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This project arises from religious education courses at the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago but can be opened to other programs as well. Interested professors of religious education or faith formation should e-mail edaily@luc.edu if they want their students to be included.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Review of “The Challenge of Forgiveness”

From Christine Schmertz Navarro, Teaching Activities Manuel for ‘The Catholic Youth Bible’, Winona, MN, Saint Mary’s Press, 2000.

The Catholic Youth Bible is a bible produced for a youth or young adult to study and pray over. Throughout the bible are several articles that could be of use to the youth while reading the text. The Teaching Activities Manuel is full of activities for a catechist to use in guiding a student’s understanding of the biblical text in respect to our lives today. The activity entitled “The Challenge of Forgiveness” has the students read Luke 15. The conversation begins with a discussion of the parallels of the parables Jesus presents in this chapter, and continues with a focus on the Prodigal Son. An emphasis of the conversation is to be put on God’s ultimate love and forgiveness for us. The students are asked to reflect on the emotions the characters might be feeling throughout and after the story. They are also asked to reflect on the challenges that forgiveness present on both sides. The students then split into groups and create a skit depicting what the relationships between these three characters (father, older son, and younger son) might look like a week later. The activity concludes with a prompt for future discussion.Heft and his colleagues present several ides on the challenges that youth face today in religiosity, as well as some tactics for addressing these issues. Some of the challenges posed are those of modern secularization, individualism, rejection of the institution, and the idea of a “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism”, or a God that simply helps us lead a good life and helps us in tough times. Throughout the several studies presented, there were several tactics that seemed best to work in attracting and keeping youth active in the religious world. Many of the contributing authors spoke to the need for open communication with the youth and the need for their acceptance in the community. They need a place to share their stories and have their views both accepted and challenged when necessary. “The Challenges of Forgiveness” activity is actually a very strong activity for a group of youths in the Church. It gives them the opportunity to read scripture in a way that is appropriate for them, and to understand the message in relation to their own personal story. The main critique is that the activity is solid, but only offers a basic guiding question for the concluding discussion. I feel that the tying up conversation is the strongest part of the activity, because that is where the connections are made for the students. If the catechist or discussion leader really offers the chance for them to share their stories and hence have some ownership of the conversation, it will meet them better where they are. If the activity is left at only discussing the challenges of forgiveness with out any real life connections, then it is fairly weak.

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