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The Sacraments at the Service of Communion: Holy Orders and Matrimony
This session from Catechetical Sessions on Liturgy and the Sacraments invites participants to consider the unique ways in which ordained ministers and married people serve the people of God, responsibilities that are presented in the vows they take in either …
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Scripture Search and Discussion: Living by the Spirit of Jesus
(25 minutes) Before the session. Ask one of the participants to serve as a reader. Then, write each of the four following words or phrases on a separate sheet of paper. If your group is large, you might want to …
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All Saints' Day: Unmasking Saints
Unmasking Saints: A Learning Activity for All Saints' Day OVERVIEW This creative activity helps young adolescents learn a little about their Catholic heritage by exploring the life and work of their patron saint or a favorite saint. Group Size: This …
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Back to School: Saintly Guest Speaker
Saintly Guest Speaker? This activity is designed to have your students move around a little, look at the lives of a few saints, assess where they are in their spiritual lives, and help you assess how they are feeling about …
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The Connections Binder: A Theology Project
The Connections Binder encourages students to find meaningful connections between the content they are studying in class and something from the world outside the classroom that they find interesting or appealing. I assign this project at the beginning of my …
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Building Faith Community in the High School
In a workshop entitled "The Catholic High School as Faith Community," religion teachers, campus ministers, and school administrators discussed, among many things, the obstacles they face in trying to build faith community in their school. One obstacle they addressed was …
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Taking Off on the Ten Commandments
This classroom strategy is based on a method used by Fr. Steve Brice while teaching religion at Aquinas High School, La Crosse, Wisconsin. Young people love humor and satire. One way to alleviate pressures students feel from the culture around …
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Using Imaginative Retellings in Teaching the Bible
Biblical stories have been imaginatively retold over and over again for centuries. A particular type of retelling, in which students assume the role of a biblical character then retell the story using a first-person point of view, has proven effective …
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Introductory Activities for Teaching Christology
Mimi McCaul, who teaches at La Salle High School in Pasadena, California, passes along to you some of the strategies she uses in the course Jesus of History, Christ of Faith. Thanks, Mimi! Introductory Activity On the first or second …
