Reflections on Poverty in America
This handout provides a series of Scripture passages and real-life accounts to help students reflect on poverty in America.
Reflections
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What Biblical Images Reveal about God’s Relationship with His People
Students will examine seven different images of God’s people used in the Bible, and describe what each image reveals about God’s relationship with his people.
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Your Relationship with Jesus
This worksheet leads students to reflect on one of three Gospel passages in which Jesus interacts with the people around him and how he shows them compassion and mercy. Students will also reflect on their own relationship with Jesus and …
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What is your "5 loaves & 2 fishes"?
This song, illustrated in child-friendly animation, uses the story of the 5 loaves and 2 fishes to show that Jesus can work great things through us when we surrender our lives to him. Please note: YouTube comments, ads, and suggested …
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Reflections on Poverty in America
This handout provides a series of Scripture passages and real-life accounts to help students reflect on poverty in America.
Document
Praying the Liturgy of the Hours: A Reflection
A reflection to be completed after praying the Liturgy of the Hours.
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Learning about Learning
This handout asks a series of questions to help students reflect on and evaluate the learning in a particular unit.
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The Narrow Door: A Guided Meditation
This guided meditation communicates the Gospel message of simple living in a way that engages the imagination and inspires young people to actively simplify their lives. This activity is an excerpt from the book Justice and Service Ideas for Ministry …
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One Solitary Life
This short reflection calls to mind the profound impact Jesus Christ has had on humanity and the world.
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Paths to Marriage
This handout gives a brief explanation for several types of relationships that end in marriage. Students are then asked to evaluate the reading and complete a journal prompt.
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Reflections on Relating
This poem provides a reflection on the fears and insecurities that we all carry underneath the outward impressions we give off.
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The Scriptures and Concern for Justice
A list of justice-centered biblical passages that can be used for preparing class prayers and liturgies, as a resource for assignments, and for your own reflection and prayer.
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Life Issues B Activity: Meeting Jesus: A Guided Meditation
A guided meditation that uses the imagination to spend time with Jesus and understand how he wants us to live.
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The Wonders of God's Creation
For the next twenty-four hours, pay attention to experiences and details of your day. The following list suggests phenomena for you to observe, and you may think of other subjects for observation. Create an observation journal on a separate sheet …
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Planning a Marian Prayer Service
This resource, taken from the New Testament Leader Guide for Breakthrough! can be used to help you plan a Marian prayer service for Advent, The Annunciation, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and other celebrations of …
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A Prayer Service in Intercession for Ordained Ministers
A prayer service for ordained ministers including multiple readers, speakers, and responses.
Saint Marguerite d’Youville (1701-1771)
Saint Marguerite d'Youville was born in rural Quebec in 1701 into serious poverty, and dropped out of school to help her widowed mother and younger brothers and sisters. She married unhappily when she was 21, and when her husband died …
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Understanding the Lord's Prayer
An activity to help students understand the Lord's Prayer from "The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth" Teacher Guide.
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All Are One in Christ Jesus
Several Scripture passages that show that all are one in Christ Jesus.
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Mary, Queen of Peace
A list of several questions regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary that can be used as writing or reflection prompts.
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Student - Is This a Calling? Teresa of Avila
An excerpt on calling and vocation, written by Saint Teresa of Avila.
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Contemplation - 2/2 Fr. Thomas Dubay
Father Thomas Dubay discusses contemplation and the means by which one can attain a deep prayer life.
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Contemplation - 1/2 Fr. Thomas Dubay
Father Thomas Dubay discusses contemplation and the means by which one can attain a deep prayer life.
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The First Address from Pope Benedict XVI
"Grace and peace in abundance to all of you! In my soul there are two contrasting sentiments in these hours. On the one hand, a sense of inadequacy and human turmoil for the responsibility entrusted to me yesterday as the …
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January 22: Reflection on Roe vs. Wade
I walked with George the other day, And this is what he had to say: "If this is what its come to, then I'm glad that I've passed on. For the foundation laid so long ago apparently is gone. What …
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A Christian Response to Violence, Part 2:
Pacifism: "We No Longer Learn War" How can we apply Jesus’ command to love our enemies when our whole nation has been attacked? Over the centuries, how Christians have attempted to apply Jesus’ teachings on violence to their lives has …
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On the Frontier of Justice in Ghana
"Africa has been the land of hope, salvation, and redemption. Abraham had come to Africa, Joseph from slave to savior. It was the land of refuge for Jesus and helped to carry his cross. Will we continue to dismiss Africa …
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Following the Spirit Down the (Yellow?) Brick Road
The road is really a five-foot wide path. The bricks are more dappled browns than yellow. But the journey does have a wizard and feisty little black terrier. And along the way we found our hearts, our minds, and our …
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Let the Church Say Amen
Amen is a cry of complete reliance, of heartfelt abandonment to something or someone that is true and trustworthy. THE TWO-SYLLABLE WORD COULD BE HEARD by all in the front quarter of the sizeable church. It was said by a …
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Undergraduates and Theology: Why Bother?
They seemed happily unaware of traditional teachings.... I thought them unchurched. The invitation to spell out what I see happening today in theological education for undergraduates is too good to pass up. I’ve been teaching undergraduates for nearly 30 years. …
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Until a "lack of discretion" do us part
Ever since the church got involved in the wedding ceremony, relatively late in Christian history, it has stood by its main belief about a marriage. It’s the consent of the couple that binds. SEVENTH IN A 10-PART SERIES ON CHURCH …
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Don't Cancel that Guilt Trip
A few weeks ago it was brought home to me how strongly our society has rejected the idea of struggling with one's conscience as necessary or beneficial. I was teaching Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple (Harbrace, 1982), and the …
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In the Name of the Father
Making the sign of the cross is a gesture that says, in shorthand, that a person is a Catholic. It appears as an icon in popular culture, and as a gesture it is scattered throughout film history, for example: movie …
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Fighting Catholic Amnesia
I was a high school junior before I learned that the Catholic faith was something more than Mass, folk songs and the Bible. Father Corry turned me on to Church history in his religion class. He showed me how our …
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Everyday Works of Mercy
Are you more Christian than you give yourself credit for being? My belief is that there are many like that--that many dedicated Christian people have compartmentalized their lives and have excluded important and central areas of their lives from what …
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The Death Penalty and the Catholic Conscience
Some proponents say the death penalty is biblical: "an eye for an eye." This moral theologian shows how they are misreading the Bible. If someone murdered your child or closest friend, what punishment would you want for the criminal? If …
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Evil Never Looked So Good
Do you think you're a victim? Do you avoid making judgments because you'll hurt someone's feelings? Do you feel betrayed by your wrinkles or your balding dome? Be careful. You might be cuddling up to heresy, which just had a …
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The Spirituality of Work
Teachers who structure justice into their workday lives model a moral vision for their students. I requested a review copy of all religion textbooks used in Catholic high schools some years ago and scoured over 30 books looking for references …
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Peace: The Countercultural Value
Ours is a violent society. Furthermore, evidence strongly suggests that we are learning to accept violence as normal behavior. As a people, we appear to be increasingly indifferent to daily images of warfare, racial hatred and ethnic cleansing. Murder and …
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Top Ten Reasons to Be a Catholic
Many of us have been raised in the Church, but why do we remain Catholic? This author shares her favorite reasons and invites you to consider your own. “DO YOU ALSO WANT TO LEAVE?“ (JOHN 6:67). When Jesus first asked …
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Fruit from the Vineyards of Faith Community
Participants in this summer's workshop "The Catholic High School as Faith Community" offered one another insights from their experience in the "vineyards" of Catholic high school teaching and campus ministry. We are happy to pass some of their "fruit of …
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Committing to Your School's Catholic Identity and Mission
A group of fifty-four religion teachers, campus ministers, and administrators from thirty-seven Catholic high schools across the United States gathered in June 1995 to share dreams, struggles, and moments of grace around the theme of building faith community in their …
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Lessons from an Inner-City Parish High School
Saint Paul High School in San Francisco, where I teach, is an inner-city parochial school. It is a school that, for all its shortcomings, has much to teach other Catholic secondary schools, precisely in view of the two attributes cited--namely, …
