High School Archives - Amazing Catechists

MAC Notes For Praying With Children

It was a great joy to present some ideas about praying with children, this past Friday (February 16), at the Mid-Atlantic Congress, in Baltimore. It touched my heart very much to be in Maryland (Mary-land!) surrounded by dedicated people of faith.

I want to thank all of you who attended for your warmth, your attention, and most of all for your commitment to bring the Faith to others, no matter how difficult that task may seem. But we know that God is faithful, and what we plant He waters.

Please feel free to ask questions in the com boxes and I’ll add more material, as needed. Here are the bullet points, reading resources, Catechism quotes, Scriptures, and other elements of the talk:

The Annunciation, by Henry Tanner

I began by talking about the fact that we are all made for supernatural experiences and interactions. It is natural for us to experience the supernatural! From the beginning of our lives to the moment we enter heaven, we are accompanied by a guardian angel, a pure spirit so unique that it is a separate species from all other spirits (according to Catholic angelologists). This mighty being beholds the face of God in heaven and attends to our souls with perfect dedication and love.

I shared two prayers from my new book, Heads Bowed: Prayers for Catholic School Days. The first is from Week One and was written for the adult preparing for the school year (there are two weeks of preparation prayers), and the other is from Week Nine of the children’s prayers and provides a prayer lesson on the same topic: Angels!

Here they are:

Holy Angels, you surround us with your prayerful and protective presence at all times, and I thank you. I ask that you watch over our classroom throughout the coming year, filling it with your praises to God and guarding it diligently with your holy presence and your powerful prayers. Draw down from heaven every grace and blessing we need to heal our wounds, repent of our sins, and offer our sufferings in union with the cross of Jesus Christ for the good of souls. Amen. (Week 1: Theme: Strength in Weakness)

Dear Jesus, St. Anselm taught that from the moment we are created in our mother’s womb, God gives us a guardian angel to watch over us. We are precious to God no matter how small we are. Even though we are hidden away for a little while before we were born, God always sees us and loves us! After we are born, God’s angel stays with us throughout our lives and guides us safely to God, when we die. Our angel will not leave us or stop praying for us until we are ready to enter into the joy of heaven! Amen. (Week 9: Theme: The Unborn)

Nothing is more natural than teaching the Faith through prayer. We do this naturally when we are raising our own children. We call out the attributes of God, express our trust in His mercy, and use a language of love that helps each child feel they are a part of something beautiful and true.

Every one of the almost 300 prayers in my book is a short catechetical lesson, as well as a prayer. The collection spans about 10 months of school days, plus special occasion prayers, a glossary of challenge words, and a scriptural reference for each week. The traditional dedications of the days and months, the liturgical seasons, virtues, and mysteries of the Rosary, are also woven into the prayers, so that young children experience them simply and older children and adults have more to interest them.

More notes:

We ourselves express an amazing nature that will be perfected, in heaven. On earth, we possess five senses that help us to access the intangibles of heaven, and after the Resurrection of the Dead, our glorified senses will be even more amazing! That’s why the Church is so wise about beauty, which is a gateway to truth and goodness–to God Himself.

Body and Soul: One Human Nature: CCC 365

The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the “form” of the body: i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.

When Jesus entered into time, He sanctified it. And when He took on human flesh, he sanctified that, too. That means that every moment of our lives is holy and our lives have meaning and purpose from our earliest biological beginnings to the very end of our natural lives. It is all His! Every moment is precious. The world tells us otherwise, discarding the helpless unborn and the elderly, which is the darkest kind of ignorance, masquerading as sophistication.

Note: Those who have been lied to, indoctrinated, pressured, and wounded by these evils (i.e., post-abortive women and families) are tenderly loved by God and need only seek His healing love to be restored and strengthened, to be given new life, and to carry out their true purpose in Him. Check out Rachel’s Vineyard for loving support in finding healing.

Never doubt the dignity of your own soul. God, who contains the entire universe and all of heaven–the angels, saints, holy souls, our beloved who are living and those who have died, the stars and planets, every layer of creation–this God abides tenderly and devotedly in our souls. Within our souls dwells the Holy Spirit, by virtue of our baptism, and each time we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we become tabernacles of His holy presence. That Presence has an impact on the world around us, as it radiates through us.

St. Therese of Lisieux said, “How great must a soul be to contain a God.”
Jesus said, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (Jn 14:23)
When the Lord is with us, we are empowered to live the adventure of our own lives, to fulfill the unique calling of God to our individual souls!
God wants to make a masterpiece in our souls.
Learning and teaching the Faith is a key to that wondrous transformation in Christ.

“For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

Learning our faith a little at a time draws us closer to God and empowers our mission.

As we move through our lives, studying our faith, we “scratch” at ideas that may be familiar, but perhaps we don’t fully understand, yet. The Liturgical year takes us round and round the treasure map of our faith, and we scratch a little every year, going deeper into the treasury of grace and knowledge that feeds our walk with Christ. If we keep scratching a little at a time, we uncover treasures that change our lives, light our souls on fire, and make it impossible for us to keep our excitement to ourselves.

I absolutely love Dr. Edward Sri’s book, A Biblical Walk Through the Mass: Understanding What We Say and Do in the Liturgy. He takes each piece of the Mass, scratches and digs deeply into the origins and biblical connections, and unearths the treasures within. He begins with the very start of the Mass:

“On the one hand, from a Scriptural perspective, the words ‘The Lord be with you’ remind us of the high calling we each have. As God’s children, we each have a particular mission to fulfill in the Father’s plan…each of us has a role that no one else can play…these words also assure us that we have access to a higher power that can support us through the trials and challenges of life and help us be faithful in whatever task God has entrusted to us.” (p. 26)

Dr. Sri goes on to explain that when God says, “I will be with you,” or an angel says, “The Lord is with you,” he is saying that we need not fear anything. He describes some examples: Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Mary. Each is empowered to accomplish the impossible, in friendship with God.

When we hear the priest say, at Mass, “The Lord be with you,” we should hear the voice of the Lord saying to us:

I will equip you, I will provide for you, I will defend you, and I will give you victory.
Through the gift of Himself in the Eucharist, Christ strengthens us.
Our heroes are heroes because they trusted in the power of God.
Prayer and study change us, opening us up to God’s grace (LIFE).
When we persevere in prayer and sacramental life, we become radiant witnesses.

Pope Paul VI famously wrote: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”

We all want to be radiant witnesses, but I sometimes feel, working with children, that I’m ill-prepared or uninspired, so I pray, “Lord, light me up! You are my wattage!” And He never lets me down. If I walk out of class feeling like a failure, I say, “Lord, I don’t know what I did in there, but I know You did something!”

The amazing Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen always prayed before he taught: “Lord, send me Pentecostal fire!”

But to become Radiant Witnesses, we need sacramental healing and cleansing: confession. Here’s the fun commercial I do at all my talks. When you do this for your own presentations, have fun! Sell it! Make them laugh. It will help them remember.

Feeling tired? Rundown? Discouraged? Feel like Jesus hasn’t been answering your prayers, lately? Well, how would you like to get back in the game so fast it’ll make the enemy’s head spin? Get some religion, get your groove back? Let the light of the Lord shine right through you and out to the world? Well, you’re in luck! Because right now you, my friend, can get back in the race with some sanctifying grace. Discovering the elation of reconciliation. Free at last! Free of charge, at a Catholic parish near you, where a priest is waiting to take your call. Get back in the game. Get back to confession!

Why It is Important to Pray With Children

Adults humbly approaching the throne of God is a powerful witness.
Recognizing something greater than ourselves is an important reality check.
Respecting authority in childhood—leads to exercising healthy authority as adults.
Praying together gives children a blueprint for prayer—they mimic to learn the language of love.
They realize they can have a relationship with God, Our Lady, the saints, angels, and the Holy Souls.
They are reminded that they are made for supernatural encounters.
Prayer empowers them to enter into the mystery—and the paradoxes of a life lived for God.
Memories and habits of prayer, soaked in love, become rich in meaning and take root for a lifetime.
An intimate relationship with God is an indispensable means to achieving their life’s purpose with clarity.
The habit of prayer strengthens them to stand against dark influences and live for God.

Pixabay

Working prayer into our lessons and lessons into our prayers

Here, I shared some ideas about the naturalness of prayer as a way to teach, and lessons as a way to incorporate prayer, beginning with the Sign of the Cross–again, based on a lesson from Dr. Sri’s book. I began with this excerpt, however, from an EWTN interview with author and editor, Bert Ghezzi:

Bert Ghezzi (from EWTN interview):

The sign of the cross is: a confession of faith; a renewal of baptism; a mark of discipleship; an acceptance of suffering; a defense against the devil; and a victory over self-indulgence.
When you make the sign, you are professing a mini version of the creed — you are professing your belief in the Father, and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.
When you say the words and pray in someone’s name you are declaring their presence and coming into their presence— that’s how a name is used in Scripture.

The ancient version of the Hebrew letter “Tav” looks like a cross (or an X)

Dr. Sri talked about “signs” in the Bible:

Exodus 12: Passover: the Israelites were spared because of the lamb’s blood on their doorposts
Revelations 7:3: the saints in heaven have a seal on their forehead
Ezekial 9:4: those marked with the TAV were spared the wrath of God.

St. John Chrysostom said this about the Sign of the Cross:

When, then, you make the sign of the cross on the forehead, arm yourself with a saintly boldness, and reinstall your soul in its old liberty; for you are not ignorant that the cross is a prize beyond all price.

Consider what is the price given for your ransom, and you will never more be slave to any man on earth. This reward and ransom is the cross. You should not then, carelessly make the sign on the forehead, but you should impress it on your heart with the love of a fervent faith. Nothing impure will dare to molest you on seeing the weapon, which overcometh all things.

All of this to say that when we “scratch” below the surface and find treasures, we cannot help but share them and that passion ignites a fire in children.

Pixabay

Creating a Prayerful Environment for Children:

No phones, please. The addictive quality of cell phones and other electronic devices is very real and should be prohibited in class.
Basic discipline should create a safe environment for the shyest children. Don’t let alpha kids take over. Be forgiving but firm.
Your own example of faith and reverence is contagious.
Beauty! As we know, our souls are touched by beauty. Use it as much as you can: sacred art, candles, music, Easter and Christmas cards! God speaks through beauty and touches our hearts when nothing else can.

Meeting Them Where They Are

Learning styles and developmental issues can be understood easily. Lots of information is available online.
They remember how you made them feel, so ask Jesus to act through you and speak through you with the love only He can give.
The grace of forgiveness and second chances: show mercy, while maintaining order.
Children’s memories and associations: sometimes they surprise us with weird connections. They are making memories, as they connect their own ideas with the new ones. Don’t despair that they don’t seem to understand. They’re working on it.
Communication and cleaning up messes: be sensitive to the children’s feelings. You don’t know how much you may matter to them or how God may be touching that child by your witness, without your knowledge. If you think you may have done something insensitive, circle back and make amends.
Prayer Basket keeps the community strong: get the names of all their loved ones on cards that go in a basket for weekly prayer. They stay connected with the community of the classroom that way, even when they are not able to be present.

First Through Third Grade

A decade of the Rosary takes five minutes! Inviting Our Lady into the classroom makes everything better. And Sister Lucia, one of the seers of Fatima (and many saints) have said, “…there is no problem that cannot be resolved by the recitation of the Holy Rosary.” It is a spiritual weapon par excellence!
Intentions clarified: make sure the children understand what they are praying for. Invite feedback.
Marching to hymns of praise gets their wiggles out and provides a liturgical feel as you transition to the next activity.
Spontaneous prayer is important. If a child brings up a worry or concern, pray on the spot.
Throwing their prayers up to God. I have them close their eyes and hold out their hands, palms up, giving God everything on their hearts and then making a tossing motion, giving it to him to take care of.
God can make good come out of any bad thing, can bring beauty from ugliness, and hope from despair. Keep weaving this into prayer with them.
Name saints! I research the children’s names at the start of the year and weave those saints into lesson time.
Trips to the Church are essential: entering reverently, blessing themselves with holy water, and genuflecting with their eyes on the tabernacle (greeting Jesus silently in their hearts) can be practiced ahead of time, in class. I love to walk through the Stations of the Cross with them, having the boys say one half and the girls the other, and then switching halfway through (We bless thee oh Lord and we praise you; for by your holy cross you have redeemed the world). Talking about the altar as a table for a holy meal, a place of sacrifice (the Lamb of God), and connecting it all to the sacraments gives them more connection to the Mass.
Sacramentals: have them reverently practice venerating blessed sacramentals: i.e., a crucifix, a sacred image, a relic, a medal.
Living a moment in Scripture: I act out Bible stories with my kids after I read them aloud, so they get to experience in different ways: they hear the story, see the pictures, and then “live” it for a few short minutes. Every learning style is covered, this way, and it helps them remember. It’s all very easy and loose. For more information, see my booklet, Be An Amazing Catechist: Inspire the Faith of Children.

Fourth Through Eighth Grade and Beyond

See above, plus…
Cultivating silence: their lives are noisy. Give them opportunities to experience silent prayer.
Spiritual bouquets for the Holy Souls: these powerful allies in purgatory need our prayers and pray for us with great impact when we pray for them. Establish this relationship early. It benefits the Church and many souls.
Adopting a mission or ministry: choose something where they can receive progress reports and other kinds of feedback, so they see the impact of their prayers and a way to help out when they are old enough.
Relationships with saints: through their name saints, the liturgical year, and martyr stories, children can be intrigued about the saints and want to know them better and learn from them. Also, namesaintgenerator.com is a great online resource. Have them pray to the Holy Spirit, then click the interface to choose a saint. They should study the saint’s life and pray, “Teach me what you know,” for a set period of time.
Eucharistic miracles: true accounts abound and are fascinating to tweens and teens: see this website: http://therealpresence.org/

Scroll down to these images for more information.

Incorruptibles: these somewhat strange miraculous occurrences fascinate teens and tweens.
Adoration: teens often find a personal relationship with Christ in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I even take very young children and tell them that Jesus is waiting for them, His arms loaded with gifts of grace. They should silently tell Him about their day, share their hopes and worries, and pray simply, “Jesus, I adore You!” With older students, we memorize the Anima Christi for after Communion and for Adoration:

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from the side of Christ, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee
From the malignant enemy defend me
At the hour of my death call me
And bid me come to Thee
That with thy saints I may praise thee
Forever and ever
Amen

Special liturgies that involve them in the planning, reading, and music, help them to understand the Mass and their role as contributing members of the community.
Conferences can do what we can’t. Chastity, TOB, the Real Presence, Vocations–youth speakers have a powerful calling to reach the hearts and minds of teens and tweens. Do whatever you can to get your middle and high school students to appropriate events.

Remember, what we plant, He waters!

Here’s my resource list! Let me know if you need anything else. I’m happy to help!

Published Resources:

Heads Bowed: Prayers for Catholic School Days, by Lisa Mladinich (Liguori Publications)

Be An Amazing Catechist: Inspire the Faith of Children, by Lisa Mladinich (in English and Spanish, from Our Sunday Visitor)

Be An Amazing Catechist: Sacramental Preparation, by Lisa Mladinich (in English and Spanish, from Our Sunday Visitor)

A Biblical Walk Through the Mass: Understanding What We Say and Do in the Liturgy, by Edward Sri (Ascension Press)

The Happiness of Heaven: The Joys and Rewards of Eternal Glory, by Fr. J. Boudreau, S.J. (1870) (TAN reprint)

Champions of the Rosary: The History and Heroes of a Spiritual Weapon, by Father Donald Calloway (Marian Press)

What Matters Most: Empowering Young Catholics for Life’s Big Decisions, by Leonard J. DeLorenzo (Ave Maria Press)

Prayer for Beginners, by Peter Kreeft (Ignatius Press)

Free Online Resources:

AmazingCatechists.com

Article on praying with children: http://amazingcatechists.com/2018/02/teach-kids-pray-5-simple-steps/

CatholicMom.com (my puppet scripts)

https://catholicmom.com/kids/puppet-ministry/

MyFirstHolyCommunion.com (Tarcisius)

http://www.myfirstholycommunion.com/portfolio-view/st-tarcisius-boy-martyr-of-the-eucharist/

TheRealPresence.org

http://therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/a3.html

SaintsNameGenerator.com

http://saintsnamegenerator.com/

Fisheaters.com (tour of the church)

https://www.fisheaters.com/churchbuilding.html

VIDEO: My Visit With Doug Keck on EWTN Bookmark

By Lisa Mladinich

My new book for parents, catechists, and Catholic school teachers, helps adults and children learn their faith together!

It was an honor to be interviewed by Doug Keck, on EWTN’s BookMark, on location at the Catholic Marketing Network Tradeshow.

In this episode, Doug featured me and three other members of the Catholic Writers’ Guild, talented Catholic writers with a true heart for the Church: Joe Wetterling, A.J. Cattapan, and Cathy Gilmore.

My interview starts at about the 5 1/2 minute mark, FYI.

Email me directly, if you’d like to gift a bundle of discounted copies of my book to your catechists, faculty, or homeschool network!

Blessings of Advent

Lisa Mladinich

lisa@mladinich.com

Julia’s Gifts: A Page-turner and a Tool for Evangelization

By Lisa Mladinich

I’m a big believer that literature has the potential to evangelize. Stories told well can leave an indelible mark on our imagination and give us a whole new vocabulary for our hopes in God.

With that lofty purpose in mind, if you or a young person you love (13 and up) is looking for a romance novel that glorifies purity and justifies faith—especially in times of uncertainty and suffering—I highly recommend Julia’s Gifts: Great War–Great Love, Book 1, by Ellen Gable.

I’ve been a fan of Gable’s period romance novels for years, starting with In Name Only and then its sequel, A Subtle Grace. Each of her stories is passionately pure of heart, as the author brings her heroines through trying—and sometimes tragic—circumstances to satisfying, believable resolutions full of the joy of their Catholic faith.

Her latest book is the first in a new series and introduces Julia Murphy, a naïve, provincial American girl, who starts buying gifts for the man she will one day meet and marry–before she has any idea who he is. She simply trusts that one day her “beloved” will appear.

Set during World War I, Julia and her best friend volunteer to join the war effort in France, by serving in a medical unit near the front lines. Assigned as aids to the nurses, the girls find themselves working long, backbreaking shifts among the wounded and the sick, and—in the midst of grave dangers–finding the strength to tend suffering soldiers with compassion and courage.

And, yes, Julia meets someone very interesting, a man who may become worthy of her love–with the help of her gifts.

Rather than spoil it for you, let me just say that this novel expresses something I have discovered in my own life: that God wastes nothing, and that if we step out in faith, not only will he use us and use the naïve and feckless choices we make to do enormous good and bring blessings—even miracles—to others, but he will surpass our hopes and bring us to spiritual maturity, in the process.

For its beauty, for its charm, for its power to speak truth to its readers through another delightful adventure, I highly recommend Julia’s Gifts.

As a special preview, author Ellen Gable answered the question I know you’re all wondering about:

Can you tell us about the next two books of the series?

Yes. Charlotte’s Honor is Book #2 and takes place at approximately the same time as Julia’s Gifts, but focuses on a different female protagonist, Charlotte, who finds her purpose in life when she begins working in the death ward and holding men’s hands as they die. She is attracted to Canadian Dr. Paul Kilgallen. During an advance by the enemy, everyone at the field hospital evacuates, except for Charlotte and Dr. K. They remain hidden in the basement of the chateau to take care of the terminally ill men and those soldiers who can’t be moved. Charlotte becomes convinced that Paul is her own “beloved.” But when she loses contact with Paul, she fears not only for his safety, but begins to doubt his love for her. Charlotte’s Honor will be released in late 2018.

Ella’s Promise is Book #3 in the series. It is about the daughter of German immigrants, Ella, an American nurse who (because of the time period) was discouraged from continuing on in her studies to be a doctor. She works as a nurse for three years in Philadelphia but reads medical books every opportunity she gets. During the Great War, she travels to Le Treport, France to work at the American-run hospital. She meets her own beloved in the last place she would expect to meet him. Ella’s Promise will be released in mid-2019.

**********

UPDATE: Here’s an article by Catherine Gilmore about teaching virtue to young girls through book clubs, and it includes more on Julia’s Gifts and other beautiful stories!

Ellen Gable is an award-winning author, Marketing Director for Live the Fast, self-publishing book coach, speaker, publisher, NFP teacher, book reviewer and instructor in the Theology of the Body for Teens. However, the roles she loves the most are being wife to her husband and mother to their five sons, ages 18-30. Originally from New Jersey, Ellen lives with her husband of 35 years, James Hrkach, in Pakenham, Ontario Canada.

Find Ellen at:

Blog: Plot Line and Sinker

Full Quiver Publishing

He Never Leaves You

By Lisa Mladinich

This short, but powerful, video came to my attention through a local friend.

It would be a great meditation point for your RCIA, Youth/Campus Ministry, Confirmation, or other adult/teen program.

The message?

Jesus never leaves you—no matter what.

Note: I am blessed to live the Diocese of Rockville Centre, in New York, where some of our holy and faithful priests maintain the beautiful blog that featured this original video. Please visit them here: petersboat.net.

Students Praying to Know God’s Will

By Father Juan Velez

Kids learn from their siblings, their friends, and especially their parents. It is important that from an early age kids see their parents praying, working, serving others, and reading. They will imitate them and over time grow and mature with these indispensable habits. In other words, parents are the first Catechists. And if they are close to their children and affectionate they can inspire them. When parents do this they are Amazing Catechists.

Parents should teach their children from a young age that God has a loving plan for each one of them. This plan is one for their happiness here on earth and in heaven. It is a plan that gradually unfolds like a trip in the country that begins in one place in the woods and leads to a lake and then to a mountaintop. The trip entails preparation, sacrifice and perseverance. Happiness or success in life does not consist in having many trophies or money to buy things. It lies in doing what God planned for us as his children, using well the gifts that He gave us in this world. This is how we reach the mountaintop which is Heaven.

Blessed Cardinal Newman wrote: “God knows what is my greatest happiness, but I do not. There is no rule about what is happy and good; what suits one would not suit another. And the ways by which perfection is reached vary very much; the medicines necessary for our souls are very different from each other. Thus God leads us by strange ways; we know He wills our happiness, but we neither know what our happiness is, nor the way. We are blind; left to ourselves we should take the wrong way; we must leave it to Him” (Meditations and Devotions).

But how does one know God’s plan for one’s life? Another question is: if God has a plan for me, does He give me any real freedom to choose? The answer to the second question requires more time but, in short, God gives us freedom to choose what is good and true, and the best we can choose is what He knows is good for us. Returning to the first question, we usually discover God’s plan gradually in a number of ways: the use of our reason, circumstances such as people and places that God puts in our path, interests and likes that we have, times of personal prayer and the advice that we receive from persons with experience and good formation.

There is another element to discovering God’s plan: asking Him to show it to us. And this is where parents can help their young children: praying with them every day something akin to the following: Lord, I know that you have a loving plan for me; help me to discover the talents that you have given me and to put these at your service. As children study in middle school they can add to their prayer: Lord, show me where I should study high school and what I should do after high school, how I can serve you with the talents that you have given to me.

Children and youth rarely think in this way. If they did they would receive many graces and listen better to the inspirations of God the Holy Spirit. They would also take more seriously their studies, and develop a vocational sense in life. Rather than go about thinking, how can I have as much fun as I can with as little work as possible, they would think, how can I serve God well, developing the gifts He has granted me. Encourage your children to pray in this way, keeping in mind other words of Cardinal Newman: “God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another” (Meditations and Devotions).

Your children who are age ten now will begin college or a trade school in only eight years. This time goes by very fast. Inspire them to be the best they can be, to use their time well and to develop good study habits. In a book I just published, A University Education for the 21st Century: The Opening of the American Mind, I suggest the importance of a liberal arts education based on the classical Western Tradition, and discuss how students and parents can choose between colleges and universities. But long before this, children need to grow in love and friendship with Our Father God and his Son Jesus Christ. They need to thank Him for the talents He has bestowed on them and to develop them through good habits of study and work. And they need to pray to Him for the light to know his plans. In the end, responding to God’s grace, through hard work and service to others, sacrifice and perseverance, they will reach Heaven.

Fr. Juan R. Vélez, author of Passion for Truth, the Life of John Henry Newman, and most recently A University Education for the 21st Century: The Opening of the American Mind, available through Amazon. Find Father’s writings on Blessed Newman here: www.cardinaljohnhenrynewman.com

Finding Ways to be Thankful!

By Mary Lou Rosien

Families, church members and students are under a lot of stress this Thanksgiving season. It may be difficult to find reasons to be thankful when our churches are closing or being clustered, we are unemployed or struggling with family stress during the holidays. For some families, even coming up with the money for Thanksgiving dinner may be difficult this year.
What can we do, as Catechists, to help, especially if we too are struggling with these issues?

1/ Discuss the stressors. Sometimes just sharing the fears and difficulties may help our students to get through the rough times. Open discussions can also present ideas or solutions that haven’t been considered before. It decreases stress to know that we are not alone. Creating a safe place to talk can provide a valuable resource for our students.

2/ Offer real help. Organizing a food or coat drive can give real assistance to those who need it while teaching a lesson in living out the Catholic virtue of charity to our students. Taking students to volunteer at a soup kitchen or halfway house may also make them aware of the blessings that they have in their own lives.

3/ Make a Thanksgiving Turkey or Cornucopia of thanks. Have students list things they are thankful for and place them around a circle as feathers on the turkey or on pieces of paper fruit pieces to fill the cornucopia.

4/ Play an opposite game of thanks. The idea is to take a negative and turn it into a positive. For example: We don’t have money to buy everyone a Christmas present this year so we are going to make gifts or write letters to each other. Dad lost his job so he will be home to make cookies for the first time during the holidays.

5/ Use church closings and clusterings to create new traditions. This has been a really hard year for so many parishes. At a church near us the school has been shut down. Nearby, friends are struggling with the closing of their parish. It is hard to feel grateful under these circumstances. There can be blessings found even in these difficult times. Consider merging the church celebrations this year (possibly even before they have been clustered) so that parishioners can get to know each other and share their talents. Acknowledge the sadness of the moment while trying to look forward to the new experiences to come. Encourage positive attitudes rather than falling into the negativity of the situation. It can be a time of new friendships and a better stewardship of resources for all. Be assured of my prayers, dear reader and may God bless you and Happy Thanksgiving!

(Originally published, in part, in HFC column for OSV, 2009)

Getting Ready to Teach: What You Wear to Class Matters

By Jennifer Fitz

As the new school year approaches, I’ve been thinking about the guidelines for the teachers and assistants in the small apostolate I help run. A topic I didn’t broach last year but will this time around: Clothes.

I’m not a fashion person. No one looks to me for wardrobe advice, except maybe if they’re required to do a character sketch of frumpy middle-aged absent-minded housewives. But even I know that what we wear when we teach matters. If someone like me gives serious thought to clothing before I teach, that means it must be important.

Why Do Clothes Matter?

It is absolutely true that outward appearances can be deceptive, and that the most important parts of catechesis happen on our insides, in our hearts, minds, and souls. But humans are both body and soul, physical beings, and we use our bodies to express ourselves, relate to others, and accomplish our work. Our clothing matters for very practical reasons, because we need to be able to move around and do our jobs. It also matters in that what we wear teaches our students something about us. It tells our students what we value, and what kind of message we have for them.

First Things: Clothing Suited to the Job at Hand

Sometimes I joke that the cover art on my book is aspirational: Catechists have fantasies about being able to paint with preschoolers while keeping the white shirt impeccably clean. (Tip: Put on an apron.) In order to teach confidently, we need shoes and clothing that allow us to do our work. Comfortable shoes if you are on your feet a lot; clothing that lets you reach, bend, lift, walk, run, play; fabrics that can hold up to the rigors of teaching. If you know you’re going to have to get on your knees and scrub glitter glue off the floor after class, don’t wear delicates.

Professional Clothing Says You are Serious about Your Class

“Professional” is a broad category. My first job in college was at a whitewater outfitter. A well-chosen t-shirt and hiking shorts, paired with the right brand sport sandals, communicated credibility. “She really does this stuff. She knows what she’s talking about.” That was professional attire for that job. When I worked in a state government office several years later, business attire meant something completely different — I raided the local thrift store for good business-dress skirts and blouses.

There are catechists who rock the jeans-and-t-shirt look, and the message they send is one of confidence, enthusiasm, and competence. “I can fix your truck and your theology, too.” Some of us, though, just end up looking like we forgot to do the laundry. There are catechists who swear by coat-and-tie, and erring on the side of slightly overdressed is prudent in classes with older students and adults for whom the number one question is, “Is this instructor credible?” I would hazard the majority of us fall somewhere in between, on the vast spectrum that is “business casual”.

Two questions to ask are:

1. Does this outfit make me feel serious about my work? What I’m wearing should make me feel confident that I can get the job done. I should feel smart, competent, and ready to teach.

2. Does this outfit communicate the right message? “Pretty” “Elegant” “Handsome” “Youthful” “Mature” “Sporty” “Modern” or “Stylish” are all fair game. If my clothing evokes words like “Sassy” “Sexy” “Flirty” “Edgy” or “Slacker,” I need to change.

There’s nothing at all wrong with dressing fashionably, so long as the fashion is consistent with our Christian values and with our role as classroom teachers. Our clothing should express our unique personalities; we need to make sure, however, that we’re expressing those parts of our personality that make us good Christian leaders.

Modest Clothing Teaches Children Boundaries

Modesty is the whole range of attitudes and actions that we use to communicate our respect for ourselves and for others. How we dress is not the only aspect of modesty, but it is an important element. In the religious education classroom, dressing modestly also plays a significant role in teaching children about appropriate physical boundaries.

In sum: If we want children to understand and internalize the line between public and private body parts, we need to consistently demonstrate that distinction in our clothing.

Your parish or diocese may have a dress code, and in that case you’ll follow it, of course. For the rest of us, a simple rule is this:

Don’t put on display for your students any body part or undergarment that a priest should never be allowed to touch.

Your students are trying to figure out the line between appropriate and inappropriate touch. A mother breastfeeds her baby, that’s appropriate. The nursery staff change the baby’s diaper, the doctor has to do a physical exam, the gymnast wears form-fitting clothing so that the judges can see precise body movements. All of these are appropriate.

The classroom, the office, the sacristy: These are times and places when there is no appropriate reason for an adult (or fellow student) to be touching or looking at a school-age child’s private body parts.

If that sounds like blunt work, well yes, it is. Children don’t have a finely tuned sense of adult intentions, and predators take advantage of that ignorance. Dressing modestly on a consistent basis literally creates a boundary line, a do-not-cross line, that gives the child a sense of confidence about right and wrong actions.

Does it work? I know for a fact that when combined with all the other things that parents and teachers do to teach children personal safety and create a safe environment, yes, it does indeed work.

Bring Joy to Your Classroom

It is not necessary to spend a lot of money on new clothes for the new school year. Figuring out what to wear this year shouldn’t be a cause of agony and dread. Christianity is not a fashion show. Neat, clean, ready to do the job — that’s the essential. Dig through the closet and put together something that makes you feel confident, professional, and excited about the first day of class.

Photo: teachers in Parramatta Diocese in Australia

Evangelizing Teens

By Cay Gibson

Jared Dees at The Religion Teacher tells us simply how to evangelize teens.

Teens Need Healing

“Teenagers today are struggling. They are wounded. Some have big wounds caused by abuse, both physical and emotional. They have big, challenging issues with sexual abuse, physical abuse, drugs, and alcohol. So many of them–even the popular kids–feel like outcasts. They feel unwelcome and not accepted for who they are. This isn’t a Catholic problem or a Christian problem, it is a human problem. Kids need healing.”

Until we give people (especially teens) the healing they are seeking, all other attempts to evangelize falls on rocky soil.

The ground must be tilled, built up, fertilized, watered and tended. Tended well.

In five years of DRE-ship, I’ve felt, more than I’ve seen, the hurt in the teens who are reluctantly dropped off in our church religious education building. The pressure is upon DREs and catechetical teachers alike to “teach” the faith to these teens. How does one “teach” a child who no longer “feels”?

The elementary groups are easy enough. We sing, we craft, we play, we act, we listen. They are happy. Then the hormonal teen years hit. Memorization/Q and A means nothing to hurting teens.

This is what Pope Francis and the creators (Pastors John Baker and Rick Warren) of Celebrate Recovery (Catholic connections are available nationwide) know very well. The program’s recovery principles are a Christ-based approach to the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous whose original 12-steps will be familiar to those who practice the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises.

The memorization of the Baltimore Catechism must be done in the elementary years.

For junior high/high school students, something new needs to be prayed upon.

To take liberal use of Jared Dees’ article:

“God loves them but they don’t know it yet. We can’t teach it. We can’t even preach it. We have to show it. We have to show them that they are loved and they are lovable through our own love for them. It’s hard to do. It takes courage. We have to listen and feel their pain. We have to empathize and feel compassion. We can’t run or hide from these conversations. We can’t avoid it. If we do, we validate their fears. We have to enter into their wounds and share with them the fact that we are wounded too. We aren’t immune to pain or the fear of rejection even today. As Christians we certainly don’t avoid the pain. This is the path to healing. The reassurance that they are not alone.”

Then the kicker…

“Most people don’t realize it, but this is the first and most essential step to doing evangelization. It doesn’t seem like evangelization because we’re not really talking about God or Jesus or the Church quite yet. We’re just listening and offering to be there for them.”

My concern is that we, representatives of the Catholic community, are having to be there and listen to them in place of/in spite of the family members who should be the first examples of Christian life to the children. And, in a number of cases, the hurt is coming from within those family units.

Teens are not in-tune enough to the dynamics of life to understand that they should “never let a Catholic spoil their Catholicism.” (ht to Catholic Channel)

For that matter, many adults haven’t reach that peace level in their relationship with Jesus Christ to understand it either.

And we are the adults teaching the youth in an approach and lifestyle that should be led by example and by the hand of God.

It’s definitely something to think about as we plan for this new school year.

How Do We Learn the Catholic Faith?

By Jennifer Fitz

Should a good religious education program include lots of memory work, or should the focus be on the student’s personal relationship with Christ? These kinds of debates can be helpful, in that they force us to step outside of catechesis-as-usual and examine what we are doing and whether it is serving our students. They can be divisive, though, unless we remember that Christian formation is not one single educational act, but an entire collection of things we do to help each other grow in our faith.

Today I’d like to look at how education, in any subject, works. This isn’t a scholarly piece, and you could take the components I’ve put here and divide them out differently. (I tackled the subject from a completely different angle last summer, when I wrote about the Four Ways of Loving God.) Think of this more as a rough framework to help you think about what you are teaching, and why it’s working as well as it is.

1. Interest

There’s no education happening unless the student has some desire to learn. Ideally, in a parish faith formation context, the student desires to learn more about his faith because he is pursuing an active, personal relationship with Christ. He wants to learn what he needs to know in order to become a better disciple.

Realistically, some come to class out of simple curiosity. Young children may be motivated to learn their faith simply because it’s important to Mom and Dad; they instinctively know that what the parents think is important must be important. In confirmation and RCIA, some students may have a baser motive: I need to please my parent or spouse by doing this thing, or I want to get caught up on my sacraments and this is the parish hurdle.

Great teachers in any subject have a passion for their topic. Thus the most important prerequisite for being a catechist is having that passion for Christ. In that way, students who aren’t coming to class out of their own personal desire to follow Jesus can at least hope to catch a little bit of the instructor’s passion. It might be enough to ignite a full-fledged personal conversion, or it might be just enough to open the student’s mind to at least learning a few things that will prove helpful down the road.

2. Understanding

We can’t learn what we don’t understand. There is a valid criticism of rote-memory learning, if that instruction is strictly memorization without comprehension. When we teach, we need to teach so that students understand what we’re talking about.

There are levels of understanding, and in education it is tempting to jump straight to the “deeper meaning” before students even have a grasp of the essential facts of the situation. In religious education, first we want to make sure students understand the basics: What happened at Creation? At Christmas? At Easter? What happens when we die? What is a human soul? What is the Trinity? What are the words to the Our Father and what do they mean? And so on. Basic stuff. Bible stories, essential theology and devotions, all the working knowledge we need in order to understand how we and God fit together.

It’s tempting to be dismissive of all this “fact” stuff, but without the facts, our learning is not grounded in reality. Once we have the facts, we can go deeper in our understanding. We can ask, “Why is this true?” “How does this fit together?” “How does this apply to my personal life?” “How does this draw me into a closer relationship with God?”

3. Memorization

If we don’t remember what we’ve learned, we won’t get far. Some types of information are best learned and remembered by using the framework of a story. We humans are wired to learn stories, and thus through telling, listening, and retelling, we can know a story without memorizing a script word for word.

Many elements of the Christian faith we can remember in a general way without having to memorize a precise definition. It’s important we know what the Immaculate Conception is, and how it differs from the Incarnation, but as long as the student can explain the two accurately, there’s no particular formula that absolutely must be memorized. (It will be helpful for teaching, though, for the teacher to provide a concise definition that the student could choose to memorize.)

Certain prayers and devotions we need to remember only well enough to follow along with a guide. If I’m fluent in using my hymnal, for example, and I’ve been given an opportunity to learn and sing the most important hymns of the faith, I can sing along at Mass without having to memorize every single one. If I’m thoroughly familiar with the overall structure of the Bible, the key stories, and the essential verses, I can flip to the precise verse I’m looking for even if I haven’t memorized it verbatim.

We do well, though, to commit to memory certain facts and prayers. Those we pray daily or weekly we’ll memorize by simple repetition. It behooves the catechist to make sure students can in fact recite an Our Father easily and fluently, because when life presses in on all sides, memorized prayers can be the very instrument of sanity and salvation. This is basic spiritual fitness.

Likewise, there are theological definitions (like God being three Persons sharing one Nature, and that a person is who we are and our nature is what we are) that students need to memorize. This is because it’s easy to get mixed up when trying to recall what we’ve studied if we don’t keep our terms straight. Questions will come at us in life from the strangest directions, and having these essentials memorized precisely equips us to answer accurately.

4. Critical Thinking

There’s a fashion in education to favor “critical thinking” but to not be too critical about what that means. “Critical thinking” does not mean “Whatever I made up because look at me I’m so creative let’s have an argument!”. Critical thinking means being able to wade through a pile of noise and sort out what’s true and what’s not.

The foundation for critical thinking is a firm understanding and recollection of the truth. When I taught Apologetics for Kids this fall, my students (ages 7-11) breezed through my first few weeks of planned class material in a couple minutes, because they happened to be extremely well-catechized. They knew the truth, understood the truth, and thus could easily explain why various false assertions were false, and why, in contrast, the Catholic faith was true.

I’ve taught other classes where the students posed many questions concerning the faith. They’d heard this or that in their regular life, but had never been given the facts about God that they needed in order to be able to think clearly on what they’d heard. In such a context, we first need to go back and help the student know what the truth is — that basic understanding of reality. Then we can help the student put together a critical response to attacks on the faith.

It is absolutely essential to the life of the soul that Christians be able to understand why their faith is true, and why false assertions are false.

5. Skill

Practice. Experience. I am prone to making fun of mandatory “volunteering” schemes, but the reality is that students do need practice in performing the works of mercy. It’s not a fully-formed faith if I only go feed the hungry because I want my confirmation certificate; but I’ll never get good at feeding the hungry unless I practice it a few times.

Students don’t need to just know what the Mass is, or what the Rosary is, they need to spend time praying the Mass and praying the Rosary. If I go to confession once when I’m seven and once when I’m fifteen, I’m not going to get very good at receiving that sacrament. I build confidence and comfort in my faith by trying it out. Using it. Seeing what the hard parts are, and figuring out how to work through them.

Escape from One-Size-Fits-None Discipleship

So what do your students need? I don’t know. Who are your students? What are they like? What do they know already? What are their questions? What are their struggles? Where are they in their relationship with God?

Catechism class isn’t the hour-a-week spiritual cure-all. We are limited in what we can offer. Religious education is one piece in a much bigger picture of everything families, parishes, and individuals do in order to help each other grow in the faith.

I can, however, pay attention to my students and try to make my class fill a few of their most pressing needs.

The Catholic Faith, Straight Up, No Agendas

By Jennifer Fitz

If you teach the Ten Commandments to fifth grade boys, they are going to ask you about guns.

Guaranteed.

Is it okay to be a soldier? Can you defend yourself if someone attacks you? What if you see a bad guy attacking someone else? What if you know the bad guy is going to attack? What if the bad guy attacks, but now he’s running away . . . the questions can go on for half an hour, easy. If you’re the catechist, it’s your job to answer those questions.

What do you tell them? You tell them what the Catechism says. You keep it G-rated, of course. And you leave your agenda at home.

Within the Catholic teaching on just warfare and legitimate self-defense, there is wide latitude for prudential judgement and personal charisms. Some of your students will be the children of soldiers and police officers. Depending on where you live, some of your students may have their own guns at home, that they use every autumn when they go hunting with their parents. Some of your students may be the children of anti-war protesters or professed pacifists.

As a catechist, it is not your job to deliver your personal spin on what the “right” kind of Catholic is. It’s not your job to provide your personal editorial on, say, the recent announcement by Archbishop Gregory concerning concealed carry in Georgia parishes. (Of course you’ll inform students that they need to obey both the law and the bishop.)

You probably do have an opinion. You might write about it on Facebook, or send a letter to the bishop thanking him or asking him to reconsider, you might rant and rave at the dinner table about all the poor souls in your parish who think exactly the wrong thing on this topic.

But that opinion does not belong in your class. Your job is to teach the Catholic faith. That’s what you teach, and it’s all you teach.

And it’s fun!