Class #15, February 3

Sorry for the late post. Here is a quick update of last week’s class.

Mrs. Worthington took the lead in the class and covered the Apostle’s Creed.
That’s it. Pretty simple.

Tomorrow, we will be talking about Lent (which begins NEXT Wednesday, Feb 17), and reviewing the material we have covered over the past few weeks. (Reinforcement is always good.)

Next week, there will be an Ash Wednesday Mass in place of CCD class. Please bring your child, his/her siblings and yourself. It starts at 7:00 pm.

CCD Class #13 January 20

We had a good class last Wednesday. The focus was the concept of grace. We described it as God’s love and compared it to parents’ love of his or her children.  Like parents showing love by hugging or otherwise loving their children, God’s love is received through the sacraments.

We also discussed that God’s love/grace cannot be earned. It is a free gift.

We covered the story of God’s “tough love” on Saul/St Paul and Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus.

We also discussed how God’s love/grace gives Christians the strength to make make good choices and live a life as Jesus would want.

This coming week is our Baptism demonstration/ceremony. We expect most, probably all, the other CCD classes will probably join us for the event. We will meet in the classroom and walk over to the church.  If possible, this would be a really good week to have your child dropped off a minute or two early.  Thanks.

CCD Class #12 January 13

We have been putting new floors in our house this week, so both the house and my life are in disarray. Sorry for the late post. But moving on…

We had an interesting class Wednesday.

Our plan to conduct a Baptism demonstration was delayed, but there is some good news attached to that. A parish family with a child in CCD and another newborn baby, have agreed to allow the baby’s Baptism to be a part of the CCD program. We will do that in two weeks, on January 27. That should be very cool.

Father Mariusz stopped in and answered questions for nearly a half hour. He connected well with the students. He answered some of the questions that the students have asked Mrs. Worthington and myself, but would be better being answered by a priest, including:

• What’s the story with “original sin?
• What happens to a baby who dies before being baptized?
• Why don’t priests get married?

Mrs. W asked Father M if priests ever had any fun. The students were impressed and surprised that Father M has a Wii and plays “Guitar Hero.”

When Father M left, we had only about 20 minutes left in the class, not enough time to do a full lesson. So we played “Catholic Hangman” for awhile.

Next week we talk about the concept of “grace,” and God’s “tough love” on St Paul on the road to Damascus.

The Baptism is scheduled for January 27.

CCD Class #11, January 6

After two months of hit-and-miss classes and the Christmas break, it was great to be back at CCD on Wednesday. We had a good class session. The students were fairly interested and engaged.

We continued with another chapter on Baptism with a touch on Confirmation. The focus was on the concepts of:

• Baptism being an initiation into the Church.
• The actions and symbols of the sacrament (white garments, candles, water, oil, etc.)
• The idea that as Baptized Catholics, they have an obligation to carry on Jesus’s work through worship, and through their actions — demonstrating love and service to others.

Next week, we will meet in the classroom as usual, but will then walk over to the church for a Baptism demonstration. Father Mariusz will take them through the Baptism ceremony and explain each step along the way. There is a chance we may have a “real, live” baby for the program. If so, the program will be the real-thing, and not just a demonstration. If not, we have a doll waiting in the wings.

Parents, of course, are always welcome to come and sit in on this or any of our class sessions.

CCD resumes tonight, Jan 6!

It seems like we haven’t had a CCD class in months. We’re back tonight (January 6.) Bundle up and we’ll see everyone at 6:30 pm.

Class #10 December 9

Mike writes:

It seems like we haven’t met for a class in months. It was good to get everyone back together.

Tonight’s lesson focused on an introduction to Baptism.

We started with a discussion of groups the students belong to and flowed from that to the concept that Baptism brings them into another group – the Church.

We covered the story of Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan River and briefly touched on the concept of original sin.

In response to some questions, we briefly touched on the concept of sin. We talked about intent and the difference between a mistake (getting an answer wrong on a test) and a sin (cheating on that same test.)

The last segment of the chapter in the text was a story about a church group that organized a transportation service for elderly who needed rides to the grocery store. This introduced the idea that as members of the Body of Christ, we are responsible for caring for others. The students seemed to catch on to this idea. We talked about just who we are supposed to care for.

We told the class the story of the Good Samaritan to demonstrate the concept of “neighbors.”

This segued nicely into the charity drive that is a part of next week’s program.

Next Wednesday (December 16) the students will go directly to the church for a Christmas program presented by the third and fourth grades.

We are asking each student to bring something to support the Interfaith Hospitality Ministry. (If you are not familiar with this, ask your son/daughter. We talked about it.) The targets of the IFM are homeless FAMILIES, who are housed in area churches for a week at a time per church. They need items like toiletries, school supplies, towels, diapers, and so on.

Very important!!! We challenged your son/daughter to NOT take the easy way out by just asking Mom or Dad to pick up something at the store. We asked them to use some of their allowance to purchase something,  or to ask to do some extra chores around the house to earn a few dollars towards a contribution. We emphasized that the benefit is as much in the giving as in the receiving. It doesn’t “count” if they don’t make a contribution of their own. Please help us out on this, and provide your child with an opportunity to make this donation something that comes from them.

On a related note, the Interfaith Hospitality Ministry is a very worthy project. St Peter’s hosted several families for a week in August.  I believe the parish is signed up for three separate weeks in 2010 (two in the summer and one week at Christmas time). A good group of parish families volunteered to support this project by providing meals, hosting over night and hosting in the evening. This is something that can involve the entire family and your children can get something positive out of it. I encourage you to consider volunteering your family for this project in 2010.

I will not be able to attend next Wednesday’s program. Mrs. Worthington will be there for the 5^th grade.  So I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas! We’ll see you in 2010.

ccd cancelled tonight

ccd cancelled 12-2-09 due to weather

Class #9 November 18

Mike writes:

We spent this class reviewing the material we have covered in the first four chapters. For those of you following along at home, you will see that the first unit has a multi-page review series of quizes  (multiple choice, T-F, fill-in-the-blank, etc).   We had the students complete these exercises and then we talked about each one after it was complete. If they didn’t know some of the answers, they were allowed to look them up in the text.  Hopefully, this served two purposes:

1.) Reinforce the material encouraging them to think about the questions and seek the answers of they didn’t know them.

2.) Expose the students for the maybe the first time to some of the material they may have missed due to absence.

Coming up…

I am working to set up a “mock baptism” demonstration for one of the class sessions in early December. This should be interesting for the students.  I’ll let you know how this develops.

There will be NO CLASS next week, November 25, the night before Thanksgiving. We hope you have much for which to give thanks, and have a great holiday.

See ya in December!

We DO have CCD this week!

After a weak turnout two weeks ago (Nov 4), and no class last week (Nov 11), we are back in business this week, Wednesday, November 18.

We’ll see everyone at 6:30 pm.

Please note — as per the schedule, we will NOT have CCD class the night before Thanksgiving.

No CCD Classes November 11!!!!

The Savannah-Chatham public schools will be closed for Veterans’ Day and so will CCD.

Classes resume the following Wednesday, November 18.

The following week is Thanksgiving and there will be no class. Then we’re back for three weeks of classes before the Christmas break. Hit the “Schedule” tab above for the dates.