QUESTIONS
-
- What does leading a ‘chaste life’ mean?
- What are Sr Rita Malavisi’s religious vows?
- What are these vows about?
- Using Sr Rita Malavisi’s words to support your description, describe what a vocation is.
- What is Thomas Aquinas’ definition of love? How do you find that God comes into this definition?
ACTIVITIES
People watching: Go to a local park or shopping centre with a friend. Find somewhere busy to sit. Watch the people that walk by. While you are watching, listen to your heart. What is your instinctive response to different people? Are there people who you assume to be cold or angry or unapproachable? People who you expect to be different than you are? What is it that influences our responses to people? How might God see the world differently? How might we challenge our instinctive responses to people with help from faith/prayer?
Public bingo: on a piece of paper, have a series of boxes. These boxes have an attribute, a commonality or an experience written in them (for example, buys a coffee every morning, also has a passion for mis-matched socks, has to make sure all the pegs are matching when hanging out the washing, has been to your favourite camping location, etc). In teams of two, approach people in the public. Explain you are playing bingo, and you need to find people who have one of the following. Can they help you win the game? Make sure to only write one person per square, even if they suit a number of boxes. Have a meeting point to race to when you finish the game. Have a conversation when the other teams return about whether you were surprised by any of the answers you received and why they were surprising.
Letter writing: Who is someone in your life you could write a letter of gratitude for?
It could be a local religious community, or someone who you see as radiating joy or performing great service to others. Maybe it is someone who wouldn’t receive a lot of gratitude for their role, like the school cleaner or gardener. You can keep your letter anonymous or perhaps ask questions and give them a chance to respond about the joy in their life by leaving a return address. Try to keep your focus on the other person and giving them an opportunity to tell their story, or by loving them through earnest gratitude.
Scripture verse: John 1:4 – “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” Consider this scripture verse in relation to the kind of love that Sr Rita Malavisi is talking about in her article. What does this verse suggest about how Jesus responds to us?
Character creation: In an animation/anime/cartoon style, create a character that has one of the following attributes as their key strength :
- the heart of a hermit
- the soul of a mountain climber
- the eyes of a lover
- the hands of a healer
- the mind of a rabbi
What does this character look like? What are their possible strengths and weaknesses? How does this attribute help them to love universally (love those outside of the people it is easy to love). What kind of adventures does this character go on?
Screen plays and skits: Come together in a group and bring your characters from the previous activity. Write a skit or screen play about your characters living together in a house, working together to try and achieve a goal, or going on an adventure together. What kind of challenges do these characters encounter? Are there disagreements or is it harmonious? How are you going to bring the characters together?
FOR YOUNGER STUDENTS
Who am I in my family?: What kind of roles do you play in your family? Are you a big sister? A little brother? An uncle? A cousin? Make a family tree. On the lines between you and your family members, write the title of your relationship to them (for example, between your mother and you, you would write ‘daughter’ or ‘son’, or between your great aunty and you, you would write ‘great nephew’ or ‘great niece’. Now around that tree, write down some of the good qualities you think are needed in a family - e.g. trust, kindness, love.