www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Homeschool religious instruction?

There are options like Faith and Life here: http://www.ignatius.com/Textbooks/Catechism-FaithAndLife.aspx?SID=1 and Image of God: http://www.ignatius.com/Textbooks/Catechism-FaithAndLife.aspx?SID=1
Are there any Byzantine Catholic options that I am just not aware of? Any help would really be appreciated.

Hi Saponaria,

The Ruthenian Byzantine Catholics use the "God With Us" series that you can access via the Theological Book Service at this link

http://theobooks.tofg-secure.com/category.cfm?subcategory_id=56

Enjoy! A Student

I'd also recommend joining this group:

Eastern Christian homeschooling
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ec-home/

Thanks for this info! I have been looking privately for quite some time for this type of series! I wish I would have known before about this group.

Homeschooling is in general a good thing. The only issue is that folks who do it really need to be conversant in a wide variety of topics, and this might not be the usual case. The question is whether the adult/teacher has a good grounding in the 'factual' information that needs to be given to the pupil.

Too often, a lot of the religious information that is taught is based not only upon the texts and materials of the "course content" but upon its interpretation by the teacher. If the person teaching isn't solidly grounded in the factual information, then the learner is given material that is just weak.

I read about a book about "Heaven" authored by Maria Schriver that depicts heaven as a place where the dead are seated upon clouds and have feathered-angels as accompaniments. This is the "Archdiocese of Hallmark" and has little to do with both Orthodox/Catholic belief nor with scriptural teaching. It's rather comforting as a teaching, but has nothing to do with what the Church has actually taught. It's just convenient imagery for the little ones who are not yet ready for real theology. (Theology and faith are adult realities.)

Here lies the difficulty: how do adults explain to children and adolescents the reality of Christ's Gospel without numbing their minds with 'adult' concepts or without dooming them to metaphors that become "THE FAITH" rather than the messages that they were intended to convey?

For adult teachers to be buying into childlike lessons as elements of the faith is setting the learners up for a serious problem. They're likely to become the folks who wear "Recovering Catholic" t-shirts.

We need to get away from this cutesy presentation of Christ's Gospel. And we need to emphasize the "love of God and love of neighbor" teachings of Christ so that the learners realize that it is their behavior that leads to salvation. The relevant element is that upon our deaths, we go home to God and to Christ.

I know that this flies in the face of what many people understand to be the Christian world-view, but the fact is that many of us have been sold a bill of goods that is really in conflict with both the Scriptures and the teachings of the church. We need to read the scriptures as well as the treasure-trove of our litury to both learn the truths of the faith as well as learn how to communicate it to the learners.

We Byzantines need to read and re-read (and re-read) the liturgical services to begin to scrape the surfaces of the faith. And this is what we need to pass on to our learners. Other texts may offer a quick answer to the "lesson plan", but the reality lies in our liturgical expressions of the faith.

CHRIST IS RISEN!!

Dr John

Dr. John,
I appreciate your input. I will check the information fully.

We homeschool our son, and are supplementing with the Catechism from God With Us Publications, as our mission parish doesn't run classes.

Dave

Lots of God With Us books here as well. We also got a boatload of Light & Life kids books for stories of the saints, coloring pages, etc.

Dave,

Could you describe this catechism?

Terry

Terry,


Your question leads me to believe I was too loose with the term "catechism." I don't mean to imply we're using the official "Catechism of the Catholic Church," rather it is grade appropriate religious education material for Eastern Rite Catholics published by God With Us Publications. It was put together in cooperation by "the Ruthenian Metropolia of Pittsburgh, the Ukrainian Metropolia of Philadelphia, and the Melkite Eparchy of Newton" and is meant for all Byzantine Catholics. The differences among them not emphasized, but when specific prayers are used, each appropriate version is given in the teacher's manual.

For example, words for "We Have Seen the True Light," are listed five different ways, as used in "The Melkite Greek Catholic Church," "The Romanian Greek Catholic Diocese of Canton," "The Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Province," "The Ukrainian Catholic Diocese of Saint Josaphat," and "The Ukrainian Catholic Synod."

I really like it because I grew up "Ruthenian" and while I knew of the others, didn't know how the prayers differed . . .

Of course (I probably shouldn't go here) this leads me to question the issue of the RDL being divisive among Byzantines . . . wording was different among the five listed even before the RDL, as the text was copyrighted in 2004.