Day 20

Friday

Hello hello!

I'm having a delightful weekend and just found a few moments to blog about the other day in class.  I'll keep it short and simple. At least attempt.  We are now at the point where my students are going deeper and not just nodding their heads and asking technical questions-now they are demanding answers that apply to their lives.

Let me give you some context first.  On Friday my first class decided to take the initiative and hide in the Couch Room (even though I heard them since I was washing my hands in the bathroom right next door). This group has tried to sneak in and scare me a number of times but my bionic teacher ears have yet to have failed me!  (I'm just nervous I will not only jump out of my skin but that a not so teacher-friendly word will rupture right out of my mouth.)  Back to what I intended on telling you- we were starting to talk about the Sacraments of Healing (Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick).  I found a number of healing passages in the Bible.  We did not get to as many as I wanted (no surprise!) because great discussion in both classes took over.  It was like an actual Bible Study!  My students were so engaged and really did a good job of asking questions, answering my questions, and really for the first time experienced what a Bible Study can be like.  I asked questions about the passages (who is present, where are they, what do you think the scribes were thinking, how would you react if you saw a paralyzed person healed within moments, etc) -so more basic questions to understand the context, shared with them how in the Old Testament sick people we shunned because they believed that person was cursed because of his or her sins or the sins of a family member.  Jesus cleared up that misconception!  I also asked them questions to get them to know who Jesus is and what is required for healing to take place.  Here are the main conclusions we came to:

• Christ came to comfort the poor and sick.
• Healing can be of body (physical) and soul (spiritual), but the most important is of the soul.
• Faith is required of us in order for any kind of healing to take place.
• Jesus doesn't want us to suffer and we were never intended to suffer (death was never in the original plan).
• Healing is not magic.
• Jesus is longing for each and every single one of us to respond to His call.  He wants to care for us, and He already made the first move by conquering death on the cross.  

I have 2 main statements/questions that I'd like to share:

"Miss Sexton, I get so frustrated when novels or the Bible hardly give any details about a person.  So Jesus tells the paralytic, 'Rise, pick up your mat, and go home' and so he does and that's it?!  In the Bible, we get to see Jesus and know what he does, but who can we EVER know Him?!?  I don't think we ever can.  Maybe that's why there are so many different translations of the Bible.  Can we ever know Him?" 

This student is soul searching people!!!  She wants so badly to know Jesus.  She went on to compare how she knows stuff about one of her classmates and she asked him, "But do I really know you?"  and he said, "Uhhh, no?"  She then said, "See!  It's just like that."

I know that she has witnessed and experienced a lot of pain and suffering, and she's not the only one searching to know Jesus.  I remember calming her down and telling her that if you couldn't have a personal relationship with Jesus, then I never would have moved to a small town in Iowa to do this job.  No young man would give up his life for the Church and answer the call to the priesthood.  No woman would ever dream of entering religious life.  No Christian would have hope is we couldn't actually know Jesus on a personal level.  I told her that knowing Christ as a best friend takes a lot of prayer, patience, and time, and for each person that relationship might look different.  There are so many different ways to pray and so many different personalities, so obviously our friendship may not look the same even though we all have Jesus as a friend (at least we're getting there!)  I told them that it doesn't necessarily click at your first communion, or your confirmation, or your 18th birthday.  There isn't a set day that everyone truly understands or knows Jesus on a personal level.  I also told her that the Scripture does tell us a TON about Jesus. We can know his heart, however, there isn't narration or quotation marks pointing to His thoughts, the things he didn't say.  I told her, and the entire class, that we must first make an effort to pray, asking Jesus to help us know him, try to see the good in every day and recognize that that is where He is, see the good in people and that is  Him, and even see the good in the hard times (which is much more challenging, but that He never leaves us, and that He is there through it all). I told them we can only do so much in class to get to know Jesus, so it takes a personal effort.  I told them to pick one of the Gospel stories and ask themselves the same kinds of questions I asked them to start analyzing the scriptures and what God is telling us.  

"Ok, this may be a little off topic, but how do you ever know what God is calling you to?  Like, everyone says I should start praying about what college God wants me to go to, but how will I ever know?  It's not like He's literally going to write it down on a piece of paper for me."  

I've gotta get ready for mass, but I gave her/the class some starting points and reminded them that any questions regarding faith can be asked here!  It's such a privilege that they are asking me these types of questions.  

Trust has officially been established in both of the classes I am teaching.  It took one student in each class to ask a more personal question.  I asked them if they liked the way we went through the healing passages together and one student said, "I loved going through it together.  It made so much more sense!  I feel like now I can actually get to know Jesus when reading Scripture alone and not get confused."

And this is why I love my job.

Happy Sunday!  

Days 18 and 19

Guess who's feeling better today!?!  Thank you, Lord!  My immune system hasn't been the greatest over the last few years so I was relieved this morning when my voice was back and woke up without a fever!  So weird!  

Let's back track:

Day 18, Wednesday

Day

Got to school and it wasn't until I went to say good morning to the secretary that I realized I lost my voice.  So that was shocking to both of us!  As a teacher, that's about the worst thing...not having a voice.  My students were pretty excited when I whispered to them that they'd be watching a movie!  With that they watched "Light of Love" which is a documentary on the lives of religious sisters.  Most of them have never met sisters, at least sisters that wear habits so they were filled with questions!  I answered their most pressing questions which were:

"Why do they wear those things of their heads?"

"What do they wear for pajamas?"

"Do they really have to pick a new name?" 

"What happens if they don't want to be a sister anymore?"

There were some pretty funny ones that made me laugh hysterically.  That was a interesting sound!  

Anyway, so classes during the day were pretty chill.  Being the people watcher I am, I couldn't help but watch their reactions to the sisters in the documentary.  They laughed when they laughed, and looked so engrossed when the sisters spoke about their vocation and their wisdom about life and God.  It was so cool to witness, since none of them have actually met a sister!  I contained all of my stories that day... I just wanted to go on and on about the Nashville Dominicans but let the documentary do the talking.

Night

Tonight was the first night class.  St. Paul not only offers a day program, but also a night class.  I am one of 5 adult catechists that will teach 60 9th-12 graders.  We hold class on Wednesday nights from 7-8:30 and we have the big Parish Hall and School Gym.  It's a great space. 

The first class was called "Jesus Jam" and the Peer Ministry ran that.  I found out the night before that I would be the emcee so that was a bit of a surprise, and I just about had a panic attack when I realized I had no voice that morning!  Anyway, God always provides, along with fluids, ibuprofen, and power naps!  I then woke up with a fever but gained a raspy voice...not sure if I sounded more like Miley Cyrus or Jennifer Lawrence.  ANYWAY, I put on my game face, prayed for energy, and had an excellent night pumping up the teens on the Peer Ministry Team and kept the evening program on task. A lot of the students at the night class have the reputation for not really wanting to be there.  The format has been much different than what I've been doing in my classroom, however, we are in the process of planning the night program and have intentional and inspirational catechesis going on.

I came up with the idea of possibly have almost like 2 programs going on at once.  All 60 students would sign in and meet in the same area we would open in prayer, then give students the option to pick which class they would like to attend.  Both classes would teach the same objective(s).

One would be called "Sermon on the Mount" where they would get introduced to the topic in an informative and introduction level.  Jesus preached to many people on the Sermon on the Mount and that is where people decided whether or not they'd follow this Jesus guy or totally dismiss His teachings.  

The other class would be called "Upper Room" where deeper and more personal discovery would take place.  It was in the Upper Room that intentional discipleship and witnessing of their faith to Jesus took place.  These followers didn't need any winning over.  They were convinced  by Jesus' teaching and wanted to know more to be able to be better witnesses!

If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to reach 60 high school students ranging from ages 14-18, please let me know.  I think giving them an option is best.  Both are valuable and the objectives would be the same, however, the students that are already hooked and excited for their faith wouldn't have to be bogged down by the not so enthusiastic students.  We'll see!  Pray for us as we decide how the night program will work.

21 hours hours ago I posted this under my status:

"I literally have the goosebumps. God is so great! Get ready for an awesome blog post tomorrow which will talk about today, tonight's first night class, and the way God puts people into your life for a reason and how excited I am to see all of that unfold."

Ok, so earlier in the day I was reading the parish bulletin and noticed an ad promoting an 8-week bible study...clearly that would catch my eye since I'm missing leading and participating in FOCUS bible studies at Loras.  (S/O to my girls!)  But get this, I emailed the contact person telling her a little bit about myself and my interest.

I then went to the night program, did my thing, met one of the adult catechists that I had never met before, check my email, noticed I received a reply from the Bible Study facilitator... this is what she said:

Erin,

Great! I will sign you up! I believe we will meet tonight- I am helping with high school religion class at St Mary's for the first time.

I did the first series of the "Walking Toward Eternity" Bible study in the spring. Our church hasn't had a Bible study and when my husband died in March of 2012 that is what I was looking for: Bible verses, but I didn't even know where to begin. 52 years old and I'd never owned a study Bible. I was lost. I tried some other church bible studies, ended up writing devotions for a grief Bible that will be released by Zondervan in April and floundered about a little until my daughter (whose son was fighting cancer) asked, "Mom, why are you looking for all your answers outside of your church?" When I said I couldn't find the answers in my church she asked why I didn't become part of the answer...and the rest is history! I talked to Kathy O., did some research and stumbled on the Cavins "Walking Toward Eternity" series. I saw the first DVD in the series the morning I found out my grandson's cancer had returned and was terminal. I spoke in front of the congregation the week before Easter, the week that would be ONE YEAR since my husband's death, about WHY I was starting a Bible study, and FIFTY people signed up! We didn't conduct the class the way instructed because we didn't break into small groups, but found that we were learning from each other and didn't want to miss out on any of that. Each class includes a Jeff Cavin DVD and homework pages using Lectio Divina during the week. They are awesome classes. 

I am looking forward to beginning again. My grandson passed away in August and I need God's word again.

Do you have the goosebumps? Because I am as I read it again! Oh, and then I realized she was the catechist who I had literally met an hour before that!  It gets better.  I always ask my students to talk about people who inspire them to "Be more," and who live the Gospel with joy.  My one student always brings up her aunt, which happens to be this lady!  Her grandson was a 2nd grader, my student's little cousin.  So heartbreaking!  

It's amazing because you never really know what a person is going through. Also, it appears that her extraordinary faith has already reached so many people, including mine!  I didn't even realize that I was praying for her as I have been praying for this family that just lost their grandson/son/cousin/sibling.  

I wish I would have made the connection of who she is in her presence, but I emailed back and she was so sweet and understanding.  I cannot wait to see what is in store for this hopefully new friendship :)  Trust me, I need friends here.  

Day 19, Thursday

MY students were pretty happy that I was feeling better, and I felt much better.  We finished the movie, had an awesome discussion, and then we came up with characteristics of religious sisters:  loving, joyful, fun, caring, self-less, pure, holy,and non-judgemental.

We then created a recipe!

"Recipe for Joy:"

1. prayer

2. service/work

3. hope- positive outlook

4. community

5. recognizing our purpose

Our class discussion on the movie was awesome.  It's hard to imagine my faith development with the Nashville Dominican Sisters and my encounters with other sisters at camps, retreats, and conferences.  It was fun to share stories with them today.  They were impressed when I told that a very good friend of mine has been a religious sister for 4 years now!  God is good!

My mom gave me the idea of writing a personal note at the end of each of my students's assessments, so I did!  I loved when my teachers would write little notes on my papers.  I decided to put them in little cards for them to take home.  Hoping these bring a smile to their faces!

Anyway, I now conclude with this quote from the movie:

"We are called to receive and give His love!"  Have you accepted God's love for you?  I mean, He not only loves you, but He really really likes you, even knowing the not so cool flaws about you-and me!  Lastly, has your love for Him overflowed into your work and relationships?  If it can improve, get on it!  Let's pray for one another and hold each other accountable.  Let's be saints!

Praying for all of you in a special way tonight.

Day 17

Happy Tuesday!  

St. Paul was back in session today after the long weekend.  Gotta love in-service meetings that you don't have to attend! ; ) I came back fueled from spending a great weekend in Dubuque visiting my LOVELY sister (who still hasn't read any of my blog posts), friends, and met quite a few people too (S/O to the new FOCUS missionaries at Loras.  They are on fire and ready to share their love for God on/off campus.  Pray for them!)  

For my avid readers, most of my students did really well on the assessment I gave them on Friday.  There was one student from each class that didn't do all that great and those are the students that I tend to see space off, do not ask questions or participate in class discussions willingly, take notes, or really participate when asked to work with a partner/groups.  I know learning is taking place and there is only so much that I can do.  Students have to take the initiative too!  My new goal is to get those two students to become more active in my classes.  If anybody has ways to motivate high school students to participate in class, let me know.  My methods do not appear to be reaching those two.  I could be wrong, but this is how I see it.

On another note, I had a student come back from the long weekend and she literally said, "Miss Sexton, you know how you said we should start thinking about a Confirmation name?  Well, this weekend I was looking up Saints online and you'll never believe that this one Saint did!  Her name was St. Lucia, Lucy?  I don't know.  And she ripped her own eyes out because she wanted to consecrate her entire life to God and not have any man fall in love with her, and apparently God healed her from that too..." 

I was GLOWING.  This is the excitement and curiosity that I've been wanting to see!  The fact that she looked up Saint stories just because makes me so excited!!!  

This student's story perfectly led into what I had them do.  I borrowed a Saint Kit, which is basically a card catalogue of Saint stories, from the Archdiocesan Resource Center and had each of them pick a saint, read the card, take a few notes, and then share their Saint's story with the class.  It was so much fun!  They were impressed by all of the amazing things that Saints have and continue to do.  

I then shared some words of wisdom that I learned from watching the video Light of Love yesterday. (I recommend watching this!  It is about 4 women who are living out their lives as religious sisters and what a day in the life is like!)

One of the Salesian Sisters taught that St. John Bosco said there are three ways to become holy:

1. Be cheerful!

2. Do what is asked of you and do it well!

3. Don't skip recess!

I shared this with my students to point out that sainthood is attainable with the grace of God, prayer, our willingness, and by living a balanced life.  It's not just reserved for priests and religious sisters!  We are all called to holiness!  

After teaching, which was much earlier than most days due to another early dismissal because of the heat, I finally hung up this banner from my pastor at my home parish.  It's advertising Corpus Christi Sunday and it looks amazing in my classroom.  Thank you Fr. Robert!  

My students won't miss seeing this when they walk in tomorrow!   

Can't wait for tomorrow!!!  

Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Day 16

Today I gave my first assessment of the term!  It's beyond weird watching students take "tests" that I have created.  We have covered so much over the first few weeks so I'm hoping they are able to communicate all of that here :)  I'm a huge fan of informal assessments but I thought it would be good to try something traditional at first to see if they are retaining the information I am exposing them to.  Here it is! :)

Assessment 1

God, Us, the Church, and Sacraments of Initiation

Define the following terms:

1. grace

2. transcendent

3. person

4. sacrament

5. efficacious sign

6. nature

7. soul

Short answer:

8. List the sacraments of initiation.

 9. List 3 out of the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Explain what they mean.

 10. St. Thomas Aquinas presented an argument for God's existence.  What does he call God?

 11. Why is it so bold to say "Amen" after we receive communion at mass?

 12. What are the essential words said at Baptism?

 13. What took place at Pentecost?

14. Who founded the Roman Catholic Church?

 15. What are the effects of sanctifying grace in the sacrament of Baptism?

 16. What is the Paschal Mystery?

Fill in the blanks: 

17. The Eucharist is the ­­­­­___________ and ____________ of our faith!

18. The consecrated host is kept in the ________________.

 19. __________________ is the process by which the bread and wine and changed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

20. What does "In Persona Christi" mean?

 21. What are we called to do as fully initiated Catholics?

True/False:  Write true or false after each question

22.  The Church completes the work of Christ and brings us to unity with the Blessed Trinity and with one another.

23. The sacraments remind us about Jesus but are not actual encounters with Him.

24. Jesus is truly present; body, blood, soul, and divinity, in the Eucharist.

Essay Question:

What makes us (humans) unique out of all of God's  creation?

It's really difficult/not possible for me to assess someone's faith, and I'm not here to do that.  However, I do take on the responsibility of fostering their knowledge which can be evaluated in a formal assessment.  I can't evaluate them based on how they pray or the words that come from their hearts.  That is our Lord's job alone!  Period.  But I can assure you that they do love our Lord and are realizing how awesome it is to be a Catholic!

After their quiz we went to the "Couch Room."  It is literally a room filled with couches for the peer ministry team.  Anyway, I decided since I gave them the assessment, that we could go "hang out." But have no fear, we read a pretty hefty article on the process of beatification and canonization aka how people become recognized by the universal church as Saints.  I've been asked a number of times of how that works.  I have been able to give them a brief summary but since it keeps coming up, we read through the entire process.  Pretty cool stuff!  Check this out if you're interested!  Since the phrasing is very "churchy" I kept pausing and had to explain what terms like infallible, diocesan, papal, etc all mean so they could actual understand what we were reading.   Btw, Blessed John Paul II will be canonized on April 27, 2014!!!

I also showed them this quick video because yesterday one of my students made a comment saying something along the lines that the life of a religious sister seems so sad and lonely.  I was all over that and stood up for the beautiful vocation of religious life!  My last class of the day will be arriving soon so I will conclude this post.  This is the video I showed earlier and what I will be showing.  Don't worry, I did a shout out to all of my friends from Franciscan University but followed that up with another tip to look into Loras College!  

Another 3 day weekend for us over here!  Enjoy your weekend and don't forget to pray and fast for Syria and world peace tomorrow.

“Jesus Christ is counting on you! The Church is counting on you! The Pope is counting on you!” 

– Pope Francis, WYD Rio Closing Mass

You are a member of this body of Christ, and the body needs you right now.

(1 Corinthians 12:12) 

SddSAssass

Day 15

A lot of people have been asking me where I get my curriculum and ideas.  Most of the activities are original- things I wish my high school religion teachers would have done, some from my amazing friends that are SO smart, others from my summer teaching with Totus Tuus.  Most of my information is what I was taught up until now, and especially from the Bible and Catechism.   About 10% is from the actual textbook I was given.  My students don't have their own copy of a textbook therefore I present what I find to be the BEST information, tapping into a number of resources.  I also follow the USCCB's standards and objectives.  So yea, I'm a freebird but make sure I'm covering the objectives required.  It's great that my personal objectives are matching the USCCB's!  They recently reformed them and really emphasize how evangelization and catechizing go hand in hand.

Today we talked about what it means to be a Confirmed Catholic and the potential of what the Holy Spirit can do through us.  I even mentioned a bit on the charismatic gifts.  Oh boy!

If we only knew our potential with the aid of the Holy Spirit.  We have no reason to be afraid or to doubt our desires for a better world.  The Holy Spirit can do SO much through us.  Take Blessed Mother Teresa for example.  1 AMAZING lady.  Who doesn't know about Mother Teresa?  I explained to my students how we need to pray for God's will to be done through us.  Just 1 person can make such a positive change in our world.  Even after her death!  

We then started talking about the martyrs and how they must have really possessed the gift of fortitude. I mean, being beheaded or dying on a crucifix upside down to defend our faith?!  That takes a lot of courage!  Our challenges aren't always that extreme, but still, the gifts are available when our hearts and minds are willing!  It falls on our willingness and our commitment to a certain extent, and then the Holy Spirit takes control. My students were blown away by some of the saint stories I told.  They then had a million questions on the canonization process and then the afterlife.  All around it was a great day and even if they forget all of the technical things about the Sacrament of Confirmation, I know they will always remember that the Holy Spirit is living and working right now, waiting for our "Yes" every single day!  One of my students asked, "Miss Sexton, How could anyone NOT believe in God?!?"  I couldn't have asked a better question myself.  I told her that we need to continue to be witnesses so that more people will come to know the goodness of our Lord-His love, mercy, and justice for all people.

Please, answer the call to greatness!  Remind yourself that you were made for that, and that the Holy Spirit will take you where you're at and give you more than you could ever imagine.

Thank you Blessed Mother Teresa, St. Peter, St. Cecelia, all you angels and saints for your "Yes."

Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Day 14

Originally I had the "God at Work" tape above the white board, but it kept falling down this past week due to the heat.  Now, we have the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit made by my 2nd hour class!  It's kind of hard to read all of them, but they're all listed! (Wonder & Awe, Counsel, Knowledge, Understanding, Piety, Wisdom, and Fortitude)

The other class made Peace Posters, most of them quoting Pope Francis from his recent announcement on making September 7 a day for prayer and fasting.  Look at how they did!

(Supposed to look like a Tweet)

Can you tell that we've been pretty creative?  This is what the classroom looked like a few weeks ago:

Now look at it!!!

My classroom is pretty much a dream come true.  It's been great being able to make the classroom really our own but also getting to learn more about our faith together.  I'm going to leave up the Peace Posters for the other class to see before I bring them over to the parish.  I want to get permission to hang them in the Parish Hall for everyone to see and know about September 7!

Today I showed the video "Evidence" and then had them answer this question: "If you were put on trial for being Catholic, would you be found guilty or not guilty?"  I would invite you to ask yourself the same.  The video is 7 min and I really recommend you taking a peak.  The acting is a bit cheesy at first but then it makes you really think.  Are we living like the Apostles after Pentecost or are we blending in with everyone else in society?  What makes US Catholic?  

Then I got to introduce them to the beauty and the intensity of the sacrament of Confirmation.  We didn't have much time in the first class period, but we spent a good 35 minutes learning and discovering what takes place at our Confirmation and the effect that the Holy Spirit's gifts can have on us if we have an open heart and desire to serve!  

My students are SO curious.  For the first time, I believe that are starting to realize the intensity of our faith and how REAL Jesus is.  I think being bold and real with them is really getting them to reflect on who they are now and how they want their Catholic identity to really unfold.  

One of my students got really excited when I told them the amazing things that God can do through us if only we would allow them and desire for them to happen.  She remembered to bless herself with Holy Water and being the last one out said, "Huh, guess that forgot to bless themselves!"  (She reminds me of myself- a lot).  They haven't done that in the last few classes but she remembered today.  I know the Gospel message is really speaking to her heart.  It's amazing to see how each of them respond just by observing their body language, and then by glancing at their journal entries, the way they treat one another, the way they act in class.  They're great people and I'm so blessed to have them in class for these 8 weeks.  I am also going to be a catechist for their Confirmation classes so I'll get to continue this journey towards Confirmation with them.

Please pray for them, that they will continue to open their hearts and minds towards God, along with peace in Syria and everywhere that peace has not been achieved (aka the entire world!)

PEACE.

Day 13

Happy Tuesday!

It's amazing how fast an 80 minute class can go.  Wow.  And amazing how rejuvenated you can become after spending a weekend with the people you love the most.  3 day weekends are the best!

My students were pretty quiet today in both classes at first.  However, talking about Jesus' presence in the Eucharist and our call to be peacemakers caught their attention.  

Today I showed them this video.  Fr. Barron talks about how the Eucharist is truly Jesus' flesh and blood.  Watch the video for some great information packed in a 5 minute clip!  With that, I had them answer the question "How does receiving the Eucharist change you?"  Some of their responses were heart warming, especially the ones that said stuff like it makes them feel more loved or that it reminds them of who they are.  Telling them about Eucharistic miracle where a doubting priest goes to consume the consecrated host and it ended up being human flesh got them pretty excited/shocked.  You should have seen some of their faces.  Priceless.  That's why when we enter into mass, we genuflect to the tabernacle, why we bless ourselves with holy water and ask for forgiveness before we receive the Eucharist.  When we say "Amen", we're really saying "I stake my life on this" aka "I would die to stand up for this belief."  I emphasized how the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith and that all people are invited to believe in this amazing sacrament/gift of Jesus-body, blood, soul, and divinity.  Our bodies are temples of God.  We wouldn't want to hold Jesus in our hands after punching somebody?  Or even consume Him a state where our bodies cannot glorify Him entirely!  It's God!  Not a candy bar!  

We also read an article on how Pope Francis is calling for prayer and fasting for September 7, Mary, Queen of Peace's, feast to pray for peace in the world, especially in Syria.  

Posters quoting Pope Francis on peace will be completed tomorrow along with posters listing the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit.




Please pray for my students and I.  We are praying for you too!