Upon This Rock:
The Church is Apostolic
By Cheryl M. Tholcke
Purpose
In this session, participants explore one of the four “marks” of the Church: the apostolic tradition.
Component: Catechesis
Correlation to the U.S. Bishops’ Adaptation: Course 4: Jesus Christ’s Mission Continues in the Church (Catechism of the Catholic Church #857, 890, 939)
Session at a Glance
7:00 p.m. Welcome and Introductions
7:05 p.m. Focusing Activity: Straight Pins and Straws
7:15 p.m. Naming Life Experience: Structure in My Life
7:30 p.m. Sharing the Faith Message: Our Apostolic Tradition
7:45 p.m. Integrating the Message: Reflection
Extend the Session: Being Apostolic Today (add 20-40 minutes)
8:00 p.m. Living the Faith Message: Prayer
8:15 p.m. Announcements and Refreshments
8:30 p.m. Good Night!
Materials Needed
· Nametags
· Markers
· Newsprint (easel paper)
· Plastic straws, 25 for each team of four to six
· Straight pins, 50 for each team of four to six
· Handout 1, Structure in My Life, one for each participant
· Pencils or pens, one for each participant
· Table, cloth, Bible, pillar candle, matches or light stick
· Instrumental music
· “I Will Lift Up Your Name” by Steve Angrisano (spiritandsong.com)
· CD or MP3 player and speakers
Prepare in Advance
Note to Leader: This session is correlated to the U.S. Bishops’ Adaptation of the Curriculum Framework, published in January 2010 by the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis at the USCCB. Download the Adaptation from this website: http://www.usccb.org/evangelization/Adaptation-of-HS-Curriculum-Framework-Preamble2.pdf.
1. Complete Handout 1, Structure in My Life, to use as an example for the participants.
2. Prepare a sheet of newsprint (easel paper) with the following questions:
· What does it mean in my life that our church is an apostolic Church?
· How has my understanding of the Church changed with this new insight?
· How might my participation in the Church be different now that I understand the significance of being an apostolic Church?
· Why is it important for Catholics to have this understanding?
3. Set up tables for refreshments and sign-in. Have one or two people at the sign-in table with a check-in sheet and name tags. Hospitality is important: As the leader, do not use the gathering time before the session begins to take care of last minute preparations. Spend the time moving among the participants, greeting and speaking with them.
Session Outline
Welcome and Introductions (5 minutes)
As the youth arrive, welcome them and invite each person to make a nametag. If there are new people present, make sure everyone has a chance to introduce themselves.
Focusing Activity: Straight Pins and Straws (10 minutes)
Divide participants into teams of four to six. Give each team 25 plastic straws and 50 straight pins. Give these instructions:
Your team’s task is to build a structure using only the straws and straight pins. Build your structure as tall as you want, but it must be able to stand on its own. No additional materials may be used. You’ll have five minutes to plan how you want to build your structure, followed by five minutes for the actual building.
Give the teams five minutes to plan, then call time and set them going on the actual building of their structure. At the end of the second five minutes, call time. Invite everyone to take a look at each team’s structure. Use some or all of the following questions to debrief the activity:
· Did your structure turn out the way you planned? Why or why not?
· As you look around the room, which structures seem to have the best foundation for their design?
· How much, if any, of your planning focused on the foundation of your structure (the part that keeps the structure standing)?
Thank them for their work on their straw-and-straight-pin structure. If possible, set them aside on a table, then continue.
Naming Life Experience: Structure in My Life (15 minutes)
Pretty much everything around us in our lives has some type of structure to it. In English, we learned that sentences have structure: subjects, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc. In order to write, we have to know the structure of sentences.
Buildings are perhaps the easiest examples to consider. Buildings, like homes, start with a foundation. Really large or tall buildings start with a foundation that is anchored deep into the ground. Once the foundation is set, the building is framed, followed by a roof and walls. Insulation, windows, and doors are installed. Each step in building is possible only because of the foundation that is laid. The foundation has to be strong enough to support the building.
Distribute Handout 1, Structure in My Life, to each participant, along with a pencil or pen. Give these instructions:
Think about the different groups you belong to, such as family, school, part-time job, youth ministry, a club or sports team or drama or music/band, etc. Choose one of these or use another idea. Then, describe the rules and guidelines, leadership, authority, qualifications, responsibilities, and benefits that are part of your being involved with this group. Use a different shape on the handout to describe each of the six parts.
Give the youth about ten minutes to complete the handout. When they are finished, ask them to pair with one other person and share something from their handout.
Sharing the Faith Message: Our Apostolic Tradition (15 minutes)
Gather the participants together in a large group. Ask a volunteer to proclaim Matthew 16:13-20. Follow the reading by saying:
In this very familiar Gospel passage, Jesus appoints Peter as the head of the Church, first among the Apostles: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church’. When we pray in the Creed that “we believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church,” the word apostolic refers to the Apostles. We believe that our church—the Roman Catholic Church—is apostolic, that is, founded on the apostles (CCC #857).
Let’s see what being apostolic means. First, the Apostles form the foundation of the Church—they are “the witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself.” (CCC #857)
Second, what was preached by the Apostles—what the Catechism calls the “good deposit”—is held on to by the Church. The preaching that started with the Apostles and the work of the Holy Spirit is handed on from generation to generation.
Third, we can trace our history as the Church from the time of St. Peter—our first pope—to our current pope, Benedict XVI. The popes, the bishops, and the priests from the beginning are successors of Peter and the rest of the Apostles. With this continuity in leadership, the Church is guided “until Christ’s return” (CCC #857).
That gives you an idea of some of the initial structure—or foundation—of the Church. The Apostles, and the many disciples who came along after, are part of the foundation of the Church. Many of you have heard the saying, “We stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us.” Over the centuries, holy men and women of God have preached and taught and blessed us with their lives—all the while helping us keep our covenant with God.
In a special way, the Magisterium of the Church is entrusted with the responsibility of transmitting the faith to the People of God. The Magisterium is the ‘teaching authority’ of the Church—made up of the Pope and the bishops. “[T]he pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates.” (CCC #890)
Integrating the Message: Reflection (15 minutes)
Post the sheet of questions you prepared in advance of the session. Invite the participants to take some time for quiet and reflection. Distribute sheets of paper and pens or pencils. Ask them to look at the questions on the newsprint and reflect on those that interest them. Play some quiet, instrumental music in the background.
After ten minutes, re-gather as a large group. Invite a few volunteers to share what they wrote as part of their reflection. What new insights do they have? What difference might this information make in their everyday lives? What questions or challenges arise in light of this learning?
(Optional) Extend the Session: Being Apostolic Today (20-40 minutes)
In small groups of six to eight, invite participants to create a contemporary, visual image of the Catholic Church as apostolic. Ask the youth to consider the qualities of a church that can trace its lineage to the Apostles and to illustrate an understanding of our structure as apostolic. Be creative! Use digital cameras to create a video that you can post on the youth ministry website or YouTube. Provide newsprint and markers to create posters to hang in the parish’s gathering area. Develop a skit to share with children in the parish faith formation program. Allow enough time to finish their creative work so they can share with the rest of the group.
Living the Faith Message: Praying with the Apostles (15 minutes)
Gather
Invite the participants around the prayer table. Ask a volunteer to light the candle.
Sing “I Will Lift Up Your Name.”
Prayer Leader: (begin with the Sign of the Cross)
O God,
who gave us the Apostles, graciously grant that by their examples of faithfulness and leadership, we may be faithful in living as disciples of your son, Jesus. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Listen
Invite the reader to proclaim Matthew 16:13-20. Allow a few moments of silence after the reading.
Respond
Prayer Leader:
Together, let us pray a litany of the apostles. After each name, our response will be: pray for us.
St. Peter pray for us.
St. John pray for us.
St. James pray for us.
St. Andrew pray for us.
St. Thomas pray for us.
St. Matthew pray for us.
St. Philip pray for us.
St. James pray for us.
St. Bartholomew pray for us.
St. Simon pray for us.
St. Jude pray for us.
St. Matthias* pray for us.
Go Forth
Invite each person to share a sign of peace with those around them. To conclude, sing “I Will Lift Up Your Name.”
*St. Matthias replaced Judas Iscariot.
Announcements and Refreshments (15 minutes)
Thank the youth for their participation in tonight’s session. Make any needed announcements about upcoming programs, activities, or strategies. Invite everyone to enjoy some refreshments.
This session was written by Cheryl M. Tholcke, Project Coordinator for Youth Ministry Access, Center for Ministry Development, Sacramento California. Cheryl also teaches the Evangelization & Catechesis course in the Certificate Program. Fr. Roy Shelly, Ph.D., pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Spreckels, California served as the theological consultant on this session.Resource 1
Background for the Session Leader
This information from the Catechism of the Catholic Church is provided to help you prepare for this session.
857 The Church is apostolic because she is founded on the apostles, in three ways:
- she was and remains built on "the foundation of the Apostles," the witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself;
- with the help of the Spirit dwelling in her, the Church keeps and hands on the teaching, the "good deposit," the salutary words she has heard from the apostles;
- she continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles until Christ's return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college of bishops, "assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter, the Church's supreme pastor":
You are the eternal Shepherd
who never leaves his flock untended.
Through the apostles
you watch over us and protect us always.
You made them shepherds of the flock
to share in the work of your Son. . . .
890 The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium's task to preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church's shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. The exercise of this charism takes several forms:
860 In the office of the apostles there is one aspect that cannot be transmitted: to be the chosen witnesses of the Lord's Resurrection and so the foundation stones of the Church. But their office also has a permanent aspect. Christ promised to remain with them always. The divine mission entrusted by Jesus to them "will continue to the end of time, since the Gospel they handed on is the lasting source of all life for the Church. Therefore, . . . the apostles took care to appoint successors."
935 To proclaim the faith and to plant his reign, Christ sends his apostles and their successors. He gives them a share in his own mission. From him they receive the power to act in his person.
96 What Christ entrusted to the apostles, they in turn handed on by their preaching and writing, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to all generations, until Christ returns in glory.