Category: Featured

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Join the New Diigo Group for Catechists and Educators

It can be difficult keeping up with all the new catechetical resources available on the web.  If I go a day without checking my Twitter account, I might miss dozens of links to great web sites, blog articles or educational tools. That’s why I’ve created a Diigo group for Catholic educators. As I come across valuable resources for Catholic teachers and catechists, I’ll be saving them to this group.  I invite all Catholic School Chronicle readers to join so that together we can build a set of resources to help us better reach our students. The group is moderated to keep spammers out, so head over to Diigo right away and join the Catholic Education Diigo group.

If you’re not familiar with Diigo or social bookmarking, watch the following video for an explanation. I hope to see you there.

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Maddie’s Story: Inspirational Video from an Aspiring Teacher

Maddie

Maddie hopes to be a Pre-K teacher someday, just like thousands of other college students. What makes Maddie’s hope unique is, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story:

My favorite line from the video: “She has broadened what I understand as the Body of Christ.” I hope to see Maddie visiting this site some day as a Catholic educator.

Here are some ideas for using the video in the classroom:

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A 5-Minute Video Summary of Catholic Teaching

In marketing parlance, there is a concept known as the “elevator speech,” in which one tries to deliver a compelling idea in less than two minutes, or the length of an elevator ride.  Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk comes close to an elevator speech summary of Catholic beliefs in this video from TeamRCIA:

Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk from TeamRCIA on Vimeo.

Okay, so the speech was eight minutes, but the summary didn’t begin until about 3 minutes in. In any case, it’s a terrific distillation of Catholic teaching. It’s simple enough that it could be presented to young children, yet profound enough that it could be meditated upon. Here’s my transcription of just the summary portion of the archbishop’s presentation:

The most important thing in the world is that God is madly in love with us. There’s no reason for it, God just loves us. That’s why there is a world. That’s why each of us is here. God has loved us for a long time, ever since the beginning of human history. And God has never stopped loving us, even when human beings made a mess of things and did their best to forget about God’s love for them.

But that’s not all.

God loves us so much that he wanted to be one of us. In Jesus God became a human being not just to tell us who and what God is, but also to show us who and what we are supposed to be. Jesus was faithful to that mission even when it cost him his life.

But that’s not all.

Jesus is still alive, because his heavenly father wouldn’t let him stay dead. Jesus is with us still and has sent us the Holy Spirit that unites him and the Father to make us live God’s life in addition to our own. To be part of that life, we don’t have to earn it, and we don’t have to deserve it. All we have to do is accept what Jesus offers us, and then act in accord with what he has made us to be.

But that’s not all.Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk

Jesus has established a community of those who have accepted him so that none of us ever needs to be alone. Jesus nourishes that community with himself and he marks every major moment in the life of every member with his personal action in the sacraments.

But even that is not all.

God loves us so much that this life of Jesus that we have been given to share will never end. God wants us with him forever. No matter how confusing and painful our life may be, we have God’s guarantee of final fulfillment. In the most literal sense, God has promised us that everything is going to be all right. God invites us to take constant joy in hope.

But there’s still more.

Because we share the life of Jesus, we share the mission of Jesus. Each of us is called to extend the love and care of the Lord to those around us. We may not seem as individuals to have all that much to offer, but what we do have to offer is eternally important because it’s not just ourselves that we offer, but the Lord Jesus himself. The Lord has chosen to need each one of us to get his work done. Nobody’s life is insignificant.

The long and the short of it is that God is crazy about us, and once we accept that, everything else falls into place.

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Why Teach in a Catholic School?

So you’ve landed a job interview at a Catholic school, and you’re trying to prepare. What will they ask you? How should you respond?

I’ve interviewed dozens of applicants over the years, and one of the questions we often ask is, “Why do you want to work in a Catholic school?” Here are three responses to avoid:

  1. The students are more well-behaved in Catholic schools.
  2. Parents are more involved.
  3. I like small class sizes.

I have heard all three of these reasons during interviews over the last fifteen years. More than once. The problem is, they totally miss the point of the question. What’s more, they totally miss the point of Catholic education.

Here are three alternative answers to the question, “Why do you want to work in a Catholic school?”

  1. Jesus.
  2. Jesus.
  3. Jesus.

If Jesus is not at the core of our reasons for teaching in a Catholic school, then we have our priorities out of balance.  Jesus has called us to be teachers.  Jesus has given us the ability to touch hearts and minds.  Jesus wants us to bring the Good News to the world. There is no more important reason than that to teach at a Catholic school.

We don’t teach in Catholic schools because it’s easier than teaching in a public school. Catholic schools are not the minor leagues of the academic world.

Catholic schools are where teachers assist parents in fulfilling their sacred mission to tell the Good News to their children. And what is the Good News? Not a what, but a Who: Jesus Christ.

Our goal as Catholic educators should be to so design our lessons, our classroom management, and our lives, that Jesus Christ stands clearly at the front of it all.  He can be found in the novels we choose to teach, the writing prompts we assign, the historical events we study, the natural world we examine.

Street-corner evangelist Frank Sheed once wrote that Catholicism is the union of humanity with God through Jesus.  The goal of every Catholic school teacher is to do everything in his or her power to foster that union.

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Let CRS Help Your Students Confront Global Poverty

Catholic Relief Services is on the forefront of using new media to evangelize and mobilize Catholics to live out the corporal works of mercy. Each month CRS conducts a free webcast to highlight a different aspect of its mission to “alleviate suffering and provide assistance to people in need…without regard to race, religion or nationality.” This month’s webcast takes place at 2 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, April 14, and is intended to help participants understand the Church’s approach to extracting natural resources.

According to the registration page, the webcast will provide the following:

  • An on-the-ground view from a CRS staff person working with people affected by the extraction of natural resources;
  • An overview of CRS’ response and support for the people who live there;
  • USCCB and CRS’ policy recommendations for how U.S. policymakers can make a difference on these issues based on Catholic social teaching and our experience;
  • Ideas on how Catholics in the U.S., through the Catholics Confront Global Poverty initiative, can support greater transparency; in natural resources extraction in the developing world;
  • An opportunity to ask the presenters questions about these issues and engage them in dialogue.

I attended the February webcast and found it so informative and interesting that I’ve already registered for this month’s presentation.  Since it takes place in the middle of the day, I plan on projecting the conference live for my eighth grade Religion class so we can observe it together and discuss it afterward.

The webcast is part of the Catholics Confront Global Poverty initiative, a joint effort of Catholic Relief Services and the USCCB.  The following video explains the effort:

It’s an important endeavor, and one that our Catholic youth need to be a part of. Attending the webcast is easy: simply register for free, then follow the directions you receive via email.  I hope to see you there.

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Catholic Teacher’s Essential Bookshelf – The Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church
Catechism of the Catholic Church

Book 2: The Catechism of the Catholic Church

In Part One of the Catholic Teacher’s Bookshelf we looked at the Bible. This article examines the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which Pope John Paul II called a “systematic presentation of the faith and of Catholic doctrine.” If you’re a Catholic school teacher, you probably already have a copy of the Catechism. It’s an absolutely essential reference book for answering student questions and learning about our faith.

Background

A catechism is book which attempts to make the fundamental truths of the faith accessible to the reader.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) is what is known as a universal catechism, which means it is intended to be used to create national or local catechisms.  An example of a national catechism would be the United States Catechism for Adults. written and published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  According the USCCB page on the Catechism. the CCC was written by a committee of cardinals and bishops between 1986 and 1992, and is intended to “assist those who have the duty to catechize.”

Structure and Use

The CCC is structured on four “pillars”:

  1. The Creed: What the Church believes
  2. The Sacraments: What the Church celebrates
  3. The Commandments: What the Church lives
  4. Prayer: What the Church prays

All religion textbooks in Catholic schools strive to be in conformity with the CCC, but that doesn’t mean a teacher can ignore the universal catechism and rely merely on the background materials in the teacher’s edition. It is well worth the effort, both professionally and personally, to spend time meditating on and attempting to understand the truths expressed in the Catechism.

If your copy of the Catechism has been gathering dust on a bookshelf, maybe now would be a good time to brush up on an aspect of the faith that you’re not familiar with. If you don’t yet have a copy of the Catechism, perhaps it’s time pick one up and begin to study it. In any case, don’t ignore this valuable catechetical resource when planning your religion lessons.

Catechism Resources