Your Patron Saint
One way to increase devotion to the saints is by developing a relationship with one particular saint—your patron saint. This exercise will help your students to choose their own patron saint. Create a document based on the following…
Entertaining Angels: A Film on the Life of Dorothy Day
Entertaining Angels, a 1996 film on the life of Dorothy Day, is available online free of charge. The film runs 1:51:31. The film traces Dorothy’s spiritual and religious development as she leaves her career in journalism to live a bohemian…
Two Great Teachers of the Faith: St. Nicholas of Myra (December 6) and St. Ambrose (December 7)
As Christmas approaches, remember to tell your students not only that Santa Claus is “real,” but that the saintly figure behind the legend is even more of an inspiration than the jolly perennial visitor of mythical renown! On…
All Saints’ Day Lesson
Here’s a refresher on the role of saints in the Church, in lieu of the coming of All Saints’ Day on November 1.
Catholic Social Teaching and the Saints
There are many quotations from the saints and blessed on issues that speak to current justice issues. Make a copy of the following quotations for each student. Tell them 1) read the quotation; 2) write what they think it means; and 3) write about…
Two Letters of St. Thérèse of Lisieux to Abbe Belliere
The feast day of St. Thérèse of Lisieux is October 1. The following is an excerpt from The Catholic Spirit: An Anthology for Discovering Faith Through Literature, Art, Film, and Music of two letters wrote to a missionary…
Canonization of Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa of Calcutta is to be canonized a saint in the Catholic Church on Monday, September 4, 2016, in Rome.
St. Mary Magdalene
Pope Francis has raised the liturgical memorial of St. Mary Magdalene, the woman from the Gospels who, according to the pope, "so loved Christ and was so greatly loved by Christ, to a feast day.
Faith Questions and the Letters of St. Paul
After St. Paul traveled the Roman empire as a missionary, converting many Gentiles to Christianity and establishing local churches, he would later be confronted by these new Christians with questions of faith and practice. Since he could not return…
All Souls’ Day and Why Catholics Pray for the Dead: A November Exercise
November 1 and November 2 are two very special days in the liturgical life of the Church. On the one hand, we prayerfully ask the saints to intercede to God for us in a special way on All Saints’ Day (November 1), while on the other hand, we…