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Engaging Faith

Practical Lesson Ideas and Activities for Catholic Educators
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More on Moreau Beatification/Essay Contest

On September 15, Fr. Basil A. Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, will be beatified near his hometown of Le Mans, France.If you scroll below, you will find more information on this event along with encouragement for your students to enter an essay contest on Fr. Moreau’s educational mission with the chance to win a $500 scholarship.The recent edition of St. Anthony Messenger includes a detailed article on the life of Fr. Moreaeu.The Brothers of Holy Cross based in Sherman Oaks, California, also offer a website of “Moreau Moments” to help celebrate Basil Moreau’s beatification. Gleaned from the site are these words of advice from Fr. Moreau to teachers on the way to teach for success:To teach with success, teachers must know good methods, be skillful in applying those methods, have clear ideas, be able to define exactly, and possess language that is easily understood and correct. All of these skills are acquired and perfected only through study. I think we must assume that good teachers are not content simply with obtaining a degree or a credential to show their capabilities, but that they also try to increase their knowledge even further by studying as much as they can. In this way teachers are able to meet the qualifications required of them.

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Five Precepts of the Church: An Introduction

Here’s a lesson plan that can be used to help students learn and identify with the precepts of the Church. Grade level: 9 - 11 Subjects: Catholicism, Christian Lifestyles Purpose: The following lesson can help students enter into their Christian identity and get to know the precepts of the Catholic Church. It can also help them reflect on their own ways of living out their faith on a day to day basis. Objective: The students will examine the five precepts of the Catholic Church and understand how they can incorporate them into their daily life. Directions: Have the students write down the precepts so they have them to work with. Then have the students identify the ones they feel other youth would have trouble living. Ask them to share their thoughts on why they would have trouble. This can lead to a helpful guided discussion about what it means to be a Christian. The next task takes the students a step deeper, if some are willing to participate. Ask the students to identify and then share about the precepts they feel they haven’t lived or can’t live. Use this opportunity to discuss the reasons why. Here could be your chance to bring other key concepts into the discussion. Often it’s enough to have one person speak and the dialogue will trigger other thoughts and comments. Feel free to let them voice their criticisms and worries as well. This helps them identify the obstacles they may have to living out their faith. You may then want to address a particular obstacle to guide them. Lastly, have the students choose and write down two or three they would like to work on and improve on. For each one they choose have them write down a few steps they can take to achieve this. Hopefully this will become a “project” they want to take seriously and throw themselves into. Follow up: At a later date ask them about their progress regarding the precepts they have chosen.

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Welcoming the Contributions of Teacher/Bloggers

I don’t want the summer to pass without a formal welcome and introduction of Mike Morse as an Engaging Faith blogger.Mike’s contributions thus far (and hopefully through the school year) are most valuable because he is in the classroom day to day.Mike will soon begin his sixteenth year of teaching in a career that spans from the East Coast to his current position at Bishop Conaty Loretto High School in Los Angeles. Mike teaches courses in Christian Lifestyles, Catholic Morality, and Catholic Christianity and World Religions. Mike has also been a Youth Minister and has taken groups of teens to World Youth Days in Italy, Canada, and the U.S.We certainly are happy Mike has chosen to contribute to this blog.We have greater hopes for the Engaging Faith blog as it approaches its one-year anniversary. Very soon, we will be tagging each entry with headings that reflect the courses being taught in high school religion curriculums. We also hope to continue to offer other entries that help teachers connect current events with their courses of study and daily lessons.We hope that this blog will be a prime source for teachers to turn to supplement their lessons plans with creative ideas shared by their colleagues. These entries will likewise supplement the growing collection of on-line resources offered on the Religious Education portion of the Ave Maria Press website . . . all free of charge.Mike is the first of what we hope will be more teachers who choose to blog with us. We also use teachers as writers of our online and published resources. (And we pay writers for those projects!). Participating as a blogger is a good start to share your original lesson ideas with a larger audience while also taking a first step into the world of publishing.The process for getting started is a simple one: contact me and then open up a gmail account. All blog entries can be composed in a word format. It really is easy. And fun!We hope you’ll think of joining us and sharing your lessons and experiences.

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Forgiveness… even when it’s hard!

The topic of love was the main point of a lesson with my juniors one day. They were quite inquisitive about the various types of love expressed by the Greek terms such as eros, phila and agape. Then we moved on to the way we experience love for others. Here I made it a point to leave room for them to think, provoked perhaps by some of my questions regarding their memories of family and friends. They cherished the moments shared with the closest ones in their lives and the love they had for each person. Next was love for enemies, forgiveness. Here we hit a roadblock. I knew it would be a sensitive issue but I felt the need to face it. After I mentioned a few familiar figures in our recent past who may be remembered in a negative way, the majority of the kids agreed that love for enemies is asking too much. My students couldn’t imagine a love for people who committed such terrible crimes. A recent tragedy that came to the forefront was the Virginia Tech incident. We spoke about what happened and the man responsible for the act but again forgiveness wasn’t an option. Later we read the words of a young person in a Living City magazine article written about the event: “There is Jesus in everyone, and despite the fact that (he) killed numerous people, we have to forgive him and keep loving everyone unconditionally.” We then turned to Jesus’ experience and words: “forgive them Father for they do not know what they do.” We discussed how Jesus loved to the end and wants us to do likewise. Slowly, they became somewhat convinced that they too could maybe have a similar love. Their response to similar topics in the past was “well, we’re not Jesus”, but by discussing and working through it, a light began to shine in the darkness. They started to see that just maybe they can forgive. Seeing their change of heart, and what it was costing, made a huge impression on me. A prayer by Celeste   “Lord, can you fix my eyesight like you did for the blind man? I want to see with your eyes those who are teased for being different at school. I want to see with your eyes the homeless person on a park bench. I want to see more than people who think that being thinner or stronger makes you more loveable. I want to see more than people who look at wealth and think that’s what life is all about. Help me to see with your eyes, Lord! Blind me to the way the world sees so that I won’t give in to judging people on their looks or skin color or possessions or personality.”

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As the Year Came to a Close

As the school year wound down, the students began to get a handle on all the year’s material and prepare for final exams. There was a lot of nervousness and worry. It was certainly a year of fun times and laughter, but also one of hard work and stress. The end of the year is a time when they look back and try to review what they have learned. So one day, as they flip back through pages of notes and seek to piece things together, I asked them to stop and reflect. I asked them to reflect on a topic which we have talked about many times: happiness. I asked to answer this question “What do you feel is the key to happiness?” I started playing a CD of Gregorian chant I had nearby and not a minute had gone by before they had begun to write. I went to my desk to give them some freedom. After a few minutes I went around the room and saw most desks with at least one page completed. It struck a cord. These teenagers had clear ideas about happiness. To my surprise, they weren’t focused on having things or going places, but on things that give meaning to life, that are fulfilling. Their responses to the question “What do you feel is the key to happiness?” included: “Family, friends and God” “To follow God’s path” “Being the best version of yourself” “Everything that’s pure and clean” “God” “Loving people and people loving you back” “Peace” “Living life to the fullest and sharing special moments with your family” “Being generous and helpful to others” “Being around people you love and the people who love you” “To have God in our lives” “Laughing” “A sense of completeness” “A sense of belonging” “Being needed for something” “Knowing that you have a purpose” “Perfect harmony with everyone and yourself” “If doing good and helping others makes us happy, then the ability to choose to do good will make us happy” “Living the way God wants” We have explored many lives of people in the world who are making a difference such as at Do Something or the Urban Youth Ministry. These students are about to go off and begin their fun-filled summer vacation. Perhaps this summer will be spent knowing that happiness has other roots. Perhaps they’ll be encouraged to strive to find true happiness, and join the many who are out there making the world a better place. If you still have some days left with your students before the year ends, offer them the challenge to get to know other youth their age who are out there helping others. They just might take you up on it.

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Leaving Home

When I worked at St. Monica’s parish and schools in California in the 1980s I knew plenty of students who attended St. Monica’s for all thirteen years—from kindergarten to their senior year of high school. St. Monica’s, I believe, is one of only three parishes in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that sponsor both a grade school and a high school. Graduation from St. Monica’s may have been more heart-wrenching than some other high school ceremonies just based on all of the time spent in one place. But I used to believe that the occasion was also a little more emotional because of the true family atmosphere that a core group of teens who spent all their years at St. Monica’s had developed and then shared with others who joined them in high school. A recent news article about the Carmel Catholic High School graduation in Illinois illustrates some of the same feelings spending time in a school that is also a faith community are bound to elicit from not only graduate, but parents, siblings—and teachers. As the time of graduation is upon us, adapt and pray the following words with your students:   Come, Holy Spirit. Be with me today in my studies. Improve my work habits. Help me to learn to relax when taking exams so that I am able to test to my potential. When I apply to colleges, allow me the chance to show the “real me” to those who make decisions. Come, Holy Spirit. Allow me to appreciate my friends. Give me a moment to see their goodness. Help me to be always faithful to these dear people I have grown up with since childhood. Always give me the opportunity to stay close to my friends, whether we are physically near or far apart. Come, Holy Spirit. Continue to inspire my teachers, counselors, and coaches who have inspired me. In these last days of high school, give me the courage to truly follow their lessons. Allow me the inspiration to thank them for their gifts with sincere appreciation. Come, Holy Spirit. Bless my parents and family. They are everything to me. They have modeled for me your life and love. Keep them healthy and happy for many more years. Come, Holy Spirit. Help me find my way to my loving Father through his Son. Share with me a sign of my calling. Give me good ears to listen to your voice. Give me the strength to follow your lead. Amen. (Reprinted from Marriage and Holy Orders: Your Call to Love and Serve, Ave Maria Press, 2007).

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Prom Season

If you type “Catholic” and “prom” into a Google search, not many of the links are flattering to the time-honored tradition. Of course under the current heading of “what makes the news” the main drift of articles nationwide were whether or not same-sex couples could attend the prom as dates. In summary, the answer was “no” though lawsuits seemed on the horizon in some places.Some other stories were of prom tragedies, like an accident (no alcohol) involved that killed killed one student and inured several others after the prom near Philadelphia.The means and method of proms is certainly worth a discussion, if not a debate for Catholic schools. The money spent on the prom is extravagant bordering on sinful. Note how one principal battled such excess.There are other positive prom stories. Last prom season a student at a Wilmington, Delaware high school arranged for rides to the prom for other students with mental challenges. This past March, students at a Louisiana high school set up a special prom event for a classmate who had been injured in an car accident.What are your feelings about prom in general? About prom at your school? What are some ways your school has made prom successful, wholesome, and in the spirit of the Gospel?We would be interested in your comments.

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Our Lady

May is the month of Mary.Pope John XXIII had a special devotion to Mary and referred to this tradition:I find it impossible not to love the holy Mother of Jesus, whom I have regarded with affection since my childhood, to whom I prayed with the first words I ever uttered, and to whom I have trustfully turned for help in the most difficult moments of my life.We all find in her a tender expression of confidence and gentleness; this is a great comfort to me, a great comfort at all times.In this month of May, good Christians increase a hundredfold their tributes of profound veneration for Mary.We must cherish in our hearts a fervor that will strengthen us and enable us to look to Jesus and to Our Lady with great confidence, so that we may not only await, but hasten the triumph of the Lord’s love and grace, by our enthusiasm and virtuous living, and through our own special ministry.At the Council of Trent, the practice of a special or votive Mass to Mary on Saturdays was included in the Roman missal. Catholics are called to do something special to honor Mary, especially during the Saturdays of May. This may include attending a Saturday morning Mass, dong a special work of charity, or praying the rosary. Encourage these practices among your students.

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