Inspiration, News, and Resources for Catholic Educators
From the Maryknoll website:
Since 2000, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers have been providing a unique Classroom Program for Catholic schools. This FREE Program is available in two versions, K-5 for the lower grades and 6-12 for upper elementary and high school grades.
Be sure to watch the videos of teachers using the magazine in their classroom to get ideas for how you could use it in yours.
This week we feature two books to help you or your students brush up on the essentials of our faith.
Catholicism for Dummies, by Fr. John Trigilio and Dr. Kenneth Brighenti. For Dummies. Print Length: 432 pages. Kindle Price: $13.19.
There are more than one billion Catholics in the world, and each one has a similar set of basic beliefs and practices that he or she follows. Some of the teachings of Catholicism are thousands of years old, while others are more recent. So what is the Catholic culture like and what do they believe? Catholicism For Dummies answers these and many other questions.
Whether you-re a Catholic or not, you may be totally clueless or just unaware of some aspects of Catholic traditions, history, doctrine, worship, devotion, or culture. No sweat. Regardless of whether you-re engaged, married, related to a Catholic, or just curious about what Catholics really do believe, this book is for you.
Catholicism For Dummies is not a catechism or religious textbook, but a casual, down-to-earth introduction for non-Catholics and reintroduction for Catholics. It gives commonsense explanations so that the next time you-re invited to a Catholic wedding, Baptism, funeral, Confirmation, or First Communion, you won-t be totally confused. You-ll also discover other important topics that can help you better understand the Catholic culture-from morality and devotions to worship and liturgy. This book will familiarize you with Catholicism by showing you:
- What it means to be a Catholic: traditions, prayers, beliefs, and holidays
- Who is who in the Catholic hierarchy
- How Catholics worship
- What the Seven Sacraments and Ten Commandments are
- The book regarded as the holiest to Catholics: The Bible
- The Church-s stand on some sticky issues
Catholicism For Dummies presents a rich tapestry and history of the Catholic faith-from devotions to doctrines. This intelligent and faithful look at Catholicism will open your eyes to this religion and answer many of the questions you may have about it. — Amazon.com
The How-To Book of the Mass: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You, by Michael Debruiel. Our Sunday Visitor. Print Length: 272 pages. Kindle Price: $9.99.
Maybe you are a recent convert, or perhaps you’ve attended Mass your whole life, but there are still things that puzzle you, like: when you should genuflect and when you should bow; what the different books used at Mass are and what they contain; the meaning of words like “Amen,” “Alleluia,” or “Hosanna”; what to do during the sign of peace.
You aren’t alone.
The How-to Book of the Mass not only provides the who, what, where, when, and why of the most time-honored traditions of the Catholic Church, but also the how. All in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format.
In this complete guide to the celebration of the Eucharist you get:
- Step-by-step guidelines to walk you through the Mass
- Biblical background of the prayers of the Mass
- Insights from the Tradition and teaching of the Church
- Practical aid to overcoming distractions
- Concrete ways to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ at every Mass
- A handy study guide for individual or group use
— Amazon.com
The beginning of a new school year can be chaotic, stressful and incredibly busy. Trying to fit prayer and meditation into the day can be difficult, but it’s exactly in these busy times that they’re most needed. Brother Luke Grande’s book Twelve Virtues of a Good Teacher is a practical, thought-provoking source of material for teachers to contemplate. In part one of 12 Virtues of a Good Teacher we reflected on Brother Luke’s insights in to wisdom, prudence, piety and zeal. His thoughts continue with the virtues of generosity, justice, kindness and firmness.
“Generosity, then, whether it be natural or supernatural, is essentially a willingness to sacrifice oneself for others; it is a social virtue extraordinaire, since it leads the teacher to act with spontaneous sympathy, not calculating the gain or loss, but desiring only the good with whom he comes into contact.”
“Ninety percent of the problem regarding justice has to do with a teacher’s establishing order in the classroom. Of course, there must be order. And discipline is one of the means to bring it about; but the teacher should never confuse the one for the other: order is not necessarily discipline, nor discipline order….Ideally, discipline should be self-discipline guided guided by the wise teacher, not an imposed discipline enforced with military tactics by an overbearing, petty tyrant.”
“Manner, not matter, best distinguishes a Christian kindness from the merely humanitarian deed. For one thing, it is specific, not generic, sympathizing with individual people, not abstract “humanity”; an example is Mary, at the wedding feast of Cana, foreseeing the embarrassment of the host and hostess and quietly and kindly helping them out of their difficulty. The teacher, like Mary, must learn to see the individual face in the amorphous “class,” the individual problem in the “sea of troubles” if he is to do any good.”
“…the Christian, without becoming schizophrenic, believes in both kindness and firmness, and that the two virtues are virtually inseparable, because both are facets of the spiritually courageous man…; he aims at the conquest of the Kingdom of Heaven, a heaven-storming project that depends, not upon his own strength, but upon a supernaturally invigorated power from God….It is not surprising then, that the Christian teacher who, when viewed from one angle, is gentle, kind and forgiving, is also firm and steadfast when the occasion requires it.”
In part three Brother Luke’s reflections conclude with the virtues of humility, patience, seriousness, and silence.
Labor Day is a month away, but for many people there will be little to celebrate this year. As the following video shows, unemployment is a serious problem everywhere in the U.S (See a better quality version here).
Many students will struggle with trying to understand why their parents can’t find work. One way to help them through this difficult time is by giving them the chance to express their fear, anger and hope in prayer. Students could be encouraged to write their own prayers for a classroom service. The prayer service might begin with the following passage from the prophet Jeremiah:
“For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope. When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you.” (Jer 29:11-12)
Psalm 23 (“The lord is my shepherd…”) would also fit the occasion.
Finally, you might provide prayers like the following to students and their families:
Dear Lord Jesus Christ,
You wanted all who are weary
To come to You for support.
Lord, I am worn out
By my inability to find work.
Guide my steps to a righteous path;
Give me the patience
To find opportunities with a future.
Calm my worries and fears
As my financial responsibilities mount.
Strengthen my resolve;
Embolden my heart to open doors;
Open my eyes to see life beyond rejections.
Help me believe in me.
Let me realize other ways
To bring about Your kingdom on earth.
Let me grow as a person
That I may be worthy
For Your greater glory.
In the name of the Father…Amen.
Source: catholicemploymentnetwork.org
Our Father, in praying for the unemployed we
think especially of those who through no fault of their
own have lost their jobs and are now searching for
other work for the sake of their families.
May they not grow despondent or come to regard
themselves as useless.
Help them to employ their skills and gifts in other
directions and to find a measure of fulfillment in the
service of the church or community till employment
comes their way again.
Frank Colquhoun
Prayer to St. Joseph for Employment
Dear St. Joseph, you were yourself once faced with the responsibility of providing the necessities of life for Jesus and Mary. Look down with fatherly compassion upon me in my anxiety over my present inability to support my family. Please help me to find gainful employment very soon, so that this heavy burden of concern will be lifted from my heart and that I am soon able to provide for those whom God has entrusted to my care. Help us to guard against bitterness and discouragement, so that we may emerge from this trial spiritually enriched and with even greater blessings from God. Amen.
As a new school year approaches, teachers everywhere are preparing lesson plans, bulletin boards and handouts. This kind of professional preparation is important for a strong beginning to another cycle of teaching. However, it’s also important to prepare spiritually for the work that’s about to take place. One way to ready one’s soul for teaching is to meditate on the virtues of good teachers, honestly looking at how we can improve during the next nine or ten months.
Brother Luke Grande of the Christian Brothers has written Twelve Virtues of a Good Teacher, which is actually an update of a text that has been around since at least 1785. His book, which seems now to be out of print, walks the reader through twelve virtues that Christian teachers ought to strive for. As he explains in the preface, the twelve virtues are based on a list drawn up by St. John Baptist De La Salle in the early eighteenth century. Through the years, succeeding generations of Christian Brothers elaborated on and modified the list according to the particular needs of their time. In 1956, the Christian Brothers Education Association asked for “a fresh explanation of the the Twelve Virtues,” and Brother Luke’s book is the result.
As an aid to preparing for the new school year, I’d like to offer some of Brother Luke’s words on each of the virtues followed by a few questions for reflection.
“With the vision attained through wisdom, the teacher can see how he himself fits into God’s plan, how his students fit into it as well, and how the whole complex of education helps to accomplish God’s design.”
“General preparation for class is not enough. Prudence and experience underlie the necessity of day-to-day preparation of classes. If the teacher knows exactly what he is supposed to be doing, he will cut his discipline problems in half, he himself will be more confident as a result, and an atmosphere of study with direction and purpose will have a good chance of developing.”
“…in being a practical, living example of Christian piety, the teacher as teacher best gives God His due and provides students with an ideal of piety to emulate. But, anomalously, when the teacher turns his eyes away from God and looks at himself to see whether or not he is being a good example to the students, his piety become calculation and he fails on both counts–as dutiful creature and living example.”
“Every good teacher must share in this universally Christian spirit of apostolicity which we call zeal. Zeal leads him to try, with great love and devoted energy, to further God’s glory and to take all the steps conducive to this end….A teacher who is not interested in teaching is a contradiction. If he has the love of God and a high ideal, he must express both through striving, through an effort to bring all to God, but especially the students that come within his sphere.”
Next time I’ll offer Brother Luke’s thoughts on generosity, justice, kindness and firmness.
