One of the most important figures in the Old Testament is, of course, Moses. Moses was called by God to lead the people of Israel out of captivity in Egypt and into the freedom of the Promised Land of Israel. Most of his life story appears in the Book of Exodus, but also in Leviticus,…
Scripture
The Basic Steps of Lectio Divina
Lectio divina is an ancient Catholic prayer method for reading and praying with the Bible. Don’t let the Latin scare you away from learning to do it yourself or from sharing it with your students. It is an essential practice for all Catholics to learn and certainly not something we should avoid teaching young people…
Are You a Witness? A New Focus on Teaching AND Testimony
“You will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, and Samaria, and all the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 I started something new this semester and it really made a big impact on my students. I started using a new approach to…
Lesson Plan: Jesus as a Boy in the Temple
Very little is known about Jesus’ life when he was a boy. We have only one story about Jesus between his birth and life as an adult. In the Gospel of Luke, the boy Jesus is accidentally left in Jerusalem by his parents. They later find him listening and teaching in the temple as if…
4 Ways to Help Students Learn the Books of the Bible
Every year that I teach young people, I’m amazed by how little they know about the Bible. I’ll say, “turn to Luke, chapter fifteen” and wait for four or five minutes for students to find the right page. It doesn’t matter what age group it is. High school juniors seem to take just as long…
Feast of the Ascension Activities
Forty days after Easter Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus’s ascension into heaven is recounted in Mark 16:19-20, Luke 24:50-53, and Acts 1:6-12. There are a number of Ascension activities that you can do in your classrooms or at home with your children from various websites below….
New Testament Lesson Plans
Check out the following New Testament lesson plans taken from various religious education websites including The Religion Teacher. Lesson Plan: Development of the New Testament Canon (Engaging Faith) Birth of Jesus Lesson Plan (Catholic Mom) Feast of the Epiphany Lesson Plan (The Religion Teacher) Baptism of Jesus Lesson Plan (Catholic Mom) The Temptation of Jesus Lesson…
A Ten Commandments Activity
The ten commandments are such an important topic in Catholic religious education curricula. They have a place in almost every year’s course. This Ten Commandments activity asks students to creatively interpret and understand these great laws. An important disclaimer: the risk of using this activity is that students lose an appreciation for the Scriptures as…
Genesis Creation Stories Lesson Plan
The first three chapters of the book of Genesis relate important truths about ourselves, our humanity, and our relationship with God. A common pitfall we can run into when teaching about these chapters is the differences between the first chapter and chapters two and three. In this lesson plan, students will compare the first two…
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…
