Since God calls each of us to live an authentic life-a life of honesty and integrity, so that we can be holy. How do we do this is the big question. I found it fascinating to read that those that we should look to as experts are the Saints. The Saints are the ones who have made the journey and we are called to explore ourselves. They are the examples that we should follow, but in reality, how much do we know about the Saints. Are we teaching about them in our classrooms and do we know the significance behind each Saint’s personal prayers. For example, we pray to St. Anthony when we misplace something. Why do we not hear about them during Mass. Why have they become so unpopular? To be able to follow them is to learn by their examples if we want to truly live an authentic life.
Great thoughts, Patty. It makes me even more excited to have the 3rd graders pick a saint, a moral mentor and coach, to tell the class about! After reading chapter seven I felt encouraged to pursue things that inspire me to be a better person and to reject/break away from "worldly" things. I thought it was interesting how he said, "Christ's philosophy was based on discipline, and He came to afflict the comfortable. Saints often make modern Catholics uncomfortable because they challenge us to throw off the "spirit of the world" and embrace "the spirit of God."
The last sentence in this chapter really caught my attention. "The great spiritual North Star hangs in the sky, calling each of us to become the-best-version-of ourselves." Wow! Are we able to do this? Are we striving to become the best we can be? That is what the saints are all about. Are we willing to follow the path they have set for us? The saints are an important aspect in my life. I try to strive this with my students at school. We are so lucky to be able to share this in a Catholic school with our students. Saint Anthony and Saint Jude have made a large impact on my life. When I was pregnant with Tony my mom said I should call the baby Tony if he was a boy because I was always asking St. Anthony to intercede for me. We agreed on the name. Our Tony is not a saint, but he has been a blessing in our lives. In our parish the statues of saints are very visible. Fr. Loecke has made a point of finding old statues, having them refurbished, and then having them reintroduced into our church. After awhile we had so many statues that it seemed to become cluttered. But now I realize the reason he has for displaying these statues. When we look at these statues we should realize that each of us is called to holiness. They have challenged us to grow holy.
After reading the seventh chapter, I thought about whom most people are inspired by or are role models. Sadly, I would guess that very few people would say a saint’s name. Sports figures, musicians, actors, and actresses influence many people, especially kids (which can be a scary thing). Other people would say someone special in their lives influences them, such as a family member or a friend. I believe that when we think about influential people or role models in our lives, we need to look for the ones who live their lives like God wants us to. I agree with Matthew Kelly when he said that people shy away from the saints. They believe that the saints are on a pedestal because of what they have heard or read in books about the saints. Even though I somewhat understand why some authors decide to leave out the struggles that the saints went through, I also believe that it is important for people to see the hardships that the saints overcame. In that way, people can relate to them and realize that they were humans, too. Overall, I believe that we are all capable to live our lives like the saints if we follow our call to holiness and live our lives as God wants us to.
Even though I am not a parent, I was interested to read Matthew Kelly’s thoughts about having children involved in many different activities. When I read the quote, “The overwhelming number of activities our children are engaged in is serving only to distract them from acquiring any real discipline in their lives, and as a result they are being firmly grounded in the superficiality that is ruling our age,” I was interested to know what you (the parents) thought about this quote.
An idea from this chapter that really intrigued me was the idea that holiness is something that is attainable for all of us. I never really thought about it that way before. And while I agree that we have definitely shied away from the saints, I think it is also important to recognize the saints among us in our daily lives. The people who constantly struggle through life, adversity constantly being flung in their face, yet they never complain, are always putting the needs and thoughts of others before their own. Our students as well....the ones who work so hard every day, harder than anyone else in the class, yet they never complain and never give up trying.
In response to Lisa about my thoughts as a parent, I was surprised by the author's belief that being involved in activities keeps us from acquiring real discipline. I think it takes a lot of discipline....on the part of the parent as well as the child.....to participate in the activity, do homework, try to put supper on the table instead of going through the drive-through, taking a shower and still getting to bed on time. As a parent, though, I have questioned my daughter's participation in activities. I have never forced participation in any activity on her--she is involved in things that she is interested in and she wants to do. Yet a part of me longs for the good old days when participation in all of these different activities didn't happen until you were in 5th grade or older. We just keep pushing kids younger and younger to do more, just as preschool is now the new kindergarten. I also find it disheartening when parents purposely hold their kids back in school so that they are bigger for their grade when it comes to sports. This happened to me once with one of my Kindergarten students--it was the longest year of my life because mentally he needed to be in first grade--and I had to deal with a lot of behavior issues because he wasn't where he really needed to be.
I do think that people today are very busy doing many different things. However, I have to agree with Sandy in the fact that participating in activities does require discipline. Children learn that to master something or show progress, you must work hard and show up for practices, be ready to learn and participate. I feel like one minute we hear that people/children today are lazy, but then we also hear an earful about how we are always rushing/running around and never taking time for important things. So which is it? There has to be a medium somewhere.
When we discuss or read about the saints in the classroom or in church, I do find myself wishing that I could maybe just be half of what they were. I think we all try to do so many things and be something to so many other people wether it is a teacher, friend, wife, husband, sister, brother, mom, dad or anything else we need to be to someone, that it is hard to remember or even just hard to do even just some of the great things that our saints did. There is so much going on in our lives today that I feel like it is hard to find an even balance of who we need and want to be. I think if we are giving it all, that is what truly matters.
It was nice to read all the entries before mine!! I think all of you hit it on the head for the main parts of the chapter!!! I do think it is awesome how the third grade class takes the time to study the saints and enact the students to find a role model for their lives. When I read I also was thinking about the fact that kids are so involved in things. I feel there can be a good involvement and a not so good involvement. Yes, being involved takes a discipline to be able to hand time committments and it does help in the social interaction and cooperation skills. I feel the majority of students do grow through involvement. What is hard is those who take it to the next level and as fourth and fifth graders try out for traveling teams and come to a point of arrogance when they make the team. When kids in our area go to Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Des Moines to compete in sports in third - sixth grade age, perhaps that is pushing them a little too much and not allowing them to be kids. I also liked how the beginning of the chapter talked about journeying. I liked the line on p 78 that says "The spiritual life is a long and difficult journey, and we are all pilgrims on this path.
There were several parts of chapter 7 that spoke to me. One of them had to do with the idea that to be a great Catholic, you have to study and practice, you need to have a mentor. There are so many great saints to read about--it is wonderful that 3rd grade continues to do their writing and presentation about the saints. What a great way for the kids to learn about good role models that can be present in their lives. Something else that struck me was about how the statues and stories of saints are not visibly present in many churches today. I think to my home parish that recently built a new church--it feels more Protestant than Catholic in the design and lack of visible saint statues (even the Holy Family). I don't know if this is a way to reach out to what the author refers to as the "modern Catholic" or exactly what the reasoning is.
I also found it interesting about the lifestyles we lead in regard to children, their activities, and discipline. I do think it takes much discipline to have your child or children involved in discipline (to practice their activity, get homework completed, eat a family meal together). I think some activity is good and healthy for kids, but having numerous and very competitive activities, I think, can be harmful as well. When I look at my own children, they are not overly involved on their own, but when you multiple it by 3 kids, it does seem like a lot. Even though it can be stressful, it also bonds our family and enables everyone to support each other in their endeavors.
I remember once in a Relgious retreat, the priest said "We are all saints in process." I thought Wow, never thought of this like this before but it makes sense. God created us in His image. This just gives me something to strive for!!
The book talks about one of our challenges being to open our hearts to the call of the Gospel. I sometimes find it challenging to read and interpret the bible, but I find it interesting that I often find the most profound comments and observations through my students when we do our weekly bible verse activities. I am always amazed with the clarity that they sometimes see things with that I am unable to pick up. There is something to be said for the innocence of a child and their perspective!
One quote that stuck out to me in this chapter was "God is drawing up to a path whether we are aware of it or not. My courage is to accept the present and my hope to look toward the future come from remembering how God has use the circumstances of my past to achieve his purpose in my life." I agree with this statement. These are choices in our lives that have led us to where we are today. Sometimes we don't know what has drawn us to this path. God's grace has led us to where we are today and where we are going in our future.
I think that the saints are always with us. When they were hear on earth they did great things and after death I feel they will still continue their work to help others.
I very much agree with Sandy when she mentioned the Saints in our everyday lives, even the students in which we encounter. I think kids have a hard time relating to the Saints. However, if we as educators try to make a connection between the Saints that once lived and the people who walk among us who act as Saints, they will be more apt to understand what it takes to be a Saint.
This chapter really made me think about the role models in our lives and people that inspire us. Everybody has somebody they look up to- which could often be a family member or someone famous. We all want to make the right choices and do good things, but may not always know where to turn to find find someone that would inspire us to be the best we can be. I loved how Matthew Kelly said to be a great artist, you have to study and research other great artists. To be good at football or golf, you have to study the great players who have gone before us. So who do we study to become great Catholics? The Saints! Sounds easy, but we need to make the time to study them because they are not in the daily news or on the front page of the paper.
Since God calls each of us to live an authentic life-a life of honesty and integrity, so that we can be holy. How do we do this is the big question. I found it fascinating to read that those that we should look to as experts are the Saints. The Saints are the ones who have made the journey and we are called to explore ourselves. They are the examples that we should follow, but in reality, how much do we know about the Saints. Are we teaching about them in our classrooms and do we know the significance behind each Saint’s personal prayers. For example, we pray to St. Anthony when we misplace something. Why do we not hear about them during Mass. Why have they become so unpopular? To be able to follow them is to learn by their examples if we want to truly live an authentic life.
ReplyDeleteGreat thoughts, Patty. It makes me even more excited to have the 3rd graders pick a saint, a moral mentor and coach, to tell the class about! After reading chapter seven I felt encouraged to pursue things that inspire me to be a better person and to reject/break away from "worldly" things. I thought it was interesting how he said, "Christ's philosophy was based on discipline, and He came to afflict the comfortable. Saints often make modern Catholics uncomfortable because they challenge us to throw off the "spirit of the world" and embrace "the spirit of God."
ReplyDeleteThe last sentence in this chapter really caught my attention. "The great spiritual North Star hangs in the sky, calling each of us to become the-best-version-of ourselves." Wow! Are we able to do this? Are we striving to become the best we can be? That is what the saints are all about. Are we willing to follow the path they have set for us?
ReplyDeleteThe saints are an important aspect in my life. I try to strive this with my students at school. We are so lucky to be able to share this in a Catholic school with our students. Saint Anthony and Saint Jude have made a large impact on my life. When I was pregnant with Tony my mom said I should call the baby Tony if he was a boy because I was always asking St. Anthony to intercede for me. We agreed on the name. Our Tony is not a saint, but he has been a blessing in our lives.
In our parish the statues of saints are very visible. Fr. Loecke has made a point of finding old statues, having them refurbished, and then having them reintroduced into our church. After awhile we had so many statues that it seemed to become cluttered. But now I realize the reason he has for displaying these statues. When we look at these statues we should realize that each of us is called to holiness. They have challenged us to grow holy.
After reading the seventh chapter, I thought about whom most people are inspired by or are role models. Sadly, I would guess that very few people would say a saint’s name. Sports figures, musicians, actors, and actresses influence many people, especially kids (which can be a scary thing). Other people would say someone special in their lives influences them, such as a family member or a friend. I believe that when we think about influential people or role models in our lives, we need to look for the ones who live their lives like God wants us to. I agree with Matthew Kelly when he said that people shy away from the saints. They believe that the saints are on a pedestal because of what they have heard or read in books about the saints. Even though I somewhat understand why some authors decide to leave out the struggles that the saints went through, I also believe that it is important for people to see the hardships that the saints overcame. In that way, people can relate to them and realize that they were humans, too. Overall, I believe that we are all capable to live our lives like the saints if we follow our call to holiness and live our lives as God wants us to.
ReplyDeleteEven though I am not a parent, I was interested to read Matthew Kelly’s thoughts about having children involved in many different activities. When I read the quote, “The overwhelming number of activities our children are engaged in is serving only to distract them from acquiring any real discipline in their lives, and as a result they are being firmly grounded in the superficiality that is ruling our age,” I was interested to know what you (the parents) thought about this quote.
An idea from this chapter that really intrigued me was the idea that holiness is something that is attainable for all of us. I never really thought about it that way before. And while I agree that we have definitely shied away from the saints, I think it is also important to recognize the saints among us in our daily lives. The people who constantly struggle through life, adversity constantly being flung in their face, yet they never complain, are always putting the needs and thoughts of others before their own. Our students as well....the ones who work so hard every day, harder than anyone else in the class, yet they never complain and never give up trying.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Lisa about my thoughts as a parent, I was surprised by the author's belief that being involved in activities keeps us from acquiring real discipline. I think it takes a lot of discipline....on the part of the parent as well as the child.....to participate in the activity, do homework, try to put supper on the table instead of going through the drive-through, taking a shower and still getting to bed on time. As a parent, though, I have questioned my daughter's participation in activities. I have never forced participation in any activity on her--she is involved in things that she is interested in and she wants to do. Yet a part of me longs for the good old days when participation in all of these different activities didn't happen until you were in 5th grade or older. We just keep pushing kids younger and younger to do more, just as preschool is now the new kindergarten. I also find it disheartening when parents purposely hold their kids back in school so that they are bigger for their grade when it comes to sports. This happened to me once with one of my Kindergarten students--it was the longest year of my life because mentally he needed to be in first grade--and I had to deal with a lot of behavior issues because he wasn't where he really needed to be.
I do think that people today are very busy doing many different things. However, I have to agree with Sandy in the fact that participating in activities does require discipline. Children learn that to master something or show progress, you must work hard and show up for practices, be ready to learn and participate. I feel like one minute we hear that people/children today are lazy, but then we also hear an earful about how we are always rushing/running around and never taking time for important things. So which is it? There has to be a medium somewhere.
ReplyDeleteWhen we discuss or read about the saints in the classroom or in church, I do find myself wishing that I could maybe just be half of what they were. I think we all try to do so many things and be something to so many other people wether it is a teacher, friend, wife, husband, sister, brother, mom, dad or anything else we need to be to someone, that it is hard to remember or even just hard to do even just some of the great things that our saints did. There is so much going on in our lives today that I feel like it is hard to find an even balance of who we need and want to be. I think if we are giving it all, that is what truly matters.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to read all the entries before mine!! I think all of you hit it on the head for the main parts of the chapter!!! I do think it is awesome how the third grade class takes the time to study the saints and enact the students to find a role model for their lives.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read I also was thinking about the fact that kids are so involved in things. I feel there can be a good involvement and a not so good involvement. Yes, being involved takes a discipline to be able to hand time committments and it does help in the social interaction and cooperation skills. I feel the majority of students do grow through involvement. What is hard is those who take it to the next level and as fourth and fifth graders try out for traveling teams and come to a point of arrogance when they make the team. When kids in our area go to Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Des Moines to compete in sports in third - sixth grade age, perhaps that is pushing them a little too much and not allowing them to be kids.
I also liked how the beginning of the chapter talked about journeying. I liked the line on p 78 that says "The spiritual life is a long and difficult journey, and we are all pilgrims on this path.
There were several parts of chapter 7 that spoke to me. One of them had to do with the idea that to be a great Catholic, you have to study and practice, you need to have a mentor. There are so many great saints to read about--it is wonderful that 3rd grade continues to do their writing and presentation about the saints. What a great way for the kids to learn about good role models that can be present in their lives. Something else that struck me was about how the statues and stories of saints are not visibly present in many churches today. I think to my home parish that recently built a new church--it feels more Protestant than Catholic in the design and lack of visible saint statues (even the Holy Family). I don't know if this is a way to reach out to what the author refers to as the "modern Catholic" or exactly what the reasoning is.
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting about the lifestyles we lead in regard to children, their activities, and discipline. I do think it takes much discipline to have your child or children involved in discipline (to practice their activity, get homework completed, eat a family meal together). I think some activity is good and healthy for kids, but having numerous and very competitive activities, I think, can be harmful as well. When I look at my own children, they are not overly involved on their own, but when you multiple it by 3 kids, it does seem like a lot. Even though it can be stressful, it also bonds our family and enables everyone to support each other in their endeavors.
I remember once in a Relgious retreat, the priest said
ReplyDelete"We are all saints in process." I thought Wow, never thought of this like this before but it makes sense. God created us in His image.
This just gives me something to strive for!!
The book talks about one of our challenges being to open our hearts to the call of the Gospel. I sometimes find it challenging to read and interpret the bible, but I find it interesting that I often find the most profound comments and observations through my students when we do our weekly bible verse activities. I am always amazed with the clarity that they sometimes see things with that I am unable to pick up. There is something to be said for the innocence of a child and their perspective!
ReplyDeleteOne quote that stuck out to me in this chapter was "God is drawing up to a path whether we are aware of it or not. My courage is to accept the present and my hope to look toward the future come from remembering how God has use the circumstances of my past to achieve his purpose in my life." I agree with this statement. These are choices in our lives that have led us to where we are today. Sometimes we don't know what has drawn us to this path. God's grace has led us to where we are today and where we are going in our future.
ReplyDeleteI think that the saints are always with us. When they were hear on earth they did great things and after death I feel they will still continue their work to help others.
ReplyDeleteI very much agree with Sandy when she mentioned the Saints in our everyday lives, even the students in which we encounter. I think kids have a hard time relating to the Saints. However, if we as educators try to make a connection between the Saints that once lived and the people who walk among us who act as Saints, they will be more apt to understand what it takes to be a Saint.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter really made me think about the role models in our lives and people that inspire us. Everybody has somebody they look up to- which could often be a family member or someone famous. We all want to make the right choices and do good things, but may not always know where to turn to find find someone that would inspire us to be the best we can be. I loved how Matthew Kelly said to be a great artist, you have to study and research other great artists. To be good at football or golf, you have to study the great players who have gone before us. So who do we study to become great Catholics? The Saints! Sounds easy, but we need to make the time to study them because they are not in the daily news or on the front page of the paper.
ReplyDelete