Epiphany of the Lord

For Catholics (and a few other Christian traditions), Christmas isn’t over on Christmas day. We continue to celebrate for 12 days after, until the 6th of January, which is the Epiphany of the Lord, the celebration of the visit of the Magi to baby Jesus, as told in Matthew 2:1-12. (In the West, we celebrate on the Sunday between the 2-8th of January, which would of course be today.)
“Epiphany originally celebrated four different events, in the following order of importance: the Baptism of the Lord; Christ’s first miracle, the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana; the Nativity of Christ; and the visitation of the Wise Men or Magi. Each of these is a revelation of God to man: At Christ’s Baptism, the Holy Spirit descends and the voice of God the Father is heard, declaring that Jesus is His Son; at the wedding in Cana, the miracle reveals Christ’s divinity; at the Nativity, the angels bear witness to Christ, and the shepherds, representing the people of Israel, bow down before Him; and at the visitation of the Magi, Christ’s divinity is revealed to the Gentiles—the other nations of the earth.”
[source]
“The word epiphany means “manifestation” or “revelation” and is commonly linked in Western Christianity with the visit of the wise men (Magi) to the Christ child. Through the Magi, Christ revealed himself to the gentiles.”
[source]
“On the Feast of the Epiphany [in the West], the priest, wearing white vestments, will bless the Epiphany water, frankincense, gold, and chalk. Chalk is used to write the initials of the three magi over the doors of churches and homes. The letters stand for the initials of the Magi (traditionally named Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar), and also the phrase Christus mansionem benedicat, which translates as “may Christ bless the house”.”
[source]
If you check out Wikipedia, you can read some of the more interesting Epiphany customs all over the world, such as in Bulgaria, where a priest throws a wooden cross into a body of water and men race to retrieve it. Because it’s so cold, it’s considered an honorable act – the home of the first to retrieve the cross is said to be blessed with good health.
Happy Twelfth Night!




Prayer for Coworkers

The well-known Parent's Prayer works quite well when you modify the words to say "coworkers":

Heavenly Father, make me a better coworker.

Teach me to understand my coworkers, listen patiently to what they have to say, and to answer all their questions kindly.

Keep me from interrupting them or contradicting them.

Make me as courteous to them as I would have them be to me.

Forbid that I should ever laugh at their mistakes or resort to shame or ridicule when they displease me.

May I never punish them for my own selfish satisfaction or to show my power.

Let me not tempt my coworkers to lie or steal and guide me hour by hour that I may demonstrate by all I say and do that honesty produces happiness.

Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me.

And when I am out of sorts, help me, O Lord, to hold my tongue.

Let me not rob them of the opportunity to make their own decisions.

Bless me with the bigness to grant them all their reasonable requests and the courage to deny them privileges I know will do them harm.

Make me fair and just and kind, worthy to be loved and respected and imitated by my coworkers. Amen.


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Digital Media's role in the Church

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM -- We live in an era where constant technological and social changes take place. This case study was written in order to explore how a traditional Institution such as the Catholic Church applied social media to adapt in order to satisfy the demands and necessities of believers. The specific example studied in this case is the use of Twitter to grant indulgence to believers.

THE FACTS
For many years the Catholic Church has been suffering from what might be called “bad publicity”, with frequent talk about pedophilia and financial scandals. In January 2012, while Pope Benedict XVI was the Head of the Institution, there was a scandal which the media called Vatileaks that allegedly exposed corruption through leaked documents. Later that year letters and memos between Pope Benedict and his personal secretary were published in a book called His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI, which exposed the former Pope’s personal finances, and also stories of bribery to obtain an audience with him. In 2013 Pope Benedict XVI decided to abdicate and Pope Francis was elected as his successor.

Pope Francis represented a change for the Church, so the Institution began a process of adaptation to the technological changes in society. Pope Benedict had a Twitter account that was cleaned (all the tweets that belong to Benedict were deleted) after he resigned. Once Francis was elected the user name for the account went from “vacant” to “Pope Francis”. The Twitter [1] account is available in 9 languages and has over 8 million followers. When that account was under Benedict’s name it only had little over 400,000 followers. The Vatican has a website [2] on which believers can follow Mass via the Internet. Pope Francis has a Facebook page [3] that has over 75,000 likes where people can post almost anything, a YouTube channel [4], and an app called The Pope App for smartphones. He is the first Catholic Pope to use social networking to communicate with believers in a successful way. Being able to read words from the Pope on handheld devices creates a more dynamic relationship by creating the feeling of closeness. 

THE PROBLEM
Indulgence is basically time off purgatory. On July 17 2013 the Vatican announced that Pope Francis would be providing indulgence to whoever had a legitimate reason not to attend the World Youth Day (an event for young people organized by the Catholic Church, at the international level every two to three years at different locations) and followed the event either on TV or radio. Controversy arose because indulgence, a very conservative and controversial term, was being used to prove that the Church was moving forward. The Church realized that not everyone could afford the trip to Brazil to participate in the World Youth Day and that there could be other impediments for people who wanted to participate. The Catholic Church came up with a solution for anyone who could not attend the World Youth Day: grant indulgence to whoever had a legitimate reason not to participate. The question then is, how do we as part of society feel about indulgences being granted over Twitter? If we can start replacing the physical Church with social media, will it reduce civic engagement? Will people replace their participation in church as members of a community with digital participation? 

MEDIA REACTION
The media coverage regarding the indulgence via Twitter has been very diverse. Had it not been thanks to the relevance traditional media has given this matter, a lot of people would not know about the situation. Traditional media reported the news from an objective point of view in a positive way. While most of the articles read during this investigation merely stated the fact that indulgence was to be granted over Twitter, some showed their support to the Church’s decision: “In the age of modern technologies any mass media give a great opportunity to stay in touch [5] of what is going on and participate in the prayer, including the service led by the Pope”. Others didn’t hesitate to mention that they don’t believe it is a good idea to use technology in a case like this: “great idea that the church tries to reach believers with technology, feels it is not right [6] to offer indulgence over twitter .“ 

“Meanwhile, blogs had a more negative reaction towards the indulgence situation, which they expressed through mockery and ironic statements.” Of course, “genuine spiritual fruit” is hard to measure, so you may just have to input the proper prayers at the correct time and hope your spiritual fruit is growing right [7].” The fact that articles/blogs/videos are open to comments is very important because it generates action from the readers. My first and only comment [8] about the Catholic Church and the recent news about using Twitter to cleanse a person from punishment is HERESY!” 


How meaningful is the interaction or engagement with the Church over Twitter?
The Church decided to open a Twitter account to improve the relationship with believers, especially the younger demographic. However, Pope Francis’ accounts only follows his other accounts in other languages. When the Vatican decided to inform the resolution for indulgence over Twitter, the news was delivered via traditional media. It is interesting that the Vatican chose a traditional form of communication to inform of their plans for innovation. That could lead us to ask why someone who wants to prove that they are leaving traditions would embrace said traditions to do so. In our opinion it could be because the news that indulgence was to be granted over Twitter they would generate controversy and it would be easier for people to understand through traditional media.


Common Core Catholic Initiative

BACKDROP:
A learning goal or standard is only as good as the instructor's ability to imagine what it would look like when it is being met.
(Sarah Fine, Education Week, Oct. 10)

It is essential to keep in mind the basic premise of what a school is because that which does not reproduce the characteristic features of a school cannot be a Catholic school.
(Article 25, The Catholic School, Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, 1977)

We ask the schools to teach children to think, to socialize them, to alleviate poverty and inequality, to reduce crime, to perpetuate our cultural heritage, and to produce intelligent, patriotic citizens.
(Omstein and Levine, Foundations of Education, 2000)

We need to fix our schools to teach "entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity" so students can emulate the "new untouchables" in our work force today.
(Thomas Friedman, New York Times, Oct. 2009)

We ask all Catholic schools to do this and...The integration of religious truth and values with the rest of life is not only possible in Catholic schools, it distinguishes them from others.
(Teach Them, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1976)

The Gospel Spirit should be evident in a Christian way of thought and life that permeates all facets of the educational climate. (Article 25)...Religious values and motivation are cultivated in all subject areas and in all of the various activities going on in the school. (Article 107)...
(The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, The Congregation for Catholic Education, 1988)

The special character of the Catholic School, the underlying reason for it, the reason why Catholic parents should prefer it, is precisely the quality of the religious instruction integrated into the education of the students.
(General Directory for Catechesis, United States Catholic Conference, 1997)

The task of the Catholic School is fundamentally, "a synthesis of culture and faith, and a synthesis of faith and life: the first is reached by integrating all the different aspects of human knowledge through the subjects taught, in the light of the Gospel; the second in the growth of the virtues characteristic of the Christian."
(The Catholic School, Revised Translation, NCEA, Summer 2009)

An excellent Catholic school adhering to mission provides a rigorous academic program for religious studies and catechesis in the Catholic faith, set within a total academic curriculum that integrates faith, culture, and life.
(National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools, 2012)

The curriculum is modified continuously as the goals of education are revised, as student populations change, as social issues are debated, and as new interest groups are activated...
(Omstein and Levine, Foundations of Education, 2000)

Content mastery is not sufficient. We should view content acquisition as a means to an end, not an end in itself. If students do not have numerous opportunities to use content knowledge to solve interesting problems, grapple with key questions and issues of the discipline, and examine sound issues, they will be unlikely to perform well on the common assessments.
(David Coleman, Building on the Common Core, Educational Leadership, March 2011)

The Common Core Standards are not about coverage, but spiraling, learning something and taking it to the next level.
(Anne R. Gere, NCTE, Education Week, July 2011)

The "heartbeat" of the Common Core is instruction. The "heartbeat" demands that we revamp the mile-wide, inch-deep approach in curriculum and in textbooks.
(David Coleman, April 2011)

WHAT?
To develop a framework that will assist educators in infusing Catholic values and principles of social teaching into all subjects and integrating the Catholic worldview and culture into curriculum and instructional design using the Common Core Standards.

WHY?
  • Catholic schools need to pay attention to the fact that the common core standards and assessments are here and it is important to get on board.
  • Defining Characteristic: Our Catholic schools are distinguished by excellence.
  • An excellent Catholic school has a clearly articulated, rigorous curriculum aligned with relevant standards, 21st century skills, and Gospel values
implemented through effective instruction.
  • The curriculum adheres to appropriate, delineated standards, and is vertically aligned to ensure that every student succesfully completes a rigorous and
coherent sequence of academic courses based on the standards and rooted in Gospel values.
  • Standards are adopted across the curriculum, and include integration of the religious, spiritual, moral, and ethical dimensions of learning in all subjects.
  • Teachers and principals - and many superintendents - require a great deal of assistance in understanding and implementing standards-based curriculum and instructional design.

WHO?
  • Catholic school teachers, curriculum experts, catechetical experts, principals, and superintendents

CATHOLIC IDENTITY ELEMENTS:
How can we legitimately integrate these elements into instruction while ensuring rigor in keeping with the CCSS?
  • Catholic Worldview
  • Culture and Tradition
  • Gospel Values
  • Church Social Teachings
  • Moral/Ethical Dimensions

National Catholic Educators Association (NCEA):
  • NCEA advocates the Common Core State Standards initiative.
  • CCSS ensure equity across all states.
  • NCEA is not focused on how Catholic school test scores compare to other schools, public or private; instead, NCEA is focused on the best fit for each child - the cobined school community, academic program, and the way the individual is able to function and progress in that program's environment
  • CCSS should not be thought of as a curriculum. Rather, they are the outcomes we should be aiming at for each child.
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