Amazing Catechists

Teaching and learning the faith together

Sin Dims the Candle: An Object Lesson for Confession

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sin dims the candle

We were sitting in the church pews with no lights on. It was early evening in late January, and dark was coming quickly.

In the front, on the step leading up to the altar, there was a candle burning in front of a mirror.

Our First Communicants were gathered on the floor in front. They weren’t looking too nervous, considering that they were moments from their First Reconciliation.

“See the candle burning brightly?”

The kids nodded. And, in some cases, they leaned forward or jumped a little to show their enthusiasm.

“That candle is our soul, with Jesus making it burn. When we’re baptized, the candle is lit.”

It made me pause, that image of the baptismal candle. I remembered my own daughter’s baptism, holding the candle as I balanced her body in my arms.

“But sin is so easy sometimes.” Here the leader held up a glass mason jar. She started lowering it gently over the candle.

“It doesn’t seem to be making a big difference. See how the candle is still burning?”

And it was. The kids could see it and so could I. What’s the big deal about sin anyway?

“But we keep doing it. We keep stepping away from God. We slowly give in to sin again and again, in small ways, ways that seem invisible and unimportant.”

The candle was almost covered by the jar but still going. It was starting to flicker a bit, and as she ended her sentence, setting the jar down on top, it dimmed quite a bit.

“What’s happening?”

There was, of course, a budding scientist in the crowd. “There’s no oxygen!” he announced.

“That’s what sin does! It takes away our soul’s oxygen!” She pulled the jar off just before the flame went completely out. “And that’s what Reconciliation does! It lets the flame glow strongly and brightly!”

There was a stampede of kids to the confessional, and it made me want to go, too. I used the same lesson a few days later with my fifth-grade class, with the lights out. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a way for them to go to confession, though I did find out later that at least one of them did go to confession.

What object lessons do you use to teach about confession?

Methodology: Catechizing from the Four Dimensions of the Faith

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Does your lesson plan incorporate the four dimensions of the faith?  You may ask what are the four dimensions?  They are: The Faith Professed, The Faith Celebrated, the Faith Lived and the Faith Prayed.  It is important when speaking about these four dimensions that they are seen as a unity, as a whole and not merely four individual aspect of the faith.  When these four dimensions are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (2:42) they are seen as what the faithful devoted themselves to in response to the birth of the Church and being followers of “The Way”.

All four dimensions should be included in each lesson.  For example, if the topic is the Sacrament of Baptism, which is most especially under “The Faith Celebrated”, it should also include an understanding that God have revealed Himself and made us partakers in his divine life (the Holy Trinity).  In addition our response to the Sacrament of Baptism is the Faith lived in union with Christ and seeking Him continually as we “pray” for a deeper union in Him.  Therefore all catechetical lessons should keep in mind each of these dimensions in order that the faith may be seen as an organic unity.

 

The Seven Deadly Sins, Quite By Accident

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Sin
Last week, one of my fifth-graders asked what the seven deadly sins were. Always one to tap into their googling abilities, I tossed the question back at them, promising a candy prize for anyone who came back to class this week with the right answer.

The boy who posed the question came in, not only with the answer, but with a list he had typed himself with the punishments in hell included. His mom told me, with a strange smile on her face, that he had been obsessing about it all week.

Two other students had also looked up the answers and one of them was prepared to explain them. It was obvious these kids had spent some time on this.

Our discussion was intense, colorful, and, I hope, Spirit-filled. Most of the sins were things that the kids weren’t sure about: how is pride both good and a deadly sin? What is lust? And gluttony means being fat, right?

Our topic for the night was “Living as Children of God,” and I had planned to talk about both 1 John 3:1-10 and the Beatitudes, with a discussion of God’s love and how we can be protected from sin. Of course, I didn’t know that when I challenged them to let me know what the seven deadly sins were.

Next week, I’ve challenged my students to bring in the corresponding virtues for each of the seven deadly sins. Looking over the list, I have to admit that there’s something about this whole topic that speaks to me.

So often, I think my sins are tiny little things. Then I look at the confession habits of those holy moderns, Blessed John Paul II and Blessed Mother Teresa, and I realize that my sins are anything but inconsequential.

Looking over the seven deadly sins and the corresponding virtues and then discussing it in an up-front, honest, down-to-earth way with a room full of fifth graders is almost an examination of my own conscience. Considering how often I flirt with these Big Seven Sins is humbling, to say the least, and also a reminder to me of how very much I need the sacraments, especially of Reconciliation.

YOUR TURN: Have you covered the seven deadly sins with your students? How did it go? Have any tips to share?

An Object Lesson for Teaching Sacraments

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Last night, I introduced a lesson on the sacraments to my class of rowdy 5th graders using an object lesson, and I thought I’d share it here

Credit and thanks for this idea goes to Rick Paolini from the Divine Mercy Podcast (found on iTunes). I heard him talk about this in episode 18 and will be using this with the Confirmation Boot Camp group this summer as well. In fact, I will pretty much be using it whenever I can.

You’ll need:

  • 2 strong magnets (or even a bunch of smaller ones, which I sort of used in one presentation)
  • A pencil
  • A long nail (preferably as long as the pencil)
  • A bowl of small metal items that will be attracted to the magnets (i.e., brads or small nails) —  These need to be much smaller than the large nail
  • If you can swing it (I didn’t think of it until too late this time around), a dirt-covered nail the same size as the large nail

Hold two strong (large-ish is preferable) magnets close to each other.

Note how they attract and repel each other.

We can see both magnets. We can prove they’re there.

But what about that force? Is it still there? We can’t see it: are we SURE it’s there?

The magnets and the force between them represent the Trinity. The magnets are the Father and the Son, and the invisible force they make together is the Holy Spirit.

–> Just because you can’t see the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean he’s not there. He is, and he makes a big impact.

Hold a pencil by the magnets.

What happens? How do the magnets affect the pencil?

What if we dipped the pencil in metal? Hold up a long nail.

How does this change things?

–> This is what happens to us in baptism. The waters of baptism make us attracted to God just as the metal of the nail is attracted to the magnets. The field between the magnets is the grace that is all around us, that we are able to tap into, thanks to the sacrament of baptism.

Pretend we were to chip pieces off the magnet, but as we did it, it was able to replace the lost pieces so that it never gets any larger or smaller. The chipped pieces, though, are attracted to the nail. (I had some small, round magnets in a large clump and I used some of those to make this even more visual.)

What would happen to the nail? How would it change?

–> Just as the nail gets magnetized by the small chips off the magnet, so we are magnetized and pulled closer to the Trinity when we receive the Eucharist.

Put the two magnets in a bowl of small brads or nails and pull them out.

What happens?

The brads are hanging down in a long string, holding on to each other.

–> That’s what happens at Confirmation. In our role within the Body of Christ, we become part of the work of evangelization. We hold onto God and stretch down to someone else.

Imagine that the nail was covered in dirt. 

Would it be attracted to the magnets in the same way? What would happen?

When we sin–especially mortal sin–we become less magnetized, less attracted to God. The sin comes between us and God.

–> Reconciliation recharges us, cleans us off so that we are attracted to the magnet again.

The sacraments strengthen us, and we must never forget how essential they are to our faith life. It’s all too easy to blow off the importance of them, to make excuses for letting ourselves turn into the equivalent of a dirty nail.

Have ideas for adding to this lesson? I’d love to hear your input in the comments!

image source

Jumping Back into the Teaching Saddle

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It all started in high school, I suppose. I was inspired by a teacher who went above and beyond, and I was at the point when I needed to choose a college and a major, so agricultural education it was, at our state’s land grant university.

Fast forward three years, to my student teaching. It can be summarized this way: I was convinced not to teach.

After a few years in industry, I became an active, practicing Catholic, and when our DRE approached me about teaching, I couldn’t say no.

I wanted to, mind you. What did I know about teaching third graders (my training was with high schoolers), and how could I possible know enough about my new Catholic faith (the one I had been so reluctant about) to teach anyone else?

I ended up having a wonderful three years of teaching third grade religious education for our parish, but then the demands of being a new wife and mom made an evening commitment like that more than I could handle.

This summer, I had the opportunity to teach for the first time in almost eight years. It was a group of Confirmation students for our annual Confirmation boot camp. I was excited and a bit nervous.

I had such a good time, I couldn’t keep myself from offering, for a variety of “reasons,” to teach 5th grade this year. I walked into the first class flying high on a cocktail of delight and anxiety.

What if I was no good? What if this wouldn’t work for my family? What if…what if…what if?

Well, as I’ve struggled to straddle the ole teaching saddle again, I’ve found two things to be true and often forgotten in my own approach to catechesis:

1. It’s not about me.

and

2. The Holy Spirit has it all under control.

As catechists, we are all woefully under-prepared, no matter how ready we think we are. Nothing gets you ready for a group of young people (or, for that matter, older people either). You will never have it all under control, because, among other things, that’s just not in your capacity. Only God can have things completely under control.

Being a catechist is an ongoing lesson in trusting God, and for that I’m grateful.

(And terrified.)

image credit: Study Abroad Domain

The Beatitudes, Marriage, and the Moral Floor

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When I’m talking with older kids about morality, I try to emphasize the difference between the Commandments and the Beatitudes.

I observed a terrific lesson about this in a class at St. Joseph’s High School in Greenville, SC, several years ago – I just wish I could remember what texts they were using. I think maybe the Dominican Series from Priory Press. Anyway, the teacher explained to the class that the Ten Commandments are the “moral floor” that we have to stay above, while the Beatitudes are like the “moral ceiling” we should try to reach.

That's quite a ceiling

I talk about this in terms of marriage – if I really love my husband, how am I going to nurture our relationship? What does it take to live out my vocation?

Well, to start with, I’m not going to cheat on him, steal from him, lie about him, be jealous of him – lots of “shalt nots” included in the Recommended Daily Allowance for our marriage. But that’s not what makes a good marriage – just the absence of doing bad things to my husband. Same with being a mom – although I certainly have days when “kept children alive” is all that’s crossed off on my checklist. I really show my love through the things I do that go above and beyond not-sinning-against-them. That’s what the Beatitudes are akin to – how we really grow in holiness; how we really cultivate a relationship with God.

I find that kids just “get it” if I keep coming back to this idea. Plus, it gives me the chance to talk realistically about marriage as a vocation, which I think kids need to hear about; so many of them either feel like marriage is BS because they’ve seen so many marriages fall apart, or have this very unrealistic “marriage is for soulmates” idea that real love means never having to suffer because you’re so happy all the time.

The Getty Guide to Imagery Series: a Goldmine for Educators

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We’re so fortunate to have a 2,000-year treasury of Christian art, and it would be a shame not to share it with our students, wouldn’t it? Art can point us towards a deeper understanding of Scripture or the life stories of the saints; it can move us emotionally in a way that words sometimes do not. You can pique kids’ curiosity and draw them into the story by sharing images with them.

Online, there are some terrific databases of images you can use in your class. Three of my favorites are:

  • Biblical Art on the WWW – searchable by topic, person, etc. Really cool set of images and links to images elsewhere
  • Olga’s Gallery – very comprehensive collection of images, often with annotation that can be helpful if you’re not familiar with the work or the artist
  • Web Gallery of Art – another very comprehensive collection, with links to the sites where the images are hosted.

While online sources are fabulous when you’re looking for a specific work of art, having books to flip through can give you a broader view of the life of a given saint or figure as portrayed in art. That’s why I absolutely love the Getty’s Guide to Imagery Series. I’ve reviewed two volumes of the series so far for Tiber River – Old Testament Figures in Art and Saints in Art. From the reviews:

Old Testament Figures in ArtWith its many notes as to recurring themes and connections to the New Testament, this would be terrific to have on hand for a Scripture class at any level, as it provides beautiful art to supplement a lecture or to examine in its own right. Each image is reproduced in full color and is grouped with similar pieces based on their correspondence to a particular event or figure in the Old Testament. Significant events in salvation history are presented in approximate chronological order, with notes as to the geographic location, relative time of their occurrence, Scriptural references, and the region where a particular image or event was most popular.

For example, the story of Abraham’s encounter with the king and priest Melchizedek is represented by two paintings, each with notes about the event prefiguring the Last Supper. The section on this event includes an explanation of the circumstances leading up to Abraham’s meeting Melchizedek, and points out that Salem is the ancient name for the city of Jerusalem. Each painting has multiple notes that point out significant figures and techniques used by the artist to create the work.
Read more about Old Testament Figures in Art at Tiber River

and

Saints in ArtThe images collected in Saints in Art are not intended to act as a hall of fame for the most widely venerated saints throughout the world, but rather serve to show us the symbols and stories associated with various aspects of Christian history. Each image is shown in full and vivid color, with notes around its perimeter that identify significant parts of the scene. We learn to look more closely at these works of art and to understand that there is meaning to every small detail, and to enjoy “decoding” similar images.

For religious educators, this book would be a great resource for discovering new and unusual facts about saints, and for sharing with students to help them remember what made each saint unique. Some graphic scenes of martyrdom and occasional nudity would mean that this isn’t a book you’d leave around for kids to page through, but there are many, many images that could be appreciated by even the youngest art aficionado. I think it’s great to use visuals like these in teaching and learning about our faith, because we can come to better appreciate beauty as well as having another way to remember important events in the life of a saint we’re studying.
Read more about Saints in Art at Tiber River.

It seems like they’re always coming out with new volumes in this series, and I can’t wait to add some of the other titles to my collection. I highly recommend that you check them out, too.

I wrote these reviews of Old Testament Figures in Art and Saints in Art for the Tiber River Blogger Review program, created by Aquinas and More Catholic Goods. For more information and to purchase, please visit Aquinas and More Catholic Goods, your source for Baptism Gifts and First Communion Gifts. Tiber River is the first Catholic book review site, started in 2000 to help you make informed decisions about Catholic book purchases. I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.

3 Tips for Dealing with Classroom Discipline

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Lisa Mladinich has an excerpt from her book up today at Patheos, and it deals with the number-one concern that many beginning teachers and catechists face: classroom discipline. She gives some terrific suggestions and I encourage you to read the column in its entirety. I’m having trouble posting a comment there, so I’m just going to throw out three things to keep in mind when dealing with behavior issues and teenagers.

1. Let them save face. Especially if you’re only seeing them once a week, building relationships with your students is of paramount importance. If at all possible, try to avoid dealing with one child’s behavior in front of the whole class. It puts you in the spotlight when you’re nervous about maintaining order in your class, and it usually means you’re going to alienate that kid in a way that will be very difficult to fix.

Try: moving around the room while you’re talking, slipping the student a note while you’ve got the class at work on another activity, moving the child’s seat – although I think it works best if you don’t do this in the middle of class but wait until next time around and rearrange several kids’ seats.

You don’t want it to appear that you are “out to get” the child who disrupted class. If you need to, pull the student outside while your aide monitors your class – but, to be honest, I haven’t had a lot of success with this when we’re talking about a once-a-week CCD class.  It’s okay to send a kid to the office, and if you think you’re going to need to do so, do it early in the year rather than waiting.

2. A good lesson plan prevents many a discipline problem. Oh, how I hate to be told that, but it’s often true. If you’ve come up with a lesson plan that involves a variety of activities (15 minutes of lecture/notetaking, 20-30 minutes of small group work, a quick quiz or review game, prayer session), you are more likely to maintain the flow of the class without discipline problems.

Try: Write the plan up on the board at the beginning of class so they know what’s coming. It’s okay to say, “hey, guys, hang in there for about five more minutes of me talking, you’re doing great.”

3. It’s (usually) not (just) about you. Look, a lot of times, our kids are worn out when they come to class.  You don’t know what sort of day they’ve had, what issues are going on at home, what someone said to them as they were walking from the car to your classroom. Try not to take it personally.

Try: Ask the child to stick around for a couple of minutes after class. “Hey, I just want to make sure I haven’t said something to upset you, because I feel like we keep having discipline issues and I’m concerned.” Teenagers want to be treated like adults. Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t alert their parents if there are repeated or extreme disciplinary problems going on with that kid, but approaching them in a way that shows you respect their maturity (the maturity that may lie deep, deep down below the surface) can go a long way towards reversing a behavior issue.

Oh, I’m going to add one more. Do. not. stand in the hallway after class complaining about a kid to the teacher who had them last year. It can feel like such a relief to learn that you’re not the only one who had a difficult time getting young Percival to stop scratching his fingers on his slate during your lecture. But…don’t. Take it to prayer, or talk to your DRE and say, “can you tell me some more about what’s going on with Percival? He simply won’t stop calling Eustace a ninny.”

So – what’s worked for you? How do you keep your cool when dealing with misbehavior?

Catechist Chat: From Aide to Apprentice

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Do your students know your aide’s name?

When you have to miss class, does the DRE scramble to come up with activities for your kids to do?

If you’re cringing with self-recognition, you’re not alone. I am your leader in the March of Ignoring Your Classroom Aide. And I should know better.

My first year of teaching, I had 42 kids in a class. I couldn’t send a student to the office until I had documented nine steps I’d taken in the disciplinary process beforehand, including a visit to the student’s home. I would have given anything to have an extra adult in the room to help me out.

So why is it so hard for me now to find ways to incorporate my aide into my class? We get along great, and she helps me “debrief” after class to talk about what worked and what didn’t. Still, I’m afraid the primary responsibilities I’ve given her are taking attendance and being the extra adult in the room with Safe Environment Training. I’d like for her role to become more of an apprentice, to the extent that she wants to become more involved.

Now, I am well aware that one of the benefits of being an aide versus the primary teacher in the room is that you can just show up and not have to plan ahead of time. So what I want is to find ways for her to have a greater leadership role in the classroom without placing an additional burden on her time outside of class. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

1. Aides can administer quizzes and tests. There’s no reason why I have to be the person saying, “Okay, do the best that you can, and remember what we talked about” while she is relegated to paper passer-outer. And, since I frequently have the kids grade their own quizzes, all my aide needs is an answer key and for me to be ready to clarify answers that the kids aren’t sure about. (I keep a class set of red pens and pass them out at the end of the quiz for the kids to grade with).

2. Aides can be the game show host or “Vanna” when it’s time for review. Games like Jeopardy or Challenger, especially once they’ve been played once with the kids, sort of run themselves. Kids seem to get more into it when there’s a comedy routine between the host and the scorekeeper as they’re playing. Again, all the aide needs is the answer key, and for me to be ready to jump in as needed.

3. Aides can be the primary teacher for a given topic. If she’s interested, I would love to have my aide be the lead teacher at times. It requires lots of advance notice, supplying her with the materials I’ve found useful in the past, and my own willingness to hand over the keys to the Mercedes that is my class.

There’s the real problem – I love teaching, love planning, and like the illusion of control. I’ve been a mentor teacher to student teachers in the past and enjoyed the process of helping new teachers hone their skills, but it was always hard to take myself out of the picture and let the student teacher shine. Yet treating our aides like apprentices is one of the best ways we can recruit new catechists. And, really, would you want to sit at the back of the room with the roll book and watch me blab away at teenagers for an hour every Wednesday?

Erm…don’t answer that. But do tell us – What’s your working relationship with your aide like? How involved is your aide, and how happy are you both with that arrangement?

Catechist Chat will be an ongoing series of posts for teachers in religious education programs. It is based on my personal experience and not on any statistical evidence of the effectiveness of my advice. Suscribe to my feed to follow along, and Caveat lector, which is Latin for “your mileage may vary.” 

Click here to read other entries in the series, and be sure to follow Catechist Chat on Facebook! You can also sign up for my email list, and I’ll send you resources, including non-PDF versions of the activities I post (which means you can edit them in Microsoft Word to customize them for your own students).

Catechist Chat: Classroom goals for 2011

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Sure, it’s the New Year’s Resolution time of the year, and I can’t resist a good self-improvement goal. But I’m posting this today because most of us are taking a little halfway-point break from our classrooms over the Christmas holidays, and it’s a great opportunity to regroup and come back fresh next week, or whenever your catechetical duties resume.

Here’s my challenge to you, then: Set one PERSONAL and one PROFESSIONAL goal for yourself as a catechist.

Kick it up a notch by using Jennifer’s Saint’s Name Generator to choose a saint to be your personal mentor for the next year of your vocation as catechist.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
Lookin’ out for me in 2011

My goals:

PERSONAL: Resume structured prayer time at the beginning and end of the day. It’s the most important thing I can do each day, and yet I let it slip by the wayside – or, worse, see it as just another “good habit” I’m working on, along with exercising more, going through the mail each day, meal planning, etc. Making prayer my personal self-improvement project leads me to look around and evaluate the results – well, what percent more holy am I after these three works of daily Bible readings? How’s that working out?

And so, even as I’m talking about this in terms of a habit – spending time at the beginning and end of the day with my Magnificat magazine and assorted other spiritual reading – I’m not doing so with a specific goal (yell at children 1/3 less often) so much as recommitting to a relationship with Christ.

PROFESSIONAL: Focus on involving my aide in our class sessions in a more meaningful way than just taking attendance and walking around to monitor behavior. I’m going to follow up on this in a later post.

So, reader, how about you? What goals will you set for yourself as a catechist in the year to come?

Catechist Chat will be an ongoing series of posts for teachers in religious education programs. It is based on my personal experience and not on any statistical evidence of the effectiveness of my advice. Suscribe to my feed to follow along, and Caveat lector, which is Latin for “your mileage may vary.”

Click here to read other entries in the series, and be sure to follow Catechist Chat on Facebook! You can also sign up for my email list, and I’ll send you resources, including non-PDF versions of the activities I post (which means you can edit them in Microsoft Word to customize them for your own students).