I truly love fall when we get to start another year of Evangelization & Catholic Education! I love having the opportunity to get to know my students even more and getting to share with them the good news of Jesus Christ!
This year was no exception as we began Confirmation 1 with a great session on Sunday, Sept 14! Most of the group was on time and sitting at their tables right at 6:30, which is a HUGE help to me – thank you!!!
We got started with some music and some time spent introducing ourselves to each other. Did you know that we have students from 10 different high schools in our Confirmation 1 class this year?
After that, I told the group a little about my summer and asked for some of their summer experiences. Seems we had some world travelers and some who found ways to keep busy right here at home.
Our topic for the night was the question, “Who Is Jesus?” We discussed whether some think of Jesus as a superhero and whether we agree with that idea. We heard from some people asked this question randomly on the street and discussed the very different answers they gave. We also watched a short video that imagined Jesus’ life through Twitter.
We played a game to see whether they could identify some famous people from sports, politics, movies, television, and general popular knowledge. No matter what the scene or the circumstances, they knew everyone (except Condi Rice) until we came to this older, non-descript gentleman riding the public transit trains. Some were stumped. We went on to see him in the clothes of a priest (and a few more students identified him), then we saw him in a picture with Archbishop Sean Cardinal O’Malley, and finally in his white capetto greeting the crowds gathered in Vatican City to see him. He was Pope Francis.
I asked them to think about who they follow — who interests them, whose picture could they identify, whose biographical information they knew, and whose gossip catches their attention. We discussed the meaning of the word ‘christian’ as someone who follows Christ and we looked at some of the ways that our society is Christian, from the way we date our calendar to which days we have off from work.
We also discussed what we know about Jesus from a secular/historical point of view and what we can read in the Gospels, and how those two images do or do not synch up. This includes the various ideas different groups have of what happened on Good Friday through Easter Sunday.
We ended with two great videos – one was a possible scenario of the Sunday of Jesus’ rising from the point of view of the Roman guards. The other was a short piece of heartfelt rap by a very hip mom named Tamara Lowe in which she talked about the importance of God in our lives. Both can be found online on YouTube.com.
I hope everyone can join us for our next session. We’ll be talking about the question “Why did Jesus die?” and we’ll have our first outside speaker. Remember, parents are welcome to join us and kids can always bring a friend!
And don’t forget to bring your supplies: a pen/pencil, 3-ring binder, and a Bible!
And many thanks to our setup volunteers! Please consider volunteering to help set up or take down the next session on Sunday, September 28. Email me at ARhodes@parishmail.com to sign up! THANKS!
-Annie Rhodes
Videos: (you can search for them on YouTube.com)
Searching for Jesus online
Follow – Jesus through Twitter
Video Catechism (VCat) – Where’s the body?
Tamara Lowe
St Mary Parish ECE 