CatholicFIT Curriculum | Module 8
This week’s principle is the one that encompasses and strengthens all the others – PRAYER & REFLECTION. I am how I pray.
Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God (with or without words.) – CCC #2559
It is great to be fit, better to be holy. The Catholic Church exists for one reason – to help people become saints. Period. It guides us towards holiness, and for Christians, holiness equals happiness. Bishop Robert Barron discusses this often, and has noted these 3 paths to holiness:
- Find your center – what guides you? What is most important to you? Is your faith central to your daily decisions? What makes up your moral compass? What is your GPS? How is your relationship with God? What does it mean to be Catholic? To be a Christian?
- Know that you are a sinner, and that is OK – life is rough, and we don’t always make the best decisions, and that is OK. God’s (and the Church’s) standards and demands are great, but Her mercy is even greater. To sin means to “miss the mark.” It’s OK to miss the mark on occasion, if we are aware of our faults, go to penance and ask for forgiveness and also forgive ourselves, and try to do better moving forward.
- Life is not about you – are you living a “theo-drama” as Bishop Barron says, or a self-centered “ego-drama”? Is your life all about you? This is an important lesson in CatholicFIT, as we talk about taking care of ourselves so that we can take care of others – and it is easy to do one or more than the other. Many people have a difficult time believing in God because when we choose to do so, we are admitting that we are not in control. Other people matter, every decision we make affects others in our lives, whether we know it or not. Just as we are always mindful of the bigger picture (longevity) in terms of our fitness and performance goals, we are also mindful of the bigger picture, and the role God plays in our lives.
Activity Review & Learning Objectives
After this week, students should be able to:
- understand that prayers do not always have to be rote, memorized prayers
- develop simple thoughts directed toward God and understand these as prayers
- discuss ways for combining all of the CatholicFIT exercises into circuits and combination moves
- understand how we integrate all of the CatholicFIT moves into the sports we play and in every day life
Reflection Questions
This final week, talk to your kids and students about PRAYER & REFLECTION –
- what does it mean to reflect on these 3 paths to holiness? (By the way, this is taken from an excellent talk given by Bishop Robert Barron of the same name if you want to check it out.)
- journaling is a great way to reflect and direct your prayers – how many students journal in your class?
- reflection is a way to look back at your day, to think about your actions, your thoughts, and consider the impact they had on other people, to think about how Christ-centered first self-centered they were. Take a moment to reflect on the class we had just now, and the morning you had, and think about how often you were thinking about others, versus yourself first.
Week 8 Resources & Worksheets
- Click here for your Weekly Worksheet (PDF with 3rd and 6th Grade Version)
- Lesson Planning Sheet for Teachers and Parents (PDF)
- This Week in CatholicFIT Week 8 (PDF to print and hang or send home as a part of your weekly school newsletter.)
- Exercise of the Week: Combo Moves & Get Ups. The final week of getting “FIT TO SERVE” … we combine all of the CatholicFIT exercises into challenging moves like the burpee (squat thrust) and no handed get up from the floor. Watch the video for more.
Advanced Combo Moves & Get Ups – here we combine passing a basketball with lunges, get ups with weight and more.
Stay Fit to Serve!
…..