Last year I had a class that prayed very respectfully, but wanted the very typical Catholic school morning prayer: intentions, a rote memorized prayer, then the flag salute. While it is certainly a beautiful and meaningful way to pray, it left me wanted more variety and types of prayer. So while I still intend to let my homeroom brainstorm how they want to pray at the beginning of the day and end of the day, I’ve decided to up my game in how we pray at the beginning of each religion class.
Ordinary Time Religion class prayers
My current plan is to attach a different type of prayer to each day of the week and then change those out seasonally. Where I can I used alliteration because a) I love alliteration and b) I am also an ELA teacher. So for ordinary time, here is the plan and some links to resources:
Meditation Monday: Each Monday we will start class with a short guided meditation. If you have the Hallow App, they have a bunch of good ones. I also really like Alabaster Co’s guided meditations and Mindful Christian– they can both be found for free on YouTube.
3 Minute Retreat Tuesday: I’ve shared this resource before. Loyola Press publishes a three minute retreat every day and they are wonderful. It’s short slide show you can click through with scripture, a reflection, questions to ponder, then a short closing prayer. Each retreat features a beautiful photo and soothing music. My students really enjoy them.
Wednesdays in the Word: Every Wednesday we will spend some time doing Lectio Divina, or holy reading. I have a super easy to use template for this in my Prayer Journals for Middle Schoolers resource in the shop here, and also available on Teachers Pay Teachers. Because our school has mass every Friday, we will either use one of the mass readings for Friday’s mass, or we will focus on scriptures about the Eucharist for the years of Eucharistic Revival. I have some prefilled templates based specifically on the Eucharist in my Teachers Pay Teachers store as well.
Thankful Thursday: In my Prayer Journals for Middle Schoolers templates I have two different options for gratitude journaling, but sometimes I keep it really simple for students. I play a song on my computer and we just free write in our prayer journals all sorts of things we are thankful for.
Free Choice Friday: I have a variety of other prayer ideas that I want to keep available and Free Choice Friday will give us a little wiggle room. I also think that students will engage more in picking how the class prays once they’ve learned a few other options. Some Fridays we will choose together as a group how we will pray, and some Fridays students will have choices and then have time for some personal reflection. One Friday a month we will go to adoration at the parish.
Seasonal variations
Advent: During Advent, the 7th graders will do the Jesse Tree as their prayer at the beginning of class. I have a few blog posts about how we do that: Advent is almost here!, O Jesse Tree, and O Jesse Tree 2.0. I also like to spend some time focusing on the theme of each week: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. I have graphic organizers for each of those in my Advent Prayer Pages resource on Teachers Pay Teachers.
For my 8th graders, during Advent I think we are going to learn the Angelus and maybe even a little bit of the Liturgy of the Hours- I’ll post more once I figure that out. We will also meditate on the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary during Advent and Christmas.
Lent: During Lent I really like to teach The Chaplet of Divine Mercy and the Stations of the Cross. There are in depth lessons (with rubrics etc.) in my 2 Prayer Practices for Lent resource on Teachers Pay Teachers. I will probably focus on the Stations with the 8th graders and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy with the 7th graders. (Curriculum wise this makes the most sense for me, but both would be good for both.)
Easter: During Easter, I want to revisit the Liturgy of the Hours and teach students the Regina Coeli. I also spend a lot of time in the Psalms with the students during Easter- using Lectio Divina and my Easter egg psalms prayer table. The 7th graders will learn about the Via Lucis and create stories and art based on the Resurrection.
There are so many amazing ways to pray with students, and I am hoping that coming into this year prepared with a solid plan for each day will take some of the stress out of the process for me. Let me know if any of the resources I posted really worked for you!
