What is Gaudete Sunday? 3 Things to Know about the 3rd Sunday of Advent The third Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete Sunday. Here are a few things to know about this important day during the Advent season: 1) What does Gaudete mean? “Gaudete” is a Latin word meaning “rejoice.” It comes from the opening…
Search Results for: Lent
The Parable of the Good Samaritan Lesson Plan
In this lesson, your students will gain a greater appreciation for the ways in which they can love their neighbors as themselves just as the Samaritan did in Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan. The structure of this lesson is based on the Lectio Divina Lesson Planning model described in the book, Christ in the…
Action Homework Assignments
The following article is an expanded excerpt from chapter 5 of Christ in the Classroom: Lesson Planning for the Heart and Mind, which will help students learn, love, and live their Catholic faith. Think of the final step in your lesson plans as unassigned and ungraded homework. You want your students to freely choose to act…
Planning a Catholic Prayer Service (with a Simple Format and Outline)
The following article is an expanded excerpt from chapter 3 of Christ in the Classroom: Lesson Planning for the Heart and Mind, which describes various ways to use meditation and prayer in class to help students make personal connections to Christ through what they are learning. The goal of planning a prayer service for class is…
The Religion Teacher Live!
Thank you for attending The Religion Teacher’s live presentation with Jared Dees! Jared mentioned limited-time offer to anyone who would like to become an annual member of The Religion Teacher this month. 1,000+ Tools to Cultivate Encounters with Christ in Class There are two kinds of memberships: individual and group. As an individual member, you…
12 Ways to Encounter Christ in Class
Every Day, Every Class, Every Student, an Encounter with Christ That is the vision we aspire to at The Religion Teacher. So much of what religious educators do, however, focuses almost entirely on education and not encounter. As a result, Christ becomes just another idea to learn like everything else in school. As catechists and…
Lectio Divina Lesson Planning
This concept was so effective for religious educators who started using it in class, that I expanded it into an entire book on lesson planning: Christ in the Classroom: Lesson Planning for the Heart and Mind. How do we help our students know, love, and serve God? How do we teach both the head AND…
Hundreds of Print-or-Play Resources for Religious Educators
Imagine . . . A classroom of kids actively engaged in learning about their faith. They work diligently on assignments. They listen to your presentations. They ask questions and are able to go home and articulate what they learned in class to their parents and friends. Now imagine the opposite . . . Students are…
Divine Mercy Lesson Plan and Activities
Give your students a great spiritual gift this year. Introduce them to the devotion to Divine Mercy with this lesson and activities. The Divine Mercy devotion originated with a polish nun, St. Faustian Kowalski, who had visits from Christ in the 1930s. She wrote down her conversations with Jesus in a diary, which included a…
Stations of the Cross Activities, Worksheets, and Coloring Pages
The Stations of the Cross is a wonderful devotion for you to practice with your class during Lent. If possible, devote some of your class time to the preparation for or participation in the Stations of the Cross. Use these Stations of the Cross activities and printables to help teach about Christ’s Passion and Death…
