Over the past year, I’ve been looking at a lot of resources on the internet gathering ideas on class setup and lesson structure.  Part of what I plan to do next year is to throw my students off their game a bit.  The grade’s primary curriculum will be an in depth look at the Mass.  This will be a topic that will lend itself to discussion, so I’m going to move the students away from the tables and have the chairs placed in an open circle in the center of the room.  My hope is that the proximity to me and the other students will make the discussions more lively and intimate.  It should set the tone that all must participate and it doesn’t give anyone a place to hide. A huge plus is that there will be no table there to help them hide their texting under and while that hasn’t been a huge problem in the past, with an older grade I wanted to eliminate the temptation. My CRE is also working on a way to incorporate Theology of the Body into the year.  My experience is that sex is on every teen’s (and tween’s) mind, but they are uncomfortable discussing the topic with any reliable source of information.  I suggested a student retreat as an option for covering some of the material.

Intimidation aside, I’m actually excited about the change.  The Mass is such a central part of how we express our faith that I think this has so much potential.  Additionally, I’m hoping the three year difference in age will make for more intelligent discussions as compared to what I was able to have with my 6th graders.  I’m pretty sure the students will keep me on my toes, so I ask for your prayers that the Holy Spirit wins out.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

Anyway, Sister usually answers reader-submitted questions on her blog. Last week, she answered a question from a catechist around the use of the left hand for making the sign of the cross. This post really got me thinking about the various traditions and devotions that exist in the Catholic Church. Our faith has so much to strengthen us as we progress through our faith journeys. I went to Catholic school from Kindergarten through high school and was constantly exposed to ways of expressing our faith, not only through prayer but through action as well. I can clearly remember learning the Hail Holy Queen in 3rd grade, learning how to pray the Rosary, walking the Stations of the Cross every Lent, attending First Friday Mass throughout the school year, learning how to follow along using a missalette (talk about confusing!) and having Benediction periodically. (Boy, I hated the smell of incense back then!!)

All of my students go to public school and therefore they get none of that exposure. For example, I was shocked to find out that none of my students had ever done the Stations of the Cross before!?! Many of these traditions are opportunities to better understand the meaning of our faith and to strengthen us spiritually. Additionally, they are beautiful, especially when you understand their history and meaning. I would love to be able to expose my students to these practices as tools to further their understanding of Catholic faith.

I have two challenges here. The first is time. How does one go about giving their students exposure to some of these traditions and devotions when one is limited to 1 hour a week with a full lesson’s worth of material to cover? The second challenge is the fact that while they are not exposed to this at school, most are not exposed to this at home either. Even if I could find the time to do at least a cursory review of some of these practices in class, there is very little expectation that it will stick without exposure to it outside of class.

I guess I have a whole summer to figure this out. Have any of you found successful ways of exposing your students to the beautiful devotions of the Church and its faithful (and making them stick)?

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

I have been lucky enough to have participated in two excellent webinars over the past couple of weeks that have really helped me to reconsider how I should engage in my ministry.

The first webinar was presented by Jonathan F. Sullivan, who is the Director of Catechetical Ministries for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.  The webinar was titled “Catechizing Digital Natives” and focused on the different ways that today’s kids process and learn information.  Below is the video recording of the webinar and here is a link to some of the resources discussed in the video.

The second webinar was presented by Joe Paprocki from Catechist’s Journey.com and Loyola Press.  Joe is well known among Catechists as not only an author of numerous books about being a Catechist, but also as an 8th Grade Catechist himself.  His webinar was titled “Growing as a Catechist: A Self-Evaluation Based on 7 Critical Tools from The Catechist’s Toolbox” and focused on how to reflect on our own ministries with the goal of tweaking our approach and preparation to add more impact when we catechize.

I found both of these webinars so valuable that I just had to share them with you.  As Catechists, sometimes we feel like we are left to our own devices and it’s nice to know that there are others out there who share their ideas with us.  It’s amazing when you find out that the problems you face in your classrooms and parishes are not as unique as you might think.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

All that being said, I have been busy. Not spectacular busy, but more like boring, every day busy. It’s time, however, to refocus on sharing my experiences with you — experiences of catechizing, experiences of personal spiritual growth and experiences of sharing the faith to all. Stay tuned for more regular updates and thanks for sticking with me!

So what’s been going on you might ask?  Besides all the things at work that would bore you, I’ve been busy working on Religious Education stuff.  My classes have been going well.  In my 6th Grade class, we’ve discussed wisdom, focusing on individuals like King Solomon.  I was able to use one of my favorite Old Testament stories (1 Kings 3:16-28) to show wisdom in action.  It was great to see their reactions as I read parts of the story and stopped for impressions.  We’ve also discussed some of the prophets that foretold of the coming of the Messiah, like Isaiah & Zechariah.  I think the differences of how the Messiah was described were a bit tough for them to grasp.  With those topics, we wrapped up the formal curriculum around the Old Testament.

This week, we moved into the New Testament, exploring parts of the Gospels in a little more detail.  We got to focus on one of my favorite New Testament stories, “The Boy Jesus in the Temple” (Luke 2:41-52).  Oddly enough, the prior week I got asked the question if Jesus knew he was God from the time he was born.  I referred to this passage to help express my opinion.  As we reviewed this story, I chose to focus on Luke 2:51.  We discussed the significance of the fact the Jesus was “obedient” to his parents.  I always find it such a powerful example that Jesus, who is God, was obedient to His human parents.

On top of my 6th Grade lessons, I had the opportunity to present at RCIA this past week.  My topic was “The Sacraments of Healing”.  As much as I felt comfortable with my knowledge around the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I still felt that this needed to be spot on, so I did a lot of work with the Catechism and some other resources to help make sure I got it right.  Additionally, I had never done much work around the Anointing of the Sick, so this gave me an opportunity to increase my own knowledge as well.  I felt very good about my presentation and our catechumen asked some insightful questions which was a signal to me that my presentation was giving him reason to think.

On top of that, I’m also working with my CRE and fellow catechists in developing a plan for our 6th Grade Retreat that will be happening in early February.  My CRE provided me the framework and I helped build out a more detailed discussion plan.  The theme of the retreat will be the Ten Commandments.  Lastly, I’ve been methodically working on my pastor to allow me to create a Facebook page for our parish.  After months of my pastor not having time to focus on it, we met today and he agreed that we needed to do it.  And just like in the business world, the person who has the idea gets the project.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m very excited about doing this.  It will be a great opportunity to stay connected to parishioners beyond the Sunday Liturgy, but for it to be successful, it needs constant focus.  Please pray for me as I deal with whatever the game of life throws my way.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith.

I actually chuckled.  I forced patience on them because I told them there were five other commandments that we needed to review before we got to that one.  It’s very clear though, what was on their minds and that they already had an idea of what that commandment relates to.  To no surprise, they had questions, lots and lots of questions.

When we finally got to the Sixth Commandment, I explained it’s literal meaning as well as it’s broader meaning, just like I did with each commandment before it.  Then I let the questions begin:

- What does adultery mean?
- You have to be married?  Why?
- How about if it’s with your girlfriend?
- What if you live with your boyfriend?
- What if you love your boyfriend?
- What if it happens the day before you get married?
- Is being a homosexual a sin?
- What if someone has already done stuff?

I have to thank my students from last year for preparing me for this discussion.  Last year, I flew by this topic and avoided answering questions in any detail.  Not this year.  I felt like I missed a teaching opportunity the last time this happened and I did not want a repeat of that this year.  Oddly enough, I did not prepare for the discussion.  In fact, I completely forgot what had happened last year; but when the first question arose, I felt at perfect ease discussing it.

The Holy Spirit must have been guiding me last night because I had a “sex” discussion with these kids without skipping a beat.  I did everything possible to control the giggle-fest that ensued once the discussion began and I was successful in doing so.  Also, while talking about it, I wrote the word “Sex” on the board to dispel any sense of hesitation or shyness on my part.  My inclination was that by have a serious and open discussion about what the Church teaches regarding this topic, I had more of a chance of making an impact.

We focused on things like the importance of sex only happening within a marriage, why it is otherwise considered a mortal sin, what the natural purpose of the act is (i.e. love, commitment and procreation), why being with a boyfriend / girlfriend is not enough, etc.  We even discussed why being a homosexual, or more accurately having those tendencies, is not a sin in and of itself.  I focused on the fact that a person is not a sin, only acts are sins.  I did this to help distinguish between the dignity we all deserve as human beings and the sinfulness of acts that we may commit, irrelevant of any sexual tendencies.

All in all, the discussion went very well.  I made it a point to not let it digress and gave them the opportunity to ask some questions that were clearly on their minds.  My only regret was not having a little more time.  I know I left some questions unanswered and since next week is a unit review, I may leave a little extra time to answer any remaining questions.  I’d rather they ask me and come away with an accurate understanding of what we are called to believe then to have the questions remain without answers or with poor answers from others.  Of course, recognizing the controversial nature of the topic, I gave my CRE a heads up just in case any parents called in about it.  While my comments were perfectly in line with the teachings of the Church, that does not mean that some parent out there may not like what was discussed.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

We basically spent the first half hour doing an Examination of Conscience, me trying to ease some students’ fears at the realization of what was going to be happening and then going upstairs to the Church for the actual sacrament.  When we returned to the classroom, somehow it all fell apart.

We were supposed to review the story of Abraham, Issac, Jacob and Joseph.  To tie it into what we already learned, I reminded them of the story of Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel and the story of Noah and the Great Flood. That’s as far as we got.  The questions started like if this was the first time they had ever heard this story (we only covered it two weeks ago) and it digressed from there.  Questions like:

Why was it Adam & Eve’s fault?  The snake made them do it.
What does God look like?
Does God have hands?
God killed everyone on earth?
Why did he pick Noah?
God killed?  That’s mean! Didn’t he commit a sin?
What if there were other good people on earth?  How could God kill them all?
What if God does it again?
What if he doesn’t keep his promise?
What if …
What if …
What if …

I’m always torn with how far to let questions go.  I see myself heading into the spiral, but the questions show some amount of interest and curiosity on the students’ parts that I don’t want to discourage.  The problem with allowing it to continue is that I can’t cover the material I’m supposed to cover.  In tonight’s case, I was able to cover none of the material I needed to.  Additionally, 90% of tonight’s questions came from the same student and were becoming slightly argumentative.  I couldn’t really tell if they were sincere questions or an attempt to take control of the direction of the class.  In any case, I probably allowed this to go on too long before the light bulb in my head went off … “These are all good questions.  Why don’t you stay after class and we can discuss it further?”

The student of course could not stay tonight, so I immediately offered staying after next week’s class as an alternative.  But by that time, the damage was done.  There was 5 minutes left to class and I needed to close up the impromptu Q&A discussion with some very specific points to ensure that everyone left the class with an accurate understanding.

By the time I left class, I was completely exhausted, totally frustrated and had nothing accomplished from my lesson plan to show for it.  Did I do the right thing by allowing the questions to continue?  Should I have covered the material and just left Q&A for after class time for those that wanted the information?  I’m sure I would have gotten no takers and would have lost an opportunity there.  All I know is that next week I now have two weeks of material to cover in a one hour time span.  I also have an new appreciation for what school teachers face on field trip days.

What do you other catechists do in situations like the one I encountered tonight?  When do you cut off the Q&A and focus on your lessons and when do you let your lessons slip to help satisfy your students’ thirst for understanding?  I’d love your thoughts since I suspect this will happen again.  In the meantime, I need a stiff drink to recuperate.  Time for some hot chocolate!!

Thanks and until next time, keep sharing the faith.

Now one might ask why I would not be looking forward to such a call.  For me, it was intimidation.  Similar to my initial discernment for becoming a catechist, I didn’t think I was qualified to teach adults.  It’s one thing to teach 6th graders.  I can anticipate most questions and respond to most of what they throw my way.  Adults?  Not so much.

My primary concern was that adults can obviously pose more difficult questions and I feared getting into a debate over theology.  While I’m comfortable in my faith, I’m not the best debater; so I wasn’t sure I was the best one for the job. As I digested the information on the answering machine, it reminded me of another blogger who experienced the opposite type of request.  Christian from Smaller Manhattans was an RCIA catechist who was asked to teach a 6th grade class.  I remember him saying that he wasn’t all that excited at the prospect of switching groups, but he quickly began to love teaching the 6th grade.  While I was adding RCIA versus switching, I started to wonder if my experience would be similar to Christian’s.

It’s funny how the Holy Spirit works.  I got a message on a Monday and was supposed to meet with the director after Mass on the coming Sunday.  I couldn’t stop thinking about it all week long.  With prayer, intimidation became curiosity and curiosity turned into excitement, all before even having met with the director.  It didn’t take long for him to convince me to come to the next session to observe.

Two days later, I was sitting around a table with 3 other catechists and one catechumen.  Everyone was very welcoming and I felt quite comfortable for a fly on the wall.  I was there to observe as one catechist presented on the faith topic of that particular session and the other catechists offered additional insights.  All I can say is that for an observer, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut!!  I participated like I was a veteran of the group even though I had not prepared to do so.  If felt natural and it felt right.  The team is a great team with everyone bringing a slightly different perspective on how to “live” the faith.  The dialogue was insightful and I learned quite a bit myself.

So guess what.  I’m a RCIA catechist as well now.  I find myself looking forward to the next session with excitement and eagerness.  That’s a good sign, right?  I’m thankful for the wisdom of both my pastor and my CRE, because if they hadn’t initiated this, I don’t think it would have ever happened.

Until next time, keep sharing the faith!

The meeting lasted about 30 minutes, which gave us 30 minutes to meet with our students in the classrooms.  I went through some of my class rules — standard stuff like raising your hand and waiting to be called on, only one person speaks at a time and the importance of both respect & confidentiality in class.  I stress those last two because I want people to be able to open up in class without concern that they will get ridiculed or that it will get all over town.

I asked the two questions I always like to ask when first meeting my students:

1. “Who’s here because they want to be?”
2. “Who’s here because their parents made them come?”

As you can imagine, the majority were not there because they were excited about religion at 6:30 on a Monday night; and since most were there because of their parents, I’ve decided to try something new this year.  First, I’m sending a letter home with the students at the end of our first full class this coming Monday.  Among other things, the letter will stress the partnership that is essential between me and their parents for this education to be successful for their children.  One hour a week is not enough.  Faith has to be lived and the parents are an integral part of that education.  Understanding that different parents are at different points in their own faith journey, small steps seem to be in order.  Below is an except of my letter in the hopes that conversation can begin at home if it isn’t happening already.

“To be successful in this, I need your partnership and support.  In the spirit of the Parable of the Sower, I trust that the Holy Spirit will make your child’s heart fertile soil and I will help plant the seeds, but I need each of you to water and nurture those seeds so that they bear fruit.  To that extent, I encourage you to ask your child what they learned in class each week and to discuss it with them, even if just for a few minutes.  This will help reinforce that the formation of their faith is important to you too.”

Additionally, I will be asking my students to briefly interview a parent before the next class so that they can better understand why the faith is important to their parents and why their parents feel it is important to teach them about it.  The interview is not profound, but is intended to spark some conversation.  The 5 questions my students will ask their parents are:

1. Why do you think it’s important to send me to religious education?
2. What do you think is the most important thing I can learn through religious education?
3. When you were learning about our faith, what was your favorite topic to learn about?
4. What is your favorite prayer? Why?
5. Who is your favorite Saint? Why?

We will discuss the responses briefly in class and I will ask if anything surprised them when interviewing their parents.  Let’s hope this goes well and I will update all of you in a couple of week when it’s complete.

I wanted to express my thanks to all of you for sticking with me through a slow summer.  I’m hoping to get back to my weekly posts now that classes are back in session.

Until next time, God bless and keep sharing the faith.

The day we reviewed the Ten Commandments and tied them to the Greatest Commandments given to us by Jesus, I thought I’d take the opportunity to also review an Examination of Conscience based on the Ten Commandments.  The reason I chose to do this was to expand their understanding from the very literal view they had of them.

I began to explain to them that each Commandment was thematic in nature and besides the obvious literal meaning, they each had implied meanings as well.  We went through each Commandment and I offered them an expanded view of it.  This generated questions like:

“You mean if I miss Mass on Sunday because I my parents go too early and I want to sleep, that’s against the First Commandment?”  If you choose to not go to any Mass, not the one on Saturday night, nor one at a different time on Sunday, they you would be violating both the First and Third Commandments, the First for making sleep more important then God and the Third for missing Mass.

“Why does not listening to teachers break the Fourth Commandment?  They aren’t my parents.”  The Forth Commandment speaks of people with authority over you.  Beyond your parents, that can include people like your grandparents or other family members, your teachers, Father here at the Church, police officers and your boss when you get older, among others.  They are all an extension of your parents, so to speak, and deserve your respect.  Remember that the next time you decide not to behave in this class.  ;)

“Com’on!!  Being lazy is a sin??”   By being lazy, you are taking time away from more important things that you should be doing.  Therefore, being lazy is like stealing; but instead of stealing a physical item, you are stealing time.  There is a time for resting, when all is done; but being lazy is choosing to rest or waste time instead of doing other more important things that you are responsible for.

“What is adultery?”  The Sixth Commandment talks about being faithful to your spouse or your station in life.  (A girl raises her hand so I assume there is a question and I call on her.)  “You know, the sex sins are the hardest to resist.”  Um…Uh…Um…

Never in a million years would I have expected that statement to come up in a sixth grade religion class.  It took me completely by surprise and for the first time, I had nothing to say.  It was somewhat awkward and I think I squeezed out a “Yes, they can be” and moved on.  While I’m sure I responded quickly, it felt like an eternity as I scrambled to come up with a response.  Her statement was no where in my lexicon when I was in 6th grade and I was stunned at the fact that 6th graders could be concerned about this.  I felt like an ostrich with his head in the sand, completely unaware of what was really going on around me and my response made me feel like I was hiding from it.

Upon reflection, I know the Holy Spirit offered me a little dose of humility at that moment, however I can’t help but feel that I missed an opportunity with the class there.  This is clearly something that is on their minds and at least one student felt comfortable enough to voice it in my class.  But, where do you draw the line?  I can just imagine parents’ reactions to students saying, “You’ll never guess what we talked about in religion class tonight!”

Has anyone else had to deal with this, maybe at a slightly older grade level?  How do you cover this material?  Where do you draw the line?  What is appropriate to say and what is better directed elsewhere?

Nonetheless, Catechists should be forewarned!  Covering the Sixth Commandment in a 6th Grade class can lead to an awkward moment.  For me, 6 + 6 does equal “Awkward”!