McGrath Institute Blog

Teaching middle school religion in Tennessee at the local K–8 Catholic school, my classroom consists of students who are majority Christian, most of whom are Catholic, with a number of students who are Methodist, Baptist, and Episcopalian. Students with different religious backgrounds, even just within the Christian traditions, increase the ability and need for fruitful ecumenical dialogue and living within our classroom. 

The Will Transformed

Thus far in this series, we have treated the liturgical curriculum of a Catholic school as related to both memory and understanding. In this last section on curriculum, we must attend to the role of the will.

As a young girl, I always loved the Sundays when a Baptism took place in the context of the Mass. There were many reasons I found Baptisms captivating; for starters, they punctuated our usual Sunday routine with something out of the ordinary. But more than that, I was drawn up into the joy and the excitement of the sacrament. I loved seeing the little babies, water poured over them, oil lathered on their foreheads, their candles lit, the priest saying “________________, in the name of Christ, we welcome you into the Church,” and the choir singing, “Blessed be God, O blessed be God, who calls you by name, holy and chosen one.” 

Communication is essential to human life. Throughout our lives, we have come up with many ways to get our ideas across. One particularly powerful way human beings communicate is through art. Beauty speaks to all people, across all times and places. This makes it rich source material for catechesis. Thanks to the Church’s rich artistic history, ministers in faith formation can present teachings people often overlook in powerful ways. Here are some principles to help you consider how to incorporate art into your ministry.

The end of the Christmas season is fast approaching, but the Incarnation is a mystery that we should contemplate all year. The Gospels of the Christmas liturgies are a beautiful way to help us do this, so let’s take a look at each of them in turn as a way to keep the Incarnation in our hearts as we prepare to return to Ordinary Time.