Allow about fifteen minutes for the sharing. Then assign each group one of the passages to look up and read from the Bible. Have them discuss within their group any details that were  left out or others that were shared incorrectly. After a few minutes discussion, have one member from each group report on their assigned passage and add and correct some of the details they uncovered.