How to teach Catholic Traditions to youth?

[adawgj]

I’m now a young adult volunteer catechist for jr high and high school students at my parish and while I don’t teach yet. I am part of the leadership. I think the youth program is good, I feel like the teaching is way too elementary and could use some more advanced level material.

What I mean by elementary is we read a Bible verse and talk about it with some sort of moral point. Since I was a former youth group member I know that the verse and discussion will be forgotten by the next day.

In my opinion the program could do better than that., so I think there could be better ways than reading forgettable Bible verses.

Any suggestions?

 

[Marie5890]

I’ll be honest, I think that having the youth far more educated to the Bible is far more important that many Catholic (small t) traditions.

Especially the Gospels.

My suggestion to you is to find way to help the youth understand the value and the use of those “forgettable Bible verses”

Help them to see the wisdom that is found in the Bible by helping them see the value of it in today’s culture.

Have any youth feeling really alone? going thru a really hard time? friends abandoning them?
Jesus knows ALL about that. Then open to the agony in Gethsemane and show them He knows what they are going thru.

See?

I see your challenge as being showing them just how revelant the Bible is to their lives. It may help you if you read the scriptures and see how relevant it is in your life first though. You cant teach what you dont know, what you havent experienced

Good luck and God Bless

 

[Brianmcg321]

I had always wished when I was younger in CCD was a detailed explanation of the Mass. Not just one or two classes. But how did the Mass start, why do we do the things we do in Mass, history, etc.

In high school I memorized facts about a new saint every day and I couldn’t tell you anything about any of them now.

 

[Miserissima]

Assignments. Carry over the lesson from the previous week. This also can involve the whole family!

Keep it simple. Each child gets a ditto sheet:

Date:
Topic:
What I Did:

For example:

Date: 9/17/14
Topic: kindness
What I Did: I let my sister have the last cookie.

Then the next week, follow up and have a different child share what he or she did. A small reward from a “prize box” would help. Things in the box could include cheap rosaries, holy cards, sacrifice beads, small plastic status, etc.

(Be sure to keep a list so each child gets to draw a prize per week.)

 

[adawgj]

I’ll be honest, I think that having the youth far more educated to the Bible is far more important that many Catholic (small t) traditions.

Especially the Gospels.

My suggestion to you is to find way to help the youth understand the value and the use of those “forgettable Bible verses”

Help them to see the wisdom that is found in the Bible by helping them see the value of it in today’s culture.

Have any youth feeling really alone? going thru a really hard time? friends abandoning them?
Jesus knows ALL about that. Then open to the agony in Gethsemane and show them He knows what they are going thru.

See?

I see your challenge as being showing them just how revelant the Bible is to their lives. It may help you if you read the scriptures and see how relevant it is in your life first though. You cant teach what you dont know, what you havent experienced

Good luck and God Bless

The problem isn’t learning the Bible it’s remembering what it’s saying. By the next day nobody in the class will remember what Galatians 1:2 says. Even I as the teacher forget what it’s saying. I have no idea what’s going on in the verse most of the time.

 

[pianistclare]

The problem isn’t learning the Bible it’s remembering what it’s saying. By the next day nobody in the class will remember what Galatians 1:2 says. Even I as the teacher forget what it’s saying. I have no idea what’s going on in the verse most of the time.

Knowing which Bible verse is which and from what book is not a salvation point. St. Peter isn’t gonna grill you.
You have to make the Scripture come alive by applying it to their lives.
Same with the commandments. Surely none of your kids are going to kill someone, but you can kill someone’s dreams and spirit, no? You can laugh when they tell you about their aspirations…whether it be the cheerleading squad or med school.
There’s lots of ways that you can apply bullying and cyber stalking to what Jesus encountered from the Pharisees and those who would persecute the poor. We certainly treat some people like lepers in our society no?
We know plenty of people who are hungry, as in the man who people stepped over, and those who gave to the dogs but left people starving. What is our response to people who are hungry? What is our response to children who have little, or are alone, unattended because their parents have to work?
Pick a social problem…use the Scripture to illustrate what our response should be.
Plan community service to go with the lesson. Women’s shelters. Soup kitchens. Nursing homes. Spending time with disabled children.
Think! Act! Pray!

 

[johnnyc176]

Any good Catholic Bible study will include references to the Catechism and vice versa. In your age group that would be the YouCat.

 

[adawgj]

Knowing which Bible verse is which and from what book is not a salvation point. St. Peter isn’t gonna grill you.
You have to make the Scripture come alive by applying it to their lives.
Same with the commandments. Surely none of your kids are going to kill someone, but you can kill someone’s dreams and spirit, no? You can laugh when they tell you about their aspirations…whether it be the cheerleading squad or med school.
There’s lots of ways that you can apply bullying and cyber stalking to what Jesus encountered from the Pharisees and those who would persecute the poor. We certainly treat some people like lepers in our society no?
We know plenty of people who are hungry, as in the man who people stepped over, and those who gave to the dogs but left people starving. What is our response to people who are hungry? What is our response to children who have little, or are alone, unattended because their parents have to work?
Pick a social problem…use the Scripture to illustrate what our response should be.
Plan community service to go with the lesson. Women’s shelters. Soup kitchens. Nursing homes. Spending time with disabled children.
Think! Act! Pray!

Those are some good ideas and we try to do that at our parish. I guess I get annoyed when some of the people at the high school level, don’t know how to pray the rosary or know what a scapular is or why the Virgin Mary is important etc. etc.

 

[johnnyc176]

Those are some good ideas and we try to do that at our parish. I guess I get annoyed when some of the people at the high school level, don’t know how to pray the rosary or know what a scapular is or why the Virgin Mary is important etc. etc.

That is unfortunate. Looks like a case of teaching the teacher. It sounds like a protestants Bible study…what does this verse say to you…I thought the idea was to teach these kids the Faith?

 

[Miserissima]

OP,

You have your work cut out for you.

Happy feast day of my elder son’s patron, Robert Bellarmine – patron of:

(drumroll please)

catechists!

 

[myway]

The problem isn’t learning the Bible it’s remembering what it’s saying. By the next day nobody in the class will remember what Galatians 1:2 says. Even I as the teacher forget what it’s saying. I have no idea what’s going on in the verse most of the time.

Co-Workers for truth is an excellent website for you. You type in a bible verse and it will show you a paragraph from the Catechism. They are always faithful to the Catholic’s teachings. It only shows verses that are in the Catechism. coworkersoftruth.com/bible-study/

 

[HelenRose]

I’m now a young adult volunteer catechist for jr high and high school students at my parish and while I don’t teach yet. I am part of the leadership. I think the youth program is good, I feel like the teaching is way too elementary and could use some more advanced level material.

What I mean by elementary is we read a Bible verse and talk about it with some sort of moral point. Since I was a former youth group member I know that the verse and discussion will be forgotten by the next day.

In my opinion the program could do better than that., so I think there could be better ways than reading forgettable Bible verses.

Any suggestions?

Pray the Rosary one decade each Sunday during Religious Education. We do this with our first through sixth grade children before they go to their separate classes. We sit in a circle and have one of the children read the story of a Mystery, we study and talk about the mystery and have each of the children lead one Hail Mary. The older kids help the younger kids hold the beads and help them with the prayers. In the fall we pray the Luminous Mysteries, winter we pray the Joyous Mysteries, Lent we pray the Sorrowful Mysteries and in the spring the Glorious Mysteries. This takes about 10 or 15 minutes before class.

It would surprise you how seriously the children take this. We invite their parents to join in the prayer with the children. Sometimes they do. By the time they are in seventh grade they know and love the Rosary. The Rosary is the best way to learn about the life of Jesus. The Rosary tells the whole story in loving and beautiful stories.

 

[HelenRose]

That is unfortunate. Looks like a case of teaching the teacher. It sounds like a protestants Bible study…what does this verse say to you…I thought the idea was to teach these kids the Faith?

The first educator is the parent. It does not matter how wonderful a RE teacher is if there is little or no support from the parents.

I love my RE kids. But sometimes I often feel like I am providing free day care while the parents go have breakfast. It is important to realize that ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of the Faith. It is extremely important that children know the Bible because they will be challenged by a well educated Protestants who will use the Bible to “prove” that the Catholic Church is wrong. The more children understand the Bible from the true interpretation as the Church teaches, the better prepared the child will be.

 

[Cat]

The best way to teach children and young people the faith is to live it in your life and let them see you living it.

You’re right–they won’t remember much that you teach them. Even teaching them the traditions like the Rosary, etc.-- unless they do it regularly, they will forget.

But they will NEVER forget YOU.

Do things with them outside of class–field trips to museums, churches, graveyards, McDonalds, sports events (cheap). Make sure, for your safety, to have parents along with you on these field trips–adult lives have been ruined by accusations of sexual impropriety. Don’t be naïve–bring parents to be witnesses of your innocence.

If you can have a party for the young people at your house or apartment, that’s ideal. Then the kids can see how you actually live in day to day life.

I’m serious, they will never, ever forget this. When I was a teenager, I worked in VBS, and became a special role model to a little 5-year old. She is grown up now, and still refers to me as “Mickey,” which was my nickname that summer because of a Mickey Mouse hat that I wore. She’s a fine Christian woman with great kids.

So that works both ways. If you have bad habits or any sins that are likely to become public (e.g., drunkenness), oh, yes, the kids will see you or at least hear about you, and their belief in their faith will forever be compromised if not crushed. You’d be amazed at how much kids learn about their teacher.

So live out your faith boldly and be excited for the Lord and His Church! Let the kids see Jesus in you.

If you regularly practice certain Catholic traditions, then go ahead and teach the kids. If you have earned their trust and gotten them excited about Catholicism by living out your faith, they will be very likely to imitate you.

Even if you don’t regularly practice various traditions, I still think it’s worthwhile to teach them. I think it would be more valuable to prepare some kind of visual handout for them and make it age-appropriate. If you could create it on the computer and then email it to them, it’s more likely to actually make it home and stick around .The kids who learn through hearing will probably toss it right away. But those kids like me who learn through reading will be likely to keep your handout or email for years, and it will help them not to forget.

As for the Bible study, I agree with several other posters. It is very very important for Catholic kids to know their Bible backwards and forwards, as Protestant Christian kids WILL know that Bible and WILL challenge them, and they will cave if they can’t even find the verse that the Protestant is referring to.

I also think that reading a verse and discussing it is pretty lame.

Can you not find a good textbook/curricula that is age-appropriate for the group that you are teaching? Does Jeff Cavins have a Great Adventure book/DVD that is appropriate for your age group? His regular Great Adventure is appropriate for teenagers, but I think it’s a little advanced for children. Check him out–this material is awesome, and I’m speaking as an ex-Evangelical Protestant who found it helpful.

Godspeed to you. Remember, LIVE it, don’t just talk about it.

 

[pianistclare]

This is terrible advice.
If you did this in my Archdiocese you would be fired and banned from working with youth.
You MAY NOT have kids from your parish to your home. You must have medical forms on each student, you must have liability forms that waive liability from the parish signed on file (and taken with you) to each event, you must have a good ratio of adults to teens or pre-teens. Your DRE will have all this data, and rules in his or her office. Before you decide to do anything everything needs to be cleared and vetted through them.
Becoming more involved is great, and you should present yourself to the DRE with your ideas and have that person discern what will fly, what the parish has a budget for, and what you can actually pull off. Some parishes take their kids on trips like Catholic Heart WorkCamp, but that requires a lot of fundraising, rental vehicles, supplemental policies from the Diocesan insurance carrier, (like Catholic Mutual), etc. you get the picture. We do it every year, but that’s only a one week thing in the summer. The rest of the year we do service closer to home, in the metro area. There are probably many poor who need your help, grass cut or leaves raked for the elderly, etc.
There’s plenty you can do (like what I previously suggested that only requires some vetted drivers, and a couple of permission forms.
Absent the DRE, you have to ask the Pastor what he wants you to do. If you have a gift for working with youth, he will delighted with your enthusiasm.

 

[Cat]

This is terrible advice.
If you did this in my Archdiocese you would be fired and banned from working with youth.
You MAY NOT have kids from your parish to your home. You must have medical forms on each student, you must have liability forms that waive liability from the parish signed on file (and taken with you) to each event, you must have a good ratio of adults to teens or pre-teens. Your DRE will have all this data, and rules in his or her office. Before you decide to do anything everything needs to be cleared and vetted through them.
Becoming more involved is great, and you should present yourself to the DRE with your ideas and have that person discern what will fly, what the parish has a budget for, and what you can actually pull off. Some parishes take their kids on trips like Catholic Heart WorkCamp, but that requires a lot of fundraising, rental vehicles, supplemental policies from the Diocesan insurance carrier, (like Catholic Mutual), etc. you get the picture. We do it every year, but that’s only a one week thing in the summer. The rest of the year we do service closer to home, in the metro area. There are probably many poor who need your help, grass cut or leaves raked for the elderly, etc.
There’s plenty you can do (like what I previously suggested that only requires some vetted drivers, and a couple of permission forms.
Absent the DRE, you have to ask the Pastor what he wants you to do. If you have a gift for working with youth, he will delighted with your enthusiasm.

Terrible advice? It worked extremely well in all the Protestant churches that I was involved with for 47 years. Gerenally speaking, Evangelical Protestant churches have large and thriving children’s and youth programs, and many of them would use the same approach that I outlined.

I agree that any activities done during the teaching time need to be cleared with the DRE.

I’m not talking about the teaching time. I’m talking about during the rest of the week.

In our parish, the children’s choir director has parties at her house several times a year for her choir members. I don’t know of any hoops that she has to jump through to do this. No one can forbid anyone to have a party.

One of the biggest weaknesses of Catholic churches in the U.S. is the failure to retain the young people. Once they are confirmed, many of them are out of there. Almost every Catholic I know has a grown child who hasn’t darkened the doors of the Church in years. Perhaps my “terrible idea” should be looked at with more open minds.

 

[pianistclare]

Terrible advice? It worked extremely well in all the Protestant churches that I was involved with for 47 years. Gerenally speaking, Evangelical Protestant churches have large and thriving children’s and youth programs, and many of them would use the same approach that I outlined.

I agree that any activities done during the teaching time need to be cleared with the DRE.

I’m not talking about the teaching time. I’m talking about during the rest of the week.

In our parish, the children’s choir director has parties at her house several times a year for her choir members. I don’t know of any hoops that she has to jump through to do this. No one can forbid anyone to have a party.

One of the biggest weaknesses of Catholic churches in the U.S. is the failure to retain the young people. Once they are confirmed, many of them are out of there. Almost every Catholic I know has a grown child who hasn’t darkened the doors of the Church in years. Perhaps my “terrible idea” should be looked at with more open minds.

You can justify it all you want to. But the Catholic Church has a responsibility to protect it’s children. That’s where we find ourselves in this day and age.
You cannot advise someone to break go against what Bishops want for their flock no matter how fun, worthy, or harmless it appears to be. We cannot afford too many more lawsuits against the church, the clergy or its employees.
It is bad advice.
The Protestant church have she same problems, don’t kid yourself.
The Catholic church is going to do as the Catholic church should with regard to protecting children. It matters not what other denoms do. We have to do things correctly, with safeguards in place. Same thing applies to Scouts and other organizations. Surely you know this.

 

[HelenRose]

You can justify it all you want to. But the Catholic Church has a responsibility to protect it’s children. That’s where we find ourselves in this day and age.
You cannot advise someone to break go against what Bishops want for their flock no matter how fun, worthy, or harmless it appears to be. We cannot afford too many more lawsuits against the church, the clergy or its employees.
It is bad advice.
The Protestant church have she same problems, don’t kid yourself.
The Catholic church is going to do as the Catholic church should with regard to protecting children. It matters not what other denoms do. We have to do things correctly, with safeguards in place. Same thing applies to Scouts and other organizations. Surely you know this.

There might have been a better way to approach this problem without coming across so angry. I am sure you are not angry but like me you instinctively feel concern for the youth director’s position.

Unfortunately what you say is true. There is great danger for a youth director to invite children to his or her home. Not only is there danger for children if this were an allowable practice, a youth director opens himself or herself for lawsuits if anything goes wrong within their home. Because of the scandals concerning child abuse within the Catholic Church, Cardinals and Bishops are implementing many strong guidelines and rules to protect both youth leaders and children in their care.

Protestant Churches are becoming aware of the problem as well. There are, sadly, youth leaders who will take advantage of children and unless there are well defined guidelines to follow children can be exploited.

Even if there is nothing untoward is happening and a youth leader is the wisest and most holy of people, if someone was hurt, fell down, broke a leg, they would be liable for damages. Church’s, both Protestant and Catholic, have insurance and procedures in place to handle such a situation.

 

[pianistclare]

There might have been a better way to approach this problem without coming across so angry. I am sure you are not angry but like me you instinctively feel concern for the youth director’s position.

Unfortunately what you say is true. There is great danger for a youth director to invite children to his or her home. Not only is there danger for children if this were an allowable practice, a youth director opens himself or herself for lawsuits if anything goes wrong within their home. Because of the scandals concerning child abuse within the Catholic Church, Cardinals and Bishops are implementing many strong guidelines and rules to protect both youth leaders and children in their care.

Protestant Churches are becoming aware of the problem as well. There are, sadly, youth leaders who will take advantage of children and unless there are well defined guidelines to follow children can be exploited.

Even if there is nothing untoward is happening and a youth leader is the wisest and most holy of people, if someone was hurt, fell down, broke a leg, they would be liable for damages. Church’s, both Protestant and Catholic, have insurance and procedures in place to handle such a situation.

I, a DRE, would not be able to sleep in good conscience it I had not posted the way I did.
People come up with all kinds of “ideas” with no regard for the implications.
The welfare of the children demands it. Think of all the abuse that would have been prevented if people had not had the blind trust they did. We’re not all pedophiles. But the good people of the ministry have to protect themselves. I’ve seen priests who were falsely accused simply destroyed, never to be permitted to work in a parish or a school again. Good intentions don’t go a long way in court.
Sad, but that’s the way it is.
I feel like we’re on the same page.

 

[HelenRose]

I, a DRE, would not be able to sleep in good conscience it I had not posted the way I did.
People come up with all kinds of “ideas” with no regard for the implications.
The welfare of the children demands it. Think of all the abuse that would have been prevented if people had not had the blind trust they did. We’re not all pedophiles. But the good people of the ministry have to protect themselves. I’ve seen priests who were falsely accused simply destroyed, never to be permitted to work in a parish or a school again. Good intentions don’t go a long way in court.
Sad, but that’s the way it is.
I feel like we’re on the same page.

I know what you feel. A strong message must be made but an explanation for those who are unaware of the problems is important to.

I was raised in a Protestant church. The youth leader was one of the kindest most wonderful of men. We were often in his and his wife’s home. It is a hard fact of life that this can not be a practice in either Catholic Churches or Protestant Churches any more.

Kindness and understanding in making a strong statement can go hand in hand.