Happy Veterans' Day with St. John of the Cross

Happy Veterans' Day! Before I post my weekly book review on Monday, I would like to say thank you to all our Veterans and military for their faithful service to our country. I personally have no desire to ever be part of the military, but I applaud those who willing choose to be. It takes a special person to live that life, and I am not it.

As you can probably guess from the title of this blog post, I am going to be reviewing a book about St. John of the Cross. The Institute of Carmelite Studies agreed to send me the book The Contemporary Challenge of John of the Cross: An Introduction to his Life and Teaching in exchange for an honest review. This is a great little publishing house that specializes in works by and about St. Teresa of Avila, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Edith Stein, St. John of the Cross, and several other prominent Carmelite figures.

This book starts off with a brief biography of St. John of the Cross. I have always known implicitly that St. John of the Cross had a hard life. You don't write Dark Night of the Soul without experiencing anguish in your life. However, the amount of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual anguish he suffered was mind-boggling to me. I think one of the greatest tragedies he suffered was people in the Church turning against him and his leadership and instruction. The book then moves on to listing the works that St. John wrote and providing background and excerpts from some of them.

Chapters Three and Four are my favorite chapters. In these chapters we see St. John's Sketch of Mount Carmel, which shows the three paths to climb the Mount and "find the Lord we seek." We also are presented with the different stages of this journey we are making towards God including periods of lows, highs, and even plateaus. These two chapters shed a lot of light on the Ascent of Mount Carmel and the Dark Night of the Soul, and prove a very useful source to read them alongside these two great works.

This is an excellent starter book for anyone who wants to read St. John of the Cross but is intimidated, or someone like me, who tried to read St. John but got overwhelmed and lost in his brilliance of words. I give it five out of five stars. It got me excited to try and re-read St. John's works again and left me feeling a bit better equipped to tackle his writings. I'm also glad to have discovered this gem of a publisher in The Institute of Carmelite Studies. Thank you for taking the time to read this review. I'll see y'all on Wednesday!

Catholic Religious Education (CRE) Week #5

Welcome back to my blog, and my weekly 7th Grade Lesson Plan. Is it Thanksgiving yet? I need a break! Last week was both a lesson and prayer time. I'm not sure the kids appreciated it at all, but when they I asked how many of them prayed the Rosary and only one of them raised their hand (my priest in training, of course), I knew we needed to pray the Rosary with them.

On a sadder note, my teacher's aide had a fire at her house while she was teaching, and she had to run off before class was over. No one was seriously harmed, but there was significant property damage, so please say a prayer for her and her family.

• Preparation for the Lesson
• Write the following on the board:
• Omnipotent = All powerful
• Omnipresent = Present everywhere at the same time
• Omniscient = All knowing
• Ask the students to reflect on these three attributes of God and to write in their notebook how it makes them feel knowing God is all of these things.
• Introduction
• Good morning. Today we are going to talk about God, Our Loving Father. Before we get to the words on the board, I would like you to turn to page 41 and begin with the opening prayer.
• I need 1 reader and the rest of you will respond to All.
• Okay! While waiting for class to start, I had y’all reflect on these three words of God.
• Let’s go around the class and say how it makes us feel knowing God is all of these things.
• Address any fears or uneasiness students may have
• Explain that God is also:
• All Loving = Loves us forever, despite hating our sin
• All Merciful = Wants to forgive us of our sins
• Chapter 4
• Now I would like you to turn into your books and I want someone to read the first two paragraphs on page 44.
• All of you know the Creation stories. However, what we are to take away from them is that God not only made everything and everybody but he loves us and has a plan for us.
• Now I need a reader to begin on page 45.
• Write the word Covenant on the board
• What is a covenant?
• Explain that the entire Bible is about God’s covenants with his people.
• Adam – husband and marriage
• Noah – father and family
• Abraham – chief and tribe
• Moses – judge and nation
• David – king and kingdom
• Jesus - Messiah
• Let’s continue on Page 46.
• Write the word mercy on the board.
• Have the students define it.
• Ask the students to think back to last year and the Old Testament.
• Have them recall how the Israelites kept turning away from God.
• Explain that God kept forgiving them and was merciful toward them.
• Ask them what God’s ultimate form of mercy and love was.
• Sending Jesus to die for our sins.
• Now on to page 47.
• Providence
• What does it mean?
• What is God’s ultimate plan for us?
• To love Him and go to Heaven
• Activity
• Pass out sheets of paper and colored pencils
• Have the kids draw a card for someone they know who seems sad or down.
• In the card, have them explain how God loves them
• Real-world application
• Pass out Our Father 2 person skit.
• Ask the kids how many of them know the Lord’s Prayer?
• How many of them know what they are saying when they say it? And how many just say it without thinking?
• Read through prayer-skit.
• How can we show God that we are thankful for His mercy and love?
• Praying
• Asking forgiveness for our sins
• Forgiving others
• What are ways you can show mercy and/or love to the following people this week?
• Parents
• Siblings
• Teachers
• Classmates
• This month we have the Saint Museum so start thinking early about who you want to dress up as and get your parents to help you if you need it.

For those of my readers wondering, our Catholic Religious Education Coordinator has the older children dress up as Saints on the Sunday closest to All Saints Day, and the little kids get to walk around and see them in their costumes and learn facts about each saint. It really is an awesome idea!

Catholic Religious Education - The Holy Spirit

Well, I'm behind in teaching this year, because of that week I missed. Last week wasn't that great having my aide teach. She didn't prepare at all, and isn't a very good aide at all. She also told me she regrets assisting 7th Grade and wishes she had taken a younger grade, so looks like I am stuck with a less than eager aide. This Sunday we are going to learn about the Holy Spirit. To me Joseph and the Holy Spirit have a lot in common as they are the most overlooked member of their trios, the Holy Family and the Holy Trinity respectively.

• Preparation for the Lesson
• Bring the Annunciation, Baptism, and Pentecost Icons 
• Write the question on page 62 on the board.
• Have the students write their responses on a scrap of paper, fold it, and turn it in up front.
• Then have the students read page 63 and do the activity.
• Introduction
• Good morning. Today we are going to talk about the Third Person of the Trinity – The Holy Spirit. Before we discuss what is written on the the board, I would like you to turn to page 61 and begin with the opening prayer.
• You will respond to All.
• Okay! While waiting for class to start, I had y'all answer the question on the board and write a response to the question on page 63.
• While I add up your responses, I want someone to tell me what you would tell All Quizzed Out to do.
• Let students discuss it and say if they agree or disagree.
• If disagree, explain what they would say.
• Write % to answers on the board.
• Review results
• Chapter 6
• Now I would like you to turn into your books to page 64 and we will begin reading.
• Let's talk about the word prophet.
• What does it mean?
• Who were some of the OT prophets?
• What about the word Messiah?
• Who is that referring to?
• In the Old Testament, there are 300 references or prophecies referring to the Coming of Jesus and he fulfilled all of them.
• Like Christianity today has many denominations and many different beliefs, there were many types of Jews in Jesus' day and each of them were expecting a different kind of Messiah.
• Some expected a Warrior to overthrow Rome.
• Some expected a Politician.
• Others were looking for a King to rule like David.
• It's no wonder that so many Jews back then rejected Jesus because what they wanted in a Messiah and what they got were two different things.
• Now let's get back to the text on page 65.
• Hold up the icons of the Annunciation and the Baptism and pass them around.
• Explain how each of them show the Holy Spirit coming down from Heaven.
• Let's read page 66 now.
• Pass around the Pentecost Icon and point out the tongues of fire.
• Ask when we celebrate Pentecost in the Church?
• 50 days after Easter. It marks the close of the Easter Season.
• Ask what two Sacraments are associated with us receiving the Holy Spirit?
• Baptism
• Confirmation
• Also point out the confidence the Apostles now have.
• Say Peter got up and started preaching the Gospel to all. This was the same Apostle that denied Jesus three times.
• Explain that with the Holy Spirit, we are capable of doing anything for God.
• Let's finish by reading page 67.
• The Holy Spirit is still present today in the Church.
• People try and criticize the Catholic Church or say that we are responsible for bad things that happened for 2000 years.
• Some of that is true, but people forget that the Church is made up of human people, and all humans are sinners.
• However, we rely on a higher power than man. And even though bad people come into the Church and do bad things, we're still here and going strong 2000 years later.
• The Church is a Hospital for Sinners and not a Hotel for Saints.
• I want you to take your remaining time and work on making a pamphlet for younger kids.
• In it you will explain the following:
• Who is the Holy Spirit?
• What are some symbols of the Holy Spirit?
• What happened at Pentecost?
• When do we receive the Holy Spirit?
• If any of you have younger siblings, share it with them. If you don't have younger siblings, share it with older ones, parents, or classmates.