Announcements:
Play: What not
to do in Mass video
Participate in the Giving Tree, Bring Gifts by Noon
December 22
December 1
– The first day of Advent and our Liturgical New Year (We’re in cycle A now so
we hear from the Gospel of Matthew)
Advent Key tags, please distribute the Advent key tags.
We hope they are a reminder to watch, wait and pray during the holy season of
Advent.
SOS Faith based support group
for high school, Wednesday, December 4, 6 PM, Youth Room
Breakfast with St. Nick, Dec 7 – teens needed to help as Elves at the breakfast. They
can sign up in the office.
Mission
Trip Meeting, Tuesday, December 10, 7:30 PM, Bishop Hall
Word of the Week:
Immaculate Conception – Mary was born without
original sin.
Background
The Immaculate Conception is a Catholic dogma
that asserts that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was preserved by God from the
stain of original sin at the time of her own conception. The Immaculate
Conception was solemnly defined as a dogma, by Pope Pius IX in his constitution
Ineffabilis Deus, published December 8, 1854 (the Feast of the Immaculate
Conception), and consecrated by Pope Pius XII in 1942.The Catholic Church
believes the dogma is supported by scripture (e.g. her being greeted by Angel Gabriel
as "full of Grace"), as well as either directly or indirectly by the
writings of many of the Church Fathers, and often calls Mary the Blessed Virgin
(Luke 1:48). Catholic theology maintains that since Jesus became incarnate of
the Virgin Mary, she needed to be completely free of sin to bear the Son of
God, and that Mary is "redeemed 'by the grace of Christ’ but in a more
perfect manner than other human beings."
Teaching Ideas
Discuss the meaning of the 2 words: Immaculate—pure,
clean and Conception—from the beginning of her life, Teach that the Immaculate
Conception is about Mary. (Many call it the Immaculate Misconception because so
many people think it is when Mary conceived Jesus… it is when Mary was
conceived.) For older children—this is one of the two infallible teachings in
the history of the Papacy. (The other is the dogma of the Assumption of Mary)
Review:
NCYC
Thanksgiving – what was your favorite part/memory from
Thanksgiving?
A wonderful puppy takeover of class!
Ch. 7 – Love of
God
I.
God
is Love
a. Do
you read the Bible? If so, how often? If not, why not?
b. Why
should we read the Bible?
Beloved:
Remain
faithful to what you have learned and believed,
because
you know from whom you learned it,
and
that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures,
which
are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation
through
faith in Christ Jesus.
All
Scripture is inspired by God
and
is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction,
and
for training in righteousness,
so
that one who belongs to God may be competent,
equipped
for every good work.
I
charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
who
will judge the living and the dead,
and
by his appearing and his kingly power:
proclaim
the word;
be
persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient;
convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and
teaching.
a. The
Bible is a love letter. What does this mean? How do we know that?
b. What
types of books are in the Bible?
II.
How
is the Bible Structured?
a. Old
Testament
i. Activity:
count the number of books (first person who gets the number correct gets some
candy)
ii. What
were some common names of the books? Is there a trend that we can draw?
iii. When
do we hear from the OT?
iv. 46
books in 4 categories (page 20 in How Do
Catholics Read the Bible?)
b. New Testament
i. Activity:
count the number of books (First person who gets the number correct gets some
candy)
ii. What
is common about the naming of the books?
iii. How
is the NT structured?
iv. When
do we hear from the NT?
v. NT:
year 382 AD at the Council of Rome. Thessalonians 2:15 “So, then, brethren,
stand firm and hold on to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by
word of mouth or by letter.”
vi. Matthew
28:19 – Bible proceeds from the teaching authority of the Church
vii. Tradition
and Scripture (both ways to reveal God’s love)
viii.
Page 20-21 in How Do Catholics Read the Bible?
III.
Using
the Bible
a. Pray
for the guidance of the Holy Spirit before reading
b. Matthew
4:18-22:
18 As he was walking by the
Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother
Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
21 He walked
along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his
brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their
nets. He called them,
22 and
immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.
c. Lectio
Divina
i. Read
1. Read
the passage a few times. Have everyone look it up, follow along, and ask
multiple people to read the passage. Have everyone pick out a word or statement
that stands out to them.
ii. Meditate
1. As
a group, discuss the word or statement that stands out. Why do you think that
stand out? How does that relate to you today?
iii. Pray
1. As
a group, pray for greater understanding.
iv. Contemplate
1. Close
your eyes and review the passage, word, prayer, etc. Think quietly and think
about what God is trying to tell you individually.
IV.
Virtues:
Faith, Hope and Charity
b. Faith
questions: (p 141 in the book)
i. “We
cannot grasp these realities with our sense. Accepting the existence of any of
them requires faith. The virtue of faith allows us to hear with our heart and
to see with our soul. If you responded “yes” to any of these, you have some
faith.”
ii. Faith
empowers us to say “yes” to God.
c. Hope
i. Gives
us confidence that God will keep His promises
1. What
is His promise? Eternal happiness in Heaven
V.
Activity: Hope Floats
a. The
rocks represent our stresses, our worries, things that are weighing us
down. Go around the room and drop a rock
into the bowl for your stresses/worries. The feathers represent our hopes - the
chance that God will keep His promises. Think about the positive things in your
life, once we finish the stresses/worries, we’ll go around in a circle and drop
our ‘hopes’ into the bowl.
VI.
Charity
a. We’ll
cover this one next time…
VII.
Closing
Prayer
Additional Resources:
Chapter Links:
Bible Reading Links:
Good Book to Help as You Read the Bible:
You Can Understand The Bible - By, Peter Kreeft
How Do Catholics Read the Bible? - By, Daniel J. Harrington S.J.
Other:
(more may be added with time, also feel free to comment with any good links you may have!)
