I’ve summarized the first hour of my first session that took place on Monday evening, walking through the Engage, Explore, and Reflect steps. Now, the conclusion: the RESPOND step. The goal of the last step of the class is to challenge/invite them to a new kind of thinking and living, shaped by the Gospel.

• I said that we had just reflected on the goodness of God’s creation and that we can trust God to provide us with such abundance in his creation.
• I then said that we were going to do a little demonstration about how the abundance of God’s creation was being divided among human beings.
• I took out a little coin purse with 100 pennies in it and poured them out on the table explaining that they represent the wealth and resources of God’s creation.
• Then, I told them that we would represent the population of the world. Since there were 9 of us present, I said that I would also represent my aide, Lucy, making 10 of us. I said that Lucy and I would represent 20% of the world’s population and that we get 85 pennies!!! They were none too pleased with this! Next, I picked 2 students – a boy and a girl – to represent another 20% of the world’s population and gave them 1 penny! They immediately began to fight over who gets to hold the penny! Finally, I said that the remaining 6 of them represent 60% of the world’s population and that they got to share the remaining 14 pennies which they quickly grabbed for.
• I invited them to react to this distribution which they quickly noted was so unfair. One girl said, “So wait, this is how the world’s wealth is divided?” She wasn’t sure if she was hearing it right. I said that this is it and that we folks in the U.S. are part of the 20% who are enjoying 85% of the world’s abundance.
• I asked what we can do about this. The same girl responded that we need to share! Amen!
• At this point, they were getting giddy and tired and were still fighting over the pennies which I pointed out is what happens when resources are not shared fairly – violence erupts! I had them return the pennies to the table and encouraged them to share in the coming week because we can trust in the goodness of God’s creation.
• I then distributed a reminder sheet to them, inviting them to bring in a personal object of some kind for our prayer center and to memorize the first part of the Nicene Creed that expresses our trust in God the Father. It will be interesting to see how they respond to “homework” which I’ve not done much of in the past.
• At this point, I realized that I was 2 minutes overtime, so I had them bless themselves with holy water on their way out in lieu of doing an actual closing prayer.

All told, this Respond step was about 12 minutes. I was a bit rushed at this point but I still feel like I was able to get in what I had hoped to. They left with a good spirit and I felt that we had accomplished a great deal for our first night together.

I’m off to Houston for their catechetical conference. Come Monday, I’ll share my plan for Monday evening’s class. Have a great weekend!

So far, I’ve summarized the first 45-50 minutes of my first session with my 8th graders this past Monday evening, detailing the Engage and Explore steps of my lesson. Today, I’ll detail the REFLECT step which is designed to lead the young people to pray from within the truths they are learning. Here are the details:

• Before class began, I had set up on my prayer center, a circle of battery operated tea light candles (I purchased at CVS…very cheap).
• I had the young people put their textbooks on the floor underneath their chairs and told them that it was time to move into another segment of the class that they are going to really like.
• I introduced the concept of sacred space telling them that, as much as possible, we will spend about 15 minutes of each class in quiet prayerful time. I explained that, one by one, I will call them forward to pick up their candle, turn it on, and proceed to a location anywhere in the room (under a table, on top of a table, behind a desk, in a chair, on the floor, etc.) that they will then claim as their own personal sacred space.
• One by one, they came forward to do just that as I made sure that each location chosen was about 10-15 feet away from the nearest classmate.
• Once they were all in position, I turned the lights out and put on some quiet instrumental background music.
• I invited them to get comfortable, to put their candle down and just stare at it, and led them in some breathing exercises for about a minute and a half.
• Surprisingly they were very quiet and cooperative – usually I get a few wise guys who make wheezing sounds when I invite them to breathe deeply!
• I then led them on a guided reflection, inviting them to imagine that they were aboard the Space Shuttle, orbiting the earth. I invited them to imagine looking down at the earth below and taking in all of the beauty of God’s creation and to look at the moon and stars, thinkin about how good God’s creation is. I did this for about 2-3 minutes.
• I spoke about how we can trust God because of the goodness of his creation that he shares with us. I invited them to talk to God, thanking him for creation. I then invited them to thank God for this quiet time, for the beautiful weather we’ve been enjoying, for the peaceful sounds of the night outside our room, and so on. I did this for 2-3 minutes.
• I then allowed them to just rest in the quiet presence of God for a couple of minutes – complete silence. I finished by telling them that they most likely feel very peaceful right now and to remember that the next time they are in Church and extend a Sign of Peace to someone, that they are wishing that this person will experience the same peace you are feeling right now.
• I slowly called them back to the room, turned a few lights on slowly, and made sure we had not lost any of them to sleep! I’m happy to report that they all stayed awake! They then returned to their seats, placing their candles back on the prayer table.
• When we gathered back, I asked if this was the quietest moment of their day and all but one raised their hand. I said that this is how we are going to pray each week whenever possible – that this is a little different from how they may have prayed before but that it is a grownup way to pray. I asked if they liked it and they responded positively (no gushing or anything, just a few nods, a few “yeahs” and a couple of “uh-huhs”)

All told, we took between 15-20 minutes total for the Reflect step. I never once used the word meditation…kids can often act goofy when they hear that word. I’ll tell them in a few weeks that this is what they’re doing.

Only once during the guided reflection did I need to stop and correct some behavior. One of the boys was trying to hold back laughter and finally let loose with some giggles and guffaws. Over what, I have no idea. I just stopped and said to the whole group, “you need to resist the urge to laugh and giggle when we do this because that’s what children do and you’re not little children anymore. You need to act like young adults.” That seemed to work.

When we were all done, I complimented them on their behavior, telling them that they acted very maturely. We were now ready to move into the final step of the class, the RESPOND step, where I send them out through “my door” (remember, St. Ignatius’ advice? “Enter through THEIR door but be sure to leave through YOUR door!”) I’ll describe that experience tomorrow.

At one time (and perhaps in the minds of many people still today), spiritual direction was considered something reserved for the “spiritual elite” – priests and religious. Today, more and more lay people are discovering the value of spiritual direction. I’ve been seeing a spiritual director for about 5 years now and find it extremely enriching. At a recent presentation I was giving, I asked catechists what they are doing for their own ongoing spiritual enrichment and, in addition to those who are reading, doing study, and attending workshops and seminars, 2 catechists mentioned that they see a spiritual director.

Spiritual direction is not therapy. Nor is it some type of rigorous regimen of monastic prayer practices or some esoteric experience. It is simply a matter of talking with a companion about your life experiences with an eye for recognizing God’s grace in the midst of it. Here is a good article about spiritual direction with many helpful links.

Yesterday, the Holy Father made a pitch for spiritual direction saying that everyone, including lay people, should have a spiritual director to help them in the Christian life.

Might I suggest that catechists be at the forefront of this growing movement? Our vocation is perfectly suited for this time-honored Christian practice.

How does one find a spiritual director? The Website for Spiritual Directors International offers a Seek and Find Guide. Also, many retreat centers offer spiritual direction. Here is an interactive map of Jesuit retreat centers in the United States as well as another directory of spiritual retreat centers.

Any other catechists out there in spiritual direction? Any other recommendations for how to find a spiritual director?

Yesterday, I told you about the first 35 minutes or so of my first session on Monday evening during which time my focus was to ENGAGE the young people. My Engage step normally does not take that long however, being the first night, there was more engaging to do! With the focus on the theme of TRUST, we next moved into the EXPLORE step of the lesson, where we look at the story of salvation and how it connects with the lived experience we just talked about in the Engage step. Here are the highlights:

• First, the pastor stopped in. This is always a welcome interruption. He is a new pastor and he came in to introduce himself to me and to the young people and I thought he did a fine job of doing so. He was very cordial and outgoing and he engaged the young people in some brief conversation. I thought this showed great interest and support for these young people.
• I did a brief “book presentation ceremony” to present the young people with their textbooks, telling them that this is not just any textbook but is a means by which we encounter Jesus and so we do more than simply distribute them. I called them forward one at a time by name and presented their book to them saying, “May the Word of God be in your heart.” They behaved quite well for this and it went very quickly.
• We then immediately opened our books to chapter 1 and, using the ball toss, the young people took turns reading a few paragraphs at a time. I inserted some comments along the way. The article we read was about how our story of creation in Genesis teaches us that God is good, all of creation is good, and that we can trust in the God of our creation who continues to care for His creation. The article compares this to the Babylonian creation myth that teaches that creation came about as a result of a violent battle between angry gods who then enslaved human beings.
• We spent about 15 minutes focused on this chapter and the content. Normally, I would spend more time on the content, however, being the first night, I had spent a lot of time engaging them and I wanted to be sure to introduce them to the REFLECT step of our sessions, where they go to their “sacred space” for guided reflection.
• I emphasized to them that, out of the first 45 minutes or so of class, we had only read from the book for about a third of the time. I told them that we are not just going to come here and read from a book for 75 minutes but that we will continue to do a variety of things to keep them going.

Normally, I would want to have the young people DO something with the material that has been read…some type of informal assessment to see if they “get it.” Again, given the time constraints of the first session, I was unable to do this. However, I wasn’t too concerned because the concept – we can trust in God our Father – was very simple.

Next we moved in to the Reflect step. I’ll share about that tomorrow.

Thanks to those who have sent in comments about their first session. I invite more of you to do so. I/we love to compare notes and we learn from one another. In all honesty, I did 4 or 5 things on Monday night that I picked up from other catechists who shared their ideas here on my blog…THANKS!