SO MUCH MORE Wealth and Materialism LIFE NIGHT OUTLINE

CATECHISM GOAL # 2402-2406 The goal for this night is to understand Jesus’ teaching regarding wealth and # 2544-2547 materialism. This night will also help the teens guard against attitudes of materialism in their own lives. SCRIPTURE Matthew 5:3-12 ABOUT THIS NIGHT Matthew 22:15-22 More and more teens have to compete to be the best and most successful Luke 18:18-23 at school, sports, and even their jobs. This Life Night seeks to help the teens Luke 19:1-10 understand the role or wealth, materialism, and setting priorities. This Life Night begins with a fun game to see which teen can collect the most money through KEY CONCEPTS selling their talents. The teaching for this night will help teens focus on simplifying • A life with Christ requires simplicity their lives to make room for Christ. The teaching will also look at the poor as an of life. example of simplicity and faith. After a time of small group, the night will end with a time of prayer challenging the teens to give up one or two possessions or talents • The Church lifts up the poor and for the service of Christ. encourages the faithful to emulate their life. PARENTAL NOTICE This Life Night focused on money and the role it plays in our lives. We discussed • Setting right priorities helps us clear materialism, having our priorities, goals and hopes in order, along with serving our lives to make room for Christ. Christ with those things we are blessed to have. Here are a few discussion questions that you and your teen can talk about:

1. What value does money play in your life? 2. What is one or two things we as a family can give up to make more room for Christ? 3. What is your defnition of success? Do we help you achieve that? 4. What is something we as a family can do to help those in our community who are less fortunate than us? outline

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44 LIFE TEEN CURRICULUM GUIDE ENVIRONMENT NOTES For this environment think “success.” Set up your gathering space as a “Hall of Fame of Successful People.” Print out and hang pictures of famous, successful people – businessmen and businesswomen, actors and actresses, singers, artists, and athletes. Along the walls have quotes about success. Do not have any religious symbolism. The Core Members should dress up like tour guides and have one Core Member at each picture of a successful person waiting to give a list of all his or her accomplishments, awards, and achievements.

MEDIA SUGGESTIONS YouTube: “What is a trader?” by BrianMosleyBlog Song: “” by () Song: “Headphones” by Jars of Clay (The Long Fall Back to Earth) Song: “Take My Life” by Chris Tomiln (Sacred Revolution) Video: “Pass the Bucket – Stephen Murray” (Life Teen Video Support 15)

GATHER 20 Minutes PROCLAIM 10 Minutes

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS (5 min) "SO MUCH MORE" TEACHING (10 min) The youth minister should gather all the teens together, The teaching for this night will help teens focus on welcome them to Life Night, and lead an opening prayer. He simplifying their lives to make room for Christ. The teaching or She should introduce any teens at Life Night for the frst will also look at the poor as an example of simplicity and faith. time. The teaching for this night can be found on pages 47-48. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY MIXER (15 min) Create fake paper money with the pastor’s or the youth minister’s face in the middle. Put whatever denomination on it that you want. Give each teen a certain amount of money. BREAK 25 Minutes Instruct the teens to try to buy and sell a skill they have or want like dancing, telling a joke, standing on his or her hands, or singing a song. The object is to collect as much money SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION (25 min) as possible by buying and selling a skill to others. After ten Break the teens up into small groups of fve to eight per minutes, the teens should count their money. Award the teen group. Begin the group with an opening prayer lead by a with the most money a prize like the game Monopoly. teen. Use the following questions as a guide to the discussion.

The teens will then mix around the group - trying to sell some • In the opening activity you traded your skills or talents for skill they have - for example, they will ofer to sing a song some pretend money. What were some of the tasks you for $5 or tell a joke or stand on their hands or Irish dance - or performed for this fake pay-day? How motivated were you whatever skill they want to sell to others. The point is to to make the most money? go around the group for 10 minutes and try to get as much money as possible from the other teens. They should all be • What are the hot items right now that most teens are open to paying others for entertainment or for their skills - wanting? How do these things really make your life better but they should be actively selling their own talents and skills. or bring you closer to fulflling the true goals of your life? outline • What are some of the goals you have in life? What sort of job or family do you hope to have?

• If you chose to make a diference in the world how would that change your priorities? SO MUCH MORE

LIFE TEEN CURRICULUM GUIDE 45 • What are two specifc things you can do to work on to keep GOING DEEPER your priorities in proper order? • Give each teen a St. Therese the Little Flower (patron of missionaries) prayer card at the end of the night.

• Invite a missionary to come in and share his or her SEND 20 Minutes experience. Have them share about how God has blessed his or her life.

RECAP OF NIGHT (5 min) • Send out a Facebook message to the teens reminding them Gather the teens back together. The youth minister should of the Widow’s Mite Scripture and encourage them to live recap the Life Night and challenge the teens to live as more simply. missionaries and witnesses to a life that is more satisfying than success and riches. The youth minister should remind ADAPTING THIS LIFE NIGHT the teens that placing God above all things, especially money • If the group is too large for the Gather activity, invite a few and possessions, gives our live proper perspective. teens up from the group to perform a talent and ask the group to decide how much that was worth. The teen with the highest worth wins. OFFER IT UP (15 min) Set a tone of prayer by lowering the lights and playing • Break the teens into small groups up by birthday months. soft music in the background. The youth minister should introduce the time of prayer reading the Scripture from Mark • Instead of Core Members praying over the teens, have the 12:41-44. Point out how each person gave but the most teens break back into their small groups and pray over each virtuous giving came from the widow’s poverty. We can learn other. from the widow and begin habits of simplicity of life and giving of their money to the Church. Often times we get so distracted by possessions and ideas of success that we forget the blessings that we can be by ofering our own possessions to others. Open a time of prayer by challenging the teens to spend time in prayer to discern one or two possessions they have that they can ofer to God for God’s service – like a car to give someone a ride to school or to church. Ask the Core Members to stand around the room for prayer. Instruct the teens when they are ready to come forward to a Core Member to pray over them for courage to use his or her possessions, money, and life as a witness to God’s blessings and faithfulness. Close the night by asking St. Therese the Little Flower to pray with the teens for the courage to live as witnesses of Christ. outline

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46 LIFE TEEN CURRICULUM GUIDE SO MUCH MORE TEACHING

SIMPLICITY Ok, so you’ve fgured out by now that we’re talking about money. Money is a huge The presenter should have a table issue in our world. We hear all sorts of numbers about what percent of people have full of stuf. He or she can use it as what percent of the money, how many people live of so little a day, how much a a prop to make his or her point. cup of cofee or gallon of gas costs now compared with when your parents were your age.

But what it comes down to is - all this stuf that we want to buy - does it actually make our lives better? We get a new cell phone and six months later there’s a newer, cooler cell phone that we can’t possibly live without. And we keep accumulating stuf.

Our life is supposed to have a certain meaning to it, right? We’re supposed to make a diference yet we get distracted by all this stuf.

We have to take a step back in our life and put things in a diferent perspective. What are our actual goals and dreams in life? Is owning that newest phone or computer going to help us?

If your goal is to live a life that means something to other people and if you want to spend eternity with Christ, then owning things better not be high on your priority CCC 2544 list. Our faith calls us to simplicity.

On the fip-side, if owning things is what makes you happy, well then, you may want to think about your priorities - for example, how about your family, your friends, CCC 2547 your faith, working hard, and bringing joy to others?

Ok, huge prize for whoever knows the 10th Commandment - You shall not covet your neighbors goods.

Do you know what that means? It means that the desire for those things that don’t belong to us - it needs to go away. That doesn’t mean that we can’t ever want CCC 2536 something and be willing to work hard for it - but it does mean that that desire has to be kept in perspective.

No one wants to think of themselves as envious, do they? That’s a pretty negative thing to be labeled with – and the 10th commandment mandates that envy must CCC 2538 be “banished” from our hearts.

When it comes down to it we all have a whole lot more than we need. The challenge for us is to learn to be content with what we’ve been blessed with and turn our envy into a desire to help those who have so much less.

PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR THE POOR This desire to help those who are less fortunate is not something new – it goes all the way back to Old Testament times – with Jewish laws put in place just to help out those who are less fortunate. For example, The Jubilee Year was put in place teaching to help people recover from debt and poor choices in their life – every 50 years all property would be returned to original owners and debt would be forgiven. Also, farmers couldn’t harvest from the edges of their felds – this was to be left for those in need – widows, orphans, etc. SO MUCH MORE

LIFE TEEN CURRICULUM GUIDE 47 One of the main topics in the Church’s teaching on social justice is the Preferential Option for the Poor. Simply this means that the poor of our communities have many Matthew 5: 3-10 lessons of faith they can teach us. It is sort of a simple equation – the more full we are, CCC 2448-2449 the less open we are to receiving what Christ really has to ofer. We look to the poor as an example for our own lives. When we rid ourselves of clutter and distractions, we can more easily receive Christ in our lives.

For many of us, this is the total opposite of the way we generally think. We’ve all been taught that we need to work hard in school so we can get into a good college so we can get a good job, right? But what if we wanted it to mean more than that? By no means is it bad to work hard and get a good job, but if that is the only thing we are striving for, we’re missing a big point.

It is our job as believers in Christ to raise awareness for those who need help. It’s our role to see the presence of Christ in those who have no homes or food, in those who are maybe unpopular or diferent than us. It’s our job to work to right wrongs. If one of Christ’s main concerns is for the poor and outcast, then shouldn’t one of our main concerns be for the poor and outcast.

As members of a community we have a responsibility to be aware of the needs of those around us. We can use the blessings we’ve been given (a home, food, a job) to serve those in need. Not only can we help others but also in our service we are able to see Christ more clearly in those in our own neighborhood.

PRIORITIES - MEASURING SUCCESS Success is something we all want but it's measured in so many ways. For example, we want to get a 90 on that next math test, or run under 55 seconds for that quarter mile race, or get to states for marching band, or reach Eagle Scout.

Ask a few teens to answer these What are the goals and hopes you have in your life? What does success mean to you? questions. The world tells us if we’re rich, if we can buy a house and have a good paying job like a doctor or lawyer then we’re a success.

Does that sound like Christ’s version of success?

If we look at the life of Christ we would probably not call his life a success by worldly standards. He traveled around without a home or money and made a lot of enemies. And, fnally, he was put to death on a cross. But as Christians we know that Christ shows us true success. He shows us by speaking the truth without reservation, by lifting up those who had always been put down, and by following His Father’s will without holding back. To be successful we must imitate His example.

So we have a choice to make and it starts with our priorities right now. If we have our goals in right order we’ll recognize that owning the newest phone or stylish clothes or shoes will never give us true and lasting fulfllment. Oh sure, it’ll make us happy until the next thing comes along. The only way to really have that true and lasting fulfllment – and true and lasting freedom – is to make Christ our top priority and make room for him in our life. teaching

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48 LIFE TEEN CURRICULUM GUIDE SO MUCH MORE CHECKLIST

CORE PLANNING TEAM: TWO WEEKS PRIOR TO LIFE NIGHT:

______� Turn in a detailed outline of the Life Night to the youth minister. Allow the youth minister to give feedback and make ______any necessary changes.

______� Create a list of needed supplies and materials. Assign a person to be responsible for collecting and/or purchasing the ______materials needed.

DATE OF LIFE NIGHT: � Decide the people that will be doing the following things. Make sure they have a copy of the script and/or teaching ______outline. Inform them of any practices and/or deadlines.

Teaching

ONE MONTH PRIOR TO THE NIGHT: ______

� Give copies of the Life Night to each of the members of the WEEK OF THE LIFE NIGHT: planning team. Each person should read the Scripture and Catechism references as well as review the planning guide � Written outline of the teaching is given to the youth before the brainstorming meeting. minister and practiced.

� Get the planning team together for a brainstorming � Run a dress rehearsal of the Life Night. Youth minister gives meeting (this should last no longer than 1 hour). The team feedback. prays and discusses where the teens are in their faith journey in relation to this topic. Then using this planning guide as a � Create environment and collect needed supplies. starting point, the team adapts the Life Night to meet the needs of the teens and the parish. Create a detailed outline � E-mail entire Core Team an overview of the night and small with any changes and/or adjustments. group questions. � Assign the person responsible for each part of the Life Night: DAY OF THE LIFE NIGHT: � Set up the environment. Make sure the room is clean and Environment ______presentable. Money, Money, Money Mixer ______� If needed, set up audio and video. Test the video clips to make sure both picture and sound work. Small Group Discussion ______� Walk the entire Core team through the Life Night. Make Ofer it Up ______sure all transitions are ready and everyone knows their roles.

� Pray! Pray for the teens attending the Night. Pray for God's will to be done through the night. Pray over those involved. Notes checklist

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LIFE TEEN CURRICULUM GUIDE 49