Happy new year, guys!
No, I don't have my months wrong. First Sunday of Advent=Church New Year.
Advent is here-Jesus is coming. That's a good reason to be happy, right? (And Stuffing Leftovers.)
Since it's a new Church Year, I'm going to kick off a new series, starting next Monday.
As regular readers know, I teach first grade CCD. You would think that most adult Catholics would know the stuff I teach at that level. But I'm surprised to hear, when I talk about the stuff I teach, that a lot of Catholics have no idea. They can't define "grace", or what a virtue is. (They can name virtues, but they aren't really sure what a virtue is.) They don't know how the 12 apostles died. (That's actually pretty cool.) The big things, yeah, they know that. But the things that really make Catholicism beautiful? Sometimes they're missing that.
So I've decided to, every Monday, go through my class lesson plan, and do a post about what we teach the kids about a certain topic. We cover a lot in first grade--all the sacraments, the life of Jesus, the liturgical year, the 12 apostles, the 10 commandments, the beatitudes, saints, some Old Testament, etc. I'll go a little out of order at first and start with Advent and the Liturgical Year next week, because that's where we are.
I know I'm continually amazed by what the kids ask, and what I learn teaching them. I hope you enjoy it, too!