If your students ever wonder where communion wafers come from, be sure to check out the following 3-minute video posted by Michael Paulson at Articles of Faith:
An Inside Look at Wafer-Making
Hat tip to Deacon Greg Kandra at The Deacon’s Bench.
Prayers for the First Day of School
School begins today in many parts of the United States. May you all have a blessed and fruitful school year.
ChurchYear.net has a very nice page of prayers for teachers, students and schools, including the following prayer by David Bennett:
Father of all mercies
We ask that you would bless
the youngest and littlest of learners,
the most helpless and powerless of persons,
with Your infinite and loving mercy,
granting them the strength to learn, concentrate,
and act appropriately towards their teachers and fellow students.
We also ask that You would watch over them,
at home and at school
and grant them proper direction so that they may learn
of Your wonderful virtues.
We ask this in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen
Foreign-language Hail Marys
If you’re teaching your students about the meaning of the word “catholic,” you might find the Foreign-language Hail Marys website helpful. The website gives well over one hundred translations of the Hail Mary, from Achinese to Zurituutsch. Check it out!
Lifeteen Catholic Movie Reviews – Essential Podcasts for Catholic Educators #2
Anyone who teaches school knows that one way to connect with students is to talk movies with them. Lifeteen.com’s weekly Catholic Movie Reviews podcast is a great way to keep up with the latest screen triumphs and travesties. Host Greg Iwinski does an effective job of balancing cinematic critique with a Catholic moral and aesthetic perspective. His insights are pithy intelligent, and useful. Recent reviews include The Dark Knight, Hellboy II, Hancock, Wall-E, Get Smart, The Love Guru, and The Incredible Hulk.
At less than seven minutes an episode, this would be a great podcast to play to your students each week to jumpstart a discussion about living the Catholic lifestyle in today’s culture. I listen to it myself to help weed out the worthless from the worthwhile.
You can find the audio reviews at Lifeteen.com’s podcast page, or you can subscribe to Catholic Movie Reviews via iTunes (will open up iTunes on your computer).
Essential Podcasts for Catholic Educators – Pray As You Go
This is the first in a series of podcast reviews and suggestions for those who teach in Catholic schools or religious education programs. Podcasts can be a powerful tool for educators, both in the classroom and for personal and professional development. Now on to our first review, Pray As You Go, Daily Prayer for Your MP3 Prayer: Continue reading “Essential Podcasts for Catholic Educators – Pray As You Go”
Prayer by Thomas Merton for Graduates
The following prayer by Thomas Merton is one that I like to give to graduates when they get anxious about moving on. It’s also a prayer I use myself when I am unsure if I’ve made the right decision. Currently I’m beginning the discernment process about whether or not I’m being called to the diaconate, so I expect to visit this prayer many times over the next few months:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.