Tag: Liturgy

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Essential Podcasts for Educators – Lifeteen’s Sunday Sunday Sunday

Bible Geek Mark Hart
Bible Geek Mark Hart

One podcast that I play for my eighth grade students every week is Lifeteen’s Sunday Sunday Sunday. The Bible Geek, Mark Hart, prepares young Catholics for Sunday’s Mass readings by highlighting the major themes and filling in background information.

Hart begins the podcast by reminding his listeners to get a pen and paper before he lists the readings for the week. For the next seven to ten minutes he helps teen listeners connect more easily with God’s word. His enthusiasm is contagious and my students always enjoy hearing what he has to say. Hart has an energetic, folksy voice that doesn’t get too preachy or overhanded.

One thing I like about the Lifeteen podcasts is how easily they can be incorporated into a class period. Each Friday morning, my Religion class begins by listening to Sunday Sunday Sunday. Students take notes, and after the podcast is done I ask my students if they have any questions or comments. I think Hart’s style and message would be understandable by students from 4th-12th grade, and the seven minute average run time is short enough for most student attention spans.

The only complaint I have is that a couple of months ago they changed the theme music. It used to sound like a monster truck commercial, which my eighth grade boys looked forward to each week. I don’t know if they were violating copyright, but they changed the opening theme, and the new music is much more generic. Still, I highly recommend playing this podcast with your students each week. You might even try pairing it with Lifeteen’s Catholic Movie Reviews podcast.

You can listen to Sunday Sunday Sunday at Lifeteen’s podcast page, or subscribe to it for free via iTunes.

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Tutorials of the Catholic Mass

One of the most important things we teachers/catechists can do is help students participate more fully in the celebration of the Mass. One way to teach about the Mass is to walk students through a celebration step by step. The following resources may help:

Fr. Jim McKearney’s Video Tutorial of the Mass: This series of 24 short video clips is appropriate for younger children, especially those preparing to make their first communion. Fr. Jim McKearney, a Sulpician priest, takes viewers on a tour of the entire mass, explaining it in language that children in grades 2-5 will understand.

Mysteries of the Mass podcast: In this podcast Fr. Bill Holtzinger, a Catholic parish priest from Forest Grove, Oregon, offers “reflections, teachings, interviews and more about the Mass.” Fr. Bill has a friendly voice and a natural manner, and his reflections help listeners to understand the Mass more deeply. His podcast is probably more appropriate as a background for teachers, but you may find it useful to use with students in grades 7-12. You might also suggest that your students subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

The Catholic Mass Revealed: This web site is more of a sample of the dvd, but it does contain some beautiful images of the Mass, and some of the segments are available in their entirety.

Do you have a favorite multimedia resource for teaching about the Mass? Let everyone know by leaving a comment.