Saturday 7th grade Week 3 & 4 Review

Real life does have a way of foiling your plans…. My apologies for not sending an update last week, but I wanted to be sure to do so this week since I only had two students in class on Saturday. Over the last two weeks we have gone over chapters two and three in our book, and beginning our exploration of how God works through the church to educate and nurture His people. Chapter two dealt with revelation and the means by which God reveals Himself, namely Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Chapter three begins our look at salvation history by discussing creation. Creation is a good segue from revelation, because it is an example of natural revelation – the created universe and its order and ideal arrangement for human life, and also for supernatural revelation in the two creation accounts we find in Genesis.

The kids were able to read these accounts from the Bible on Saturday – we will go to the source as often as we can in class, although we ran out of time to finish with Adam and Eve. Since we had so few kids in attendance, we may pick up there on Saturday.

For this Saturday the kids are to read chapter 4, ‘God’s plan of Salvation’. Literally three pages to cover Abraham, Isaac and Joseph. I will pick a few places from the Bible to read from, and we’ll finish our creation discussion from last week.

Saturday 7th grade Week 2 Review

Week 2 was spent discussing revelation and faith, the first being God’s invitation to the truth, and the second being our response. This revelation does not need to be an angel appearing to someone with a divine message – it can be as simple as perceiving the Designer of the universe in the things He has created. The latter is called sometimes ‘natural revelation’, as opposed to ‘supernatural revelation’ such as God speaking to Abram or the appearance of angels or visions to prophets. I like to cite examples of ‘natural revelation’ – those things about ourselves and the universe that point to God’s providence and power.

A couple of good references I have found are:

• God: The Evidence, Patrick Glynn. He comes at the subject from several angles, including science, medicine and psychology. The most compelling examples are found in chapter 1, ‘A Not-So-Random Universe’.
• How Now Shall We Live? Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey. This is a book primarily about the subject of ‘worldview’, and Colson is obviously not a Catholic. His approach is more generically Christian. That notwithstanding, his treatment of the anthropic principle generally and the examples we see in nature are great, p.61-66.

One example of natural revelation would be the properties of water. It is the only substance that is less dense as a solid than as a liquid. This causes ice to float, rather than sink like one would expect. Floating ice allows fish and marine plants to survive the winter, keeping the food chain intact. There are tons of examples like this, which fuel the theory that the universe was created for a purpose – the existence of life, more specifically human life.

A big pitfall that people of faith fall into is the perception of science as an enemy of religion. Catholics are not as prone to this, but it seems to be prevalent among so called ‘Bible Christians’ – those Christians who take parts of the Bible literally, just different parts than we do. It’s important to me that the kids know that truth is everywhere, just waiting to be discovered, and it all points back to the Author of Truth. Science can and should help.

This week we will focus on the other type of revelation – ‘Divine Revelation’. Natural revelation can only get us so far – God needs more explicit means to guide us to our destiny. We will go over Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the teaching authority of the church. Stay tuned.

Dan Pesta

Saturday 7th grade Week 1 Review

I suspected that I would have fewer students this year due to the change in time – seven students were in class on Saturday, which is about half of what I would have gotten in previous years. Hopefully the Tuesday numbers make up the shortfall.

My favorite part of the class is getting to know the kids. I am not generally social, so my interaction in the parish is primarily with kids, either in CCD or the Drama Club. For you parents out there, you have a great deal to be proud of. They are truly a treasure.

Last Saturday was pretty much a review of some basics that will form the theme of our course of study this year – the work of grace through the church and in our lives. We went over the cardinal and the theological virtues, plus how grace works through sacraments.

I have gotten in the habit of starting class with the ‘Morning Offering’ – a prayer which states an intention to offer all thoughts, words and actions performed in the day to God. It makes a lot more sense to pray this at the beginning of the day than in the evening, but as no one had done it that day, we went ahead with it anyway. I will continue to do this, as I find the practice of bringing God closer to the present moment to be extremely valuable.

Homework for the class is always the same – read the chapter we will discuss in the upcoming class. This coming Saturday we will be going over chapter 1. Briefly, it will cover the concepts of revelation and faith. These concepts are related in the sense of an invitation, and the acceptance of that invitation. God ‘reveals’ something of himself, and our assent to that truth is what we call ‘faith’. The word itself comes from the Latin ‘revelatio’ which means an ‘unveiling’, which I find a particularly striking metaphor. We will cover these topics in depth, and also the prime modes of that revelation – Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, in class on Saturday...

7th Grade Saturday: A Few Preliminary Thoughts

This is Daniel Pesta, and I will be teaching the 7^th Grade Saturday evening CCD class this year. In the past, I have tried to keep parents updated via Email on what is going on in class, but with the introduction of the blog, I thought it might be a better medium. It eliminates manually opting in or out, for one thing. It also has a larger audience, but one that might not care so much about the goings on in 7^thgrade. I will be outlining the content of our course of study, and my own thoughts about it, which may or may not have value to that wider audience. I welcome your comments and suggestions, whether or not you are directly involved in this class.

This will be the seventh CCD class that I have taught at St. John’s, after teaching 5^th grade for five years and sixth grade for one. Every year I look forward to discussing religion with the new students. They invariably approach a subject in a way I hadn’t thought of before. And they are just great people. It is my great privilege to get to know them a little.

The class – Our focus will be defined with the Faith and Life Series book number 7, called “The Life of Grace”. Whereas fifth grade focused on the Holy Trinity, and sixth grade on the Ten Commandments, this book has grace as its theme, and how that grace works in our lives via the sacraments, and the gifts and the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

The ‘knowledge’ portion of CCD class is always the easiest to present and to measure. And if Christianity were a religion for smart people, we could all just learn our facts, take a test and go home. But it’s the ‘relational’ nature of Christianity that sets it apart. We discover our destiny in the relationships we have with other people and with God. God Himself IS a relationship. Over the past few years, I have struggled with how to emphasize this in class. One small way will be for the students to get to know each other a little. Most students in my fifth grade class did not know their classmates, even though they had been through the program with these same people for many years. I think this is valuable for the kids, and they seem to enjoy it.

I may not have time to write every week, but I will do my best to report on the previous class activities, and outline what will be accomplished the following week. This is also helpful if a student needs to miss a week, and you can also augment our course of study at home if you choose. Please feel free to leave a comment, or to contact me directly at towardus@comcast.net with any questions, comments or concerns.

First Day of Religious Education Classes

Religious Educations classes will resume in September. Dates are as follows:

Saturday Classes

September 11

Sunday Classes

September 12

Tuesday Classes

September 14

If you have not already done so, please register your child for Religious Education. Forms can be found in the gathering area of the church or printed from the Religious Education website.

Please follow the following guidelines to assure that your child receives his or her sacraments in a timely manner:

• All school-aged children in the parish must be registered for our Religious Education program, even if you are homeschooling for Religious Education.
• As of 2009, First Holy Communion and Confirmation classes are two-year programs. If your child is to receive one of these sacraments during the 2011-2012 school year, s/he must be registered in our program during the 2010-2011 school year.
• If your child is registering for 2nd or 8th grade this year, please turn in an copy of his/her baptismal certificate with your completed registration form.

SJTBRE Facebook Group

Facebook Users: Check out our new St. John the Baptist Religious Education Department Facebook group. To maintain privacy on Facebook, it is a closed group - a group administrator must approve your request to join.

To see the group's page and send a membership request, click here. To request membership, click the "Request to Join" button to the right of the group name.

The Purpose Of This Blog

This blog was set up to be a valuable, free resource to parents and students enrolled in the St. John the Baptist Religious Education Program. You may enter your email address in the space to the right and click "Subscribe" in order to receive an email whenever this blog is updated. Registration information, class schedules, cancellations due to weather, dates of required parent meetings, sacramental prep information, and more will be sent directly to your inbox.

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As always, you may address any comments, questions, or concerns to the Religious Education Department by emailing us at SJTBRE@gmail.com.