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Engaging Faith

Practical Lesson Ideas and Activities for Catholic Educators
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October is the Month of the Holy Rosary

October is the “Month of the Holy Rosary.” Dedicate some time to have your students unearth some of the history and graces of the Holy Rosary during the month by answering the Student Questions and completeing the Student Assignment below. To begin share these fifteen promises to those who pray the Rosary. Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.   I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.   The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell; it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.   It will cause good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and it will lift them to the desire of Eternal things.   The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.   Whosoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of Eternal Life.   Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.   Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the Light of God and the plentitude of His Graces; at the moment of death, they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise.   I shall deliver from Purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.   The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of Glory in Heaven.   You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.   All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.   I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during life and at the hour of death.   All who recite the Rosary are my sons, and brothers of my Only Son Jesus Christ.   Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.   Student Questions When was the Rosary first prayed? Which saint is associated with its origins? Why? What do St. Dominic and Fr. Alan de Rupe have to do with the Fifteen Promises of the Rosary? Why is October the month of the Holy Rosary? When was this tradition established? Student Assignment Write a sentence for each of the fifteen promises explaining what you believe them to mean.   After the students complete the assignment, discuss their response. See “Our Lady’s Fifteen Promises for Praying the Rosary Explained” for reference.

Learn and Practice the Five First Saturdays Devotion

The Five First Saturdays of Reparation devotion is connected with Mary’s apparitions at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. In 1925, eight years after the initial apparitions, the Blessed Mother again appeared to the principal seer, Lucia dos Santos, at the convent at Pontevedra, Spain and said: “I promised to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recited five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the all the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.” Later, inn an apparition of Christ, Lucia was told that the confession could be made any time during the eight days before, or the eight days after, the First Saturday. “It could be longer still,” Christ told her, “provided that when the receive me, they are in the state of grace and have the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” Share this video on the First Saturday devotion. Review the ways to practice the First Saturday devotion. Assign students to contact local parishes and ask if they do anything special to commemorate the First Saturdays. Provide or suggest opportunities for Confession in the weeks before and after the First Saturdays of each month. Encourage students to practice the First Saturdays of Reparation devotion.

New Book for Catholic High School Theology Teachers

Room 24: Adventures of a New Evangelist chronicles the story of a freshman theology teacher at a Catholic high school in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Brimming with good humor and constant hope, the book demonstrates the practical side of evangelization, with all its ups and downs, joys and frustrations. Katie Prejean candidly shares stories of failure alongside stories of triumph and examines the lessons these have taught her about her place in the world as disciple of Jesus.  Her unexpected, yet welcome transition from teacher of doctrine to proclaimer of love, reassures Catholics from every walk of life that they too can spread the Gospel of Jesus. She gracefully invites us to examine the unremarkable details of each ordinary day and find doors to open so that God's amazing grace can rush in.   On the call to teach theology: “Those of us who have accepted the invitation and have chosen the Truth have an obligation to share what we know to be beautiful, fulfilling, and good. But herein lies a lofty challenge: extending an invitation to the Truth rather than forcing a point.  We may have sold our possessions and walked away from the world to follow Christ, at least in some way, but the majority of people to whom we are called to share the Truth have not even come close to doing that. We may believe in the Eucharist as the source and summit of our faith, but those to whom we are called to speak may think we’re crazy for consuming what still looks like bread and wine and calling it Christ. We may have five very detailed proofs for God’s existence and believe he is real, but the fourteen-year-old student who tells you he thinks God isn’t real doesn’t care about Aquinas’ arguments in the least. The goal is not to prove our point. The goal is to extend an invitation to believe. This is a critical first step in evangelization: to open our arms and invite others to approach the Truth we so dearly love, welcoming them and giving them a real chance to choose” (page 15)