As promised, I’m blogging each day of Confirmation Boot Camp this week. Here’s what we did today.
Today was “Jesus Day.” And yes, there were tears.
We kicked off, as we always do, with the beginning of our daily rosary and the first decade. Then we watched Road to Emmaus:
[youtube_sc url=”https://youtu.be/vepBqHvZ0Xs”]
What followed was a discussion about why Jesus is important in our lives, right now, today. And, by the way, why do bad things happen? Why does God let these things happen? What the heck is he thinking? In these discussions, I push. I ask the questions that I had (and, if I’m honest, that I still have), and usually the kids look back, blankly. I could see their wheels turning and the thoughts brewing, but I also suspected that no one has ever asked them these things before.
But I have no doubt that someday, someone will.
We talk about the relevance of the Church that Jesus founded and especially the sacraments. We talk about how free will is the ultimate expression of God’s love for us…but it’s also a huge responsibility.
We also watched Experience the Stations:
In the past, we’ve followed viewing this with discussion, but I think what we did this year is far better: we spent time in Adoration.
After lunch, we explored life and death, watching “You’re Dead, Now What?“:
[youtube_sc url=”https://youtu.be/1UPO95AsaIg”]
KJ then did an activity we haven’t done in a couple of years: we had the kids spread out across the room and we gave them strips of paper. She read them a scenario that explained that they were dying, so on five strips of paper, they needed to write five things they would want to be sure to have with them. Then they wrote five people on five other sheets. Over the course of the reflection, they had to tear up everything but one person. And then they died.
Sounds morbid, but the discussion afterward was as interesting as any we’ve had. Kids this age, I’m reminded again and again (and well I remember) are deep thinkers. They’re aware that life is important and that there are eternal consequences, and yet there is all this other input in their lives.
Finally, we wrapped up with Joe Paprocki’s Two-Minute Drills for the Ten Commandments. Not only was this a great way to wrap up the day (oh, ye end-of-the-day teachers, you have my sympathies!), but it was also just plain fun. KJ discovered this last year and it’s been a great addition that we’ll probably keep in our rotation of resources.
