The “Exploring the Sacraments” Chapter provides an active and engaging way to teach the Sacraments to junior high students. Each lesson begins with a game followed with a teaching. After the teaching there are some discussion questions which should help generate thoughtful talk and more learning about the sacraments. A short prayer is also included to help conclude your lesson.
The Game: Ultimate Hot Potato
The Teaching: Baptismal Vocation
If we remember what we have learned about baptism, we realize that baptism is more than just the taking away of original sin. While the priest or deacon washes away our sins with the water and the Trinitarian formula they do not stop there. The priest or deacon anoints the child with a special oil that has been consecrated by the bishop called Chrism. As we explore the sacrament of baptism deeper we realize that Baptism is a moment when we are chosen by God for a mission and consecrated (anointed) with oil for three special tasks.
When the music stopped in your hot potato game, the person with the ball was chosen and given a mission to perform. While in the game the missions were goofy, the missions that we receive in life are of much greater significance for the represent to us our vocation. As Catholics we believe that each and every person is called (chosen) by God to love like He loves and this is what is called by Catholic the Universal call to Holiness.
In the Church teaching on Baptism we believe that we are anointed priest, prophet, and king. We are called to be a priest not like someone ordained through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, but rather in the sense that we are commissioned to offer our very life to God as a living sacrament of praise. One way in which to do this is to say a type of prayer known as the Morning Offering. When we pray a morning offering we offer God our whole day. We offer Him the good and the bad; we offer him our times of joy and our times of sorrow; and we offer him our successes and failures.
We are commissioned also to be prophets but not in the sense of being people who go around holding up signs that say “The End Is Near” but rather we live our lives as prophets of hope. We show people through our words and actions that God does exist and that He “so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16). St. Francis of Assisi is quoted it as having said “Preach the Gospel always and use words only when necessary.” We are a prophet for God each and every time we forgive someone, we love our enemies, we help a person in need, etc.
Lastly at Baptism we are made members of the royal and divine family of God. We literally become children of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ through the power of Holy Spirit in the same way a child becomes a part of a new family when he or she is adopted. Being a part of a royal family though comes with an obligation to lead and Jesus teaches us in the Gospels that the type of leadership expected of us is not one in which we lord it over other people but rather we are to exercise servant leadership. We are to imitate the example Jesus gave us at the Last Supper by washing the feet of his apostles.
Discussion Questions:
1. What does it mean to be chosen by God?
2. What are some small ways (some small sacrifices) that you can make to offer your life to God?
3. What do you think it means to be a member of God’s family?
4. What are some other examples in the Scriptures of Jesus’ idea of servant leadership?
5. Why do you think that the Church insists on anointing (commissioning) us after baptism?
6. Name at least one new insight that you have learned about the Sacrament of Baptism?
7. What are you going to do with your new found insight(s)?
Prayer: Blessing with Holy Water
Leader says the following “By this holy water and by Your Precious Blood, wash away all our sins, O Lord,” as he or she sprinkles everyone present with holy water.
The Game: Bosco Bombardment
The Teaching: Standing Up for One’s Faith
Many people are baptized as children with their parents standing in for the child. The Sacrament of Confirmation is celebrated by a person who is ready to make their faith their own. At Confirmation the person receiving the sacrament stands up and states that he or she is ready to defend his or her faith.
In the game of Bosco Bombardment the players must physically defend their belief in the Eucharist and in the Blessed Virgin Mary in order to protect their faith. While in the game you were required to catch balls thrown at you and you had to throw balls at the other team. As a person who is ready to defend one’s own faith, a person needs to learn what the Church teaches so that one can deflect others misperceptions and to be able to answer these misconceptions with the truth.
Discussion Questions:
1. What are some of the misconceptions that others have about the Catholic faith?
2. Why do you think it is important to have a sacrament that allows a person to stand up for his or her faith?
3. Why do you think that the bishop is the customary celebrant at Confirmation?
4. What are some of the things that you can do to grow in your faith?
5. What are some areas in which you can show that you are responsible for your faith now?
6. What are some areas of Church teaching that you find difficult? How can you resolve them?
7. How can you help someone better receive the Sacrament of Confirmation?
Prayer: Laying on of Hands
Take time to explain the power of the laying on hands as a sign of God’s presence. Then ask everyone to pair up. For the first two minutes have one partner lay his or her hands on their partner and pray for them and then after two minutes have them changed.
The Game: Baby Food Hot Potato
The Teaching: Jesus becomes our food.
As human beings we eat in order to live. We eat because we need the nutrients contained in the food for without these nutrients we will die. In much a similar way Jesus tells us in John chapter 6 that he is “the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Some people today say that Jesus was only speaking figuratively or symbolically about eating His Body and drinking His blood but we see that John addresses this in his Gospel also: “The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?” Jesus responded to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”
So how can this be that the bread and wine we receive at Mass is really not bread and wine but is in reality the Body and Blood of Jesus despite it tasting like bread and wine? The answer is a process that we call “transubstantiation.” Imagine if you will taking your favorite cereal box out of the cupboard. Imagine yourself looking at the outside of the box, reading the nutrition facts, seeing the front cover decorated with words and images that tell you that your favorite cereal is inside. After you have a good vision of what the outside of the box looks like, imagine opening the box and removing the plastic bag containing the actual cereal out of the box and replacing it with a bag containing dry dog food. If you are imagining this, then you realize that the outside of the box is still the same. It still has all the same nutrition facts and the same logo on the front over but now the inside has been radically transformed. This is what we mean by transubstantiation the outside of something remains the same but the inside changes. As Catholics we believe that the outside of the bread and wine remains the same but God changes the inside into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
Why does God do this? God changes the substance (the inner stuff) of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ so that we can literally chew on it, so that we can absorb divinity in much the same way that we absorb nutrients from normal food. What an awesome miracle that we witness at each and every Mass!!!
Discussion Question:
1. What attributes of Jesus do you wish to receive when you receive the Eucharist?
2. What do you think about the saying “You are what you eat,” in relationship to the Eucharist?
3. Why do you think some people do not believe that the Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood of Jesus?
4. What does the gift of the Eucharist tell you about who Jesus is?
5. What would happen to you if you did not eat regular food? Is there any correlation to consequences of not receiving the Eucharist?
6. Why do you think the Eucharist (and thus the Mass) is such an important part of Catholic life?
7. What are some other Eucharistic passages in Scripture?
Prayer: Breaking Bread
Take a loaf of unsliced bread and start with the Sign of the Cross. Follow by pulling a piece of bread off and offer a prayer of petition. Then pass the loaf to the next person and have them repeat until everyone has a piece of bread and have said a prayer then all eat your piece of bread and say the Our Father together.
The Game: Pill Box Challenge
The Teaching:
When a person becomes sick he or she does not only not feel well but he or she can be tempted to feel alone and to become self centered. While a person will take medicine to feel better, a person is also in need of some spiritual encouragement. This spiritual encouragement can come from the care they received from others and in a special way through the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Through the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick God’s presence is made known in a special way through the use of the holy oil and the priest’s presence. It is like God saying “don’t worry about what to come because I am here and I forgive you of all your sins.”
Discussion Questions:
1. Why do people become self centered when they are sick?
2. How does someone’s loving presence help you make you feel better?
3. How do the Sacraments remind us of God’s presence?
4. What are some ways you can remind yourself of God presence?
5. Why do you think that the Church has a specific sacrament for when you are sick?
6. What are some ways in which you can help those who are sick or who are elderly?
7. Do you believe that God cares for you? Why or why not?
Prayer: Blessing with Oil
While explaining to the kids that these are not the sacred oils blessed by the bishop, take a small container of olive oil and hold it up in front of them. Take the oil and make the Sign of the Cross on their foreheads reminding them that they have been blest with the Holy Spirit at Baptism and again (if true) at Confirmation.
The Game: Freedom Frisbee
The Teaching
When a person is caught up in sin, he or she becomes frozen by fear in his or her own world. They begin to focus more and more on themselves and less and less on helping others. They become afraid of being caught, of admitting that they are wrong, and/or that they made a mistake. Their relationship with God and others becomes more and more strained as they become more and more frozen in their self-centeredness. When a person encounter Jesus and change his or her way of thinking they become on fire with love for God and others. Their world enlarges and they discover that the more they die to themselves the more they come to experience a new life of love. In the game when a person was tagged he or she became frozen but when they encountered Jesus in the symbol of the Frisbee they were released from their sins and free to move about again. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation God sets a person again on the right track through His mercy and forgiveness.
Discussion Question
1. Why do you think that people are afraid of coming to the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
2. How do you prepare to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
3. When are times in which you can receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
4. How is going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation like saying you are sorry to a person?
5. Why do you think God gave us the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
6. What are some of your favorite bible stories about forgiveness?
7. Name a situation in which someone forgave you when you did not deserve it.
Prayer: Burning Our Sins
Allow everyone to write down their sins on a piece of paper while encouraging them to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and then have them toss it into a small fire as a symbol that their sins will be burned up in God’s love.
The Game: Piñata
The Teaching:
The Piñata was created by Mexican people to teach the faith to their children. The Piñata which is often shaped as a donkey or a monster represents evil. The Piñata is colorful because evil is tempting. The person is blindfolded because it is often hard to see where evil is coming from. Everyone is in a battle with evil and this is represented by the stick which symbolizes a sword. The people helping the person fight evil represent the Church. In a special way the person chosen by the instructor represents a priest – a person chosen from his peers by a higher authority to help us in our spiritual journey.
Discussion Question
1. What are some of the things that priest do that separate them from others?
2. What are some ways in which priests are like everyone else?
3. Name a priest that you know. What do you admire about him?
4. How do priests help you in your life?
5. What are some ways in which you can help priests perform their ministry better?
6. What type of preparation do you think a man must have in order to be a priest?
7. What are some things that you can do to encourage people to consider becoming a priest?
Prayer: Thank You Note
Create a giant thank you note for your parish priests and have them write a personal note on it.
The Game: Three Legged Race Egg Spoon Race
Supplies: Binding Material[1]
Big Spoon for each couple
Egg for each duo
Rules: 1. Divide your players into groups of two. Tie one’s left leg to the other person’s right leg.
2. On the word “go” player pairs must complete a course together while taking with them an egg on a large spoon. If the egg drops they are out of the game.
The Teaching:
Partners in a three legged race must work together in order to accomplish a task. In this particular race partners needed to protect their egg and complete the race. Catholics believe that when a man and a woman are married in front of a priest or a deacon they are bonded together forever. They must learn to go through life together working with each other instead of fighting against each other. In the words of Scripture two must become one. They must start sharing the same goals and dreams in order to get through life and to protect and care for any children that may come their way.
Discussion Question
1. What role does God and faith have in marriage?
2. How does having a good faith life strengthen one’s marriage?
3. What are some qualities that you want to look for in a boy friend and girl friend?
4. What do you think God wants for married couples?
5. What are the parts of a wedding and how do they symbolize God’s presence?
6. How do parents influence the faith life of their children?
7. Do you pray for your parents?
Prayer: Heartfelt Prayer
Have a giant poster board with a heart drawn on it. Invite everyone to write a prayer on it and then end with the Our Father.