Making Sunday Special

I was recently watching the program “Sunday Morning” where they were celebrating their 30th year on the air. I found it interesting to see what has changed in the last 30 years. One thing interesting to me a as religious educator is how American’s live Sunday, the first day of the week. In 1979 almost everything was closed on Sunday’s. Families gathered at grandmother’s house. Today, we sit at our computer or blackberry and email family instead of seeing them as often as they use to. The CBS show reported that 24% of American’s go to church and noted the same amount shop on Sunday.

Yes, much has changed in just 30 years – our means of communication, our weekly schedule, our use of words, and so much more, but one thing that is consistent for a Catholic is Sunday Mass. This time to gather to celebrate our faith and worship Christ. I find it troubling that so many parents today find Sunday Mass optional. The busyness of life contributes to so many missing Mass.

God’s commandments do not change, even when circumstances and society does. Sunday Mass is our lifeline to God through him communicating to us in His Word (Sacred Scripture) and giving himself to us in the Eucharist. This is the greatest gift of our lives. Let us pray that parents and religious educators may continue to seek the source of their salvation and strength – Christ.

Here are 3 ways to make Sunday a special family day:

1) Go to Mass as a family. In a busy world if families go to Mass they can sometimes struggle to go together. It is important to go together sharing this holy hour as a family.

2) Read the Mass readings together before Mass or sometime on Sunday and reflect on how your family can live the Scriptures out in your everyday life.

3) Eat a meal together and do something that allows your family to spend some quality time with one another. This allows everyone to reconnect and enjoy the most important people in their lives.

 

3 ways to use Scripture in the classroom

How do you use Scripture in your classroom?  Using the Scirptures in your teaching is key to drawing students closer to Christ and His ways.  Here are three great ways to use Scripture in your classroom:

1) Use Scripture during your Opening Prayer.    Choose a Scripture that connects with the lesson of the day or the liturgical season or the feast/memorial of that day.  This helps studnets see how important it is to turn to God and seek his wisdom and guidance.

2.  Have Studnets look up Scripture.  The primary way to helps students be familiar with the Bible is to have them look things up themselves.  This may take a little longer to move forward with your lesson but the value outweighs the cost.  If studnets are looking Scripture up then they are also learning that your teaching is rooted in Holy Scripture. 

3. Close your Lesson in Prayer using Scripture.  Seeking God at the end of your class time through prayer and again drawing upon the word of God to direct and lead them until you meet again is important.  It would also be great to assign students a Scripture to look up this week and to pray with.  For example, I’ve asked students to read Psalm 23 everyday this next week to see what God is saying to them.  After a week there will be some who say that God spoke the same thing to them every day they read it and others who share that God spoke one thing one day and another thing the next time they read it. 

We want to be soaked in the Sacred Scriptures.  St. Paul said, It is “living and active cutting between bone and marrow” (Hebrews 4:12).  May the students you teach see your love for God’s revelation through the Scriptures.

 

Helping Studnets Memorize: Part II

During the past 10 years memorization has had a resurgence in Religious Education circles because of the importance of helping students hand on the faith.  It is very difficult to hand on our faith if we do not know what it means to be Catholic and what we believe as Catholics.

 

St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of 4 ways to help students memorize material:

1) Use a picture or image of the idea;
2) Organize material in a logical order;
3) Choose to memorize something important;
4) Repeat and reflect on the subject often.

These are 4 great ways to focus in the classroom on helping our studnets grow in their knowledge of the faith and retain it.  Dr. Barbara Minczewski wrote a good article in the Feb. 2008 Catechist Magazine entitled,  Spreading the Word: Catechetical Methodologies.  In it she says: “For without knowing basic Catholic teaching, prayers, and practices on which to build a lifelong relationship with God and others, children can lose sight of their call to be people of God and to bring about the reign of God in this age and time.”

Together let us seek the assistance of the Holy Spirit as we empower our studnets to memorize their faith so they may be the very instruments of hope and God’s love in the world around them!

 

Take The Quiz

Here is a great quiz put out by Catholic Answers about some key aspects of the Catholic Faith. Test your knowledge and see how you do.

www.catholic.com/thisrock/1993/9302fea1.asp

 

Advent…Rejoice Always

St. Paul’s called to the Romans (and calls us) to Rejoice always!  This is key to living a Christian life today.  Joy has always been the sign of a life lived in Christ.  It used to be the “secret password” to identify Christians in the Early Church from non-believers.  More than ever we (Directors of Religious Education Programs, Catechists and Parents) need to radiate joy in our lives and pass it on to others.  Our students need to see our authentic joy for Christ so that they will desire to live for Him.

May this third week of Advent be a reminder that the joy of the Lord is our Strength (Nehemiah 8:10) and through living joy Christ will be made known to those we teach and those we encounter everyday.  My prayer for this week is (in the word’s of St. Paul):

“May the God of peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it.”