St. Mary Catholic Church

Religious Education - What do we Learn in 8th Grade?

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Our eighth grade class uses the Faith and Life Series by Ignatius Press. These texts are created both for daily classroom work in a Catholic school, as well as weekly work in a catechism program. Our catechists follow the lesson plans for the weekly program. Students also continue their preparation for Confirmation in 9th grade this year, completing the handbook that is given to them.

In this class our catechist focuses on the following major themes:

THEME: The history of the Church - its founding by Christ, its birth and life in the Holy Spirit; the marks of the one, true Church; the Fathers and Doctors of the Church; the saints and the role of the religious communities in Church history. The structure and hierarchy of the Church as Jesus planned. The role of the Magisterium, the clergy, the religious and the laity, and our own vocations in relation to the world in which we live. Weeks 1-10 .. Part I: The Church .. Chapters 1-13: Christ�s plan for the Church�s structure and its necessary attributes; the Church�s teaching authority, structure, and sacraments. The Communion of Saints and the early Church: Martyrs, Fathers, Saints and Mary. Weeks 11-19 .. Part II: The Christian in the World .. Chapters 14-22: Holiness, virtue, vice, and vocation. Religious and laity, Holy Orders, Marriage, and family life; call to holiness. Weeks 20-21 .. Part III: The Means to Fulfill Our Call to Holiness .. Chapters 23-24: Prayer and the Sacraments. Weeks 22 .. Part IV: The End of Christian Life .. Chapters 25-26: Death, Judgment, the end of the world. AIM: To help eighth-grade students know and love the Church as Christ�s Body, to better understand the nature of their life in the Church, and respond to the teaching of the Magisterium as the sure voice of Jesus, so that they may be strengthened in their lives in the Church and be able to live lives of Christian holiness within the world more fully.