I've recently begun volunteering as a catechist at my parish for the "level 8" students... the ones preparing to receive the sacrament of Confirmation this year. I co-taught a session this past Tuesday night (on "Who is Jesus?" in the Apostles' Creed), and I'm teaching a session next Tuesday night (on "Jesus' Message and Mission"). I've got a pretty good outline prepared (see it here — yellow highlights are questions, red text are the target answers) and I think it will engage the students in a way I didn't see this past week.
Classes are about an hour and fifteen minutes long. I'm pretty knowledgeable, so I'm good at answering questions, but I'm trying to make sure I ask a lot of questions, because I think these students know more than they think they know.
I'm also trying (in what short time I have) to bridge the gap between "information" and "formation". It's one thing to know when we celebrate the Immaculate Conception and that Mary is the Theotokos, and to know what these things mean... but it's another to be changed by that knowledge and to live differently because of those realities. So that's what I hope to bring to these students.
Any advice from my readers?
2 comments:
The outline is very good ... the only thing I would try to work into their personal mission as disciples of Christ is the work of evangelism: telling their non-Christian friends about Jesus.
I think I'll make that very clear. At the previous session ("Who Is Jesus?"), most of them answered "Jesus is my friend". Well, who wouldn't introduce as GREAT a friend as Jesus to their other friends?!
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