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Program aims to get youth excited about Bible
Young people in the diocese are getting excited about Scripture and it's all part of a national effort called "Yes! Youth Engaging Scripture." YES is a Catholic teen-to-teen Bible sharing concept and to date, some 1,800 young people have been …
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Leader's Guide for The Master's Companion: A Christian Midrash
Table of Contents Beyond Scripture Helpful Hints for Using and Creating Midrash with Young People Classroom Activities Chapter 1: The Small Black Dog with the White Foot (John 4:1-30)--compassion for animals Chapter 2: A Night in the Garden (John 4:39-45)--significance …
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Leader's Guide for Coyote Meets Jesus
Stories are not just for young children. Everyone loves a good story and good storytelling is a useful tool for teaching. Using folktales as a teaching tool in a catechetical setting or a religion class can help teens understand the …
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Peace Creed
Writing a Peace Creed (15 minutes) 1. Tell the young people that as much as we might want peace to become a reality in our world, being a peacemaker takes a lot of hard work. The first steps are to …
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Family Relationships
Scripture Passage Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother"-- this is the first commandment with a promise: "so that it may be well with you and you may live long on …
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Word-Association Exercise: Afterlife
(30 minutes) Prior to this exercise, have the all participants (including the facilitator) bring to the session a personal symbol. This symbol should be an object from among the participant's personal belongings that acts as a reminder of a much …
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Resources for Parents Who Want to View The Passion of the Christ with Their Teenage Children
Things to Remember Film is an art form, and many genres and subgenres exist within film. Comedy is a genre. Within that genre one could name romantic comedies, slapstick comedies, and dark comedies as subgenres. Before reading a piece of …
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Reflection Exercise: My Least Answerable Questions
(5 minutes) 1. Introduce this exercise by reiterating the idea that death is mystery and that since the beginning of time, people of all ages, cultures, and races have asked tough questions about death. Jesus himself struggled with such questions. …
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The Power of Song
(25-35 minutes) Preparation Bring in a recording of an African American sacred song, or invite a local gospel choir or your school or parish choir to come in and perform such a song. A good resource for music is Lead …
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Advent: Saint Joseph and Jesus
This can be easily adapted to a video call. 1. Gather the group in a circle for a moment of silence. Light the candle and read these passages about Joseph in the Gospel of Matthew (1:18-21 and 2:13-15). Ask the …
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A New Rock: Adaptations for Home Use
These activities are easily adapted for family members at home. When gathered for a meal, or for the specific purpose of these activities, family members can do one activity, a couple, or all of them, depending on the amount of time …
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Youth Prayer Habits
Through a grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc., the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill has established the National Study of Youth & Religion at the Odum Institute for Research and the Social Sciences. In there preliminary findings of existing …
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A Listening Session for Teens on the Mishandling of Sexual Abuse by Clergy
Materials Needed * a 3-by-5-inch index card for each young person * a pencil for each young person * prayer materials (Select one of the "Options for Ritual Actions" below.) * 3 readers for the closing prayer * handouts …
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Wrestling with Diversity
How do we welcome non-Christians into our schools and our religion classrooms, and at the same time give witness to our own Christ-centered faith? How do we invite students to learn from and respect other faith traditions without sending the …
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The Meal Ministry of Jesus
Ask the students to recall their favorite meal celebration. What made it so special? What was the occasion? Where were they? Who was present? What did they eat? What else happened there? Invite them to share with the class the …
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What Every Teen Should Know
I often joke with my students that they help me parent my children! When my daughter Ellie was turning thirteen, all of a sudden I was struck with this idea that turned out to be an awesome activity for my …
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Intergenerational Service Project
Objectives to provide layette and nursery supplies for families in need to bring together girls and women to serve, build community, and pray to stimulate intergenerational dialogue among girls and women to reflect on the physical and emotional needs of …
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The Color Purple
A CAUTIONARY NOTE: One of the criticisms of The Color Purple is that it depicts the men in the story as primarily abusive. Also, this movie is PG-13, mostly because of the violence and strong language. We recommend the movie …
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Ideas for Teaching Feminine Spirituality
In 1994, I started teaching a course on women's spirituality for seniors at Holy Names High School, an all-girls school in Oakland, California. Finding materials for such a class was a challenge. No textbooks or other resources existed that were …
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Using Literature in Theology Classes
Editor's note: The author of our feature article, Kathleen Hodapp, was one of the participants in last summer's workshop "The Catholic High School As Faith Community," held here in Winona, Minnesota, as well as on the East Coast and the …
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Service and Justice
We are standing on the brink, and our bishops are urging us to jump. Many of us don't know where we'll end up, and we aren't sure whether we'll land in one piece. Yet the sense of urgency is building, …
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A One-Day Retreat on Service in the Inner City
Our sophomore class day retreat focuses on finding spirituality in the inner city. It is a kind of "urban plunge" experience within a spiritual framework, and students go on this retreat during the same semester that they take a social …