It's Planning Time - Teen Discussion Group

"Teen" is becoming less appropriate as we have a number of parents and younger children (including Gus) involved. This is such a terrific group - and we're adding a number of new members for next year.

We've already started studying Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI. Assignments alternate between this and related readings from the Bible. Here is a list of our assignments so far:

Exodus 1-14

Exodus 15-24

Intro to Jesus of Nazareth

Chapter 1 of Jesus of Nazareth

Luke 4 (plus readings relating to Jesus' Baptism in the other Gospels)

and for next week:

1st half of Chapter 2 of Jesus of Nazareth

We're planning on incorporating religion, history and literature relating especially to the New Testament through the early Middle Ages into our discussions. I hope to come up with a recommended book list on the side so that each family can work on filling out the rest of these courses as they are interested/able (some are using their own courses already and others are using these discussions as a starting point - perhaps even a "spine").

So here are my book lists in progress (no distinction yet between ones we will study formally in class and ones that we can recommend for further reading). I also haven't thoroughly looked over all of them for age-appropriateness yet.

The Apostles by Pope Benedict XVI
The Fathers of the Church: An Introduction to the First Christian Teachers by Mike Aquilina
A Treasury of Catholic Wisdom (selections)
What is the Bible? by Henri Daniel-Rops
A Treasury of Early Christianity (selections)
Fingal's Quest
We Look for a Kingdom (with caveats - a few spots with rather mature content)
The Story of the Church by George Johnson
Saint Augustine and His Search for the Faith (Vision - out-of-print)
Saint Jerome and the Bible (Vision - out-of-print)
Pope Fiction (selections)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Song of Roland
Beowulf
Confessions of St. Augustine
St. Athanasius by F.A. Forbes
St. Antony of the Desert by St. Athanasius
Celtic Heritage Saints
Fabiola
Eucharistic Miracles (selections)
Patrick In His Own Words
Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot
Ten Dates Every Catholic Should Know (selections)
Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton

I also realized yesterday while discussing Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth that art can be a wonderful part of this study. In particular, the icons of the Eastern Church are like mini-catechisms that illuminate the symbolism behind the stories.

We have several copies of Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church (published by the Getty) floating around our group, so that might turn out to be an important source.