2023-24 Grade 8 Religious Education

Greetings everyone! In our most recent class, during our opening prayer time, we listened to the song, " To Jesus Christ, Our Sovereign King ", which is part of an album of music compiled for Pope Francis's 2015 apostolic journey to the USA. Toward the beginning of class, we spent time looking more closely at the words of the Lord's Prayer, by writing out all the words. For this week's activity at home, please display your writing of the Lord's Prayer in a place where you'll see it frequently throughout the week. To follow up from last week, we looked in our textbook at the roles that Saints Peter and Paul played in upholding the faith.  St. Peter was one of the original 12 apostles.  Upon professing faith in Christ, He bestowed on Him the authority to hand on His teachings, which is what the magisterium is, the Church's teaching authority.  The magisterium has been handed down through the centuries via the Pope and the Bishops, the successors of the a...

Greetings everyone! In our most recent class, we joined with the 7th grade class, and learned about two foundational figures of the Church, Saints Peter and Paul. In Ascension Church, this window shows Christ handing His authority to St. Peter, as shown by the keys. To the left of me is a statue of St. Paul in the Cathedral of St. Paul in Minnesota. At the start of class, everyone got an index card and wrote out a prayer intention and one thing for which they're grateful. I asked everyone to take that card home, keep it in a visible spot, and pray for that intention throughout the week. As a backdrop to our class learning, for our opening prayer, I played the English version of the 2023 World Youth Day song, " Feel the Rush in the Air ". WYD is an annual faith-focused youth/young adult event, with an international gathering in a different city that happens about every 3 years.  The 2023 event was in Lisbon, Portugal.  It was started by Pope St. John Paul II in the 1980s a...

Greetings everyone! It was great to gather for our first class session of the new RE year. After starting with a time of prayer in the Pine Room with all the classes, we went to our room. We spent time getting to know one another as began our time of swimming on the Ocean of God.  Even though God is sometimes hard to comprehend, as vast as the ocean, He reveals Himself to us so we can have a relationship with Him, which is like getting a floating device so we can swim in the ocean of God. I shared some photos from my summer as a means to illustrate how God is in all things, which is part of Ignatian spirituality. Here I am on the observatory level of the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, MN.  A statue with horses painted in gold appears to the left of me, and to the right is the Cathedral of St. Paul. As a closing prayer in class, we took time to reflect on our day using the Ignatian practice of the Examen.  Here's a link to a webpage that shows the steps of the exame...

Greetings everyone! Welcome to the new year of Religious Education at Ascension-St. Edmund Parish. I'm Paul Rubio, the Tuesday evening catechist for grade 8. I started teaching 10 years ago with a passion for sharing the abundant faith I had coming out of college, and I'm glad to be starting my 11th year of teaching. I grew up in Oak Park and attended local schools: I am Irving Class of 2002, Julian Class of 2005, and OPRFHS Class of 2009.  I attended the Ascension Religious Education program for grades 7 and 8, after my family had been part of the St. Giles Family Mass Community for several years. I have my MLIS degree from Dominican University, and I currently work behind the scenes at the Addison Public Library. We'll have the opportunity to learn more about our faith this year, and that includes me, because I'm working with a brand-new curriculum. As we begin, I want to establish a few guidelines for class: This website will contain information about what we do in c...