Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of January 24, 2011!
Congratulations to Daniel Perez!

Daniel will receive a copy of Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics, a $20.95 value.

As the title suggests, Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics highlights what happens throughout salvation history between God and humanity. God breaks through and connects with human history, thereby establishing a relationship with humanity.

Using the Good News translation, Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics was created for young people leaving childhood and entering adolescence. Its ten special features were created to help make the Bible easier for young people to read and understand.

They will learn about the great people of the Bible, and will see how God has been breaking through in human history and connecting with humanity for thousands of years. Most important, they will discover, in the Bible, how God's messages to key people of faith have meaning for life today.

Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics
ISBN: 978-0-88489-862-7, paper, 1,968 pages

Curiosity

What does it mean to learn? Learning is so much more than the memorization of facts. True learning is a journey of understanding. It is about being inquisitive, asking questions, and seeking meaning. Learning is seeking to not only know the information but truly understand it and apply it to your life and real-world situations. At a basic level, learning is about curiosity. The curiosity to ask why is this so, what does this mean, how does this change me. With that in mind, we, as educators and ministers, are faced with the question, "How do we develop and nurture curiosity in the young people we encounter?" For this week’s and next week’s reflections, I have chosen to share the wisdom of one of our authors concerning curiosity. Following is a portion of a reflection on curiosity written by Holly Hoey Germann. In this week’s reflection, Holly explores the role of curiosity in the classroom and presents the first of three important elements in creating a classroom climate of curiosity. Holly has fourteen years of teaching experience and is currently a theology teacher and vice president of faith formation at Benilde–St. Margaret’s, a Catholic college preparatory school in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Holly has also served as an author for one of the Living in Christ teacher guides and Web content. I hope this reflection piques your curiosity and, as always, I pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Peace,
Steven McGlaun

Curiosity in the High School Classroom
by Holly Hoey Germann

We have all heard pleas from students to increase a grade or to provide a rationale for what we are asking them to do. How can school become more about discovering new information than about dishing out points? When students ask for a rationale, however, are they sometimes revealing a desire for intrinsic motivation?

Points and grades provide students with extrinsic, or external, motivation for their work. The need for external motivation began when they were young—with stickers, rewards, and constant positive feedback. Although we can trace the pattern, we are not going to change an embedded expectation in our American culture. But just as a ship in the ocean has to turn the steering wheel only one degree to completely change its course, so we can change the culture of our classrooms. If we make a small shift to cultivate curiosity, we can change to motivation that is intrinsic, or from within, and still have the students earn good grades.

Curiosity
Curiosity is the natural, human desire for knowledge. Curiosity leads to inquiry. An inquiry is a search for truth that leads to the discovery of answers, enabling a person to create meaning, and promoting the continued quest for knowledge through further inquiry. Theology is a natural place for people to ask some of the biggest and most meaningful questions. Asking students to grapple with these questions is an important part of fostering a culture of curiosity in a theology classroom.

Three important elements in creating a classroom climate of curiosity are safety, a willingness to take risks, and flexibility.

Safety
It is essential for students to be able to let down their guard and engage in the topic. Safety includes physical safety because students will not engage in the material if they are worried about being harassed or physically intimidated. Equally important is the emotional and intellectual safety of students. The classroom is not a place for perfection, but a place to make mistakes. I want my students to feel comfortable raising their hands to answer a question rather than feeling embarrassed if they "get it wrong."

For students in a class to feel safe, they need to have a collaborative understanding of learning rather than a competitive interpretation. The focus of school is learning. We practice learning together as a community of people. When we learn, we help one another create meaning from personal experiences and new information outside our experiences. This means, ideally, that no one should make negative remarks when a student makes a mistake; rather, the student should be praised by peers and teachers for engaging in the material. A climate of genuine peer praise and encouragement does not always happen spontaneously, but clear guidelines at the start of a class and consistent follow-through by the teacher promote such a climate.

Safety in a theology class is especially important because of the inherently personal nature of faith and beliefs. In our school we have students from a variety of Christian traditions and a wide range of practicing and nonpracticing Catholics. Self-righteous attitudes can quickly surface when a person’s beliefs are challenged. I find it critical to allow students to respectfully share their stories and learn to listen to one another. If a student is shut down by another’s belief, no learning or faith growth can happen. This kind of emotionally and intellectually safe engagement is related to the second element in creating a climate of curiosity: a willingness to take risks (which will be addressed next week).

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Thomas
From Teaching Activities Manual for "Breakthrough! The Bible for Young Catholics"

Getting to Know the Story of Thomas
Seeing Thomas in Ourselves

In this activity, students examine the different ways that Thomas responds to Jesus and the Apostles in the Gospels and then reflect on ways that their own faith resembles Thomas’s faith.

Preparation
- Students need Bibles and pens or pencils.
- Make enough copies of Thomas-A, "It Sounds Famliar", so that each student can have one.

1. Point out that Thomas’s name appears only four times in the Gospels. Ask students to read the following passages aloud to the class:

- John 11: 1-16 (Thomas encourages disciples to accompany Jesus to Jerusalem)
- John 14: 1-14 (Thomas asks Jesus a question at the Last Supper)
- John 20: 19-25 (Thomas doubts Jesus’ Resurrection)
- John 20: 26-29 (Thomas makes an act of faith in Jesus)
- John 21: 1-14 (Thomas witnesses Jesus’ appearance at the Sea of Galilee)

Note that while Thomas appears infrequently, he is present at key moments. You might have your students read his lines exactly the way he may have said them – with eagerness, confusion, doubt, wonder.

2. Pass out Thomas-A, "It Sounds Famliar", to the students. In each quadrant, have the students write examples when they approach their own faith with these same attitudes. Ask the students, "In what ways does Thomas resembles all of us?"

Getting to Know Thomas
I Am the Way . . .
In this activity, students attempt to portray visually some of what Jesus shares with Thomas and the other Apostles at the Last Supper.

Preparation
- Provide poster board, card stock, or some sort of paper for students to draw on.
- Have markers, colored pencils, and watercolors on hand.
- If your students are technologically savvy and you have access to computers, you can invite them to use Microsoft PowerPoint or Windows Paint. Some of the possibilities on the computer might highlight the mystical quality of Jesus’ words.
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1. Read John 14:1–7 aloud to the class. Examine the passage verse by verse with the students because there is quite a bit of material in this short passage. (If the students express confusion, you can share that Thomas and Philip were perplexed as well!) Ask questions such as "What does it mean for Jesus to say that he is the way and the truth and the life?"

2. Ask students to take any of the phrases from these verses and to present them in some way visually. Both the words and other images should be in the visual presentation. Ask them to imagine that they are conveying the meaning of the words rather than just the words themselves.

3. Invite students to group together by the verses they choose and compare their portrayal. Then have the students share their work with the whole class.

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 30, 2011
Matthew 5:1-12a

Opening Prayer
You may use the following short prayer or the prayer on page 6 of the peer leader's guide, or any member of the group may want to pray in his or her own words.

Jesus, we are grateful to you for revealing to us the way to true happiness through the Beatitudes. Give us the determination to live as Beatitude people so that we can become Kingdom people, knowing that our ultimate happiness rests in seeing God face-to-face. Amen.

Context Connection
In this Sunday's Gospel, we have the account of Jesus teaching the crowd the Beatitudes. Because the Beatitudes are so familiar, sometimes we tend to read this passage quickly and to not reflect fully on the significance of Jesus's words.

Jesus proclaims the Beatitudes to the crowd, who represents everyone. Matthew wants us to know that Jesus's message is intended for more than just his small band of disciples. This passage is often referred to as the Sermon on the Mount because Jesus takes a position on the mountain: "[Jesus] went up the mountain" (5:1). Use of the word mountain presents us with a key piece of information. In the Scriptures, the mountain is frequently a privileged place for God's revelation. Matthew wants his readers to recognize that Jesus is the new Moses. Just as Moses brought the Ten Commandments down with him from the mountain of God, Jesus proclaims from the mountain the cornerstone commands of the New Testament. God's Word comes directly to us from Jesus and not through a mediator as with Moses. Jesus sits down with the crowd gathered around him on the ground; sitting was the position of all great teachers in the time of Jesus.

The literary structure of the Beatitudes is familiar to Jesus and can be found in the Book of Psalms. See the following Psalms: 1:1, 32:1-2, 41:1, 65:4, 84:4-5, 106:3, 112:1, and 128:1. Notice that the author of the Psalms used the word happy rather than blessed. Sometimes these words are used interchangeably in the Bible. Matthew adds to this literary form by referring to a future time for its fulfillment--at the coming of the Kingdom of heaven. Also present in Matthew's Beatitudes you will find a spiritual dimension as expressed through the phrases "poor in spirit" (5:3) and "hunger and thirst for righteousness" (5:6).

A reference for each of the Beatitudes can be found in the Old Testament. Therefore the Beatitudes become a fulfillment of the Old Testament. "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (5:3) and "Blessed are those who mourn" (5:4) can be found in Isaiah 61:1-3. "Blessed are the meek" (5:5) connects with Psalm 37:11. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness" (5:6) has a corollary to Psalm 107:5,8-9. "Blessed are the merciful" (5:7) has its background in Proverbs 14:21 and 17:5. "Blessed are the pure in heart" (5:8) is grounded in Psalm 24:3-4. "Blessed are the peacemakers" (5:9) is rooted in the whole Old Testament concept of shalom. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake" (5:10) relates back to Psalm 107:5,8-9.

Tradition Connection
The Beatitudes form the foundation of the teaching of Jesus and are proclaimed as the way of redemption for all people. Matthew presents this early on in his Gospel to build upon the significance of the Beatitudes: "The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus' preaching. They take up the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. The Beatitudes fulfill the promises by ordering them no longer merely to the possession of a territory, but to the Kingdom of heaven" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1716). At the core of the Beatitudes is Jesus's response to the deep human desire for happiness: "The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it" (Catechism, paragraph 1718). God alone is the one who can fulfill the human desire for happiness. Jesus, in his teaching, continuously provides for us the understanding of true happiness that is gained only when one depends completely on God. As our Creator, God has always wanted us to be happy: "God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us 'partakers of the divine nature' and of eternal life.1 With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ2 and into the joy of the Trinitarian life" (Catechism, paragraph 1721). Jesus understands that what humans seek is true happiness. Through the Beatitudes, Jesus gives us advice on how to reach that goal in our lives. The Beatitudes are a way of life, or a vocation, that brings those who live in this way into the Kingdom of heaven: "Desire for true happiness frees man from his immoderate attachment to the goods of this world so that he can find his fulfillment in the vision and beatitude of God. 'The promise [of seeing God] surpasses all beatitude. . . . In Scripture, to see is to possess. . . . Whoever sees God has obtained all the goods of which he can conceive'"3 (Catechism, paragraph 2548).

Wisdom Connection
The Sermon on the Mount begins with the Beatitudes, which are an announcement of a new order. In this new construct, God's love and justice are victorious over evil. Jesus wants his followers to know that God will make his presence known, and if they are Beatitude people they will be Kingdom people. The Kingdom of God is coming to those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are meek, those who have a hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who are merciful, those who are pure in heart, those who are peacemakers, and those who are persecuted because of Jesus's perspective of justice. As North Americans we expect that happiness belongs to those who are successful in life. The Beatitudes declare that this is not necessarily true. Happiness, or blessedness, comes from being totally dependent on God. Matthew tells us that when God is at the center of our lives, then happiness can come to anyone--even the marginalized, the poor, and the oppressed. In the Kingdom of God, the characteristics that are held up as blessed are meekness, mourning, righteousness, showing mercy, and suffering in pursuit of justice. The second reading for this Sunday, from Zephaniah (2:3, 3:12-13), summarizes what Jesus is asking of his followers, then and now--to seek righteousness and humility. In the Beatitudes, Jesus explains concretely what it means to be righteous and humble. As Christians today, we often look for security in economic and social status. Seeking our security in a comfortable bank account and in having the "right" friends. The Beatitudes are countercultural, for it is in what is weak and despised that redemption comes forth.

Acknowledgments
The scriptural quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition. Copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved. The quotations labeled Catechism are from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America. Copyright © 1994 by the United States Catholic Conference, Inc.--Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission. The Lord's Prayer is taken from Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers. Copyright © 1988 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved.

Endnotes cited in quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
1. 2 Peter 1:4; cf. John 17:3. 2. Cf. Romans 8:18. 3. St. Gregory of Nyssa, De beatitudinibus 6: J.P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Graeca (Paris: 1857-1866), 44, 1265A.

Saint Thomas Aquinas

January 28 is the memorial for Saint Thomas Aquinas.

A Doctor of the Church, Saint Thomas Aquinas is a wonderful model for the role of curiosity in learning. Born near Naples, Italy, he joined the mendicant Dominican friars in 1244 against the wishes of his family. He studied under Saint Albert the Great and was ordained in 1250. Over the course of his life, he taught in France and Italy and wrote numerous theological commentaries and reflections. His best known work, Summa Theologica, continues to influence the Church?s thinking and understanding of herself. Among other things, Saint Thomas Aquinas is the patron saint for schools, students, theologians, and universities.

For more information on Saint Thomas Aquinas, go to http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-thomas-aquinas/.