Creation Story

In the beginning, when God created... Tonight we are going to begin our bible study with the first story of Genesis, the Creation Story. God in his goodness created everything out of nothing. And He was pleased with everything He made. When He created man in His image and likeness, he said it was VERY good.

These are the days that I used for my treats; on day two, He separated the bodies of water, so for my first treat I have a water bottle for the students. On day five God created the sea monsters and all kinds of swimming creatures, so for my second treat I have gummy fish. On the fifth day God created the living creatures, so for my last treat I have animal crackers.

When we study the creation story we also talk about the Creation ladder and how the Spirit Life is superior to us, and how Human Life is superior to the animal life and how the animal life is superior to the plant life. We also talk about being good stewards of the Earth, so the water bottles will be reused each week.

Scripture Cookies

In class tonight we are going to talk about how to read the Bible and how to look up scripture. To practice looking up scripture I have a recipe for Scripture cookies. Here is the recipe:

1 cup Psalm 55:21(after churning)
2 cups 1 Samuel 14:25
2 Isaiah 10:14
1 teaspoon each 2 Chronicles 9:9 (several kinds)
2 cups Leviticus 2:1
1 teaspoon Matthew 5:13
1 teaspoon Leviticus 6:17 (modern cookie form)
3 cups Proverbs 11:26 (one type)
1 cup 1Samuel 30:12 (optional)

Beat the first four ingredients together. Mix in remaining ingredients. Drop by teaspoonful onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Answers: 1 cup butter (softened), 2 cups honey (I use sugar instead), 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla and cinnamon, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda (leaven), 3 cups rolled oats, 1 cup raisins.

Because God inspired the authors of the Bible He is considered the main Author of the Bible.

Workers in the Vineyard

I am excited for another year of CCD, I only have 10 students so that will be different. For our opening prayer we always read the Gospel reading for the following Sunday. The Gospel for this Sunday, Mt. 20:1-16 (the workers in the vineyard) is what I am focusing my treat on.

This story is a parable, a story Jesus uses to teach us a lesson about the Kingdom of God. Here is the story; Their was a man who went out early in the morning to hire some workers to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a fair wage, a silver coin a day. He went out again at nine o'clock and saw some men standing doing nothing, so he told them to also go to work and he would pay them a fair wage. So they went. Then at noon and again at three o'clock the man did the same thing. At nearly five o'clock the man again went out and saw some men standing idle, they man asked them why they were not working and the men replied, no one wanted us. So the man also hired them.

When evening came the owner told his foreman to call the workers and give them their pay, starting with the workers who were hired last. All of the workers got paid one silver coin. When the workers who started early in the day saw that they got paid the same as the workers who were hired at five o'clock they were upset and thought it was not fair. Their Foreman asked them if they had agreed to a silver coin for a day's work and they replied, yes we did. The foreman said "Don't I have a right to do as I wish with my own money? Or are you jealous because I am generous?"

Jesus has the same love for all of us, even if we are late coming to know him.

So for my treat I have a silver chunk of chocolate representing a silver coin and grape juice to drink since they were working in the vineyard all day.

Father Damian

Tonight is our last class and I am so sad to see it end. I have really enjoyed the students and blogging about my class. We only have class for about 20 minutes then we gather for May Crowning. I am serving pizza and wings while we play hangman, choosing who our favorite person was that we talked about. I am choosing Hannah because of her deep desire to have a child and how she gave him back to God at such an early age.

Yesterday, May 10 was the feast of St. Damian, so I am also serving pineapple macadamia cookies to honor him. Last year when I was in Hawaii I saw his monument on the same square as King Kamehameha at the Judicial Office and I was pretty excited that a religious person was honored.

Father Damian came to Hawaii in 1864 as an ordained priest. In 1873 he moved to the leper colony in Molokai. It was hard for him to see the suffering of the lepers and how they were ostracized from the rest of the world. He knew he could not heal them and realised why they needed to be quarantined, so he spent his time making there life more meaningful. There were times when he celebrated the Mass that he had to hold out from vomiting because the stench of the leprosy was so strong. He eventually contracted the disease himself and died. There is finally a cure for Leprosy or Hanson's disease as it is now called, so the Island of Molokai is no longer a leper Island. As Father Damian was caring for the lepers he was really caring for Jesus, he is truly a great saint and someone we can model our life after.

The Promised Land at Last

Moses is now 112 years old and because of his disobedience to God, striking the rock so that the water would flow out and not speaking to the rock, he is not the person God chooses to bring the Israelites into the Promised Land. God does give Moses a view of the Promised Land though. Moses climbs to the top of Mount Nebo alone and sees how great the land is, that it is indeed flowing with milk and honey and has the largest figs and pomegranates he has ever seen. Moses then dies on Mt. Nebo. The Israelites mourn him for 30 days. Then Joshua, the person chosen by God to be the new leader, brings them into the Promised land.

So for my treat I made ice cream drizzled with honey to represent the milk and honey. I also have pomegranate seeds and fig newtons.

Bronze Serpent and Jelly Bean Prayer

As the Israelites are on their 40 year journey into the Promised land they continue to complain about Moses and even about God. They are sick of eating manna and quail and are sick of wondering around. For their punishment God sent serpents among them. The bites of these snakes caused death. Only after many people had died from the bites did the Israelites realize their sinfulness. The people went to Moses and admitted that they had sinned. They asked Moses to intercede for them so that God would save them from the snake bites. God told Moses to place a bronze snake on a pole and place it where the people could see it. The people who had been bitten by the snake came to see the bronze serpent. They had faith in God's power to heal them. These people lived and were healed of the terrible snakebites. In the book of John, Jesus says, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." In this way Moses prefigures Jesus. So for my treat I tied pretzels together with dental floss to from a cross, then I tied a gummy worm to the cross.
Who knew that eating jelly beans could be a form of prayer. Each color represents something about Jesus. For my second treat I gave the students jelly beans.
Orange for the edge of night.
Pink is for a new tomorrow.
White is for the life he gave.
Purple is for his hour of sorrow.
Black is for the sins we made.
Green is for the grass he made.
Yellow is for the sun so bright.
Red is for the blood he gave.

Seder meal

A Seder meal is a Christian Passover. The Catholic Mass is modeled after the Seder Meal. After every Seder Meal I seem to have a better understanding of our mass, so I guess all of the work is worth it. I use a Seder celebration that I got off the Internet several years, it is a very structured celebration. We begin with the symbolic foods and then a meal and close with a blessing.

The symbolic foods are:

4 glasses of grape juice for the 4 promises God gave the Israelites; I will bring you out of Egypt, I will free you from slavery, I will save you by my own hand, and I will take you to be my people and I will be your God.

Parsley representing new life, salt water for their tears.

Matzoh the unleavened bread.

Horseradish (bitter herb) representing the bitterness in Egypt.

Haroset (chopped apples and walnuts with cinnamon and honey) representing the mortar used to make bricks.

Lamb bone representing the passover lamb.

Egg representing the offering brought to the temple. I have deviled eggs instead of boiled eggs because they are less messy.

For our meal we have lamb, mashed potatoes and gravy, noodles, creamed corn and for dessert carrot cake.

Part of the celebration is for the teacher to hide a piece of matzoh representing Jesus being hidden for 3 days. Whoever finds the hidden Matzoh gets a prize. Since I have new students each year I can use the same hiding place every year, which is in the tree with the serpent. The prize this year is jelly belly jelly beans.

The students enjoyed the celebration and did a wonderful job participating. Have a very blessed Easter.