Play a game of bingo to begin a lesson on the importance of prayer. Have the students circulate around the room getting signatures from classmates. Either award the first person to have one line signed or the complete card signed. Call on a variety of those who have signed particular squares to demonstrate their prayer talents. Use the bingo card below or devise your own.
The Fall Issue of the Ave Maria Press Religious Education newsletter, Engaging Hands, Hearts, and Minds for Faith is now available online. Included in this issue are a cover story with Dr. Daniel Smith Christopher and Fr. J. Patrick Mullen on the nuances of teaching about Sacred Scripture to upper level high school students. There is also updated information on the progress implementation of the Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework and for publication of textbooks related to the Framework. Also, Vicky Pettaruto, a youth minister from California, shares a reminder of how catechists and those who work with teens can continue to bring Jesus alive to those they minister to. If you would like to subscribe to the Engaging Hands, Hearts, and Minds for Faith newsletter contact Karey Circosta.
Share the following ideas to help increase priestly vocations with your students. The material is taken from Marriage and Holy Orders: Your Call to Love and Serve. During the fifteen years that Father James Gould was vocation director for the Diocese of Arlington, this diocese of only sixty-five parishes in northern Virginia produced an average of eight new priests per year. By the year 2000, the average age of priests in the diocese was forty-two, nearly twenty years below the national average. Father Gould’s goal during those years was to look for ten new priesthood candidates per year. A few of the years he fell short of the goal, but in one year Arlington had twenty-two men enter the seminary. In this one diocese, there is not a priest shortage. Father Gould outlined a simple formula for success: “Unswerving allegiance to the Pope and magisterial teaching; perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in parishes, with an emphasis on praying for vocations; and the strong effort by a significant number of diocesan priests who extend themselves to help young men remain open to the Lord’s will in their lives.” This formula has been shared with other vocation directors and dioceses and the potential for success is strong. How might they work in your parish and diocese? What are some other ways that you can help promote vocations to the priesthood? Read through the list of ideas below. Choose at least one of the ideas or come up with one on your own. Develop a plan to work with others to implement this idea at your school or parish. Perpetual Adoration. Arrange for a schedule of continuous prayer for vocations before the Blessed Sacrament at a school chapel or at your parish. Collect names of people willing to sign up for fifteen minute or half hour blocks of time. Make this a regular event. Publicize Special Vocation Events. Highlight special events during occasions like National Vocation Awareness Week, World Day for Consecrated Life, or World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Also take note of special events offered particularly in your own diocese. Volunteer to distribute flyers or other promotional material to people at your school or parish. Invite your peers to these events. Offer to be part of the program or to help with hospitality or clerical work. Witness Talk. Broach the topic of vocations to the priesthood at a youth group meeting or at a campus ministry event. Speak personally about how you are discerning your own vocational call. Arrange for a priest or seminarian to speak about his own calling. Seminary Visit. Call a local seminary and arrange for a group of classmates to come to the seminary to hear a presentation by the vocation director and seminarians, and perhaps tour the campus as well. Website Links. Create a set of links to vocation websites in your own diocese and beyond and include them on your personal homepage. Or, write about the importance of vocational efforts on a blog. Include links to relevant vocation sites there as well. Journal/Discussion Is there someone you know who has chosen a radical or countercultural lifestyle? Describe the person and the lifestyle. How do you imagine your commitment to discipleship in Jesus Christ for the future: extreme, radical, moderate, wavering? Choose a word to describe it and explain.
Call on students, one at a time, to be "on the spot" and come before the class to hear a scenario about Jesus and to respond to the challenge that he presents. The following scenarios are taken from Time Out: Resources for Teen Retreats by Kieran Sawyer, S.S.N.D. Scenarios In one Gospel, Jesus invited Peter to step out of the boat and walk toward him over the sea. Peter did, but he became frightened and called out to Jesus to save him. Jesus will probably never ask you to walk on water, but he sometimes asks you to do things that seem just as difficult. How would you feel about devoting your life to his service in a religious vocation like a priest, sister, or brother? One of the Jesus' best-known stories is about the Good Samaritan, the unpopular person who took care of a man who had been attacked by robbers and left lying on the road. How would you feel if someone who is unpopular, or in a different peer group from the one you hang out with, asked you for a favor, like help on homework or a ride home from school? Problems and conflicts inevitably arise, but Jesus often told his followers to turn the other cheek to those who hurt them. In another place he told them to ignore those who would not accept their message by shaking the dust from their feet and moving on to the next town. When someone makes fun of you for a belief you hold deeply, how do you feel? Jesus was often followed by a crowd of little children. When the Apostles found the children annoying and tried to chase them away, Jesus stopped them and said, "Let the children come to me." How do you feel about spending time with younger children? Once when Jesus was passing through a town, he came upon Zacchaeus, a tax collector, and invited him to come to Zacchaeus' house for dinner. How would you feel if Jesus was going to come over to your house for dinner tonight? Jesus was moved to tears when he was told that his friend Lazarus had died. How would you feel if you just found out one of your friends was tragically killed by a drunk driver? One Gospel story tells about some people who were so anxious to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus that they made a hole in the roof to get to him. How would you feel if someone was very eager to share the Gospel or pray with you in public? Jesus asks us to put our relationship with him before everything else. How would you feel if a classmate belittled Jesus and his teachings during a classroom discussion?
Use the following as an introduction to a class or youth group meeting. Choose and number eight sentence starters from the list below and write them on the board. Collect cards 1-8 from a deck of cards. Divide the class into groups of four or five people each. Tell them to spend some time thinking about how they would finish each sentence. Shuffle and choose one number from the deck of cards. Choose one person (e.g. "the person wearing the most red") to finish the sentence. Allow some time. Draw another number and continue the discussion with the person next to the original speaker, and so on. Someday I hope to . . . It upsets me when . . . I admire people who . . . I wish I could change . . . It is important to me that . . . Sometimes I wonder why . . . I am convinced that . . . I hope I never . . . I am trying to improve my character by . . . People would like me better if . . . I'm afraid that . . . I get discouraged when . . . When I don't get my way I . . . I would like to tell _ that . . . I'm sorry about . . . I am happiest when . . . I complain a lot about . . . The last time I cried was . . . I have definitely decided to . . . When I hurt someone, I . . . I'm proud of _ because . . . When people tease me, I . . .
It has been nearly 50 years since the winds of a "new Pentecost" swept over the Church at the Second Vatican Council. This important moment in history is studied in many theology classes. As part of a lesson on the changes in the Church at that time, invite a person who was an adult at the time of Vatican II and who remains active in the same parish to speak to your class about his or her remembrances of the Council and the changes it brought to parish life. Provide this set of instructions to your speaker/guest. Introductions Briefly introduce yourself. Tell the name of the parish you belong to and how long you have been a member of the parish. Share an example or anecdote that expresses how you feel about being a member of this parish. Issues and Questions The first part of this segment will be a discussion of the issues below in an open forum with high school age students. How was your parish informed about the changes in the liturgy after Vatican II? How did the parish react on the whole? Tell something of the changes and development of the parish physical plant over the years. Provide a physical description of the church interior prior to Vatican II. How was the role of the priest different prior to Vatican II? How are some of the following ministries different now from before: school teacher, CCD teacher, Eucharistic minister, lector, parish council member, music minister, etc. Describe the music at pre-Vatican II liturgies? How did people dress when they came to Mass? Compare your feelings for the Latin Mass with the Mass in the vernacular. The second part of the presentation will be devoted to answering other questions the students may have related to developments and changes in parish life over the years. Allow a full class period for the presentation and questions.
Dr. Daniel Smith-Christopher will be the keynote speaker at the fifth annual Teacher Enrichment Day on October 10 at the University of Notre Dame, sponsored by Ave Maria Press. Dr. Smith-Christopher is a Professor at Loyola Marymount University specializing in the Hebrew scriptures. Below he offers some advice on reading the Old Testament. Reading the Old Testament is not like reading any ordinary book. Yes, we need to read the words and sentences. But more than a literal reading of the text, we need to read it with faith. This means we reflect on the underlying message of the text: the message of truth God is wishing to communicate to us. Here are some main themes found in the Bible. Keep these in mind as you study particular stories or events in the Old Testament. · God created a good world. · God has blessed human life. · Humanity has a tendency to sin. · God is a God of mercy. · God keeps promises. · The covenant binds God to Israel. · The Law expresses Israel’s bond to God. · Worship is praise and thanksgiving. · Religious life is life in community. · God directs all of human history. As the introduction to the New American Bible explains, these themes can be applied to our own lives today in the following ways: · All things in our life must flow from faith. · Our prayer and our daily life must be one. · We must respect God’s holiness. · We must imitate God’s holiness. · Holiness must be translated into compassion. · Life is a journey that requires trust in God. · We are people of the land. (We must take the environment seriously.) · Faith is a family affair. · Prayer must fill our lives. For more information on the Teacher Enrichment Conference and to register, please contact Kerry Circosta.
Read the quotes and share some information about the famous Catholics listed below. Then read the moral dilemma to the students and ask them to rate how strongly they would respond based on either end of the spectrum. "I am the King's good servant, but God's first." —St. Thomas More Your public school allows a moment of silence for daily prayer or meditation. A popular teacher says that this practice violates laws separating church and state and continues to lecture during this time. Most of your friends either agree with his opinion or don't think the matter is worth debating. Would you: Protest against the teacher—————————————————————Conform with the Teacher "How can we sacrifice our principles or remain silent in the face of this gigantic error?" —Dorothy Day Your parents tell you that you must work to pay for a good part of your college tuition. A telemarketing firm offers you a high-paying job selling magazine subscriptions. At least four of the magazines you would be expected to sell would be classified as pornographic. Would you: Not accept the job——————————————————————————————Accept the Job "For Jesus Christ, I am prepared to suffer still more." —St. Maximillian Kolbe The campus of a rival school has been vandalized in the week before your school faces them in a big game. Your school's name and colors are graffitied around the other campus. Personally, you didn't have anything to do with the vandalism. Would you: Help clean up——————————————————————————————Let Others Worry About It "I heard the call to give up all and to follow him into the slums and to serve among the poorest of the poor." —Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta Your parents want you to choose a college major that leads to a high-paying job. You, however, have an interest in teaching an would love to pursue it in school. You realize that you could earn much more money as a doctor or lawyer than as a teacher. Would you: Follow your dream——————————————————————————————Listen to Your Parents
