SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Catholic Education Week 2018: Renewing the Promise
Introduction
Each year, the Catholic community of Ontario engages in a week-long celebration of the unique identity and distinctive contributions of Catholic education during Catholic Education Week. This year’s celebration is entitled, “Catholic Education: Renewing the Promise” and will be held during the week of May 6 – May 11, 2018. The overall scriptural theme is “For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” Acts 2:39
We are reminded that publicly funded Catholic education is a call to service. Regardless of our position or responsibilities within Catholic education, our role is a call, birthed in our Baptism, to bring the saving message of Jesus Christ into the lives of those students whom it is our privilege to serve. This reality elevates our duties and responsibilities to another plane. Left to our own strengths and abilities, the task seems and is very challenging, but we are not alone in this task. Jesus promised us the abiding strength of the Holy Spirit to be with us always – not just for a century or two at the church’s beginning, but always. But the promise is predicated on our faithful and faith-filled response to that call to service following the example of Jesus who said, “I am in the midst of you as one who serves.” Luke 22:27
The five sub-themes for Catholic Education: Renewing the Promise are:
Monday:Remembering the Promise
Faire mémoire de la promesse
Tuesday:The Promise is Within You
La promesseestentoi
Wednesday:Praying the Promise
Prier la promesse
Thursday:Living the Promise
Vivre la promesse
Friday:Proclaiming the Promise
Annoncer la promesse
The purpose of the Secondary School Resource Kit is to provide opportunities for students to engage in meaningful activities and reflections to deepen their awareness and understanding of both the gift and the responsibility of Catholic education. The Secondary Resource Kit contains:
Daily prayers and reflections
An outline for a one-day secondary school retreat
A suggested movie list related to the five sub-themes of CEW 2018
Scripture readings and quotes
Feel free to adapt any of the materials in this package to suit your school’s specific needs. Materials may be found on the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association (OCSTA) website at We encourage all of our partners in Catholic education to reference the Elementary and Secondary Resource Kits as well as past issues for prayers and activities, as many may be appropriate for this year’s theme.
Sincerely,
Catholic Education Week Resource Committee
Paul Beaudette
Janet Bentham
Sr. Pat Carter
Nancy Davie
Paul DeVuono
Laura Hughes
Sebastien Lacroix
Amy LaFroy
Stephanie Maher
Cindy Morgan
Katharine Stevenson
Catholic Education Week Partners Group
Neil MacCarthy, Archdiocese of Toronto, Director, Public Relations & Communications
Dan Smith, Archdiocese of Toronto, Liaison for Catholic Education
Ben Smith, Ontario Student Trustees’ Association, President
Christina Atrach, Ontario Student Trustees’ Association, Vice-President
Nick Milanetti, OCSTA, Executive Director
Sharon McMillan, OCSTA, Director of Communications
Brian O’Sullivan, OCSTA, Director of Catholic Education
CEW Song – Words and Music
Susan Hookong-Taylor, Toronto CDSB
“For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away,
everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” Acts 2:39
CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK
MAY 6 – MAY 11, 2018
CATHOLIC EDUCATION: RENEWING THE PROMISE
SECONDARY SCHOOL RESOURCE KIT
Table of Contents
- Daily prayers
- Further reflection for each of the five sub-themes of Catholic Education Week 2018
- An outline for a one-day secondary school retreat
- Movie resources related to the five sub-themes of Catholic Education Week 2018
- Scripture readings and quotes related to the five sub-themes of Catholic Education Week 2018
Morning Prayers, Scripture Analysis and
Reflection Questions
Students
You are a most significant educational influence on each other.
We invite you to become active participants in the process of Catholic education. We urge you to bring your energy, enthusiasm and generosity to the task of building a Catholic community within your school and to shaping the vision of Catholic education. Your strengths and your weaknesses, your joys and your fears, your struggles and your longings, will be welcomed in this community. Whatever your age, you are not too young to assume responsibility with and for your fellow students. You are a most significant educational influence on each other. You can help each other become disciples of Jesus Christ, or you can hinder each other from becoming everything you are called to be. How you are with one another now will significantly influence how you will be with others as adults. The future of the church and its mission of service in the world will be yours. For this, you will need courage, self-discipline and all the love you are able to give. Take up the challenge of growing into a sense of who you are as Christians, so that you can develop the talents you have been given and bring the best of yourself to the society in which you will be living.
Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario, This Moment of Promise
Depending on your school’s practice, these prayers can be used in a variety of ways. Some schools have daily prayer over the school intercom, while others invite prayer within the community of the classroom. Each day, schools are invited to offer their own prayers and special intentions, specific to the particular needs of their community of faith.
Each prayer emphasizes a sub-theme of Catholic Education Week. Following the daily prayers, the gospel reading is broken open in a more fulsome way. Individual classes may choose to expand upon the prayer by delving deeper into the gospel that was proclaimed. Reflection questions have been provided for personal student reflection and/or to facilitate further classroom discussion.
You may wish to select one or two individuals per homeroom class, prior to Catholic Education Week, to serve as prayer leaders each day. These students could be trained by the school’s Chaplaincy Leader to facilitate a prayer experience within the classroom. The prayer leaders could serve to deepen an understanding of some, or all, of the sub-themes by continuing the prayer begun in the morning and leading a deeper reflection, as suggested in the questions provided.
However you choose to use the prayers, scripture analyses and reflection questions, there is plenty of room to experience the gift of Catholic education. In each corner of this province, there are young people being shaped by their Catholic educational experience and Renewing the Promise of Catholic education!
A Note About the Structure of the Daily Prayers
The themefor Catholic Education Week 2018: Renewing the Promise, draws upon previous documents on Ontario Catholic education, namely, “This Moment of Promise” (1989), “Fulfilling the Promise” (1993) and “Our Catholic Schools” (2006-2007). These three documents, while several years apart from each other, all speak of the unique mission of Ontario Catholic education, the importance of its shared leadership by all those involved in Catholic education and the critical role of Catholic education in contemporary society.
The sub-themeeach day is introduced with a quotation from scripture or one of the church documents on which the sub-themes are based.
Each day, the Call to Prayermakes the connection between the sub-theme and one aspect of the promise of Catholic education.
Monday:Remembering the Promise
Looking back with gratitude to the pioneers of Catholic education in Ontario
Tuesday:The Promise is Within You
Recognizing that the promise of Catholic education is incarnated most fully in the students within our system
Wednesday:Praying the Promise
Paying attention to the growing incidence and depth of contemplative prayer within Catholic schools in Ontario
Thursday:Living the Promise
Recognizing the deeply-rooted charity and justice initiatives in schools throughout Ontario and their connection to the Kingdom
Friday:Proclaiming the Promise
Looking forward to the future of Catholic education and its role in the New Evangelization
The Contemporary Musical Interpretations offer an artisitc way to engage the broad themes each day. Teachers may wish to look up the lyrics of each song and make connections to the scripture passages. Songs and lyrics are easily accessed on the internet.
The Opening Prayer, addressed to Jesus, speaks with the voice of the individual student, asking for a particular grace or growth. It leads into the scripture passage which follows and references implicity the citation from “The Texture of the Times” which concludes the morning prayer.
The Scripture Passagesfrom Matthew and Luke’s gospel, provide illustrative examples through the actions or parables of Jesus of the various aspects resresented in the sub-themes.
The Closing Prayer, addressed to God, the Father of Jesus and Our Father, is more expressive of the faith we share as a Catholic community.
These prayer liturgies are offered in the hope that they might strengthen our own faith during this special week as we celebrate Catholic Education: Renewing the Promise.
Each morning, prayer concludes with a citation from “The Texture of the Times,” a sub-section found within This Moment of Promise.
MONDAY – REMEMBERING THE PROMISE
Source: Catholic Education Foundation of Ontario,
“The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.”John 14:26
CALL TO PRAYER
As we begin Catholic Education Week together, let us remember in our prayer today those who laid the foundations of Catholic education in Ontario: the bishops and priests, the religious communities of sisters, brothers and priests and the school trustees. They were great-hearted and great-minded people, inspired by the vision of a life shaped by the witness of Jesus Christ and the tradition of the Catholic Church. They paid a price for Catholic education that was not only financial, but also deeply personal and they did it willingly and joyfully. We pray in thanksgiving that we can celebrate this Catholic Education Week from within the schools that they inspired.
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SUGGESTION
Scars to Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara
Remember When by Alan Jackson
Go My Son by Living Legends
Let us begin with the Sign of the Cross: In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. +
OPENING PRAYER
Jesus, like us, you grew up within a faith tradition that was thousands of years old. Help me to grow in my appreciation for the roots of Catholic education in the long tradition of the Church and to make my faith a more central part of my life at home and at school. In a world that seems to become more secular every day, give me the courage and the conviction to share the living waters of my faith with others. Amen. +
SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:41-51
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you, O Lord.
41Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. 42And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. 43When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. 45When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48When his parents* saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ 49He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’*50But they did not understand what he said to them. 51Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Prayers of the Faithful Reflecting the Needs of Your School
CLOSING PRAYER
God of our ancestors, you keep faith alive in all generations. Help us to become more strongly rooted in our faith, so that our schools may be places where knowledge and relationships are transformed by the quest for meaning and the search for truth. Teach us how to keep faith with our Catholic tradition, the living faith of those upon whose shoulders we stand, by handing it on to the generations that will follow us. We make our prayer through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. +
“In a world which ignores the human thirst for God, we are called to share the living waters of our faith.”
“The Texture of the Times” in This Moment of Promise
Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario, 1989
TUESDAY – THE PROMISE IS WITHIN YOU
Source:
“Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away… No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.”Deuteronomy 30:11, 14
CALL TO PRAYER
In our prayer today, let us be especially mindful of the students within our schools, who are the incarnation of the promise of Catholic education. In the words of This Moment of Promise, “In some mysterious way, we have been promised to God and to one another. Our young Catholics are promises of God and we and they are called to share this promise with our world.”
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SUGGESTION
Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield
Humble and Kind by Tim McGraw
The Hall of Fame by The Script
Let us begin with the Sign of the Cross: In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. +
OPENING PRAYER
Jesus,when you visited your hometown, you shared with your friends and neighbours the Good News that God’s promise was being fulfilled in their very midst and in the person of someone they all knew. By my respect for those around me, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized, help me to show how God is present in the people all around me. May I help others to understand that we are called to care for human life in all its different manifestations and to see your face in everyone. We make this prayer in the name of your Holy Spirit. Amen. +
SCRIPTURE: Luke 4:16-22
A reading from the Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you, O Lord.
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath Day, as was his custom. He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Prayers of the Faithful Reflecting the Needs of Your School
CLOSING PRAYER
Loving Father, you sent your son Jesus in human form as Emmanuel – “God with us” – the fulfillment of your promise of salvation. Through his words and example, we see the love that you have for all people, especially the poor, the disabled and the imprisoned. Help us to create communities within our schools that welcome everyone and help people to know that they are recognized and valued as your daughters and sons. We make this prayer in the name of your Son, Jesus Emmanuel. Amen. +
“In a time where there is little reverence for the image of God in the human person, we are summoned to care for human life with an ultimate respect.”
“The Texture of the Times” in This Moment of Promise
Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario, 1989
WEDNESDAY – PRAYING THE PROMISE
Source: World Community for Christian Meditation,Christian Meditation in Schools of Ontario, Canada
“Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks, receives and everyone who searches, finds and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”Matthew7:7-8