New Sacrament Text from Ave Maria Press!

Ave Maria Press is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of a new high school textbook, Meeting Jesus in the Sacraments!

The text incorporates the outline and main points of the new high school curriculum guidelines and is a Christocentric presentation of the liturgy and sacraments. It has been found in conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Meeting Jesus in the Sacraments offers a detailed look at the sacraments as the principal manifestation of Christ. Jesus is himself a principal sacrament of God to the human race. Participating in the sacraments helps us to know Jesus and live life in community as modeled by the Persons of the Trinity.

Meeting Jesus in the Sacraments breaks open the meaning of sacrament--an efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us by the work of the Holy Spirit--using an effective model for describing four dimensions of the sacrament:

• Memorial
  
• Celebration
  
• Communion
  
• Transformation
  

This model is the organizing principle for each chapter.

Meeting Jesus in the Sacraments is truly an interactive text. Through the regular placement of "For Reflection" panels and assignments that focus on deeper research (mind), developing a personal and communcal prayer life (heart), and active transformation of self and society (hand), the students will come to know Jesus through participation in the sacraments and the grace of their effects.

Each chapter also features a profile of a saint with a particular devotion or experience around a sacrament. Additionally, several references to current events that have application to the topic, including references to blogger sites, are included.

Contact Ave Maria Press if you would like more information on having a review copy of Meeting Jesus in the Sacraments sent to your school.

The Eye of God

The Hubble Space Telescope, named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble, is one of the largest and most versatile space telescopes. It was taken into orbit in 1990 by the Space Shuttle Discovery. The Hubble orbits the earth every 96-97 minutes, covering the United States in about ten minutes.

The Hubble has been credited with many new scientific discoveries. It has found that the age of the universe is about 13 to 14 billion years old, a much more accurate estimate than the previous range of 10 to 20 billion years. The Hubble has also helped to identify “dark energy,” a mysterious force that causes the expansion of the universe to expand.

A famous photo (above) taken by the Hubble has been called the “eye of God” as it is similar to a human eye in space. Other beautiful views of our universe are revealed in the video montage.



Assignment
• How do the images taken by the Hubble make you think about God?
• With your camera, capture several images from our world that help you to experience God. These may include:
• mountains, rivers, sunsets, oceans, forests
• mother with child
• mity landscape
• the comfort of your home
• a younger person serving an older person, or vice versa
• a place where your expect your dreams to come true
• and many more!

Share your photos on a Facebook page, as a PowerPoint presentation, on a poster collage, or in any other place where people can view them. Offer a title—“My Experience of God”—that encourages comments.

Who Are the Saints?

In anticipation of All Saints' Day on November 1, share the following question and answer with your students.

• How does the Church decide who becomes a saint and who doesn't?

The Church sets aside All Saints’ Day (November 1) to honor the countless anonymous saints who are with the Lord in heaven. These are the uncanonized saints. Undoubtedly, among these millions of saints are many of your own relatives from past generations. If their faith and love were heroic while here on earth, you can be sure they are in heaven. This is the day of the liturgical year when the Church remembers their lives.

Canonization is the official process the Church uses to declare that a person is in heaven and may be honored as a saint. The word canonization comes from a Greek word that means “measuring rod” or “standard” and has come to mean “to be on the list officially.” In the early Church, the title of saint was bestowed on a person locally when the people who knew the saint acclaimed him or her to be one. Over time, abuses set in and Pope John XV in 993 took steps to formulize the process of declaring a person a saint. Pope John Paul II revised the saint-making process in 1983 and 1997 and renamed the Vatican congregation in charge as the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. There are three major steps involved in being put on the official list of saints:

1. Supporters in a local diocese nominate a candidate's name after his or her death by petitioning the bishop to investigate the person's qualifications for sainthood, that is, whether he or she lived a holy life of faith and morals and exemplified the theological and cardinal virtues to an extraordinary degree. The bishop appoints a postulator to examine the person’s life. If the bishop believes a good case has been made, he gives the results of the cause to Rome where the Congregation for Causes of Saints determines if the person lived a heroic life of virtue. If the answer is yes, then the person is given the title “servant of God” or “Venerable” and the cause moves to the next stage.
2.  Stage two is known as “beatification” where the person's life and writings are carefully examined to make sure they conform to Catholic teaching. This step involves interviewing known living acquaintances of the saint. For the process to proceed, it must show that praying to the candidate resulted in one miracle because of his or her intercession. (However, a martyr—someone who died for the faith—is not required to have a miracle.) If the candidate passes this stage, the Church declares the person “Blessed.” This means Catholics can venerate this person within a certain geographical area or in the religious community to which he or she belonged.
   
3. Step three (canonization) involves an exhaustive examination of the candidate's life by the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. A second miracle is necessary, “attributed to the intercession of the Blessed and having occurred after his beatification”7 before the commission of bishops and cardinals present the cause to the pope. If the pope approves, he will issue a Bull of Canonization, which proclaims the person a saint of the Catholic Church. Catholics may now honor this saint publicly throughout the world. Bishops can name churches after the saint. And the Church may assign a liturgical feast day to the newly canonized saint.
   

As you can see, the process of canonization is complex. You may have noticed that many canonized saints belong to religious orders. Does this mean that lay people, like married couples, are not holy? No! The practical reason is that religious orders have the financial means and staying power to promote the cause of a particular candidate over a long time period.
Most saints are anonymous. It is the hope of the Church that one day Christians will also pray to and honor you. Christ calls each person to be a saint. He wants us to live our ordinary lives in an extraordinary way by loving and serving him through others. As the song goes, may you be “in their number when the saints go marching in.”

Assignment

Research the ongoing canonization process of Blessed Mother Teresa and Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

Also, you might want to examine the biographies and pictures of some recently beatified and canonized persons at the Vatican website. Type in "canonization" in the search engine.

What the Bible Says about Friends

Assign the following activity on friendship. First, say:

In the Old Testament, Moses, Joshua, and David were call called "servants" or "slaves" of Yahweh. In the New Testament, Jesus refers to people as friends: "I know longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father" (Jn 15:15)

Have the students complete the following steps:

 1. Read each of these Scripture passages about friendship:

Deuteronomy 13:6-11; Job 2:11; Proverbs 17:17: Sirach 6:14-17; Sirach 9:10; Sirach 13:1; Sirach 22:22; Sirach 37:4-6; Luke 15:9; John 15:12-13; Galatians 6:1-22; 2 Timothy 1:1-4

 2. Write about two or three passages that resonated with you.

 3. Write your own definition of friendship.

When everyone has completed these steps, lead a discussion on the meaning of friendship.

Prayer Bingo

Play a game of bingo to begin a lesson on the importance of prayer. Have the students circulate around the room getting signatures from classmates. Either award the first person to have one line signed or the complete card signed. Call on a variety of those who have signed particular squares to demonstrate their prayer talents. Use the bingo card below or devise your own.

Fall Religious Ed Newsletter Online!

The Fall Issue of the Ave Maria Press Religious Education newsletter, Engaging Hands, Hearts, and Minds for Faith is now available online.

Included in this issue are a cover story with Dr. Daniel Smith Christopher and Fr. J. Patrick Mullen on the nuances of teaching about Sacred Scripture to upper level high school students. There is also updated information on the progress implementation of the Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework and for publication of textbooks related to the Framework. Also, Vicky Pettaruto, a youth minister from California, shares a reminder of how catechists and those who work with teens can continue to bring Jesus alive to those they minister to.

If you would like to subscribe to the Engaging Hands, Hearts, and Minds for Faith newsletter contact Karey Circosta.

 

Helping to Increase Vocations

Share the following ideas to help increase priestly vocations with your students. The material is taken from Marriage and Holy Orders: Your Call to Love and Serve.

During the fifteen years that Father James Gould was vocation director for the Diocese of Arlington, this diocese of only sixty-five parishes in northern Virginia produced an average of eight new priests per year. By the year 2000, the average age of priests in the diocese was forty-two, nearly twenty years below the national average. Father Gould’s goal during those years was to look for ten new priesthood candidates per year. A few of the years he fell short of the goal, but in one year Arlington had twenty-two men enter the seminary. In this one diocese, there is not a priest shortage.

            Father Gould outlined a simple formula for success:

•          “Unswerving allegiance to the Pope and magisterial teaching;
  
•          perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in parishes, with an emphasis on praying for vocations;
  
•          and the strong effort by a significant number of diocesan priests who extend themselves to help young men remain open to the Lord’s will in their lives.”
  

This formula has been shared with other vocation directors and dioceses and the potential for success is strong. How might they work in your parish and diocese? What are some other ways that you can help promote vocations to the priesthood? Read through the list of ideas below. Choose at least one of the ideas or come up with one on your own. Develop a plan to work with others to implement this idea at your school or parish.

Perpetual Adoration. Arrange for a schedule of continuous prayer for vocations before the Blessed Sacrament at a school chapel or at your parish. Collect names of people willing to sign up for fifteen minute or half hour blocks of time. Make this a regular event. 

Publicize Special Vocation Events. Highlight special events during occasions like National Vocation Awareness Week, World Day for Consecrated Life, or World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Also take note of special events offered particularly in your own diocese. Volunteer to distribute flyers or other promotional material to people at your school or parish. Invite your peers to these events. Offer to be part of the program or to help with hospitality or clerical work.

Witness Talk. Broach the topic of vocations to the priesthood at a youth group meeting or at a campus ministry event. Speak personally about how you are discerning your own vocational call. Arrange for a priest or seminarian to speak about his own calling.

Seminary Visit. Call a local seminary and arrange for a group of classmates to come to the seminary to hear a presentation by the vocation director and seminarians, and perhaps tour the campus as well.

Website Links. Create a set of links to vocation websites in your own diocese and beyond and include them on your personal homepage. Or, write about the importance of vocational efforts on a blog. Include links to relevant vocation sites there as well.

     

Journal/Discussion

• Is there someone you know who has chosen a radical or countercultural lifestyle? Describe the person and the lifestyle.
  
•  How do you imagine your commitment to discipleship in Jesus Christ for the future: extreme, radical, moderate, wavering? Choose a word to describe it and explain.