2023-24 Grade 8 Religious Education

Greetings everyone! December 12 is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, she was our focus during this class session. As our opening prayer, I played a traditional song for this Feast, Las Apariciones de Guadalupana.  This video plays the song in Spanish with an English translation included. I shared some Mexican pan dulce as a treat. We viewed this St. Paul Center video that tells the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe. And we watched this Knight of Columbus mini-documentary that connects Our Lady of Guadalupe with the Eucharist. San Juan Diego was the first person to encounter her aparitions, and he proclaimed the message she shared. Another important herald of Christ was St. John the Baptist.  We looked at these passages from the Gospels: Matthew 3:1-12 Mark 1:1-8 Luke 3:1-20 John 1:15-28 For our class on December 19, we are going to have a special Advent/Christmas Prayer liturgy, and parents, you're welcome to join us.  All 8th grade families are asked to bring a pack of ju...

Advent Greetings! We began a new liturgical year with the start of Advent on Sunday, December 3. Advent Wreath lit for the First Sunday of Advent at the Guardian Angel Cathedral in Las Vegas, NV During this class, we focused more on what Advent is about: We wait for the celebration of Christ's first coming at His birth in Bethlehem, for His second coming at the End of Time, and to welcome Him into our hearts each day. We began class with the song " Even So, Come ". We did two activities during class to explore themes of Advent. There are four candles on the Advent wreath, one for each of the four Sundays before Christmas/Nativity Day.  One interpretation is that the first candle represents hope, the second candle represents peace, the third candle represents joy, and the fourth candle represents love. We spent time pondering how Christ can bring us hope, peace, joy, and love. Our second activity was focused on the Jesse Tree, which uses Bible passages and images that tel...

Greetings everyone! The end of November and the beginning of December bring so many important occasions. The final Sunday of November was the last Sunday of the liturgical year, when we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Christ the King Parish in Las Vegas, NV There is a rose window in the back of Ascension Church depicting Christ the King. While many assert earthly power, Christ possesses the true Kingly power because He came to Earth and is our Savior, Whose Kingdom will be fully established at the End of Time. The End of Time is an important theme of Advent, which begins on Sunday, December 3, 2023.  Here's a link to the Busted Halo video that summarized Advent in 2 minutes. The Eucharist comes from a Greek word that means Thanksgiving, and it was only appropriate just days after our Thanksgiving Day holiday to focus on the Eucharist in class. We watched this video narrated by Bishop Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix, AZ. Presidents Washingt...

Greetings everyone! Our most recent class was on November 14, the day after St. Augustine's birthday. For our opening prayer, we viewed this video of " A Rightful Place ", by Steve Angrisano, and its refrain has words based on a St. Augustine quotation: "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee." Then, we all created hand turkeys as a way to think about what we're grateful for as we approach Thanksgiving Day. In our textbook, we looked at Pope St. Gregory I.  He established many important doctrines and the format of liturgy, including the Mass, for how we worship God. Then, we listened to the following two songs and wrote words from them that stood out to us: " O God You Search me and You Know me ", based on Psalm 139, and also " In Christ Alone ". And then we learned more about St. Benedict, who established monastic communities and a Rule for them, a set of principles for how the members are to live in them. We finished class wit...

Greetings everyone! In our most recent class, we looked at ways that we can find our identity in faith and continue growing in it. For our opening prayer, we viewed this video of the song "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", sung by Josh Groban, which is often played at weddings. The first part of our class focused on the Eucharist.  We watched this video on the Breaking in Habit YouTube Channel.  Father Casey has a conversation about the Eucharist with five people of different backgrounds and ages about what it means to them.  It was a great opportunity to not just hear someone talk at us about the Eucharist, but learn from a variety of perspectives. In the second part of class, we focused on the Creed, our statement of beliefs, which is a basis for our identity as they help us know Who God is, Who Jesus is, and Who the Holy Spirit is, along with some statements about the Church.  The statements in the creed, along with other important beliefs, resulted from various co...

Greetings everyone! During our most recent class, the vast majority of our time was spent viewing the documentary Enduring Faith .  It was produced by the Knights of Columbus and focuses on Native American Roman Catholics in North America, mostly in the USA. Our opening prayer was an extended quotation attributed to St. Teresa of Avila, " Christ has no body now but yours ". The closing prayer was from the 1st reading for All Saints' Day Mass, from Revelation 7:9-12.  As we learned about the practice of Roman Catholicism among Native Americans, we see that the Church has expanded to include people from many ethnicities, as this passage of Scripture describes. We are off from class on October 31.  However, we have the opportunity to attend Mass on November 1, which is a Holy Day of Obligation.  Masses at Ascension are at 8:15 AM and 7 PM.  We celebrate the many holy people who have lived lives of faith before us, and remind us of our call to holiness. The activity...

Greetings everyone! During our most recent class, we focused on the three initiation sacraments, Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation.  While in the early church, those who joined received all three at once, many Roman Catholics today receive them staggered over the course of several years in their young lives. I was glad to share the celebration of the 18th anniversary of my Confirmation with you in class, and it seems that you enjoyed the carrot/strawberry bread. For our opening prayer, I played the 2008 World Youth Day theme song, " Receive the Power ". In our class book, we reflected on the meaning of our baptismal promises and then we all dipped our fingers into a small jar of Holy Water to bless ourselves.  A similar reflection is available from Creighton University at this link . Confirmation includes an anointing by oil to seal us in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  And it includes the laying on of hands, an ancient gesture that calls upon the Holy Spirit, as we see...