Engaging Faith

This is an individual spiritual exercise students may use as an examination of conscience prior to receiving the Sacrament of Penance. Make a copy of the directions and exercise below for each student. Option: allow students to discuss their response with a partner or in a small group. Directions: Read the description of the biblical names for the four obstacles to ridding oneself of an area of sinfulness. Look up and read the corresponding passages from the Bible. Then write your responses to the questions that follow. 1. Blindness is the failure to even see your own sinfulness. Read John 9:1-41 What were the Pharisees blind to? Name a personal pattern of sinfulness you have fooled yourself about (but cannot fool God about?) 2. Pride is the refusal to admit something is your own fault. Read Luke 18:9-14 What is the attitude that is praised in the parable? Agree or disagree. Is it more effective to admit your sin out loud than to just admit it to yourself? Explain your answer. 3. Hardness of heart is knowing that you are sinning, but not caring or wanting to change. Read Luke 5:27-32. What effort did Levi make to show he had given up his sinful ways? How has another person helped you to recognize and change your sinful ways? 4. Weakness or fear leads to your inability to do anything about your sins. Read Romans 6:12-23 According to the reading, what is the final result of a life of sinfulness? In the Sacrament of Penance, what are some visible signs that help you to overcome sinfulness?

Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz has said about choosing a career: Find something you like and something you are good at. Then get someone to pay you for it. If you can’t get anyone to pay you than you have a hobby not a career. Lead an exercise that assists students in matching skills with careers. Follow these steps: Pass out six 3” x 5” pieces of paper to each student. Tell them to write six different questions to the same question--“Who am I?”--one on each paper. (For example: “I am a person who is good at soccer.” Or, “I am a person who enjoys spending time with my family and friends.” After allowing time for writing, tell the students to draw a star next to any of the answers that tells something they like to do. Then ask them to draw another star by any answers that tell them something they are good at. They may have two stars on the same paper. Point out to the students that examining what they like to do and what they are good at can give them a good idea of what they can do for a career. Pass out one more slip of paper to each student. Ask the students to write an idea about how they might combine what they like and what they are good at into a career. On the other side of the paper ask them to speculate on “who might pay them for this career”; i.e., what type of living they could make in this area. When the exercise is complete, call on students to share some of the results of the survey with the entire class.

Engaging Faith

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Matching Skills and Interests with Career Choices