A review of a presentation on Lent by Lisa Zolkos (on Bb) in respect to the assigned readings found in Passing on the Faith by James L. Heft

Audience: Middle School Youth of Saint Patrick’s Catholic Church… Sunday March 1, 2009

Learning Objective: To understand Lent and our call to walk with Christ on this year’s Lenten journey.

Focusing Activity: Encourage the kids to brainstorm in small groups (8-12) of what they feel are ten things that they KNOW about Lent.

Movement 1: Name the experience. What is Lent? Examine the Gospel of Luke and remember Christ’s experience in the desert for 40 days.

Movement 2: Digging into the experience. What are the rituals of Lent that connect us to a shared encounter with Christ? What is the significance of Ash Wednesday, ashes, abstinence, fasting, sacrifice, almsgiving, prayer, and Palm Sunday? What are we expected to do as devoted followers of Christ to share in this journey of faith?

Movement 3: Sharing the Christian Story/Vision. How does the experience of Jesus in the desert affect our Lenten journey (Luke 4:1-13)? Does our Lenten journey connect us to Christ?

Movement 4: Dialogue between 1 & 2. Why do we have a responsibility to give alms? What does praying do anyway? Does it really strengthen our relationship with God? Does God hear us? Will giving up mean make us better Christians? Should you even try and give up meat? What are some options to meat? What did it mean that Christ was to be the Paschal sacrifice; the Lamb of God?

Movement 5: Decision for action. How do we create our Lenten plan? What you will do for Lent? What pictures could you use to remind you that for the next 40 days you are on a journey with Jesus? What charities can you plan to donate to? Who do you know that is in need (alms)? What acts of kindness will you do for others? How can you increase the opportunities you have to prayerfully seek to deepen your relationship with God?

Lisa used a power point presentation to keep a cohesive lesson plan and engage the youth in two mediums of education simultaneously; both with visual cues and auditory facilitation. It was her intention to simulate the techno-culture mediums that the youth relate to in their daily lives. There is a definite correlation between her catechetical lesson plan and Heft’s assertion that youth “learn more through pictures and sound” (Heft, 5).

The goal of the presentation was to enable the youth to make a personal connection between the traditional religious rituals and practices of the Church, Luke’s Gospel story of Christ in the desert, and to gain a foot hold on their own personal Lenten journeys. This presentation may be used to avoid a “crisis in the transmission of religious memory, practice, and tradition to the next generation (Heft, 103). It was intended to bring one’s spiritual journey into the season of Lent through the rite and traditions of the Catholic Church.

More attention could have been paid to the relationships within the youth culture and how they walk together through their Lenten journey. While the power point is mindful of the culture to which she is educating, more visual references to the youth in the community could be incorporated.