New Project

You knew I would beg your assistance again. I'm still in class!!

So, yes, I have another project due: Be creative in coming up with a way to teach a doctrine using the Rites. I have chosen Death.

Ok, so death isn't a "doctrine" per se. I need to think more about that. But purgatory is. Life after death is. Heaven and hell are.

We got talking in class a couple of times about how well Catholic die. I have to admit that the funeral Masses are extraordinary. We start with the person's baptism, have Communion and then commit them to the earth. Birth-Nourishment-Death. I don't know if you realize this, but the Mass doesn't end until the commitment at the grave site. Well, there are the concluding rites at the end of the in-Church part, but it continues at the grave.

I was going to do virtues because I think the virtues are a very lost concept for today's world. There is no comprehension of "virtues". Doing what feels right to you has become the ultimate. It is so ingrained in us. However, I was finding it difficult to come up with a creative way to teach the Cardinal Virtues and the Theological Virtues, so unless one of you have a great idea, I'm going back to "death".

How have you handled death with the teens? Has it been after a tragedy? Have you thought about teaching it independantly of a highly charged emotional environment? Have you given thought to prepping the kids in the event of a death? Even their own?

How do you get the point across? How would you have a youth group on death? Or a religion class on death?