9 minutes from the November 16 class. Review of earlier Old Testament material connects to future New Testament material, similar to Plus de Review 2.
Notice that from :30 to :54 my bouncer decides to separate a couple of mischievites, and the kids are rearranged on the fly with very little disruption to the lesson flow.
Sorry about the abrupt ending, my editing skills are limited.
Everyone loves a good conversion story.
There’s the setup: I once was lost.
The rising action: the Holy Spirit began working in me (or knocked me off my horse).
The climax: But now I’m found.
A powerful conversion story is a terrific way to “hook” your listeners and get them to start thinking of how Christ could effect similar changes in their own lives.
Then, there are those of us whose conversion stories are more…ongoing. Habitual sins, tepid prayer lives, highs and lows. Nobody is going to be “hooked” by “I used to get really snippy with my husband, and then I prayed for greater patience, so I was more patient, but then I slacked off, and had to start over again, and every time I ask for grace it’s there, but sometimes I make other things a priority, and so it’s just a constant spiritual journey towards a 23% reduction in sarcasm when dealing with the following populations: husband, children, extended family, commenters on online newspaper articles. HEY – pay attention!”
It’s okay. I’ve been there. I am there. Let me tell you what not to do, first off.
Do not dress up your life experiences as something they’re not in hopes of presenting a dramatic conversion narrative.
True, and incriminating story: when in college, I worked as a janitor’s assistant in a factory that made ball bearing retainers. I walked around the factory with a magnetized stick and picked up scrap metal. (My dad got me the job.) It was a summer job and I made better money than I did as a camp counselor.
I used to carry a ball bearing retainer on my keychain and pass it around to my inner-city middle schoolers, telling them all about how my clothes used to smell like motor oil and how I decided to go to college, all because of that job. And they should go to college, too. I thought this would help me “connect.”
I am guessing – just guessing – that they may have seen right through this story of my hardscrabble upbringing, since the truth was that there was no way on earth in which I would have chosen to drop out of college to work at the factory, being the product of a prep school education and a life spent striving to be Teacher’s Pet. Pretty sure I was fooling nobody. I eventually decided that the act was backfiring and I should just be myself.
And so, since my backstory is basically one of persistent, irritating, and embarrassing venial sins, I don’t try to reframe the narrative as something it’s not.
I find that kids can relate to the daily trials that provide us opportunities to grow in our relationship with Christ – I’ve been snapping at my children a lot, and I know it’s getting in the way of my love for them, and so I go to Confession and I have a clean start. My friend calls and asks for my help with something and I’d really rather stay at home and watch my favorite show, but I can offer it up and do the right thing instead of being selfish.
If you believe that God put you in that room for a reason, as a catechist, then you need to trust that He is okay with you just as you are. You don’t need to embellish the details of your relationship with Him in hopes of capturing your students’ attention – be genuine, share what you’re comfortable sharing with them, and give them opportunities to consider what obstacles are blocking their own paths towards a deeper faith.
This also goes – or maybe goes double – for those of us who, for whatever reason, want to keep our conversion stories private. I think sometimes we can feel obligated to tell kids how we got to where we are, but if that story is painful or could cause scandal, there is nothing wrong with holding back.
We have so little time with our students that deploying the personal narrative isn’t something that should take up most of our class time, anyway, right? Besides, even those of us who have had dramatic conversion experiences will still face the mundane realities of “how to live from one minute to the next on a Wednesday afternoon.”
This column originally appeared at Scrutinies.net.
Here is a great quote I found that I think is great as journey through Advent.
Have you slipped? Rise up.
Have you sinned? Cease.
Do not stand among sinners, but leap aside.
For when you turn away and weep, then you will be saved.
–Saint Basil
The other day I received a letter from a former doctor of mine. This was an obstetrician that I used to see years ago who decided to longer practice obstetrics, while I was pregnant with twins, due to the high cost of the malpractice insurance. He was a very nice man and I was sorry to lose him as a caregiver. This was five years ago and I look at it as providential since I have since found an amazing pro-life obstetrician who goes along with my crazy idea of having a large family.
The letter was more than a little disturbing. It was an announcement of a change in his practice, and in fact, of his whole viewpoint in the practice of medicine. He was associating his new philosophy with that of Dr. Andrew Weil and the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. This is all fine and good. There is nothing against our faith in taking a whole body and mind approach to healing. In the letter he indicated that his office would provide a variety of services and the names of the practitioners were listed on the side of the letterhead. There was a nutritionist and several kinds of therapists for both mind and body and there at the end was a yoga instructor and a psychic healer.
Now, I was not considering going to this doctor, but had I been this would have been a huge red flag for me. The yoga was annoying but you can’t seem to go anywhere any more without someone wanting to sign you up for a yoga class, but psychic healing?
Psychic healing is a practice by which a person who may or may not claim to have psychic ability, lays hands on the “patient” and unblocks their energy force and allows the force to flow freely through them promoting both physical and emotional healing.
Or something weird like that.
I generally unblock my energy force with coffee. It works and does not lead me into mortal sin.
Reiki is the most common and popular form of physic healing that is, scandalously, offered in many parishes and Catholic hospitals. Aura healing is also a physic healing practice that is popular and claims to cleanse your aura and unblock the energy flow to your chakras and allow negative energy to flow out.
Let me make this perfectly clear, your life source is your soul, if it is blocked with negativity that is called sin. If you want to be spiritually healed make a good confession and an earnest penance. There is also no such thing as an aura. There I have said it. No auras.
Practitioners of these “healing” methods are often certified by organizations that exist to promote New Age philosophies and occultism. You can usually become certified online and be out unblocking chakras for a large fee in a very short time indeed. As Catholics we would never consent to accept a sacrament from a minister or priest who received an online certification nor, as intelligent people, would we accept real medical treatment from a doctor who only completed an online course. If that is the case then why would you entrust your mind and soul to someone who filled out a questionnaire online and now claims to be able to cleanse your mind and spirit? It makes no sense.
Catholics should shun these practices and complain loudly should they be offered by any parish or Catholic organization. In 2009 The US Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement preventing any use of or promotion of Reiki by Catholic chaplains, retreat centers or health care facilities;
Reiki “finds no support either in the findings of natural science or in Christian belief,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Doctrine said in six pages of guidelines. Moreover, practicing Reiki puts Catholics’ spiritual health in danger, the bishops said, by corrupting worship of God and turning religious devotion “in a false direction.”
“A Catholic who puts his or her trust in Reiki would be operating in the realm of superstition,” the bishops said, “the no-man’s-land that is neither faith nor science.”
If you want true spiritual healing seek out a faithful priest, a representative of Christ here on earth and ask him to hear your confession and give you absolution. The peace and love you will experience will bring grace to every part of your life and you won’t have to wonder what a chakra is.
Did you know that God has sent you a personal invitation to learn your faith anew? Did you know that God has given you a second chance to internalize your faith and attached a tool with which to learn it?
Where? How? you ask. Those children entering your religious education classes, they are God’s personal invitation to learn your faith all over again and, this time, to internalize it. The tool is the liturgical calendar which begins its new cycle this first Sunday of Advent.
In Quas Primas, an Encyclical on the Feast of Christ the King written in 1925, Pope Pius XI instructed us to focus on the new liturgical year as a teaching tool to touch both the mind and heart of our youth. There’s a lot I could highlight and tip my cursor at, but the part I’m especially focused on is this excerpt:
(21) “For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church (emphasis mine). Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year—in fact, forever. The church’s teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man’s nature. Man is composed of body and soul, and he needs these external festivities so that the sacred rites, in all their beauty and variety, may stimulate him to drink more deeply of the fountain of God’s teaching, that he may make it a part of himself, and use it with profit for his spiritual life.”
It goes on, of course, but this is the main flux. What a great read. You can read it at the EWTN website: http://www.ewtn.com/library/encyc/p11prima.htm
I love this! I love that Pope Pius XI confirmed my 21st century mothering and pedagogy instincts though separated by time and space. He agreed that the feasts of the Church do indeed reach all people and affects both mind and heart! Can children be taught in any other way?
He tells us that most of the faithful are not “the more learned” but are, in fact, “only a few” and we are assured that:
“For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church.”
This sentence alone directs the steps of parents and educators in teaching the Catholic faith to children. Take a child’s hand and walk through the “annual celebration” of fasting and feasting, of suffering and redemption, of life and death.
We belong to a Church which invites and welcomes the little children towards the altar of God. That the Church has given us such a beautiful, rich, eventful tool—the liturgical calendar—to focus on and plan our feasting around, speaks to our creative side…the side we share with God the creator.
To reach a child’s heart, one must have a heart which speaks to the child. Look at the church’s liturgical calendar. It’s the clay God has given you to mold into something beautiful this church year.
That the Pontiff agrees that we should focus on these feasts within our homes and churches makes me almost giddy. It makes me want to be a child again. A Catholic child in the 21st century!
Image copyright Full Quiver Publishing/James and Ellen Hrkach
Email us: info(at)fullquiverpublishing for permission to use image.
Review is a form of repetition. And review, like repetition, should be used introduce new concepts which relate to the items being reviewed. That is, review is not just for reteaching old stuff….as shown from these bits of review from the November 16 class:
“Y’all remind me please, who did God tell to get out of town last week? Elijah! Yes, why? ‘Cause he told the King there would be a drought. Yes. And if God tells you to leave town on short notice during a drought, what would you soon be needing? Water! Yes, and…food! Yes. “So he went and did according to the word of the LORD; he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. 6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank from the brook.” (1Kings17)
Someone else remind me what the Israelites needed while they were in the desert. Water! Yes, and…food! Yes…how’d they get those things? Moses hit the rock with his stick and water came out. Yes, and? They had manna. Yes, which was…fried chicken? Well, wasn’t it bread? Yes, sort of. God had said he’d rain down bread on them, and what “rained down” was manna. What other food did God provide? No guesses? Remember when the Israelites complained to Moses about being hungry they said, “in the land of Egypt…we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full.” So what did they want besides bread? Umm…flesh? Yes, but in modern English what would we say? Meat! Yes. Somebody decirme, cómo se llama “meat” en Español; how do you say “meat” in Spanish? Carne! Yes. And how do you say “flesh” in Spanish? Ummm…I think that’s carne, too. Yes. In English we have two words for that idea. One Bible will say “meat” when another says “flesh”. Spanish doesn’t have that problem, it’s always carne, like in carnivorous. But I think it’s better if English Bibles say “flesh” as we’ll see in a minute. But first, y’all remind me what flesh God gave the Israelites. Ravens! Close, another bird. Quail! Yes, quail flesh, quail meat.
So God gave the Israelites bread and…flesh! Yes, and He gave Elijah…bread and flesh! Yes, the same. When the Bible says things the same way on different occasions, you should understand that they are related. For example, did the Israelites walk on wet mud when they crossed the Red Sea? No, dry ground! Yes, and Elijah crossed the Jordan on…dry ground! Yes.
By the way, when God provides people bread and flesh like that, what’s it called? A miracle? Yes, a miracle. And speaking of bread and flesh miracles, can anyone tell me a Jesus bread and flesh miracle? When he made the loaves and fishes? Mmm, good guess, but fish don’t count as meat, as flesh. Another guess? No? Sometimes 6th-graders get this. OK, later on we’ll cover Jesus’ bread and flesh miracle. When we get to it, remember these other ones. Yes, what? What’s the miracle? Nuh-uh, if y’all can’t guess, I’m not telling. Just pay attention when it comes up later on.
New review topic: what’s this? A stick. Gosh, really? Think some more. Moses’ stick! Yes. Tell us about it. He hit the rock and water came out. Yes, and? He parted the water! Yes, so the Israelites could cross on…dry ground! Yes.
And what’s this? Your coat. C’mon, y’all don’t play dumb. It’s Elijah’s coat! Yes, his cloak. So tell it. They hit the water with it and it parted. Yes…what water? The Jordan River. Yes. And Elijah and Elisha crossed…on dry ground! Yes.
And this is…Elijah’s bone! Close…Elisha’s bone! Yes, somebody tell it please. They threw the dead man on his bones and he came back to life. Right. Yes? That’s a chicken bone. Yes, use your imagination. If you don’t have any imagination you can’t be in this class. What do all three of these things have in common: the stick, the cloak, and the bone? They’re all stuff? Yes, genius, they’re all stuff! Yes. And would any of those miracles have worked without this stuff being involved? No! Right. God’s power went through His creation, His stuff. What are we made of [I draw the Gingerbread Man]? A body’n'soul! Yes, and our bodies are made of…stuff! Yes. Our bodies are stuff. Now when people experience God through miracles like the ones that go with the stick, cloak, and bone, pieces of stuff, is it through the soul or the body? The body? Yes, they’re just physical miracles. Dogs don’t have eternal souls, but even a dog could have crossed over the Red Sea on dry ground or eaten a quail. But if we were just souls without bodies, that sort of miracle wouldn’t mean much to us.
Remind me again, we’re a...body’n'soul. Yes. So if we want to have a complete miraculous experience of God we’d want to have it with which parts? Well, both parts? Yes. But these Old Testament miracles just affect people’s… bodies? Yes. But Jesus left us with some miracles that let us experience God body and soul. Can y’all think of one? No guesses? What’s the water miracle we do in church? Ummm…baptism? Right…yes, what? Is baptism a miracle? Well…tell me what happens. You pour the water and the sins are gone. Yes. Washing away sins with water is pretty miraculous, isn’t it? I guess so, but baptism’s a sacrament, not a miracle. That’s a good point, but maybe Baptism is both a sacrament and a miracle, and we’re just so used to it that we don’t notice. We can’t see the miraculous part of a sacrament, but it’s still there. By the way, if there’s no water is it ok if the priest just pretends to pour water? No! Right, the miracle won’t work without the stuff. We are spirit’n'stuff, so the sacraments are…spirit’n'stuff too! Yes.
When we get to Jesus in a couple of weeks we’ll see him work some physical miracles, but also some that are physical and spiritual. I want y’all to be able to tell them apart, so keep an eye out for that.”
The above review took about 10 minutes. Probably half of the time we were applying new ideas to the old material in preparation for Jesus and the New Testament.
The Thanksgiving holiday conjures up all kinds of images for students.
Turkey. Family. Pilgrims. Shopping.
But the holiday itself doesn’t really speak much about giving thanks.
I know, there’s the whole pilgrims starving in the winter thing. But that’s almost a myth.
What is it about giving thanks that we should remember it every year in a big way?
And, how can you integrate Thanksgiving into your Catholic classroom?
I’ll give you a hint–giving thanks is actually a very Catholic thing!
If you know anything at all about Ignatian spirituality, you’ve heard about the Examen. It’s a form of prayer developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola.
In the Examen, you review the events of the day in order to understand where God was moving in your life and how you responded to him. It’s not a laundry list of sins, it’s more an exercise in spiritual sensitivity. Figuring out how aware you were of God that day.
The first step in the Examen is gratitude. You begin by reviewing the gifts you’ve received from God that day and giving him thanks for these blessings.
Why start prayer by giving thanks? Shouldn’t you start by asking for what you need?
In The Examen Prayer, Timothy Gallagher suggests this step comes from St. Ignatius’ own experience of God and his conversion.
“From the very start of his turning toward God, Ignatius experiences God as giving: giving immediately, the moment our hearts say ‘yes’ to God’s desire for relationship with us, giving abundantly, endlessly pouring out in gifts a love greater than our hearts can fathom.”
St. Ignatius once said, “We will much sooner tire of receiving his gifts than he of giving them.” For Ignatius, God is the giver of gifts! That’s the God he knew. That’s the only God he knew!
Confident that he is known and loved for who he is, and that God continually pouring out blessings, Ignatius sees a huge part of his spirituality as thanksgiving.
So, what better way to worship God than to recognize and be thankful for these gifts? Gallagher claims it is “the heart itself of the way he understands God and relates to God.”
God is continually pouring out blessing. That’s who God is. That what he does. We are continually swimming in blessing. You are awash in it right now!
All of creation is a result of the blessing and great gift of God’s love.
The inner life of the Blessed Trinity is a continual pouring out of life and love. That exchange of love between the Persons of the Trinity is so great, in fact, that it can’t be contained within themselves. It has to overflow.
The first manifestation of God’s overflowing love is creation. God’s love overflowed and the result was life–the universe and all of us. What are we meant to do with it? Receive it and make a return of it to him.
Do you spend your day recognizing the many gifts and blessings God is pouring out into your life?
I think most of us instead recognize the daily annoyances, burdens, difficulties, and inconveniences. These get our attention more than anything. They usually win out.
You might say, “But it seems like all I get are these bad things! God’s not giving me any blessings.”
Oh, but he is. The question is, are you spending time trying to recognize them.
I’ve learned a lot about God from being a father.
My youngest son can sometimes ask a lot of me. He gets these projects in his head like making his own stuffed animal out of washcloths. Of course, that involves a lot of sewing on my part (yes, I can sew…a little).
The thing is even though he’s demanding, he’s always grateful. However the project comes out, he’s thankful for it. He’s so happy when it’s done and carries it around everywhere. And, he makes sure I know how appreciative he is for the gift.
I think it’s like that with God. I think he enjoys doing huge things for us when we show him how great appreciation.
When we go out of our way to recognize his blessing in our lives and thank him, we give him worship. I think that leads God to bless us even more.
Think about it, what can we give God that he really needs. Does our adoration, prayer, love, and good works really add anything to his glory? No, there’s no way they could.
God is continually pouring out love and blessings on us. He’s always taking care of us. He even holds us in existence by his will! What does he want from us?
God wants us to receive all this from him. He wants us to take his gifts–to recognize them, be grateful for them, and to return them. He wants us to receive his love and return it to him. That’s the most we can ever do for him.
Gratitude, thanksgiving…it’s at the heart of Catholic spirituality. It’s at the heart of Catholic life.
Not just once a year–every day. All through the day.
But one day, Thanksgiving Day, is not bad either.
Happy Thanksgiving!
This post originally appeared on Marc’s blog Evangelizing Catechesis. Visit there for more on Catholic evangelization, catechesis, and spirituality.
With Advent just around the corner, I’d like to share a few of my favorite Advent books:
Welcome Baby Jesus by Sarah Reinhard
Sarah Reinhard’s new book, Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent and Christmas Reflections for Families, takes a refreshing, unique approach to Advent.
There are many children’s Advent/Christmas books out there, but this delightful book includes activities and reflections for the entire family.
From the author: “Advent is a season that’s almost forgotten by the secular world. You’ll find Advent calendars, to be sure, but they are really an adornment for the “Christmas season,” which begins sometime after Halloween and ends on Christmas Day.”
Each section encompasses three different activities: Think, Pray and Act. Each Sunday has its own theme. The First Sunday of Advent and the week following is “Get Ready.” The Second Sunday and following week is “Repent.” The Third Sunday’s theme is “Love,” and the fourth Sunday, “Anticipate.” The Christmas season has its own theme:” Rejoice.” There are also stories and activities for the Feast of the Epiphany.
What sets this apart from other Advent preparation books is that it has reflections and activities for the entire family (parents included) so that both parent and child can prepare for the celebration of Christ’s birth.
Sarah Reinhard’s beautifully-designed book is an ideal gift for those families who wish to embrace the true meaning of Christmas and to grow closer to Christ. I highly recommend this wonderful book to everyone!
I also reviewed Joy to the World by Kathleen Basi last year on Amazing Catechists. Great book for the entire family!
My all-time favorite Advent book is called “Donkey Bells” by Catherine Doherty, foundress of Madonna House. This gem of a book is filled with stories, traditions, meditations and customs. I highly recommend it!
Do you have a favorite Advent book? Feel free to comment…
The lake. Our lake.
The lake that captures western sun and turns glassy waters pink like salmon as day draws dusky. That captures eastern sky with new day’s brightness, flourishing crystal waters as an orange never-used crayon. That dawns with possibility and newness. Each day, as if untouched.
The lake that sees summertime memory making. Whose permanence is landscape to our memories. The backdrop for so little, yet so much: Horse shoe clinks. Badminton swishes. Dock jumping. Fledging friendships begun over sand castle architecture. Catching first fish. Rowing first boats. Grilling simple meals.
And yes, even the mosquito bites, the sunburns, the poison ivy, the late afternoon, sans-nap toddler, tantrum-ing and rife with wriggling, wet sandy bathing suit.
For memories, like life, we find, even here in this perfect haven, are punctuated with the good, the bad. Those light, airy, happy and those etched with tinges of sadness or regret. Because our yesterday and our today are not all sunshine and unicorns. Nor will our tomorrow be.
The lake that mirrors staggering old growth pines from island to shore. Alone. Unrippled. Undisturbed. Perfect. We dub it Tom Sawyer Island, our island in lake’s middle.
And even in the weeds, beauty. Rooted dozens of feet below surface in muddy, silty lake bottom. Lily – pad clustered flowers. Delicate mauves and lucent yellows. Pinks, radiant; greens, lush. Color brimming as we approach and admire up close in screeching, clunky rowboat. God’s gift to us, these nature’s decorations. These petals curving skyward. Giving homage, it seems, to the Lord. To the Author of creation.
And the summer sounds, the-unnoticeable-elsewhere-yet-intensified-here soundtrack of the lake. Whose continuous beat if set to metronome, would not falter:
Canoe and paddler rhythmically slicing glassy waters. A widening V disappearing, reappearing.
The insistent cicadas. Their shrill throbbing, near to hysteria, grabbing us, pressing into our consciousness, forcing us to notice. Louder, thicker. An awakening to the ever presence of God’s creatures. Even the insects we deem unappealing. These creatures, at the lake, our lake.
And above, azure skies hold chunky, ragged-edged clouds of pure white. Sailing, racing almost. Casting silhouettes of pine, of birch, of long necked Canada geese ashore.
Our lake is storybook. A storybook that is real. As real to us as deadlines, as commitments, as taxes, as ever present life, as eventual death. And so, we create intermission in our lives, a schedule-less time out to touch this realness and live the lake’s story. Summer after summer.
With those who matter most. Living what matters most.
Even on days not idyllic, not picture perfect. When storms threaten and drizzle lingers. Days whose dawns hold sticky grey-ness and a promise of hazy dullness ahead. Whose afternoons hold a harsh word for which we eventually ask forgiveness or offer forgiveness. On these days too, especially on these days, it is a place where eternity is glimpsed.
A place whose stories will be lived and relived in many times and in many places: Southward on Interstate 87 as we wind homeward on the Saturday bookending our week.
On a Tuesday evening two years from now after baseball practice, over a spicy chili and crusty Italian bread dinner.
Over our Thanksgiving table a half dozen years from now, pumpkin pie and simmering cider fragrances wafting throughout dining room.
Or Christmas Eve a decade from now, tree adorned and memory-laden ornaments, pulled from cushioned boxes, admired once again, as my boys settle into home after an autumn away at college.
During tuxedo fittings for one son’s upcoming nuptials, two decades in the future. One will be groom; one, best man.
And perhaps as their own children, the same ages they are now, trick or treat together, flit around playgrounds together; perhaps even swim to our island or cast fishing lines together. On the lake. Our lake.
For we’ve found that our lake is the closest place to Heaven there is on Earth.
Hey y’all, for the next few classes we’re going to learn about things in church; what they’re for, where they come from, stuff like that. Somebody tell me again where Abraham was from. Mesopotamia! That’s right. What did Mesopotamians build? Ziggurats! What were they for? I think people prayed there or something. Yes. Couldn’t they [...]
It was a strange-looking envelope, made even more so by the fact that no one in the house has a birthday in early May. Who could be sending a card? I didn’t recognize the return address, though the name was ringing a distant bell. To top things off, there was a lump in it. My [...]
It seems that we can’t do much without money, therefore we’ve got to make money to survive and provide for our families. In Jesus’ day the money changers in the temple were trying to make a living but at other peoples expense. Jesus became poor by coming to earth and taking on human flesh in [...]
This Sunday is Mother’s Day, a day to celebrate motherhood and remember our mothers, an opportunity for our children to show their appreciation. I celebrated my birthday recently. My biggest wish was to celebrate with my five sons ages 13-24. A few of them are no longer living at home so I was thrilled that [...]
Not the end of the century, but the last class. I like the look and sound of Fin de Siècle more than The Last Class. The second half of the last class is a weaving-together of assorted Biblical threads into the fabric of the Mass, especially by way of the by-now-familiar handout that compares the [...]
