A LENTEN OPPORTUNITY for a global school experience inviting young people to see themselves differently, to discover a path toward the fullness of life, to ask, “Who do I really want to be?

As part of their LENTEN experience, we invite your students to reflect on their relationship with God, with their neighbor and with the Earth; and to consider ways they can better serve each.

To help, we offer the video series, “Who Do You Want to Be?” that invites us into prayer and spiritual conversation; challenges us to be there for others; and to care for our common home.

Introduction

LENT offers the opportunity, as Ignatius wrote, “to ponder with affection all that God has done for me” and to ask, in return, how shall I live, who shall I be in relation to God, my neighbor and Creation?

As part of their LENTEN experience, we invite your students to reflect on their relationship with God, with their neighbor and with the Earth; and to consider ways they can better serve each.

To help, we offer the video series, “Who Do You Want to Be?” that invites us into prayer and spiritual conversation; challenges us to be there for others; and to care for our common home.

Designed during the Ignatian Year, this video series includes four videos and pedagogical materials for schools which can be used to accompany your students this LENT toward authentic faith and discipleship.

We invite your students, too, to share their insights and experiences with students in Jesuit schools across the globe.

How can you participate?

We know you are very busy! So, we include detailed lesson plans developed by teachers that can be easily adapted to meet your circumstances during this Lenten season.

In addition, we ask that you share on Educate Magis photos or videos of your students in prayer or in spiritual conversation; in service to others and/or caring for the earth. These will be shared through Jesuit Global as well.

You can view the videos and access the lessons plans online following the instructions in the tabs below. You can also download all the videos and lesson plans in the “Download Section” on the right.

 

“I sincerely hope you will find these videos inspiring and by watching them you will understand better what is happening inside each of you”

Father Arturo Sosa, SJ. Superior General of the Society of Jesus

To support your Lenten classroom: a detailed and adaptable lesson plan and short video that highlights the spiritual pilgrimage of Ignatius Loyola, introduces students to the guidelines Ignatian Spiritual Conversation and invites students to practice Ignatian Spiritual Conversation following a meditation on “The First Principle and Foundation” in “Showing the Way to God.”

As a Lenten reflection, consider the gifts you have and the challenges you face in being a person for and with others.

After the introduction to the Spiritual Conversation (and practice) and before viewing “Showing the Way to God” video

  • Explain to the students that we have three fundamental relationships: with God; with Others; and with Creation.
  • Remind them that Lent is an opportunity for introspection; an opportunity to take stock of our lives; to weigh who we are now against who God wants us to be in relation to God, to Others and to Creation.
  • It is an opportunity to reset our values, desires, and goals in light of the Gospel.
  • Remind them of the Universal Apostolic Preferences and one, “Showing the Way to God” encourages us to discover our interior life and the presence of God who dwells there.
  • The video recounts Ignatius’ spiritual pilgrimage and then invites us into a meditation on The First Principle and Foundation. We suggest pausing between the two to allow the students to prepare to enter the meditation.
  • After engaging in the meditation, the class enters a spiritual conversation. Pair students for the Spiritual Conversations based upon any or all of the prompts below, during class.
  • Allow each student in the pair to be both the “lead” and “listener” during each prompt. After 2-4 minutes, switch the roles. Each prompt could take 4-8 minutes.
  • Students should (1) review the attributes, (2) have the Spiritual Conversation as both a lead and a listener.
  • Have your students consider, as a Lenten exercise, sharing their insights or experiences of spiritual conversation through an artistic depiction or representative photo of fellowship that may be shared with students across the Jesuit Global Network of Schools. Please share your students’ artistic depictions or photos at projects@educatemagis.org

To make the most of the experience, please review the lesson plan then follow the prepared guide or adapt as needed.

READ LESSON PLAN  DOWNLOAD VIDEO

After Watching The Video

The students will be invited to reflect on their experience in this session using the
method of Spiritual Conversations. Please follow the instructions detailed in the “Spiritual Conversations Guide”

READ SPIRITUAL CONVERSATIONS GUIDE

Share Your Students’ Artistic Depictions or Photos of Spiritual Conversation

Have your students consider, as a Lenten exercise, sharing their insights or experiences of spiritual conversation through an artistic depiction or representative photo of fellowship that may be shared with students across the Jesuit Global Network of Schools.

SEND US YOUR PHOTOS HERE

To support your Lenten classroom: A detailed and adaptable lesson plan and short video that highlights the ministry of Saint Peter Claver with the enslaved Africans in Cartagena; invites us to recognize the marginalized in our world; and to consider seven pragmatic steps we can take in “Walking with the Excluded.

Stand for and with others by exercising one of the seven steps of alliance during Lent.

Before playing the “Walking with the Excluded” video

  • Explain to the students that we have three fundamental relationships: with God; with Others; and with Creation.
  • Remind them that Lent is an opportunity for introspection; an opportunity to take stock of our lives; to weigh who we are now against who God wants us to be in relation to God, to Others and to Creation.
  • It is an opportunity to again ask, “How and where, in this time and place, can I provide the greatest service?”
  • Remind them of the Universal Apostolic Preferences and that one, “Walking with the Excluded” focuses on our relationship with others. It calls us to be aware of the suffering in the world and more hospitable and open to those who suffer.
  • Explain that the video they are about to watch is designed to connect Ignatius’ original desire to help others with the efforts of another Jesuit saint named Peter Claver and with us today.
  • As they watch, have them pay close attention to what Peter Claver did to welcome and care for people who were suffering as well as the advice being offered for us today to do likewise.
  • Tell them a discussion and activity will follow and to keep in the back of their minds the excluded groups they identified at the beginning of class.
  • Have them consider, as a Lenten exercise, taking a concrete step in alliance with others and sharing that experience through photos or videos with students across the Jesuit Global Network of Schools. Please share your students’ videos or photos at projects@educatemagis.org

To make the most of the experience, please review the lesson plan then follow the prepared guide or adapt as needed.

READ LESSON PLAN  DOWNLOAD VIDEO

After Watching The Video

The students will be invited to reflect on their experience in this session using the method of Spiritual Conversations. Please follow the instructions detailed in the “Spiritual Conversations Guide”

READ SPIRITUAL CONVERSATIONS GUIDE

Share Your Students’ Videos or Photos of taking a concrete step in alliance with others

Have your students consider, as a Lenten exercise, taking a concrete step in alliance with others and sharing that experience through photos or videos with students across the Jesuit Global Network of Schools.

SEND US YOUR VIDEOS OR PHOTOS HERE

To support your Lenten classroom: a detailed and adaptable lesson plan and short video that highlights student stories of adult accompaniment; invites students to reflect on their own experience; and share what they believe it means to be accompanied well with the adults in their community as a means for adult reflection and conversation on Ignatian formation in “Journeying with Youth.”

During this Lenten season, identify one way that can better the students’ accompaniment by the adults in the school community.

Before playing the “Journeying with Youth” video

  • Explain to the students that we have three fundamental relationships: with God; with Others; and with Creation.
  • Remind them that Lent is an opportunity for introspection; an opportunity to take stock of our lives; to weigh who we are now against who God wants us to be in relation to God, to Others and to Creation.
  • It is an opportunity to again ask, “How and where, in this time and place, can I provide the greatest service?”
  • Remind them of the Universal Apostolic Preferences and that one, is called “Journeying with Youth,” which is about committing to both a better understanding of young people’s lives and to being more supportive of them in their journeys.
  • Explain that the video they are about to watch is designed to help the adults in the community understand the issues young people face and how they can better accompany them along the way.
  • As they watch, ask them to identify any issues addressed by the students in the video that resonate with them; any experience of similarly being supported, any area where support would have been welcomed?
  • As they watch the video, have them think about the different ways the students were supported. Are there any common threads in the students’ experiences?
  • Explain that a discussion and activity will follow, and you are obviously particularly interested in what they have to say on this issue.
  • Have your students consider, as a Lenten exercise, taking a concrete action that promotes or supports honest communication with the adults in their school community, and sharing their efforts through photos or videos with students across the Jesuit Global Network of Schools. Please share your students’ videos or photos at projects@educatemagis.org
Adult Participation

After (1) you have viewed the UAP Journeying with Youth video and (if applicable) (2) completed the one-day lesson plan where students created a Word Cloud, enter into a Spiritual conversation with colleagues about Journeying with Youth. Use the prompts to begin the Conversation, while being attentive to your role as both a lead and listener. Reference and follow the Ignatian Conversation Framework on the preceding page.

  1. Reflecting on the video about Journeying with Youth, were feelings of consolation, of desolation evoked?
  2. Do the student reflections challenge you when it comes to Journeying with Youth? If so, how?
  3. If you are a teacher whose class participated in the one-day lesson plan that accompanied the Journeying with Youth video, what did the Word Cloud or any brainstormed material that the class generated reveal about students?
  4. In light of what you saw in the video and (if applicable) what the student-generated Word Cloud revealed, what does accompaniment mean to you? Has your idea of accompaniment stayed the same or expanded?
  5. As a Lenten exercise, can you identify and act on one way to better accompany the students in your school community?

Identify and act on one concrete way in which you can better accompany your students during this Lenten season

To make the most of the experience, please review the lesson plan then follow the prepared guide or adapt as needed.

READ LESSON PLAN  DOWNLOAD VIDEO

After Watching The Video

The students will be invited to reflect on their experience in this session using the
method of Spiritual Conversations. Please follow the instructions detailed in the “Spiritual Conversations Guide”

READ SPIRITUAL CONVERSATIONS GUIDE

Share Your Students’ Videos or Photos of taking a concrete action that promotes or supports honest communication with the adults in their school community

Have your students consider, as a Lenten exercise, taking a concrete action that promotes or supports honest communication with the adults in their school community, and sharing their efforts through photos or videos with students across the Jesuit Global Network of Schools.

SEND US YOUR VIDEOS OR PHOTOS HERE

 

To support your Lenten classroom: a detailed and adaptable lesson plan and short video that highlights the ministry of Father Stan Swamy SJ to the Adivasi people, invites us to reflect on our relationship to God, to others and to Creation; and consider the hopes and challenges in pursuing a viable and enduring earth and a more just world in “Caring for our Common Home.”

During this Lenten season, exercise one concrete action that demonstrates Caring for our Common Home.

Before playing the video, “Care for Our Common Home”

  • Explain to the students that we have three fundamental relationships: with God; with Others; and with Creation.
  • Remind them that Lent is an opportunity for introspection; an opportunity to take stock of our lives; to weigh who we are now against who God wants us to be in relation to God, to Others and to Creation.
  • It is an opportunity to again ask, “How and where, in this time and place, can I provide the greatest service?”
  • Remind them of the Universal Apostolic Preferences and that one, Care for Our Common Home is about protecting, renewing, and transforming our relationship with Creation and thus ourselves, each other, and the systems we live and work within.
  • Explain that the video they are about to watch is designed to take us through our relationship with Creation- the ways in which we are derived from Creation and flourished together within it. AND the ways we have harmed Creation by creating a false sense of separation from the very life support systems we depend on.
  • Given the prayer we began with, please keep these questions in mind: What are the ways we have connected and flourished with Creation? What are the ways we have disconnected from and harmed Creation?
  • Have your students consider, as a Lenten exercise, taking a concrete action that demonstrates Caring for our Common Home sharing that experience through photos or videos with students across the Jesuit Global Network of Schools. Please share your students’ videos or photos at projects@educatemagis.org  

To make the most of the experience, please review the lesson plan then follow the prepared guide or adapt as needed.

READ LESSON PLAN  DOWNLOAD VIDEO

After Watching The Video

The students will be invited to reflect on their experience in this session using the method of Spiritual Conversations. Please follow the instructions detailed in the “Spiritual Conversations Guide”

READ SPIRITUAL CONVERSATIONS GUIDE

Share Your Students’ Videos or Photos taking a concrete action that demonstrates Caring for our Common Home

Have your students consider, as a Lenten exercise, taking a concrete action that demonstrates Caring for our Common Home sharing that experience through photos or videos with students across the Jesuit Global Network of Schools.

SEND US YOUR VIDEOS OR PHOTOS HERE