For tonight’s class, my plan is to continue walking the young people through the story of salvation history in the Bible, setting the stage for the unit on Jesus that we are beginning.
You may recall that 2 weeks ago (we were off last week for Columbus Day), I began walking them through the story of salvation history in the Bible and, because of a few interruptions (fire drill, etc.) only got as far as the Exodus event.
Tonight, we’ll begin with the giving of the Ten Commandments and move forward using the Bible in a Nutshell outline that I created. I can tell that the young people are not particularly thrilled with reading all of these Bible passages but they have been pretty well-behaved and I know that as we go through the unit on Jesus, we will find ourselves referring back to many of the things that we read in the Old Testament. It’s important for them to see the “whole story.”
We will also, this evening, be distributing their confirmation packets which contain all of the information they need to prepare for the sacrament (service, confirmation name, sponsor, etc.) I plan to give this to them at the door as they enter so that they immediately realize that they’ve got some work to do!
Finally, I absolutely must leave time for sacred space tonight (reflective prayer). Last time I had to go without it and they were disappointed, one of them saying, “But that’s my favorite part!”
I hope you all have a good week of classes. I’ll fill you in on how tonight’s class goes and I’ll also give some details about the Jesus unit we are beginning and how we will be using a segment of the film Jesus of Nazareth.
October, of course, is the month of the Holy Rosary, great opportunity to introduce young people to the devotion of praying the Rosary. Many parish schools and religious education programs have a “living Rosary” during October and the question often comes up, “How do you pray the living Rosary?” Here are sites that offer explanations and descriptions of praying a Living Rosary:
I’ve decided that, since we’ll have no class next Monday (Columbus Day) and that when we return, we jump right into a unit on Jesus Christ, tonight will be a good night to do an overview of the Bible with my 8th graders, taking them through the story of salvation history that culminates with Jesus Christ.
