February 3rd, 2013

Dear R.E. Teacher / Chaplain,

I was talking to a 1st year class this week about what it means to be a Catholic and one of the boys answered quoting the Golden Rule from Luke’s Gospel “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” This quickly led to the topic of cyber bullying and how we treat others on the internet. Cyber bullying is certainly the topic of the moment and R.E. classes are definitely places where this issue can be explored. Next Tuesday is Safer Internet Day and you can view information & resources here.

Today is the Feast Day of St. Blaise and you can view resources to use with R.E. classes here.

Ash Wednesday this year is on the Wednesday of the mid-term so you might look at covering it this week with R.E. classes. Our Ash Wednesday & Lenten Resources contain a variety of materials including PowerPoints, worksheets, prayer services, slide show videos & 23 Lenten videos on our YouTube Playlist. There are also links to the Trócaire Lenten resources.

This weekend Trócaire celebrates its fortieth anniversary and on their website they have a section reflecting on their 40 years of groundbreaking work with the poorest and most vulnerable people in the developing world. You might like to spend some time with your classes viewing highlights from Trócaire’s 40-year history.

The Huffington Post website contains a wide variety of current articles about religion including this recent article about atheism. Many of these articles can be useful with L.C. classes and also a reminder about the Tablet newspaper which provides a selection of articles from their archive sorted by Leaving Certificate Religious Education units.

Check out our YouTube Channel where you will find 35 R.E. related playlists and almost 400 videos.

In the Sport, Olympics & R.E. section I have added the inspiring story of the Spanish runner Ivan Fernandez Anaya and his recent act of sportsmanship. Read & watch it here.

The Presentation Brothers are running the Catholicism DVD series starting 7.30pm, Tuesday February 5th 2013 at Presentation Brothers, Glasthule. R.E. teachers have found it very useful & encouraging and if you are interested in attending full details (including a trailer for the DVD) can be found here.

Kind regards,

Gary

Email: garyabrahamian@gmail.com