Friday, November 09, 2007

Seven-Day Unit on Penance and Anointing of the Sick

General Diocesan Guidelines:

  1. demonstrate an understanding of concepts underlying [the Sacrament of Penance] and their relationship to lived grace, ritual, prayer, and service.
  2. describe the relationship between Jesus, the Church, and [the Sacrament of Penance].
  3. explain the meaning of the Mystery of the Incarnation, Paschal Mystery, Pentecost, Church as the Body of Christ, and their effect on the development of [the Sacrament of Penance].
  4. identify major developments in the history of the [the Sacrament of Penance].
  5. explain what realities of human life are celebrated by [the Sacrament of Penance].
  6. identify the major symbols used in [the Sacrament of Penance] and the key aspects of ritualizing these sacraments.
  7. explain Eucharist as the source and summit of [the Sacrament of Penance].

Let's condense these goals into three:

  1. Relate Penance to the kerygma (God, Creation, Sin, Incarnation, Paschal Mystery, Eucharist, and the Church) (2, 3, and 7).
  2. Identify major developments in the thought and ritual of Penance (4 and 6).
  3. Discuss how Penance and Anointing fit within a lived reality defined by a loving and active God, sin and death, freedom, and hope. (1 and 5).

Unpacking #3 there...

  1. pain, sadness, loss, stress, injustice, cruelty, lonliness, hatred, disappointment, uncaring, death: the world gives us enough reason to give in to despair
  2. three ways to respond: despair. diversion. hope.
  3. reason to hope. there is One more powerful than all of these, and he has acted on our behalf, because he loves us.
  4. but we still have to choose: hope (receiving the sacraments; giving thanks; reforming our lives according to grace), or despair (drowning our sorrow in titillation and self-abuse)? our lives will reflect the choice.

What are the top 10 words that 17-year-old Catholics should know in regards to Penance and Anointing of the Sick?

  • Penance
  • perfect/imperfect contrition
  • order of penitents
  • seal of confession
  • examination of conscience
  • confessional
  • absolution
  • venial/mortal sin
  • despair
  • presumption

Time and resources:

  • 1 day for the test (next week Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on whether we are in school Wednesday)
  • 1 day for review (possibly two, see above)
  • 4 teachable days (Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri) (one of these should be interactive)
  • A good textbook chapter (split into two: 208-215; 216-220)
  • Some resources for PPT presentations (Catechism, historical info)

Monday: Introduction, PPT talk on the

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