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April 21, 2015

Religion teacher wants students to open Bible, be surprised

The African American Catholic Youth Bible®

By Nissa LaPoint with Denver Catholic

Some youth in Felicia Charles’ Sunday school class find learning the faith boring. Others tell her they’ve never opened a Bible, she said.

“Some of them are just resistant to Catholic education in general. You’re dealing with that, too,” 24-year-old Charles said of the challenges she faces with her seventh- and eighth-grade catechism class at St. Ignatius Loyola Church.

It’s not that they can’t learn, said Charles, but that youth need help connecting faith and the Bible with their daily lives.

She plans to introduce to her class the new African American Catholic Youth Bible, a translation of the New American Bible Revised Edition that includes commentaries, art and study aids to help educate and evangelize youth about Scripture.

Special sections make Mary, Biblical figures and events relatable through art and maps. Throughout the Old and New Testaments are sections that share stories of African Americans who are important figures in the Catholic Church, tips on applying passages to daily life, suggested prayers and the basics of the Catholic faith.

The hope is to make Scripture more accessible to Black Catholic youth, said Mary Leisring, director of the Office of Black Catholic Ministry in the Archdiocese of Denver.

“Some youth are disenfranchised with the Church,” Leisring said. “It’s an attempt to offer pictures, introductions and commentaries which will enable our young people and all people to find personal connections to the stories and events of the Bible.”

Leisring worked with the National Black Catholic Congress and St. Mary’s Press to develop explanations, prayers and background to help bring the Bible to life. She worked on commentaries for the book of Philippians and John.

“Those are my two favorite books in the Bible,” she said because of the books’ teachings about placing God first and asking him for strength.

She wanted to share her own faith with youth to encourage them on their own journey.

“We say that our youth are leaders of tomorrow, but I think our youth are leaders of today,” she said. “If youth are going to really get back into the Church, it’s not something they need to wait for. They need to do it now. If you say youth is in the present, then they can work alongside us and walk our faith journeys together.”

Charles said she found the popular Catholic Youth Bible also published by St. Mary’s Press— which the African American Youth Bible is modeled after, helpful in her own spiritual journey as a youth.

She uses the Bible and teaching aids to help explain tenets of the faith to her students like the Trinity and events like the Passover—just as she once learned.

“Some of the students have a hard time grasping these,” she said. “Those are hard concepts to explain to them.”

Charles hopes the youth Bible will be something her students—with a variety of ethnic backgrounds—can relate to.

Sometimes the Bible will offer surprises, she said she tells them, with its fascinating and relevant stories: “It’s OK to listen (to Scripture readings) on Sunday but you should read it yourself. There are so many interesting stories in the Bible you’d be surprised what you find.”