Engaging Faith

Last December, Caritas Internationalis, the international umbrella organization for Catholic Charities, began a worldwide initiative to combat hunger, called “Food for All.” They recently sponsored a world hunger week. The efforts to curtail food shortages and bring sustenance to everyone in the world is an ongoing issue. Catholic Relief Services provides many resources you could use to involve your students in this task. They are all available here. Consider trying one or more of these suggestions with your students. 1. Play a five minute video “ (Italian with subtitles) in which the Pope reads a statement encouraging people to address hunger. You may want to encourage students to note down key phrases from the Pope’s address rather than asking them to follow the whole presentation. Students may jot down a Gospel story that teaches about hunger, statistics about hunger, and statements about their own responsibility to deal with the issue. Discuss what Pope Francis has to say. 2. Suggestions for a Prayer Service including relevant scripture readings, liturgical music, and sample prayers of the faithful. These suggestions could be used for a Mass as well as for a non-Eucharistic liturgy. There is also a prayer service for Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction. 3. A one-minute video portraying the allegory of hungry people with long spoons who cannot feed themselves but figure out that they can use those long spoons to feed each other. You may want to pause the video half-way to see if students can come to the conclusion themselves that feeding each other would be a way to ensure that all are fed. 4. A prayer for the anti-hunger campaign as well as a mealtime prayer for people who are hungry. There are also special prayers of intercession for the people of South Sudan. You can also have students write their own prayers, whether they be prayers of intercession or longer ones. 5. A “10 Commandments for a Future without Hunger” which will inspire good discussion as the issues it raises refers to structures of injustice and international concerns. You may want to divide your class into small groups to research some of the issues raised in greater depth prior to discussion. 6. The activity “Eating is a Moral Act” that invites students to engage more personally in the issues surrounding hunger. 7. Stories about successful efforts to help people combat poverty and hunger. 8. Links to Catholic Resources about hunger and to US and International organizations that are also combating hunger. 9. Facts about hunger. 10. Catholic Social Teaching Quotes on Poverty and Hunger. The CRS Partnership Newsletter also provides relevant information including prayers for different communities in the world who are suffering right now. The September / October 2014 newsletter provides a link to the online CRS Annual Report which has information about different issues CRS addresses, presented so that it would not overwhelm students. It also mentions a CRS multimedia contest that some of your students may want to enter. See this link for sign up information from CRS. The current newslette can be found here.

Here's a followup to the case of Britany Maynard, the 29 year-old woman with brain cancer who moved from California to Oregon to take advantage of Oregon’s physician assisted suicide law, the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. She had learned that she had six months to live, knew a bit about how those months could play out, and decided that she would prefer to end her life rather than suffer as she imagined she would. Can all deaths be considered dignified? What about soldiers who die because of an explosive device or who are otherwise killed in battle, people in car accidents, or those who are victims of violence? Would this woman’s death be any less dignified if she died in a hospital bed and suffering pain? Jason Welle, SJ tells a different story about his 45 year-old brother who was given six months to live in his article, “On Love and Dignity and Dying,” on The Jesuit Post website. This may be a good article for discussing euthanasia with your students. With a six month diagnoses, Jason’s brother Tony too wondered if taking his own life would be justified. Tony’s diagnoses was cancer of the bile duct, a cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes. Here are some issues in the article that you may want to discuss with your students. 1. Because of a biliary drainage catheter and chemotherapy, Tony lived far beyond the six months initially diagnosed. He traveled and enjoyed many of the same activities he had prior to the diagnoses. Did Tony live his life with greater appreciation during that time because of the cancer? How might Tony have grown spiritually during this time? 2. Because he lived longer, Tony was able to join his brother and mother in caring for his father who had lung and bone cancer. How did his extended lifetime enable him to love his father through his final illness? Do you think that his dad’s lung cancer enabled Tony to think of himself not simply as a cancer patient but as someone who was greatly needed by his parents? How might he have grown spiritually during this illness and his father’s death? 3. Shortly after his father’s death, when Tony heard that there were no further treatment options for him, he chose to stay at home with hospice rather than receive further medical care. They managed his pain with his desire to be alert. People came by and said their good-byes. He received the Anointing of the Sick, and died hours later. Jason said that his brother’s journey through his illness showed that Tony was very courageous and heroic. How did Tony’s life after diagnosis cultivate courage and heroism? Were these traits signs of spiritual growth? 4. Jason learned a great deal about what it means to die through the loss of his father and brother months apart. Early on, he had asked Tony to allow those who loved him to love him through his final months. How were his final months a gift from Tony to his mother and brother? If Tony had made the decision to “die with dignity,” as the California woman plans to do, he would have missed both exciting experiences and the ability to help his mom care for his father. He would have suffered less pain, perhaps, but contrary to what “death with dignity” suggests, pain brings suffering but not a lack of dignity. Each person has God-given dignity that others cannot take away that lasts through death and is not threatened by violence, pain, or messiness. And with God’s help, a person can grow spiritually even as his or her body declines.

Engaging Faith

The Latest

Ongoing Efforts to End World Hunger

An Additional Lesson on Death and Dying

Dying a Holy Death

Words from St. Thèrése of Lisieux at the Time of Her Death