Lent 2016: Imitators of Christ

Our theme this year for Lent in my classroom is to be "Imitators of Christ." So, after going through Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving we focus on answering the question of how do we imitate Jesus.

First, and most importantly I make an example of how we have to really know someone to imitate them well. I ask my students if I am capable of imitating one of them. Usually they say I could. Then I ask if my twin sister could...I mean, we look the same, we talk the same, but could she? They recognize that it wouldn't work because she does not know my students. She has heard of them, yes, but she has never actually met them. After this first example we go through their own examples of people they know a lot about but have never met to fortify their understanding of the big difference between knowing about someone vs. meeting someone.

So, then the question becomes whether they, themselves, have ever met Jesus or if they just know a lot about Him. A lot of times students think it is impossible for them not to have met Jesus yet. They make arguments like "everyone knows Jesus." or "You would have to live in an isolated place to not have." That's where the next activity comes in.

I show this picture of Jesus from a picture book I have. I ask students to erase everything they know about Jesus and I walk around and show them this picture while saying things like "David, this man loves you! Hayden, this guy, yeah, He is IN LOVE WITH YOU. Jenna, This man, He is always thinking of you, George, He, yeah, this dude, He cares about you so much He is in love with you!" Then I ask them what they think. Usually they are plenty creeped out as they realize if they don't actually know Jesus it is really weird to think that the guy in this picture is so in love with them. At this point we have a conversation about how our world is full of people who have seen pictures of Jesus, who have heard His name, but who don't really KNOW Him.

That's when I set them on a mission. I explain that I am going to be having them introduce Jesus to someone who doesn't know Him, or doesn't trust Him, or maybe doesn't believe He loves them. This will be in the format of a picture and a letter. Their job, to start, is to find a picture of Jesus that really hits them, and explains Who Jesus really is. The letter will come later and will be a letter describing Jesus and inviting someone to meet Him. As they do the picture activity they should have the letter in the back of their minds so they can begin deciding how they will describe and introduce Jesus to someone else.

The day that they bring in all of their pictures I have them write four to five sentences underneath is answering these questions. Why did you pick this picture? What does it teach you about Jesus? What does it make you feel? After they are finished writing the class gets up and tours around the room with their journal. They look at each other's photos and read their descriptions as they write down anything that they might want to use in their letter. I usually play two songs while they tour around and they sit down once the second song is over. After everyone has toured around we share our favorites and I read some aloud. This goes really well because it helps students to recognize their own ability to inspire their classmates.

Now it is time to write their letters. Students are usually a little intimidated by this because they have never shared their faith in such a direct way before. I let them know that their letter can be given to me for me to hand out to people who might need it or they can choose who they want to give it to. For example, one student gave it to their older sister who had fallen away from the faith, another wanted to give it to a random person they felt called to give it to in public, other students wanted to give it to high school students that they hoped knew Jesus, and still others asked me to give it to my own friends or family members that I had talked about in class.

We write these letters in our school chapel. We begin with an opening prayer asking Jesus to help us to introduce Him well in our letters. I DO NOT put a sentence limit on these letters as I want these to feel much more like a prayer than an assignment, and I make sure to tell the students this. After opening prayer I lead a reflection. It goes like this:

1. Close your eyes and try to notice what is distracting you right now. Maybe you are cold, or a noise is distracting you, maybe something coming up today is worrying you, imagine yourself handing all of these distractions over to Mary right now.

2. Now imagine Jesus looking at you while you look at Him. What do you feel? What does He look like? What does He see? How does He feel about you? Remember that no matter what you think He is with you, and loves you.

3. I ask them to use their imaginations and five senses as I read Mk 8:27 and emphasize the questions: "Who do people say that I am?" and "Who do you say that I am?" I ask them to spend sometime answering Jesus in prayer. Then I read the passage another time.

4. At this point I let them know that I will be playing three songs. They should take their time. If nothing is coming to them they can keep praying about it and ask Jesus to speak to them to help them. Most students get writing right away and I remind them that if they start drawing a blank to pray and then get back to writing.

5. These are the songs I play with the reason beside them:

I Am by Mark Schulz- This song gives a lot of examples of how to answer the question "Who am I?" It also uses the words "come and see" and "follow me" to help students start out their letters in an inviting tone.

Everything by Lifehouse- This song describes Jesus on a more personal level and hopefully helps students to deepen their descriptions in their letters. It uses phrases like "He is the strength that keeps me walking" and "the hope that keeps me trusting."

I've Always Loved You by Third Day- This is a great song to end on. It is more lively and gives them good examples of how to encourage their readers with examples of how much and long and hard Jesus loves us.

Overall, students began the activity a little overwhelmed, uneasy, and excited but when I asked each class about how it actually went their responses were things like, "awesome!" "I wish I had time to write more!" and "It was easy in a really cool way!"

Finally, we read excerpts from the letters as we acknowledge that we all can get to know Jesus better in order to imitate Him better. I usually make copies of the letters so that I can use them later before handing them back.

Here are just a few examples below...pretty awesome!

Saint Dream Team Project

This is the culmination of the Saint Unit that involves the activities in Saints Are Sinners Who Never Gave Up and Conversion Limerick Version.

One of the coolest projects I have been able to do thus far with my 7th graders is what I like to call the Saint Dream Team Project. The goal of the project is to help students get to know a handful of saints better in a way that gets them to feel inspired to become one of their number. It reminds me a lot of the song's lyrics that say "Oh how I long to be in that number" from the song When the Saints Go Marching In.

How it goes:

1. Listen to this All Saints Day Homily and discuss how it helps to look at Saints as a part of something we want to be a part of, like the senior class. We want to be like the cool seniors, sit with them, share in their victory. 

2. Each student comes up with what context they would like to be a part of for their Saint Dream Team. Examples: Zombie Apocalypse Team, Contestants on the Voice, Army Unit, Basketball Team, etc. 

3. Next, they write down a rationale for why they chose the context they chose. For example, if I chose the TV show The Office. My rationale would be that I would like to work with the saints day in and day out. I'd like to be on their team, in their branch, selling the good news of God. 

4. Then, they make their own dream team to match the roles or characters of their context. For example, in the office I would say:

• Michael Scott is like St. Peter because he is in charge, leads the office, but makes a lot of mistakes and says dumb things like St. Peter sometimes did. 
• Pam is like St. Therese because she is sweet and kind and takes care of the little things in the office like St. Therese and her little way. 

5. I like to show this example of an Old Testament Yearbook to help them to get their ideas flowing. They are allowed to use whatever means they want to present their dream team project but they must have at least a context, a rationale, and 10 saints with explanations. I give them ideas of using powerpoint, postermywall.com, etc. 

View some of my classes examples!

Conversion Limerick Version

This lesson builds on the lesson Saints are Sinners Who Never Gave Up.

After discussing, in the previous lesson, how important conversion and God's grace is in the lives of the Saints students spend time researching the three saints they picked from the previous lesson. Their goal is to answer these questions:
1. What did this Saint struggle with?
2. How did God break through in this Saint's life?
3. How did everything change after God broke through?

After finding the answers to these questions students write a limerick that shows give an idea of the conversion of their saint. The reason we do limericks is because of the pattern a limerick follows. It also gives the whole class a fun way to read a very succinct biography of a lot of different saints' conversion stories.

Here is the page I made to help guide my students through their research. It has links to helpful websites for researching saints as well as how to craft a limerick. I've also included my own examples of saint limericks. Use this link to see the students' limericks!

​St. Joseph Benedict Laboure
There was a man named Joseph Laboure 
He was always bummed, I'd say 
Even sad as a boy 
But God brought him joy 
And now He is in Heaven's par-tay!

St. Jerome
There was a guy named Jerome
He'd get so angry his mouth would foam
But, he loved God's word
And stayed close to the Lord
Now he's hanging with God in His home!

St. DismasDismas committed a bad crime 
His punishment was sublime
On the cross he died
With Christ by His side
He entered Heaven in no time!

Saint are Sinners Who Never Gave Up

How it goes:

1. Students walk in to somber chant music and respond to the journal prompt: How would you describe the saints? What words come to mind?

2. After responding to this prompt they share their answers with their small group and I walk around collecting their responses in a sneaky fashion as I plug them in to worditout.com word cloud. On this site the word cloud will make the words you enter more often appear bigger so students can see common themes.

3. I show the students their class's word cloud and we discuss their ideas of the saints. Here I try to emphasize how holy and different they think the saints are. It is important to make it really easy for students to be really honest about the saints. If they think the saints are weird or boring let them say it.

4. Next, I start handing out vice cards made from this template I made. I fold them in half so that only the vice is showing and the saint is on the inside and not visible to the students. I hand them out to each students and ask them if you have this vice if you can become a saint. For example one card says a drunkard so I ask, "Wow! Drunkard! Can you become a saint if you struggle with THAT!" The students usually agree and get really into it as I lay down more and more vices.

5. Finally at the end I have them open up their cards to reveal the saint on the inside. At this point I have them write down two quotes in their notebooks: "Saints are sinners who never gave up" and "Every Saint has a past and every sinner has a future."

6. We discuss these two quotes in the context of the saints we just revealed. At the end students go around the room to tour the saint cards and write down three that they want to research more to understand their story. We remake the word clouds to reflect what they have learned now and have a discussion on how Jesus, Grace, and Conversion are what makes a saint.

This lesson connects to the next lesson called: Conversion Limerick Version

Catholic - Technically Speaking

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tty87WDBukk]

WebResourcesArticle

Here is an article I was asked to write for parents of high school aged students. I attempt to offer some basic Catholic web resources grouped into categories like "activist" "fashionista" etc. There really is a lot of good the media can offer to a young Catholic if they know where to safely look.

Check out the video and the web resources article linked here. There is a pasted image of it below.

*Please do not reproduce the article without my consent.

1. Majesty in the Mass --- Intro Post

Relclaiming the Royalty in the Mass

The new translation of the Mass offers us the perfect opportunity to relearn the hidden treasures in the majestic meaning of the Mass. The most royal thing we can do as a Catholic is attend the Mass. But, it doesn’t always feel, look, seem, or sound royal. That is precisely why I challenge you to Reclaim the Royalty in the Mass for yourself, for others and to give Glory to God in the Highest.

In these long winded posts, I will attempt to shed light on the little things we miss in Mass everyday. But first, get rid of the guilt...

I plead guilty?

The main guilt many of us have about the Mass is that we just aren’t feeling it. Therefore, we don’t fold our hands. We don’t respond, or open our books to sing. We may leave early with Communion still in our mouths, or worse we may just stop coming all together.

The devil’s first tactic might be to make us feel like we just must not be holy. Ever felt this way? "The girl levitating next to me must be really holy, I'm just not made of that “saint material” because I just don’t really “like” Mass. I could never levitate. Oh well...just 20 more minutes to go..."

His second tactic might be to keep discouraging us from trying to participate. He tries convincing us that a different type of service would help us to “get something out of it.” He may propose to us that this old school ritual isn’t in touch, that the Church doesn’t care, maybe that it’s just some requirement that should have died a long time ago.

I could go on and on. You name a struggle you have had with Mass and he’s tried it on a million other souls.

In my opinion, one of satan’s most basic tricks is taking advantage of a disinterest or a guilt he has planted within us and distracting us so that we never choose to become educated. We miss the sheer majesty of many things because of this, including the Mass. Therefore, before reading this post disregard any guilt you may have about your boredom, feelings, insufficiencies or failures when it comes to the Mass. Those aren’t important. This is my attempt to bring a royal mindset back to the most Majestic event that has ever happened on earth. The fact is: we are certainly unworthy of an invitation to this event. Yet, we are invited anyway, then made worthy by a Merciful King. Sorry, but that trumps your feelings of guilt.

Reclaiming by Relearning

My 7th and 8th grade students were shy to admit that they thought Mass was boring...(not a hard guess), but once they got it out there the discussion was easy. They were sure it was their own problem and a sin that they weren’t automatically pumped about the Mass.  It was a grand relief when their “holy” religion teacher wasn’t mad and actually had felt the same way. ("You weren't born liking sitting still, being quiet, and listening to long speeches!?!?! No Way Miss L!!!") But, when they were allowed to admit their lack of enthusiasm (or even desire to be in a Church) they gushed forth their pure desire for an understanding of the Mass, exposing the truth that they all had a natural draw to the Mass after all. On student put it this way: I wish I could just get it to "click". I think I could be really holy if  it all would "click".

And yet, even with a desire to understand the Mass more, we all cop out. Whether we are advocates or practicers of the "gangsta genuflection", the "wipe yo face" sign of the cross, or the "free nap time pious look" during a long Eucharistic Prayer, we all have felt a little awkward at Mass or frustrated at Mass. My students would be quick to admit they just feel like it's bad to fake it when you don't feel like it's real yet (Key word: yet), they feel like they are being hypocrites.

("Deep Seated" Analogy Time)

Hopefully, you would not feel bad for walking into your grandmother’s home and not sitting in a chair she has never allowed anyone to sit in. You would just do it trusting that the owner of this house must have some profound reason that she prefers no one to use the chair. She clearly must still value the chair, or else she would have removed it from the room years ago and replaced it with something that would be more sensible for sitting in. You may be relieved that you never sat in the chair when you find out years later that that was your grandfather’s favorite chair. From this everyday “recliner throne” he would tell his old farm and war stories, watch only the positive news, preach his fatherly teachings to his children in the evenings, entertain his grandchildren with old records, and doze in and out of conversation. He was the perfect match to the old woman sitting in the identical adjacent chair. That chair was never suited for another, and was a reminder to your grandmother every day that her 60 year marriage partner is still with her in her house in the empty moments.

You didn’t know why you respected the chair, or why you awkwardly avoided it, it may have even annoyed you at times, but there was a reason, and a good reason at that. And, you certainly wouldn't call yourself a hypocrite for respecting a rule that you didn't understand.

So, “Fake it till You Make it.” Popular saying, yes? Also, a great motto for Mass. Strangely enough I imagine God is okay with us praying this prayer:

“God I will be reverent, but I don’t get it. I will fake it till You make it. Jesus, make me understand.”

Super Fans.

Three of my friends had always dreamt of attending a Cold Play concert to witness their favorite musicians at work. They couldn’t wait for the experience of seeing these talented celebrities in the same room (though a very large and very crowded event center of a room). They were outrageously worked up dancing, singing and going crazy. Later, when an attendant in the arena walked through the nosebleed section, she noticed their extreme excitement and offered the lunatics front row seats to the show. This was an effort to help get the rest of the humongous audience even more in the spirit for the grand Opening Act. They were also the perfect fans for the shots from the concert that would show up on the live music video. It's a smooth publicity move to situate your most devoted, and zealous fans in a position to influence the rest. The hope would be that their energy would be caught in an epidemic fashion by the rest of the crowd and create an even more memorable experience for all fans.

We are all capable of being like these “superfans” with the power to inspire others around us to check in to the experience they are about to miss. (Maybe we could fill in those infamous front row seats that Catholics religiously leave empty...I'm definitely backseat junkie). But, first we have to look up and around to find the truth behind the big words, the strange rituals, the old art, and the exhilarating Mass aerobics (sit, kneel, stand, repeat)

As we gather for Mass, we get our whole hearts and minds ready. Not for an amazing concert, or a famous band, but for our Step into Heaven. Christ the ultimate celebrity is coming! That’s a fact. Do we act like it? How do we get ourselves truly excited about something we do all the time...something that is so hard to grasp?

The more we understand about the Mass, and the stronger our relationship with the owner of the House, the easier it will be to get excited for the Sacrifice that is about to happen. But, we all have to start somewhere.

NEXT POST: Pregaming the Mass--Mass Preparation, genuflection, fasting, etc...

It's Our Love Story: Salvation History

For my 7th Graders as we study the Bible and how it is all ONE BIG STORY, OUR LOVE STORY.

 

It's so easy to relate to the sinners in the Bible. Put yourself in Adam and Eve's shoes as the Devil is trying to mess with their concept of YAHWEH, a loving Father by convincing them, using the name Elohim, that He is just a jealous, power hungry, vulnerable God. Does the devil ever get the better of you with his tricks?

Or relate to the travelers in the Exodus who had to wait 40 years for the promised land because of their own unwillingness to trust in God. How about the Hypocrites, who could never get their words and actions to match, the Sadducees who had no hope, the pharisees who liked the idea of being great? What about Peter who denied God, or Moses who doubted the God who had brought him so far?  You can relate to them too, I bet. And there are a lot of them in our story.

Does the devil play mind and heart games on you like he did to Adam and Eve and all of our ancient family members? If so, welcome to our story...the one God wrote, we kept messing up and He redeemed. (It was looking pretty bleak there for a while wasn't it?) Join the cast list with those who eventually said yes after years of addictive despair, pride, vanity, faithlessness, and sin. It's a pretty funny lot if you really examine it, but it's God's lot. He's the master character developer.

 

Our Love Story

(To Taylor Swift's Love Story)

(God):Adam was there when I first made her.
I closed his eyes, and then I formed her,
She’s standing there, 
In the garden in the summer air.

She saw the lights, saw the beauty, the goodness.
He awoke and beheld her anew,
He said “at last!”, 
and they knew ew ew,

they were special, 
They were dear to my heart,
as a daddy I said, "Stay away from the apple tree."
And I was crying in their hearts, 
Begging them, "Please don't go".

But she said,
"Adam, eat this it will make us wise.”
But I was waiting, all that's left to do is trust.
You be the child, and I'll be your Father,
It's a love story, baby, just say, 'yes'."

So I come in to the garden to see them,
They kept quiet,  thinkin, "we're dead if he knew",
But close your eyes, 
Believe in my Mercy for a little while.

'Cause after their fall, 
My heart ached for their hearts ,
And I promised, "I will make all things new."
Because they were everything to me, 
I was Begging them, "Please just trust".

But many said,
"I can’t do this, I’m gonna run away from You."
Adam, Jonah, Moses, Peter, David, and you too.
You be the child, and I'll be the Father,
It's a love story, children, just say, 'yes'."

(You): "Jesus, save me, satan’s trying to tell me how to feel.
This love is difficult, but it's real.
(God): I said: Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess,
It's a love story, Mary just said, 'yes!'."

(You): Well, I got tired of waiting,
Wondering if you were ever coming around.
My faith in You was fading, 
When I met you in the smallest of towns.

And I said,

"Jesus, save me, I've been feeling so alone.
I keep waiting for you, but you never come.
Is this in my head, 
I don't know what to think,

"I knelt to the ground, and heard as you said,

"Love me, child, you'll never have to be alone.
I love you, that's all you need to know.
your sins are forgotten, I died on the cross, 
It's your love story, child, just say yes."

Ohhhh ohhh

 

No matter what I have always loved you...

No matter what I have always loved you...