2021-22 Grade 8 Ascension Religious Education

Greetings everyone! It was so great to be back in class and see all of you this past Tuesday. To recap , we did some further follow-up to the Christmas Season and the Incarnation of God in Christ by thinking about how great gift Christ is to us, our very God becoming human to be close with us and be with us forever.  We read a commentary from a teen-geared Student Bible I got as a gift back in 7th grade.  And remember the baby pictures and seeing my teddy bear?  God continues to make Himself known to us, especially at Mass, as I shared with a two different stories. Then, we heard from our guest speaker, Ms. Baer , an Ascension parishioner and a special education teacher at OPRFHS.  She talked about her faith experiences in her life growing up and in college.  She also shared about her time at World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid and her trip to the Holy Land for the Christmas Season 2019-2020.  Thank you, Ms. Baer, for visiting and sharing so many wonderful insig...

Greetings everyone! Thank you again for your adjustment to meeting virtually in light of various circumstances.  (And thank you to my fellow middle school catechist Mariana Perepitchka for assisting with the three virtual classes we've had this year.) During our most recent class, we focused on baptism, which is a kind of follow-up to the Christmas Season. God revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the Baptism of Jesus, which is the Feast that ends the Christmas Season.  As people of faith, we join with Christ in Baptism, so that we are filled with God's life-giving presence.  We are named His beloved daughters and sons.  We are anointed by His Spirit, which enables us to participate in Christ's mission of making God known in the world, especially through loving deeds of service. We're anointed first at baptism, and then again at Confirmation, with blessed and scented olive oil.  (Remember how that connects with my participation in the 2005 Julian S...

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas one final time! In our most recent class, our guest speaker was Paige Krohn , Paul's fellow World Youth Day pilgrim.  She is a FOCUS missionary at Southeast Missouri State University, in Cape Girardeau, MO.  She shared about the importance of faith in her life, how she got involved with FOCUS, and her experiences as a missionary. If you're interested in knowing more about the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, FOCUS, here is their  website . At the start of class, we spent time learning more about the deeper meaning of Christmas.  We looked at the Prologue in John 1:1-18, which takes a more cosmic view of Christ's Birth.  He was with the Father from the beginning, and then entered into time and into our world as the Word Made Flesh revealing God to us. I also played some Christmas carols that speak to the meaning of Christmas Day and Season: "Joy to the World", "O Little Town of Bethlehem", and "Hark! the ...