16th Apr Per 3 XI Catechism - Welcome !

Dear Students,

This is our first online class together and our first catechism class using the blog !

Thank you for taking the first step and logging in! You're wonderful!

Congratulations on coming into Class XI (Provisionally)!

I welcome those I taught at the Class 10 Catechism class last year - those I didn't and the new admissions to St Columba's.

I wish you the very best for the year -

• may you do brilliantly academically and otherwise, 
• may you discover the wonder of your self through all the opportunities given to you at school,
• may you learn to relate with yourself and others as you deepen your spirituality and 
• may you learn the wisdom of God and let God's word guide your thoughts and actions 
• 😊😊😊

Please first kindly mark your attendance by writing in your name and class in the çomment'space of this blog. Thank you!
Please note - that in using the "comment" on the blog post you are in a public space - kindly note that you are to maintain the highest standards in your correspondence - we are using this as an educational opportunity. Please be appropriate always.

I request you NOT to write any other comment during this class. 
AFTER the class, at any time during the rest of the day, you may, if you feel inclined to, ask a question about what we are discussing - this will help me in teaching you! 
However, I will be 'present' - also viewing the blog and aware of your presence and reading your feedback. At the end of the post, I shall ask a few questions, to which, I request your feedback, on the 'çomment' section. 

Why did I choose to teach Catechism, when choosing to interact with the students of class XI & XII in senior school?
While all the students are precious to me, St Columba's as a Christian Minority School has special care for our Christian students. I am often pained when I hear so many complaints about our Christian students! The opposite should be taking place - Jesus told us "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples - that you have love for one another !" Jn 13: 35 Jesus also told us to go out to the end of the world and proclaim that the Kingdom of God has come - if people do not respect us - they surely will not want to be like us! We have nothing to proclaim! Now I know that we all go through our own struggles - however, generally, Christian should be the examples of how to live life. I believe that you can do this. I will get to know you and I will challenge you to be your best selves!
So, at the beginning - let's all try and be the best we can be in all circumstances - then when we make mistakes people will understand!

Let's start our topic of the day: with where we are - "a very good place to start" - we're not at our usual setting of class - you're at home - well, I'm at school (that's where I stay while I'm on my assignment to St Columba's !) and yet, we're having a class!

How do YOU feel about it?

• about the uncertain times?
• about some of the Board exams still to be completed?
• for those from the ICSE Board - about having to continue to be in touch with certain subjects and to go and do those during the course of the post lockdown period?
• about the correction of the Board papers being delayed?
• about returning to classes?
• about being in class XI?
• about studying from home?
• about being confined to home?
• about the lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown?
• about how's it affecting your routine?
• about how's it affecting your plans?
• about how's it affecting your relationships?

Let's take this opportunity to LISTEN TO OURSELVES! Listen to your FEELINGS. It's okay to feel whatever you are feeling. To try and help you, click on the link below and then choose the word or words which match your varied feelings

https://englishstudyhere.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/how-do-you-feel-today.png

You may not have just one feeling - you may have a number of different feelings. If you don't find the word or the face (what do you call it émoji'?) you could name your own feeling and draw your own image of how you feel.

Would you like to write this - you could use your last year's diary - you did not have the opportunity to get your new set of books. I generally request students to use the school diary for the exercise book for Catechism. By the way - there's no prescribed textbook for the Catechism in Class XI & XII - the Bible is our resource book.

You may take some time to get the words to describe your feelings - getting to use the most appropriate (true in meaning) word is very necessary for your own fulfillment in being able to tell others how you are - if you learn how to do this, you'll realize that others understand you better and you'll feel satisfied in having expressed yourself truly.

You may take some time to get the right words - while you do this listen to your feelings - be aware of sensations in your body - again don't judge - just listen to your feelings just as they are !

Learning to LISTEN TO ONESELF without judging oneself is one of the most important life skills we need to learn (in Psychology - I'm sure that some of you have taken this up as a subject in XI & XII - we learn of the development of the ego and the égo' is one of the reasons we dislike listening to ourselves, because we judge ourselves according to our false self).

But that's not the way God wanted it - God created each one of us and found each of us, very good!

Listen to this hymn - click on the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sbNXbnO1Ig

The hymn links us to the memory of Jesus' last meal with his disciples.
Our faith invites us to believe that the circumstances of our lives are the "Holy Ground" where God is working with us - I like the line in the hymn "We come to Your feast ... the young and the old, the frightened the bold, the greatest and the least !" These days we may feel that we are the "frightened" and the "least" - we know that not only the "old", but especially the old are affected by the the virus.

Believe that's God speaking to you ! for Ps.139 says :
"For you formed my inward parts;
  you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
 Wonderful are your works;
   my soul knows it very well."

Until our next class, then, please LISTEN TO YOURSELF! Take the opportunity of the lockdown to give yourself time! This is truly taking time for yourself!

Questions for your comments :

• any questions about 'listening to your feelings' or 'listening to how your body expresses your feelings"?

Take care - and see you for the next class!