Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Teen Catechism Discussion Plans

Our local teen catechism discussion group is starting up again and I'm excited about the upcoming year. We'll be doing a lot of Bible study on two different tracks - 1. a study of some of St. Paul's epistles in honor of the year of St. Paul and 2. uncovering the differences between the Protestant and Catholic Bibles (with some background reading on the Reformation). Tonight we're kicking off in a celebratory way and watching Steve Ray's Footprints of God "Paul: Contending for the Faith".

Here's my list of what we hope to read this year:

How the Reformation Happened by Hilaire Belloc

Books of the Bible:

Tobit
Judith
Wisdom
Sirach
Baruch
Maccabees
Esther
Daniel
James

Romans
Hebrew
Corinthians 1
Ephesians
Galatians
Philippians
Philemon

I picked up several volumes of the Navarre Bible commentaries to assist with preparation for and discussion of these books.

Some other things we may or may not get to:

The Ball and the Cross by G.K. Chesterton
Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton
A Man for All Seasons (movie)

On the side, I'll be introducing one of the Fathers of the Church each week with the help of Pope Benedict's Wednesday audiences (as recently published by OSV in the book: The Fathers by Pope Benedict XVI). The students have a timeline notebook from last year (which we hardly used at all!) that I hope to use regularly this year.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I missed the first sentence mentioning "teen" and started to feel really bad about our own plans. This sounds amazing.

love2learnmom said...

Thanks! By the way, I added it back into the title just for you. :)

Anonymous said...

For enrichment and a cross-link to history and to science when you read the book of Wisdom:

According to Fr. Jaki, "...there were available certain books, the books of the Bible, which were written to give us hope. The hope in question had for its major foundation the belief that the world was the product of a most rational and benevolent Creator. The belief was articulated in many ways, of which one biblical phrase was particularly influential for the rise of science. That phrase is from the Book of Wisdom, a book written about 170 B.C. by an inspired member of the Jewish diaspora in Alexandria, in which it is stated that the Creator arranged everything according to measure, number, and weight (Wisdom 11:20). Students of medieval and late medieval centuries also know that this verse of the Bible was the most often quoted biblical verse in the writings of those times." His footnote to this last statement is "As stated by a foremost medievalist, E. R. Curtis, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, tr. W. R. Trask (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1953), p. 504.

All of which I quote from his essay "Science and Hope" in his The Absolute Beneath the Relative and other essays.

--Dr. Thursday

love2learnmom said...

Lovely! Thank you much!!!

Anonymous said...

Alicia, would you be able to take some time to write about how you develop and carry out these great teen discussions? BTW, I'm not referring any particular set of discussions.

I would love to be able to provide such get togethers for up and coming teens in our area, but I don't know how to go about it.

Have you already mastered the material yourself? Do you have some sort of guide that you use?

What about kids who might not want to discuss religious topics? Or, does that come with age? Have any of the discussions been a flop? If so, why do you think that happened? Likewise, what about ones that were notably more enjoyable and successful than others?

Thank you in advance for considering sharing the secrets of your success with us.

love2learnmom said...

Kelly - I will try to write up something for you soon. Thanks for asking!