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Engaging Faith

Practical Lesson Ideas and Activities for Catholic Educators
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Recalling God's Plan for Our Lives

Even though the Christmas season ends on Sunday, the week is also about new beginnings as you know from your return to school and the impending start of a new semester.The end of Christmas also celebrates the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry with his baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.The occasion lets us know that God the Father had special plans for his son. Jesus was anointed by the Father to “bring light and God’s promise of hope” to everyone.Encourage and remind your students that they, too, have been chosen by God to do something special and unique with their lives.Sometimes teenagers feel cramped by the expectations that their parents and other well-meaning adults have for them.Most of your students will be expected to go to college. They will be expected to marry and raise a family (or in some cases choose a religious vocation). Most of all their parents and Catholic high school teachers hope that they will continue to practice their Catholic faith and deepen their relationship with God.Have your students consider the expectations that have been placed on them for the future? Which do they consider fair expectations? Which coincide with their own dreams?Share with your students the story of baseball player Mike Piazza, a good antidote these days to reports of other star players training with illegal steroids. When Mike was a teenager most people told him he would never make it in baseball. In fact, he was the 1,390th player picked in the baseball draft. Mike credits his Catholic faith for helping him to progress all the way to a hall of fame career: A Catholic Digest article questioned Mike about the subject: Did anyone try to tell you that you couldn’t make it as a major-league player?Mike Piazza: Oh, yeah, I’ll never forget when I was 12 or 13 years old – which is a little young as far as evaluation – [my dad] brought out a scout from, I think, the [St. Louis] Cardinals. He was a very esteemed and recognized major league scout. He saw me play, and he said to my dad, “Vince, tell this kid to go to school.” But you know, I always like people being honest with me. You may not like what they have to say, but it’s better than patronizing you. In a way it wasn’t really an insult. It just gave me more fuel.As you worked your way from the 62nd-round draft pick to 1993 National League Rookie of the Year, did your Catholic faith play a part in your progress?Mike Piazza: No question about it. It was probably the most important thing for me. My mom, thank God, she kept us focused on our faith. I just remember everywhere I went, I tried to find a local church where I could go to Mass. Once I started doing research into the history of the Catholic Church I became more and more proud to be Catholic.When Jesus was anointed at his baptism, the sky opened and his Father’s voice could be heard: “You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you.” Take some time to communicate to your students the pleasure God takes in them. Remind them that the same God who loved Jesus also loves them.Discussion Questions1. What is one expectation your parents have for you? Is this mostly a fair expectation? Why?2. What is a goal you have for yourself? How can your Catholic faith help you to succeed at that goal?3. Imagine it is the end of your life. You look back on all your years and realize that there was one accomplishment that stood about above all the rest. What is this accomplishment?4. John the Baptist was a humble friend of the Lord, saying he was “not good enough to even untie his sandals.” Jesus’ ministry was based on humble service of others. What does humility mean to you? When was a time you did something humbly?Additional Lessons• Share and play the DVD, “Champions of Faith,” that features Mike Piazza and other athletes who share the relationship between the ideals of sports and the practice of faith.• Have each student prepare an individual time capsule to be opened on the date of high school graduation. The “capsule” can be an empty two-liter soda bottle. Have the students fill out papers writing down what they hope to accomplish through the rest of their time in high school. Have them print on the outside of the bottle: “Not to be opened until June 20__.

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Hard as Nails/Life Is Worth Living Juxtaposition

The current HBO special has brought nationwide attention to the unique ministry of Justin Fatica. He and his staff offer workshops and presentations at Catholic high schools, parishes, and youth retreats.Fatica's ministry style, if you haven't seen the special or experienced his approach, is dramatic, intense, and often in the face of the teen participants. Newsweek magazine compared him to a "drill sargent." Fatica defended his style in a recent interview:Okay, yeah, I do get in the face and challenge people in intense ways, but my premise for doing that is that I care. 'Cause you know what? These kids are ripping on each other. These kids are having sex every weekend with maybe a different guy, like a lot of my kids. People don't know this, but these kids are abusing their parents. Their parents are abusing them. It's not right! Somebody's got to take a stand. And if it's gotta me be, and I'm looked at as a moron, great! Great. 'Cause then, fine, then maybe somebody will do it in a better way than I do it, 'cause I don't do it the best way. But they'll be passionate about it. And maybe I won't get the glory for it. But somebody else will. Because maybe there was one person who took a stand. 'Cause it's not right.If you watched the HBO special or have personal experience at your high school with the Hard of Nails ministry, we'd be interested in hearing your impressions.As an aside, it's interesting that playing late at night, perhaps opposite to the HBO special, is Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's original popular television show from the 1950s. Recalled by the Museum of Broadcast Television, Life Is Worth Living followed a simple format. Sheen would choose a topic and, with only a blackboard for a prop and his church robes for costuming, would discuss the topic for his allotted 27 minutes. He spoke in a popular style, without notes but with a sprinkling of stories and jokes, having spent up to 30 hours preparing his presentation. Because the program was sponsored by the Admiral Corporation rather than the Catholic Church, Sheen avoided polemics and presented a kind of Christian humanism. In his autobiography he noted that the show was not "a direct presentation of Christian doctrine but rather a reasoned approach to it beginning with something that was common to the audience."Watching Fatica and Sheen on television separated only by a couple of hours on the same night . . . the juxtaposition was interesting, maybe startling. What do you think?

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The New Year: The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God

A few years ago a new specialty gift hit the marketplace around Christmastime. What looked like a clock actually didn’t keep time in the traditional way. Rather, what you were supposed to do was enter your age (in year, months, and days), your gender, and the area of the world where you lived. Turned on, the “clock” then programmed your life expectancy (for example, seventy-seven years, eight months, and two days) and began a systematic countdown to zero, the end of your life.Would you like a product that told you that you have 32,587, 200 minutes left to live?Really, our lives are not certain and can’t be calculated that way. Though we can and should plan for tomorrow, none of us is absolutely sure of what tomorrow will bring. We never really know what to expect.Mary must have lived like that. She was a very young person when she gave birth to Jesus. The events of the preceding months must have seemed like a whirlwind to her: first an engagement, then a surprise pregnancy with the news that her child would be God’s Chosen One, then child-birth in a strange place miles away from her own village.As the Scriptures tell us, “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). New Year’s Day is a holy day dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God.In the fifth century, Nestorius claimed that there were two persons in Christ—one divine, the other human. Along with this heresy, Nestorius said that Mary was mother of only the human person Jesus, not the mother of the divine person. The Council of Chalcedon clarified what the Church believed: Jesus is one person with two natures, human and divine. And Mary is truly the Mother of God.What a dramatic turn life took for the young Jewish girl from Nazareth. In accepting what God wanted of her, Mary received the most esteemed title any human being could hope to attain: Mother of God.As you begin this year, what surprises does God have in store for you? What surprises does God have in store for your students? And, if you or they are presented with challenges, will you accept them or wallow in fear at the thought of trying something new? Be open to possibilities as Mary was. Life rarely flows in a completely orderly fashion without some zigzagging along the way. Take time to reflect on the events in your life with all your heart. Do more than simply count down the days and minutes. Live your life for today as God intends.Lesson Ideas• Examine three occasions in Scripture where Mary reflected on the events taking place in her life and the life of her Son: Luke 2:19, 2:33, and 2:51. Lead a silent reflection where they students can meditate on the events of the day.• Read highlights of the Pope’s message to the world given on January 1. such as this message from 2006.• Investigate some other titles for Mary and their meanings: e.g., Queen of Heaven, New Eve, Virgin of Virgins, Mirror of Justice.Discussion Questions1. What is one devotion you or someone you know practices to honor Mary?2. If someone could tell you the exact day and hour you will die, would you want to know? How would you live your life differently if you knew when you were going to die?3. Life often zigzags away from the plans we have made for ourselves. Tell about a time that something unexpected happened to you and how you handled it.

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Prayer for the Holy Innocents

Many Catholic high schools sponsor worthwhile awareness events to highlight the tragedy of abortion. The Respect Life Club of Quigley High School in Baden, Pennsylvania raises money to sponsor assemblies with pro-life speakers. Besides awareness, many Catholic high school students are also involved in active prayer and protest. This January The Pro Life Club at McGill Toolen High School in Mobile, Alabama plans on sending a group of students to the annual Right to Life March at Washington D.C.The week of Christmas is an appropriate time to remember these efforts of Catholic high school students on behalf of the unborn. Appropriate because December 28 is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the first innocent children to give their lives for Christ.The Gospel of Matthew details much of their fate at the hands of King Herod, one of the cruelest rulers in all history. During his reign from 3o 4 B.C., Herod executed anyone he deemed a threat to his rule. He drowned his brother-in-law. A few years before the birth of Christ, Herod had two of his own sons and nearly 300 court officials who sided with them killed.Herod felt endangered by the report of a newborn king of the Jews. He sent three magi as spies to Bethlehem to get information about Jesus. When the magi never returned and Herod realized he had been deceived, he became furious and "ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under" (Mt 2:16).Who knows how many children were actually murdered? Given that Bethlehem was a small village of about 2,000 people, there were likely at least 30 boys of that age who were murdered.Today, besides the thousands of unborn killed each day, there are many other innocent children who are remembered in prayer: the uncared for, unloved, and starving children who continue to live in our world.Remember all of the Holy Innocents—those in Bethlehem and those today—this week in prayer. Think of other ways your school, perhaps through your campus ministry, can continue to offer support to the gift of life for all. A PRAYER FOR THE UNBORN Heavenly Father, in Your love for us, protect against the wickedness of the devil, those helpless little ones to whom You have given the gift of life.Touch with pity the hearts of those women pregnant in our world today who are not thinking of motherhood.Help them to see that the child they carry is made in Your image, as well as theirs, made for eternal life.Dispel their fear of selfishness and give them true womanly hearts to love their babies and give them birth and all the needed care that a mother can give.We ask this through Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever.Amen.

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God's Promise Come True

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE STAFF OF AVE MARIA PRESSNotre Dame, Indiana Enjoy your time off!

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News Report on National Framework

More information on the November 14 unanimous vote of approval of a national curriculum framework—officially, the “Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework for the Development of Catechetical Materials for People of High School Age”—was reported in a recent article in My Catholic Standard, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington D.C.Among the insights:• The new curriculum will not assume a students’ conversion or relationship with Jesus; “The Christ-centered approach of the new core curriculum focuses on evangelization, discipleship and educational processes leading students to look at Jesus and what place he should have in their life.”• The framework is designed to create a standardized sequence of courses over four years of high school much in the same way that the sequence of courses in grades 1 to 8 is standardized.• There are three targets of the new framework: the first is publishers that will prepare the books, the second is dioceses that establish guidelines, and the third is Catholic high schools and parish programs that will benefit by implementing the framework.• The framework will be implemented over time.

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Gift Giving

Teenagers are at a “Christmas crossroads.” No longer do they sit with toy advertisements from the Sunday paper and circle all the things they want in the hope that “Santa” will magically enter their house on Christmas Eve and give them these things. The magic of Christmas should never disappear from anyone’s life, no matter what age. However, teenagers should begin to realize that they have more responsibility for making the Christmas spirit come alive. They need to do for others what has, for most of their lives, been done for them. Encourage your students to look for ways to give as well as receive. Whether they have an outside job or earn money doing chores around the neighborhood, teens should use their own money to thoughtfully choose gifts for their own family members as well as friends. They can then learn the thrill of seeing someone open a present they have chosen (and wrapped!). Teens should give to people outside of their immediate family as well. If they have grandparents who live nearby, they should pay them an extra visit beyond the one on Christmas Day. If their grandparents live farther away, they should write them a handwritten letter. Or, they could record a video message on the appropriate system available to their grandparents and sent it along. The poor and needy of the local community should be gifted. Tell teens to use some of their earned money to buy a toy they always wanted as a kid but either never received or really enjoyed if they did get one. After it is wrapped carefully, they can donate it as part of many parish or community giving projects to benefit those in need. Christmas is about giving. At the first Christmas, God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, gave his life to the world by becoming a human being. Eventually Jesus would be rejected and put to death, giving his life for our salvation. The best Christmas gift of all. Last Minute Christmas Project Offer a three-hour free baby-sitting service for parents who need to do last minute Christmas shopping this Saturday. Teens baby-sit children at the school or parish while the parents are shopping. St. Stephen Parish in Tinley, IL offered such a service this past Saturday. Have the students arrange several stations where they can interact and supervise the children, for example, two or three craft areas where teens lead the construction of things like Christmas wreaths, coloring projects, or cutting out snowflakes. At another station, keep several short (30-minute) Christmas DVDs on hand. It’s preferable not to show full-length movies in order to continually attract the attention of more and more kids. Finally, many teens can spend one-on-one time with children playing board games and interacting in many other forms of play. Here’s one of many websites that offer other babysitting ideas. Make sure to provide permission slips as needed. If the parents wish to offer a donation, have the teens vote on a charity to give it to.

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Infancy Narratives

During the week before Christmas, remind the students that only Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels tell anything about Jesus’ birth. Mark’s Gospel, the first written, opens with: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God (Mk 1:1). Although stories about Jesus ‘birth were likely in circulation among Christians communities by the time Mark began composing his gospel, Mark felt that there was more important information about Jesus that belonged in chapter one. From this verse we know that Mark considered it more important to tell readers of Jesus’ heavenly origins than his earthly origins. The stories in his Gospel that follow—the preaching of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus—further emphasize Jesus’ divine origins. On the other hand, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke do include information about Jesus’ human origins. For example,   • Both have genealogies. • Matthew tells of the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, paralleling the experience of the Exodus of the Israelites. • The announcement to and the visit by the shepherds in Luke’s Gospel is consistent with Luke’s theme that the poor and lowly are singled out for God’s blessings. • The courage the magi showed in not returning to King Herod was similar to the courage many young Jewish Christians of the first century exhibited in abandoning their traditional faith to follow Jesus.   Assignment Listed below are several names and items associated with the Christmas story. Have the students guess as to whether or not they are found in Matthew’s Gospel, Luke’s Gospel, or both. After they have guessed, have them look up the correct answers by reading Matthew 1:18–2:23 and Luke 2:1–39.       Mary (M, L) Joseph (M, L) Caesar Augustus (L) Shepherds (L) Massacre of infants (M) The Inn (L) Bethlehem (M, L) Nazareth (M, L) Herod (M) Magi (M) Angels (M, L) Turtledoves (L) Simeon (L) Quirinius (L) Manger (L) Egypt (M) Star (M) Swaddling Clothes (L) Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh (M) Temple (L) Anna (L)

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