The Giver, a film currently in theatres, has several applicable lessons for Catholic teens. Based on the book by Lois Lowry, the setting is a dystopian society of the future where all of society's bad memories have been erased for a sterile world where language is monitored, roles are assigned, and the disabled--both young and old--are euthanized. Check out several reviews of the movie from Catholic sources:
Catholic News Service
Life Teen
Veritas
National Catholic Reporter
Catholic News Agency
You may wish to offer viewing the movie as an extra credit assignment in addition to having the students write their own reviews.
An additional lesson to consider from The Giver: Like the movie, the Church also has an official "Receiver of Memories" in her Magisterium. However, point out the key difference: while the Receiver of Memories in The Giver was to keep the memories of the past secret, the Pope and bishops, as successors of the Apostles who were commissioned by Christ himself, are charged with authentically sharing the sacred memories of the past while applying them to the world today with all.
Introduce students to the three other aids to Bible study: the Bible Dictionary, a One-Volume Bible Commentary, and a Bible Concordance. Display in at least one example of each to show the class. Then divide the class into three groups. Have them complete the following short exercises with their group. Allow about five minutes to work. Then rotate the study aids. Continue until each group does one assignment for each study aid.
Bible Dictionary Assignments
Look up and define “nomads” and list one example of nomadism from the Bible.
Look up “genealogy.” How many genealogies are there in the Bible? List them.
Look up “mystery.” How is it defined in the Old Testament? How is it defined in the New Testament?
One-Volume Bible Commentary
List three interesting facts about Jesus’ anointing at Bethany (Mk 14:1–11).
What are the origins and background of Hannah’s hymn of praise (1 Sm 2:1–11)?
What does Paul mean by “freedom from the Law” (Rom 7:1–25)?
Bible Concordance
What is the first reference of “Jerusalem” in the Bible (Jos 10:1)? What is the last reference (Rv 21:10)?
What is the Scripture reference for “Such a one, man or beast, must not be allowed to live” (Ex 19:13)?
Which Gospel has the most references to St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus? (Matthew).
Option: Arrange a trip to your school library (or local Catholic university library) to compare single-volume Bible commentaries with multi-volume versions.
No one ever said prayers have to be long.
Prayers can be as short as one brief sentence. One-line prayers often say what a person is thinking better than a host of words or hours of meditation.
One liners, sometimes called ejaculations or aspirations, can be used on many occasion. For example, when they are offered before a task, that task can itself become a prayer. If you say, "Lord, I offer you the work I am about to do writing this term paper," the writing session becomes a prayer. Here are some other samples of one liners:
Jesus, have mercy on me.
Jesus, my Friend and Savior, I love you.
Help me Lord Jesus.
Praise God!
Mary, Mother of God, pray for me.
Come, Holy Spirit.
Thank you Father for creating this day.
Activity
Have the students compose five one line prayers. You may wish to suggest experiences on which the one-liners can be based, for example: 1) before a game or performance; 2) after an argument; 3) while enjoying nature; 4) in sorrow for committing a wrong; 5) in appreciation for a friend.
When they have fhinished,go around the room and allow the students to pray aloud one of the one line prayers. You may wish to accompany this part of the session with soft, instrumental background music.
The National Directory for Catechesis reminds catechists of several distinct features of catechetical programming with adolescents. Take some time to review the features named below. Specifically, catechesis with adolescents
Teaches the core content of the Catholic faith as presented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The purpose is to provide a solid foundation for the growth in faith.
Recognizes that faith development is lifelong. This means that content and processes should be age-appropriate.
Integrates knowledge of the Catholic faith with liturgical and prayer experiences. It also helps students develop practical skills for living their faith in the world.
Dialogues with adolescents about his or her joys, questions, struggles, concerns, and hopes in tandem with the wisdom of the Catholic Church.
Utilizes a variety of learning approaches including music and media and responds to different learning styles of individuals.
Inspires a warm atmosphere in a climate characterized by trust among adolescents and catechists.
Provides for real-life applications of learning by helping adolescents apply the lessons of faith and anticipate obstacles that will arise as they grow into adulthood.
Works in tandem with parents and other family members to incorporate a family perspective to catechesis
Promotes Christian attitudes toward human sexuality
Recognizes and celebrates the multicultural diversity of the Church
Incorporates a variety of approaches including small group programs, mentoring, and self-directed programming
Explicitly invites adolescents to explore through participation in the sacraments their own calls to ministry
Review the complete treatment of these themes in Part D, Chapter 7, "Catechizing the People of God in Diverse Setting" from the NDC.
It feels great when someone calls you buy name. When someone addresses you by name, it adds a level of connection that you just don't feel otherwise. When someone who you have just met or barely know uses your name in conversation, it can be surprising and it makes you feel very good about who you are.
Remembering and using someone's name is a simple gesture that goes a long way. How, then, can we learn students names quickly and correctly?
A few years ago, I shared some tactics for learning new names at The Religion Teacher website. I suggested using a few simple tools:
Note Cards
Desk Name Tags/Tents
Seating Chart
I also made a few suggestions for activities and games you can play in the first week of school to get to know someone's name. These games included:
Adjective Name-Game
Scavenger Hunt
Student Interview
To read the full post and find out how to implement all these suggestions, visit The Religion Teacher website.
(photo credit: Flickr)
Christians in the Middle East and North Africa are facing a crisis. Forced to leave their ancestral homes and abandon their churches or face death, the situation is truly harrowing. Pope Francis prayed for an end to Christian persecution in the Middle East after Christians were forced to flee the village of Mosul in Iraq following threats from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), a jihadist militant group.
Mosul’s Christians (who had been in the Mosul for 1700 years) and had numbered over 30,000 dwindled to just a few thousands. Besides ISIS, other minority groups such as Yazidis, Shabaks, and Shiite Turkmen have killed a significant number of Christians in extrajudicial executions. They also destroyed churches and Christian symbols.
Christians have faced persecutions in the Middle East for centuries. After the seventh century Arab Muslim conquest of the Middle East and North Africa, the Christian population dwindled there until Christians comprised only ten percent of the Islamic Empire. Internally, the Great Schism of 1054 that caused a divide between the Eastern churches and the Western or Roman Church played a factor in limiting the number of Roman Catholics in the Middle East. However, many Roman Catholics did participate in the Crusades and some remained in the Middle East as a minority after the Crusades ended.
Then, in the thirteenth century, the Maronite Church (the largest Christian Church in Lebanon today) came back into communion with the Roman Catholic Church. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some members more Eastern Churches returned to communion with the Roman Church; for example, Greek Catholics, Syrian Catholics, Armenian Catholics, Coptic Catholics, and the Chaldean Catholic Church. In modern times, Chaldean Catholics have made up the largest Christian community in Iraq.
The number of Christians in the Middle East began to decline in the twentieth century. Why? Obviously, there has been a rise of more aggressive forms of Islam rather than forms that coexisted peacefully with Christians. Also, in the Holy Land, ten percent of the population was Christian prior to the foundation of the State of Israel. As Jews immigrated to the area, Christians emigrated away. Emigration and a declining birth rate have caused the number of Christians to fall to two to three percent of the population in Israel.
Unfortunately, whatever freedom allowed Christian communities in the past has come back to haunt them. That Christians were allowed by previous regimes such as those of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and Mohamed Morsi and his predecessors in Egypt to coexist peacefully may have become justifications for Islamic groups to consider Christians their enemies. These regimes were associated with Western imperialism. Christians are also facing attacks from militant Islamic groups in other parts of the world, particularly South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Nigeria.
Sadly, if nothing is done soon, Christians may disappear from the very lands that Jesus walked, the birthplace of the faith. The United States and European governments have not yet done much to advocate on Christians’ behalf: Time Magazine correspondent Roland Flamini wrote: “Christians see themselves as between a rock and a hard place. Arab fundamentalists increasingly see them as pawns of the West, while the West actually ignores their plight.”
Pope Francis preached to the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square: “Violence isn't overcome with violence. Violence is conquered with peace. Our brothers and sisters are persecuted, they are chased away."
Further Information
Daniel Estrin, “Christian Exodus from Middle East Shadows Papal Visit to the Holy Land,” Huffington Post.
Roland Flamini, “Forced Exodus: Christians in the Middle East,” World Affairs, November/December 2013.
Alissa J. Rubin, “ISIS Forces Last Iraqi Christians to Flee Mosul,” The New York Times, July 18,
2014.
The media has been buzzing with information about young people crossing the border in Texas primarily and in Arizona. There is much political dialogue about what to do and of course, who is to blame.
Here are some basic points for information and clarification:
1. Children are seeking only to immigrate to the United States.
In addition to the United States, children are seeking asylum in Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, and Belize according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (USA Today)
2. Parents send their children to the United States by themselves.
A good percentage of the children who are coming to the United States for asylum already have family, often parents, in the U.S. who immigrated years ago when the U.S. had more lenient policies for immigrants from their countries. The children have not seen their loved ones in years.
3. Children want to come to this country for better opportunities.
The Department for Homeland Security has analyzed the reasons why children have been making the journey to the US. While Guatemalan children from rural areas may be seeking economic opportunities, most Honduran and Salvadoran children come from such violent regions in their countries (as well as poverty) that they think that they are less likely to die on the dangerous route to the U.S., even by themselves.
Gang violence is out of control in Honduras, El Salvador, and urban Guatemala. Young children encounter gangs at school and the neighborhood and even those kids who are completely uninterested in these groups are exhorted and threatened. Sixty percent of the children who arrive at the border have been beaten, robbed, or threatened by gang members. Thirty percent of the girls have experienced threats of sexual violence or actual experiences of that violence, including rape. The homicide rate in Honduras is the highest in the world for countries who are not at war.
4. Nobody but politicians are saying much less doing anything about this.
The United States government is working with the governments of the Central American countries to counter the message promoted by human smugglers that minors arriving at the U.S. border will be able to stay. The Mexican government discourages people from traveling through Mexico to the border because migrants are often victims of violent crimes such as kidnapping, robbery, and rape, as well as victims to the harsh weather conditions .Bishops from the Central American countries as well as this country have committed themselves to keeping migrants as safe as possible and to support efforts in their countries of origin to discourage young people from leaving. The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ committee on migration has called people to think of solidarity at a global level. The Pope has asked that the children be welcomed and protected and that people deal with their fear and the indifference of a “throwaway culture”
Ave Maira Press Mini-Unit on Immigration
To study the Migration issue in more depth, please see the Ave Maria Press free mini-unit on the subject. It accompanies the video Dying to Live: A Migrant's Journey.
For additional information:
David Agren, “Bishops from five countries ask society to confront migration issues,” July 11, 2014, Catholic News Service, www.catholicnews.com.
Department for Homeland Security, Map of “Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) by Location of Origin for CY 2014: Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala,” 27 May 2014.
Josephine McKenna, “Pope Francis: End the ‘racist and xenophobic’ approach to migrants along U.S.-Mexico border,” July 15, 2014, National Catholic Reporter, ncronline.org.
Bob Ortega, “Questions surround surge in migrant kids left at the border,” USA Today, June 10, 2014, www.usatoday.com.
Your school may be embarking on Elective Course A, Sacred Scripture, of the USCCB Doctrinal Framework. Even if you are not, Scripture study plays prominently in each of your school's required and elective courses. Correspondingly, making sure students are familiar with Bible study aids (e.g., Bible dictionaries, one-volume Bible commentaries, and Bible concordances) is an essential prerequisite for this task. Use the following exercise to introduces students to these tools.
Activity Directions
Introduce students to these Bible study tools: the Bible dictionary, a one-volume Bible commentary, and a Bible concordance. Display at least one example of each to show the class. Then have them complete the following short exercises with their group. Allow about five minutes to work. Then rotate the study aids. Continue until each group does one assignment for each study aid.
Bible Dictionary Assignments
Look up and define "nomads" and list one example of nomadism from the Bible.
Look up "genealogy." How many genealogies are there in the Bible? List them.
Look up "mystery." How is it defined in the Old Testament? How is it defined in the New Testament.
One-Volume Bible Commentary
List three interesting facts about Jesus' anointing at Bethany (Mk 14:1-11).
What are the origins and background of Hannah's hymn of praise (1 Sm 2:1-11)?
What does Paul mean by "freedom from the Law" (Rom 7:1-25)?
Bible Concordance
What is the first reference of "Jerusalem" in the Bible? (Jos 10:1) What is the last reference? (Rv 21:10)
What is the Scripture reference for "Such a one, man or beast must not be allowed to live"? (Ex 19:13)
Which Gospel has the most references to St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus? (Matthew)
Option: Arrange a trip to your school library (or local Catholic university library) to compare single-volume Bible commentaries with multi-volume versions.
This activity is part of the Ave Maria Press textbook Sacred Scripture: A Catholic Study of God's Word by Dr. Daniel Smith-Christopher and Fr. Patrick Mullen.
