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This Sunday, the Church commemorates the Solemnity of All Saints. Today we celebrate all women and men that have been canonized or beatified and everyone who reached the ultimate goal for every Christian—living with God in Heaven for all eternity. On the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed (All Souls’ Day on November 2), we remember our friends and family who have died. This year in particular, we lift up the souls of all victims of Coronavirus and pray that they will join the company of the saints in Heaven.
Many of the children in your class, school, or parish program have fathers who are members of the Knights of Columbus—or have attended a fish fry, participated in a free-throw contest, or received a Tootsie Roll after donating money at a street-corner collection. Help them make the connection between this charitable Catholic men’s organization today and its founder, Father Michael McGivney. Father McGivney will be beatified on October 31. Here’s a short video about his life. If you missed the recent post about planning for All Saints’ Day, make sure to check it out too.
Every week in the GROW newsletter, you will find a helpful tip for teaching your Gospel Weeklies lesson, a reflection on the Sunday Gospel, and information about our online resources and seasonal activities. Here are tips for teaching the Gospel Weeklies lessons this week:
Seeds
Lesson Theme: Jesus’ love is for everyone.
For this lesson, we suggest you have statues or pictures of saints. You can bring an image of Mary, the patron saint of your parish or city, or any other saint that the children may be familiar with.
Promise
Lesson Theme: Jesus leads us to happiness.
We suggest that you bring a picture or statue of Mary to class to add to your prayer table. When talking about saints, we suggest Mary because she is a saint the children will recognize. If you wish, you may bring a photo or statue of another saint—either in addition to Mary or in place of Mary. An image of the patron of your parish would be an option to consider.
Find versions of “When the Saints Go Marching In” here, here, and here. These are just three of the many options offered here.
Good News
Lesson Theme: Jesus leads us to happiness.
In the Gathering Prayer, we suggest that you lead the children in a litany of patron saints. If you have children in your class whose names are less obviously tied to a saint, you may want to prepare some options for them by finding out their middle names or checking a book or website of patron saints for ideas based on the child’s characteristics or interests. You may also assure all the children that even if there isn’t a canonized saint with their name, there is likely a saint in Heaven with the same name. With that in mind, all of the children may simply use their first or middle name for the litany.
Venture
Lesson Theme: The Beatitudes are God’s promises.
As part of the discussion following the Gospel, we suggest that you ask the young people how we can be blessed when we face terrible things. For example, you might ask: In what ways has the Coronavirus brought blessings? You might want to give that some thought yourself before asking the young people. Note that our attitude about something challenging can change the way we view this hard reality.
In the Venture Teaching Guide, page TG1-30, in the cover activity, “What Makes a Saint,” the directions indicate that the names begin at top right; they begin at top left and move clockwise.
On page TG1-31 in the Teaching Guide, the header in the yellow What the Church Believes and Teaches section should read: The Beatitudes (page 36).
Visions
Lesson Theme: The Beatitudes are God’s promises.
After proclaiming the Gospel, we suggest that the young people read the text a second time, substituting happy for blessed. Then, we encourage you to have a conversation with them about finding blessings even during the hardest of times. The situation that we are living right now with the Coronavirus, is an appropriate and current topic for discussion.
As an additional idea for the Prayer on page 8, you can take pictures of each student’s drawings for the “All Saints Quilt” and share it with their families.
DON’T FORGET to check out our Unit 1 Overview Webinars. You can find them in English and in Spanish here.
Image credit: Gudrun Muenz/Shutterstock.com
