Day 19.3

It's already Week 4 for with my "new" students!  It's going TOO fast.    
Theme of the week: God's love and mercy
Topic: Sacraments of Healing

It's always great seeing my students after the weekend.  The one girl in my 3rd hour class was absent so I had an all boy class.  So that was a first!  I don't think I could work at an all-boy school, but I'd love to work at an all-girl high school!  I really should see if they have openings at Oprah's Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa! : )  

Anyway, today we explored healing passages in scripture.  We then did an adaptation of Ignatian Meditation to get a fuller understanding of the Gospel passages where Jesus heals so many people both physically and spiritually.  

To end class, I had them answer the question, "Does Jesus still heal us, body and soul, like He did in the passages we studied today?

I only had the opportunity to show the following video to my third hour class so I'll share it with my first two classes tomorrow!  Please check this out!  I couldn't have said what Chris says any better!  

St. Paul, pray for us!

Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Days 14-18.3

Monday, February 3-Friday, February 7

It's been a great week.  As of today we have finished learning about the sacraments of initiation!  

On Monday we finished up Baptism.  Here's a picture of the "Say Yes" billboards that my students made:

Couldn't zoom in and get a clear picture of what they say, but you can see them hanging up above the white board.  To the left on the tan wall, you may notice some clippings.  This is our "Pope" wall!  We have pictures, quotes, and newspaper/magazine article on Pope Francis!  

Monday and Tuesday we spent a great deal talking about the Eucharist and what it means to be members of the Church/The Body of Christ.  

Wednesday and Today (Thursday) we covered the sacrament of Confirmation how great the Holy Spirit is and our call of being witnesses of the Gospel!  Check out our Confirmation dodecahedrons:

Some will need to finish assembling them in class tomorrow, but they are essentially 12 pentagon shaped pieces of paper.  The theme for them was Confirmation so they had to put quotes, bible verses, symbols, fruits, and/or gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Each of theirs are unique and we had a great class working on those today!  They will eventually be hung up and on display in our classroom.

Tomorrow (Friday), we will be finishing on a high note!  Since it's the first Friday, we have adoration at the church!  So, guess where we'll be?!?  1st hour will be at the grade school mass, and 2nd and 3rd hour classes will spend the first 30 minutes of class in adoration and then we'll go back to St. Paul's for a review/assessment on the sacraments initiation.  We'll do that at the beginning of class on Monday in the 1st hour class.  

The night class on Wednesday went really well!  I modeled it off of the Here I Am Lord Vocation Conferences in St. Charles, IL.  I invited a young married couple, missionary priest, deacon and his wife, and a religious sister to share their vocation stories with the teens.  The entire night was a huge success and it was fun to make this a class on vocations and focus on vocations that are not technically sacraments.  The church is so beautiful and provides SO many opportunities for people to live out their call from God.  I had a hard time falling asleep last night because I was so hyped on being Catholic and for the overwhelming positive feedback I received on the night class and from parents that happened to be there who have their teens in the day class.  

I'm feeling at peace with what I am doing and I'm so excited to try more new things.

God is great!  Thank you for your prayers.

St. Paul, pray for us!

Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Days 12 and 13.3

This will be short and simple.

Today we wrapped up with learning about the symbols for the sacrament of Baptism and then we made posters to tie in with our Catholic identity since it is after all Catholic Schools Week!  We made the "Say Yes" posters/billboards (which I did not take a pic of yet).  They look great!  Also, we played a variety of games and ate delicious baked goods that I brought in along with some students.  It was a pretty easy going day!  

Tomorrow is day 13.3.  We will not be at St. Paul's because all of my classes will be volunteering at the Catholic grade school in town.  Not exactly sure what we're doing, but I think we will be counting a long of spare change because they were having penny wars!  Should be a fun day and a good time!  

Have a blessed weekend!

Day 11.3

Hooray for finally having school!  Of course today was a scheduled early out so classes were short (45 min), but hey, we still had class!  They had so many crazy stories about being snowed in and their travel experiences over the weekend.  I'm learning/hearing so much now that I'm living near a rural area. 

Today's classes went really well.  We started up by playing a round of "Build the Church" aka "Hangman" on the board to introduce today's topic: Sacraments of Initiation!  You just draw a sketch of a church if they guess the wrong letter rather than a hangman.  So that was entertaining and they really enjoyed it. 

Then we went pretty in-depth with the sacrament of baptism, original sin, sanctifying grace, and the effects of the sacrament! 

Main learning point of the day:  Original sin causes our intellects to be darkened and our wills to be weakened.  That is why we do things that we wish we wouldn't have.  We have disordered desire.  The motive of all of our actions boil down to happiness, and we find that the effects of sin are quite the opposite.  Baptism doesn't take this away (concupiscence), but God's grace gives us the strength to overcome temptations!  Yay sacraments!  Yay God!  Yay Church!  Yay prayer! 

We also talked about the life-giving qualities and the opposite for water.  This relates to the sacrament.  We die to sin and are born into a life with Christ!  St. Paul says, " We were buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so too may we live a new life" (Romans 6:4).

I love teaching and learning.  Surprise surprise.

And tonight we are finally having a night class!  So many have been cancelled because of the weather.  Tonight is Movie Night so that will be a fun way to ease back into the night class! 

St. Paul, pray for us!
Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Days 9 and 10.3

As you're probably aware, we had no school on this cold blustery day and school was already cancelled for tomorrow.  Since I am coming to the close of an extended weekend/day, I thought I'd blog about last Thursday and Friday.

Day 9.3, Thursday, January 23

It's hard to think back after a long weekend!  Hmm...I'll come back to this when I get a little more motivated to check what I had in my planner....not getting up from being warm under this blanket ; )

Day 10.3, Friday, January 24

On Friday, I introduced my students to the YouCat (Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church).  We read Pope Benedict XVI's explanation of the importance of being well educated in our faith, in TRUTH.  He encourages to know more than previous generations so that we are well equipped to live Jesus' mission in the face of trials, temptations, disagreement, and hostility.  His words touched me and I hope they did the same for my students.  We finished off a great first two weeks with playing the card game Spoons.  It was filled with so much competition and laughter.  I'm excited for a 3 day week with them!  

I MISS SCHOOL!  

Hope all of you are staying warm!

Side note: OLV, my grade school, will be keeping her doors open!  Thank you for your prayers!  God is great!  So proud of my parish, school, and the community, and to all who have pledged to help.  It still isn't too late to pledge!

St. Paul, pray for us!
Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Day 8.3

Today was another good day at St. Paul's (in case you were wondering)!

Summary of today:  We are the Pro-Life Generation!  We spent most of class watching footage of the March for Life.  I'm glad EWTN had live streaming.  I even got to see my former grade school principals, Sr. Mary Sarah (!!!!!!!) be interviewed briefly!  That got me even more excited about the march, knowing she was there and some Duhawks!

Also, I used the same lesson from Term 1 on teaching about the life of Christ, his mission, and the mission he left for us!  I forgot to take a pic of the symbols but I broke it into 8- 1. Jesus' life 2. The Cross-Death and Victory 3. Resurrection 4. Ascension 5. Pentecost 6. The Church, the Body of Christ 7. Channel of Grace- mass, prayer and worship, sacraments... 8. His mission for us- Be disciples!  It was very interactive and filled with scripture and my own commentary.

Difference with the younger students is that they actually take notes when I ask them too...what a concept!  Let's just say only a few committed students from each term took notes.  I keep telling them that they are going to be the smartest Catholics in Manchy!  Which, I wouldn't be surprised.  I'm hoping they are able to be able to communicate the basics and not so basics of our faith confidently.  Pray that I  continue to find ways to keep my current students engaged.

Due to the frigid cold, wind, and windchill, no night class tonight. Womp womp...

We'll see if we have another 2 hour delay for tomorrow, or if we even have school.  (I just want the cold to go away!)  

St. Paul, pray for us!
Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Days 5, 6, and 7.3

Hello again!

Allow me to catch up on the last few days of class.

Day 5.3 Friday, January 17

Briefly started teaching about Salvation History- God's love story.  Main stories that we focused on the story of Creation found in Genesis 1 and 2 and The Fall/Adam Eve found in Genesis 3.  Here was a video by Mark Hart to introduce Salvation History to my students-pretty creative if I do say so myself!  

Main teaching points:  

• God loves us- as an entire human race and on and individual basis.  
• Concupiscence
• God has a plan for us.
• God wants to spend eternity with us, but we should spend our entire lives getting to know Him, not waiting until later...

Success Story:  My third hour class is awfully quiet and it takes a lot of prompting to get any kind of response, and I'm talking even a nod!  Well, I constantly give them opportunities to talk and many times and call on them to get their opinions/thoughts/answers.  Well, I had a student in that class come in asking me a question.  He was confused the day before by something the deacon said at the funeral mass...it was on Matthew 10:39.  However, he didn't know the verse and I didn't either.  With a quick google search, I found the passage, had all of them go to their Bibles, and showed them the footnote that explains that verse.  I pointed out that clearly many people have been perplexed by what Jesus meant when he said, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."  Here's what the footnote states: * [10:39] One who denies Jesus in order to save one’s earthly life will be condemned to everlasting destruction; loss of earthly life for Jesus’ sake will be rewarded by everlasting life in the kingdom.  It was nice to be able to show my students ways to get their questions answered even when they are not in class.

That same student asked me whether or not missing mass on Sundays means that he'll go to hell.  Hopefully I clarified his answer will continue to emphasize the importance of going to mass on Sundays- one word: grace.  Ok a few more words- worship, sacraments, fellowship, Eucharist, etc!  And no, not going to mass on Sundays is not a direct ticket to hell.  Sheesh!  However, I did and continue to encourage all of my students to attend mass regularly.  It's a promise we make in our Baptism and really it's what's good for us.  I'm sure God doesn't need my help with anything other than spreading His word and being  an instrument.  Ok, that's a big deal. And we're all called to that!  Basically what I was trying to say is God's goodness does not depend or reply on my worship or prayers to Him.    However, I rely on Him and His grace to reflect His goodness.

From that point on, the class has been more engaged and willing to participate.  It left me feeling great after a good first week of meeting my students and getting them excited about being a follower of Jesus.  

Day 6.3 Monday, January 20

As you can see, we finished studying just a handful of the stories- Creation, The Fall, Noah, Moses, David, and the Prophesy of Isaiah!

Day 7.3 Tuesday, January 21

(2 hour delay due to cold weather)

• March for Life 2014 
• Pro-life Movement  
• Answering the questions who, what, where, when, and why

Please pray for my grade school back home, Our Lady of Victory, and pledge if you can!  Check out this report.

St. Paul, pray for us!

Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Day 4.3

It's Thursday...and I'm thirsty.  Today was yet another reminder of our own mortality, that this life here and now is just a part of our reality.   

1st hour: Watched part of the movie UP.
2nd hour: Funeral with the few students that came to school in that class.
3rd hour: No students- So, I organized, cleaned, and did some lesson planning. It was actually nice to get some of that done.  It's been a very busy/exhausting week!

I heard that 3,000 people attended the wake.  The funeral was packed.  My students and I arrived 30 minutes early and there was no seating.  We stood along one of the side walls in the church.  Unfortunately I have been to wakes/funerals just about every 6 months- Uncle Jim Reardon's last January, Grandma Buddy's 6 months ago, and now this one.  You can't help but remember the people you have personally lost.  Let's just say that my heart is heavy and joyful.  It's is possible to still feel sadness and content.  It's that thirsting that gets you.  Yea, it's "Thirsty Thursday" and I'd love a couple drinks, but I'm talking about the thirst of being totally united with Jesus in heaven with all of our loved ones one day.  

Don't wait for a tragedy to tell the people you care about how much you love them.

St. Paul, pray for us!
Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Side note: I love my students and was so happy to see many of my Term 1, 2, 3, and night students at the wake and funeral today.  Great community.

Day 3.3

Today I invited a deacon of the Archdiocese of Dubuque to come in and speak to all of my day-time classes about his mission work in Haiti.  His stories were very inspiring and made me consider hoping on the next flight to give a hand in any way.  With that being said, we will be doing some kind of service to help this mission since he so graciously gave up his entire morning to be with us.

Night class went well-  my juniors are great!  (I now teach the juniors and the youth minister has the freshmen and sophomores.  It's a lot better teaching is smaller groups- I love having 28!  Much different than during the day, but it's going very well!)

Wakes are hard.  Tonight was the wake for two of my high school students' dad.  Please keep Manchester and everyone who knows the family in your prayers.  They said by 6pm the entire church was filled about 3 times.  Side note- the wake was in the church, which can hold MANY people.  That says a lot about this family.  

Have a great night everybody!

Day 2.3

*Correction: I have 8 students in my 2nd hour class.  One of them dropped but is signed up to take my class next term.  So that's good!  

It didn't seem as early when I got to school this morning.  Hopefully morning continue to get easier- remember, I'm not a coffee drinker so I desperately rely on resting/plenty of sleep.  Much easier since I'm not living with friends or on a college campus like when I was student teaching.  Bittersweet.  

In case you were wondering, today was a good second day.  Some of the students are still super quiet but I have to remember that this class is still pretty new.  Today we answered the fundamental questions: Who is God?  Who am I?  This appeared to be a little intense for some of my students- most of them have never asked themselves or dived into these questions.  It's fun to be on this journey with them.  Hopefully they thank me later for getting into this stuff.  They aren't used to having to think to hard in Religious Ed so this was a good intro for them : )

Here's an excellent article we read today showing how we can use reasoning to prove that God exists- aka not even having to pull out our Bibles or catechisms-I mean, that wouldn't be considered evidence for non-believers anyway.  

Please keep us in your prayers.

St. Paul, pray for us!
Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Day 1.3

Remember that time I used to blog?  

New Year, New Term.

Today was my first day with underclassman and I am quite thrilled to be back into the swing of things.  I have 3 students in my first hour class, 9 in my 2nd hour, and 4 in my 3rd hour.  4th hour is prep and I am so so happy with a much fuller schedule.  As I was on the phone with my mom right after I got home from work (4pm), I told her how exhausted I was after a full day.  I forgot what it feels like to have 5 million things to do at once.  Last semester was never like this!  But deep down, I feel happier because of my exhaustion.  I like exhausting myself because it's a physical indicator that I did my best, that I'm literally out of steam and need rest in order to go back and do it all over again, improving more and more each time.  

Overall my students seem great!  Some are siblings of the students from last term, but so far they are much better behaved.  It was a fabulous start to a new week and new term! :)

Please keep two of my students in your prayers.  They are brothers and their father tragically passed away on Friday afternoon from a heart attack.  The wake is Wednesday and the funeral is Thursday.  I can only imagine how many people will be coming through the wake and funeral.  They are expecting countless people.  It's so sad to see a community affected by a loss like this but amazing to hear how many people are stepping up to help the family and help prep for the upcoming services.


Well, this teacher needs her beauty rest.  6:30 comes awfully quick.

St. Paul, pray for us.
Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Day 30.2

Answered prayers people.  Today was a great day with my students!  They actually acted like they like me today!  Phew- I think their 'tudes had something to do with the weather...sheesh!  We had another late start due to the fog, so that meant classes were short again today.  

Here was our reflection/prayer/random act of kindness from today:

Reflection:

This is my command, that you love one another.  John 15:17

 

This invitation from God is not extended to us individually as individuals.  We are called into the People of God, into a faith community.  we are invited to become a part of God's family.  By the very nature of the invitation we can come to God only together or we cannot come at all.  This is the radical meaning of "Thy Kingdom Come!"  The bottom line is this:  I cannot say my "yes" of responding love to God's invitation without saying a "yes" of love to you.  Ot is impossible for me to love God and not to love you.  Likewise it is impossible for me to love God and not to love you. 

 

Jesus says that if we come to place the gift of our love upon his altar, and we remember a grudge, an estrangement from another, we should resolve that first.  Only then are we invited to come and lay our gift of love upon God's altar.  Jesus is very clear about this.  We cannot love God without loving each other...God does not want my gift of love unless it is also offered to you.  God does not want your gift of love unless you have shared that gift with me. 

 

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.  Help me to be a peacemaker this Advent and to give special love to those who disagree with me.  Give me the strength and courage to forgive those who have hurt me just as you forgive me when I sin against you.  Amen.

 

RAK:

Forgive someone who has hurt you.  Forgiveness and letting go are crucial.  They will lead you down the path of healing and peace.  So try to forgive someone today I order to prepare your heart for Jesus.

For their journal prompt, I asked them to answer the following question: "Who do I need to forgive?"  

After that, I told them a personal story of a time where I held on to the emotional pain and anger a particular person caused me for a number of years (about 7).  I will spare the details because the goal is not to reveal this person's identity.  The goal is to show that forgiveness is not what heals the person who has hurt us-but in actuality, it is what heals YOU.  Me.  I held on to anger, pain, and a very poor opinion of this person for far too long. The only person hurting in the situation was ME.  As the reflection said- "Jesus is very clear about this.  We cannot love God without loving each other...God does not want my gift of love unless it is also offered to you.  God does not want your gift of love unless you have shared that gift with me."  Withholding forgiveness is the opposite of love.  Jesus very explicitly teaches about forgiveness.  I mean, hello!  While this person has never come forward to ask for forgiveness, I have forgiven this person in the depths of my heart.  How?  Through the guidance of my mom and Margie-one of the most wise people that I have ever met.  Oh, and Jesus.  It took a long time to let go and forgive this person in my heart, but I can honestly say that I have.

Some of my students were very upset about this story-"Why would anyone be so mean?  Especially to you!" 

"Well- that's between them and the Lord.  I have asked for forgiveness a number of times from Jesus and He has never withheld that from me.  So, it took a long time, but I have forgiven them."  

Forgiveness is what allows us to love more freely!  And no, not every person deserves forgiveness.  I fall into that category at times too!  Probably more than I've ever personally admitted, too.  

We all need to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus.  Let's all give forgiveness a try.

Better late than never! Day 29.2

I guess you can say I'm a little behind on blogging...and I'm not going to attempt making separate entries on all of the classes I missed blogging on.  Imagine the best and that should do. :)

We are a couple of days into Week 8 of Term 2.  WOW.  Now, I'm going to remind you that I am teaching primarily juniors (16 year olds) and a couple of seniors...and they can be really rude.  Surprised?  I'm not.  However, it's been discouraging, especially right before Thanksgiving.  No, I didn't feel like a complete failure or like giving up, but I felt hopeless in a way.  I know all of us, whether you're a teacher or not, can feel that way at times.  Nothing that I was saying or doing was making them interested.  I shouldn't say that for each and every student, but for the majority, that's how it appeared, and still appears.  It appears that I am a fool for even trying to get the message of the gospel across to these teenagers.  They're rude to me, rude to the bus driver, and rude to the few that want (at least they appear like so) to be over at St. Paul's.  I am trying to focus on the positives, but it's really difficult when they act uninterested, test every ounce of my patience, and then stand up to leave when we still have 5 minutes left of class time left.  Today not a single student said good-bye to me after I reprimanded them on their behavior. Yup, teenagers...

Since Advent has begun, I have changed the format of our prayer. Rather than having them stay seated, I have a new space for prayer where I placed the Advent wreath where we gather around and remain standing for a reflection and prayer that I have the students lead.  To help them prepare, I have a Jesus stocking, and I have encouraged them to do random acts of kindness as a way of thanking Jesus for all of the gifts He has given us and to prepare our hearts for Christmas.  I made up little slips of paper for them to write down their "gifts" to Jesus.  After Christmas, we will read all of the things they did out of preparation for Jesus coming into their hearts on Christmas!   A dear friend of mine from back home shared prayers and challenges that she wrote with her friend for her fellow peers and teachers for morning prayer at her high school.  They are beautiful!  Starting tomorrow I will post them on my blogs so you can say the same prayers and be challenged to do the same random acts of kindness.  Thanks Nicole!

I know that I am a champion (thanks to Katy Perry-kidding)! I am running after Jesus and doing my job as best as I can with His unfailing help.  There is no sense in being discouraged because we never truly know what seeds are being planted on the hearts of the people we encounter...hopefully good seeds!  I can't help but want all of my students to know the joy of having a relationship with Jesus and to experience that for themselves.  All in all, I want this world to be a better place.  I want all people to be good to one another out of their love for God.  It's less about about doing and more about being, and I'm striving to portray that.  Our good works should be done not to earn his love and mercy, but rather as natural responses of our love for God, in thanksgiving for what He provides us and the grace we receive through prayer and the sacraments.  I want to start a fire!  Not literally, but spiritually!  As St. Catherine of Siena said, "If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze."  Again, maybe I'm not going to see that "fire" right here and now in 2nd and 3rd hour class.  I can't honestly say that I was the best student at all times in every single religion class that I ever took.  So, I need to be patient, and wait for the Lord to work on them, but especially me.  Shoot, this must be how God feels when He listens to some of my prayers...

So, if anyone has any great techniques for presenting how awesome living a moral life is since I am finishing the term with Morality, let me know.

Happy Advent!

Come, Lord Jesus!

Day 17.2

Short day.  Short post.

Today the volleyball headed to state to hopefully win the title!  If they win today they will play again on Thursday...with that, 4 of my 6 students in my first class went.  So, you're dying to know what we did, right?  I had those 2 wonderful students take/finish up their assessments.  One was absent yesterday and the other was their but still needed time to finish it up.  After that, the only natural thing we could possibly do was play UNO!  It was filled with much laughter and conversation on just about every teen topic but mainly on music and sports.  I received a lovely compliment too!  Apparently I remind them of the youth minister over at the Methodist church in town.  I must meet this other young, Christian, and energetic woman!

Wasn't sure if anybody would show up in my other class, and not being surprised at all, none of them did.  I had the secretary call over to the other school just to double check.  With that, I left pretty early, and I have been doing little things around the apartment because it is just TOO chilly outside!

Happy Tuesday and go West Delaware Hawks!

Day 16.2

Happy Veteran's Day to all past, present, and future members of the armed forces.  Today, to tie in with the idea of recognizing soldiers, I thought for prayer we would read from Ephesians 6 on what it means to "put on the armor of God" in other words, how to be a soldier for Christ.  I had each class draw and label the things St. Paul mentions- the shield, helmet, breastplate, and sword.  He uses imagery  to help his audience to understand how we are all called to serve God and eradicate evil in the world.  

2nd hour

3rd hour
Super creepy and hilarious.  I volunteered the student
who was volunteering others to draw...it made for a great laugh for all of us,
including the student drawing.

Then I had them journal.  I wrote "Pro Deo et Patria" received a ton of confused looks.  "Huh, Ms. Sexton???"  Then I explained to them what it means- For God and Country.  This is the motto of Loras College 

13.2

Hump Daaaaaaay!  And an early dismissal!  Every other Wednesday is a teacher in-service day over at the high school, so that's why I'm done teaching by 11:45 on those days.

So, I just ate lunch and now I'm about to tell you about my day.

The first class got farther than last class, so we reflected on the gospel from this past Sunday (we didn't have time in this class to get to it on Monday)- Luke 19, story about Zacchaeus.  Since we've been focusing on the Eucharist, I decided to tell them one of my favorite stories on recognizing the Jesus in the Eucharist-

John Paul II visited the US in 1995.  He had a very busy day planned of visiting people, celebrating mass, parading down streets-you know, the things a pope typically does when he visits a foreign country.  JPII was scheduled to make a quick stop at the seminary in Baltimore.  Well, his plan was to make a visit to the chapel to pray to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  Can't really say no to the pope, so security was told to make sure everything was secure.  They had highly trained dogs and sent them to the chapel to ensure that nobody was present.  These dogs were trained to sniff out people after natural disasters-so, pretty well-trained.   Besides, there had already been a couple of assassination attempts on him, so they wanted to make sure everything was secure.  The dogs were sent into the chapel and they went up and down the aisles and headed straight towards the tabernacle.  They sniffed around and refused to leave that spot until their handlers called them.  Well Catholics, we know who they recognized....a living person in the tabernacle...JESUS! 

They teens got a kick out of that story! 

Then we played the game "Psychiatrist!"  All of the players have to sit in a circle.  One person is chosen to be the "Psychiatrist."  They have to leave the room as the rest of the group prepares the game.  The plays decide on the psychological illness they will all have-Everybody thinks they're the person to their right, Everybody thinks they're the actual psychiatrist, or you can even pick a famous person and answer as them.  It's pretty fun to watch the "Psychiatrist" get confused but then finally able to finally guess what their "disease" is.

The second class did all of this in addition to me giving a lesson on the Body of Christ and the importance of the mass (since majority of them weren't here yesterday.)

The evening class will also be finishing up the sacrament on the Eucharist.  Here's what we're doing:

6:30	Cookies and Hot Chocolate
6:45	Parent/catechist prayer, introductions and instructions
7:00	Meet in small groups, take attendance
7:05	Opening Prayer-
7:10	Introduce tonight’s topic- Eucharist-Erin
7:15	Small group #1 (graphic organizer- Symbols of the Eucharist)
7:25	“Grace in the Real Presence” video and small group discussion
7:45	Explanation on adoration
7:50	Announcements and clear the space (tables, chairs, small group materials)
8/8:10	Adoration/Closing Prayer in the Church

I am SO SO SO excited to pray with them in adoration.  As many of you know, I have a huge devotion to praying to Jesus in adoration, and unlike being at Loras where adoration is offered Mon-Fri from 8-5 or 24/7 at the Power of Prayer Chapel just minutes away from campus, we do not have adoration out here, except from 9-noon on the first Fridays of the month when most people are at school/work.  Needless to say, this makes me very happy that we will be having 30 min. of prayer together in front of Jesus in the monstrance.

Please pray with us, wherever you are, from 8-8:30pm tonight!

See you in the Eucharist!
 

12.2

Saint stories, NDE story of a priest, and lesson on the importance of the Eucharist/Mass-

So,  I can honestly say my class this morning was absolutely perfect.  I had no idea the readings at mass were going to be on the body of Christ and the parable of the feast which directly alludes to the importance of accepting Jesus' invitation to take part in the heavenly feast-communion at  mass.  It's an amazing gift.  

Then, expecting to do the same lesson, only 2 boys showed up...so, we chatted and then watched a homily of Fr. Mike Schmitz.  He's awesome!  Check this out if you have 20 minutes!   Then we discussed it and I gave them the rest of the period free.  I wanted to save my lesson for tomorrow when most of them will be back.

I'm not really in the blogging mood.  Prayers for my students and their teacher : )  Thank you!

Day 11.2

Happy Monday and Feast of St. Charles Borromeo!

I didn't have time to blog about Friday's class over the weekend.  Basically we finished up Baptism and to celebrate All Saints Day, I put together a game of "Saint Jeopardy!"  Knowing my students have a very basic understanding of the saints, I made the questions very basic...at least I thought they would be...I only went with questions that I thought they could answer and on popular saints- Patrick, Michael the Archangel, Mary the Mother of God, St. Jude, St. Anthony, St. Valentine, etc.  It was brutal.  I had to give a lot of clues just to get a score on the board. 

So, that gave me an idea.  Every day I will take a few minutes to tell a story of a saint- "Saint of the Day!"  They will be confirmed in May and for all I know, this could be their last formal time of receiving any kind of teaching on the Catholic faith.  So, they will be learning about a lot of saints over the next 6 weeks!  It's so important that they know who these heroes are and how much they want us to strive for sainthood too!

Today's focus was on the Eucharist aka the source and summit of our faith!!!  We focused on what the sacrament is, the symbols, and the importance of it.  Tomorrow we will focus on the mass and continue why the Eucharist is SO important! 

Then we reflected on yesterday's Gospel reading- how Zacchaeus wanted to see Christ but not seen by Christ, how He had a change of heart when He experienced Christ's love and mercy, how we too can have an experience like that when we received the Eucharist, any of the sacraments! 

Last, saint story on St. Charles Borromeo.

We never really know what's going on in the minds and hearts of the people we are surrounded by or in my case, the students I am teaching.  Please continue to pray for my past, present, and future students, and one for me! 

St. Paul, pray for us!

Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Day 9.2

Happy Halloween!

Today was another good day at St. Paul's!

Today was continued learning about the Sacrament of Baptism and primarily focused on the symbols of the sacrament.  I emphasized how we need God's grace to live out the theological virtues- faith, hope, and love. How true it is in my life.  It's no wonder why our lives become a mess when we leave out prayer.  It's no wonder why our relationships/outlooks on situations become complicated and confusing.  Jesus provides us grace in the sacraments and through prayer, so we need to start going to the source-go to Him!  I'm my own teacher sometimes- meaning, I give myself advice as I'm teaching...funny how the Holy Spirit works.

There was also candy involved in class...we discussed tricks we've pulled or have been pulled on us and then times where we ever got scared.  It was fun to share stories with one another.  I got many of them to laugh, and laughter is GREAT! 

Since it's Halloween/All Souls Day, I pulled in a few other topics:

Graveyards--> Deceased loved ones whose souls are with God
Zombies--> Well, they are real, but taught what the resurrection of the dead is! 
Skeleton decorations--> Relics.  What they are, what they do, where they can be found

Have a great afternoon and evening.  I can't wait to pass out candy later!  Hopefully some sweet trick-or-treaters will show up!

Day 8.2

Hump Daaaaaaaaay!

And I had the night off! (Aka no night class due to the Football Playoffs...ok!)  

Today was good.  Classes went well, nothing out of the ordinary took place.  Everyone was calm.  It was super gloomy outside, but comfortable and positive inside.

Finally started teaching about the sacraments and how grace is actually conferred in the sacrament! (ex opere operate...but I didn't go into that word because then some of them would have shut down- but yea, I sneaked that concept in!)  They were still overwhelmed by the word concupiscence...so I gave them a break.  

Then I met with my boss and the other night class catechist to plan next Wednesday's class...and guess what we're going to have- ADORATION!!!!  For 30 min!  Praise the Lord!  I so so so miss praying to Jesus during adoration.  I'm very excited about that class next week.

BIG NEWS- we are now on Twitter!  So, "follow" us:  @StPaul_JMJ
I got this approved by my boss today so I went ahead and created the account.  My students will be told tomorrow and I think they'll like the idea!  

The purpose will be to tweets anything and everything Catholic- quotes from class, quotes on the topics we'll be learning about, etc.  

If we get 20 "followers" by Friday morning, I'll be bringing in treats!  So, if you have Twitter, do it for the teens, and follow us!

St. Paul, Pray for Us!
Holy Spirit, Inspire Us!
+JMJ