Virtues are God-given powers, abilities to do moral good. They are good habits that enable us to preserver in doing the right thing joyfully. Virtues are skills in Christian living that enable us to face both internal and external obstacles as we continue our life journeys.
Lent is a time to work on virtuous living Print or project a list of virtues and then have your students do one of the assignments listed below to help them to learn and practice the virtues.
Faithful
Hopeful
Loving
Prudent
Just
Courageous
Temperate
Joyful
Peaceful
Patient
Trusting
Gentle
Kind
Chaste
Humble
Grateful
Assignments
Write a definition of each virtue.
Put a plus by each virtue that you incorporate well into your life. Put a minus by each virtue you need to improve on.
Write a sentence that begins with “I am…” for each virtue. For example, I am patient when I help my younger brother with his homework.”
Select one virtue you would like to work on. Outline five concrete steps you can take to develop this virtue.
February is Black History Month in the United States, which is an opportunity to focus on Black American Catholics. (Another opportunity is Black Catholic History Month in November.)
Recently, several Catholic high school theology teachers shared some excellent resources and lessons to on Black Catholic Americans on the Ave Maria HS Theology Teachers Facebook page.
To make sure that these resources are searchable in years to come, we have also included them here on this platform. Feel free to add any other links you might have in the comment section of this post or on the Facebook page linked above. Also search “Black Catholics” on the Engaging Faith blog for other resources.
Black Catholic Messenger
Notre Dame’s Grotto Network
Catholic University of America
Three resources courtesy of Deacon Ned Berghausen’s Foot-Washer Blog are listed below. Deacon Berghausen is director of campus ministry at Mercy Academy in Louisville.
Black and Beautiful
The Catholic Church Alone Can Break the Color Line
Envisioning a World that Has Never Existed
The photo in this posting is of Daniel Rudd, the founder of the Black Catholic Congress and the first Catholic newspaper in America.
Lead a discussion on how good citizenship means respecting individual rights while at the same time sometimes sacrificing individual rights for the common good, that is, what is beneficial to everyone or almost everyone in a particular community.
Begin by discussing basic human rights. Some of these can be found in the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution called the Bill of Rights.
Amendment
Rights and Protections
First
Freedom of speech
Freedom of the press
Freedom of religion
Freedom of assembly
Right to petition the government
Second
Right to bear arms
Third
Protection against housing soldiers in civilian homes
Fourth
Protection against unreasonable search and seizure
Protection against the issuing of warrants without probable cause
Fifth
Protection against
trial without indictment
double jeopardy
self-incrimination
property seizure
Sixth
Right to a speedy trial
Right to be informed of charges
Right to be confronted by witnesses
Right to call witnesses
Right to a legal counsel
Seventh
Right to trial by jury
Eighth
Protection against
excessive bail
excessive fines
cruel and unusual punishment
Ninth
Rights granted in the Constitution shall not infringe on other rights.
Tenth
Powers not granted to the Federal Government in
Student Assignments
In a small group, read and discuss the Bill of Rights. Give practical examples of the individual rights found in these amendments.
In a small group, make a “Bill of Rights” for students at your school.
Although all people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, good citizens realize that sometimes they must sacrifice these individual rights for the common good. Good citizens realize that they—in their lifetime—may never reap the benefits of hard work and social involvement. But they continue to work anyway, for the good of those who will follow in their footsteps. This aspect of good citizenship is illustrated in this poem by Will Allen Dromgoole:
The Bridge Builder
An old man going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and deep and wide.
Through which was flowing a sullen tide
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting your strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day,
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build this bridge at evening tide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head;
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followed after me to-day
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been as naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”
Student Assignment
Answer in writing: What does the poem mean? What does the poem say to you about your own life as a citizen?
One of the ways to know God’s will for our lives is to pray. St. Claude de la Columbière, a seventeenth century Jesuit priest, reminded us that Christ promised that he would give us everything we need, even the smallest things. He shared these other reflections on how to pray for God’s will for our lives:
We can pray to obtain what we want. We are not prohibited from praying for money and position in life, but, like Solomon, we must pray for things in their proper order.
We can pray to be delivered from evil; however, we are reminded that even what we call “evil” comes to us from God with a purpose. For example, poverty of materials or of the spirit can increase our dependence on God. If we suffered these things would we seek out God much more than we do? What benefit would that be for our sanctification?
We can pray to accept all of God’s gifts as blessing. For example, we can pray, “either give me so much money that my heart will be satisfied, or inspire me with such contempt for it that I no longer want it.”
When we cooperate with God we are exercising his great gift of free will. With the angels, people journey to the ultimate destination of perfection by free choice and by loving God and others. Because this choice is free, the possibility of going astray and committing moral evil exists. God is not the cause of moral evil but he does permit it because he respects our freedom and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from evil.
As the Catechism explains:
Only at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God “face to face,” will we fully know the ways by which—even through the dramas of evil and sin—God has guided his creation to that definitive Sabbath rest for which he created heaven and earth (CCC, 314).
In the meantime, we continue to delve deeper in prayer to discover more about ourselves and about God. Discernment is a process that helps us to make good choices in line with God’s will.
Assignment
Invite your students to create a prayer service based on St. Claude’s suggestions.
Direct them to begin with a request for something they want: To become more patient with my parents,
Then a request for deliverance from evil: to refuse to complain even when I feel they’re being unfair,
Finally, a prayer to accept all as blessing: and to recognize that the decisions they make are made out of love for me, let us pray . . .
Have the students write out their petitions.
When they have completed their writing, gather the students around a lighted candle. Tell them that the response to each prayer petition is “Thy will be done.” For example:
To become more patient with my parents, to refuse to complain even when I feel they’re being unfair, and to recognize that the decisions they make are made out of love for me, O, Lord, we pray . . .
All: Thy will be done.
Invite the students offer their petitions one at a time. Conclude by praying the Lord’s Prayer.
The infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke reveal much about the identity and mission of Jesus. Have the students look up and print the Scripture quotations to match the following descriptions. Then have them answer the question at the bottom. Have the students meet in pairs to discuss their responses after they have finished.
Jesus was born . . .
…in an insignificant, back-water country (Mt 2:6)
…to an oppressed people (Lk 2:1)
…far from home (Lk 2:4)
…in a barn (Lk 2:7)
…to an unwed mother (Mt 1:18; Lk 1:34–35)
…to an unmarried couple (Mt 1:18)
…into poverty (Lk 2:24)
…with a prophetic, but fairly common name (Lk 1:31)
…as a threat to power (Mt 2:16)
…with a death sentence hanging over him (Mt 2:13)
…on the run as a fugitive and refugee (Mt 2:13–15)
…as Messiah—Emmanuel—Son of God
What does this all tell you about Jesus?
In conclusion, set up a nativity scene in class and ask students to describe at least two things they known now about this scene that they after reading these Gospel passages.
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.
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.”
Here are four activities for a lesson on addictions, with a particular focus on alcoholism.
1. Ten Steps to Help You and the Problem Drinker
Read and discuss this list with your students.
Express your genuine concern. Let the person know you are willing to help.
Talk to the person calmly when he or she has not been drinking.
Encourage the person to seek professional help.
Try to help the person see the benefits of stopping alcohol abuse.
Don’t preach to the problem drinker. Avoid the attitude that because you don’t have a drinking problem you are better than the person who does.
Don’t get into a shouting match with the person, especially if he or she is drunk.
Refuse to make excuses to cover for the person’s behavior.
Avoid feeling responsible for the person. You are not responsible.
Provide the person with information about groups that can help him or her.
Never ride with a person who has been drinking. Hide the person’s keys, if necessary, to keep him or her from driving after drinking.
2. Have your students read an article about The Catholic Nun Who Helped Found Alcoholic’s Anonymous.
3. Have your students research and write a report on the life of Venerable Matt Talbot, the patron saint of combatting alcoholism.
4. Pray together these words of Charles de Foucald for trusting God and doing his will.
Father,
I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures—
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul; I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
Hands without reserve, and with boundless confidence for you are my Father.
Amen.
