Monday of the First Week of Advent

Beloved, now is the acceptable time spoken of by the Spirit, the day of salvation, peace and reconciliation: the great season of Advent. This is the time eagerly awaited by the patriarchs and prophets, the time that holy Simeon rejoiced at last to see. This is the season that the Church has always celebrated with special solemnity. We too should always observe it with faith and love, offering praise and thanksgiving to the Father for the mercy and love he has shown us in this mystery. In his infinite love for us, though we were sinners, he sent his only Son to free us from the tyranny of Satan, to summon us to heaven, to welcome us into its innermost recesses, to show us truth itself, to train us in right conduct, to plant within us the seeds of virtue, to enrich us with the treasures of his grace, and to make us children of God and heirs of eternal life.

Each year, as the Church recalls this mystery, she urges us to renew the memory of the great love God has shown us. This holy season teaches us that Christ’s coming was not only for the benefit of his contemporaries; his power has still to be communicated to us all. We shall share his power, if, through holy faith and the sacraments, we willingly accept the grace Christ earned for us, and live by that grace and in obedience to Christ.

From a pastoral letter by Saint Charles Borromeo, bishop
(Acta Ecclesiae Mediolanensis, t. 2, Lugduni, 1683, 916-917)

St. Peter Claver - Slave to the Slaves

September 9 is the feast of St. Peter Claver. St. Peter served as a missionary on the slave ships that arrived in Colombia, South America during the 17th century. He greeted the Africans, who had already spent months in squalid conditions, with a smile and a drink of water. He met them where they were at and attended to their bodily needs with water, food, and medicine. Only then did he introduce them to Jesus Christ, who "took the form of a slave" (Phil. 2:7). His dedication and service to his brothers and sisters brought about the conversion of 300,000 Africans over the course of 33 years.
How can we meet the needs of others when leading them to Christ?
Read Philippians 2:6-11. If Jesus thus humbled Himself, how are we called to be humble in our approach with others?

My Teaching is Not Mine

Christocentricity in catechesis also means the intention to transmit not one's own teaching or that of some other master, but the teaching of Jesus Christ, the Truth that He communicates or, to put it more precisely, the Truth that He is. We must therefore say that in catechesis it is Christ, the Incarnate Word and Son of God, who is taught - everything else is taught with reference to Him - and it is Christ alone who teaches - anyone else teaches to the extent that he is Christ's spokesman, enabling Christ to teach with his lips. Whatever be the level of his responsibility in the Church, every catechist must constantly endeavor to transmit by his teaching and behavior the teaching and life of Jesus. He will not seek to keep directed towards himself and his personal opinions and attitudes the attention and the consent of the mind and heart of the person he is catechizing. Above all, he will not try to inculcate his personal opinions and options as if they expressed Christ's teaching and the lessons of His life. Every catechist should be able to apply to himself the mysterious words of Jesus: "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me." St. Paul did this when he was dealing with a question of prime importance: "I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you." What assiduous study of the word of God transmitted by the Church's magisterium, what profound familiarity with Christ and with the Father, what a spirit of prayer, what detachment from self must a catechist have in order that he can say: "My teaching is not mine!" 

Catechesi Tradendae, 6

Good Teachers

"There is one simple key to exciting and successful education on any level … good teachers. Good teachers, in turn, means two things, both of them love-things. The teacher by whom students are inspired, the teacher who changes their lives, is always a double lover. He is a lover of the subject and a lover of the student. Students detect that love almost infallibly, and it is simply irresistible… But this love of student and subject that is the key to great teaching is a love of God, at least implicitly, even if the teacher is an agnostic or an atheist. The spark is not just natural affection, friendship, or desire but some sort of disinterested, self-forgetful, wondering, and worshipful agape for the student and for the subject. For the student is an image of God, who is love, and the subject is a bit of truth, which God is also. Loving these two supreme values of personhood and truth is implicitly loving God because that is where they are. They are divine attributes. Therefore good teaching is loving God."

Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You
 

The Devil and the Law

When Thomas More's son-in-law asserts that he would cut down every law in England, the patron saint of lawyers explains why he would give the devil benefit of law.
Doctrine: law, conscience, society

Where's the Body?

The Roman soldiers assigned to guard the tomb of Jesus do not know where the body went. They also don't know what to tell Pilate about it.
Doctrine: Resurrection, Liturgical Year - Easter

The Crucifixion

This song by Danielle Rose speaks of the Crucifixion from the perspective of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is from her collection of songs for the Mysteries of the Rosary.
Doctrine: Jesus Christ, Redemption, Blessed Virgin Mary, Rosary
Use: Ask students to listen to the song and journal about the Fifth Sorrowful Mystery from the perspective of a specific person who would have been present.