After the hustle and bustle of December, we often dash into January feeling a little melancholic for the joy and celebration of December or a bit stressed because of all that stands ahead of us.
Within its 31 days, January has a clear and simple remedy to help us continue to lead our children and young people in their journey of faith during these short weeks of the Christmas season and Ordinary Time. We take our cue from the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God on January 1—peace.
We herald Mary as the Queen of Peace on that day as we pray for an end to war, strife, poverty, ignorance, anything that causes people to live in unrest. Here are some suggestions that use “Peace” as an acronym on how to extend that spirit throughout the month. PEACE: Prayer, Epiphany, Attitude, Conversion, and Evangelization.
Principals, begin and end each school day with the students praying for peace with the Prayer for Peace by Pope John Paul II.
Begin school board meetings with the Prayer for Peace by Pope John Paul II.
Epiphany
As a follow-up to the feast of the Epiphany, ask parents and teachers to identify when and where they have seen God active in their lives, especially in the school, their homes, and the local community, and to share those stories with their students.
Post images of the saints who are important to the school, parish, and local community, especially St. Elizabeth Ann Seton whose feast is celebrated on January 4.
Attitude
Create an atmosphere of peace by inviting parents at the next PTA/PTO meeting to take the Holy Father's Pledge for Peace. Invite them to do the same with their children.
Solicit from the parents ways in which together you can make the school a more peaceful environment. Bring those ideas to the next staff meeting, and encourage the staff to try to put one or two ideas into practice in their classrooms.
Review the physical, spiritual, intellectual, and emotional ways in which the school could be more welcoming to its students, teachers and staff, and members of the local community. Generate 2-3 tasks that individual classes or grades or the whole school can do throughout the rest of the year.
Review the Justice for Immigrants resources with your school board as you assess how well your school welcomes and provides for the needs of immigrants in your community.
Conversion
Lead a discussion with your school board members on how to resolve conflict peacefully using the insights you have found in your reading of Forgiveness in International Politics. As a group, evaluate and refine the process by which you resolve conflict in the school.
Evangelization
Assess the ways that your school shows the community that peace is an important value. Strategize on better and additional ways to communicate this.
Lead your students in the Novena for Justice and Peace during the first nine school days after they return from Christmas break.
Have your students bring in headlines from newspapers and magazines about people who do not experience peace. Post them on a bulletin board or make a large collage of them, then invite your students to write petitions based on their clippings. Pray these petitions using the response, "Lord, we pray for peace."
Reflect on Pope Benedict's first encyclical, God Is Love. Share your insights from the encyclical, then invite your students to write prayers addressed to "Loving God." Use one prayer each morning or afternoon during the month.
Teach your students the "Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary" in Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers. Using single sheets of colored construction paper, have each students draw and decorate a picture of one of the invocations to Mary. Then glue, take, staple, or sew all of the images into a "quilt" that can be hung in the classroom or education space.
Epiphany
Have small groups of 4 to 5 students do a creative reading or performance of the Gospel story of the Magi. Encourage them update the story. Remind them that everyone in the group needs to participate and have a role. Have the groups present their "plays," then talk with them about what it might have been like for the Magi to realize that they were looking at God. Lead them in a discussion of where they see God in their lives.
Share the story of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born American saint. Highlight the experiences in her life of where she saw and found God, especially in the Blessed Sacrament.
Attitude
Use the materials created by Migration and Refugee Services for National Migration Week, the first week in January. Using the general theme of welcoming and hospitality, do role plays with your students on how to be more welcoming people at home, in school, and in the community. Focus on simple behaviors like how to shake hands and how to listen when others are talking.
Plan a "reception" for a younger grade that includes treats and drinks. Have your students practice their hospitality skills with the younger children.
Conversion
Read the story of St. Paul's conversion in Acts 9:1-22. Highlight the how Paul had initially turned his back on God, but when we was healed from his blindness, then he could see God clearly. Using butcher block paper, poster boards, the black board, or sheets of construction paper, have your students draw a road. At the start of the road, have them write, "The day I was born." At the end of the road, have them write, "Today." Invite them to decorate their road with pictures and words that describe at least three times when they turned their back on God, their family, or their friends, and then how they made the situation or relationship better.
Highlight the Catechism's definition of the sacrament as a "Sacrament of Conversion." Ask your students for examples of what they do or say that makes it hard for them to see God.
Evangelization
Define "evangelization" in appropriate language for your students. Proclaim a favorite Gospel like the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son, and ask your students to identify ways that they can demonstrate the morals of the stories in their families and with their friends.
Create a "book of peace"—buy a nicely bound blank book or glue blank, white pages to colored construction paper. Invite everyone in the family to write down the names of people or places that need a prayer for peace. Include these names as petitions in your children's bedtime prayer.
Learn the Prayer for Peace by memory as a family or take turns reciting parts of the prayer at morning or evening prayers.
Epiphany
As you look through your family photo albums, share stories about how you recognized that the person in the picture was a child of God or helped you to learn something about who God is. Ask your children to name other people among their friends and neighbors who help them see a glimpse of who God is.
Read the biography of or watch a movie (e.g., A Time for Miracles) on St. Elizabeth Ann Seton with your children. Talk with them about how Mother Seton saw that God was present in her life.
Attitude
Review the questions and answers in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on peace—questions 480-482. Think of three ways in which you and your children can create a more peaceful household.
Walk through your house with your children, and name all of the things about your house that would tell a guest that they are welcome to be there. Think of one thing that you can change in your home so that it is more welcoming, e.g, keep the hallways picked up and clean or change the way you answer the phone.
Do an Internet search with your children on the word "conversion." Compare how the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines "conversion" with the way in which in the word is used on the Internet.
Evangelization
Make it a practice during the month of January to reread Sunday's Gospel with your children and review what the message of the Gospel is for you and your family.
Read your children stories from the Bible at bedtime during the month like the Parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son or the story of Noah, Abraham, or Moses.
"Forming Adult Faith" is a new feature of To Teach. It includes suggestions from the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults (USCCA) on how to promote ongoing faith formation among the adults in your school community.
Chapter 12. Mary: The Church’s First and Most Perfect Member
Chapter 18. Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation: God Is Rich in Mercy
Both individuals and groups—a full staff or a grade level gathering—can use the following suggestions. Most suggestions can be completed in 10-15 minutes.
In Chapter 2, read the sections on "God Reveals His Loving Plan to Save Us" and "The Gospel and Culture." Reflect on the quote from Pope Paul VI in On Evangelization in the Modern World (for full text) and how it applies to your family, parish, or school.
Set aside time during one week to read five parts of Chapter 11—the faith story of Fr. Junipero Serra, and the sections on each of the four marks of the Church. At the end of each day's reading, write down your responses to the three discussion questions. At the end of the week, what did you discover about your own sense of Catholic identity and how you are called to evangelize others?
Before reading chapter 12, jot down your answers to the discussion questions on pg. 147. Read the story of Juan Diego and the sections that follow. Looking at your initial responses to the discussion questions, what have you learned or what has struck you in a different way about your understanding of Mary? How might that impact how you pray and act?
Read and reread the meditation on the Magnificat from the Liturgy of the Hours on pp. 148-149 each day or each week. At the end of the week or month, how has Mary's prayer impacted you? How has it changed or informed the way in which you praise God?
Make an appointment in your calendar to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation during January. Prior to that day, read each section of Chapter 18, then respond to the first discussion question. Review the Act of Contrition on pg. 247 as you prepare for the sacrament.
"Compendium Corner" is also a new feature of To Teach. It provides a list of questions and answers in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that are related to this month’s topic. (The number before the question is the question number in the Compendium.)
Review the questions and answers in preparation for your class.
Consider how to use appropriate questions and answers as part of your lesson plan.
Develop learning activities that help the youths and young adults learn this information by heart (memorization).
480. What does the Lord ask of every person in regard to peace?
481. What is peace in this world?
482. What is required for earthly peace?
534. What is prayer? (and other questions that follow in that section)
This Issue
After the hustle and bustle of December, we often dash into January feeling a little melancholic for the joy and celebration of December or a bit stressed because of all that stands ahead of us.
