The lesson below, taken from The Religion Teacher’s New Roman Missal Student Activity Pack, addresses one of the most striking changes to the new Roman Missal: And with your spirit. The Church community responds to the bishop, priest, or deacon with these words at multiple times during the Mass. What does it mean? How is…
Sacraments
Hocus Pocus!: A New Roman Missal Lesson Plan
With all of the changes happening in the Church related to the new translation of the Roman Missal, it is important to make a crucial point about the prayers of the Mass: they are not magic words. We use a translation of the original Latin to make a fitting offering to God in the liturgy….
Post-Confirmation Lesson Plan and Discussion
What do you teach after Confirmation is over (post-Confirmation sessions)? I recently shared a Confirmation lesson plan that focused on the deductive method of catechesis. The other approach to teaching ritual is the inductive method. This method begins with the ritual and and applies the actions to beliefs. In the case of Confirmation, this means…
Palm Sunday Video
Spirit Juice Studios and Outside da Box Productions have developed an incredible new video for Palm Sunday and Holy Week. If you teach teens or middle school students, this Palm Sunday video is spectacular. The video depicts two young men and their mother listening to the long Palm Sunday Gospel reading. One of the two…
Rite of Confirmation Lesson Plan
According to the National Directory for Catechesis, there are two approaches to teaching ritual: the inductive method and the deductive method (NDC, 29). I wrote about these two approaches in a general way in a recent article published in the National Catholic Educational Association’s journal, Momemtum (February/March 2011, pp. 22-23). In the lesson plan below,…
Why do I have to confess my sins to a priest in the Catholic Church?
With the recent buzz around the new Confession iPhone App by LittleiApps, I thought it might be a timely discussion about the often asked question, “Why do I need to confess my sins to a priest?” The reasons might surprise you.
Symbol or Sign? A Mystogogical Pedagogy of the Sacraments
Teaching about the sacraments What is a sacrament? The definition drawn from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which most children are asked to memorize, is “an efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which we receive the life of God through the work of the Holy Spirit.” In…
Catholic Mass Reflection Questions
Occasionally you will have the opportunity to meet with students either before or after mass. As I mentioned in my post on CatholicMom.com, “How to Get Teens to Participate in Mass,” it is critical that we help young people connect their personal experiences with the Liturgy (“find their feelings”) and learn more about the God…
High School Theology of the Body (Tips for Teaching Teens)
If you have had the pleasure of teaching teenagers about John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, then you will surely agree that it is changing the face of Catholic sex education today. As more resources become available for teachers and as the Theology of the Body continues to grow in popularity throughout the Church,…
Catholic Thanksgiving Day Lesson Plans on the Eucharist as Thanksgiving
Eucharist means first of all “thanksgiving” (CCC, 1360). I can think of no better lesson to teach to our students this Thanksgiving week than this. There are many images that express the intense mystery that is the Eucharist, but the Eucharist as thanksgiving is the most appropriate for November. A simple connection that you can…
