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!

Are you off to a good start this year as a catechist? Please share your comments with me and your fellow catechists about your first session (click on Comments below).

My first session last night went very well, thank God! Today I’ll share some observations about the Engage step, which, being the first class, took about 35 minutes:

• My aide had a family issue to tend to and was unable to be there last night so I was on my own to get things organized. Also, there is a class in my room that doesn’t let out until 15 mintues before I begin so I don’t have very much time to get the room in order.
• Thankfully, our supply bins are now being kept on our floor so we don’t have to lug them up 3 flights of stairs!
• 2 of my students are related to other catechists and both of those catechists came by as I was setting up to introduce me to them…that was very nice.
• I greeted each student at the door with a handshake which generally seemed to surprise and disarm them a bit. I immediately had them sit in assigned seats and gave them each an index card to jot down the names of 5 people they trust. They did not have a moment to breathe before I had them on task  and attentive.
• I was assigned 10 students, 6 boys and 4 girls. 3 were absent and one was added so I ended up with 8 students last night. I have to say that they were very pleasant and friendly and I think we hit it off nicely.
• I immediately began by introducing myself …about 20 seconds into that, one young man blurted out a question without raising his hand. I cut him off and said, “I’m sorry, but you don’t talk while I’m talking.”  He was a bit surprised at the quickness and firmness of my correction but he apologized and I continued on having asserted my authority very early on. That appearance of being strict was (hopefully) offset by my attempt to be very cordial in my tone as I continued my introduction.
• Next, I had them stand and I explained that we’ll always begin with prayer and that I will say “This is the day the Lord has made” and that they are to respond, “Let us rejoice and be glad!” I had this written on a cue card and we practiced it a couple of times. They did very well.
• I had them pass a candle (battery operated) around and offer either thanks for something they are happy about or a petition for someone who needs prayers. This year, I did not give the option of passing (last year when I did that, they ALL passed!). That went very nicely and they all offered thanks for something or someone and all were sincere (save for one who offered thanks for Jay Cutler, the new Bears quarterback, who had a miserable debut and was more worthy of a petition rather than a thanksgiving!)
• I had them next introduce themselves and share the name of one person from their list who they most trust. Most mentioned either a parent or a friend, many of someone in the class which was nice.
• Next, I mentioned that trust is not always easy and I introduced our song of the week, “From the Inside” by Linkin Park. They listened very attentively, looking at the lyrics that I had printed up for them.
• After the song, I did a ball toss to several of them, asking them their take on the song and why it can be hard to trust. They said that it can be hard to trust especially when someone is two-faced.
• I used that as my segue to move into the theme of the session which was that we can trust in the goodness of God the Father. That brings us to the next step of the session, the Explore step, where we make a connection between their lived experience (entering through their door) and the teaching of the Church (moving them toward “my” door). We’ll explore that step tomorrow.

The one thing that I really worked on this year and I’d have to say I feel very good about, was the fact that I kept them on-task from the get-go and itnroduced another task for them every few minutes. The clear message was that they were going to be asked (told) to do many things in this class and to ”get with the game plan!”

I have to admit that my inspiration for this came this past Saturday as I went for my run in the park. There was a grade school football game going on and there were also a few army recruiters present who apparently offered the older teens who were present the opportunity to experience a 15-minute boot camp. As I ran around the park, I listened and watched as football coaches and army recruiters barked instructions to young people that were followed to a T. I thought to myself, “Why shouldn’t I teach with the same authority?” My tone was certainly different (cordially pastoral) however, my mindset was that of the coach and drill sergeant. I had it in my head that I have no less reason to show authority as a catechist than the coaches or military men that I observed.

Tell us about your first session…how’s it going so far?