Contents/Activities:
1. Explain to the students that they will be given half a dozen labels
each and that they are to write down on each of them a list of positive
things about 6 of the students in class. They can, if they want to, and
time allows, get more labels to describe more students.
2. Once the students have the labels, tell them that once they have
finished the labels they will be asked to get up and stick the labels
on the students they have described. They must, however, wait until
they are told to do so.
3. You may wish to provide a list of descriptive adjectives to help
the students describe their peers, especially personality traits as
opposed to physical traits.
4. Once you see that most of the students have finished, tell them
to go and stick the labels on the students they have described. I have
found it necessary to remind them not to put the sticky labels in a
person's hair.
5. Once people are done, invite everyone to remove the labels and t
stick them on a blank sheet of paper or on one of their binders.
6. Invite the students to express how they feel about all the good
things that people have said about them.
7. Point out that the words we use to talk to others or to talk about
them are very powerful: they have the power to bless them - to boost
them up and give them more life; they also have the power to curse them
- to crush others and take away life.
8. You might want to use the text on "Bread
and Stone" given in a previous lesson to help the students reflect
on the choice we all have of being life-givers as opposed to being sources
of pain and death for others.
9. Finish by reading one or more appropriate scripture passage(s) you
have selected. Some suggestions:
|
Numbers 6 ; 24-27
"The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.
So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."
Genesis 12; 1-3
Now the LORD said to Abram, " Go forth from your country, And
from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land
which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And
make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you
I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be
blessed.''
|
"Trust is the key to entering the kingdom. Jesus came into
the world to make us holy, to make us a part of his plan. In the
reading from Genesis, God speaks in a special way to Abram (Genesis
12:1-4). God says, “Abram, I want to do something for you.”
God is saying the same thing to us: “I want to make you great.
And the way I am going to make you great is that I want to bless
you. And when I bless you, that means you are going to be a blessing
for others. Everyone will find a blessing in you.” What is
so exciting about this is that the call to holiness is a call
to be an instrument of bringing life and goodness to our brothers
and sisters. That’s the heart of what it means to be a Christian.
To be a Christian means that we want to be used, in the sense
of being an instrument or a vessel. We want to be a source of
goodness for the people around us. That is our inheritance."
Pastoral Reflections - Monsignor Don L. Fischer
|
Matthew 5; 21-24
"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, `Do not murder,
and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.'
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject
to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his "Therefore, if you are offering
your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something
against you,leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and
be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. brother,
`Raca, ' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, `You fool!'
will be in danger of the fire of hell.
1 John 3; 15
Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer
has eternal life in him.
