This Issue

• Renewing Hope
• For Principals and School Boards
• For Educators
• For Parents
• Forming Adult Faith
• Compendium Corner

Renewing Hope

We borrow the theme—"Renewing Hope"— for this month's issue of To Teach from National Migration Week which begins on Sunday, January 4, the Feast of Epiphany. Our hope in God's promises to us are renewed as we listen to the Gospel story of the visit of the three wise men as they discover the fulfillment of God's promise in Jesus Christ.

As we begin the month, we as Catholics have an opportunity to continue to nurture hope in our schools, classrooms, and families as we take stock of the wide diversity of the Church and the ministries serving them.  As the face of the local churches continue to change, it becomes more and more important that we stand up for those in our midst who have come to the United States from other countries. The suggestions below will help you educate yourself and others, and identify activities that will bring hope to immigrants, migrants, and refugees in your local community.

The theme of diversity is touched on during the third week of January as we celebrate our remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Since Inauguration Day follows the MLK holiday, this is a unique two-day event that can be a creative opportunity to address racism in today's world including the hope that the future might bring.

Back to Top

For Principals and School Boards

• Help your students better understand the religious, political, and cultural aspects of migration by using the text from the bulletin inserts called Renewing Hope, Seeking Justice, the theme of the National Migration Week 2009, in your morning or afternoon announcements.
• Pray one decade of the scriptural rosary, Unity in Diversity (English and Spanish), during morning announcements during National Migration Week, January 4-10, 2009.
• Commit time to exploring the ways in which your staff and board can be more welcoming to children and families who are settling in your immediate area. Talk with your pastor and parish staff to find out how the school can support the parish’s efforts.
• Send your board members a “thank you” for their service to the school using the Unity in Diversity note cards. These note cards featuring unique artwork on the theme of unity in diversity come in sets of eight cards with envelopes.
• Raise money to help support the needs of immigrants, migrants, and refugees in your local school community by collecting donations for Justice for Immigrants wristbands.
• Encourage parents and members of your school board to organize a community clothing and furniture drive for newly-arrived immigrants in your area or to volunteer to tutor immigrant children.
• Invite local Church experts from the (arch)diocese, Catholic Charities, ethnic ministries, social ministry, or immigrant legal services to lead a discussion on the rights and dignity of migrants and refugees during your January staff or school board meeting.
• Encourage religion and social studies teachers to develop together lesson plans that teach our country's history of and our Church teaching on racism. Include quotes from Brothers and Sisters to Us in your prayer service or celebration in honor of Martin Luther King Day.
• Include quotes from The Theology of Migration in your PTA/PTO or parents' newsletter during January.

Back to Top

For Educators

• Incorporate activities for National Migration Week into your class schedule during the week of January 5.
• Use the article, The Theology of Migration, as resource to prepare class activities on migration. Do a scripture and/or Internet search on the eaxmples listed in the article. Reflect on the similarities and differences between how the Israelites dealt with migrants and how we deal with them today.
• Post quotes on welcoming the stranger in our midst in your classroom on large sheets of newsprint. Discuss with your students why the Church teaches about welcoming immigrants, migrants, and refugees—it is rooted in the right to and dignity of human life. Ask them to identify concrete ways that they can welcome strangers in their class or school.
• Pray the Vatican's Rosary of Migrants and Itinerant People or the Unity in Diversity Scriptural Rosary during National Migration Week.
• Begin a Justice for Immigrants Campaign with your students. Download the campaign kit which is designed to unite and mobilize a growing network of Catholic institutions, individuals, and other persons of good faith in support of a broad legalization program and comprehensive immigration reform.
• Invite a newly sworn-in citizen of the United States to speak to your class about the requirements for becoming a citizen.
• Distribute copies of the Justice for Immigrants wristbands. Practice a short, one or two sentence response that the children can give when they are asked, “What is Justice for Immigrants?”
• Ask your students to bring in pictures or stories from newspapers, magazines, or the Internet as local and national political candidates discuss the issue of immigration. Invite them to share the pictures or stories and highlight how the Church would respond to the candidate and his or her position. Use the Catholic News Service, Origins, and the USCCB's media relations office as resources for what the Church teaches on the subject.
• Use the lesson plan, "Moving Beyond Prejudice," before or during the week of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the Inauguration.
• Research our country's past and ongoing struggle with racism, especially since the early 1900s, using the Internet and current publications. Show a segment of The Diary of Anne Frank (all ages) or Remember the Titans (adults and adolescents) and discuss what actions in the movie would be described as "racist," how the characters responded, and how we as Christians might respond.

Back to Top

For Parents

• As a family, locate biblical accounts of migration (e.g., Gn 20, Ex 13:17-14:31, or Mt 2:13-23) and discuss the challenges that these people of Scripture faced moving to a new land and new homes.
• Learn about the Church’s teaching on immigration by reading A Guide to Understanding Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration and the Movement of People.
• Teach your children how to pray the rosary using the Vatican's Rosary of Migrants and Itinerant People or the Unity in Diversity Scriptural Rosary during National Migration Week, January 4-10, 2009.
• Attend Mass with an immigrant community in your area and reflect on the experience with your children.
• Learn a few words of the native languages of immigrants who worship in your parish. Choose the people's responses from the Mass like "Thanks be to God."
• Research local agencies or organizations that provide support and services to immigrants and refugees. Consider volunteering as a family to help one of those agencies.
• Write a letter from your family to your Congressional representative with your concerns regarding the government’s position on the issue of immigration. Review the tips for writing your representative.
• Have your family create a “bill of rights” by which they would want to live. Take the time to compare these rights with the rights (or lack thereof) for migrants, refugees, and immigrants in other countries in the news.

Back to Top

Forming Adult Faith

"Forming Adult Faith" is an ongoing 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.

Each chapter from the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults addresses an element of Catholic faith. The following chapters touch on different aspects of the theme, "Renewing Hope."

• Chapter 4. Bring About the Obedience of Faith
• Chapter 23. Life in Christ—Part One
• Chapter 25. The First Commandment: Believe in the True God
• Chapter 31. The Seventh Commandment: Do Not Steal—Act Justly
• Chapter 35. God Calls Us to Pray

Ideas and suggestions on how to use these chapters for your individual and group reflection can be found online and in the Reader's Journal for the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults.

Back to Top

Compendium Corner

"Compendium Corner" is 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 youth and young adults learn this information by heart (memorization).
  

385. What are the theological virtues?
387. What is hope?
442. What is implied in the affirmation of God: "I am the LORD your God" (Exodus 20:2)?

To obtain a copy of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, visit www.usccbpublishing.org or call 800-235-8722.

Back to Top

Next Month  |  Past Issues