"How Do I Use..."

Organized by Topics

By Age
By Ministry

Topics

• Advent/Christmas
• Catholic Social Teaching
• Citizenship
• Cultural Diversity
• Death Penalty
• Discipleship
• Environment
• Eucharist
• Evangelization
• Hospitality
• Lent/Easter
• Liturgy of the Hours
• Mary
• Men's Ministry
• Migrants and Refugees
• Multiculturalism
• Peace
• Penance
• Penitence
• Prayer
• Pro-Life
• Rosary
• Social Justice
• Stations of the Cross
• Stewardship

How-to Suggestions

Advent/Christmas

• Plan how to implement the rites using Built of Living Stones all year round including during the seasons of Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter and especially regarding the use of art in the worship space.

Catholic Social Teaching

• Hang a copy of the poster Themes from Catholic Social Teaching in your school or classrooms during Lent and highlight one of the seven themes of Catholic social teaching during each of Lent.
• Distribute the cards Themes from Catholic Social Teaching to students and faculty members as reminders of the seven themes of Catholic social teaching.
• Send copies of the Themes from Catholic Social Teaching cards home with students and parents, and encourage them to read one principle each day of the week.
• Put a copy of the poster Themes from Catholic Social Teaching in the youth room of your parish.
• Select one theme from the poster Themes from Catholic Social Teaching which highlights the seven themes of Catholic social teaching and do a simple service project during the season of Advent or Lent.
• Read the principle and practice sections of Principles, Prophecy, and a Pastoral Response at the beginning of each class session. Lead a discussion using the questions in the back of the book or use the questions for journaling.

Citizenship

• Use the questions in Challenge of Faithful Citizenship to identify the top ten behaviors that a faithful citizen must have in order to bear witness to the Gospel in your community.

Cultural Diversity

• Study the brochure "Ideas for Schools, Religious Education, and Youth Programs" from the Welcoming the Stranger Parish Guide. Pick out one activity to do with your class within the next month.
• Read in Genesis about Abraham, the common patriarch of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Invite leaders of the Muslim, Jewish, and other Christian communities to speak to your class or school, and discuss the challenges of Welcoming the Stranger Among Us, especially when the "stranger" is our neighbor, friend, or colleague.
• Lead a discussion using the brochure Rejoicing in the Asian and Pacific Presence to identify how to better welcome Asian and Pacific Catholics in your community.

Top

Death Penalty

• Distribute copies of A Good Friday Appeal to End the Death Penalty in the parish bulletin or outside the worship space on Good Friday.

Discipleship

• Gather with the neophytes during the weeks of Easter and reflect on discipleship and the four calls of the laity using the text and questions in Called and Gifted for the Third Millennium.

Environment

• Plan how to implement the rites using Built of Living Stones all year round including during the seasons of Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter and especially regarding the use of art in the worship space.

Eucharist

• Use the fifteen questions in The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist as a starting point to learn more about the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist during the weeks immediately following Easter.
• Distribute copies of The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist to the catechumens and candidates as a basic resource on Catholic teaching.

Evangelization

• Revitalize your outreach ministry to inactive Catholics using the resources in A Time to Listen . . . A Time to Heal.

Hospitality

• Study the brochure "Ideas for Schools, Religious Education, and Youth Programs" from the Welcoming the Stranger Parish Guide. Pick out one activity to do with your class within the next month.
• Read in Genesis about Abraham, the common patriarch of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Invite leaders of the Muslim, Jewish, and other Christian communities to speak to your class or school, and discuss the challenges of Welcoming the Stranger Among Us, especially when the "stranger" is our neighbor, friend, or colleague.
• Lead a discussion using the brochure Rejoicing in the Asian and Pacific Presence to identify how to better welcome Asian and Pacific Catholics in your community.

Top

Lent/Easter

• Plan how to implement the rites using Built of Living Stones all year round including during the seasons of Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter and especially regarding the use of art in the worship space.
• Distribute A Litany of the Way prayer cards after Sunday liturgies during Lent.
• Schedule Night Prayer throughout Lent in your church or chapel.
• Include copies of Penitential Practices for Today's Catholics in the parish bulletin for the first Sunday of Lent.
• Create a link on your parish or school Internet site to Penitential Practices for Today's Catholics at www.usccb.org/dpp/penitential.htm to educate others on the Catholic practice of fasting.
• Discuss the reflections on the meaning of fasting and other spiritual disciplines in Penitential Practices for Today's Catholics with at a faculty or school board meeting at the beginning of Lent.

Liturgy of the Hours

• Schedule Night Prayer throughout Lent in your church or chapel.
• Teach the catechumens and candidates how to pray the Church's Liturgy of the Hours using Night Prayer.

Mary

• Teach students prayers and devotions to Mary during the month of May and Advent using the Book of Mary.
• Give copies of the Book of Mary to the homebound.

Top

Men's Ministry

• Start a men's ministry group using the format suggested in the final chapter of Hearing Christ's Call.
• Use the essays, "Men in Family Life," "Catholic Men as Disciples in the Workplace," and "Fathers, Sons, and Brothers: Catholic Men Transforming the World," from Hearing Christ's Call as sources of ongoing reflection on Christian discipleship during mystagogy.

Migrants and Refugees

• Study the brochure "Ideas for Schools, Religious Education, and Youth Programs" from the Welcoming the Stranger Parish Guide. Pick out one activity to do with your class within the next month.
• Read in Genesis about Abraham, the common patriarch of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Invite leaders of the Muslim, Jewish, and other Christian communities to speak to your class or school, and discuss the challenges of Welcoming the Stranger Among Us, especially when the "stranger" is our neighbor, friend, or colleague.

Multiculturalism
See Cultural Diversity
See Hospitality

Top

Peace

• Start or end the school day with the Prayer for Peace whenever there is an outbreak of violence in the local community.
• Create a quilt of pictures based on the themes of The Harvest of Justice Is Sown with Peace.
• Develop a song or skit that presents the main themes of The Harvest of Justice Is Sown with Peace and present it to your youth group or younger children in your school.
• Use the Prayer for Peace as a starting point for discussion about ways to work for peace in your school, parish, and community.
• Discuss the Church's teaching on war and peace using The Harvest of Justice Is Sown with Peace as the starting point for the conversation.
• Review the principles on peacemaking in The Harvest of Justice Is Sown with Peace. Identify ways in which your school, parish, youth group, and local community can be a peacemaking community.

Penance

• Include Celebrating the Sacrament of Penance: Questions and Answers in the bulletin before the parish communal reconciliation service this Lent
• Distribute Celebrating the Sacrament of Penance: Questions and Answers to catechists who are preparing young people for the Sacrament of Penance
• Use Celebrating the Sacrament of Penance: Questions and Answers with catechumens and candidates as they explore the Sacrament of Reconciliation

Penitence

• Distribute copies of Penitential Practices for Today's Catholics to parents of the children in religious education classes.
• Include copies of Penitential Practices for Today's Catholics in the parish bulletin for the first Sunday of Lent.
• Distribute copies of Penitential Practices for Today's Catholics to the catechumens and candidates as a basic resource on Catholic teaching.

Top

Prayer
See also Mary, Liturgy of the Hours, Stations of the Cross

• Pray one prayer each week from the Book of Mary during morning announcements.
• Use the prayer on page 19 of the Book of Mary as a way to pray for the welfare of the children or young people in your school.
• Invite the entire school to pray the Prayer for Peace on the first class day after January 1, the Feast of Mary, the Mother of God.
• Recite Prayer for Peace each morning at the end of announcements.
• Give copies of Prayer for Peace to every child or young person.
• Give copies of Night Prayer to your confirmation candidates.
• Select a scripture passage from Scripture Guide and a reflection from A Justice Prayer Book as part of prayer before dinner or bedtime.
• Distribute A Litany of the Way prayer cards after Sunday liturgies during Lent.
• Schedule Night Prayer throughout Lent in your church or chapel.
• Use the Christ-centered prayer A Litany of the Way as a closing prayer to your catechumenate sessions.
• Teach the catechumens and candidates how to pray the Church's Liturgy of the Hours using Night Prayer.
• Use Prayers for the Lenten and Easter Season to teach various prayers of Lent and Easter to elementary and middle school children.
• Use Prayers of the Lenten and Easter Season for personal prayer as well as a resource in the classroom.
• Start or end the May, October, or December faculty or school board meetings with one of the "Prayers in Honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary" or one of the litanies in the Book of Mary.
• Use one of the sessions from The Call to Family, Community, and Participation as the prayer starter for the Lenten faculty or school board meeting.
• Use Prayers of the Lenten and Easter Season for personal prayer as well as a resource for faculty meetings.
• Pray the Prayer for Peace at the beginning of a youth group meeting.

Pro-Life
See also Social Justice

• Hand out A Prayer for Life prayer cards as a part of a spring "Gift of Life" Mass or prayer service for the school.
• Recite A Prayer for Life each morning at the end of announcements.
• Give copies of A Prayer for Life to every child.
• Identify the ways in which you are called to build a culture of life as articulated in Living the Gospel of Life, especially in your local community.
• Go to the websites of the various organizations listed in the brochure A People of Life which highlights the bishops' teaching on the value of human life.

Top

Rosary

• Use On the Most Holy Rosary as a source of reflection for a women's or men's prayer group or a day of reflection.
• Lead the class in one decade of the rosary each morning during the third week of Advent from A Scriptural Rosary for Justice and Peace.
• Pray the joyful mysteries from A Scriptural Rosary for Justice and Peace and use it as a basis to discuss the most hopeful aspects of your school community. Submit an article about it to your local newspaper.
• Teach elementary school children the rosary using Unity in Diversity: A Scriptural Rosary.
• Use the joyful mysteries in Unity in Diversity: A Scriptural Rosary as a way to discuss how Mary and Joseph were treated as strangers on their journey.

Social Justice
See also Catholic Social Teaching, Death Penalty, Pro-Life

• Use Week 3 from Preferential Option for and With the Poor as a vehicle for assessing how your school is carrying out the biblical models of a community of justice.
• Review the bishops' statement In All Things Charity and identify one social concern that will become the focus of your group's attention and efforts.
• Host a discussion on what it means to act justly in our everyday lives in our families, at work, as consumers, and as citizens, based on the reflections of the U.S. bishops in Everyday Christianity.

Top

Stations of the Cross See also Lent/Easter

• Invite middle or high school students to lead the Way of the Cross on one of the Fridays in Lent.
• Use Way of the Cross as a resource to plan a weekly Stations of the Cross during Lent for the entire school or individual classes.

Stewardship

• Ask students to read To Be a Christian Steward, the summary that is included in Stewardship: A Disciple's Response. What does stewardship mean for someone their age? How can they live a life of good stewardship?
• Ask students to compose, as individuals or as a group, a sermon on stewardship. Which of Jesus' teachings would they use?

Top