Teens always want to have helps for making the right decision or doing the right thing. Share these different "tests" they can take to help them make a good decision on the spot. Tell them to ask themselves these questions based on the following categories.
The Jesus Test
Is the act loving?
Does it serve others or is it self-serving?
Will it bring you a sense of joy?
Would a follower of Jesus do this?
The Mother Test
Would you be proud to do this in front of your mother?
The Children Test
Would this action give good example to those younger than you?
The Practicality Test
What will be the results if you do this?
Will the consequences be good or bad?
Do you have any alternatives to this action?
Do you have to do evil to achieve good? (A good end does not justify evil means to attain it.)
The Integrity Test
Will this make you more honest?
Will it strengthen or weaken your character?
Will you respect yourself more or less because of this action?
People Test
Will your action treat people as means or ends?
Will it isolate you from others or result in frayed relationships?
The Bible Test
Does the Bible outlaw action?
Specifically, do the Ten Commandments or Christ's law to love God, neighbor, and self forbid it?
The Reality Test
Would a reasonable person do this?
If someone asked your advice about this same issue, what would you say?
The Sinner Test
Do you admit that you are weak and may not be thinking clearly?
Is it possible that what you want to do might be wrong?
Are your passions getting in the way?
Will this bring you closer to God?
Prayer Test
Have you asked Jesus for his help?
Have you asked the Holy Spirit to enlighten you?
Church Test
Have you asked a wiser, holier Christian for advice?
Have you consulted Church teaching on this issue?
Have the students apply these tests and then follow their conscience! If they are honest in how they answer these questions, they are likely to do the right thing.
October is Respect Life month but a teen-led effort for life that is one to remember occurred in February 2011 on a snowy, wintry day in downtown Chicago.
The taxpayer-subsidized Planned Parenthood organized a pro-abortion "Walk for Choice" protest in Chicago's Daley Plaza. They were protesting a house bill that would limit taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.
The protestors were asked to wear orange. They carried signs. One women held up a homemade sign that said: "If you won't let me choose, I'll have no choice but to call you a @$#%." It was not a nice word on the sign.
Suddenly from another corner of Daley Plaza a group of teenagers arrived, most from Catholic high schools and parishes around Chicago. They gathered inconspicuously at first. But some were carrying large plastic trash bags that appeared full. Then suddenly, with music blaring from a sound system hid in one of the teen's backpacks, the teens pulled yellow balloons from the bags with the word "LIFE" printed on each balloon. Singing and dancing and marching and chanting pro-life slogans followed. A sign was unveiled that read "ORANGE YOU GLAD TO SEE US."
The Pro-Life Flash Mob has been a hit on YouTube ever since. You can view it here.
This was a dramatic, planned but spontaneous pro-life demonstration. What are you doing to mark Respect Life with your teens. We would be very interested in your ideas. Share in the comment space below.
The Pew Research Religion & Public Life Project just released “A Portrait of Jewish Americans.” This information comes from a poll and then analysis of the data obtained through the poll. You may find that some of this material would relate to your curriculum.
Scripture
What are the major differences between Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism? (This might lead to research.)
Which of these three groups is growing in size? (Orthodox, while the others are shrinking.)
Where do most Jews live today? (80 percent live in the U.S. or Israel.)
World Religions
Because a person can be Jewish because of their ancestry rather than their religious practice, what does being Jewish mean? (The report investigates this complex question.)
The number of people practicing Judaism has declined over the years. Does this decline resemble the change in practice for other religious groups in the U.S.? (The number of Jews, ages 18-29, who say they have no religion parallels the overall disaffiliation with religious groups in the US.)
When the Jewish people returned to rebuild Jerusalem after their exile in Babylon, the prophet Nehemiah discouraged the people from marrying non-Jews in order to preserve the faith. How does marrying outside of Judaism affect Jewish practice today? (Jews who marry other Jews are more likely to observe religious practices than those who marry a non-Jew. The former group are more likely to raise their children Jewish than the latter group.)
The Vatican has announced the canonization dates for Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II: Sunday April, 27, 2014, the Sunday after Easter. This date is also the worldwide celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, a feast instituted by Pope John Paul II. Find more information on the announcement here.
Brief Biography of Pope John XXII (1881-1963)
Pope John XXIII was born Angelo Roncalli, the fourth in a family of fourteen children. His parents were sharecroppers. In 1904, he was ordained a priest and then served as secretary to the Bishop of Bergamo, Italy. During this period, he wrote a five-volume biography of St. Charles Borromeo. During World War I, he served as a medic and a chaplain and then after the war worked in Rome as the Italian head of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Many years of his priestly life were then spent serving as a papal diplomat, most notably to Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, and France. In 1953, he was named the patriarch of Venice and elevated to cardinal.
His election after the death of Pope Pius XII was unexpected. Because of his advanced age (a month shy of 77), most observers thought of him as an interim Pope who would not serve long or accomplish much. However, Pope John’s warmth, sense of humor, and kind heart quickly won over the entire world, contrasting sharply with the aristocratic bearing of his predecessor. One of his first official acts was to visit prisoners in Rome telling them, “You could not come to me, so I came to you.” One of his famous jokes involved his response to a question from a reporter, “Holy Father, how many people work in Vatican City?” The Pope responded, “About half of them.”
What surprised most people was John’s assertion that the idea for calling the first Ecumenical Council in ninety years came to him like a ray of blinding light, an inspiration from the Holy Spirit. When he announced the council to a gathering of eighteen cardinals in January of 1959, they were dumbfounded. Days later, they voiced their reservations, but John insisted that the Church lived in a new age. The Catholic Church was no longer just a European community, but a worldwide Church embracing many people. Moreover, the Church needed to dialog with the fast-changing world of politics, economics, science, technology, and so forth. This council would be unlike previous councils which were called in times of crisis and heresy. It would be a pastoral council, one of mercy and hope, one that would reach out to the modern world and invite people around the world to consider the joyfulness of the Gospel. Pope John famously gave this as his reason for the council: “I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people can see in.”
Brief Biography of Pope John Paul II (1920–2005)
When the cardinals met in October of 1978 to elect a new Pope, they chose Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the fifty-eight-year-old Archbishop of Kraków, Poland, the first non-Italian Pope in more than 450 years. As a Pole, he had lived a remarkable life as a survivor of both Nazism in his youth and communist tyranny as an adult. Multi-talented and athletic, Karol was a gifted actor, poet, playwright, and profound philosopher. He was chosen for his youth and his dedication to implementing the principles of Vatican II. The cardinals also thought he would be savvy enough to stabilize a Church that was experiencing problems associated with secularization from without and dissidents from within its ranks.
Karol Wojtyla took the name John Paul II to signal his desire to continue the work of his three predecessors. He was the third-longest reigning Pope in history, behind St. Peter (approximately thirty-five years) and Pope Pius IX (31.6 years). His death on April 2, 2005, ended his twenty-six-year papacy. The massive outpouring of affection for him at the time of his death was unprecedented in history. For many Catholics, he was immediately acclaimed, “John Paul the Great.” This is an honorific title used for only three other Popes in history, Pope Gregory I, Pope Leo I, and Pope Nicholas I. Cardinals in New York and Dublin are among high-ranking clergy who have publicly used the title “the Great” for John Paul II. Millions of admirers of Pope John Paul II viewed him as a faithful and holy Apostle to humanity and one of history’s great figures, due in no small measure to the role he played in the collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe, thus ending the Cold War.
Commissioner Edward Davis recently honored Glen James for the character James displayed when returning $42,000 in cash to its rightful owner on Saturday, September 14. Check out the complete story before exploring some questions like those below with your students.
Morality
Would keeping money you found be considered stealing? What if it was a dollar bill or five dollar bill? Five hundred dollars without a person’s name with it? Five hundred dollars with a person’s name with it? More? Explain your reasoning for each case.
Does Glen James’ status as homeless make his gesture more virtuous than the action of a person on the edge of poverty? A middle class person? A rich person? Explain.
A man living in another state wants to raise $50,000 to honor and help Glen James out. Is “virtue its own reward” or does it warrant a monetary reward?
Faith
Glen James said that even if he was desperate for money, he would not have kept a penny of that money. He also said he is a religious man and that “God has always looked after him.” Though he did not say that he returned the money because of his faith, do you think that he did?
Social Justice
How do you think most employed Americans view homeless people? Do they perceive them to be virtuous? Why or why not? Do you think that Glen James’ actions may cause some people to perceive homeless people differently or will they just think that Glen James is the exception? Explain.
I'll never forget the anger a Sophomore girl expressed in class one day about her own baptism. We were discussing infant baptism and somehow the class discussion turned into a teenage tirade on the infringement of personal freedom and right to choose your own faith. Sitting in the back of the room, one girl said with passionate anger, "It isn't fair. I didn't even get the choice!"
I would bet you have some students who would like to renounce their baptism. Or, worse yet, could care less one way or the other if they were baptized or not.
The purpose of this meditation is to help your students realize the effect that baptism has had within them. Our baptisms make no sense unless accompanied by the realization of the love that we unknowingly experienced as infants. Our parents and godparents loved and cared for us. They wanted what was best for us. More importantly, at Baptism we experienced for the first time a sacramental expression of God's infinite love for us as his children. Through Baptism we become God's adoptive sons and daughters. We become a part of the body of Christ, God's own Son.
Help students imagine the love of God that will always prefigure the development and acceptance of faith with this meditation on baptism.
A Meditation on Our Baptisms
Reading:
The Baptism of Jesus if the Jordan River
Matthew 3:13-17
Guided Meditation: My Baptism
Most of us experienced our baptism as infants. We have no memory of it ourselves and can only ask our parents to recount the experience for us. Nevertheless, imagine if you were there at your own baptism.
What would you have seen and heard?
Who do you think would have been there?
What kinds of expressions would they have on their faces?
What do you think they were feeling or thinking at that moment?
Now consider the Baptism of Jesus in relation to your own baptism. In baptism, we become like Christ, God's sons and daughters.
Picture the priest pouring water over your infant head or dunking you in the baptismal font. Then at that moment, look up and imagine these words being proclaimed in silence, "This is my beloved [son/daughter] with whom I am well pleased."
Now, imagine these words being said to you, today, right now. God speaks directly and privately to you:
"You are my beloved child with whom I am well pleased."
Silently, respond to him. What would you say if you heard these words from God right now?
Closing Prayer
Close with an "Our Father," but before you begin remind the students of the words that they are saying. They are God's children. God is our Father. When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we are expressing our relationship with God as our loving Father.
(photo credit: mark sebastian)
The unfortunate civil war in Syria provides an opportunity for students, as Catholics, to research and evaluate the arguments they hear about the United States making air strikes against the country. Their thoughtful reflection may lead them to contact their senators or representatives in the US Congress.
You may want to use the Engaging Faith blog entry, The Catholic Just War Theory Lesson Plan for the criteria for a just war.
Review or introduce the just war doctrine to the students. Ask them to look at a map of Syria, noting which countries surround it. Explain some basic things about the country. (The CIA has basic information and map about each country online
Ask students to evaluate these articles suggested below (or others of your choosing) in pairs or small groups and be ready to talk about the perspectives they have read in light of the just war theory. The first reading is from the US Catholic bishops. The next three articles are from key North American newspapers, one Canadian. The last is a statement by the UN Secretary General. As the students read through their articles, ask them to look for the answers to these questions.
What is the writer’s overall thesis?
Does the writer use data to support the thesis?
Do you find any contradictions in the article?
Does the writer use past examples of US military intervention to make his or her point? If so, what do these examples suggest?
Which elements of the just war doctrine does the article address? Does the article support these principles?
What question might you want to ask the author?
Suggested articles, letters, and statements:
Most Reverend Bishop Richard E. Pates, “Letter to Secretary of State Kerry,” August 30, 2013, USCCB Media News Releases
The Editorial Board, “Debating the Case for Force,” The New York Times, September 2, 2013
Robin Wright, “The Risk of Taking on Syria,” The Los Angeles Times, August 29, 2013
The World Factbook: Syria
Syria Cyber Profile
Teacher Background Information Link
Pope Francis has announced a day of prayer and fasting for peace in the Middle East, especially around the multiplying violence in Syria. The following prayer experience is intended to help students understand the need for peace in all levels of their relationships, including world-wide peace.
Directions
Give each person a blank sheet of paper and a marker or pen. Ask them to draw a small circle in the middle of the paper and to print the name of a family member or a word for a family situation that needs God's peace brought to it. Next, ask them to draw a larger circle around the first circle. In this circle tell them to write the names of people or situations in their local school, parish, or city that needs God's peace brought to them. Finally, have them draw a third, larger circle and list names of people or situations in the world at large that need God's peace brought to them.
After some time for reflection, have the students sit in a large circle. Pass a lighted candle around the circle. As each person is holding the candle, ask them to pray aloud for one of the people or situations they wrote on their papers.
Conclude by reciting the World Peace Prayer below.
World Peace Prayer
Lead us
from death to life,
from falsehood to truth,
from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
Lead us
from hate to love,
from war to peace.
Let peace fill our hearts,
let peace fill our world,
let peace fill our universe. Amen.
