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Engaging Faith

Practical Lesson Ideas and Activities for Catholic Educators
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Guided Meditation: The Announcement of the Birth of Jesus

"Hail Mary, full of grace." These words were spoken by the angel Gabriel to Marry to announce the birth of Jesus. This meditation will place your students in the role of Mary: listening to the angel, responding and trying to understand. Arrange a quiet place for prayer. Allow some time for the students to relax and focus. Then begin by reading the meditation. Pause between lines. Allow a longer time for reflection on when the words are printed in bold face. You may choose to accompany the prayer with appropriate instrumental music. This meditation was written by Patty McCulloch and was originally published in Encountering Jesus: 20 Meditations on His Care and Compassion. Quiet yourself. Relax. Feel yourself just letting go of everything. Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Breath in. Hold. Breathe out. Let go. Totally relax. Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Imagine . . . You are in your home. You are a young girl. Engaged to be married. You are doing some housework. Picture this in your mind. See yourself doing chores. Imagine your wedding. Suddenly you feel a presence. It is hard to describe. You are not afraid but very calm and at peace. Be with this feeling. "Mary," you hear your name and look around. You walk outside     to see who is there. "Mary, don't be afraid." You seem something in the yard. Go over there. The voice continues. "Rejoice, O highly favored daughter. The Lord is with you, blessed are you among women." Listen to these words. Repeat them in your mind. What do they mean? Could this voice be an angel? You hear, "Don't be afraid, really. You are his favorite. You shall conceive and bear a son and give him the name Jesus. Great will be his dignity and he will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his reign will be without end." Answer, "How can this be since I do not know man?" Hear the angel say, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." Be with these words. What do they mean to you? Then the angel tells you something amazing about your older relative. "Elizabeth, your cousin, who was thought to be sterile, has conceived in her old age." She is not in her sixth month,    for nothing is impossible with God." How are you feeling? What do those last words really mean, "nothing is impossible with God?" Respond to the angel, "I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say." Feel the angel leave you. Repeat the angel's words to yourself. "I am the Lord's servant. Let it be done to me as you say." What do these words mean for your life? Breathe in, let it be done. Breathe out, to me. Breathe in, let it be done. Breathe out, to me. Let the words just come naturally as you continue to breathes. Ask Jesus what meaning these words have for your own life. Then slowly come back to this place. What do you want to remember from this meditation? What does God want you to remember from this meditation? Open your eyes. Slowly get up.      

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Pope Francis and his Top Ten Secrets to Happiness

The search for happiness is a universal human quest. Although our deepest desires for happiness can only be fulfilled by God in Heaven, there are steps that Christians can take to experience more joy here in this lifetime. Pope Francis recently addressed this quest by offering his own “Top Ten Secrets to Happiness.” Use the Pope’s list as a segue for a lesson on the same topic. But don’t share the Pope’s list until the end of the lesson. Here are some suggested steps: Put your students in pairs and assign each pair to develop their own “Top Ten Secrets to Happiness.” List the ideas that students came up with on the board, putting checks next to tips that are most frequently suggested. Invite students to explain their thoughts more clearly if you or other students look puzzled by some of their suggestions. If two or more ideas are very similar, group them together. Then ask students to identify which, if any, of their ideas do they think would also be on Pope Francis’  “top ten secrets to happiness.” Engage in conversation as the students select or reject some of their own ideas, saying things like, “Don’t you think the Pope might appreciate good sportsmanship or dislike hypocrisy?” Finally, display Pope Francis’ “Top 10 Secrets for Happiness.” Go over the list with the students and ask them to come up with ways that the Pope’s ideas could translate into their own lives and concerns.

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Equpping Saints: A New Statement on Catholic Education

    In the end though, Catholic education is not about being “socially useful.” Nor is it about good “values.” The values language of social science is too thin to satisfy the human soul, and too bland for the people of Christian character and courage God wants us to be. Catholic education is about making saints; about growing the seeds of virtue and truth. Anything less cheats our students of their dignity                                                  --Charles J. Chaput O.F.M. Cap, Archbishop of Philadelphia As part of a formation day for teachers of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on the Feasts of All Saints, Archbishop Chaput released a pastoral letter on Catholic education and faith formation, entitled "Equpping Saints." Read the entire document here.

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Ongoing Efforts to End World Hunger

  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.

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An Additional Lesson on Death and Dying

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.

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Dying a Holy Death

You and your students have likely heard of the story in the news of Britany Maynard, a 29 year-old woman who learned she had brain cancer earlier this year shortly after she was married. The disease is terminal and Maynard has said she will end her life on November 1 with the administration of lethal doses of medication. She has also spoken and written of expanding the rights for "death with dignity." Her website is linked here. An article by Mary Rezac, "Can death be beautiful? A response to Brittany Maynard" offers a broader Catholic view of this situation. Additionally, you may wish to use this opportunity to share the following reference points about the meaning of Christian death (taken from Foundations of Catholic Social Teaching: Living as a Disciple of Christ, Ave Maria Press, 2015). Ask your students to comment on these two points: A cultural climate that sees no value in suffering; in fact, the culture views it as the worst of all evils. When people abandon God, they often see life as simply the pursuit of pleasure. If pain enters the picture, and death looms on the horizon, then hastening death seems like the best choice to be free from suffering. Also, Pope Benedict XVI noted that it is more common for elderly people to be alone “even in moments of serious illness and when approaching death” and that these situations can lead to hopelessness and increase pressures toward euthanasia.  Not all suffering is meaningless. When suffering is united to the Lord, especially in the last moments of life, the person can share in Christ’s Passion. He or she can join Christ’s sacrifice offered to the Father as an offering for his or her sins and for growth in holiness. A dying person should view impending death as a chance to say good-bye to one’s loved ones and to prepare to meet the Lord Jesus. Offering your suffering to the Lord is heroic. However, the Church recognizes that a person is not required to do so if suffering needlessly. Therefore, Church teaching authorizes the use of painkilling drugs even though they may hasten death or cause unconsciousness. The intent in these situations is to relieve pain, not cause death.  People who neglect God often think they have sole control over life and death. Excessive individualism and the belief in an absolute right to freedom can influence godless people to believe they are the masters of death. Advances in medical science can contribute to “playing God” in life-and-death situations. Also, contemporary culture has a preoccupation with efficiency, and people may judge the old and infirm as unproductive and therefore dispensable. Additional Ideas: Assign the students to read and report on this case. Pray for Brittany Maynard. Pray a novena with the intention of Brittany Maynard having a change of heart prior to her death. Invite a local hospice representative to visit your class and share information about their ministry.

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

October 1 is the Feast Day of St. Thèrése of Lisieux, the patroness of justice. In July 1897, Thèrése was brought to the convent infirmary. She was hemorrhaging continually. At the end of the month she was anointed and in the middle of August received Holy Communion for the last time. Her last agony was frightening. She had a presentiment that her activity after death would extend far beyond the influence of her life. “How unhappy I shall be in Heaven,” she said, “if I cannot do little favors on earth for those whom I love.” She indicated that with her death her mission would be about to begin: “My mission of making God loved as I love him, to give my little way to souls. If God answers my request, my Heaven will be spent on earth up until the end of the world. Yes, I want to spend my Heaven in doing good upon earth.” Her illness reached a horrible climax between August 22 and August 27. The tuberculosis had attacked not only her lungs but had infected her whole body. Thèrése suffered violently with each breath she tool. She cried out from the pain. “What a grace to have faith,” she remarked. “If I did not have any faith, I would have inflicted death on myself without a moment’s hesitation.” Somehow she survived this terrible time and lasted several more weeks. She retained her sense of humor and gaiety. And yet, she remarked to her sister Pauline that the terrible interior trial of darkness continued. She complained: “Must one love God and the Blessed Virgin so much, and still have thoughts like this?” She saw a black hole in the garden and advised Pauline: “I’m in a hole just like that, soul and body. Ah, yes, what darkness. However, I am at peace.” The end came on September 30. Pauline related: “I was all alone with her when, about 4:30 PM, I guessed by her sudden pallor that her end was approaching. Mother Prioress returned, and very soon the community was reassembled around her bed. She smiled at the sisters, but did not speak until the moment of death . . . it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to breathe, and she uttered involuntary cries when trying to catch her breath.” Thèrése implored the prioress: “Mother! Isn’t it the agony? Am I not going to die?” “Yes, poor child, it is the agony,” Mother Prioress replied, “but God wills perhaps to prolong it for several hours.” Thèrése was holding a crucifix in her hand. Gazing at it, she said, “Oh! I love him.” A moment later, “My God, I love you.” Bystanders maintained that her face took on again the appearance it had when she was in full health. She closed her eyes and expired.  It was 7:20 PM. She had written a few months before her death to a missionary who expressed anxiety about her illness: “I am not dying I am entering into life.”   This text is taken from Ten Christians (Ave Maria Press 1979) by Boniface Hanley, OFM  

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Expecting Shane

Jenna and Dan Haley of Philadelphia learned their unborn son, Shane, had anencephaly, a condition which means that he would be born without parts of his brain and skull and that he would die shortly after birth. Knowing that they would have only a short period of time with their son, they created a “bucket list” for Shane of places and activities that they loved and wanted to share with their son. They went to zoos and aquariums, key spots in New York City, beaches in New Jersey and Delaware, Philadelphia Phillies and Philadelphia Flyers games, the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD, two churches in Philadelphia, a concert, additional baseball games, parks, and the Franklin Institute in their own city. They took many photos of the two of them during this process, many of them holding Jenna’s pregnant belly. Ask your students to imagine and create statements that describe Jenna and Dan’s beliefs about the gift of life. Create a list on the board of student observations about the Haley’s values. They may include statements like this: They value unborn Shane as much as a child outside the womb. They value their time with Shane as a gift. They celebrate Jenna’s pregnancy and enjoy hearing their son’s heartbeat and little kicking feet all the more. They know that Shane has a soul and will return to God who created him. They focus on Shane rather than simply on themselves. Then create a second column next to the first one and ask students to take each statement and rephrase it with an opposing point of view.  The first opposing statement might read, “Shane’s anencephaly is an insurmountable problem.” Ask students follow-up questions: Which types of views do you witness most in society today? How might society change if more people viewed each person as the Haleys view Shane? What impact does this story have on you? How might Jenna and Dan’s choices challenge how some people think? You may want to close this discussion by mentioning that almost 220,000 people are following this couple’s story on Facebook. Their page is “Prayers for Shane.” Shane is due to be born on October 12, 2014. The students can continue following the story here.

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