Mater et Magistra magazine reminds you to renew (if now is your time to do so). Click here, it’s easy. And though the print edition is lovely, it will still be a great little publication even if it goes all-digital. Support your small catholic homeschooling press today.
Category: Adult books – Catholic
Theology of the Body For Teens: Middle School Edition
The Catholic Company very kindly sent me a review set of the Theology of the Body for Teens: Middle School Edition bundle. Okay, so I begged for it. They sent an e-mail out to all the reviewers (they are still accepting new reviewers) asking who wanted it, and I gave it my best me-me-me-meeeeee! and made the cut! Yay! And then I told my DRE, who explained how she was busy trying to finagle a copy on loan from another parish. Because yes, it is that good.
What’s in the packet:
- A student book. Eight chapters of substantial, readable lessons. Upbeat format. Rock solid teaching. You will need one of these for each student.
- A teacher’s guide. It’s the student book page-by-page, with helpful teaching notes. Includes some lesson-planning ideas, answer keys of course, additional information about the Theology of the Body, and supplemental material on difficult topics. If you are teaching this as a class, you need this book.
- The parent’s guide. This is a small book (75 pages, pocket-size) that explains what students are learning. It is more elevated, adult-level content, focused on how to parent middle-schoolers — it is not a re-hash of the student guide at all.
- The DVD collection. There is a set of videos for each chapter of lesson, plus additional material on difficult topics, and a show-this-to-the-parents chapter that explains what the course is about. The videos are fun, held the interest of my small test-audience of adults (me) and kids (mine), and add significantly to the content of the course. You would want these if you were teaching this as a class.
What does the course cover?
Well, the focus is John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, but it comes down to: How do I live? What will make me happy? And what do I do with this body I’m growing into?
Most of this is not about sex. It’s mostly about virtue, identity, and love. How do I love and respect myself and others? How do I build good relationships? How do I know what God wants me to do? It’s a serious, useful, substantial set of lessons that really teach how to be the kind of person God wants you to be.
–>I read the student workbook first. I found it helpful for me, personally. To the point that in my opinion, parishes would do well to offer the course to both teens and their parents. As in: I myself, a grown-up, NFP-using, CCD-teaching, cave-dwelling bona fide catholic dweeb lady, found this to be a course that pushed me to grow in my Christian life.
What Age Student?
The books are targeted towards middle-schoolers — grades 6th to 8th. I may be under-estimating his maturity, but I felt that my own 6th grade boy, who lives a fairly sheltered catholic-homeschool life, and is not one bit interested in girls, he was not ready to fully benefit from the program. I held onto a copy of the student book for us to use at home, and when my parish offers it next year (please God), I will send him then. But for girls (who mature earlier), and for boys and girls who are more fully immersed in our sex-saturated culture, this is about on target for as young as 6th grade.
Sex-related topics are taught in a wider context. First students learn how we use our bodies to communicate, how we must make an effort to grow in virtue and purity, and how we should not use others for our own gratification, within the wider context of regular life. It is only after these essentials are thoroughly explored, many weeks into the course, that students are shown how they apply specifically to sex.
Sexual topics are dealt with directly but modestly. If you don’t know what porn is, all you’ll find out is that it is “the display of images for the purpose of arousing lust”. (Lust is “a vice that causes people to view others as objects for sexual use”). So this is a step more mature than earlier-grades catechesis, where the details of “impurity” are left entirely to the reader’s imagination. If your student is not yet ready to learn about the existence of pornography, sexting, and fornication, hold off on this course for now.
Difficult topics are not presented directly to teens. There are some video segments the instructor can choose to present depending on the maturity of the group, as well as supplemental teaching material in the teacher’s manual. One teaching technique I found very helpful was a script where a teacher reads a scenario (young people gathering in the alley behind a movie theater), but the actual misbehavior is not specified. The teacher then asks: What do you think was happening there? It’s an opening for students to share the kinds of things they know are going on in their community, which the instructor can then address as appropriate.
I’m cheap. Or poor. Do I need to buy the whole nine yards?
The materials are made to be used together. For a knowledgeable parent wanting to teach at home for the minimal investment, purchasing just the student book would provide a substantial lesson for the least cash outlay. Note however: The other items do add to the overall content of the course. This isn’t a case of the videos just repeating what the book says, or the parent book being a miniature version of the student book. Each element contributes new and useful material. If I were teaching this in the classroom, I would want the whole collection, no question about it. As a parent, I would want my children to view the videos.
Is it Protestant-friendly?
It’s a very Catholic program. (Don’t let the “Pope John Paul II” thing fool you.) You’ll hear references to saints, to the sacraments, the Catholic faith. BUT, keep in mind, this is all just normal healthy human life. Love, virtue, modesty, chastity — these are for the whole human race. The message is right on target with what any Christian youth program would want to teach. So if you are comfortable with Catholic-trappings, you could work with the whole course as-is, and just explain to your audience that it was made by Catholics. If not, you may want to get the materials for yourself, and use them to train yourself how to teach these topics to your teens.
Summary: I give it a ‘buy’ recommend, if you are responsible for teaching a young person how to act like a human being. Thanks again to our sponsor The Catholic Company, who in no way requires that I like the review items they send, but would like me to remind you that they are a fine source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible.
Are we all middle class?
The Economist seems doubtful about the 91% of Americans who identify themselves as “middle class”. Not strictly middle-middle-class. The 91% number is the sum of people who consider themselves either lower-, plain old middle, or upper-middle class. Can this be so?
I’ll argue yes. Here’s why:
1. We really are that rich. As a nation. The trappings of wealth — quality electronics, barely-worn clothing, cute little decorative accents — can be had for little or no cost, just for the luck of being nearby when some richer person decides to upgrade. Thrift stores ship old clothing by the bale off to some other place to be dealt with, because no one in the US needs bother learn how to mend or make-over some outdated or worn garment. There comes a time when your nation is wealthy enough that bottom percentile brackets do not necessarily indicate poverty.
2. We really are that educated. Class is in part about education. I have to go back four generations to find an ancestor who has less than a high-school diploma. Unless you are fresh off the boat, these days everyone goes to high school. And if you don’t graduate your first go-through, you can go back and get a GED later. The Economist says that a college degree was the mark of middle class cultural identity. I disagree. Both sets of my grandparents were high-school-only, WWII-era young adults. A high school education alone, combined with job success, firmly launched them all from working-class to middle-class.
3. Income is different from class. I knew this when I was a kid: If you were a teacher, even though you didn’t make any money, you were definitely middle-class. It was your education and your line of work that made you qualify. I think teachers earn more now than they did then. But now I know an awful lot of people with college and graduate degrees who live at the poverty line, income-wise. If you choose a lousy-paying career-field, have a stay-at-home-parent, and enough kids, guess what? You get to be poor. Financially. But you’re still educated, well-spoken, able to navigate the world of the middle-class (often: upper-middle class) comfortably. In a survey about class (not income), you’d pick middle.
4. Income isn’t nothing. So say your formal education isn’t impressive, and your line of work is not so white-collar. If you make enough money to afford a comfortable home, put your kids through school, never have to worry about clothes or food, or medical care, and on top of all that you can buy yourself any number of little luxuries . . . how is that not middle? You aren’t poor, for sure. Maybe your origins and even your tastes run “working class” (though my experience is that once income is removed as a factor, tastes in food and drink vary independently of family of origin). But sooner or later you get too rich not be middle class.
5. The top is so very high. There’s this point on the salary scale where you just aren’t middle, income-wise. I’d hazard it’s somewhere around the $200k/year, thereabouts, less or more depending on your perspective and your life situation — though if you want to put the figure higher or lower, go ahead. It doesn’t matter. It’s this point, whatever it might be, where people (both writers at The Economist, and also the people who really are in the financial middle of the income distribution), start to laugh at you when you say you are merely “upper middle class”. And you are wondering why they are laughing. Because here’s what: You who are now rich know that a) you really aren’t that rich compared to the super-rich people, b) at any time your paycheck could dry up and you’d go back to being a normal person, c) you don’t have any of the trappings of upbringing and connection that rich people have, because you are, um, middle class. Your cultural identity sticks. You’re a son of the middle class who happens to have a lot of money right now. It is the exact same thing as the PhD living below the poverty line, only at the other end of the income spread. (He’s probably your brother. Literally.)
Anyway that’s my take. The Economist says you can’t talk about about class in America. I think it’s more like, there’s not a lot to say. We’re a vast middle. I would assume that 91% of us feel that way anyhow — that we belong to this giant cultural lump, bonded by the real hope of three-bedroom homes, shoe clutter, and free public high school education.
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And in light of my perfect contentment living here deep amongst the middling-types, has anyone read Fr. Thomas Dubay’s Happy are the Poor? If yes, I’m keen to hear your thoughts.
Weekend Reading
Courtesy of The Catholic Company Reviewer Program, I’m curling up this weekend with The Theology of the Body for Teens – Middle School Edition. So far so good. I’m halfway through the student and parent books, have not yet viewed the DVD’s. I’ll post my own review in the next week or so, and then will be passing on the bundle-o-curriculum to my DRE. Might be able to get some opinions from her and our youth minister to share with you as well.
–> Our parish elementary and middle/high school religious ed programs are on separate nights. Which means many family members of middle schoolers are loitering around the education building on a night when the middle school kids do not have class. This course looks like one that would make a great stand-alone program to offer during that time. We’ll see.
Saturday Linkfest
I’ve got another episode from the Homeschool Photo Contest to post, but am waiting for just the right time. Ha. Meanwhile, here’s how you should goof on instead:
1. Read this article from the Apparent Project on Why You Should Not Mail Peanut Butter to Haiti. No, really, take it out of the bubble-wrapped package and eat it yourself. Haiti thanks you. Because it turns out that shipping bunches of free stuff to impoverished countries undermines local businesses. That make peanut butter. Or would, if only Haitians weren’t getting boxes of the stuff from other countries. Go read.
2. A longtime friend, engineer, amateur gunsmith, and EMT, sent us this YouTube video on Gun Safety. PG WARNING: If your head is screwed on straight, there’s at least one scene that is objectionable even for comedy noir. It also means you aren’t the target audience. [Hint: If you have given up watching action-adventure shows because all the egregious gun safety violations– by law enforcement good guy characters no less!!– have caused you to throw your tv out the window, you aren’t actually the target audience for this clip.] But it is funny. With proper parental guidance as required.
3. Look, Sarah Reinhard one of my favorite writing friends, has a new book out:
She let me look at one of the later drafts, and it is a really nice little book. If you are looking for a family-friendly Advent Book, I’d give it a recommend. From what I recall, it is protestant-friendly. But just e-mail her and ask if you have any questions or concerns, she is one of those extroverted writers who likes to talk to readers. Or leave a comment in her blog combox. She’s totally chatty. Super Nice Person. Happy to talk about her books any day.
4. And is just me, or does it look like the new John McNichol book is now out on Amazon?
Serious coolness.
Not for people who don’t read genre fiction. But highly recommended if you are looking for fun, readable Catholic GKC Sci-Fi Alternate History goodness in a package your boy will enjoy. Do you know of a different book that will cause an 11-year-old boy to beg to read Huck Finn? Maybe you do. Or maybe you think that no day is complete without the threat of an alien attack. In which case, McNichol is your man.
Simmering.
Thank you to Bearing for linking to this free pdf booklet by Fr. Longenecker on St. Benedict for Busy Parents. I have been so desperate for something to read . . . desperate enough to crack the pages of White Fang, which does not interest me in the least, but it’s on my shelves for certain schoolchildren, and what else was I going to read? Now I’ve got 25 pages of reprieve from that monster.
–> The library is right out, because I absolutely cannot keep track of one more thing right now, and the library means about twenty more things, all hidden under mattresses and stuck behind dressers by the time the third renewal comes around. Sometimes, being a person who is simply not interested in television is maybe not all it’s cracked up to be. Even if actually Eric Sammons is right. (He is.)
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In other news, if you had were one of the people (contacted privately) praying for the best dog in the world in her recent illness, she is home and looking a little better. Looks like a case of thyroid gone AWOL, guess that happens to middle-aged ladies of many species. Venison and rice and a big bone boiling on the stove for her now, the rest of us I think are having frozen pizza.
The Rite by Matt Baglio
The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, by Matt Baglio, Doubleday, 2009
I recommend this book, on the condition that you read the whole thing. Otherwise, skip. Just not healthy any other way. –>> And no I have not seen the film, [which Father L. reviewed here, and has even more to say on the whole topic here] and no I’m not planning to see the film, because I am too impatient to watch things when I could be reading instead. Also I see on the author’s page that the paperback has updated material in it — my comments here are based on the edition above.
Anyhow, back to the book. Here’s what it is, per the author:
The purpose of this book is not to promote any one faith over another, but to offer a detailed account of one priest’s journey from a rational skeptic to a practicing exorcist. I didn’t set out to write with any preconceived bias and as such the book is written in a straightforward journalistic style, which means that I give respect to the beliefs and testimonies on all sides, including medical science.
And that’s what it is. We follow Fr. Gary Thomas (a real guy) as he heads to Rome on sabbatical in 2005, after being freshly appointed diocesan exorcist. His travails are, wow, amazingly normal. If you spend any amount of time in the Catholic Church, you will totally recognize the place. You couldn’t write fiction like this. Fr. Thomas does finally manage to secure an apprenticeship with a practicing exorcist, and the book version does clearly show the humdrum, hard, dull work that goes with the territory.
[Interestingly — the reports of boring catholic exorcisms match very closely to what I have heard described by evangelical protestants who have experience with boring exorcisms of their own. Different details as far as the methods of the exorcists, but identical phenomenon on the recipients’ end.]
The author sticks to the straightforward, journalistic style all the way through. It is not a “catholic” book in the sense of trying to evangelize or prove a point of the faith. The reporting could come straight out of the Herald Tribune. But it is a firmly catholic book in the sense that any book which earnestly reports the truth is necessarily catholic.
In addition to following Fr. Thomas’s personal story, the book explains catholic teaching on the supernatural in very clear terms. There is also an examination of how demon possession relates to psychological disorders, including interviews with secular researchers who reject supernatural explanations. [One of the first jobs of the exorcist is to find a qualified psychiatrist to rule out natural causes.] One of the reasons I think it is important to stick with the book through to the end, is that it is not at all clear how things are going to turn out, or whether the book will ultimately end up affirming the catholic faith. [It does. It can’t help it. Tell a true story, that’s what you end up with.]
The book follows Fr. Thomas through to his first “for real”, no-doubts-about-it exorcism, in 2007, after he is back home in the states and settled in to his parish assignment. And here’s the conclusion, so you can rest easy, since if you are smart you will naturally be quite wary of picking up books on these sorts of topics:
These prayers do have power, he thought. It was a visceral reminder that the age-old conflict between good and evil, sin and salvation, was far from over. Not only did this validate his calling as a priest, and his choice to become an exorcist, but it was a powerful confirmation of one of the deepest mysteries of his faith. Even though evil existed in the world, there was a way to defeat it.
Will there be fake news in Heaven?
The IC is having a book-release party for Felon Blames 1970s Church Architecture for Life of Sin. Go take a look.
Someone was asking me yesterday which blogs I follow, and of course I completely blanked out. (Um, look at my sidebar?). But I believe I’ve read every single post by the Ironic Catholic since however many years ago it was I discovered the place. And probably on that day I scrolled through the entire archive.
Intelligent, clean-cut catholic satire that *is* funny and *is not* mean. How many other writers could sit in the middle of that venn diagram?
Bleg – downloadable catholic bible?
UPDATE #2: Leo in the combox points out that Ignatius Press now has an e-book version of their RSV. Thank you, Leo!
UPDATE: Christian LeBlanc kindly e-mailed me these links:
Blue Letter Bible Protestant with great features.
RSVCE my preferred Catholic Bible for quoting, etc.
BibleGateway all Books Protestant but tons of versions & flexible search engine. I use this to check King James Version for alternate English to RSVCE.
NAB the Bible you hear at Mass. I use this in class most of the time so it will be the same as Mass to the kids, unless I have a particular reason for using another version.
NEW ADVENT BIBLE tritongue Greek, D-R, Vulgate. I use this to check Douay-Rheims for alternate English to RSVCE.
Thank you!!
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(Some of you just got this bleg in your e-mail.) Anyone have a good catholic e-bible you like? I am not sure of the needed format, so all suggestions welcome. It’s for a gift, so it doesn’t have to be a free version. Thanks!
If you have one you like, tell me all about it. Recipients are teenagers, if that makes any difference.
The Youcat
So I dropped by my local catholic bookstore yesterday in search of confirmation gifts. (Got ’em, and they are NOT BOOKS. The nieces will suspect I am an imposter.) Shop owner says, “Look over there, we’ve got the new Youcat in.” Waves toward rack with all the neat items-to-be-promoted.
I smile. A pained smile. Um, okay. Thanks.
Because you do not know how many reviews of this book I have not read. Many. If there is someone on that sidebar who wrote a review of the YOUCAT, I saw it and skipped it. Not interested. Just not. Too perky. What a goofy name. And plus what’s wrong with the big catechism, ya know? Do I look fifteen? No, I do not look fifteen.
So then I wander over to the promo rack, and well, I’ll just take a look at the thing. Might as well see what it is. Someone might ask me about it. My DRE might try to make me use it or something.
Open it up to a random page. Read a sample. Told the shop owner, “You just sold a book.”
[She proceeded to sell me two CD’s by playing samples of these guys off her PC while she was at it. Smart lady. Crack for catechists.]
Anyway, the story with the Youcat is this:
It translates the Catechism for you. It’s a quick, easy way to look up the catholic teaching on something, and get answers in words kids can more or less understand. You still need to understand the teachings of the church yourself. Big Catechism isn’t going anywhere. But if you want the words to give to kids? Here it is. Plus, if you’re in a hurry, you don’t have to really think about the answers when you look something up.
Compare and contrast . . . In the big catechism, here’s 1755-1756:
II. GOOD ACTS AND EVIL ACTS
1755 A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action, even if the object is good in itself (such as praying and fasting “in order to be seen by men”).
The object of the choice can by itself vitiate an act in its entirety. There are some concrete acts – such as fornication – that it is always wrong to choose, because choosing them entails a disorder of the will, that is, a moral evil.
1756 It is therefore an error to judge the morality of human acts by considering only the intention that inspires them or the circumstances (environment, social pressure, duress or emergency, etc.) which supply their context. There are acts which, in and of themselves, independently of circumstances and intentions, are always gravely illicit by reason of their object; such as blasphemy and perjury, murder and adultery. One may not do evil so that good may result from it.
Here’s the Youcat. A simplified version of those paragraphs is given, and then this:
The end does not justify the means. It cannot be right to commit infidelity so as to stabilize one’s marriage. It is just as wrong to use embryos for stem cell research, even if one could thereby make medical breakthroughs. It is wrong to try to “help” a rape victim by aborting her child.
What you need to know. To the point. Answers the questions students actually ask in class.
You could leave it lying around for the kids at home to read, too. Or the adults. And I’ll admit, the sunny cover and all the photos and drawings do make you want to read the thing. It’s as if someone at the Vatican really really wants people to learn the Catholic faith. Maybe the guy who wrote the foreward, for example.
You can order yours directly from Ignatius, stop by your local catholic bookstore if you are a good, holy person who happens to have such a thing nearby, or support one of the blogger-friendly internet retailers such as The Catholic Company (coming soon) or Aquinas and More. Basically, no excuse not to have one. Well, okay, don’t go into debt for it. But aside from that.