Enjoy sharing some brief background on the life of St. Andre Bessette, a humble member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and the prayer to St. Joseph, the one he was devoted to.The feast day of St. Andre Bessette is January 6.
Traditional Novena Prayer to St. Joseph
Oh Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the Throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.
Oh Saint Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son, all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, so that having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of fathers.
Oh Saint Joseph, I never weary of contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me, and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath.
Saint Joseph, Patron of the departing souls, pray for us. Amen.
For this prayer experience you will need tapers, slips of paper, and something to write with. Gather the students in an open space. Have them sit in a circle. Give each person an unlit taper candle. Follow these directions.
Remind the students that Jesus calls himself "the light of the world" (Jn 8:12).
Have the students write on small slips of paper specific elements of darknes in their own lives (e.g., jealousy, hatred, prejudice, fear, loneliness) and on other slips of paper specific ways Jesus has brought light to their lives (e.g., a special friendship, a caring teacher, a favorite spot in nature, peace through participation in the sacraments, prayer).
Have the group sit in a circle with the unlit taper candles. Make the room as dark as possible.
Call on one student to begin by sharing an occarsion of darkness from his or her life. Repeat the process around the rest of the circle with each student sharing about darkness.
Then, repeat the sharing, this time with the participant telling about how Jesus brings light to their lives (e.g., family relationships, friendships, achievements, nature, compassion, love). Light the first person's candle.
Repeat the process. After each new person has shared, they should light their candle from the person who spoke before them.
Conclude with a song, perhaps "I Am the Light of the World" by Greg Hayakawa.
The following lesson centers around the poem "The Bethlhem Explosion" by Madeline L'Engle. The accompanying background material and lesson is taken from The Catholic Spirit: An Anthology for Discovering Faith Through Literature, Art, Film, and Music by Michel Bettgole, OSF, and James D. Childs.
Author Background
Madeleine L’Engle (1916–2007) was a prolific writer of more than sixty books in a variety of forms, including fiction, fantasy, biography, poetry, and prose. She is best known, however, for her children’s books. Her book of fantasy, A Wrinkle in Time, won the distinguished Newberry Medal for Children’s Literature. Madeleine L’Engle was a woman of profound religious faith. She felt strongly that all writers, especially Christian writers, had a vocation from God to bring hope and light into a darkened world. As she said in her book Walking on Water, the writer has a duty “to further the coming of the kingdom and to turn our feet toward home.”
Before the Reading
It is God’s will to reveal himself and his purpose for humankind. However, God has not made his revelation known all at once. He has revealed himself to humanity in stages. First he spoke to Adam and Eve, and made a covenant with them to send a Redeemer who would defeat death and sin. He then spoke to Noah and granted him dominion over all the things of the earth. Next, God spoke to Abraham and the Patriarchs and to Moses and made an everlasting covenant with the people of Israel. Finally, the Lord made himself most perfectly known through the revelation of his Son, Jesus Christ. “In times past. God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophet; in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe” (Heb 1:1–2). All Salvation History leads up to the moment when Christ comes into the world as true God and true man. In her poem “The Bethlehem Explosion,” Madeleine L’Engle writes about a common experiment in a chemistry class. Because she sees the world with the eyes of faith, this common experiment becomes a sign and a metaphor for the coming of Jesus into the world.
“The Bethlehem Explosion”
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the world should be enrolled. And Joseph too went up from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child (Lk 1:1, 4–5).
The chemistry lab at school
was in an old greenhouse
surrounded by ancient live oaks
garnished with Spanish moss.
The experiment I remember best
was pouring a quart of clear fluid
into a glass jar, and dropping into it,
grain by grain, salt-sized crystals,
until they layered
like white sand on the floor of the jar.
One more grain—and suddenly—
water and crystal burst
into a living, moving pattern,
a silent, quietly violent explosion.
The teacher told us that only when
we supersaturated the solution,
would come the precipitation.
The little town
was like the glass jar in our lab.
One by one they came, grain by grain,
all those of the house of David,
like grains of sand to be counted.
The inn was full. When Joseph knocked,
his wife was already in labour; there was no room
even for compassion. Until the barn was offered.
That was the precipitating factor. A child was born,
and the pattern changed forever, the cosmos
shaken with that silent explosion.
Reading for Comprehension
1. Where was the chemistry laboratory located?
2. What does the student do with the individual grains of salt-sized crystals?
3. What is meant by “supersaturation”?
4. What happened when the final grain was dropped into the solution?
5. What is the final event that causes “the silent explosion in the cosmos” that completes God’s plan?
Reading for Understanding
What aspects of the birth of Jesus are represented in the poem by: the glass jar, the grains of crystal, the silent and violent explosion in the glass jar?
An explosion destroys the surface order of things to reveal the power that lies beneath. Read John 1:1–3. Explain how Christ’s birth reveals the dynamic love of God that was present from the beginning of creation.
God speaks to us as individuals at various stages of our life. In a gradual manner or by a sudden event, he makes himself known to us and enables us to see people, events, and God himself in a clearer way. Examine a decisive moment in your life. What did it tell you about yourself or the world? How would your life be different if that event had never occurred? How did God speak to you in this event? What was the Lord trying to tell you?
Activity
God revealed himself to Israel, his Chosen People, over a long period of time. Read the following stories from the Bible:
the creation of Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:4–24);
the freeing of the Israelites from Egypt (Exodus 14);
the prophecies about the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 52:13–53:12).
How can each of these episodes be compared to the grains of crystal described in L’Engle’s poem? Read the account of the Transfiguration found in Matthew 17:1–8. How is this manifestation of Jesus in glory another example of a “silent explosion”?
December 12 is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas. On his first journey as pope in 1979, St. John Paul II went to Mexico "to invoke on my pontificate the motherly protection and assistance of Our Lady of Guadalupe; to repeat to her with greater vigor prompted by new and immense obligations: 'Totus tuus sum ego!' (I am all yours!), and to place in her hands the future of evangelization in Latin America. He composed the following prayer for the visit. Pray it with your students by dividing the class in half to alternate each praying aloud each stanza.
O Immaculate Virgin, Mother of the true God and Mother of the Church!, who from this place reveal your clemency and your pity to all those who ask for your protection, hear the prayer that we address to you with filial trust, and present it to your Son Jesus, our sole Redeemer.
Mother of Mercy, Teacher of hidden and silent sacrifice, to you, who come to meet us sinners, we dedicate on this day all our being and all our love. We also dedicate to you our life, our work, our joys, our infirmities and our sorrows. Grant peace, justice and prosperity to our peoples; for we entrust to your care all that we have and all that we are, our Lady and Mother. We wish to be entirely yours and to walk with you along the way of complete faithfulness to Jesus Christ in His Church; hold us always with your loving hand.
Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas, we pray to you for all the Bishops, that they may lead the faithful along paths of intense Christian life, of love and humble service of God and souls. Contemplate this immense harvest, and intercede with the Lord that He may instill a hunger for holiness in the whole people of God, and grant abundant vocations of priests and religious, strong in the faith and zealous dispensers of God’s mysteries.
Grant to our homes the grace of loving and respecting life in its beginnings, with the same love with which you conceived in your womb the life of the Son of God. Blessed Virgin Mary, protect our families, so that they may always be united, and bless the upbringing of our children.
Our hope, look upon us with compassion, teach us to go continually to Jesus and, if we fall, help us to rise again, to return to Him, by means of the confession of our faults and sins in the Sacrament of Penance, which gives peace to the soul.
We beg you to grant us a great love for all the holy Sacraments, which are, as it were, the signs that your Son left us on earth.
Thus, Most Holy Mother, with the peace of God in our conscience, with our hearts free from evil and hatred, we will be able to bring to all true joy and true peace, which come to us from your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.
If you can excuse the reproduction quality, here's an icebreaker idea you might use in the next couple of weeks. Design a page like this Christmas tree with several bingo items your students can sign off on. This will get them moving around the room and talking to everyone in an informal, holiday-like atmosphere. You can play for a winner (the first person who gets all the Christmas tree boxes signed) or just for fun. In either case, call on several volunteers to share remembrances of the occasions indicated by the boxes they signed.
It is God's own hand which has guided everything, and He it is whom we must thank above all. Hence I beg you to unite your thanks with ours in order that we may draw down more abundant blessings from heaven upon our owrk, and above all, not stop their flow by want of gratitude.
--Blessed Basil Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross
"Hail Mary, full of grace." These words were spoken by the angel Gabriel to Marry to announce the birth of Jesus. This meditation will place your students in the role of Mary: listening to the angel, responding and trying to understand. Arrange a quiet place for prayer. Allow some time for the students to relax and focus. Then begin by reading the meditation. Pause between lines. Allow a longer time for reflection on when the words are printed in bold face. You may choose to accompany the prayer with appropriate instrumental music.
This meditation was written by Patty McCulloch and was originally published in Encountering Jesus: 20 Meditations on His Care and Compassion.
Quiet yourself.
Relax.
Feel yourself just letting go of everything.
Breathe in.
Hold.
Breathe out.
Breath in.
Hold.
Breathe out.
Let go.
Totally relax.
Breathe in.
Hold.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
Hold.
Breathe out.
Imagine . . .
You are in your home.
You are a young girl.
Engaged to be married.
You are doing some housework.
Picture this in your mind.
See yourself doing chores.
Imagine your wedding.
Suddenly you feel a presence.
It is hard to describe.
You are not afraid but very calm and at peace.
Be with this feeling.
"Mary," you hear your name and look around.
You walk outside
to see who is there.
"Mary, don't be afraid."
You seem something in the yard.
Go over there.
The voice continues.
"Rejoice, O highly favored daughter.
The Lord is with you, blessed are you among women."
Listen to these words.
Repeat them in your mind.
What do they mean?
Could this voice be an angel?
You hear, "Don't be afraid, really.
You are his favorite.
You shall conceive and bear a son and give him the name Jesus.
Great will be his dignity and he will be called Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father.
He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his reign will be without end."
Answer, "How can this be since I do not know man?"
Hear the angel say, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you."
Be with these words.
What do they mean to you?
Then the angel tells you something amazing about your older relative.
"Elizabeth, your cousin, who was thought to be sterile, has conceived in her old age."
She is not in her sixth month,
for nothing is impossible with God."
How are you feeling?
What do those last words really mean, "nothing is impossible with God?"
Respond to the angel, "I am the servant of the Lord.
Let it be done to me as you say."
Feel the angel leave you.
Repeat the angel's words to yourself.
"I am the Lord's servant.
Let it be done to me as you say."
What do these words mean for your life?
Breathe in,
let it be done.
Breathe out,
to me.
Breathe in,
let it be done.
Breathe out,
to me.
Let the words just come naturally as you continue to breathes.
Ask Jesus what meaning these words have for your own life.
Then slowly come back to this place.
What do you want to remember from this meditation?
What does God want you to remember from this meditation?
Open your eyes.
Slowly get up.
The search for happiness is a universal human quest. Although our deepest desires for happiness can only be fulfilled by God in Heaven, there are steps that Christians can take to experience more joy here in this lifetime. Pope Francis recently addressed this quest by offering his own “Top Ten Secrets to Happiness.” Use the Pope’s list as a segue for a lesson on the same topic. But don’t share the Pope’s list until the end of the lesson. Here are some suggested steps:
Put your students in pairs and assign each pair to develop their own “Top Ten Secrets to Happiness.”
List the ideas that students came up with on the board, putting checks next to tips that are most frequently suggested. Invite students to explain their thoughts more clearly if you or other students look puzzled by some of their suggestions. If two or more ideas are very similar, group them together.
Then ask students to identify which, if any, of their ideas do they think would also be on Pope Francis’ “top ten secrets to happiness.” Engage in conversation as the students select or reject some of their own ideas, saying things like, “Don’t you think the Pope might appreciate good sportsmanship or dislike hypocrisy?”
Finally, display Pope Francis’ “Top 10 Secrets for Happiness.” Go over the list with the students and ask them to come up with ways that the Pope’s ideas could translate into their own lives and concerns.
