Feb. 21, 2024 — Improving and the transfiguration

We asked the students to leave their Venture pamphlet in the classroom rather than bringing them home. We didn’t get to section on the fourth commandment, so we will cover that this week.

Mrs. Baran started things off with the front cover exercise. It asked the students “If I could make myself into a someone brand new, I would have…”, and gave them a number of options like, the feet of….; the ears of….; the sense of humor of…; and so on. We discussed their answers.

We next had volunteers read aloud a story of a girl who takes Aikido martial arts classes. We talked bout mistakes and how we improve by learning from our mistakes.

The Gospel story for the upcoming Sunday was the story of Jesus’s transfiguration. We had volunteers read the parts of the narrator, Peter, Jesus, et. We discussed how this event revealed Jesus’s divinity.

As always, we asked each student to name something they learned that evening. All were able to do so and were rewarded with a cookie.

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Jan. 31, 2024 — Healing & Compassion

Our “theme,” such as it was, was healing. For the second week in a row, Father Kavenaugh came by. He presented a lesson on the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. I really appreciated that, since this is a sacrament I always have had trouble getting my arms around. He brought his sacramental kit, with olive oil and lamb’s wool and showed the students how and why the sacrament is administered.

From there, we went to the exercise on the front cover of the Venture pamphlet. It posted several situations, like “There s all kinds of trash in the bushes along your street.” We asked the students to circle several of the situations where they thought they might make a difference. We had a good discussion.

Mrs. Baran took over and had volunteers read the story on pages 2 & 3. It was basically about a bully who shut out the new kid in school, and how the main character and his friends responded to it. We discussed the “think questions” on page 3. This included a discussion of how the “good guys” reaction to the bully was not a lot better than the bully’s actions itself. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Was there a better way to respond?

We had volunteers read/role play the gospel passage on page 4 and discussed the “think questions.” We discussed the importance of compassion for others.

And, as always, we asked the students to cite one thing they learned that evening, and all were able to do so and were rewarded with a Giradelli chocolate.

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