As a last-minute service project, provide space for teens to offer a baby-sitting service for parents who need to do last-minute Christmas shopping. The teens baby-sit the children at the school or parish while the parents are shopping. Recommendation: Do not accept children who have not been potty-trained. If you can pull this event together in the short-term, the Saturday before Christmas would be an opportune date.At the event itself, arrange several stations where the teens can interact with and supervise the children, for example, two or three different craft areas where teens lead the construction of things like Christmas wreaths, coloring projects, or the cutting out of snowflakes from white construction paper. At another station, keep several DVDs on hand. It's preferable to have short thirty-minute presentations rather than full-length movies in order to continually attract the attention of more and more kids. Finally, many teens can spend one-on-one time with the children playing board games and interacting in many other forms of play.Make sure to go through any proper channels and provide permission slips and sign-in sheets as needed. Keep the teenagers around to clan up the nursery area when the baby-sitting is over.
In remembrance of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12, note the following resources to apply for lessons and prayers on the feast and on the Blessed Virgin Mary in general.
Song to Our Lady of Guadalupe
A beautiful rendition of a "Song to Our Lady of Guadalupe" is performed by Molly Chesna, perfect for a prayer reflection:
"Hail Mary" from Dago Red by John Fante
The following selection is quoted in The Catholic Spirit: An Anthology for Discovering Faith Through Literature, Art, Film, and Music. It is written in a "stream of consciousness" style that attempts to capture the inner thoughts of a person as the thoughts occur.
They had said at the hospital that Papa was going to die, and nobody knew it but me and Mamma and you, you Honey, but we had prayed and I sat smirking, pooh-poohing at death because we had prayed and I knew we had done our share for Papa, and that he would live.
The rest of them wouldn’t go to bed that night, they were afraid Papa would die, and they all waited, and already Grandma planned the funeral, but I smirked and went to bed and slept very happy, with your beads in my fingers, kissing the cross a few times and then dozing off because Papa could not die after my prayers, because you were my girl, my queen, and there was no doubt in my heart.
And in the morning there was wild joy to wake me, because Papa had lived and would live some more, a lot of years to come, and there was Mamma back from the hospital, beaming and sticky when she kissed us for joy, and I heard her say to Grandma: “He lived because he has an iron constitution. He is a strong man. You can’t kill that man.” And when I heard that, I snickered. They didn’t know, these people, they didn’t know about you and me, you Honey, and I thought of your pale face, your dark hair, your feet on the serpent at the side-altar, and I said, she’s wonderful, she’s sure wonderful.
Oh, those were the days! Oh, I loved you then! You were the celestial blue, and I looked up at you when I walked to school with books under my arms, and my ecstasy was simple and smashing, crushing and mad and whirling, all these things across my chest, sensations, and you in the blue sky, in my blue shirt, in the covers of my blue-covered book. You were the color blue and I saw you everywhere and then I saw the statue in the church, at the side-altar, with your feet on the serpent, and I said and said a thousand times, I said, oh, you Honey, and I wasn’t afraid of anything. . . .
Assignment
Write your own "stream of consciousness" about your faith and friendship with Mary, the Mother of God.
Share with your students some background on the declaration by Pope Pius IX of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Mother of God. The feast is celebrated on December 8.
To this day, an eyewitness account of an event that took place almost 150 years ago still circulates in Rome. It happened in St. Peter's Bascilica, December 8, 1854, as Pope Pius IX spoke to a congregation of bishops and lay persons about the Immaculate Conception. The belief that Mary was sinless had been a long-standing tradition handed down through the ages.
Until this moment, however, it had not been an official Church teaching. Now the pope was about to proclaim it a dogma of the Church.
As the pope took up the proclamation and began to read the words, an amazing thing happened. On that dreary day in December, the sun suddenly penetrated the clouds and shone through a stained-glass window. It was precisely the right moment and just the right angle for a bright ray of sunlight to fall directly upon the pope, making him almost glow before the crowd.
Many of those who witnessed it simply to it as an interesting coincidence. Others could not help but se this stunning occurrence as God's beautiful way of underlining a rare and important moment in the Church's witness to truth.
The belief that Mary was always pure and perfect was a strong Church Tradition from her earliest days. A Mass to celebrate Mary's birth on September 8 had been offered for years. This was unusual because the Church usually celebrated the death of a saint—the day a saint enters Heaven and is forever free from sin. By celebrating Mary's birth, the Church was saying Mary was sinless from the start.
Scripture supports the Tradition. Mary was greeted by the angel Gabriel as the one who was "full of grace." Many other places in Scripture, such as the account in Genesis 3:15 told of the Mother of the Savior who would be victorious over evil and death.
All of these elements of Tradition and Scripture went into the pope's decision to proclaim a dogma of the Church. A dogma is a statement of belief that all Catholics are called to accept.
But there was more.
Years before the proclamation, Pope Pius IX had sent a letter to ask the bishops of the world what they, their priests, and their people believed about the Immaculate Conception. An incredible 90 percent supported the belief and wanted the pope to proclaim it a dogma. In some way, this dogma about Mary was a clear reflection of the general belief of the People of God. Thus the dogma of the Immaculate Conception became official.
But the story doesn't even end there. It happened that four years after Pius IX proclaimed the Church's belief in the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the miracle of Lourdes occurred. There, in a tiny French village, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared many times to a fourteen-year-old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous. In one of the apparitions, Mary told Bernadette, "I am the Immaculate Conception." When the young girl announced the Lady's name to the local pastor he was amazed. There was no way this young girl could have know that the title for Mary unless it had been revealed to her. It was a stunning revelation to the Church that Mary herself confirmed the dogma.
Never in the history of the Church had a teaching of faith received such obvious backing from Heaven itself.
Discussion Questions
What is a tradition that has been passed on in your family for many generations?
Why was it necessary for the sinless Savior to be born of a sinless Mother?
Imagine you have been asked to define the dogma of the Immaculate Conception for a younger child. How would you do it?
How did Scripture help preserve this belief?
How did Tradition help preserve this belief?
How did the Magisterium help preserve this belief?
What was Jesus really like? Ask the students to look up clues into Jesus' personality. Have them search the Scripture references and write answers to the corresponding questions.
Were some Apostles "closer" to Jesus than others? (see Mt 17:1-2)
Did Jesus avoid associating with women? (see Lk 8:1-3)
Did Jesus ever cause any trouble? (see Jn 2:13-17)
Did Jesus ever have any fun? (see Jn 2:1-2)
Was Jesus ever confused or depressed? (see Mk 14:32-35)
Did Jesus ever get frustrated with his friends? (see Mk 10:13-14)
Did Jesus ever disagree with his Mother? (see Jn 2:1-5)
Did Jesus ever hang out with the "in" crowd? (see Mt 9:9-13)
Did Jesus get along with everybody? (see Mt 22:15-22)
Did Jesus ever feel overwhelmed and under stress? (see Mk 3:7-12)
To conclude, have the students write or discuss ways that Jesus' personality is similar (and different) to their own.
Karey Circosta is at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. She reports that the official cheer of the weekend is "Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say we’re at NCYC?" Not that there's anything wrong with that! Here are some photos:
Friday, November 20, is the twentieth anniversary of the first World Day of Prayer and Action for Children. It is a day to "bring together people of religion and goodwill to safeguard the integrity, rights, and dignity of children and promote their well-being." Along with Pope Benedict XVI, commemorate the day with your class by praying with your class on behalf of suffering children worldwide. Recall the words of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta:Children long for somebody to accept them to love them to praise them to be proud of them.If they do not have this, they will go to the streets where there are plenty of people ready to accept them. The child can be lost. Much hatred and destruction is caused when a child is lost.Like Our Lady and St. Joseph we must go and search for the child. When Jesus was lost they went and search. They did not sit and wait. They did not rest until they found him.We must bring the child back, make the child feel wanted.Without the child there is no hope.
Ave Maria Press is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of a new high school textbook, Meeting Jesus in the Sacraments!The text incorporates the outline and main points of the new high school curriculum guidelines and is a Christocentric presentation of the liturgy and sacraments. It has been found in conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church.Meeting Jesus in the Sacraments offers a detailed look at the sacraments as the principal manifestation of Christ. Jesus is himself a principal sacrament of God to the human race. Participating in the sacraments helps us to know Jesus and live life in community as modeled by the Persons of the Trinity.Meeting Jesus in the Sacraments breaks open the meaning of sacrament—an efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us by the work of the Holy Spirit—using an effective model for describing four dimensions of the sacrament:
Memorial
Celebration
Communion
Transformation
This model is the organizing principle for each chapter.Meeting Jesus in the Sacraments is truly an interactive text. Through the regular placement of "For Reflection" panels and assignments that focus on deeper research (mind), developing a personal and communcal prayer life (heart), and active transformation of self and society (hand), the students will come to know Jesus through participation in the sacraments and the grace of their effects.Each chapter also features a profile of a saint with a particular devotion or experience around a sacrament. Additionally, several references to current events that have application to the topic, including references to blogger sites, are included.Contact Ave Maria Press if you would like more information on having a review copy of Meeting Jesus in the Sacraments sent to your school.
The Hubble Space Telescope, named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble, is one of the largest and most versatile space telescopes. It was taken into orbit in 1990 by the Space Shuttle Discovery. The Hubble orbits the earth every 96-97 minutes, covering the United States in about ten minutes.
The Hubble has been credited with many new scientific discoveries. It has found that the age of the universe is about 13 to 14 billion years old, a much more accurate estimate than the previous range of 10 to 20 billion years. The Hubble has also helped to identify “dark energy,” a mysterious force that causes the expansion of the universe to expand.
A famous photo (above) taken by the Hubble has been called the “eye of God” as it is similar to a human eye in space. Other beautiful views of our universe are revealed in the video montage.
Assignment
• How do the images taken by the Hubble make you think about God?
• With your camera, capture several images from our world that help you to experience God. These may include:
• mountains, rivers, sunsets, oceans, forests
• mother with child
• mity landscape
• the comfort of your home
• a younger person serving an older person, or vice versa
• a place where your expect your dreams to come true
• and many more!
Share your photos on a Facebook page, as a PowerPoint presentation, on a poster collage, or in any other place where people can view them. Offer a title—“My Experience of God”—that encourages comments.
