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Engaging Faith

Practical Lesson Ideas and Activities for Catholic Educators
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October is the Month of the Holy Rosary

October is the “Month of the Holy Rosary.” Dedicate some time to have your students unearth some of the history and graces of the Holy Rosary during the month by answering the Student Questions and completeing the Student Assignment below. To begin share these fifteen promises to those who pray the Rosary. Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.   I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.   The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell; it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.   It will cause good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and it will lift them to the desire of Eternal things.   The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.   Whosoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of Eternal Life.   Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.   Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the Light of God and the plentitude of His Graces; at the moment of death, they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise.   I shall deliver from Purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.   The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of Glory in Heaven.   You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.   All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.   I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during life and at the hour of death.   All who recite the Rosary are my sons, and brothers of my Only Son Jesus Christ.   Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.   Student Questions When was the Rosary first prayed? Which saint is associated with its origins? Why? What do St. Dominic and Fr. Alan de Rupe have to do with the Fifteen Promises of the Rosary? Why is October the month of the Holy Rosary? When was this tradition established? Student Assignment Write a sentence for each of the fifteen promises explaining what you believe them to mean.   After the students complete the assignment, discuss their response. See “Our Lady’s Fifteen Promises for Praying the Rosary Explained” for reference.

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If You Could Create the Perfect Mother

Here’s an activity and reflection to accompany either the Feast of the Immaculate Conception or the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. If you could create the ideal mother, what would she be like? Have the students use an art medium of their choice to design the perfect mother. Then have them listen and reflect on the Mother of Jesus (25:18) by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

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Honoring St. Joseph

March 19 is the Feast Day of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus. Whereas 2021 was the “Year of Devotion” our honor paid to St. Joseph does not end.  Pope Francis said of St. Joseph (and Mary): He was the husband. And Mary certainly never said to Joseph: “I am God’s mom, you are God’s employee.” Instead, she said: “You are my husband, I am a virgin (Joseph is too) , but you are my husband.” She was subordinate to her husband, as the culture of her time would have it. She prepared his meals, talked with him, together spoke about the Son, they shared the anguish when the Child, at age twelve, remained behind in Jerusalem, the anguish of a husband and wife, the anguish of parents. Normality in virginity. And she listened to Joseph made the big decisions, which was normal for a time. Joseph received messages from God in his dreams. She is the one full of grace, he is the just man, the man observant of the Word of God. A beautiful couple. (from Ave Maria: The Mystery of a Most Beloved Prayer by Pope Francis). Share the Pope’s words with your students Use one of these assignments on St. Joseph or create your own: Read the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:1-17. Research the answer to this question: “Why did Jesus ancestry trace to Joseph, his foster father, and not Mary his natural mother?” Read Matthew 1:18-25. Why is this passage called the “Annunciation to Joseph”? How does it compare to the Annunciation to Mary in Luke 1:26-38, Write a prayer to St. Joseph, asking for his intercession in family life. Draw a portrait of the Holy Family. Answer: "When is a time you followed a dream?"

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Learn and Practice the Five First Saturdays Devotion

The Five First Saturdays of Reparation devotion is connected with Mary’s apparitions at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. In 1925, eight years after the initial apparitions, the Blessed Mother again appeared to the principal seer, Lucia dos Santos, at the convent at Pontevedra, Spain and said: “I promised to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recited five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the all the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.” Later, inn an apparition of Christ, Lucia was told that the confession could be made any time during the eight days before, or the eight days after, the First Saturday. “It could be longer still,” Christ told her, “provided that when the receive me, they are in the state of grace and have the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” Share this video on the First Saturday devotion. Review the ways to practice the First Saturday devotion. Assign students to contact local parishes and ask if they do anything special to commemorate the First Saturdays. Provide or suggest opportunities for Confession in the weeks before and after the First Saturdays of each month. Encourage students to practice the First Saturdays of Reparation devotion.

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St. Maximilian Kolbe and Consecration to Mary

St. Maximillian Kolbe, the saint of Auschwitz, had a great devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He encouraged all people to consecrate themselves to Mary or to renew their consecration to Mary on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8. On December 8, 1940, Fr. Kolbe published his final article in his publication, the Knight, just months before his arrest and martyrdom. Here is the text of the article:   Once again, December 8th is approaching, the Feast of The Immaculate Conception. Whoever can, should receive the Sacrament of Penance. Whoever cannot, because of prohibiting circumstances, should cleanse his soul by acts of perfect contrition: i.e., the sorrow of a loving child who does not consider so much the pain or the reward as he does the pardon from his father and mother to whom he has brought displeasure. Therefore, this desire is good: to purify our souls on the feast of her whose soul was never stained. Those souls who have the privilege of knowing her intimately, love her fervently. Most carefully they seek continually to purify and refine their conscience and in this way to resemble her more and more, to attach themselves to her, to please her. But in what does the evil which stains the soul consist? If virtue consists in the love of God and of all that which springs from love, evil will be all that which is opposed to love. This the soul should always fear; it should therefore desire to be ever more immaculate, after the example of its beloved Lady and spiritual Mother. Those souls consecrated to her in a special way ought to renew their offering on that day. Also, the members of The Militia of Mary Immaculate should renew their act of consecration—by which they may gain a plenary indulgence, that is, the remission of all the punishment which, after the sin has been forgiven, they must expiate here on earth or in Purgatory. On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, having received the Sacrament of Penance and having made the act of consecration, and also having thereby gained the remission of punishments, the soul should more easily find interior peace, even joy, for the soul knows that no cross, whether from within or from without, can come without God’s permission, which is that of a truly loving Father. He allows only what is for the greater good of souls as far as eternal salvation is concerned. May the fruit of this feast be an ever greater purity of conscience and an ever deeper peace. May it be a peace of resignation to Divine Providence. May it be an ever more generous readiness in the most perfect fulfillment of duty, thereby giving tangible proof of love for our spiritual Mother and our heavenly Father. [Signed] Maximilian Kolbe   With your students, explore the process of consecration to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This video by Fr. Michael Gaitley MIC explains its meaning. Fr. Gaitley also has written  33 Days to Morning Glory which is a thirty-three day retreat leading to Marian consecration.  It may be appropriate within a theology course as a communal retreat or as part of your school’s campus ministry program.

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"I Thirst"

Here is a meditation (8:30) from a letter by St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta in which she describes Jesus’ thirst for each us, his unconditional love for us, and how he wishes for us to thirst for him in all that we do. These words of Jesus—“I thirst”—spoken to Mary, the disciple John, and Mary Magdalene from the cross (see John 19:28) are the spiritual motto of the Missionaries of Charity and the answer to eleven years of  spiritual darkness experienced by Mother Teresa. She experienced a great awakening when she understood that Jesus’ words from the cross were for her, a small share in the darkness he experienced, and a call to help him to quench his thirst by bringing his love to others. Share the meditation with your students. Allow them to reflect and share their thoughts on Jesus’ words: “I thirst.”

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Disney's Version of the Ave Maria

An interesting piece of information you may wish to share with your students is Walt Disney's inclusion of Schubert's classic Ave Maria in the full-length animated motion picture Fantasia. The idea of a popular, secular film containing explicitly religious music may seem foreign to their sensibilities today. However, as this article explains, Disney's decision to use the Ave Maria was not without some controversy when it was released in 1940.

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100th Anniversary of Our Lady's Apparitions at Fatima

Will you offer yourselves to God, and bear all the sufferings He sends you? In atonement for all the sins that offend Him? And for the conversion of sinners? "Oh, we will, we will!" Then you will have a great deal to suffer, but the grace of God will be with you and will strengthen you. Lucia relates that as the Lady pronounced these words, she opened her hands, and we were bathed in a heavenly light that appeared to come directly from her hands. The light's reality cut into our hearts and our souls, and we knew somehow that this light was God, and we could see ourselves embraced in it. By an interior impulse of grace we fell to our knees, repeating in our hearts: "Oh, Holy Trinity, we adore You. My God, my God, I love You in the Blessed Sacrament." The children remained kneeling in the flood of this wondrous light, until the Lady spoke again, mentioning the war in Europe, of which they had little or no knowledge. Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war. After that she began to rise slowly in the direction of the east, until she disappeared in the immense distance. The light that encircles Her seemed to make a way amidst the stars, and that is why we sometimes said we had seen the heavens open. This conversation between the Blessed Virgin Mary and three children--Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco--took place one hundred years ago, May 13, 1917. This Saturday's anniversary of the first of Mary's six apparitions to the children on the thirteenth of each month from May until October 13 are worthy of study and prayer. Pope Francis will make a pilgrimage to the Fatima site this weekend and will canonize sister and brother, Jacinta and Francisco, who were ages seven and nine at the time of the apparitions. Take some time to explore with your students the remarkable history and message of Our Lady of Fatima that is offered in great detail at a website prepared by EWTN. Prayer to Our Lady of Fatima O Most holy Virgin Mary, Queen of the most holy Rosary, you were pleased to appear to the children of Fatima and reveal a glorious message. We implore you, inspire in our hearts a fervent love for the recitation of the Rosary. By meditating on the mysteries of the redemption that are recalled therein may we obtain the graces and virtues that we ask, through the merits of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer. Amen. 

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