Resources for Monday of Catholic Schools Week 2013 can be found on page 9-12 of the Resources Booklet and below you will find the resources adapted for use with data projectors.
Thought for the Day
The theme for Catholic Schools Week 2013 is “Catholic Schools in the Community of Faith: Sharing the Good News”. The context for our celebration this year is the Year of Faith announced by Pope Benedict in which he calls upon Catholics all over the world to take time to reflect upon their faith so that they may deepen their understanding of and their love for Jesus Christ who reveals to us the infinite compassion of God. In our school we are not just an organisation or a company; we are in fact a community and what unites us is our shared interest in teaching and learning based on a Christian understanding of what it means to be a human being. Let us use this week to reflect upon and celebrate who we are as a community that has its roots in a Good News story – the story of Jesus Christ who came that we might have life in its fullness.
The Feast of Thomas Aquinas Resources
How we gather as a Church
Gaudium et Spes – Decree on the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
The document from the Second Vatican Council ‘Decree on the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World’ is an overview of the Catholic Church’s teachings about humanity’s relationship to society, especially in reference to economics, poverty, social justice, culture, science, technology and ecumenism. The dignity of the human person is the fundamental concern of Catholic social teaching. We exist for the purpose of entering into the experience of loving communion. Human beings are not meant to live in isolation but are meant to live in community with each other. We find ourselves precisely in the act of giving ourselves away to another and receiving the gift of another into our lives. Sociability is a key hallmark of the Catholic view of the human person: “for by our innermost nature the person is a social being” (Gaudium et Spes, #12). This understanding of the person lends itself to a view of community as natural and necessary if persons are to achieve their full stature. Human dignity can be realised and protected only in community.
Click here to view The Good Samaritan Resources
Now watch What About Now by Daughtry
At Vatican II, the Bishops began their document on The Church in the Modern World with a description of the Church community as follows: “The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well….That is why they cherish a feeling of deep solidarity with the human race and its history” (Gaudium et Spes, 1)
Like the Good Samaritan, Catholics exercise solidarity in compassion, and also by forming community with those who are suffering or are different from us. It implies also a mutuality of respect in relationship and elimination of inequality.
One thing that can be difficult for young people today who have a faith is to figure out how their faith should be played out in the world. How should it change them? How will it affect their lives? What should they do that they didn’t do before? What should they not do that they did do before? How should they respond to certain things? Catholics are called to let their faith make a powerful difference to the world around them.
Following the Asian Tsunami, Pope John Paul II said: “In assuring my prayers for the victims of the catastrophe and for their families, I note favourably the solidarity efforts which are developing in every part of the world.”
FOR YOU TO DO 2
- Can you think of other occasions when solidarity was shown in times of natural disaster or conflict?
- Have you or your school lived out solidarity in your own community – with other faith groups and marginalised people?
- Does your school or parish have justice and peace groups?
GROUP WORK
The aim of this activity is to get you thinking about life and the world and thinking about what your Catholic faith has to say about it all. You will need sheets of card and coloured pens.
Working in groups of 2-4 you are all going to be given newspapers and magazines. What you are doing is looking through to find situations which our Catholic faith has something to say about. So, for instance, you might find a situation where somebody did something which as Catholics we might believe is wrong. Or you might find a situation which Catholics might feel drawn to help out with. Alternatively, you might find a situation where people have done something which, as a Catholic, you think is really good.
When you find stuff that you think is relevant, cut it out and stick it to one of the sheets of card. Use the pens to make a few notes around it explaining why you chose it.