Alive-O 5 Analysis - Eanna Johnson
A Theological & Pedagogical
Analysis of Alive-O 5
Éanna Johnson PhD
2008, 2013
This Analysis of Alive-O 5 was prepared by Éanna Johnson
as part of his research of the complete Alive-O Programme
for a PhD in Theology at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
For the PhD dissertation see
Alive-O 5 is the fifth of eight years of the
Religious Education Programme for Catholic Primary Schools in Ireland.
It corresponds with Third Class in Primary School, 8/9 year olds,
the year after most pupils have received First Confession & Communion.
The Alive-O Programme is published by Veritas Publications,1996-2004.
© Irish Episcopal Commission on Catechetics.
CONTENTS
PAGE
1. INTRODUCTION & SUMMARY 3
ANALYSIS OF PROGRAMME COMPONENTS
1. Overall Presentation 8
2. Lesson structure 9
3. Pupil’s Book 12
4. Pupil’s worksheets 13
5. Teacher’s Book 13
6. Songs & Stories 43
7. Prayer 44
8. Video 46
ANALYSIS BY THEME & LESSON 47
9. Beginnings & Endings: T1L1, T1L2 48
10. Old Testament / Covenant: T2L1, T2L2, T2L4 53
11. Jesus: T1L3, T1L5, T1L8, T2L9, T3L4 61
12. Mary: T2L3 76
13. Saints: T1L6, T1L7, T3L8 80
14. Liturgical Year: T1L9, T1L10, T1L11, T2L5, T2L10, T3L1, T3L6 85
15. Sacraments: T1L4, T2L6, T2L8, 107
16. The Mass: T3L2, T3L3 119
17. Life in Christ / Morality: T2L7, T3L5, T3L7 129
ABBREVIATIONS: The Alive-O Programme is structured in Lessons of one week in three Terms. The abbreviations above indicate Lessons within Terms: T1L1 is the first Lesson in the first Term; T3L8 is the eighth Lesson in the third Term; and so on. A prefix is often used to indicate Book of the Alive-O Programme, e.g. A5- for Book 5.
CCC – Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1992.
GDC – General Directory for Catechesis, 1997.
GCD – General Catechetical Directory, 1971.
CT – Catechesi Tradendae, 1979.
INTRODUCTION & SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION.
This analysis seeks to assess Alive-O 5 in comparison with the relevant teaching of the Catholic Church, in particular the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)[1] and the General Directory for Catechesis (GDC)[2]. The Church requires that a Catholic catechetical text must be in perfect harmony with the CCC, and must give due consideration of the norms and criteria contained in the GDC [3]. In relation to norms and criteria, some are mandatory (e.g. the Pedagogy of God), while others are more in the nature of good advice.[4] In the context of these requirements of the Church as expressed in the General Directory for Catechesis the principal evaluation criteria for content used in this Analysis are Authenticity and Completeness, while the criteria for pedagogy used in this Analysis are Faithfulness to the Church’s prescribed Pedagogy and Educational Effectiveness.
SUMMARY
The summary material below is arranged in accordance with the principal themes that are addressed in Alive-O 5. The themes are arranged in the sequence in which they appear in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, with the exception of the theme of ‘beginnings and endings’ which has been selected by Alive-O 5 as the principal theme for its own programme.
The Summary seeks to cover all the relevant material in Alive-O 5. It includes the lesson material that could be expected to be seen directly by the pupils, covering the Pupil's Book, Worksheet, and video. It also includes the Teacher’s Book, in which there is some information for the teachers alone – partly located in the Introductory pages, partly prior to each lesson – and lesson material that is provided for teachers to be used at their discretion with the pupils.
Beginnings & Endings
A theme of beginnings and endings is a great opportunity to present the Christian view of salvation history. Salvation history starts with the creation of the material universe and also of God's spiritual creation: the Angels, heaven and the human spiritual soul. First we have the rebellion and fall of the Angels, then the creation of human beings in Adam and Eve, the Fall, the preparation of the Chosen People through centuries to receive the Messiah Jesus, God the Son, as Redeemer and saviour, the time of the Church, and finally the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of time, with the general resurrection and judgement, and the new heavens and new earth. Salvation history gives the big picture, which gives meaning to all the other beginnings and endings of human existence.
Salvation history sets the context for the overall beginning ending of each human life. When life begins at conception we are each given an immortal soul by God and each human life is a personal story of salvation which will end in eternity, and either an eternity of happiness with God in heaven or the eternity of separation from God in hell. All the other beginnings and endings of each human life take their meaning and context from this overall beginning and ending, which is the personal living out of salvation history.
Alive-O misses the opportunity to present salvation history in its totality and as it applies to the human person. Instead its approach to beginnings and endings is largely secular, at best theist.
There is also nothing in these lessons about eternity, which is to omit an essential element in a Christian understanding of beginnings and endings. There is no mention that God is eternal – he is, was, and always will be; no mention that God is the Beginning and Ending – Α and Ω (Alpha & Omega). Also there is no mention that each one of us human beings has an immortal soul that will live forever.
Old Testament / Covenant
These three Lessons address the stories of Abraham and Moses and the Exodus, which is excellent in principle. However, the coverage is poor, because the information given is incomplete and lacks context, in particular it lacks the context of salvation history. Alive-O does not recognize salvation history at all.
The lessons also address the theme of covenant, which is also excellent in principle. However the treatment of covenant is poor and does not explain the real nature of the covenants between God and his people, of which the fulfillment is the New Covenant in Jesus; the New Covenant is not referred to in any way. Alive-O presents a kind of theist understanding of covenant as no more than the constant love of God.
There is an introduction to the Ten Commandments, which is also excellent in principle. However the overall explanation of the Decalogue in general and the First Commandment in particular is limited and poor.
Jesus
The first of these five lessons presents an account of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. It is a poor account which fails to present an adequate understanding of the persons of John and Jesus, and their mission. The perspective is mainly theist and humanitarian, while the Christian significance of Jesus’ baptism is not brought out.
The next three lessons deal with three miracles that Jesus performed: the healing of the Centurion's servant, the calming of the storm, and the healing of the paralytic. The Lessons are presented mainly in the form of drama. The use of drama is excellent in principle, however the format chosen, that of a television news programme, is more suited to extensive events (like the Exodus or fall of Jericho and invasion of the Promised Land), while discrete events, such as are the subject matter here, are better acted out directly. The dramas are not effective in presenting authentic versions of the stories; they are complicated and Jesus does not appear in any of them. The lessons do not bring out the significance of the miracles in relation to who Jesus is and what is his mission. The approach in the three lessons tends to be the theist and humanitarian, rather than authentically Christian.
The fifth lesson deals with the appearance of Jesus after his resurrection to Peter and that other disciples on the shores of the lake of Galilee. The presentation is poor. Alive-O misses out on the great opportunity to teach pupils about Jesus’ selection of Peter as head of the Church, and how the Pope and bishops are successors of Peter and the Apostles.
Mary
The lesson lacks focus, because it tries to present a lesson on Mary and also on the Fourth Commandment. The part on Mary focuses on the Angelus prayer, which is fine in principle, but in practice is poor because Alive-O changes the wording of the Angelus prayer to diminish its impact and meaning. Changing the wording of the prayer from that used by the Church also serves to separate the children from home and parish.
The presentation on the Fourth Commandment is particularly poor. Alive-O presents the Commandment as meaning no more than that children should appreciate the love and care they receive from parents and grandparents. There is no obligation on children in the Commandment to love, honour, or obey their parents or other legitimate authorities. There is also no reference to what the Church teaches, that this Commandment refers also to the respect and obedience due by all people to all legitimate authority.
Another problem in Alive-O's presentation of this Fourth Commandment is that parenting is effectively equated with mothering. The role of the father is seriously downgraded and marginalised.
Saints
There is some good material about the coming of Christianity to Ireland and Irish Saints. Unfortunately, the good material is undermined and its value diminished by mixing in the fanciful legendary fiction with historic material. At times the fiction dominates, swamping the facts. There is no attempt made to distinguish between fact and fiction, which could prove very confusing to the pupils, and potentially undermine the credibility of the entire programme. At the same time, there is much superb, interesting and exciting information about the coming of Christianity to Ireland and the early Irish Saints which is omitted.
In the material in the Teacher’s Book there is a brief but satisfactory teaching on the Trinity. However, the value of the teaching is diminished by the fact that it is not given any great prominence in the Teacher’s Book, and is not reflected in any way in the material that the pupils receive.
The Liturgical Year
These seven lessons cover various aspects of the liturgical year from Advent through to Pentecost. This is a very reasonable approach in the catechism, as it gives the opportunity to cover key aspects of the faith, and to link in with what is actually happening in the local church. It also provides an ideal opportunity to link the catechetical material with the structure of the salvation history, which is one of the principal structures recommended by the Church for catechesis.
While this set of lessons to cover a great many aspects of the various events that are commemorated during the Liturgical Year, they generally do not do it very well, with many inaccuracies and omissions. In particular, the dimension of salvation history is not brought out at all, which is consistent with Alive-O's nonrecognition of salvation. Instead Alive-O presents the great drama of the Liturgical Year in a context which is essentially theist, in line with its own spirituality.
The first lesson covers the Annunciation and Advent. There are many good aspects covered in the lessons, but also important omissions, which means that the full and authentic Christian significance of these great events in is not taught to the pupils.
The next lesson covers John the Baptist, and is largely a repeat of the material covered in an earlier lesson A5-T1L3 – ‘Where are we now?’. Like the earlier lesson it does cover some information about John the Baptist and Jesus, but also falls short in presenting a full Christian understanding of who John and Jesus are, and what is their mission. Very much the same could be said of lesson on Joseph, which also gives some reasonable information about Joseph and his role in the birth of Jesus, but this also falls short of presenting a clear Christian picture of Joseph and of Jesus.
The Lesson on Lent is poor. It does not even mention that Lent is a preparation for Easter. The presentation on Lent is predominantly humanist, treating Lent as a time to be quiet, reflective and sort out one's life.
The lessons on Holy Week follow a similar pattern to the earlier lessons. There is quite a bit of good information about what happened, but there are key inaccuracies and omissions from the Scriptural accounts, such that these great events are not presented as the high-point of salvation history, but rather presented from a theist perspective. The Apostles' Creed is included, which is excellent in principle; however the way that the Creed is presented tends not to enhance, develop and explain the meaning of the Creed, but rather to undermine and diminish it.
The lesson on the Day of Pentecost regretfully follows a similar pattern, with key omissions and inaccuracies from the Scripture account, which change the perspective from being Christian to being essentially theist.
Sacraments
The first lesson in this group deals with the Sacrament of Baptism. It is quite poor, and treats baptism very much as a rite of initiation into a group of people who follow the teachings of Jesus. Alive-O omits that Baptism cleanses from original sin and all pre-baptismal sin, through the salvation won for us by Jesus on the cross, and gives us new birth in Christ. This serious deficiency in the presentation on Baptism is consistent with Alive-O's non-recognition of original sin or of salvation.
There are two lessons on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The first lesson attempts to set the scene for the Sacrament through the Bible story of Zacheus. However the story is poorly presented, because Alive-O changes the focus from repentance, forgiveness and salvation, to one of social exclusion based on difference. The social exclusion theme is further reinforced by stories involving the objectionable 'little Beings'.
The next lesson treats of the Sacrament of Reconciliation itself. Some aspects are reasonably well covered but there are also significant weaknesses on: examination of conscience, contrition, firm purpose of amendment, the grace of the Sacrament, what must be confessed, the sacramental power of the priest, the seal of confession, and frequency of confession. A particular weakness in the lack of information in the Pupil’s Book which would give the children simple and understandable guidance on how to go about Confession. Pupils and parents desperately need this kind of information if the children are to go regularly and well to the Sacrament of Confession.
The Mass
The first of these two lessons seeks to present the structure and meaning of the Mass. There is some good material here, but overall the lesson is poor and will do little to help the pupils understand the true meaning of the Mass as taught by the Church. The material that the pupils will see is both limited and poor: the Pupil's Book has some of the prayers of the Mass which the pupils will see anyway in the Sunday missalette, while the worksheet has a less than satisfactory presentation on the parts of the Mass.
The material in the Teacher’s Book is extensive and complex. There is much good material but it is mixed up with inadequate material, some of which is quite misleading because of key omissions, so that it is unlikely to be very helpful to the teachers in presenting a clear picture of the Mass to the pupils.
The second lesson covers the gospel account of the meeting of Jesus with the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the Resurrection. In principle this is an excellent Scripture passage to help explain the meaning of the Mass. However, Alive-O's account is poor because the Scripture is changed to fit in with Alive-O's own spirituality, which is theist rather than Christian.
Life in Christ / Morality
The first of these lesson addresses how we should treat the material world that God has created for us. The Pupil’s Book has three good questions and answers which sum up very well this theme. However, the rest of the lesson material is poor. The story of Zacheus is repeated, with the addition of much fictional material, which re-cast the story in the mould of materialism versus environmentalism. Then there is a completely fictional pantheistic-type story of Zacheus and a talking sycamore tree. There is also a fictional story about 'little Beings', which is about materialism, but does not help teach how Christians should treat the earth.
The next lesson gives an account of the Ascension, in which the Scripture original is changed to omit the Great Commission and to replace it with a call to Christians to live in a good humanitarian way.
The final lesson learned deals with the early Christian Community, but fails to convey the true spiritual nature of the early Church, and replaces it instead with a kind of theist humanitarianism. A great opportunity is lost to teach about the beginnings of the Catholic Church.
2: ANALYSIS OF PROGRAMME COMPONENTS
19 Overall Presentation
The Programme presents itself on its covers and title page simply as “ALIVE-O”. This title in itself does not convey anything Catholic, Christian, or even religious. The term “Alive-O” comes from the chorus of the popular traditional Dublin folk-song, known as ‘Molly Malone’ or ‘Cockles and Mussels’. The song is basically secular, though it does end with a vaguely spiritual element (‘Her ghost wheels her barrow’), which is not specifically Catholic or Christian. The Programme is heavily ‘branded’ as ‘ALIVE-O’, not as anything Catholic or Christian.
The Teacher’s Book title page has a quotation attributed to St Irenaeus, "The glory of God is people fully alive”, which suggests that this is the theme of the Programme. This is indeed a quotation from St Irenaeus, but the quotation is incomplete. The full sentence from Irenaeus [5] as quoted in CCC294 as follows: ' the glory of God is man fully alive; moreover man's life is the vision of God: if God's revelation through creation has already obtained life for all the beings that dwell on earth, how much more will the Word’s manifestation of the Father obtain life for those who see God'. The full quotation from St Irenaeus is unequivocally Christian, but Alive-O’s incomplete quotation is open to a theist understanding. (See p.14 below for further comment on the Teacher's Book -- A Programme for Middle-Primary School Children).
The title 'Alive-O' harmonises with the incomplete quote from St Irenaeus, whereas a title that would be in harmony with the full quotation would be something like "Alive in Christ", or "Christ our Life".
Alive-O's use of this incomplete quotation from St Irenaeus does in fact harmonise with the content of the programme, which could be described as predominantly humanitarian theism, rather than authentically Christian. Right through Alive-O 5 the perspective tends to be predominantly 'horizontal' [6] or this-world focused, to the neglect of the spiritual and eternal.
Alive-O 5 does not present any claim to be specifically Catholic or Christian on its cover or introductory pages. The Church requires that every Catholic catechetical programme must be in perfect harmony with the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) and give due consideration to the norms and guidelines in the General Directory for Catechesis (GDC) [7]; Alive-O 5 makes no claim that it complies with this requirement of the Church.
Canon Law requires that if an Episcopal Conference prepares a catechetical programme for its territory, it must obtain pre-publication approval from the Holy See [8]. The Alive-O Programme does not have this necessary approval.
The Alive-O programme does carry a Copyright of the Irish Episcopal Commission on Catechetics. However, copyright is a legal-financial matter which indicates which person or body holds the intellectual property rights under civil law. Copyright does not constitute official Church approval of the content of the programme.
2.2 Lesson Structure
The principal structures for catechesis recommended by the General Directory for Catechesis are: firstly, the four-fold structure of the catechism of the Catholic Church, and secondly salvation history. Alive-O 5 proposes an overall theme of ‘beginnings and endings’, which does not fit with any recommendation of the Church. The content of the lessons does contain many elements which are compatible with the structure of the CCC and/or the structure of salvation history, but they are not presented in the context of such a structure or plan. Therefore, the lesson material appears uncoordinated, rather than fitting in with a coherent presentation of the fundamentals of the Faith, which is a principal task of catechesis. This may reflect the non-availability of a Syllabus for Alive-O; the author’s researches indicated that either no syllabus was prepared for the Alive-O programme, or that the syllabus followed was that prepared for the first Children of God series published by Veritas in the mid-70s, which syllabus is not available.
The lesson structure of Alive-O 5 involves 29 lessons arranged in three terms, as follows:
Term 1:
Lesson 1. Beginning Again, Amen
Lesson 2. Where Have We Come from?
Lesson 3. Where Are We Now?
Lesson 4. Beginning Again in Baptism.
Lesson 5. What's the Story? (1): The Centurion’s Servant.
Lesson 6. Christianity Comes to Our Country
lesson 7. Christianity Comes to Our Country (2)
Lesson 8. What's the story? (2): the Sea of Galilee.
Lesson 9. Mary Wonders -- Who Is the One Who Is Coming?
Lesson 10. John The Baptist Wonders -- Who Is the One Who Is Coming?
Lesson 11. Joseph Wonders -- Who Is the One Who Is Coming?
Term 2:
Lesson 1. Abraham and Sarah -- Loved by God
Lesson 2. Moses and the people -- loved by God.
Lesson 3. At Home with God's Love
Lesson 4. Celebrating God's love.
Lesson 5. Lent -- Endings and New Beginnings
Lesson 6. God's Love Counts Us in
Lesson 7 God's love helps us to love the world.
Lesson 8. Reconciliation.
Lesson 9. What's the story? (3): The Cure of the Man Who Was Paralysed
Lesson 10. Holy Week
Term 3:
Lesson 1. We are an Easter people.
Lesson 2. Celebrating the risen Jesus at mass (1)
Lesson 3. Celebrating the Risen Jesus at Mass (2).
Lesson 4. Follow me.
Lesson 5. Love and serve the Lord.
Lesson 6. Gifted with in the spirit
Lesson 7. The early Christian community
Lesson 8. Brendan, the navigator.
Lesson Structure by Theme.
For purposes of this analysis it has been considered helpful to group the lessons in accordance with the theme that they address. The order in which the lessons are grouped below follows the order in which the themes are addressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The titles of the lessons sometimes give a good indication what is contained in the lesson, and other times not.
The first theme listed is that of ‘beginnings and endings’ which is designated as a major theme of Alive-O 5. This theme does not fit in with the structure of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or with Salvation History. It is presented in Alive-O 5 in mostly a secular manner.
Beginnings & Endings
Term 1: Lesson 1. Beginning Again, Amen
Lesson 2: Where Have We Come from?
Old Testament / Covenant
Term 2: Lesson 1. Abraham and Sarah – Loved by God
Lesson 2. Moses and the People – Loved by God
Lesson 4. Celebrating God’s Love
Jesus
Term 1: Lesson 3. Where Are We Now?
Lesson 5. What’s the Story? (1): The Centurion’s Servant
Lesson 8. What’s the Story? (2): The Sea of Galilee
Term 2: Lesson 9. What’s the Story? (3): Cure of the Man who was Paralysed
Term 3: Lesson 4. Follow Me
Mary
Term 2: Lesson 3. At Home With God’s Love
Saints
Term 1: Lesson 6. Christianity Comes to Our Country (1)
Lesson 7. Christianity Comes to Our Country (2)
Term 3: Lesson 8. Brendan the Navigator
The Liturgical Year
Term 1: Lesson 9. Mary Wonders – Who is the One who is Coming?
Lesson 10. John the Baptist Wonders – Who is the One who is Coming?
Lesson 11. Joseph Wonders – Who is the One who is Coming?
Term 2: Lesson 5. Lent – Endings and New Beginnings
Lesson 10. Holy Week
Term 3: Lesson 1. We are an Easter People
Lesson 6. Gifted with the Spirit
Sacraments
Term 1: Lesson 4. Beginning Again in Baptism
Term 2: Lesson 6. God’s Love Counts Us In
Lesson 8. Reconciliation
The Mass
Term 3: Lesson 2. Celebrating the Risen Jesus at Mass (1)
Lesson 3. Celebrating the Risen Jesus at Mass (2)
Life in Christ / Morality
Term 2: Lesson 7. God’s Love Helps Us to Love the World
Term 3: Lesson 5. Love and Serve the Lord
Lesson 7. The Early Christian Community
It is good that the lesson structure covers many elements of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The topics covered in the programme give ample opportunity to bring out dimensions of Salvation History, but this does not happen; in fact Alive-O does not express recognition of the existence of Salvation of the human race from sin through the redemptive death of Jesus on the cross, and so does not teach salvation history at all.
3. Pupil’s Book
The Alive-O 5 Pupils’ Book is brief (64 pages), with about forty full-colour illustrations which are eye-catching, and give an attractive appearance. From a catechetical / pedagogical point of view, the value of the illustrations is mixed, some are quite helpful, others not. Each illustration is analysed as part of the lesson material in Section 3 below.
The great majority of the illustrations are specially prepared for Alive-O, and use a colourful cartoon style. This style can be effective, but an exclusive reliance on cartoon type pictures can serve to trivialise, rather than build up a sense of reverence and respect, and to limit the pupils’ imaginations.
The amount of text in the Pupil's Book is quite limited, and often gives a very poor presentation of the content of the lesson. The lesson material is predominantly contained in the Teacher's Book. This is a very poor way of structuring the programme, because it means the pupils do not have ready and constant reference to the essential material of the programme. It also serves to separate the pupils from home and parish, because parents and parish clergy will not normally see the Teacher's Book, and therefore will have little idea of what is actually in the programme. (A study carried out in 1999 on the Children of God series found such a large gap between home, school and parish, that it was published under the title 'Islands Apart'. The structure of Alive-O can only serve to push the 'island' of school even further apart from the 'islands' of home and parish.)
The concept of separate Pupil's Book and Teacher's Book is a good one in principle. However the normal practice in good catechetical programmes is that the Pupil's Book essentially contains the programme, while the Teacher's Book provides helpful guidance to the teacher on how to apply and present the programme. This can be seen in the approximately equal sizes of Pupil's Book and Teacher's Book. The opposite is the case with Alive-O, which has a thin Pupil's Book (with approximately 18,000 words of text), and a very substantial Teacher's Book (with approximately 220,000 words of text).
Sixteen of the lessons in the Pupil's Book contain one or more questions with answers, under the title, 'To Be Learned'. This is excellent in principle. However the actual questions and answers vary a lot in quality, and do not provide a satisfactory summary of the appropriate Catholic catechesis on various topics addressed. Also, the questions and answers are not mentioned in the 'Note for Parents' in the Pupil's Book, so parents will not know whether or not they are expected to help the pupils memorize these answers. There is also inadequate instruction for teachers in the Teacher's Book as to how the teachers should treat these questions and answers. Analysis of the individual questions and answers is included with the lesson material in Section 3 below.
At the back of the Pupil's Book there are the words of all the songs that appear in Book 5. This is excellent in principle, but the value of the songs varies from excellent to poor. The songs are analysed in greater detail below under the section 'Songs and Stories', and in the detailed analysis of each lesson.
The Pupils' Book also has the text of many of the prayers that are used in this year's programme. Some of the prayers are the great prayers of the Church, which is excellent. There are also the text of some of the Alive-O written prayers, which vary in quality from reasonable to poor. The Alive-O prayers are analysed in greater detail in Section 3 below along with the lesson material in which the prayers appear.
Overall, the Pupil's Book is a disappointment and a great opportunity missed. Obviously, considerable talent has been employed in the preparation of this book, with very attractive illustrations, layout and style. However the extremely limited content and deficiency of much of the material means that the pupils will not learn much from it, while the programme is essentially contained in the Teacher’s Book.
4. Pupil’s Worksheets
Most Lessons have a Worksheet for the pupils, with drawings to be coloured in (some 24 illustrations) and/or exercises. The concept is excellent. There is a limited amount of catechesis that can be done through the worksheets, but some worksheets are supportive of good catechesis, others less so.
Each worksheet is analysed in detail along with the relevant Lesson in Section 3.
2.5 Teacher’s Book
Alive-O 5 Teacher’s Book is substantial, running to 462 pages, and approximately 220,000 words of text; (by way of comparison the Catechism of the Catholic Church has approximately 200,000 words of text). It is made up of about 100 pages of information for teachers and the rest is lesson material for the pupils. The information for teachers is contained partly in a 60 page Introductory section, and the remainder before each lesson.
The Introductory material is analysed below, while the information specific to each lesson is addressed with the relevant Lesson in Section 3 of this Analysis.
Introductory Material
The Alive-O teacher's book contains a substantial amount of instructional material for the teachers. The provision of instructional materials for the teachers is normal practice in other modern Catholic catechetical series, providing help for teachers in application of the material in the pupil’s books.
However, Alive-O is different in that it contains a significant amount of religious instruction for teachers and basic pedagogical instruction, in addition to guidance material for the application of the programme. Teachers in Catholic primary schools in Ireland should be well trained in basic catechesis, both content and pedagogy. This raises a question: is Alive-O doing something which is unnecessary, or is Alive-O seeking to form teachers in its own spirituality and pedagogy, which is something with which the teachers were not previously familiar?
The most important references for Catholic catechesis are the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) and the General Directory for Catechesis (GDC). An instruction for teachers should encourage them to have their own copies of these two vital references, and to make extensive use of them in their teaching practice; but Alive-O does not do this. Some references to the CCC and the GDC are included in the instructional material for teachers, but this is not a satisfactory substitute for teachers having the original reference books themselves, being familiar with them, and regularly referring to them in their teaching work.[9]
The selection of references given by Alive-O from the CCC and GDC in the Teacher's Book are of limited value; some are excellent and highly relevant, but are frequently not followed through in the subsequent lesson material and instructional material written by Alive-O for the teachers. Some of the quotations from the CCC and GDC do not focus on the key information, and taken out of context can even be misleading.
The GDC requires that every Catholic catechetical programme must be in perfect harmony with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is a sure and authentic reference, and that it must give due consideration for the norms and criteria for the presentation of the Gospel message contained in the GDC itself, which is also a standard of reference for catechesis (GDC284). Alive-O does not give this information to the teachers.
The various elements in the Introductory material for Teachers are analysed below:
A Programme for Middle-Primary School Children.
This subsection opens with the quotation from St Irenaeus that is on the fly-leaf, but this time it is expanded to, “The glory of God is people fully alive but the vision of God is the life of people". This is an improvement, but the quotation is still incomplete, and leaves open a theist (or pantheist) interpretation. Such an interpretation also applies to Alive-O’s subsequent statement, "The title Alive-O reflects one of the overriding concerns of religious education, namely, to enable people to become fully alive to the presence of God in themselves, in others, in the Church and in the world around them".
Alive-O's incomplete quotation from St Irenaeus, and the subsequent statement on the overriding concern of religious education, make no reference to Jesus Christ or anything Christian. Alive-O’s ‘overriding concern’ differs from the Church’s definitive aim of catechesis which is to put people in touch, and in communion and intimacy, with Jesus Christ. (GDC 80).
The CCC 294 gives the full quotation from St Irenaeus as follows: ' the glory of God is man fully alive; moreover man's life is the vision of God: if God's revelation through creation has already obtained life for all the beings that dwell on earth, how much more will the Word’s manifestation of the Father obtain life for those who see God' (St Irenaeus, Adv haeres. 4, 20, 7). This full quotation explains what the 'vision of God' means in a Christian context. The revelation of the Father only comes about through the salvific mission of Jesus, who became man and offered himself in the redemptive sacrifice of the cross to wipe away our sins, open the gates of heaven and make us adopted children of the Father. This is beautifully expressed in many passages from Scripture, including John 3:16, 'Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life'. And also in John 10:10, 'I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full'.
Alive-O is described as a re-presentation of the Children of God catechetical series. The term 're-presentation' suggests little or no change from the original. This is misleading, because Alive-O is a very substantial change from the earlier Children of God series; it is at least a revision or a new edition, if not effectively a new programme with a new name.
Alive-O uses the term 'religious education' without explaining what it actually means. The term 'catechesis' is widely used by the Church, and Church documents explain the meaning clearly. However the term 'religious education' is by comparison vague and could mean different things to different people. (‘Catechesis’ and ‘Catholic religious education’ would probably be understood as synonymous, but ‘religious education’ on its own is a different matter). The Church states that the aim of catechesis is to bring people into communion with, and intimacy with, Jesus Christ. This section which seeks to explain what Alive-O Book 5 is all about, does not even mention Jesus Christ.
The subsection says, “The primary educators of the child are the significant adults in the home -- the parents/guardians”. This is effectively downgrading parents, by putting the emphasis primarily on 'significant adults', rather than putting the emphasis first and foremost where it belongs, that is on the parents. Naturally, one must recognize that in many homes one or both parents may not be present, and it may indeed be guardians or significant adults that take care of the child. Nevertheless, it should be made clear that parents are primary and normative.
The structure and content of Alive-O actually marginalises parents. The program is effectively contained in the teacher's book, which parents do not see, and may not even be aware exists, while the information that they might see in the pupil's book is extremely limited and gives very little idea about what the programme is actually about. Also the material in Alive-O is mostly specifically written for Alive-O -- prayers, songs, stories, exercises, teachings, -- and serve to immerse the children in a complete Alive-O environment which is alien to what the parents might know and experience.
Alive-O speaks about the importance of the teachers, which is certainly true. Alive-O also speaks of the importance of the role of Diocesan Advisers as support to the teachers, which is also true. However, the teachers are largely bound by the structure of the Alive-O programme and their in-service training focuses on implementing the programme. Also, from conversations which this author has had with teachers and Diocesan Advisers, it would appear that the role of diocesan adviser is directed towards implementation of the Alive-O programme. Therefore, both teachers and Diocesan Advisers appear primarily influenced to deliver Alive-O, rather than focused on giving Catholic catechesis in accordance with the teaching of the Church.
The comment above about the structure of the programme marginalising parents applies equally to the parish. Parish clergy are unlikely to have studied the Teacher's Book and may not even be aware of its existence, and therefore will have little idea about what is actually in the Alive-O programme. The high proportion of uniquely Alive-O material in the programme serves to immerse the children in an Alive-O environment, which differs in significant ways from what they will experience in the parish.
The Middle-Primary School Child
This section attempts to give a summary of the characteristics of the middle-primary school child, for the guidance of teachers. However it falls well short of what could be expected from a Catholic catechesis programme. The ideas presented all rely on secular psychology, some of it of very dubious value. There is no recognition that there is anything spiritual in the child -- no soul, no openness to grace, no yearning for God, no spiritual sensitivity, no conscience, no falleness due to Original Sin, etc.
There is a reference to the findings of 'Researchers in Faith Development'. However, there is no reference as to who these researchers are, their religious beliefs, backgrounds and aims. The ideas expressed harmonise with the views put forward by a researcher called James Fowler, who proposed a theory of ‘Stages of Faith Development’. Fowler’s theory understood 'faith' as something possessed by every individual, and is essentially their belief system of life. A person's ‘faith’ could be Christian or some other religion or a belief in atheism, which is compatible with secular psychology but significantly different to a Catholic approach to ‘faith development’ or catechesis, which brings people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
A Note on Cultural Background
This brief note recognizes the need for adaptation to cultural differences as between children from different backgrounds and cultures. This is generally reasonable, however a few points might be noted. There is reference to differences in relationships, because not all children have two parents. Of course, one must recognize that an increasing number of children come from homes where they do not have their natural mother and father, who are married to each other. However, it is important for Catholics schools to recognize that even though many situations differ from this, it is always important to affirm that children should be brought up in a loving home by their natural parents who are married to each other, and that this should be seen as the Catholic norm and not some ideal attainable only in exceptional circumstances. This can be done in a way which does not make children who do not enjoy the situation feel belittled, but it is most important for them to know the norm so that they can aspire to and look forward to something better than the less than satisfactory situation in which they are brought up.
There is also reference to the differences of religion. This is much more than a cultural difference, but a major challenge for teachers in a Catholic school. It is of course vital to respect the consciences of those who are not Catholic or Christian, and yet at the same time it is essential that this does not stop giving Catholic children the fullness of the Catholics faith, because this is the primary reason for the existence of a Catholic school.
The Role of the Teacher
There is much good material in this section concerning the way that teachers can help, encourage, and take care of children, showing them that they are truly loved, respected and cared for. However, the whole language and approach of the section could be considered as theist, but not really Catholic or Christian.
While the section says many good things about what the teacher should do, it omits the most important, indeed essential, role of the teacher, which is to teach. In a Catholic approach to catechesis, it is vital that the teacher hands on the faith, teaches the children on the Deposit of Faith, which the Church has received from the apostles, and which she carefully guards so that it can be handed on, in all purity and integrity, to succeeding generations.
Revelation: God's Self-Disclosure
There is much good material in this subsection. There are also important omissions, and in very many places the language is more theist/humanist rather than authentically Christian.
The introductory paragraphs on page [8] are good, in particular reference to the promise of God for redemption and salvation after the sin of Adam and Eve. Alive-O does not generally recognize original sin or salvation, and so it is good to see them referred to here, but unfortunately it is not followed through, either in this section or in Alive-O generally.
An important omission from the introductory paragraphs is the difference between natural and supernatural revelation. The Church teaches that man is capable of coming with certainty to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God by the natural light of human reason, but that man is limited by the consequences of original sin, and is therefore in need of being enlightened by God's supernatural revelation. It is very important to understand the difference between natural and supernatural revelation, and the reasons why God's supernatural revelation is necessary. [10] Natural revelation can get man only as far as theism, which unfortunately is the spirituality that permeates much of Alive-O.
The subsection on, 'Jesus Christ -- the Fullness of Revelation', has some good things to say about Jesus as the fullness of revelation, but omits the critical dimension of salvation, and fails to bring out the divinity of Christ.
The subsection on 'Tradition' has a good quotation from Dei Verbum [11]. However, what is missing is an explanation of the differences and complementarity between Scripture and Tradition, and the vital role played by the Church's Magisterium, which is very well expressed in Dei Verbum 9, 10.
The subsection on the Old Testament is inadequate. It gives a perspective which is fundamentally theist. It fails to bring out the connection between the Old and New Testaments. It fails to express that the Old Testament showed the beginning of God's plan of salvation (the Old Covenant), the principal purpose of which was to prepare for the coming of Christ, the universal Redeemer, and of the messianic kingdom. This was famously expressed by St Augustine: ’God wisely arranged that the New Testament be hidden in the Old and that the Old be made manifest in the New’. (Dei Verbum 14-16).
The subsection on the New Testament is also inadequate, because it omits the crucial dimension of salvation history, the fact that Jesus Christ, God the Son, came to give his life to redeem us from sin. Alive-O’s text could be interpreted in a theistic way, simply that Jesus came to teach us about God through his words and example, which we follow.
Alive-O's presentation on Scripture is quite disappointing. It fails to bring out the importance of Scripture, as is so well expressed in the famous quotation of St Jerome, 'Ignorance of Scripture, is ignorance of Christ'. (Dei Verbum 25). It also fails to bring out the truth of Scripture, which is well expressed in Dei Verbum 11, 'the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching firmly, faithfully, and without error that truth which God wanted put into the sacred writings for the sake of our salvation'. Scripture as an expression of salvation history is also lacking. The central importance of salvation history in Revelation is well expressed in the General Catechetical Directory. "Revelation is the manifestation of the mystery of God and of his saving action in history. It takes place through a personal communication from God to man. The content of this communication constitutes the message of salvation, which is to be preached to all men". [12]
The subsection on 'Christian Witness' has some good things to say, but a major omission is martyrdom. The Church has always held that the martyrs are very special and unique witness for the faith, indeed the very meaning of the word 'witness’ is a martyr.
The subsections on the Natural World and Human Experience are largely expressed in a language which is theist/humanist, rather than Christian.
The sub-section, 'Helping the children to respond', is seriously inadequate. Rather than encouraging the teachers to teach the children the basics of the Christian faith, the teachers are actually discouraged from such teaching as follows: 'familiarity with the content of faith will be achieved gradually as the children move from class to class, and as the ability to understand difficult language and concepts increases’. While it is true that the mysteries of faith are unfathomable, and that one can go for the rest of one's life learning more and more about them, nevertheless it is equally true that the basics of Faith are extremely simple and can be expressed in a way which is understandable to even very young children. The basic truths of faith do not necessarily involve difficult language and concepts, but can be taught to children in simple language in accordance with their age and ability, from pre-school onwards, which will provide a sound foundation for progressive development of these truths of faith as they go through school and through their adult lives. The teaching of children in the basics of the faith has been done in the Church over the past two millennia, and so is certainly not beyond the capabilities of this generation, with all our sophisticated pedagogical technologies and methods.
Alive-O's discouragement of teachers by using language such as, 'difficult language and concepts' works against the other aspiration expressed, which is good in itself: 'As we try to enable the children to grow as people of faith, we hope that they will become as articulate in this area as in any other area of the curriculum. We hope that eventually they will be able to give an account of the faith that is in them, to say what they believe and why.' The video that accompanied Alive-O Book 5 would indicate that Alive-O is failing to teach the children the basics of the faith and how to give an account of that faith in a confident way. The video includes a segment in which Catholic, Jewish and Muslim children speak of their faith. The Muslim children come across by far the best; they are most articulate, and give a clear and confident account of the basics of their faith, while in contrast the Catholic children show a great lack of confidence and knowledge of the basics of Catholic faith.
The rest of this subsection is expressed in language which is mainly theist rather than Christian, with the exception of the final quotation from the General Catechetical Directory, (GCD 33), which is excellent, but is poorly reflected in Alive-O's own written text.
Faith: Responding to Revelation
This section contains a number of good quotations from Magisterial documents, in particular the CCC, the GDC, and the GCD, which are relevant to a Catholic understanding of faith. It also contains some information which is a reflection of a Catholic understanding of faith. However, mixed in with this is an understanding of faith which is theist, and which tends to predominate, undermining Catholic teaching. There are also significant omissions in what the Church teaches about faith.
The predominance of a theist understanding of faith is well expressed in the opening sentence: "The aim of religious education is to foster and deepen the children's faith". Also in such views as, 'the seed of faith that was sown in baptism is encouraged to grow and mature', and, 'The task of the teacher is to accompany children on their faith journey'. These quotations are more in tune with the kind of theory of religious education promoted by James Fowler and similar researchers, in which everybody is assumed to have ‘faith’ of some sort and all that is required is to create conditions in which the person’s ‘faith’ may be deepened, nourished and strengthened. This kind of thinking about faith keeps surfacing throughout the section, as analysed in detail below.
Under the heading 'What is Faith?', there are a number of good things said concerning the nature of faith, which are in harmony with Catholic teaching. However, there are also significant omissions, and many expressions of a theist understanding of faith.
Faith is relationship with God. The opening quotation from the CCC 142 is good, dealing with God's invitation, but Alive-O omits what follows in the CCC, which says that the adequate response to this invitation is faith, in which man completely submits his intellect and will to God. In contrast, Alive-O says that the children need merely become aware of God's relationship with them and the depth of his care for them. This is by no means a Catholic understanding of the response of faith.
Faith is our assent to what God tells us. This is reasonable, but falls somewhat short of an expression that faith involves the complete submission of intellect and will.
Faith is a gift from God. It is interesting that Alive-O selects this particular phrase as a quotation from the GDC 55, rather than the expression in the CCC which speaks of the grace of faith. Alive-O seems very keen to avoid the use of the term 'grace', and in its teaching it does not recognize the existence of grace. The Alive-O text that follows gives the impression that ‘faith’ is entirely personal to each individual, and is their own particular response to whatever they think God is saying to them; this is radically different to a Catholic understanding of faith.
Faith is a free response to God's gift. Alive-O gives a good quotation from CCC 150, 'Faith is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed'. However, in the text that follows Alive-O falls far short of this speaking of 'an echo in the heart' which would ‘bear fruit in the will'.
Faith is active. Alive-O correctly says that faith calls us to action, but the following text is expressed entirely in theist, humanitarian and 'horizontal' terms, not in Christian language.
Faith is communal. There is a good opening quotation from CCC 166, about faith not being in isolation, but the CCC presents this in terms of the Church. Alive-O does not mention the Church. Alive-O interprets ‘communal’ simply in terms of school and home. Alive-O rightly says that in some homes there will be an atmosphere of Catholic faith and teaching of the faith, and in other homes not so. However it also assumes that in the school the pupils will get taught the truths of Catholic faith. This assumption is contrary to common experience, and is also contrary to the surveys of religious knowledge that were carried out in 2007 by the Iona Institute and by this author. The surveys indicate that the teaching of the faith in Catholic schools has been seriously inadequate for more than 30 years; in fact the lack of faith of many parents of the present-day pupils in primary school can be attributed to the poor catechesis / religious education that they received themselves when they were at school. As has been noted above in this analysis, the structure of Alive-O will reinforce the separation between school and home, and the lack of authentic religious Catholic teaching in Alive-O will not make up for inadequacies in many homes. In fact it is more likely that Alive-O will undermine the teaching of the faith in those homes that do have a strong Catholic faith and wish to bring up their children in the Catholic faith.
Faith has a content. This subsection simply sets out a structure for the content of Faith taken from the General Catechetical Directory of 1971 (GCD 43). It is less than satisfactory that Alive-O would select this limited structure from an older document, rather than the more comprehensive structure adopted by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the General Directory for Catechesis 1997, which put forward the Creeds (Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed), as the basic structure for the faith.
Faith challenges us to work for the reign of God. It is good to express the active dimension of faith, that we are called to work for the kingdom of God. However, Alive-O’s text approaches the matter in a way which is predominantly theist, human and 'horizontal', to the exclusion of the authentically Christian, spiritual and eschatological dimensions.
Other dimensions of faith which are important, as presented in the CCC, but which are omitted by Alive-O, include: faith as necessary for salvation; faith requires perseverance; faith is the beginning of eternal life; there is only one Faith; faith seeks understanding.
The Fundamental Tasks of Catechesis
The fundamental tasks of catechesis are listed as provided for in the General Directory for Catechesis (GDC 85,86). The tasks are as follows:
▪ Promoting knowledge of the faith
▪ Liturgical education
▪ Moral formation
▪ Teaching to pray
▪ Education for community life
▪ Missionary initiation
These tasks are correctly stated. The first four tasks parallel the four pillars of the CCC. However, Alive-O omits the GDC’s helpful summary of the meaning of the fundamental tasks which is, 'helping to know, to celebrate and to contemplate the mystery of Christ'.
While it is good for Alive-O to give the fundamental tasks of catechesis as outlined in the GDC, the value is greatly limited by the fact that the tasks are given out of context of the rest of the GDC. Tasks on their own lack focus and meaning, unless one is aware of the broader context, the nature of catechesis, how it is situated in the life and activity of the Church, its aims and objectives. It would have been very helpful for teachers if Alive-O had presented this vital information from the GDC, or given the GDC references where this information is to be found.
The GDC in its Introduction sets the scene brilliantly for catechesis, when it speaks of 'Preaching the Gospel in the contemporary world', which is illustrated with the Parable of the Sower. The GDC explains that this parable is a great source of inspiration for evangelisation, before setting the scene in Part 1 for catechesis in the Church's mission of evangelisation. (GDC 48-52). This theme of catechesis as an essential element of evangelisation was expressed in Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, On Evangelisation in the Modern World, 1975. If we do not understand Catholic catechesis (or Catholic religious education) as an integral part of evangelisation, which is the fundamental task of the Church, then we do not have the mind of the Church on catechesis and religious education.
The GDC stresses the importance of initiatory catechesis in the process of evangelisation, in which home and school play vital roles. (GDC 60-68). 'Catechesis, is thus, a fundamental element of Christian initiation…. The aim of catechetical activity consists in precisely this: to encourage a living, explicit and fruitful profession of faith…. Authentic catechesis is always an orderly and systematic initiation into the revelation that God has given of himself to humanity in Christ Jesus'. (GDC 66).
The GDC also gives an excellent presentation on ongoing catechesis (GDC 69-72), but initiatory catechesis is most relevant to a primary school programme in Catholic religious education.
The GDC also gives the true nature of catechesis. The Church continues the mission of Jesus, animated by the Holy Spirit; she treasures the Gospel in her heart, and transmits it actively in catechesis to all those who have decided to follow Jesus Christ. (GDC 78).
'The definitive aim of catechesis is to put people not only in touch, but also in communion and intimacy, with Jesus Christ'. (GDC 80). 'The object of catechesis as expressed in the profession of faith in the one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit'. (GDC 82).
Promoting Knowledge of the Faith in the Middle-Primary Schoolchild.
There is much good material in this subsection, but there are also vital omissions and some obfuscations, which undermine its Christian authenticity.
The subsection opens with the following sentence: "in presenting doctrine, it is important to stress the central truths of faith in order to achieve a proper perspective". This statement is excellent, but the follow-through leaves much to be desired. The section then goes on to present ‘the most important truths of faith’ in a format taken from the General Catechetical Directory (GCD 43), but with omissions. Below is the listing of truths of faith from GCD43; the items underlined are omitted by Alive-O:
• the mystery of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Creator of all things;
• the mystery of Christ the incarnate Word, who was born of the Virgin Mary, and who suffered, died, and rose for our salvation;
• the mystery of the Holy Spirit, who is present in the Church, sanctifying it and guiding it until the glorious coming of Christ, our Saviour and Judge;
• the mystery of the Church, which is Christ’s Mystical Body, in which the Virgin Mary holds the pre-eminent place. (Alive-O changes this to ‘a prominent place’).
Alive-O's omissions appear to have vital significance.
The omission of God as Creator correlates with the omission by Alive-O from this section of the Church's doctrine on creation. This is a significant and serious omission, because the Church teaches that catechesis on creation is of major importance; it concerns the very foundations of human and Christian life. Creation is the foundation of all God’s saving plans, the beginning of the history of salvation that culminates in Christ. (CCC 280, 282). Alive-O omits the Church’s doctrine on creation, the Fall, and original sin, which is of the utmost seriousness because, 'The Church, which has the mind of Christ, knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ'. (CCC 389). Therefore by omitting teaching on creation, the fall and original sin, Alive-O is undermining the mystery of Christ, which surely undermines its own Christian authenticity. Alive-O generally does not recognise salvation and salvation history.
Alive-O's omission above that Christ suffered, died, and rose for our salvation correlates with Alive-O’s omission from this section that Jesus is our saviour, that he died to save us from sin. Alive-O does say that Jesus died for us on the cross, but omits that this death was redemptive and salvific from sin; it is not enough to say that Christ died for us, because millions of people have died for others, but only one person, Jesus Christ, who was both God and man, could save the human race from sin through his death on the cross. As Alive-O has already omitted the Fall and original sin, this would mean that we had no need for salvation, because there was nothing to be saved from, and therefore Jesus is not our saviour. Also, Alive-O fails to teach that Jesus is divine, therefore Jesus could not save us from sin even if we needed such salvation.
Alive-O's omission above that the Holy Spirit is present in the Church, sanctifying it and guiding it until the glorious coming of Christ, our Saviour and Judge, is also significant. Alive-O does teach in this section that the Holy Spirit forms the Church, which is good. However, as noted in the previous paragraph, Alive-O does not recognize Jesus as Saviour. Also, Alive-O does not recognize Jesus as Judge; more than that, in dealing with the Last Things Alive-O does not recognize any judgement at all. These are very serious omissions by Alive-O, and undermine its Christian authenticity.
Alive-O's omission above of the Church as Christ's Mystical Body is curious, because the section does teach that the Church is the Body of Christ. However, the omission probably results from the term ‘Mystical’, because in the lesson material Alive-O treats the analogy of the Body of Christ as if it were only a headless secular body in which people co-operate and work together. The Body of Christ analogy only makes sense if Christ is the head of the body. In the lesson material Alive-O does not say that Christ is part of its body, which has no head at all.
The choice of this structure of the central truths of the faith is curious. The GCD was written in 1971 and has been greatly upgraded and largely superseded by the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1992 and the General Directory for Catechesis 1997. The GDC recommends the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the normative structure for presenting the truths of the faith, and the CCC itself bases its profession of faith on the creeds (Apostles’ and Nicene). The CCC does refer to GCD 43, but only to speak of the ‘hierarchy of truths’, and the importance of the Trinity, which is contained in that same para 43; the CCC does not use the structure of truths of faith as in GCD 43.
Therefore Alive-O's selection of the four headings in GCD43 is curious; the structure of the Apostle’s Creed, as used in the CCC, would be far preferable for presenting the truths of the Faith. However, the choice of the GCD’s very simplified four point structure makes it easier to overlook Alive-O’s omission of many fundamentals of the faith, for example, the Church’s doctrine on Creation, as noted above.
The section has a subheading titled "The Trinity", but it does not actually contain any teaching on the Trinity, which is a serious omission because the Church teaches that the Blessed Trinity is the foundation of all the other truths of faith. Simple basic teaching on God and the Trinity might include the following:
There is only one God, who is infinite in his holiness, in all his perfections, his omnipotence, knowledge, providence, will and love. God is eternal, he always was, he is, and always will be. God has revealed himself as the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity. There are not three Gods, but one God in three divine persons. The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire. ‘Father’, ‘Son’, ‘Holy Spirit’ are not simply names of three different ways in which God acts, for they are really distinct from one another.
These basic truths on God and the Trinity are all omitted by Alive-O.
The section then goes on to present three subheadings for the three persons of the Trinity. The three subheadings are titled as follows:
• God
• Jesus, Son of God
• The Holy Spirit
If God is the first person of the Trinity, then the second and third persons cannot be God, so this presentation of the blessed Trinity amounts to the gravest heresy. The first person of the blessed Trinity is ‘God the Father’, not ‘God’. The descriptions of Jesus and the Holy Spirit given in the section reinforce this perception. In order to make it clear that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are divine, they should be described as ‘God the Son’, and as ‘God the Holy Spirit’, and the descriptive material should first and foremost make clear their divinity.
‘The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the hierarchy of the truths of faith. The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, revealed himself to men and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin'. (CCC 234). This quotation from the CCC indicates that the Blessed Trinity is a foundation on which all other truths of faith are built; and it follows then that if a catechetical programme gets it wrong on the Trinity, there will be knock-on effects, which will cause problems with the rest of the programme. In this way instead of a 'hierarchy of truths', we are likely to see a 'hierarchy of errors'. This is in fact what we see in Alive-O, with a whole succession of flaws and omissions, which flow from the initial wrong understanding on the Trinity.
The identification of ‘God’ as the first person of the blessed Trinity is reinforced by the points listed under this subheading, which nearly all speak about characteristics of God, not specifically of God the Father. This is particularly so of the first item which reads, "who loves us as a loving father and who cares for us like a loving mother", which also serves to confuse and obfuscate the identity of God the Father.
There are 41 items presented under the subheading titled "Jesus, Son of God", some of which are good, others deficient. There are also serious omissions. The most serious omission is that it is not made clear that Jesus is divine, that he is God, the second divine person of the Blessed Trinity; Jesus is presented as 'Son of God', but then all Christians are sons and daughters of God.
Other serious omissions include: Jesus is not presented as saviour and Redeemer of the human race from sin; not presented as the Messiah; not presented as the first born of all creation and the one in whom all creation will be renewed; not presented as the one in whom we are incorporated as brothers and sisters, so that we thereby become adopted sons and daughters of the Father; not presented as the founder of the Church, or the one who instituted all the sacraments; not presented as the New Adam, whose obedience rectified of the disobedience of the first Adam; not presented as the fulfilment of all the prophecies of the Old Testament; not presented as the one whose Second Coming at the end of time we renew all creation; not presented as the Judge who will, in infinite mercy and justice, judge all the human race at the Last Judgment. Jesus is not presented as priest, prophet, and King, which are very important dimensions to understanding the nature and mission of Jesus.
There are also a number of the items which are not satisfactory. Alive-O says that Jesus 'shows us the love and forgiveness of God', which is deficient because Jesus himself forgives, since he is divine. Alive-O says that Jesus 'shared a last meal with his friends before he died'; this falls far short of significance and meaning of the Last Supper. Alive-O says that Jesus 'died on the cross for us'; this is an entirely inadequate description of what Jesus did for us on the cross, when he redeemed the entire human race from sin, because millions of people have died for others but only Jesus' death was redemptive. Alive-O says that Jesus 'was raised from the dead by God the Father'; this is inadequate because Jesus raised himself from the dead, since the Resurrection was the work of the entire Trinity. Alive-O says that Jesus 'after the resurrection, promised to ask the father to send the Holy Spirit'; this treats Jesus as only a human being, because the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus and the Father. Alive-O says that Jesus 'invited his followers to have faith in him'; this is inadequate because the word 'invited' does not adequately express the necessity for faith in Jesus for salvation. Alive-O says that Jesus 'leads us to God's forgiveness in the sacrament of Reconciliation'; this is inadequate and fails to treat Jesus as divine, because in the sacrament of Reconciliation the priest, in the place of Jesus, pronounces forgiveness from the entire Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This extensive series of key omissions and inadequate expressions means that Alive-O's presentation on Jesus, despite having many good features, falls well short of being authentically Christian.
Under the subheading "The Holy Spirit" it is not made clear that the Holy Spirit is divine, that the Holy Spirit is the second divine person of the blessed Trinity and is fully God. The various points listed in this subheading give a very limited understanding of the nature and work of the Holy Spirit.
Under the subheading 'The Church', there is a reasonable comment on the role of home and family. However the items listed under the Christian community are quite inadequate, because they give the impression that Jesus is not God. Alive-O says that the Christian community believes in Christ's resurrection; this is entirely inadequate, because we believe in Jesus Christ himself as God and saviour. If we only believed in Jesus' resurrection, then Jesus could be just a human being who was raised from the dead by the power of God. Alive-O also says that a Christian community gathers to praise God with the Risen Jesus, and to celebrate the forgiveness of God in the sacrament of Reconciliation; this is inadequate because it gives the impression that God is someone different from Jesus. Christians gather to praise and thank Jesus and to receive his forgiveness in the sacrament of Reconciliation. The last point about the Christian community looking forward to eternal happiness with God is very good, but is poorly reflected in the lesson material which is inadequate on the Last Things.
Alive-O says that an understanding of the sacrificial nature of what Christ did on Holy Thursday and Good Friday lays the foundation for an understanding of the Church as the Bride of Christ. This is a good aspiration, but Alive-O significantly fails to give an understanding of Jesus' sacrifice. Also the image of the Church as the Bride of Christ is not reflected in the lesson material.
Other significant aspects of the Church omitted by Alive-O include: the Church’s origin, foundation and mission; the marks of the Church, as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic; the Communion of Saints; the faithful – hierarchy, laity, consecrated life; and anything at all about the Catholic Church (Alive-O gives the impression simply that ‘the Church’ is all the baptized).
There is some reasonable material under the subheading "Mary". However, Alive-O continues its omission of the divinity of Jesus by describing Mary only as ‘the mother of God's Son, Jesus’, but not as ‘mother of God’. There are also some very significant omissions concerning Mary: her Immaculate Conception, her Virginity, and her Assumption, these omissions all correlate with Alive-O’s spirituality. Alive-O does not recognize the existence of original sin, and therefore everyone is immaculately conceived, Mary is no different to anyone else. Alive-O does not apparently believe in Mary's virginity; there are illustrations in the Pupil's Books which imply that Mary was already well pregnant at the time of the Annunciation and that she had several other children besides Jesus. Alive-O is very vague on the Last Things, and conveys that everyone is with God after death in some way, so that Mary's Assumption would not be anything special.
The next subheading is titled "Grace", but falls well short of an authentic Catholic presentation on grace. The Church's teaching on grace is well presented in the CCC 1996-2005. Alive-O opens with a good quotation from the CCC 1996, 1997, which speaks of grace being the favour, the free and undeserved help that God gives to respond to his call; and a participation in the life of God. However, Alive-O then takes the extraordinary decision to ignore and reject the rest of the Church's teaching on grace as expressed in the CCC. Alive-O deliberately excludes the Church’s teaching on sanctifying grace, habitual grace, actual graces, sacramental graces, the special graces called charisms, and graces of state in life. Alive-O ends up with an understanding of grace is as the help of God, which is with everyone at all times and circumstances. (Alive-O appears to depart from its general policy on grace in the final paragraph on page [24], but this is an isolated exception.)
Alive-O's rejection of sacramental grace is manifest right through the programme when it teaches on the Sacraments of the Church; in all cases the grace of each sacrament is omitted. This deprives all seven Sacraments of their meaning, because the particular grace of each sacrament is fundamental to understanding the meaning of sacrament. Sacraments without particular graces are then reduced to merely human rituals, which were not specifically instituted by Christ for the purpose of giving particular grace. This is obviously the reason why Alive-O's presentation of the sacraments is generally extremely poor.
The subheading "Heaven and Hell" would be better termed 'The Last Things', and is seriously inadequate, mainly because it omits the great majority of what the Church teaches.
The Church teaches that God created immortal spiritual creatures called Angels, who were destined to glorify God and to serve mankind. These Angels dwelt with God in a place or state of happiness called heaven. Some of the Angels rebelled against God and were cast out of heaven to a place or state called hell, where they are separated from God for all eternity. The leader of the fallen Angels is called Satan, and they are called Devils. The Devils can and do tempt human beings but their power is limited.
Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were created in a state of innocence, but tempted by Satan they disobeyed God, and the effects of this original sin are transmitted to all mankind. Jesus won salvation for human race from sin through his death on the cross, and opened the gates of heaven to us which had been shut through the original sin of Adam and Eve. However we still can sin, and are subject to temptation from the devil, the sinfulness of humanity and our own fallen nature. Our existence on earth is a spiritual battle, against the world, the flesh and the Devil.
Sin, which is fundamentally an offence against God, disobedience of his law, can be minor / venial or it can be serious / mortal. Mortal sin is a grave offence against God which separates us from God, but from which we can obtain forgiveness through repentance in the sacrament of Reconciliation. But if we die in un-repented mortal sin we will be separated from God for ever, in the place or state prepared for the Devil and his fallen angels, which is called hell.
If we die in the state of grace, in friendship with God and repentant of sins committed, we can, through the salvation won for us on the cross by Jesus, and through the grace and mercy of God, look forward to an eternity of happiness with God in heaven.
Each person has a spiritual soul which is created directly by God at the moment of conception. The spiritual soul is immortal, destined to live for all eternity either in happiness with God in heaven, or separated from God in hell. When we die the soul separates from the body. At the moment of death there is a particular judgement by God, which determines whether we will live with him for ever in heaven (sometimes preceded by a purification in Purgatory) or be separated from God forever in hell.
At the end of time on the Last Day, there will be a general resurrection and a general judgement. Jesus will come again in glory, known as the Second Coming, this time as an infinitely just and infinitely merciful judge, to judge all of mankind. Our bodies will rise and will be reunited with our souls, and share in the soul’s joy of heaven or unhappiness of hell. At this time all creation will be renewed in a manner which we have yet cannot understand, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. (CCC 325-336, 386-421, 1020-1060).
The problem is that Alive-O omits nearly all of the above teaching of the Church which has a bearing on the Last Things. Alive-O's omission is not only from this subsection, but also from the entire programme. Alive-O does not recognize the existence of the immortal soul. Alive-O mentions angels but does not teach what an Angel is, and does not recognize the existence of fallen Angels or Devils. Alive-O does not recognize original sin, temptation, spiritual battle, or mortal sin. Alive-O does not teach about the judgement of God, or God’s infinite justice and mercy. Alive-O does not recognize that Jesus won salvation from sin for mankind through his sacrificial death on the cross. Alive-O does not recognize the End Times, the Last Day, the general resurrection or general judgement, or the Second Coming of Jesus as just and merciful judge.
Alive-O advises to concentrate on the joys of heaven after death, and not to dwell on the unhappiness of hell, which is very good, and is fully in line with the approach of the CCC. However, the problem arises with Alive-O advising withholding information from the children about mortal sin, the devil, and hell. In saying that children sometimes have heard scary stories about the devil and hell, Alive-O is actually making an excellent case for giving the children a proper teaching about these matters. However, Alive-O arrives at the wrong conclusion by deciding to withhold this vital information from the children. This is quite irresponsible because it leaves the children in ignorance about the real dangers that are there. This would be like sending children out on bicycles and only teaching them about the joys of cycling, and never teaching them about the dangers and about how to avoid those same dangers, which would be seriously irresponsible.
Depriving the children about factual information about the devil and his works and temptations, leaves them open to the occult, because 'forewarned is forearmed'. Depriving the children about factual information about mortal sin and its consequences, depriving them of the knowledge of the spiritual battle of life, giving them the impression that they are going to enjoy heaven after death no matter what, invites the grave sin of presumption, which would jeopardize their eternal souls.
The material presented under the subheading "Purgatory" is satisfactory, in itself, especially the excellent quotations from the CCC. However this information requires the context of good teaching on the Last Things in general, something which is missing from Alive-O.
Liturgical Education for the Middle-Primary Schoolchild
This section focuses on sacraments in general, and on the sacraments of Eucharist, Reconciliation, and Baptism. This is excellent in principle, considering the age and stage of the children who undertake Alive-O 5.
Unfortunately, the section has fundamental and serious omissions, which undermine Catholic authenticity. The Church teaches that the sacraments were instituted by Christ, and given to the Church, in order to give grace. In each sacrament there is an outward sign, which signifies the inward grace of the Holy Spirit, which is proper to each sacrament.
Alive-O does not teach what a sacrament is. It was noted in the previous section above, that Alive-O has decided not to follow the Church's teaching on grace. In particular, Alive-O excludes any actual graces, of which an important part are sacramental graces. As Alive-O has excluded sacramental graces, then the sacraments are deprived of Christian meaning, and become merely human institutions. If, as Alive-O teaches, grace is something which is present always and everywhere to everyone, then the sacraments become essentially human rituals or institutions, with no more grace than any other human activity or ceremony.
This section does say that Christ is present in the sacraments, but this is insufficient. It is necessary to say that the sacraments were deliberately instituted by Christ and given to the Church, which Alive-O does not teach. If Christ is present always and everywhere, then there is nothing special about of the sacraments in comparison with any other human action or ritual.
Alive-O states that, 'Without faith, we cannot participate meaningfully in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church'. There is of course some truth in this, but it also misrepresents the teaching of the church on the sacraments. It gives the impression that it is our own 'faith' which makes the sacrament effective. This is in harmony with Alive-O's exclusion of sacramental graces. In contrast, the Church teaches that the sacraments act by the very fact of being performed (ex opere operato), but their fruitfulness is also affected by the faith and disposition of those who receive them.
Alive-O discourages the teachers from an expectation that the pupils can understand, at an appropriate level, the Church's teaching on the sacraments: 'The children will continue to be introduced gradually and progressively to all aspects of the sacraments in the course of the primary programme'. 'We must acknowledge the limitations in the experience, understanding and faith development of middle-primary school children'. In fact, the Church’s basic teaching on the sacraments is simple and straightforward, and readily understandable by middle-primary children. In rejecting sacramental graces, Alive-O creates a complicated and confusing rationale about the sacraments as fundamentally human institutions, and this indeed is difficult for the children to understand. If Alive-O were faithful to the Church's teaching there would not be a problem.
Alive-O states its essential understanding of the sacraments as human rituals: "In the course of this year we endeavour to explore with the children the human values and attitudes that are central to an understanding of and meaningful participation in the sacraments". What follows are 13 points which are predominantly human, with just a touch of theism, 'a sense of God's presence', and ‘a sense of prayerfulness’. The Church’s teaching on sacraments is conspicuous by its absence.
Under the subheading "Eucharist" the material is deficient and unsatisfactory. This naturally follows from Alive-O's exclusion of the Church's teaching on sacraments and on grace. It also follows from Alive-O's nonrecognition of salvation from sin through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. Also it follows from Alive-O's nonrecognition of Jesus as fully divine. Alive-O also excludes the full Church teaching on the Real Presence in the Eucharist; Alive-O excludes the term 'transubstantiation' which the Church uses to clearly express that Jesus is really and substantially present, under the appearance of bread and wine, in his body and blood, soul and divinity. In particular, Alive-O omits Jesus' presence in 'soul and divinity'. This naturally follows from Alive-O's nonrecognition of the soul anyway in anyone, and its non-recognition of Jesus' full divinity.
There is also omission of clear teaching that the Mass is the same as the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, which is the redeeming sacrifice which saves the human race from sin. Alive-O goes no further than saying, 'an ability to reflect on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ', and, ‘emphasising the words of consecration reinforces the link between the Last Supper and Calvary’. These statements fall short of giving a clear understanding that the Eucharist is a re-presentation of the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary.
Alive-O says the Eucharist is ‘the action of the community’. This gives the impression that the Eucharist is primarily a human ritual, rather than that it is primarily the action of God in which the Church participates.
Other omissions include any marks of respect for the Eucharist, such as fasting for one hour before communion, showing great respect for the Eucharist when in the church, and the need for worthy reception of the Eucharist, that is to be free of mortal sin and be in the state of grace. Also there is no mention of the graces of the Eucharist, including the forgiveness of venial sin and the strengthening of the soul to live the Christian life.
There is a quotation from a Directory on Children's Masses, which is less than satisfactory. The quotation includes the statement that the children should have 'some idea of God and the supernatural'; it is utterly extraordinary that after six years of a Catholic catechetical programme, the expectation is no more than that the children should have some sense of God and the supernatural, which amounts to no more than a vague theism.
Under the subheading "Reconciliation" there is little information about the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Alive-O states that in this year, "The children are given the opportunity to celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation using Rite 1". This is altogether too late, coming one to two years after the children have celebrated their First Confession. The Church teaches that Rite 1 is the norm for confession, so that the children should have been thoroughly prepared and celebrated their First Confession according to Rite 1, and should have been going regularly to Confession for the past one to two years under the form of Rite 1. Alive-O consistently tends to treat Rite 2 as the norm (as in the lesson material A5-T2L8), which is contrary to the teaching of the Church, and also works against the children experiencing regular Confession.
There follows some vague discussion of ‘narrative’ being central to the approach to Confession. There is a major potential problem here, in that the term 'narrative' is used in some circles to convey the view that the Bible is all about narrative or mythology, similar to the holy books of other religions, and that the 'narrative' of the Bible is really on a par with the 'narrative' of our daily lives. At the same time, Alive-O does not recognize ‘The Great Narrative’, which is salvation history.
The subheading closes with the following sentence, "Therefore, we should be sensitive about the requirements of confession according to number and species". Alive-O is not being sensitive to the teaching of the Church. The Church teaches that there is a requirement for confession of each and every mortal sin in the sacrament of Reconciliation. The Church also teaches that it is not a necessity, but a strong recommendation, that there should be confession of venial sins. It is to the benefit of the penitent to be as complete as possible in the examination of conscience and confession of venial sins, in order to grow in virtue and holiness. It also helps the confessor to give appropriate words of advice to the penitent to know of the situation on venial sins as completely as possible. Therefore, confession of sins according to number and species would be of great benefit to both penitent and confessor.
Under the subheading "Baptism" Alive-O does not have any teaching about the Sacrament of Baptism. Alive-O's previous teaching on the Sacrament is deficient, because Alive-O does not recognize original sin, sacramental grace, or salvation from sin won by Jesus on the cross. Alive-O treats baptism as a human ritual which initiates people into membership of a body of people who follow the teaching and example of Jesus. Alive-O omits the essential nature of the sacrament: the grace of the sacrament that cleanses from original sin and all other sin, and gives us rebirth in Jesus Christ.
Moral Formation for the Middle-Primary Schoolchild
The opening statement in this section is good. "Through baptism we share in the life and love of God. Christian living is an expression of this life. Our aim in the moral education of children is to help them grow into mature Christians". However, what follows differs substantially from the teaching of the Church.
The structure of this section is odd. First there are two pages under the title of 'moral formation’, followed by half a page under the title 'Christian Moral Education'. It is hard to know what to make of the strange division. In a Catholic programme all the teaching about moral formation should be Christian, not just one bit added on at the end. In fact, the first part of this section is predominantly humanist rather than Christian, and the last bit has more Christian content but is still not entirely satisfactory.
One of the unsatisfactory features of this section is the number of key omissions of Catholic teaching about morality, life in Christ. Satisfactory teaching is lacking on creation and the fall, the existence of Satan and temptation, the immortal soul, the spiritual battle of life against the world, the flesh and the Devil, virtue and vice, or salvation won by Jesus sacrifice on the Cross and the eternal consequences of the moral life in this world.
The section has several mentions of the 'development of Christian conscience'. The Church does teach about the importance of conscience (CCC 1776-1802), but Alive-O's approach to conscience is quite different to that of the Church. The Church teaches that conscience is primarily a gift from God to us, a law inscribed by God in the depths of our hearts, which enjoins us to do good and to avoid evil, to perceive and recognize the prescriptions of the divine law. We are obliged to follow consciences, and are equally obliged to educate and inform consciences in the light of the Word of God and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.
By contrast, Alive-O treats Christian conscience as something that we must develop ourselves, coming to appreciate the moral values underlying the rules, precepts and standards of adults, and learning through experience the consequences of our choices. This is a purely humanist approach to conscience, and radically different to the Christian approach as taught by the Church.
Alive-O says that for the moral life knowledge is not sufficient, which of course is perfectly true. However Alive-O equates 'knowledge' with 'rules and commandments' and does not distinguish the Commandments of God from the rules of adults and of society. This is radically contrary to Church teaching, in which knowledge about the Christian moral life is vastly more than simply rules and commandments, as shown in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part Three, Life in Christ, CCC 1699-2557.
The predominant emphasis to moral formation in this section is humanist, and is well summed up in this sentence, "moral development is a slow and gradual process and must be viewed in the context of the children's overall psychological, emotional and intellectual development". The moral teaching of the Church is either absent or very poorly presented, and is negatively caricatured in the following sentence: 'God should never be used to threaten the children to do what is required of them'.
Alive-O favours the telling of stories as a way of teaching morality, as follows: "Stories that are told to middle-primary school children at this stage can contribute to their personal and moral growth. Good stories can highlight the distinction between good and evil, right and wrong, the triumph of good over evil, and, indirectly, convey many moral values. In such stories, children can recognize situations and conflicts that parallel their own experience. In this way they learn to come to terms with fear, anger, failure, frustration, disappointment and death".
One of the problems of depending on the children to learn moral values from fictional stories, it is that one does not know what values or lessons the children are actually going to take from the stories; it could be something much different to that intended. If the children are going to learn morality primarily from their own experience and fictional stories, then they are really being invited to make up their own subjective morality, rather than relying primarily on the objective teaching of God as to what is right and wrong.
The final paragraph is good. It speaks of Baptism freeing us from sin and giving new life which is sanctifying grace; there is also reference to actual grace given in the sacraments. However, this good information is not matched by other material in the Introductory section for teachers, especially p.[17] where Alive-O says the pupils should not be taught about sanctifying and actual grace, which is put into practice because there is no teaching of sanctifying grace or actual grace in the lesson material for pupils.
Teaching the Middle-Primary Schoolchild to Pray
There is good material in this section, but also significant omissions and imbalances. There are several good quotations in this section from the CCC. However good quotations are not sufficient to guarantee that the section as a whole is in perfect harmony with the CCC, which is the Church's requirement. In fact, the section departs very considerably from the CCC. Prayer is not put in the context of the rest of the CCC as is expressed beautifully in the CCC as follows: "Great is the mystery of the faith! The Church professes this mystery in the Apostles’ Creed (Part One) and celebrates it in the sacramental liturgy (Part Two), so that the life of the faithful may be, conformed to Christ in the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father (Part Three). This mystery, then, requires that the faithful believe in it, that they celebrate it, and that they live from it in a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God. This relationship is prayer" (CCC2558). The section does not bring out this key dimension of prayer as expressed in the CCC.
The CCC also emphasises that in this relationship which is prayer, the initiative rests primarily with God, rather than with human beings. God's thirst for us comes first, and our response of thirst for him is a key part of Christian prayer. (CCC 2560-2561, 2566-2567, 25701-2572, 2575, 2579). This dimension of God's initiative is omitted from Alive-O's presentation on prayer.
An absolutely fundamental omission is the Trinitarian dimension of prayer. Right through the CCC the Trinitarian dimension of prayer is stressed, and the point is made that prayer to be authentically Christian must be Trinitarian. Prayer is offered to the Father, through Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. (CCC 2564-2565, 2614-2615, 2627, 2639, 2655, 2664-2672, 2714). Alive-O’s presentation on prayer does not mention the Trinity, but rather focuses simply on 'God'; the presentation on prayer in Alive-O is therefore more theist than Christian.
The CCC says that authentic Christian prayer while being Trinitarian, is also focused on Jesus Christ. While most Christian prayer is directed to the Father, prayer may also be directed to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit. (CCC 2652, 2663-2664, 2616, 2664-2669, 2680, 2670-2672, 2681, 2709, 2715, 2718, 2746-2751). The opening sentences of the subheading titled "Witness" read, "Watching Jesus pray awoke in the disciples the desire to pray. Children learn most of what they know by copying the adults around them”. While these statements are indeed true, they greatly diminish the reality of Jesus, by equating his role with his disciples with that of any adults with children. The CCC presents the role of Jesus in a far more exalted fashion (CCC2598-2616, 2620-21). When the disciples saw Jesus at prayer or were in his company they were actually participating in a prayer of contemplation, because Jesus himself is God. Alive-O’s presentation on prayer is by no means focused on Jesus.
The CCC gives great importance to the role of the Holy Spirit in Christian prayer (CCC 2564-65, 2600, 2615, 2623-25, 2652, 2661, 2670-73). Alive-O does not mention the Holy Spirit.
The CCC gives great emphasis to the place of Mary in Christian prayer. (CCC 2617-2619, 2673-2679, 2682). By contrast Alive-O gives no particular place to Mary in Christian prayer, apart from a passing reference to the Hail Mary prayer.
The CCC gives significant emphasis to the Mass and Sacrament of the Eucharist, as the summit and source of prayer. (CCC 2637, 2639, 2643). By contrast, Alive-O does not mention the Eucharist.
The CCC lays great stress on the great prayers of the Church. These prayers, mainly drawn from Scripture, are authentic expressions of Christian prayer, and also teach us how we can pray in a truly Christian way. The CCC also emphasises the importance of these great prayers in catechesis, which includes memorisation of the prayers and full explanation of their meaning. (CCC 2586-2589, 2625, 2688). The CCC gives particular emphasis to the Our Father prayer (the Lord’s Prayer), which Jesus taught the disciples. The CCC says that the Our Father is not merely a good Christian prayer, but that it is the model of all Christian prayer (CCC 2759-2865).
The importance of the great prayers of the Church was recently emphasized by Pope Benedict XVI: ‘Prayer … must be constantly guided and enlightened by the great prayers of the Church and of the saints, by liturgical prayer, in which the Lord teaches us again and again how to pray properly'.(Spe Salvi, 34, 2007)
By contrast, Alive-O gives little emphasis to the great prayers, subtly disparaging them as ‘traditional prayer formulas’, ‘the prayer language of adults’. Alive-O says nothing about memorizing these great prayers or explaining their meaning. There is a very brief reference to the Our Father and the Hail Mary, but only in the context of Alive-O's actions to accompany these prayers. These actions are very formalised and ritualistic, and contribute little to the meaning of the prayers or their solemnity.
The CCC has a superb Article on ‘The Battle of Prayer' (CCC 2725-2745). This gives excellent and simple guidance on handling difficulties in prayer, which should form an extremely important part of catechesis on prayer for all people, but especially children. Alive-O says nothing about handling difficulties in prayer. The CCC gives as the source of the difficulties the weakness of human nature and the temptations of the devil. This could be the reason for Alive-O's omissions, because Alive-O does not recognize the existence of the devil or the existence of human weakness resulting from original sin.
The CCC encourages forms of piety and popular devotions among the faithful. (CCC 1674-1675), which includes: visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the stations of the Cross, the rosary, medals, etc. These can be important forms of prayer and helps to prayer, especially for young people who respond very positively to them. They also are ways of linking school with home and parish. These are not mentioned in this Alive-O section on prayer.
The first two paragraphs of Alive-O’ Introductory notes on Prayer give some very good information about prayer. For example, "We also need to help them to communicate with God: to be able to talk to God in prayer and to be able to listen to God speaking to them in the silence of their own hearts". These paragraphs also speak correctly about giving prayer a central place in a religious education programme.
However what is missing from these introductory paragraphs is a clear understanding of Christian prayer. The language is theist, with a focus on ‘God’, rather than Christian, which would focus on the Trinity and Jesus Christ.
The subsections titled 'An Awareness of God's Presence' and 'Atmosphere of Prayer' recognize only human qualities of the pupils (intuitive by nature, sense of awe and wonder, sense of openness and listening), which makes prayer primarily a human rather than a spiritual matter. This is not an authentically Christian approach to prayer. Unfortunately, this is consistent with Alive-O’s non-recognition of the existence of the spiritual and immortal soul.
The next subheading is, "Different Expressions of Prayer”. The opening quotation from the CCC is good. It speaks of the three major expressions of prayer: vocal, meditative and contemplative.
The paragraph on ‘Vocal Prayer’ focuses on spontaneous personal prayer arising from one’s own experience. The CCC also speaks about vocal prayer from personal experience, but particularly emphasizes vocal prayer in the context of liturgical and communal prayer, in which the Our Father is given as the quintessential vocal prayer for Christians. (In the lesson material Alive-O actually gives very little place for the pupils to vocalize spontaneous prayer or the great prayers of the Church, while the great majority of their vocal prayer is repeating Alive-O scripted prayer responses to Alive-O scripted prayers read out by the teacher ).
The paragraph on ‘Meditative Prayer’ makes some good points, but the emphasis is different to the CCC. The emphasis in Alive-O is on self: the children are encouraged to go to an inner space, where they can be quiet within themselves; then from there they can talk to God or they can meet and talk to Jesus. The emphasis in the CCC is on the Trinity, especially Jesus: "Meditation is above all a quest. The mind seeks to understand why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking …….. The important thing is to advance, with the Holy Spirit, along the one way of prayer: Christ Jesus”. The CCC also recommends the Rosary as a means of meditative prayer, which would be particularly appropriate for children; this Alive-O section on prayer does not mention the Rosary. (CCC 2705-2708).
The paragraph on 'Contemplative Prayer' also has some good points, saying there are times when we can communicate with ‘God’ in the silence and depth of our own heart. However the rest of the paragraph deals principally with technique, and even the reference to Jesus is put in a way that a Jesus mantra is a helpful technique to get into a state of meditation. By contrast the CCC says that contemplative prayer is focused on Jesus and the Trinity: "Contemplative prayer seeks him whom my soul loves. It is Jesus, and in him, the Father……… Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus……….. Contemplative prayer is a union with the prayer of Christ in so far as it makes us participated in his mystery. The mystery of Christ is celebrated by the Church in the Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit makes it come alive in contemplative prayer”. (CCC 2709-2718).
The paragraphs on ‘Prayer through Movement’ depart significantly from what is in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. What the CCC has in mind is given in paragraphs 1153-1155. The CCC talks about processions and acclamations. The emphasis by contrast in Alive-O is on liturgical dance and special ritualistic actions. Alive-O refers to a prayer movement that is illustrated on the accompanying video; this prayer movement is titled 'Celtic Blessing', and is taken from a New Age organisation in the USA called Peaceworks. As to be expected, the prayer and dance are New Age in style, not Christian.
The subheading, ‘Forms of Prayer’, covers prayers of petition, thanksgiving, praise, sorrow and repentance, and intercession, which are addressed in the CCC 2623-2643. By way of introduction to these different ways of praying the CCC says, "The forms of prayer revealed in the Scriptures remain normative for Christian prayer".
The paragraphs on 'Prayer of Petition' rightly says that it is important to direct children's prayers of petition away from a magical understanding of God as the Great Santa Claus in the sky. However Alive-O omits the CCC understanding that prayers of petition are essentially centred on the desire and search for the kingdom of God, in keeping with the teaching of Christ. The model for Christian petition is expressed in the Our Father prayer.
The paragraph on 'Prayer of Intercession' gives correct information on the nature of intercessory prayer. However, it would have been good to include examples of intercession for spiritual needs, rather than including only material and human needs.
Alive-O does not give any indication that prayers of petition or intercession are ever effective. Examples could be given of many ways in which prayers of petition and intercession have been answered, including examples from the Scriptures, shrines like Lourdes, and the many miracles that have been verified by the Church in the causes of canonisation of saints.
The paragraphs on 'Prayer of Thanksgiving' contain some good advice. However it is limited only to the human and material, it is entirely 'horizontal'. By contrast, the CCC emphasises the spiritual dimension of thanksgiving, particulary the Eucharist, and Christ's work of salvation. It also emphasises the Christian approach of giving thanks to God in all circumstances, even in situations which may not seem favourable: "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you". Alive-O does not cover this important dimension of Christian prayer.
The paragraph on 'Prayer of Praise' has some good information. However it misses out on some key aspects that are given in the CCC, in particular the Trinitarian and Eucharistic dimensions: "The Eucharistic contains and expresses all forms of prayer: it is the pure offering of the whole of Body of Christ to the glory of God's name; it is the sacrifice of praise".
The paragraph on 'Prayer of Sorrow and Repentance' contains good advice on prayer of forgiveness.
Under the subheading, "Prayer in the Classroom", there are some excellent proposals: education in common prayer; prayer each day in the context of the lesson and rising out of everyday events; prayer involved in celebration of special times of the year.
However, the approach to prayer in this subheading is predominantly theist and secularised, rather than authentically Catholic or Christian. Theist, because there is only mention of 'God', and there is no mention whatsoever of the Trinity, God the Father, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit. Secularised, because all the prayer is expressed in terms of material or this-worldly matters, with no spiritual dimension, no eternal perspective.
Rather than emphasising the great prayers of the church, as in the CCC, the major emphasis is on the children's own spontaneous vocal prayers and on the prayer rituals written by the Alive-O programme itself. In practice, the prayer-times in the Lesson plans are predominantly Alive-O written prayer rituals, with the teacher leading and pupils responding, with little scope for the great prayers of the Church or pupil’s spontaneous vocal prayers.
Educating the Middle-Primary Schoolchild for Community Life
There is some good information in this section concerning participation in the community life of the church. However, in practice in the text itself, community life is seen very much in humanitarian rather than spiritual terms.
There is reference to the covenants, which is good in itself. However the references are limited to covenants with ‘Abraham and Sarah’, and with ‘Moses and the people’, with omission of the other covenants. A catechesis based on the covenants should include all of them, including the covenants with Adam and Eve, Noah, David, and most importantly the New Covenant in Jesus.
Missionary Initiation of the Middle-Primary Schoolchild
The first three paragraphs of this section are a quotation from the General Directory for Catechesis on the topic of evangelisation. This quotation is excellent and very well chosen. The final two paragraphs of the section give references to the body of the text where the guidance on evangelisation and missionary work is put into practice. This seems very good, however in practice in the text missionary work is interpreted solely in humanitarian terms, not in terms of evangelisation or anything spiritual.
Using the Bible with the Middle-Primary Schoolchild
In this section Alive-O claims to give great importance to the Bible, and encourages the children in respect for the Bible. It claims that "the entire programme is profoundly biblical". However, the approach to the Bible outlined in this section is out of harmony with the understanding of the Bible held by the Catholic Church.
The section opens with the following sentences: "The Bible is a source of inspiration for Christians. It is a significant resource book at all levels." It is entirely inadequate for Alive-O to recognize the Bible as simply ‘a source’ and ‘a significant resource’, in other words just one source or resource among many.
The Church takes a different view, as follows: "The source from which catechesis draws its message is the word of God: Catechesis will always draw its content from the living source of the word of God transmitted in tradition and the Scriptures, for sacred tradition and sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the word of God, which is entrusted to the Church". (GDC 94). "Tradition, Scripture and the Magisterium, all three of which are closely connected, each according to its own way, are the principal sources of catechesis". (GDC 96). Alive-O does not even mention Tradition or the Church’s Magisterium.
Alive-O's stated understanding of Scripture as just one source for catechesis expresses itself throughout the text in the way that Scripture is treated. Alive-O makes extensive use of Scripture but it treats it like spiritual putty, which can be added to, subtracted from, altered or reshaped at will.
The subheading, "The Word of God", opens with a quotation from Dei Verbum 12. The quotation refers only to the literal meaning of Scripture, and taken out of context as it is here, gives the impression that the meaning intended by the sacred writers was the only meaning of the Scriptural text. The rest of DV12 makes clear that the literal meaning is not the only meaning. (The literal and spiritual meanings of Scripture are very well presented in CCC115-119).
The Catholic Church teaches that the Scriptures are primarily about God and tell of salvation history, the story of the human race in relation to God. Alive-O turns this on its head, and says that the writers of both Old and New Testaments were writing primarily about themselves and about themselves in relation to others, the natural world and God. Alive-O says that the writers of the Bible were writing in the conditions of their times and for the people of their time, which, if added to the impression that Alive-O has given that the literal meaning is the only meaning of Scripture, invites the conclusion that we may express whatever thoughts we think were in the writers’ minds in whatever way we find appropriate for modern times and conditions. This rationale ideally suits Alive-O's approach of treating the Scripture as ‘spiritual putty’ that may be reshaped at will, as has been noted above.
The next subheading is titled, "New Testament", and presents an understanding of the New Testament to be given to middle-primary school children. The understanding presented here is radically different to the understanding of the New Testament as presented by the Church. Jesus is understood as a special person who through his actions and teaching is a good example of the kingdom of God. What is missing is that Jesus is God, that he came to redeem us from sin, and that he in his own person is an expression of the kingdom of God, that he is the king and a very essence of the kingdom.
Alive-O mentions nothing about Jesus being God, or that he became man in order to save us from sin. Alive-O diminishes Jesus by saying, "somehow the kingdom is revealed in the person and action of Jesus".
Alive-O says that it paraphrases New Testament texts to make them more intelligible to children. Some rewriting of the scripture passages for a particular audience is a perfectly valid technique; however, in practice Alive-O in its rewriting (of both Old and New Testament texts) often undermines the meaning of the Scriptural text through changes in the text, omissions of key elements and/or overwhelming of the original text with fictional additions.
The next subsection is titled, "Old Testament". Alive-O claims that its 'entire programme is profoundly biblical, in the sense that it presents God as a living God who is present and active in our daily world'. In the subsequent text it speaks of the Israelites having a awareness of the presence of God in the experiences of human life. These statements highlight how Alive-O's approach to Scripture is profoundly theist. The impression is given that God made himself known to the people of the Old Testament in essentially the same way that he made himself known in the New Testament, and makes himself known to people in general everywhere at all times. This radically fails to present a Christian understanding of the Old Testament as a preparation for the coming of Jesus, in the context of salvation history. Alive-O does not recognize salvation history at all, in particular it fails to show that the Bible is the story of salvation history.
The final subheading is, "Reverence for the Bible". The opening sentence expresses Alive-O’s diminished understanding of the Bible, which diverges significantly from the Church's understanding. The first sentence reads, "We encourage the children to be aware of the importance of the Bible for Christians". The Bible is in fact radically more than just ‘important for Christians’; the Church teaches that the Bible, in conjunction with Sacred Tradition and the Church’s Magisterium, is the source of the Deposit of Faith, which the Church has received from God, carefully guards, and faithfully hands on to succeeding generations in her evangelization and catechesis.
This subsection also contains guidance on how the pupils can be taught reverence for the Bible. The recommendations here are excellent, and are reflected in the lesson material for the pupils. This is good in itself, but will be of little value in the absence of a correct teaching on the Bible itself, something which is not found in Alive-O 5.
Themes of the Programme
This section says that a number of connected themes appear in the course of the programme:
• beginnings and endings
• the Reign of God
• covenant.
The Alive-O Pupil's Book presents the major theme as ‘beginning and endings’. It also mentions the coming of the kingdom of God, but does not make any mention of covenant. By contrast, this section says that "the heart of the programme lies in the covenant theme".
The theme of 'beginnings and endings' is presented first in a very secular manner. Then there is an attempt to make the Christian life fit in with this secular concept of beginnings and endings. ‘Beginnings and Endings’ is not an approach that is recommended by the Church, which asks that catechesis should be focused on salvation history and the four pillars of the CCC, and that everything should be seen in that context.
The next paragraphs attempt to give an understanding of 'the reign of God'. However this is inadequate, because there is no admission that Jesus is our Saviour and that he has won salvation from sin. Nor is there any identification of Jesus as King. An understanding of Jesus as Saviour and King is central to an authentic Christian understanding of the coming of the Kingdom of God, but in the absence of this understanding Alive-O says that, "the children will be encouraged to approach this theme with the gift of their religious imagination".
The next subheading is titled "covenant". Covenant is an extremely important theme in Christian theology, and is central to understanding of salvation history. Alive-O rejects key elements of salvation history. Alive-O does not recognize original sin or salvation of sin brought about through the sacrificial death of Jesus. Alive-O is also very vague about eschatology, the last things. Alive-O is also not clear on the divinity of Jesus and the nature of God in the blessed Trinity. Given all these ways that Alive-O departs from fundamental Christian teaching it is not surprising that the concept of ‘covenant’ as presented in this section diverges significantly from the authentic Christian understanding.
Initially the impression is given that the essence of 'covenant' is when people become aware of the goodness of God and God’s desire to have a relationship with us. In other words, the initiative lies with the people, not with God. ‘Covenant’ in the ancient Near East was an agreement between kings or rulers. It could be between equals, or unequals. The higher king promised protection to the vassal king, and in return the vassal promised service and obedience. Great benefits were promised to follow from keeping the covenant, dire consequences would result from breaking the covenant. The covenant between unequals was clearly the model for the covenants between God and his people, in which the initiative is taken by God, not by the people. This differs from the understanding of the covenant as presented by Alive-O in this section.
The story of covenants is presented in this section starting with Abraham. By omitting the initial covenant with Adam and Eve, and also ignoring the earlier covenant with Noah, Alive-O undermines salvation history, which is the context in which God’s covenants make sense.
The section has a presentation of the covenant with Moses, which is reasonably well done, except that it does not sufficiently show that the initiative is with God, and that it is part of the entire history of salvation.
The section then omits the covenant with David, which is extremely important in understanding the role of Jesus and the entire New Covenant. The kingship of David is a foretelling of the kingship of Jesus. This is made very clear in the gospels which describe Jesus as son of David. The omission of the covenant with David is therefore most unbiblical.
In dealing with the New Covenant the section has a very strange statement, as follows: "Finally, with the Incarnation comes the New Covenant, through Mary. (In this, Mary has a place not unlike Abraham or Moses)". Christian teaching has always seen Mary as the new Eve; through her disobedience Eve played a crucial role in bringing death into the world, while Mary through her obedience played a crucial role in bringing salvation and life to the world. Also in Christian teaching it is Jesus who is seen as the new Moses, in his role as prophet, in fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament. Therefore it is confusing and unbiblical for Alive-O to identify Mary with Abraham or Moses, rather than to see her as the ‘new Eve’ (but consistent with Alive-O’s avoidance of Adam and Eve).
Alive-O fails to bring completion to the story of the covenant by showing that the covenant would be completed in the New Heaven and New Earth which will come at the end of the time at the Second Coming of Jesus.
In summary then, this section is extremely poor. It attempts to take a secular theme of ‘beginnings and endings’, and to mix this theme in with a deficient understanding of the ‘reign of God’ and of ‘covenant’.
Using the Programme in the Classroom
The first subheading in this section is titled, "Stories". It stresses the importance of stories in teaching, which is certainly true. Stories are a powerful educational tool. Stories are generally easier to remember than statements of fact, which is the case for people of all ages but particularly for children. Children love stories and will remember them. It is good in principle to have stories in a catechetical programme, which is very much in harmony with the pedagogy of God: the Bible is itself a story, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’, which is the history of salvation. The Bible also contains very many component stories – historical stories, parables, allegories.
Alive-O does not describe the Bible as the story of salvation. Indeed, Alive-O does not recognize salvation history at all, which follows from its non-recognition of the Fall, original sin and Jesus as divine Saviour from sin.
While it is good that Alive-O stresses the importance of story in catechesis, it is not so good that it includes an excessive amount of complicated theorising about stories in secular terms, all about the nature of story, abstractions, experience and time. Alive-O does not make any distinction between different types of story, fact or fiction, history, mythology, fable, legend, allegory or parable. Alive-O’s theorising adds little to an understanding of the role of story in Catholic catechesis.
Alive-O does not present a good understanding of Jesus and stories. Alive-O says that, "In the Christian tradition storytelling is not an innovation. Jesus told stories that challenged the people of his day to look again at their experiences. Through his stories he challenged them to re-evaluate these in the light of the values of God's kingdom, which he explored in concrete terms in his stories". In the Alive-O books Jesus is presented as a ‘story-teller’, which is a misleading description of Jesus. A 'story-teller' was essentially someone who went around telling stories for a living to entertain people, stories which might be fiction, history or mythology. The Scriptures never describe Jesus as a storyteller, nor does the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Jesus was a Teacher, the greatest teacher ever, and he taught by word, deed and example. One of the means used by Jesus to teach was the use of parables; a parable is essentially a metaphor, but is not necessarily a story. Some of Jesus’ parables were stories, others were not; all of Jesus’ parables are memorable, but especially the story-parables. Jesus’ teaching was essentially about God and about salvation history, and was not primarily focused, as this section says, on people’s experiences.
Further analysis of stories in Alive-O 5 are given under the heading ‘Songs & Stories’ below, and in Section 3 with the Lessons in which the stories appear.
The next sub-heading in this section is titled, “Poetry". It is stated that poetry plays a central role in Alive-O 5. What follows is a very complicated discussion of the role of poetry expressed in complex secular language. There are several references to the 'human struggle to become fully alive,……. to enhance fullness of life', which are expressed in entirely secular terms. This reflects Alive-O’s generally secular interpretation of its banner quotation from St Irenaeus, 'The glory of God is people fully alive'.
The use of poems in catechesis is excellent, in principle. In practice, in Alive-O 5 the catechetical value of the poems is extremely variable. Some of the poems in Book 5 are good, others are poor. Poems are analysed in Section 3 below with the Lessons in which they appear.
The next subheading is titled, "Chatting about…". Each lesson contains a number of discussion opportunities for the children and the 'Chatting about' section is mainly suggested questions for the teacher to use in the discussion or dialogue with the children. It is at the discretion of the teacher to use these questions in whatever way the teacher wishes, or to omit them altogether. This is not a bad idea, in principle, but the volume of questions is many times greater than could be used in the available time, so the teacher would have to be selective in which questions to use, if any. Also, while Alive-O says the purpose of these sessions is to stimulate discussion among the pupils, generally the questions are structured to reinforce Alive-O’s lesson material, they are generally ‘leading questions’. It is not good that Alive-O says that the discussion sessions are aimed at drawing the pupils deeper and deeper into themselves; a discussion session should draw the pupils deeper into an understanding of the lessons, into an understanding of and connection with Jesus.
It is not good practice that teaching material in the form of statements is frequently included mixed in with the discussion questions, without any guidance to the teacher as to how to handle that teaching material. If the teacher tried to convey that teaching material to the pupils then it would take from the already restricted time available for discussion. It is particularly bad that sometimes important teaching material is mixed in with the discussion questions and this important material is thereby greatly de-emphasised, and is likely to be completely lost and 'buried’.
The next subheading is titled, "Talking Together". This encourages the teacher to involve the children themselves in leading the discussion sessions, encouraging towards "collective leadership in discussion and conversation".
This proposal seems impractical and unhelpful. It is difficult enough for a teacher to conduct a meaningful discussion session with 30 8/9-year-olds, when the teacher is leading the discussion and trying to ensure that there is good order and that each child gets an opportunity to participate. If the young children themselves have to lead and coordinate the entire discussion session there is likely to be disorder and in particular the dominance of the discussion by the articulate members of the class. One would be concerned that the time, effort and energy put into this activity would not be well spent, and would be harmful to the primary task of teaching the truths of the Faith.
The next subheading is " Music ". One must agree fully with the importance given to music and song, which have formed part of the Church's liturgy and catechesis from earliest times. Most of the songs used are specially written for Alive-O, while the rest are drawn from other traditional or published sources. The value of the songs for Catholic catechesis are extremely varied, from excellent to very poor. For further analysis of the songs used in Alive-O 5 see section below on ‘Songs & Stories’, while each song is analysed in Section 3 below along with the Lessons in which the songs appear.
The next subheading is titled, "Art". Alive-O 5 has many illustrations in the Pupil's Book, often has drawings to be coloured-in in the Worksheets, and gets the children to do drawings and other artwork in the Art sessions. Teachers and parents know well how much 8/9-year-olds love drawing and painting, and how art can play a part in the educational process. However the material in this subsection talks about art in complex, abstract and convoluted secular psychology terms, which is way beyond what is needed to understand how 8/9 year-olds love and use art.
This subsection does not address the issue of artwork in the Pupil’s Book. The illustrations in the Pupil's Book are mostly originals for Alive-O; they are colourful and eye-catching, but concentrating on cartoon like drawings limits the children's imagination; use could and should be made of the great treasury of Christian art from earliest centuries up to modern times. The illustrations in the Pupil’s Book, the artwork in the Worksheets and the Art sessions in the Teacher’s Book are analysed further in Section 3 below under the Lessons in which they appear.
The art-motif in the Teacher’s Book is cats – something short of a thousand cats. The cat is not a Christian symbol, not mentioned in Bible. However, cat-gods were prevalent in the religions of the ancient Near East in Biblical times. Cats are an important symbol in withchcraft. So the cat seems a strange choice as motif for Catholic catechesis.
The next subheading is, "Video". The educational potential for video material is tremendous, and in principle it is a very good idea to provide a video to accompany the written materials in Alive-O 5. The technical and professional quality of the video is high, but from the point of view of Catholic catechesis, its value is somewhat variable; most video segments are reasonable, some excellent, one very poor. For further analysis see the section on ‘Video’ below, while each video segment is analysed Section 3 below under the Lessons with which the video segments are associated.
The next subheading is titled, "Workbook and Worksheets". The use of worksheets is excellent in principle. However, the Worksheets in Alive-O 5 vary in catechetical value, from good to poor. The Worksheets are analysed in Section 3 below under the Lessons in which they appear.
The next subheading is, "Reflecting on the Week". As there is a very large amount of material contained in the lessons in the teacher's book, one must wonder at the practicality of having a session on the final day of reflecting on the lessons that have been done during the week.
There is also a recommendation that each child should have a journal. This is not an exercise book, and there are to be no ‘right’ answers. The children are encouraged to write down personal things connected in some way with the week’s lesson theme. There are some concerns here. An exercise book is generally helpful in learning other subjects, so why not RE/catechesis? There is also a concern about violation of the children’s privacy; in the classroom very personal and private matters could be seen by other children. Also if the journal is kept all the time in the classroom, the parents will have no access to it, and this is also a concern.
The final subheading in this section is titled, "Memorisation". It is good that Alive-O mentions the importance of memorization. Alive-O says, 'Throughout the year the children are provided with countless opportunities to learn by heart -- songs, hymns, poems, Mass responses, traditional prayers and informal prayers'. However, it is not enough to say that the children have opportunities to memorize; the teachers must be instructed to lead the children to memorise certain items, and this rarely happens in the Teacher’s Book lesson material. In the absence of such definite instruction, it is likely that the children will remember the words of many songs, stories, illustrations and video material. In Alive-O 5 there are 47 songs, 47 stories, 65 illustrations, and 1½ hours of video. This is a mixed blessing, because some of this material is good, other parts of it are poor.
It is particularly regrettable that there are no instructions for the teachers to ask and help the children memorise words of the great prayers of the Church.
It is excellent in principle that Alive-O has many questions and answers to be learnt. However, the value of these questions and answers is mixed; some are excellent while others are poor, and they do not constitute a satisfactory summary of the key truths of the Faith that the pupils should be learning during this year.
A serious omission from the entire Alive-O programme is any kind of learning assessment, in order to find out what the children have learned, what they have memorised.
Being Sensitive
There is some good material in this section about God's love and goodness. However it strongly reflects the earlier tendency noted in Alive-O to see the purely secular-human as being fully religious. This is reflected in the pedagogy of Alive-O which approaches things from the point of view of human experience, rather than the Church's approach or the ‘pedagogy of God’ which approaches things first of all from the knowledge of God.
There is reference to difficulties and suffering, but Alive-O does not present a Christian approach to suffering. Alive-O does not recognize original sin and therefore cannot see suffering as a result of the Fall and original sin; Alive-O does not recognize the salvation from sin won for us by the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross, therefore it cannot see the Christian value of joining our sufferings to the salvific sufferings of Christ.
Alive-O’s approach is well summed up in the following quote: "Religion is about life. Children learn from their experience, so it is vital that every child finds his/her real experience reflected in the programme". The whole approach in this section is theist/humanist, rather than Christian.
Social, Personal and Health Education
This section outlines the relationship between the Alive-O programme and the Department of Education’s programme in Social, Personal and Health Education. The Department’s SPHE programme is entirely secular, and while it contains some good material, parts of it are in conflict with Catholic and Christian teaching. It is bad for Alive-O to uncritically embrace this secular programme, with its potential to undermine the faith and morals of the children.
2.6: Songs & Stories
Songs
There are a total of 47 songs in Alive-O Book 5. The great majority, 39 songs, are specially written for Alive-O and are unique to the programme. There are three songs from traditional sources, and five songs from other published sources.
Out of the total of 47 songs, only three would be normally heard in church. The selection of songs therefore contributes to immersion of the pupils in an Alive-O environment, and in separation of the pupils from home and parish.
Music and song have a powerful learning capability, especially when the music is attractive and catchy, which is generally the case with the Alive-O written songs. Words of songs are easily remembered, and therefore the pupils are likely to take away with them in their memories the words of songs rather than ordinary written text. The place of music and song in the educational programme is therefore very important.
This author has rated the songs in Alive-O from the point of view of Catholic catechesis. This rating does not take account of musical or artistic quality.
Alive-O songs Traditional & other published songs
Excellent: 2 3
Good: 9 4
Fair: 11 -
Poor: 12 1
Very inadequate: 5 -
The rating shows a very mixed situation. Eighteen songs are rated excellent / good, and will undoubtedly make a positive contribution to the pupil's catechesis. However, it is far from satisfactory that eleven songs rate only fair, while 18 songs rate poor/inadequate. It is also unsatisfactory that most of the poorer songs are specially written for Alive-O.
The songs are analysed in greater detail in Section 3 as part of the Lessons in which they appear.
Stories
Stories are also a powerful educational tool. Stories are often easier to remember than the statements of fact, which is the case for people of all ages but particularly for children. It is good in principle to have stories in a catechetical programme. This is following the pedagogy of God. Scripture, which is the word of God, is the Great Story, the history of salvation, and also contains very many component stories. A good example are the parables that Jesus told in the form of stories. (A parable is in essence a metaphor, and not necessarily a story. Many of the parables told by Jesus were not in fact stories, though they were metaphors).
There are a total of 47 stories in Alive-O Book 5, listed on page 399 in the Teachers' Book. The author has rated these stories in accordance with their relevance for Catholic catechesis, as follows:
Excellent 1
Good 6
Fair 9
Poor 13
Very inadequate 18
These ratings indicate that Alive-O 5 is largely missing out on the opportunity to use the powerful educational tool of stories to give authentic Catholic catechesis.
Half the stories are based fully, or largely, on Scripture. A further nine stories are loosely based on Scripture, but dominated by fictional additions. Five stories have a religious theme other than Scripture, while the remaining ten stories have secular themes.
The stories are analysed in greater detail in Section 3 of this Analysis as part of the Lessons in which they appear.
2.7. Prayer
The Prayers for the Year are listed on pages [60-63].
The Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father are all excellent; they are from the great prayers of the Church.
The Morning Prayer is Alive-O written and is reasonable. However, there has been a great tradition in Ireland, and in other countries, of starting the day with a Morning Offering. A traditional Morning Offering would serve better, because it contains important spiritual dimensions which are not included in Alive-O’s Morning Prayer, and it would serve better to link the children with home and Church.
The Night Prayer Alive-O written, and is reasonable.
The Alive-O Grace before Meals is reasonable, but is not as good as the traditional prayer. Use of the traditional ‘Grace before Meals’ would help link the children with home and parish. The Alive-O version also has some significant omissions: that we receive our food from the bounty of the Lord, and that we pray through Christ our Lord.
The same could be said of the Alive-O written Grace after Meals; it is a reasonable prayer, but for similar reasons the traditional version would be better.
The Prayer to Jesus (based on St Patrick’s Breastplate) and the Prayer to the Trinity (a doxology) are satisfactory.
The Prayer to Mary is Alive-O written, and is only fair. A particular weakness is that Mary is only referred to as ‘mother of Jesus’ (not ‘Mother of God’, or ‘Mother of God’s Only Son’) which conveys the impression that she is simply a special mother of a special man. There are two much superior, inspiring and beautiful traditional prayers to Mary that the children could be introduced to at this stage: the Hail Holy Queen and the Memorare.
It is good to include The Angelus. Unfortunately, Alive-O’s re-written version of the concluding prayer is not good for two reasons, firstly, because it separates the children from home and Church, and secondly, because the Alive-O version diminishes this great prayer in the following ways: the Alive-O version omits ‘grace’ (Alive-O consistently avoids the Church’s teaching on grace); Alive-O subtly alters the wording so that it is not clear that Jesus’ Passion and Cross are the means by which we human beings are brought to the glory of the Resurrection (Alive-O consistently omits or obfuscates the Church’s teaching on salvation, which is a natural result of Alive-O’s non-recognition of Original Sin and ambivalence on Jesus’ divinity); Alive-O omits the word ‘Christ’.
Alive-O also omits the additional prayer which is customarily said in Ireland at the end of The Angelus: ‘May the divine assistance always remain with us, and may the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.’ This prayer could so easily and beneficially have been included; it is an excellent prayer in its own right, and would serve to link the children with home and parish.
There are two Prayers to the Holy Spirit, both Alive-O written. The first is fair, while the second is New Age friendly. Both fall well short of traditional Church prayers to the Holy Spirit, which have much greater Christian meaning, are dramatic and inspirational, and would serve much better to lift the children’s spiritual imaginations.
The Alive-O Journey Prayer is reasonable.
The Prayers and Responses used at Mass are satisfactory; they include two of the great prayers of the Church: the Confiteor and The Apostles’ Creed.
There are three prayers given under the heading Prayers used in connection with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. These Alive-O written prayers are Act of Sorrow, Prayer for Forgiveness, and Prayer after Forgiveness.
The Prayer for Forgiveness is not traditional, and appears to be a substitute for the examination of conscience, but a poor substitute. The Act of Sorrow addresses what has been the traditional ‘Act of Contrition’. Alive-O’s prayer is not unreasonable, but falls short in a number of ways of the Church’s recommended Act of Contrition (see ‘Compendium of the CCC’). Important Alive-O omissions are: the essence of perfect contrition, which is sorrow for offending God; firm purpose of amendment by the help of God’s grace; resolve to avoid occasions of sin. Alive-O would have done better to include the Church’s standard ‘Act of Contrition’, rather than its own version.
The 'Prayer after Forgiveness' is reasonable, but would have been better titled ‘Thanksgiving after Confession’, to better express what the prayer is really about, because this would link the prayer directly with the Sacrament.
There are a number of Prayers before and after Communion. There are reasonable sentiments expressed in these prayers, however they do fall short of expressing the fullness of receiving Jesus body and blood soul and divinity into one's heart and soul. The prayers speak of Jesus 'coming to me', which is good as far as it goes, but does not really express the Real Presence, because Jesus can come to one in a number of different ways.
Further analysis of the prayers is given in Section 3 below, in the analysis of the lessons where the prayers appear.
2.8: Video
Each of the Alive-O books has a video which goes with the programme. The video is intended to be shown to the pupils in the classroom at the discretion of the teacher, in order to illustrate or further develop the material contained in the books. Not all of the lessons have some illustrative material in the video.
The technical and professional quality of the video is high. The videos are likely to be attractive to the pupils and to engage their attention. The videos feature a strongly projected ALIVE-O ‘branding’.
There is much good material in the videos. Indeed there are cases where good information is included in the video which is not included in the other lesson material. However much of the material in the video is also unhelpful. Some of the material is simply secular, while some projects a New Age spirituality.
An interesting segment has Muslim, Jewish, Catholic and Protestant children speaking about their faith: the Muslim children come across as most sure and articulate about their Islamic faith, the Catholic children least sure.
The analysis of each video segment is given in Section 3 below, along with the Lesson that each segment is associated with.
3: ANALYSIS BY THEME & LESSON
There are 29 lessons in Alive-O 5 arranged in three terms, as listed above in Section 2.
Each lesson in Alive-O 5 generally corresponds to a week, though some lessons are designed to be taken over two weeks. Each lesson is given a title and a distinct number. There are 3 terms, and the lessons are sequentially numbered in each term. This Analysis will follow the lesson numbering system used by the Programme. Lessons will be designated by year, term and number, as follows: A5-T1L1 – Lesson number one, in first term of Alive-O 5.
The overall theme of Alive-O 5 is given in both the Pupil's Book and the Teacher's Book as ‘beginnings and endings’. This theme is explicitly addressed in the first two lessons of Alive-O 5, but only appears to a limited extent thereafter.
There are several other themes that appear during in the year of Alive-O 5, and for purposes of analysis it is considered most meaningful to group the lessons in accordance with the theme that they address. The order in which the themes are presented in this Analysis is the order in which each theme appears in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The titles of the lessons sometimes indicate clearly what is contained in the lesson, and other times not.
Lessons are analysed under the headings given below. Particular importance must attach to the material in the Pupil’s Book and Worksheets, because these are the materials which the pupils can be expected to receive and retain, and which may be seen at home by parents or guardians. They are also the materials most likely to be seen by parish clergy.
The lesson materials in the Teacher's Book and the video are only presented to the pupils at the discretion of the teacher, and lack permanence in that they are not in the actual possession of the pupils, and cannot be reinforced at home, because parents and guardians will not have seen these materials and may not even be aware of their existence. Also, there is far more material in the Teacher's Book that could be possibly used in the 30 minutes per day allocated to religious education, and therefore much of the material must of necessity be left out and passed over by the teacher.
The analysis of each lesson addresses each of the following elements:
❑ Summary: This summarizes each group of lessons under the theme which they address.
❑ Pupil’s Book: This book comprises 64 pages, devoting between 1 to 5 pages per lesson. In addition to text, most lessons contain colourful illustrations, which may take up more than half the page space available. Sixteen of the lessons contain one or more questions with answers, under the heading 'To be Learned'. The information for teachers in the Introductory section of the Teacher’s Book encourages learning of these questions and answers by heart, but there are no instructions to the teachers (nor to parents in the ‘Note to Parents’ in the Pupil’s Book) to check on whether or not the pupils actually memorise the answers to the questions – no learning assessment.
❑ Worksheets: there is a worksheet associated with each lesson, involving some kind of exercise for the children, usually colouring in a picture. The worksheets are analysed below with each lesson.
❑ Teacher’s Book – Information for Teachers: At the start of each lesson Alive-O provides one to two pages of information just for the teachers. This information relates to the lesson, and often gives an indication of the approach that it could be used in the lesson materials for pupils. There is also a 'Thought for the Teacher', which is always a quotation from some writer, often a poem, which is sometimes helpful and other times not. The theme of each individual lesson is indicated in the form of responses to two questions: What am I trying to do? – and – Why?
❑ Teacher’s Book – Lesson material for each day of each lesson: This material usually includes: Songs, Prayertimes, Stories, Activities, Art, ‘Chatting’ (discussion) sessions, and Reflecting on the Week. The ‘Chatting’ sessions contain discussion starter questions, to be used at the teacher’s discretion, and also sometimes information, but it is hard to see how this information could reasonably be communicated by the teacher during a discussion session, especially considering there are far more suggested discussion questions than could possibly be used in the time available, and in addition teachers are encouraged to ‘take a back-seat’ and let the pupils lead the discussions themselves. The music and words of all songs are given with each lesson, and summarised at the back of the book. All the songs can be heard on the accompanying audio tape, while some songs also feature on the video.
❑ Video: Additional illustrative material for some of the lessons is included in a video for classroom use, at the discretion of the teacher.
3.1 Beginnings & Endings
Term 1, Lesson 1: Beginning Again, Amen
Term 1, Lesson 2: Where Have We Come from?
Summary:
A theme of beginnings and endings is a great opportunity to present the Christian view of salvation history. Salvation history starts with the creation of the material universe and also of God's spiritual creation: the Angels, heaven and the human spiritual soul. First we have the rebellion and fall of the Angels, then the creation of human beings in Adam and Eve, the Fall, the preparation of the Chosen People through centuries to receive the Messiah Jesus, God the Son, as Redeemer and saviour, the time of the Church, and finally the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of time, with the general resurrection and judgement, and the new heavens and new earth. Salvation history gives the ‘big picture’, which gives meaning to all the other beginnings and endings of human existence.
Salvation history sets the context for the ultimate beginning and ending of each human life. When life begins at conception we are each given an immortal soul by God and each human life is a personal story of salvation which will end in eternity – either an eternity of happiness with God in heaven or the eternity of separation from God in hell. All the other beginnings and endings of each human life take their meaning and context from Salvation History – each human life is the personal living out of salvation history.
Alive-O misses the opportunity to present salvation history in its totality and as it applies to the human person. Instead its approach to beginnings and endings is largely secular, at best theist.
There is also nothing in these lessons about eternity, which is to omit an essential element in a Christian understanding of beginnings and endings. There is no mention that God is eternal – he is, was, and always will be; no mention that God is the Beginning and Ending – Α and Ω (Alpha & Omega). Also there is no mention that each one of us human beings has an immortal soul that will live forever.
Term 1, Lesson 1: Beginning Again, Amen (A5-T1L1)
Pupil's Book
The lesson material in the Pupil's Book features an inconsequential story-poem 'Beginnings and Endings'. It is accompanied with colourful illustrations of animals. The theme is entirely secular and has no Christian religious education value.
There is a very short prayer with a morning theme, which has very little value. The prayer is essentially theist not Christian, and is a poor substitute for the traditional Morning Offering.
There is also a question and answer. Question: Whom do we honour when we make the Sign of the Cross? Answer: When we make to Sign of the Cross we honour God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Blessed Trinity.
This question and answer are perfectly satisfactory in themselves, but require the necessary backup teaching on the nature of the Trinity, which is lacking in Alive-O.
Worksheet.
The worksheet that accompanies this Lesson, has a picture of a hen to be coloured in. It lacks value as Catholic catechesis.
Information for teachers.
The emphasis here is on life being a series of beginnings and endings. This is expressed in a mostly secular way. God is brought into it by saying that God is our beginning and final end up; "it is from the Creator Father that we come and it is to the same Creator God that we go". Alive-O also proposes that everyone is with God after death; this is the sin of presumption. Also, our destiny after death is expressed more as a pantheistic concept, in other words we simply come from God and return to God.
"Through the cross we are reminded of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; it was an end and a beginning in which God creative power was uniquely present". This totally fails to express the Christian reality of Christ’s death and resurrection, which won salvation for the human race.
The information closes with a paragraph stressing the fact that human beings can influence their endings and beginnings, but this is expressed in a completely secular way.
The information closes with a thought for the teacher, which is attractively poetic but is totally secular, without anything Christian in it.
The theme of this lesson is to help the children see the connection between endings and beginnings in their own lives; and to know that God is with them in all their endings and beginnings, especially the school year as a beginning. There is nothing specifically Christian in this theme. The theme is largely secular, or at best theist.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
The lesson opens with a song 'Beginnings and Endings'. The theme of this song is purely secular and has no religious education content. The lesson has a second song called, 'Sign of the Cross Chant '. The introductory text says that the song honours God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Blessed Trinity, but does not give any teaching on the meaning of the Trinity. It also says that by making the Sign of the Cross we are reminded of the death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection; however it gives no explanation or meaning of Jesus death and resurrection. The words of the song include the doxology, but the rest of the words are all very 'horizontal', and lack the eternal perspective of the 'Glory Be to the Father'.
Most of the lesson material this week is secular in approach, taking the theme of beginnings and endings from a purely secular point of view. In the 'Chatting' section about beginning and ending at home, there is mention of the morning and evening prayers which is good, but most of the material is secular.
The lesson features a story-poem, entitled 'Beginnings and Endings'. The poem is a pointless story about animals, which ends with a barely theist touch; it has no Christian religious education value.
There is a prayer time each day, which is excellent in principle. However, the symbol used is a candle on its own. In the Catholic tradition candles are extensively used in prayer situations, but always to be in the presence of a symbol which is specifically Christian, such as, a crucifix, religious statue, icon, or altar. Prayer does not focus on the candle alone, a practice which would be more in keeping with New Age spirituality. In one of the prayer times there is a call to place all sorts of bits and pieces along with the candle, but never any Christian symbol.
The theme of the prayer time was tends to be ‘horizontal’, in harmony with Alive-O’s secular approach to beginnings and endings. There is also a focus on the Sign of the Cross and the Trinity which is excellent in principle. However, the prayer serves to confuse the identity of the Trinity, rather than to give a correct teaching about it. After the invocation "In the name of the Father", there is only talk about "God" who cares for us as a father and loves us like a mother. This leads one to think that the ‘Father’ and ‘God’ are one and the same, and also confuses and obfuscates the identity of God the Father. When it comes to the 'Son', Jesus is referred to as 'Son of God’, but not as God the Son. Jesus is explained as the one who showed us how to live and how to love, but the most important thing, which is that Jesus is our Saviour, is omitted. The Holy Spirit is not referred to as ' God the Holy Spirit', so that the true explanation of the Trinity is missing.
Term 1, Lesson 2: Where Have We Come from? (A5-T1 L2)
Pupil's Book
The Pupil's Book has a montage of eight pictures relating to eight stories taken from the following lessons in Alive-O 3 & 4: A3-T1L9; A3-T1L11; A3-T2L5; A3-T3L1; A4-T1L7; A4-T1L8; A4-T1L11; A4-T2L3.
There is also a prayer as follows, 'The arm of God be about us. The light of Christ guide us. The strength of the Holy Spirit support us. Amen '. This prayer is unsatisfactory, because it reinforces the inadequate teaching on the Trinity given in the previous lesson. The Trinity is given as, 'God, Jesus, Holy Spirit', which makes God, not God the Father, as the first person of the Blessed Trinity. If God is the first person of the Trinity, then the second and third persons cannot be God. In other words, Jesus and the Holy Spirit may be godly in some way or another, but are not fully God. In practice throughout the programme Alive-O tends to present Jesus as an outstanding godly and special person, but not actually God in himself, while the Holy Spirit is presented as a presence or force of God, but not actually a separate divine person in himself.
Worksheet.
The Worksheet has a picture of a boy and a girl and a number of steppingstones. The instruction is for the steppingstones to be used to fill in various things that happened in the pupil's life. The picture can then be coloured in.
The unsatisfactory prayer from the Pupils Book is also included, which gives Alive-O's misleading view of the Trinity.
Information for Teachers.
The information for teachers here is concerned with the past in a very secular way, or at best a theist manner. A real sense of Christian history, in particular salvation history is missing. The teachers are encouraged to bring the pupils to an understanding of their own history in a very secular manner.
The thought for the teacher is a poem which is beautifully expressed about the memories of a very young child, but the approach is entirely secular, and has no Christian religious education value.
The theme of this lesson as expressed in the teacher's book is as follows: To help the children explore and honour memories of the past, so that they may develop a sense of their own story and tradition as a place where God has been with them, and therefore to see a connection between their story and the Christian story and tradition, so they will trust that God will be with them into the future.
This theme gives an excellent opportunity to teach the children about the real Christian story of salvation history. Also to teach them about creation and the fall, and how we are all part of the human family that Jesus came to redeem from sin, so that the power of Satan is broken and that we can look forward and hope to eternity in heaven. There has been no sense of Christian salvation history in Alive-O up to now, and the opportunity is missed in this lesson to make good the deficiency.
Lesson Material in Teacher's Book
There is one song this week, titled 'Christ is my Light '. The song is reasonable, but does not contribute much to the theme of this week's lesson. Other songs could have been chosen that would contribute to better to an understanding of salvation history.
Most of the material in this lesson is entirely secular, approaching life past and present from a human point of view. God is often brought into it but from a largely theist point of view. There is little contribution in this material to the children's understanding of salvation history and their relationship to it.
There is a prayer time each day, and again the prayer centres on a candle. There is no Christian symbol used in addition to the candle. In one of the prayer times Alive-O calls for various secular materials to be brought in and put beside the candle.
A very negative aspect of the prayer times is an Alive-O written prayer which reads as follows: "The arm of God be about us. The light of Christ to guide us. The strength of the Holy Spirit support us. Amen". This prayer is repeated four times in the Teacher's Book, and is repeated again in the Pupils Book and in the Workbook. This prayer reinforces Alive-O's false presentation of the Trinity: the First Person of the Trinity is presented as 'God', not as ‘God the Father'. Neither Christ nor the Holy Spirit presented as God, which of course they could not be if God is the First Person. Alive-O's presentation of Jesus and the Trinity is reflective of Arianism (the heresy which taught that the Son was not equal to the Father, and was of a different substance, not fully God).
There is a poem titled, "Remember". In the poem Jesus talks to the apostles, remembering times past. The poem is not really satisfactory because all the things that Jesus talks about are purely secular. Even the Eucharist is expressed in a secular way, referring simply to 'bread and wine'.
There is an Activity, titled 'Remembering Jesus’ Stories'. The Teacher's Book proposes that eight different stories from previous Alive-O books be recalled and retold at this point. Most of these stories are poor. In any case this proposal is quite impractical, because there is far too much material here to be used. Retelling these eight stories would require more than a week's lesson time.
One of the stories mentioned here is 'The Parable of the Sower', from Alive-O 3. This story was particularly poorly presented. One of the prayer times this week calls on the actual parable from the Gospel of Matthew to be read out (Mt.13:4-9), but without the explanation of the meaning of the parable which is given in the gospel (Mt.13:18-23). This will contribute little to an understanding of the meaning of the parable by the pupils.
The Sacrament of Baptism is referred to in one of the prayer times, but again Alive-O presents a diminished and non-authentic understanding of Baptism, like an initiation rite or joining ritual, which is no more than a way of becoming part of a church community and tradition.
3.2: Old Testament / Covenant
Term 2, Lesson 1: Abraham and Sarah – Loved by God
Term 2, Lesson 2: Moses and the People – Loved by God
Term 2, Lesson 4: Celebrating God’s Love
Summary:
These three Lessons address the stories of Abraham and Moses and the Exodus, which is excellent in principle. However, the coverage is poor, because the information given is incomplete and lacks context, in particular it lacks the context of salvation history. Alive-O does not recognize salvation history at all.
The lessons also address the theme of covenant, which is also excellent in principle. However the treatment of covenant is poor and does not explain the real nature of the covenants between God and his people, of which the fulfillment is the New Covenant in Jesus; the New Covenant is not referred to in any way. Alive-O presents a kind of theist understanding of covenant as no more than the constant love of God.
There is an introduction to the Ten Commandments, which is also excellent in principle. However the overall explanation of the Decalogue in general and the First Commandment in particular is limited and poor.
Term 2, Lesson 1: Abraham and Sarah – Loved by God (A5-T2L1)
Pupil’s Book.
The Pupil's Book has a story of Abraham and Sarah, in the form of a dialogue between Abraham and Sarah. The story is based on Genesis chapter 17, and addresses the covenant between God and Abraham. The story does give some of the information about God appearing to Abraham, offering a covenant, and promising that Sarah will have a son.
There is a colourful cartoon type illustration of Abraham and Sarah, which certainly catches the eye, but it is most unflattering to Sarah (who the Bible says was exceptionally beautiful).
However, there are several aspects of the story which are not satisfactory. The dialogue in the story is colloquial to the point of trivialising the story. It is also not very faithful to Scripture, because it has Abraham saying that neither he nor anyone else has ever heard the voice of God before. Earlier chapters in Genesis, chapters 12, 13, and 15, tell of God speaking to Abraham. There are many other instances of God speaking to people earlier in the Bible, for example Adam and Eve, and Noah.
There is no context to the story given in the Pupil’s Book, and the pupils have not met Abraham in any previous book of Alive-O. Abraham just appears out of nowhere, so to speak; there is a story of the call of Abraham by God in the Teacher’s Book, but the impact will be greatly reduced by being simply read out and not being in their own book with an illustration, and in any case the teacher may not have time to read out the story. In particular neither story is set in the context of salvation history. This renders the stories pretty meaningless, because the whole point of the call of Abraham is the part it plays in God's wonderful plan of salvation. The deficiency is not remedied in any later book of Alive-O, and the pupils will not meet Abraham again, and will not learn any of the other wonderful events in Abraham's life, such as, the sacrifice of Isaac, the saving of Lot from Sodom, and the meeting with Melchizedek.
The story gives no idea as to what a covenant is, and in particular no idea of the covenant with Abraham. By way of explanation the story has Abraham say, "Starting now, today, with me, God gives an invitation: to share in his great love for all -- all people, all creation". It is true that a covenant is an expression of God's love, but so is everything else that God does, because God is love. Therefore, this statement fails to explain what covenant is.
The story makes a big play on the name 'El Shaddai' (which is re-emphasised in the worksheet), but without really explaining why such emphasis is given, and the meaning of this particular title of God. Alive-O says that 'El Shaddai' means the God of the mountain; this is a possible meaning, but the more normal meaning is taken as 'God Almighty'. In fact this part of the book of Genesis normally uses the word ‘Elohim’ for God, which also means 'God Almighty'.
Worksheet.
The worksheet repeats the illustration from the Pupil's Book, with the name ‘El Sheddai’ written large, all to be coloured in. There is also a small exercise to fill in the blanks, but the worksheet adds nothing to what is already in the Pupil's Book.
Information for teachers in Teacher's Book.
The information states that in this lesson and following lessons the concept of covenant between God and the Hebrew people will be explored, as expressed in the stories of Abraham and Moses. Covenant will be understood as a covenant of love. This is quite inadequate, because of course everything God does is love, but the covenants that God made with his people have a very specific meaning, which can only be understood in the context of salvation history. The covenants with Adam and Eve, with Noah, with Abraham, Moses, and David, prepared for the last and final covenant in Jesus, which is the New Covenant of our Salvation. Alive-O presents covenant as simply the love of God, and does not distinguish between the covenant that God had with Abraham for example and the covenant he has with us today – the New Covenant in Jesus. Of course God's love is constant, but one must see the special nature of the covenants if one is to understand the Christian concept of salvation history. Alive-O presents covenant in a theist and relativist manner.
The second paragraph in the information for teachers actually gives a reasonable explanation of the nature of covenant, but this is not followed through in the lesson. The third paragraph emphasises the lack of difference between the covenants with Abraham and Moses and the love God has for each of us today. The importance of covenant is further diminished by saying that children come to understand God’s love through the experience of human love. There is an element of truth in this, but it by no means expresses the fullness of the truth, because very many people, whose human experience of love has been very deficient, still come to know the love of God in a powerful way. In fact, the Scriptures are full of advice not to depend on human beings because they are fallible and will fail us, but to depend only on the love of God which will never fail.
The thought for the teacher with this lesson is a little poem, which is nice enough but hardly adds to the meaning of covenant.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teacher's Book, is to help the children be aware of and appreciate the covenant love that God has for each of them, and its implication for their lives.
In fact, the lesson significantly fails to give an understanding of God's covenant love, because there is no context of salvation history. What is conveyed instead is a concept of God’s constant love for everyone, in which there is no salvation. The lesson also presents the idea of covenant love in a relativist way.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
There is a song titled, 'God Called Abraham'. The song would be nice enough in the context of good and relevant teaching on Abraham and covenant, but in the absence of such teaching, the song has little religious education value.
The opening 'Chatting' section has a number of discussion questions about contracts and covenants, which contain no information on covenant and tend to lead the discussion towards informal customs about promises and agreements, which adds little to an understanding of covenant in the context of salvation history.
The activity game titled, 'My Word!', adds nothing to understanding of covenant; the time would have been better spent teaching the children the real nature of covenant and salvation history.
The following prayer time tends to reduce covenant to the level of human promises. Part of the prayer needs qualification: the children ask God to help them honour their promises and be trusting of others. They should only honour promises which are good, but one can be led into making wrong promises, which definitely should not be kept. Also trust of others is by no means an absolute, because the weakness of human nature is such that not all people should be trusted; if children trust everyone, they could get into serious trouble.
There are two stories which deal with the covenant of God with Abraham. The first story deals with God's initial offer of covenant to Abraham as given in Genesis chapter 12, while the second story deals with the same material as is given in the Pupil's Book, which is based on Genesis chapter 17 and 21. The stories are reasonable in themselves, but lack meaning because of the absence of the context of salvation history.
The discussion sessions, prayer times, activity and artwork that are associated with the stories do not develop and expand the true meaning of covenant in the context of salvation history. On the contrary they tend to trivialise and diminish the concept of covenant down to normal daily living.
The introductory comments in relation to the video are particularly telling in giving a theist understanding of covenant, which is also relativised. The unique Christian understanding of salvation history is completely undermined. There is no mention anywhere of the New Covenant in Jesus. The information states, "we go back into the Bible to see how the relationship with God that is ours today unfolded in the past. This is the story of our faith tradition. Other people have other faith traditions that are connected with ours". What is referred to here are the Jewish and Muslim faiths, which are addressed in the video.
Video.
This part of the video, Unit 6, is intended for use during Lessons 1 -- 4 of Term 2.
The first part of the video gives some of the story of Abraham and Sarah, with pictures as in the Alive-O 5 Pupil’s Book. This does not add anything of significance to what is already in the books.
The following three segments of the video show children from the Jewish faith, Muslim faith, and Catholic children talking about their own faiths. There is some value in this, but the problem is that it is presented in a purely relativist manner, and there is no attempt to present a Catholic perspective on our own and other faiths, in particular our relationship with the Jewish faith. All three faiths are treated as if they had equal value and validity, and there is no recognition of the unique way in which the truth resides in Christianity, the Catholic Church in particular.
In the first segment we see children of the Jewish faith talking about their beliefs and practices. We see them praying in Hebrew and attending a Sabbath meal together. The presentation is well done and gives a snapshot of some aspects of Judaism, but there is no explanation of Judaism is all about, so the value as religious education is quite limited.
In the second segment we see Muslim children talking about Islam, their beliefs and practices. The children speak with clarity and conviction, and present an extremely positive view of Islam and the way they are being taught their faith.
In the final segment Catholic children talk about their relationship with God. In terms of covenant they speak of God's love towards them in purely humanitarian terms, saying that God gives them a good home and a wonderful world, and keeps them from harm. Again in the theme of covenant, they speak of their response of love towards God, in terms of being kind and nice to others, saying their prayers and going to Mass, and asking God for help to keep their family safe. Much of what they say is good, but it is very theist, and there is no mention of the specifically Christian dimension of covenant and of God. In comparison with the Muslim children in particular, the Catholic children come across as very vague and poorly educated in their faith.
Term 2, Lesson 2: Moses and the People – Loved by God (A5-T2L2)
Pupil’s Book.
The Pupil's Book has an account of what happened with Moses at the burning bush. It does include some of the key information about God’s call to Moses, but most of the story-poem is fictional additions, involving a dialogue of talking sheep. This tends to trivialise the account, and distract attention from the core message. An important omission is the revelation of God's name, as 'I Am Who Am', (which is generally written as Yahweh).
The Pupil's Book has a cartoon type illustration, which shows a rather pop-eyed Moses, a brightly burning bush, and some personified sheep. It does give some idea of the story of the burning bush, but its depiction of Moses and the sheep detracts from the awesome majesty and importance of this extraordinary happening.
The Teacher's Book has an account of the burning bush and also an account of the giving of the Ten Commandments. The pupils will only hear the Ten Commandments story if the teacher chooses to read it out. Even if they hear this story from the Teacher's Book they will still lack an understanding of the wonderful and dramatic account of Moses and the Exodus. A fuller and more complete presentation of the story of Moses and the Exodus would have been far preferable to Alive-O’s trivialised distracting story with talking sheep.
The story also contains an element of anti-men sexism. The thrice-repeated refrain speaks of ‘woolly’ ewes, ‘sturdy’ yearlings, and ‘leggy little’ lambs, but the rams are pejoratively described as 'stubborn-headed’.
There is a question and answer which reads as follows: Q. What did God say to Moses in the First Commandment? A. In the First Commandment God said to Moses and the people, 'I am the Lord your God, you shall not have strange gods before me.'
It is good to give the First Commandment, but its value is greatly diminished by having no context. The pupils should be taught first about the entire Decalogue, and the background to it. Then the full list of Ten Commandments should be given, to be followed by progressively giving the individual commandments, with appropriate explanation and development. Giving just one Commandment on its own completely out of context is not good pedagogical practice. Also it is not good that the text simply says that God gave the Commandment to Moses and the people; the Commandment is given to all people for all time including today. If it was only given to Moses and the people of his time, then the pupils might reasonably question if it has any relevance to them today.
Worksheet.
The Worksheet has Moses, sheep and burning bush similar to that in the Pupil's Book, to be coloured in by the pupils. It also contains the name 'Yahweh', but without any explanation of what Yahweh means. The worksheet adds little to the understanding of the story.
Information for Teachers in the Teacher’s Book.
The information for teachers opens with a Scripture quotation, and a quotation from CCC 2061. Both quotations are excellent, but the subsequent information for teachers and lesson material for the pupils do not follow through on the quotations.
Alive-O reminds the teachers that the children have already heard the story of Moses leading the people out from slavery in Egypt. As has been pointed out above the relevant lesson from Alive-O 3 (A3-T2L1) tells us very little about Moses and the Exodus.
Alive-O tells the teachers that the children are helped to search for signs of God's love in their own experience. This reinforces Alive-O's theist approach to covenant: God showed his love for Moses and the people long ago, and shows his love now for us, but there is no essential difference between the two. Of course, it is perfectly true that God's love is a constant, but the greatest expression of God's love is that Jesus, God the Son, became man to die for us and to save us from sin. Making no reference to this is to omit what is essentially and authentically Christian in the understanding of God’s covenant love.
Alive-O also tells the teachers that there will be a gradual introduction to the Ten Commandments over the four senior classes in primary school. This is fine in principle, but gets off to a very poor start in this lesson, where there is only a theist presentation on covenant, a very deficient presentation of the story of Moses and the Exodus, and the presentation of the First Commandment on its own and without context or significant explanation. (Subsequent teaching on the Ten Commandments in Alive-O 6-8 is also poor.)
The thought for the teacher is a nice poem which speaks of the need for time to stand and stare and not be so full of busyness and care. The poem is quite pleasant but does not seem to have any connection with the theme of the lesson, and the poem expresses sentiments that are secular, without any spiritual or Christian dimension.
The theme of this lesson as given in the Teacher's Book is to help the children become aware of the meaning of God's covenant love through the story of Moses, and what God's love means to them in their own lives.
Unfortunately, Alive-O does an extremely poor job in relation to this theme. The entire perspective is theist rather than authentically Christian. The theme as presented by Alive-O is that God loved Moses and the people of Israel way back then, and God still loves us now. What is completely missing is any understanding of God’s Covenant with Moses in the context of salvation history: the Moses story is presented as an isolated incident, and not a preparation for the New Covenant in Jesus, which is the fulfilment and culmination of all the covenants of the Old Testament. There is no suggestion that the delivery of the Israelites from Egypt prefigures the delivery from sin for all people through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
The story jumps straight into the story of the Burning Bush, without giving any context or understanding of who Moses is. The only prior information the children get about Moses is in Alive-O 3, Term 2 Lesson 1 (A3-T2L1) titled: A Different Time. In this lesson there is nothing for the children about Moses in their Pupil's Book or in the Worksheet. In Teacher's Book 3 there is a very brief story about Moses leading the people out into the wilderness where God looked after them for several years before leading them to a place they could call home. If the teacher read out this story to the children they may remember something about Moses but would have very little information indeed concerning Moses, his life and the great adventure of the Exodus.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
The lesson has an Alive-O song titled, 'Take off Your Shoes'. The song addresses the theme of Moses, the Burning Bush, and the Exodus. The song would be fine in the context of good teaching on all these themes in the lesson, something which is absent from Alive-O.
The first day’s activity, discussion and prayer deal with God's present love in a way which is theist and 'horizontal', and does not add to an authentic understanding of God’s covenant love in the context of salvation history.
There is a story titled, 'The Call of Moses', which deals with the call of Moses by God at the Burning Bush. The story improves on the story-poem that appears in the Pupil's Book, but it still lacks any context as to who Moses is and how he happened to be out minding sheep. Nevertheless, it would have been far preferable to include this story in the Pupil's Book rather than the story-poem, which teaches very little indeed. The discussions, activities and prayer times which follow these stories do little to expand pupil understanding as to what actually happened.
There is a second story titled, 'Moses and the Commandments', which tells the story of the giving of the Ten Commandments by God, the people’s apostasy and worship of the Golden calf, Moses anger and the people’s final repentance. The story is fine as far as it goes, but lacks continuity and context. It is pretty meaningless and very poor pedagogy to jump from the story of the Burning Bush to the Ten Commandments and leave out the entire story of Moses, Pharaoh and the Exodus. There is also an inaccuracy, when the story says that Moses burnt the Ten Commandments in the fire, which would imply Moses’ grave disrespect for the tables of the law. The Scripture says that Moses threw down the tables in his disgust at the people's apostasy, and that he then threw the Golden Calf in the fire, but it does not say that he threw the tables of the law into the fire.
The First of the Ten Commandments is given, which is good, but it is taught very poorly. The Commandment is de-emphasised by placing it in the middle of a long list of optional discussion questions, and there is no real explanation as to what the commandment means, only a lot of questions without answers.
Term 2, Lesson 4: Celebrating God’s Love (A5-T2L4)
Pupil’s Book
The Pupil's Book has two brief accounts, one titled 'Abraham and Sarah', and the second one titled, 'The Call of Moses'. There is also a colourful cartoon-type illustration of two men and a girl holding hands, which is not titled, but one assumes from previous illustrations to be Abraham, Mary and Moses.
The first account covers God appearing to Abraham and his promise of the covenant to Abraham and his descendants. It also covers the promise to Sarah that she will have a son who will be called Isaac, and the birth of Isaac. The account is okay as far as it goes but it lacks the essential element of the covenant, involving the reciprocal promises and obligations. Abraham was justified by putting his faith in God, and so he is called by Christians ‘our father in faith’. The obligation that God required of Abraham and all his descendants was circumcision of all males. There may be some sensitivity in presenting this fact to children, however circumcision was a sign that the people accepted God as their God and put their faith in him. It should be made clear that the covenant was not all giving on God’s part, that the covenant also involved the people’s obligations to God.
This account of Abraham and Sarah adds little to the information already given in Lesson T2L1. Also what is lacking is any context of the totality of the call of Abraham, where it fits into salvation history.
The account of the call of Moses covers Moses seeing the Burning Bush and God’s commission of Moses to go to Egypt to free the people of Israel. This story also lacks context, and will mean little to the pupils taken just as a single incident out of the great story of Moses and the Exodus. The account does include the name Yahweh, but no explanation of the meaning of this extremely important name that God revealed to Moses, and the great reverence in which the Jews held the name, so that they considered it too holy to pronounce.
Worksheet.
There is no the worksheet given for this Lesson.
Information for teachers in Teacher's Book.
Alive-O sees the various biblical narratives as expressing how God's love has progressively come closer to people and is expressed most fully in the love of Jesus Christ who is present among us, and which is the same as the love that parents have for their children today.
While there is much truth in all of this it presents a view which is essentially theist and not Christian. There is no sense of salvation history, which is natural for Alive-O which does not recognize the beginning of salvation history which is the creation and fall of Adam and Eve. Alive-O does not recognize original sin and so there is no need for salvation in Alive-O spirituality. It is only logical then that Alive-O does not recognize Jesus as truly God, and does not recognize that the death of Jesus brought about the salvation of the human race from sin. Alive-O does not recognize that the covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David were all preparations for the New Covenant in Jesus, which is the definitive covenant of God with his people.
The information states that understanding of God's love will provide a basis for the children's moral response. However if Alive-O is only presenting a theist understanding of God, then the children's moral response will be a theist response, and not an authentically Christian response.
The theme of the lesson as given in the teacher's book is to help the children understand the ever-present love of God as expressed in His covenants with Abraham and Moses, Mary and Joseph, and in the care that parents, guardians and grandparents give to their children. This is to form the basis on which the children's moral response to God rests.
This theme sums up very well Alive-O's approach which is theist in a very humanist way, and not authentically Christian. The actions of God's covenant with Abraham and Moses, the love of Mary and Joseph, and the love of parents are all put on a par. There is no recognition of salvation history. The covenants with Adam and Eve, with Noah, and with David are omitted, and most importantly the New Covenant in Jesus is omitted. Alive-O treats the love of God as if there is no difference between the love as expressed with Abraham and Moses, with Jesus and with the physical care that children get from their parents today. It is of course true that in a sense God's love is constant and ever present, however to ignore the salvation of the human race by Jesus, true God and true man, is to present a spirituality lacking in Christian authenticity.
Lesson material in Teacher’s Book.
There is an Alive-O written song titled, ‘Song of the Covenant'. This song reinforces Alive-O's theist view of covenant, and so is not helpful to the pupils.
In the discussion sessions and prayer time it says that Abraham found God at the top of the high mountain. This seems to be based on taking the meaning of ‘El Shaddai’ as God of the mountain. The principal meeting of ‘El Shaddai’ is in fact ‘God Almighty’, while there are indications of a secondary meaning as ‘God of the mountain’. The most common word for God in the Pentateuch is ‘Elohim’, which means 'God' or 'supreme God'. Therefore it is quite misleading for Alive-O to focus on the God of the mountain as the understanding of God that Abraham and Sarah had. The Scripture would indicate that their understanding of God was ‘God the greatest’, ‘God Almighty’, ‘God the supreme one’.
When it comes to Moses and the name of God Alive-O does not explain the meaning of the word Yahweh, though it does use the term. Alive-O chooses to make ‘Yahweh’ mean 'God in the Distance', created out of the fact that God did not let Moses approach right up to the Bush. This treatment of the name of God by Alive-O amounts to a distortion of Scripture. It also involves withholding from the children the extremely important meaning of Yahweh, which is 'I am who am'. This altered version of Scripture fits in better with Alive-O's theist approach, rather than with an authentically Christian understanding.
When it comes to the name of Jesus, Alive-O does give the meaning as 'Yahweh saves'. This is good as far as it goes, but Alive-O has never explained what Yahweh means, and it would be more meaningful to the children to simply explain that Jesus means 'God saves'. Also Alive-O does not go on to explain what Jesus’ salvation is, and as explained above Alive-O does not recognize the Fall and Original Sin, and therefore there is nothing to be saved from.
Alive-O goes on to say that the baby who is born to Mary is the Son of God. This is also good as far as it goes, but Alive-O does not make clear that Jesus is truly God, the second divine person of the blessed Trinity. Alive-O further says that God now has the name 'Father'. This is also inaccurate, because God has been revealed as father in the Old Testament. In the New Covenant God is revealed as Son in Jesus, and then in a special way after Jesus has ascended to heaven God is revealed as Holy Spirit, which is the full revelation of the Blessed Trinity. Alive-O does not give full, complete and thorough teaching on the Blessed Trinity.
Having done a poor job of explaining and developing the meaning of the titles of God which are revealed in Scripture, Alive-O then goes one worse by having an Activity where the children and teacher are encouraged to make up their own titles of God.
Alive-O then goes on to present the love that parents and guardians have for the children in a purely humanist way without any spiritual dimension, and equates them with the covenant love of God as expressed to Abraham and Moses, and with the love of Mary and Joseph for Jesus. This is all reinforced in a final prayer service, to which parents are invited. This completes Alive-O's theist presentation of God, which is not authentically Christian.
3.3: Jesus
Term 1, Lesson 3: Where Are We Now?
Lesson 5: What’s the Story? (1): The Centurion’s Servant
Lesson 8: What’s the Story? (2): The Sea of Galilee
Term 2, Lesson 9: What’s the Story? (3): Cure of the Man who was Paralysed
Term 3, Lesson 4: Follow Me
Summary:
The first of these five lessons presents an account of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. It is a poor account which fails to present an adequate understanding of the persons of John and Jesus, and their mission. The perspective is mainly theist and humanitarian, while the Christian significance of Jesus’ baptism is not brought out.
The next three lessons deal with three miracles that Jesus performed: the healing of the Centurion's servant, the calming of the storm, and the healing of the paralytic. The Lessons are presented mainly in the form of drama. The use of drama is excellent in principle, however the format chosen, that of a television news programme, is more suited to extensive events (like the Exodus or fall of Jericho and invasion of the Promised Land), while discrete events, such as are the subject matter here, are better acted out directly. The dramas are not effective in presenting authentic versions of the stories; they are complicated and Jesus does not appear in any of them. The lessons do not bring out the significance of the miracles in relation to who Jesus is and what is his mission. The approach in the three lessons tends to be the theist and humanitarian, rather than authentically Christian.
The fifth lesson deals with the appearance of Jesus after his resurrection to Peter and that other disciples on the shores of the lake of Galilee. The presentation is poor. Alive-O misses out on the great opportunity to teach pupils about Jesus’ selection of Peter as head the Church, and how the Pope and bishops are successors of Peter and the Apostles.
Term 1, Lesson 3: Where Are We Now? (A5-T1L3)
Pupil’s Book
The Pupil’s Book has a very brief account of John the Baptist, and a short prayer to the Holy Spirit, while most of the page is given to an illustration of John baptising Jesus.
This story of John is unsatisfactory from several points of view. In relation to the scriptural accounts, there are key omissions and distortions. There is no explanation as to who John was or what was his mission.
The account says, “He shouted to those who passed, 'The Kingdom of God is coming! Prepare, Prepare!'" In contrast, the Gospels say that people flocked to hear John, not that he shouted to those who passed by. The Gospels also say that John said first of all ‘Repent', not ‘prepare’.
The Alive-O account has John asking people to amend their lives and then to repent, whereas the Gospels project that repentance comes first, and then amendment of life. A key part of the gospel account is John's prediction of the coming of Jesus, who would baptise people with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Alive-O omits this central part of John's message.
The prayer to the Holy Spirit would only be satisfactory in the context of good teaching on the Trinity. In the absence of such teaching (as is the case with Alive-O) the prayer could be interpreted as God being different from the Holy Spirit.
Worksheet.
The worksheet provides space for children to write in what they would like to do in each term of the coming year. Examples are given as to the kind of thing that might be written in, as follows: we will not leave anyone out; we will say a nice thing to each other every day. These things are not at all bad, but they are all 'horizontal' or humanitarian. There is nothing specifically Christian or spiritual involved.
Information for Teachers in Teacher’s Book
There is some good information concerning making a decision to act in a good way. There is a reminder of Jesus warning of the difficulty of entering and remaining in the kingdom of God.
However the presentation is very theist and humanitarian focused. There is no sense of salvation history, only a reference to the Judeo-Christian tradition, as if this were just one of many traditions concerning God and his love for people. There is reference to Jesus, but it is presented very much in a way as if Jesus were a human being, who made his personal decisions to act in a godly way. In general, the information falls far short of an authentic Christian vision.
The thought for the teacher is in the form of prayer, which is good.
The theme of the lesson is given in the Teachers Book: to help the children to be aware of the call of Jesus, to understand that call and help the classroom to be a place where God's kingdom can emerge. This theme is reasonable.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
The lesson opens with an activity which is centred on a prayer-song titled, 'The Spirit of God Is upon Us'. The prayer is reasonable in the context of authentic Christian teaching on God and the Trinity, especially the Holy Spirit. The movements given to be performed with the prayer, which are illustrated on the video, resemble New Age prayer rituals. The prayer times again centre on the lighted candle, without any accompanying Christian symbol. This resembles a New Age approach to prayer, rather than a Christian approach.
The Alive-O prayer that was referred to in the previous lesson is again employed. The prayer reads as follows, "The arm of God be about us. The light of Christ to guide us. The strength of the Holy Spirit support us". This prayer is repeated seven times, which will serve to immerse the children in Alive-O's non-authentic view of the Trinity, as consisting of: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit.
There is a story titled, "The Baptism of Jesus". This expands on the story in the pupil's book, but it is still most unsatisfactory. There is a serious omission of the call of God to John the Baptist; the story says that John himself decided to go out into the desert. The call of Jesus, and his divine nature and mission, are also omitted. The story simply says that Jesus listened to what John said and then decided himself he’d better start preaching and teaching, to show people that God loves them. In this Jesus is presented as if he were just a good human being. The story as presented by Alive-O is seriously short of an authentic Christian presentation of the baptism of Jesus, and the call of John the Baptist.
In the section dealing with discussion of the story the authentic Christian nature of the baptism of Jesus is further diminished. There is no sense of Christian salvation history. The word of God in Scripture is diminished by referring to it as 'the old stories from the past'. John is described as someone who heard the old stories and decided to do something about it in the present. There is no sense of the call of God to John and his part in salvation history.
Jesus is also presented as a human being who heard the old stories and decided that God has given him a job to do to go out preaching and teaching. Jesus had the courage and confidence that he needed to make decisions about his future and to do the job. There is no sense of Jesus’ divine nature and his mission to save the human race. The message for us is not to just listen to the old stories but to go out and do something about it, just like Jesus. Alive-O's approach treats Jesus as just a good and godly man, but something less than God (which is similar to the ancient Arian position).
The Our Father prayer is included in one of the prayer times, but there is no teaching on the meaning of the prayer. The children are instructed to follow a set of ritualised actions when repeating the prayer, but these actions add little to the meaning of the prayer and could serve simply as a distraction.
Video
The video presents the choreographed dance which accompanies the song 'The Spirit of God Is upon Us'. The children initially sit in a circle on the floor with a candle in the middle; this is more a New Age style of prayer than Christian. The prayer does not centre on any Christian symbol; a picture of Mary can be seen in the background on a wall but it is not the focus of any attention. The dance movements with the prayer involve going around in circles performing strictly choreographed and ritualised gestures. It all looks very New Age rather than Christian.
The ritual movements are also not at all practical; on the video they are illustrated as being performed by a small group under the direction of trained and experienced dance teacher, and with plenty of space available to move around and perform the rituals. To try and do the same thing, with a teacher who was not specifically trained in dance, and with 30 or more children in a crowded classroom, would be difficult if not impossible.
Term 1, Lesson 5: What’s the Story? (1): The Centurion’s Servant (A5-T1L5)
This is the first of three lessons in Alive-O 5 which are supposed to teach about the Kingdom of God. The lessons are based on the following three events from the Gospels:
o The Healing of the Centurion’s Servant A5-T1L5
o The Calming of the Storm A5-T1L8
o The Cure of the Man Who Was Paralysed. A5-T2L9
Each of these three lessons is designed to be spread over two weeks, rather than one week, which is the norm for lessons in Alive-O 5.
This first lesson however has a very poor presentation of the incident concerning the cure of the centurion’s servant, and does little to explore the many facets of the meaning of the mystery of the Kingdom of God, as presented in the Gospels. In this lesson the Kingdom of God is presented as good humanitarianism, with Jesus as a special godly person who gives us good example.
Pupil's Book
The first page of the lesson in the Pupil's Book consists of a poem, about half of which is imaginative fiction, which gives a limited understanding of the healing of the centurion’s servant, as told in Matthew.8:5-13.
The next page has a very brief account of the healing of the servant, which summarises what happened reasonably well, but changes the focus in a very significant way. In the gospel the Centurion says, "For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me". Alive-O changes this to, "For I know what it's like to be in charge". Then verses 11&12 are omitted. This gives the impression that the Centurion’s ‘faith’ is no more than trust that Jesus can heal the servant, rather than faith in Jesus as someone who truly has the power of God. The significance of this change is discussed further below, when analysing the material for the lesson in the Teacher's Book.
The third page in the Pupil's Book has the words of an Alive-O song entitled, "What's the Story?". There is no significant content in this song and it teaches nothing about the cure of the Centurion's servant, or the kingdom of God.
Worksheet.
The Worksheets contain the script of the play (analysed below). There is also a prayer which is good, as far as it goes; however the prayer falls short of a true Christian understanding of the kingdom of God. The perspective is all 'horizontal’, like good humanitarianism, in which Jesus gives us a good example. There is no eternal perspective, and no idea of Jesus as our God and King or our Saviour from sin.
Information for Teachers in Teacher’s Book
Alive-O says that the Kingdom of God is dynamic and active. Eleven parables are referenced to support this view. However, the activity in these parables is only incidental, whereas there are depths of meaning in all these parables concerning the kingdom of God, which Alive-O does not refer to.
Alive-O says that, "the Gospel according to John emphasises the being of Jesus, with the phrase 'I am'." This gravely diminishes and corrupts the meaning of the ' I am' phrases in the Gospels, which are in fact Jesus’ claims to divinity, his identification with the Divine Name (Yahweh – I am who am) given to Moses at the burning bush.
Alive-O says, "The Kingdom of God is hard to pin down and define. In some ways, it is here; and in some ways, it is yet to be realised." Alive-O should use the Church's language, that the kingdom of God is a mystery, something that we can learn more about but never fully understand. Also it should make clear the meaning of the kingdom of God as given in the Gospels, which is something to be experienced on earth but only to be fully realised in heaven with the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of time. Alive-O tends to be very ‘horizontal', and is very vague on the Last Things, and does not teach the Second Coming.
Alive-O expresses its reservations about the word ‘Kingdom’, and its preference for the word 'Reign'. Alive-O says, "The words of Jesus could also be translated as 'Reign of God'. This latter translation points to the dynamic nature of God’s transforming power. It is also less bound up with matters of gender and political realities." It is true that the Greek word in Scripture (basileia) could be translated as kingdom or reign. However the obvious reason for preferring the translation 'Kingdom' is that the Gospels identify Jesus as King. Alive-O does not recognize that the Kingdom of God has a King, and does not identify Jesus as that King. Alive-O's wording above is an exercise in gender politics and a diminishing of the divinity of Jesus.
The thought for the teacher with this lesson is a touching story of human kindness, which is excellent in itself, but unfortunately tends to reinforce Alive-O's view of the kingdom of God as no more than good humanitarianism.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teacher's Book is to help children participate to drama and poetry in the story of the healing of the Centurion's servant, so they will understand the work of Jesus as the coming of God's kingdom.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
The lesson material revolves around the Alive-O drama of the healing of the Centurion’s servant. There is the script of the play itself, discussion notes, and seven prayer times.
The script of the play includes the gospel accounts of the healing of the centurion’s servant, Matthew 8: 5-10. This is fine except for the changing of one sentence. In the gospel the Centurion says, "For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me". Alive-O changes this to, "For I know what it's like to be in charge". This is a significant change and undermines the meaning of what happened. The Centurion recognized that he only had authority because he was under authority; he was not commanding soldiers because of his own personal authority but because he carried with him the authority of the entire Roman Empire, the authority of the Emperor himself. The Centurion recognized that Jesus was not acting in his own power simply as a man, but must be acting in the name of God and with the full power of God. This was the tremendous faith that the Centurion had, which Jesus praised so highly. This critical dimension of the story is entirely omitted by Alive-O, which gives the impression that the Centurion’s faith was no more than trust that Jesus could heal his servant. Thousands of people came to Jesus trusting that he could heal them, so it is clear that the Centurion's faith must have been on a different type altogether, or Jesus would not have praised him so highly, saying that he had not met such faith in all of Israel.
The structure of the drama involves a fictitious television programme. This type of approach, (TV or radio programme) to present Bible stories can work well, but needs a very skilful touch, because the extra complexity could easily detract from the central meaning of the Bible story and come across simply as something 'corny'. The format is suited to extensive events (e.g. Exodus, Fall of Jericho) but discrete events (such as selected for these 3 lessons) are better acted out directly.
Alive-O uses the fictional television programme approach for all three dramas about Jesus, but it does not work very well. Alive-O's approach is very complex, and adds many fictional characters, such as Presenter, Professor Mapp, Rabbi Shem, a floor manager, a reporter, a witness, and an audience member. This complexity comes across as very contrived and serves to distract from the actual stories, which are very dramatic in themselves, and could benefit greatly from a simple straightforward presentation. An astonishing feature of all three dramas is that Jesus himself, who is the central character, does not appear at all in any of the three dramas.
The drama of the healing of the Centurion’s servant is disappointing. It is overwhelmed with irrelevant characters and fictional dialogue. The actual event of the curing of the Centurion’s servant, which if acted out would be a very dramatic presentation, does not appear in the drama. The servant does appear as a character who recalls his healing, which is ok, but less dramatic than if he acted out the healing itself. The Centurion appears, but instead of acting out his part he simply narrates Alive-O's poor poem concerning the event. The central character of the drama, Jesus, who is also the central character of Christian religious education, does not appear at all! This is quite extraordinary.
The discussion material in the lesson is largely concerned with the technicalities of drama, and the extraneous fictional characters that appear in the script. Some of the material does address the Centurion, Jesus and the Kingdom of God; however as the material is nearly all in the form of questions without answers, not information, it teaches little about the kingdom of God.
All seven prayer times focus on a lighted candle, without any Christian symbol; however in some of the prayer times the lighted candle is accompanied with the words, 'Christ our Light', which is good. As is normally the case with Alive-O prayer times the prayers are nearly all Alive-O written, with only slight use of the great prayers of the Church. An important theme in the prayers is that Jesus shows us what God's kingdom is like and that we should be like Jesus if we wish to be part of God's kingdom. This message is excellent in principle, however Alive-O tends to present Jesus as a good humanitarian, and in this way the teaching falls short of what Jesus really taught the kingdom of God was. Jesus' healings and miracles were signs of his divine power, showing that he was not just a good and ‘special’ man, but truly God himself, the Only Son of God.
Term 1, Lesson 8: What’s the Story? (2): The Sea of Galilee (A5-T1L8)
This is the second of three lessons which deal with incidents from the Gospels, which showed the coming of the Kingdom of God. This lesson deals with Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee, and is planned to be taken over two weeks.
Pupil’s Book.
The Pupil's Book gives an account of the calming of the storm from the Gospel of St Mark. This is good.
The book also gives the words of an Alive-O written song about the same incident. The song is less than satisfactory for various reasons. The song includes some fictional material which is distracting and adds nothing to the gospel account. The men in the boat with Jesus are described as 'fishermen', whereas the gospel describes them as ‘disciples’. Some of the men probably were fishermen, but the important thing is that they were disciples, which is related to the final two verses, where Jesus asks the disciples why they are afraid and have no faith, and the disciples wonder who this person could be when even the wind and sea obey him. Alive-O’s song omits these last two very important verses.
While it is good to give the pupils the gospel account of the calming of the storm, it is not good to exclude any kind of explanation. This is one of Jesus’ miracles which displayed his divine power. Even though they have witnessed the miracle themselves, the disciples simply ask a question as to who Jesus is, and do not draw any conclusion about his divine power or divine nature. This is in marked contrast to the Centurion who has a powerful faith in Jesus from simply hearing about what he has done, and even before Jesus has performed a miracle of healing his servant. This is why Jesus praised the Centurion’s faith so highly, and expresses amazement at the disciples’ lack of faith. It is surely ironic that Alive-O also shows the same lack of faith by failing to teach about Jesus’ divinity.
Worksheet.
The worksheets contain the script of the drama, (see further below).
There is also a prayer, which is good in so far as it closely identifies God's kingdom with Jesus. However it still does not bring out that Jesus is divine, true God and true man, whose primary mission is that of Saviour, to free us from sin through his death on the cross, which fully expresses the Kingdom of God, in which Jesus is the King. Also the Kingdom of God is expressed only in humanitarian terms, without any spiritual or eternal perspective.
Information for Teachers in Teacher’s Book.
Alive-O explains to the teachers how the drama and the song are aimed at teaching the children to experience more fully the coming of the storm on the Sea of Galilee and the coming of God's kingdom.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teacher's Book is to help the children participate through drama and song in the story of the calming of the storm on the Sea of Galilee, so they will know the presence and work of Jesus as the coming of God's kingdom.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
The script of the drama is built around the song that is referred to above. The drama is poor and fails to bring out the meaning of Jesus’ miracle in calming the storm. As in the drama concerning the Centurion’s servant, we have the extraordinary situation that Jesus does not appear, even though he was the central character of the drama.
The discussion sessions are centred on the drama, and focus largely on unnecessary peripheral details. The point is brought out that we should trust in Jesus, which of course is good, but what is not brought out is why we should trust in Jesus. There is no mention that the miracle was a sign of Jesus’ divinity, that he is both God and man, and that is the reason why we trust him. The message is that Jesus is no more than an extraordinary godly person, and that the kingdom of God equates with good humanitarianism.
The prayer times do not add anything different to what it is covered in the discussions. Once more the prayer sessions are centred on a lighted candle without any accompanying Christian symbol. It is good, however, that in one of the prayer times the lighted candle is associated with ‘Christ our Light’.
Video.
The material in the video is not directly connected with the lesson. The topic of the video is given as, ' Religion through Art '. The structure of this session is excellent in principle. The teacher first takes the miracle of the loaves and fishes, reads the gospel account to the children and gives an explanation, and the children then paint the scene in their own way. Afterwards the group visit the National Gallery to see a painting of the same miracle, where the teacher explains the painting and then seeks to draw out the meaning with the children through discussion, questions and answers.
While the principle of the session is excellent, it falls short by failing to bring out the full meaning of the miracle. Jesus is simply described by the teacher as 'someone special'. Other meanings brought out are entirely on a material and human level: that people were hungry and Jesus was kind and wish to give them something to eat. The fact that the miracle demonstrated Jesus’ divinity or that the miracle was a prefiguring of the Eucharist were not even touched upon at all.
Term 2, Lesson 9: What’s the Story? (3): The Cure of the Man who was Paralysed
(A5-T2L9)
Pupil’s Book.
In the Pupil’s Book there is a brightly coloured cartoon-type illustration, which shows 27 people in a line doing a ‘Conga’ type dance, led by a man who is presumably the healed paralytic. This is an poor illustration of the gospel account of Jesus healing the man who was paralysed, because it is mostly imaginative fiction. There are also some inaccuracies: the illustration shows a stretcher left behind outside the house, whereas the gospel says the healed paralytic picked up his bed as Jesus had commanded him and walked off with it; the illustration shows the healed paralytic dropping a simple crutch, which would indicate a man who had been lame, not a paralytic, which diminishes the marvel of the miracle. A good illustration could have been provided, which would show this extremely dramatic event with a man being let down through the roof in front of Jesus in the crowded house, or Jesus healing the man, or the man getting up and walking away in front of the astonished crowd and discomforted scribes and Pharisees. Alive-O’s illustration adds almost nothing to an understanding of the gospel account, and merely serves to trivialise this great miracle and distract attention from its real meaning.
There is an account of the healing of the paralytic by Jesus, taken from the Gospel of Mark 2:1-12. The account covers most of what is in the Gospel, but there are several key omissions which signify the difference between Alive-O's understanding of the kingdom of God and an authentic Christian understanding, as follows:
In verse 5 Alive-O omits the words, ' seeing their faith'. People's faith in Jesus is extremely important in the Gospels, and often plays a part in the healings and miracles worked by Jesus. Faith played a key role in the healing by Jesus of the Centurion's servant, which led Jesus to express the highest praise for the Centurion’s outstanding faith. Alive-O tends not to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, or as God Incarnate, and therefore this omission is supportive of Alive-O’s own spirituality.
The next omission is from verse 7 where the scribes thought, 'How can he talk like that? He is blaspheming'. The scribes saw Jesus’ claim to forgive sins as making himself equal to God, which was blasphemy. It was for this same charge of blasphemy that Jesus was finally condemned to death before the assembled Sanhedrin. The omission of these key sentences from the gospel is consistent with Alive-O's nonrecognition of Jesus as God.
Next there is the omission from verse 10 of the words, 'But to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins'. This is a very significant statement on the part of Jesus, because he is stating clearly to the scribes and Pharisees that he has divine authority and power in his own person; the use of the term ‘Son of Man’, which is the messianic title, is also very significant.
The next significant omission is from verse 12 of the words, 'And the man got up, picked up his stretcher at once and walked out in front of everyone'. It is quite extraordinary that Alive-O would omit the key punch-line, the statement that the man actually was healed of his paralysis.
The Pupil's Book also has the words of an Alive-O written song titled, 'Kingdom Come!'. The song covers the healing of the paralytic by Jesus, but the words add little or nothing to an understanding of the great miracle, while the style tends to trivialise the great event.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has the script of a play or drama on the theme of the cure of the man who was paralysed. The drama is poor from many points of view, which are analysed in greater detail below. The script of the drama also appears in the Teacher's Book, along with stage directions.
The script for the drama includes the reading from the Gospel of Mark of the cure by Jesus of the man who was paralysed, Mark 2:1-12. There are no omissions from the gospel account, as there are in the Pupil's Book. However there is one change, which is quite significant. In verse 7 Alive-O changes 'he is blaspheming', to 'that is wicked'. It has been pointed out above how important was the charge of blasphemy that the scribes and Pharisees levelled against Jesus, because it was an acknowledgement that Jesus was claiming to be divine. The omission of the term 'blasphemy' by Alive-O is consistent with its non-recognition, or at least obfuscation, of the divinity of Jesus. The relevant Greek word in the gospel is ‘blasphemia’, which normally means in English 'blasphemy'. A secondary meaning of the Greek word is to speak wickedly or evil, but from the context it would appear clear that the correct translation is ‘blasphemy’. As all the major gospel translations use the English word 'blasphemy', then it would appear that the use of the word ‘wicked' by Alive-O is a deliberate choice, consistent with its own spirituality.
The script of the drama further emphasises Alive-O's changing of what is in Scripture. The script states, ‘Before Jesus came, the scribes and Pharisees had taught people about God, their way. Now Jesus was teaching them his way. Many scribes and Pharisees didn't like that'. This greatly diminishes the real reason why Jesus was opposed by the scribes and Pharisees as expressed in this gospel story. It is clear that they accused Jesus of blasphemy, that is making himself out to be God, which of course he was. Alive-O reduces this to simply a question of the scribes and Pharisees disliking the way Jesus was teaching, as they had a different way of doing things.
Further on in the script there is an expression of the difference between Alive-O’s idea of the meaning of the kingdom of God and an authentic Christian understanding. The Christian understanding is that the kingdom of God primarily consisted in the incarnation of God the Son in Jesus Christ, who came from heaven to earth to become man, in order to give his life for the salvation of mankind, to win the forgiveness of sins, and to open the gates of heaven which had been closed by original sin, the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve. Alive-O's idea of the kingdom of God is based on a theist understanding, and it portrays a situation which is really no different to good humanitarianism, where everyone is equal, loves and treats each other well. This is expressed in the following words of the script, 'People, especially the poor and the downtrodden, love to hear about the kingdom of God where everyone is treated equally, because everyone is loved. Some say they might try to get rid of Jesus if he keeps talking about it and showing how it can work'. In Alive-O spirituality Jesus is a special person who by his loving words and example brings about the kingdom of God.
The script of the drama also has the words of the song, 'Kingdom Come!', which has been analysed above.
The structure of the drama is very complicated, because it involves a fictitious television programme about the cure of the paralytic. This type of format can sometimes work well, but it does create complexity, which is quite unnecessary, because the event of the curing of the paralytic is great drama in itself, yet it does not actually appear at all in the drama. Several fictitious characters are introduced, a Presenter, Professor Mapp, Rabbi Shem, a floor manager, a reporter, a witness, and an audience member. The two central characters of the drama, Jesus and the man who was paralysed, do not appear at all, which is quite astonishing (the stage directions in the Teacher’s Book do have the cured paralytic leading a fictional Conga dance, which only serves to trivialize the story).
This drama will help very little to increase the children's understanding of the cure of the paralytic by Jesus, and will tend to convey to them Alive-O's theist-humanitarian understanding of the kingdom of God, rather than an authentic Christian understanding of the coming of the kingdom of God in Jesus, God the Son.
At the end of the worksheet there is a prayer, asking Jesus to bless, teach, heal, save and delight us. The prayer is okay as far as it goes, but it is very strange that it should omit asking Jesus for forgiveness, which is a central part of the gospel story. It is good to include 'save us', but there is no explanation given by Alive-O as to what 'save us' means.
Information for teachers in the Teacher's Book.
The information for the teachers recalls the earlier stories of the healing of the Centurion's servant and the calming of the storm, and then refers to the current lesson which deals with the cure of the man who was paralysed. The information then goes on to undermine the true Christian meaning of these gospel events in order to present Alive-O's own understanding of the kingdom of God, which is theist-humanitarian. In Alive-O's spirituality Jesus is a special person who shows by his teaching and example that the kingdom of God can happen if people learn that God loves them, and they love God and love one another. It is not made clear that Jesus is divine, God the Son, whose central mission in becoming man is to give his life as a sacrifice to save the human race from sin.
The thought for the teacher this week is a poem titled, 'The Skylight'. It tells of the opening of a hole in the roof for a skylight, through which light comes into the house. The poet is reminded of the opening of the roof to let down the paralytic before Jesus; this is an attractive poem, but it really adds nothing to an understanding of the significance of Jesus forgiving the sins of the paralytic and healing him.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teacher’s Book is to enable the children to participate in the story of the cure of the man who was paralysed, so they will see the coming of God's kingdom in the life of Jesus and in their own life today.
This theme is fine in principle, but poorly realized in the lesson material in both Pupil’s and Teacher’s Books.
Lesson material in Teacher's Book.
The Teacher's Book also has the script of a drama about the cure of the man who was paralysed, which appears in the Pupil's Worksheet, along with stage directions. The stage directions provide for the man who was paralysed to make a fictional appearance, doing a Conga-style dance while waving a crutch (which is something a paralytic would not have had); a drama which portrayed the actual account in the Gospel could have helped the children understand this wonderful miracle, but this kind of trivialized fiction will hardly help. The directions also call for the singing of an Alive-O written song, 'What's the Story?' The words of the song mention the ‘Kingdom of God’, but teach little about the Kingdom, and nothing about the healing of the paralytic. Therefore the song adds nothing of significance to the drama.
After the script of the drama there are seven different discussion sessions, or 'Chattings'. These consist mainly of questions with no answers, which add little to the understanding of the gospel story or of the kingdom of God. There is some limited information on the Scribes, but this is poor, because it gives the impression that Scribes were simply people who wrote things down, whereas the Scribes in the gospel were principally the teachers and experts in the law of Moses. This is made clear in the account of the cure of the paralytic given in the Gospel of Luke, where they are called not ‘scribes’ but ‘teachers/doctors of the Law’.
There is also some limited information on the Pharisees, which is not very helpful. As to Jesus’ relationship with the scribes and Pharisees there are only questions with no answers, which will not help the children at all in understanding the situation faced by Jesus in relation to the scribes and Pharisees.
The discussion sessions largely reinforce Alive-O's theist-humanitarian understanding of the kingdom of God, as exemplified in this quote, 'In God's kingdom there are no differences made between people; all are treated equally. If you could write out a code of practice for God's kingdom, what would you have in that code? Can you remember times when you were treated fairly and equally?'
Next, there are the scripts for seven different prayer times, which add little to understanding the significance of the cure of the paralytic, and further reinforce Alive-O's concept of the kingdom of God. The account from the Gospel of Mark is repeated twice, but again in each case the word ‘blasphemy’ is excluded from verse 7, to be replaced as before by ‘wicked’.
In prayer time 4 there is a summary of titles of Jesus from this lesson and from earlier books of Alive-O. Some of the titles are okay, but what is significantly absent is any title which acknowledges Jesus as God the Son, our Saviour, the Messiah, Priest, Prophet or King. This means omitting the most essential understandings of Jesus from a Christian point of view. The titles of 'teacher', 'healer', 'the one who calls', and 'our joy' are all satisfactory, as far as they go. The title 'storyteller' diminishes Jesus, because he did not go round telling stories to entertain people; as the greatest teacher ever he often used parables, some of which were in story form. The title 'sharer of bread' is bad because it diminishes the significance of Jesus’ miracles of feeding the thousands as prefiguring of the Eucharist, when he would give his very self under the appearance of bread. The title 'diviner' is bad, because a diviner normally means somebody who dabbles in witchcraft or sorcery; this title for Jesus was coined in an earlier book of Alive-O in the context of his meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well, therefore what is probably meant was 'water-diviner', which is not so bad but is still rather bizarre, and served to detract and obfuscate the real meaning of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman. The title 'journey man', which was coined by Alive-O, is not of significance in understanding of Jesus’ person or mission; in any case, it is hardly meaningful, because, unlike St Paul who did journey far and wide, Jesus only travelled around Palestine.
Term 3, Lesson 4: Follow Me (A5-T3L4)
Pupil’s Book.
The Pupils Book has a story titled, 'Follow Me', which is based on the gospel of John chapter 21 which tells of the appearance of Jesus to Peter and a number of the disciples on the shores of Lake Tiberias.
The story is largely faithful to the gospel account, but there are a few problems. There is no context, explaining to the pupils where the story fits in to the account of Jesus’ resurrection and his subsequent appearances to many of the disciples before his Ascension into heaven. Then there are two omissions, one of them serious, which is counterbalanced by some fictional additions.
After the miraculous draught of fishes the gospel relates that John said to Peter, 'It is the Lord'. Instead of this, Alive-O’s story says, 'they began to wonder about the stranger on the shore. Could it be Jesus? They became convinced that it could, but they weren't sure and they didn't like to ask'. It is rather strange that Alive-O went to the trouble of changing the gospel account and thereby omitting the apostle John. In the early account of the empty tomb Alive-O mentions Peter but also omits the apostle John from that account. One wonders does Alive-O have something against John.
In the gospel account Jesus serves a meal of fish to the disciples but does not speak to them any further. Alive-O's account has the following fictional addition, 'it was just like old times; their memories were brought to life. They were hungry; Jesus fed them. They ate what he offered and listened to what he said, feasting on every word'. The strange thing is that Alive-O omits what the gospel account gives as what Jesus actually did say, not to the disciples in general, but to Peter in particular. The gospel account of the conversation between Jesus and Peter is fascinating, and very significant in relation to Peter’s commission by Jesus to be head of the apostolic band and head of the Church. Alive-O's omission of this conversation is consistent with its omission of teaching about Peter as head of the Church, and about the Pope as successor of St Peter. This gospel account would have been an ideal opportunity to introduce the pupils to the person and position of the Pope, but Alive-O misses the opportunity, which is consistent with its omission of teaching anywhere in the programme about who the Pope is and the nature of his position as head of the Church.
The accompanying illustration is poor, because it only shows three men pulling a net out of the sea into a boat, and misses out on portraying the far more interesting and dramatic scene on the shore with Jesus preparing a meal for the disciples, as they dragged the massive haul of fish ashore.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has an exercise for the pupils which is introduced as follows: This week you have been a sign of Jesus during playtime. In the exercise the pupils are asked to complete this sentence, 'During playtime this week, I was a sign of Jesus when…….' there is nothing in the worksheet to indicate what it means to be a 'sign of Jesus', which will depend on whether or not the teacher gave any explanation, based on the material in the Teacher's Book. In the background there is a picture of a fish, but no explanation as to what the fish means; the sign of the fish is covered in the Teacher's Book, but the explanation given is very poor.
The worksheet closes with a good prayer in which the pupils are led to behave in their play time in a way which follows what Jesus teaches.
Information for teachers in Teacher’s Book.
Alive-O says that, 'The post-resurrection experiences of the first followers of Jesus are the foundation stories of the Church'. There are a number of problems with this statement. It is rather secular in nature, recalling the way secular organisations are often based on a number of inspirational stories dealing with the beginnings of the organisation. Alternatively it could sound like other religions which are based on a set of foundational stories. In any case, the Church is based on Jesus, his person, his life, death, and resurrection, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God the Father.
Alive-O goes on to say, 'Their faith in the Risen Jesus inspired the apostles and their followers to go into the world and spread the Good News'. There are many problems associated with this statement. It makes it sound as if the evangelisation carried out by the apostles and the establishment of the Church was all the apostles' idea, based on their faith in Jesus. This means that the Church and her mission are not the result of the divine plan, and instruction, and therefore the Church does not have divine authority to teach in the name of God.
Alive-O states that the children will be taught to understand their membership in the Church as simply participating in Jesus call to follow him, and this is put in the context of Jesus’ invitation to Peter, 'Follow me'. The commission of Jesus to Peter to act as leader of the apostolic band and head of the Church is omitted, so the children will be encouraged to think of themselves as disconnected, generic Christians, and not as members of the Catholic Church. This is consistent with Alive-O's general and almost total omission of teaching about the Catholic Church.
Another key omission is of the ‘Great Commission’, Jesus’ command to the apostles to spread the Gospel to the whole human race (Mt.28:18-20; Mk.16:15-18; Lk.24:47; Acts1:8).
The theme of this lesson as given in the Teacher's Book is to help explore the meaning of Jesus' words to Peter, 'Follow Me', so that they may become more aware of their membership of the Church.
Lesson material in the Teacher's Book.
There is an Alive-O written song titled, 'Peter Remembers'. It has some information about the call of Peter by Jesus to leave his fishing and fish and to fish for people. There is a fictional ‘psychological’ addition about how Peter thought inside himself, which is not helpful. It would have been helpful to add something about Peter's role as head of the apostles and head of the Church, but this is not done.
Alive-O introduces the sign of the fish as something that was seen in the early days of Christianity. It hints that the reason for the sign of the fish is because Peter was a fisherman. Unfortunately, Alive-O omits the real significance of the fish sign, which is that it was an acronym, in which the letters for the Greek word for fish were the first letters of the words, ' Jesus Christ God Son Saviour'. Therefore the fish was more than a sign, but it was a statement of the simple creed of Christianity, of faith in Jesus as the Christ / Messiah, both God and man, the only Son of God the Father, who is the Saviour of the human race from sin. The omission of the meaning of the fish sign is consistent with Alive-O's nonrecognition of Jesus as Messiah, as God the Son, and as Saviour or Redeemer.
In the first prayer time, after the Easter acclamation, the teacher says as the candle is lit, 'Lord Jesus, the light of this candle is a sign that you are with us'. Each of the prayer times during this week opens with a similar prayer, associating the candle with the light of Jesus. This is excellent.
The Teacher's Book has the same story as it is in the Pupil's Book, titled, 'Follow Me', except that it is preceded by a couple of paragraphs which introduce the story. These opening paragraphs could have been used to give a context to the story which is missing from the Pupils Book, but unfortunately this opportunity is lost. The opening paragraphs simply consist of pointless fiction, imagining what different apostles were thinking at the time.
In the next four prayer times this week there is a ritual titled, 'Commissioning the Children', which involves giving each of the children a fish badge, asking them to wear it in the schoolyard as a sign that they are followers of Christ, and to behave in their playtimes in a Christian manner. This is excellent, in principle. However it would be more meaningful if the children had been taught what the fish badge really means. A more serious limitation is that the examples given in the prayer times of how to behave in the schoolyard in a Christian manner are entirely 'horizontal', amounting to little more than a good humanitarianism, be nice and kind to other people. This falls short of what it is to be Christian. The offering of a diminished version of Christianity in commissioning the children is facilitated by linking it with the words 'Follow me' taken out of context from the story of the conversation of Peter with Jesus by the lakeside. It would be far more appropriate to associate a full Christian commissioning with one of the next two lessons. Term 3, Lesson 5 deals with the Ascension, and the Great Commission given by Jesus to the apostles and disciples just before he ascended to heaven. Term 3, Lesson 6 deals with Pentecost and the confident preaching and witnessing by the apostles in the power of the Holy Spirit. Either of these two lessons would have been a far more suitable context for commissioning the children to go out publicly and proclaim and act in a Christian manner.
There is a discussion session on the theme of the Church. The story of the appearance of Jesus to Peter and his conversation with him on the shore of Lake Tiberius was a missed opportunity to teach about the leadership of Peter and his successor the Pope. This discussion session is an opportunity to teach the children something about the Catholic Church, but the opportunity is not taken. The discussion questions lead one to think that the church is just a group of people who go to a building called a 'church'.
There is a prayer time which includes the story 'Follow Me', which is another opportunity to bring out the context and meaning of the story, but the opportunity is lost. By way of context the teacher says, 'Ever since Good Friday and then Easter Day things have been mixed up'; this would not serve to teach the children the context of the story, but rather serve to mix them up.
3.4: Mary
Term 2, Lesson 3: At Home With God’s Love
Summary:
The lesson lacks focus, because it tries to present a lesson on Mary and also on the Fourth Commandment. The part on Mary focuses on the Angelus prayer, which is fine in principle, but in practice is poor because Alive-O changes the wording of the Angelus prayer to diminish its impact and meaning. Changing the wording of the prayer from that used by the Church also serves to separate the children from home and parish.
The presentation on the Fourth Commandment is particularly poor. Alive-O presents the Commandment as meaning no more than that children should appreciate the love and care they receive from parents and grandparents. There is no obligation on children in the Commandment to love, honour, or obey their parents or other legitimate authorities. There is also no reference to what the Church teaches, that this Commandment refers also to the respect and obedience due by all people to all legitimate authority.
Another problem in Alive-O's presentation of this Fourth Commandment is that parenting is effectively equated with mothering. The role of the father is seriously downgraded and marginalised.
Term 2, Lesson 3: At Home With God’s Love (A5-T2L3)
Pupil’s Book.
The Pupil's Book has the text of the Angelus prayer, a question and answer on the Fourth Commandment, and an illustration of the Annunciation.
The initial part of the Angelus is presented in accordance with the normal wording given by the Church, that is the part involving leading prayers and responses, and the Hail Mary prayer. However, the final part of the prayer, which is preceded by 'Let us pray' is changed, and Alive-O substitutes its own version of the prayer for the one which is normal in the Church. There are two problems associated with this. The different prayer separates children from what they will hear elsewhere and so divides them off from parish and home. The second problem is that the meaning of the prayer is diminished by Alive-O to make it conform more to its own spirituality, which tends to be more theist rather than Christian.
In the prayer Alive-O omits 'grace', 'Incarnation', 'Christ', 'passion and cross', 'Christ our Lord'. The wording is also subtly changed so that it is not made clear that the Passion and Cross of Jesus are the means by which we are redeemed and can participate in Jesus’ resurrection. The Church's wording states, 'may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his resurrection'. Alive-O changes this to, 'lead us through his suffering and death to the glory of his resurrection'.
In Ireland it is also traditional to add the following prayers to the Angelus: 'May the Divine assistance remain always with us, and may the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.' This traditional prayer is omitted by Alive-O, which further serves to separate the children from home and parish, and is also consistent with Alive-O’s deficiency in Catholic teaching on the Last Things and the Communion of Saints.
The question-and-answer on the Fourth Commandment does include the correct text, 'Honour your father and your mother'. However, the significance is diminished by saying that this commandment was given to Moses and the people, and omitting that it also applies to all people for all time. If the pupils think that the commandment was only given to Moses and the people, they may simply conclude that it has nothing to do with them today. Also, the Commandment lacks meaning when it is simply presented on its own, with no context of the full Decalogue.
The illustration of the Annunciation is the same as appears in an earlier Alive-O Pupil's Book. The illustration of Mary would not foster respect or devotion to her. As in all other illustrations of the Annunciation, Alive-O omits the Angel Gabriel and substitutes instead a beam of light. This is consistent with Alive-O’s practice throughout all eight books of the series, in which teaching on angels is deficient: Alive-O does mention angels in places where they could hardly be omitted (Annunciation, Nativity, empty tomb), but without an illustration depicting an angel, and there is no teaching on what an Angel is (neither faithful angel nor fallen angel / demon).
In this illustration it is not clear whether or not Mary is pregnant, because she is sitting with a loose dress and apron on her. All the Alive-O illustrations of the Annunciation show Mary in this way, where she could be already pregnant. The Alive-O illustration of the Visitation, which happened right after the Annunciation, shows Mary as most definitely in an advanced state of pregnancy (see A2-T1L13, Pupil’s Book 2, page 17). This is most unsatisfactory.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has a picture to be coloured in of a boy sitting in a garden with a line of washing in the background. There are questions asking what is the story, what is happening in the picture, what will happen 10 minutes later, and how does God's love come to the child in the picture. There is no matching story given in the teacher's book, so it would appear that the pupils are being asked to imagine a story related with the picture. It is hard to see any educational value in this concerning the theme of the lesson.
There is a prayer for the children which expresses appreciation for God's love, which comes to them in many ways, especially through their parents and grandparents who look after them at home.
It is hard to see this worksheet as much help to the children in understanding the Angelus, the Annunciation, or the Fourth Commandment.
Information for Teachers in the Teacher’s Book.
The information opens with a good quotation from the Gospel of Luke.
The information speaks of the love that the children can experience in their home through mothering and fathering, and how this can be seen as an expression of God's love. This is then given as an example of the meaning of the Fourth Commandment. This does express what is actually in the lesson, which involves an understanding of the Fourth Commandment as no more than the children appreciating the love they receive through mothering at home from their parents/guardians or grandparents. This is seriously deficient when it comes to understanding the meaning of the Fourth Commandment. While it is good for the children to appreciate and be thankful for the love they receive at home, the Fourth Commandment also commands them to give respect, love and obedience to their parents. Alive-O completely omits any obligations of children towards their parents, such as obligations of love, respect, care and obedience.
The Church also teaches that the Fourth Commandment commands us to give respect and due obedience to all legitimate authorities apart from parents, but Alive-O does not refer at all to anyone other than parents/guardians and grandparents. In fact parents are not referred to in any way as authorities, or people who have any authority. Parents are simply people who give the children love and care in this-world terms.
The thought for the teacher for this lesson is expressed in a short poem, which is good.
The theme of the lesson as expressed in the Teacher's book is to help the children explore the covenant love of God as expressed in the love of Mary and Joseph, and in the love of those who care for them as mother and father, and also to introduce them to the Fourth Commandment and the Angelus prayer. This is so that the children might come to a greater awareness of God's love for them through their parents/guardians, and how the children might respond to that love.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
There is one song in the lesson, which is titled 'Mary our Mother', which is an Alive-O written song. The song appeared first in Alive-O Book 4. The song does give some information about Mary and Jesus, but a limitation is that it only refers to Mary as mother of Jesus, not mother of God. There are several hymns about Mary which are widely used in the Church would be more instructive from a catechetical point of view, and also serve to bind the children more closely to home and parish.
The Angelus prayer is included in the lessons, with the same Alive-O-altered wording as appears in the Pupil's Book. The wording of the prayer has been commented on above. There is an Angelus story which the teacher can read out to the children, which is based on the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1. What is in the story is fine, but the problem is there are several very significant omissions, which cannot be justified on grounds of length because the story is very short. Omitted from the Angel Gabriel’s message to Mary are that she is highly favoured or full of grace, and blessed among women, that she has found favour with God, that her son will be of great dignity and the Lord will give him the throne of his ancestor David, and that he will rule over the house of Jacob for ever and his reign will be without end. These omissions are consistent with Alive-O's approach which tends to treat Jesus as no more than a special human being and does not recognize Jesus as king.
There is a further significant omission when it comes to Mary's visit to Elizabeth. Omitted are Elizabeth words, 'but who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?' This again is consistent with Alive-O's approach of treating Jesus as a special godly human being only, and not as God.
The omissions in the Angelus story are further compounded by the lack of explanation or development of the meaning of the story. The questions in the discussion sessions following the story refer simply bringing up of a child, who is just like any other child. The discussion questions tend to trivialise the story and fail completely to bring out its significant for salvation history of the whole human race. Another discussion session has questions which talk about the meaning of bells, and how the children might be called upon to 'mother' someone else, which is a mere distraction and would divert the pupil's attention away from the story of Mary and the Annunciation..
The remaining material in this lesson addresses the question of honouring father and mother as referred to in the Fourth Commandment. First of all, there is no context given for the Ten Commandments, and the Fourth Commandment just appears out of nowhere with no context. Then the emphasis in the prayer times and discussion sessions is entirely on the good things that parents, grandparents and/guardians can do for the children, and the children are lead to appreciate and be thankful for the good things are done to them. While it is a good thing to be thankful for the care given by parents, the children are lead to be thankful only for care received, not to be thankful for their parents. Also, the Church teaches much more about the Fourth Commandment. The Church teaches that children are to honour, respect, obey, and, as necessary, care for their parents. All of these things are omitted by Alive-O. The Church also teaches that the Fourth Commandment requires due respect and obedience for all legitimate authority, which is also omitted by Alive-O.
In presenting the care that parents give to children Alive-O’s approach is entirely humanist or ‘horizontal’; nothing spiritual is mentioned, such as, parents praying with their children, teaching them the faith, or giving them any kind of spiritual care.
Alive-O presents the care that parents give as entirely the same whether given by mother or father, often expressed as ‘mothering/fathering’. In this way Alive-O conforms to an ‘androgynous stereotype’, not recognizing that fathers and mothers each have unique capabilities, characteristics and gifts for their children.
Actually, the father’s role is seriously downgraded in several ways. The lesson focuses primarily on Mary, not on Joseph and Mary. Parental care is primarily expressed as mothering; examples given are things mainly provided by mothers, while things normally done mainly by fathers are omitted. Fathering is further downgraded by omitting any fathering role for St Joseph in the life of Jesus, and providing a discussion question, ‘What kind of mothering things might Joseph have done?'
The Church also says that the Fourth Commandment teaches us about the importance of marriage. Alive-O does not mention marriage.
There is an activity dealing with making of a 'Biblical Timeline'. The children are asked to think of the names of people in the Bible before Jesus. This idea of a 'biblical timeline' is excellent in principle, but the names are just presented as an unconnected list. What is lacking is a true sense of salvation history through which the connections and meaning of a ‘biblical timeline’ can be seen. The Church teaches the importance of a salvation history structure in catechesis, a structure which is conspicuous by its absence from Alive-O.
3.5: Saints
Term 1, Lesson 6: Christianity Comes to Our Country (1)
Term 1, Lesson 7: Christianity Comes to Our Country (2)
Term 3, Lesson 8: Brendan the Navigator
Summary:
There is some good material about the coming of Christianity to Ireland and Irish Saints. Unfortunately, the good material is undermined and its value diminished by mixing in the fanciful legendary fiction with historic material. At times the fiction dominates, swamping the facts. There is no attempt made to distinguish between fact and fiction, which could prove very confusing to the pupils, and potentially undermine the credibility of the entire programme. There is available a great store of superb, interesting and exciting information about the coming of Christianity to Ireland and the early Irish Saints which could have been included, but is not.
In the material in the Teachers Book there is a brief but excellent teaching on the Trinity. However, the value of the teaching is diminished by the fact that is not given any great prominence in the Teachers Book, and is not reflected in any way in the material that the pupils receive.
Term 1, Lesson 6: Christianity Comes to Our Country (1) (A5-T1L6)
Pupil's Book
The Pupil’s Book has a good map of Ireland showing the various monastic sites from the time of the arrival of Christianity in our country. It is a good map and very well presented.
The book also presents the traditional prayer of St Patrick, which is very good.
Worksheet (for Lessons T1L6 & T1L7).
The worksheet contains a simple board game which features the different monastic sites around Ireland. It could be helpful, in conjunction with the map in the Pupil's Book, to help understand the different monastic sites around the country, many of which date from the early days of Christianity in Ireland.
Information for Teachers in Teacher’s Book.
The opening quotation from Isaiah is excellent and most appropriate for this lesson.
The information places far too much importance on the interaction of Christianity and Celtic culture. The mixing of the true story of Patrick's coming to Ireland with the fictional legend of Oisin’s return from Tir na nÓg confuses and undermines the story of the coming of Christianity. This is particularly so because the two stories are given equal weight and credibility. The impression is given that Patrick's coming to Ireland was the first contact between Christianity and Celtic culture. This is not so because the peoples of Britain and Gaul were also Celtic peoples and had been Christianised some time previously. In fact, St Patrick himself would most likely have come from a Romanised Celtic family.
The thought for the teacher which is taken from St Patrick's Lorica is good.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teacher's Book is to give children an opportunity to explore their Celtic Christian heritage, so that their living of Christianity today may be enriched.
The problem with this theme is that it over-emphasises the Celtic dimension of early Irish Christianity. The Celtic dimension has some importance, but it is only minor in comparison with the most important characteristic of early Irish Christianity, which was its total commitment to Christ. It was the whole-hearted zeal with which the Irish embraced Christianity that earned for us the title of 'Island of Saints and Scholars’.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
There are two songs in this lesson. The first one is titled, 'Gather Round', and expresses some good thoughts about the Holy Spirit. However it is unhelpful the way the song takes words from the Mass and changes them in a different context, as follows: "Through us, with us and in us". This could only serve to undermine the meaning and reverence due to the Mass.
The other song is titled, 'Time and Time and Time Again'. It is a good song based on the canticle from Daniel.
The information on Ireland at the time of the Celts is reasonable
The prayer times for this lesson are based at all on the prayers of St Patrick, and are good.
There are two stories in this lesson, a brief one about St Patrick bringing Christianity to Ireland and a longer story about Oisín and Tír na nÓg. The story of Oisin is detrimental and would have been better left out. It only serves to distract from and undermine the story of St Patrick. The Oisin story could also undermine the entire programme; it is presented as if it were true, not as the fanciful fiction that it is. The children will know it is fiction, so will they conclude that all the other information in the programme is also fiction, not to be taken seriously?
The story of St Patrick itself is too brief and could well have been better expanded and developed. Some important elements of St Patrick story are omitted, especially his conversion while a slave in Ireland. Much more could be made of the story by including more of the facts from St Patrick's Confessions. For example, his journey to the coast when he escaped from slavery, his joining of a ship leaving Ireland, his arrival in France and adventures thereafter. There is a superb adventure story here which could be of great interest to the children, but not enough is made of it.
If time was not wasted on Celtic legend it would also have been possible to develop the context of Christianity coming to Ireland, which is in itself a fantastic adventure story. By the Providence of God, Christianity came to Ireland just at the time when it was under serious threat throughout Europe. The Barbarian invasions into the Roman Empire destroyed much of Christianity and learning throughout the Continent and Britain at the very time that Christianity took root and flourished in Ireland. Then the zeal of Irish missionaries brought back the light of Faith to Europe during the succeeding centuries.
There is an excellent piece in the story of St Patrick concerning his use of the Shamrock to teach people about the Trinity "The Shamrock has three leaves on one stem. Patrick taught that in one God there are three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit".
This excellent teaching on the Trinity is further developed in one of the prayer times when it says that, "St Patrick taught us using a Shamrock. He taught us that in one God there are three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit".
Unfortunately, these good teachings on the Trinity and the shamrock only appear in the Teacher’s Book, and not in the Pupil’s Book, where they could have a very beneficial educational influence on the pupils.
The lesson also references an Appendix which contains a prayer service for All Saints and Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. In this Alive-O repeats its earlier practice of treating the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls as one and the same. There is no mention of Purgatory or praying for the dead that they may be released from their sins. Teachers are advised that heaven, hell and purgatory are simply the language of previous generations and should not be taught the children. There is also reference to the place in the Information for teachers at the front of the book (p.[18]) where teachers are advised not to teach about heaven, hell, purgatory, the devil, or mortal sin. This is a serious problem and is cheating the children of important truths of Christian faith.
Video.
There is a video presentation tracing the spread of Christianity from its beginnings in Jerusalem to its eventual arrival in Ireland with St Patrick. It is a colourful and attractive presentation but very limited in information, and will teach little to the pupils.
Term 1, Lesson 7: Christianity Comes to Our Country (2) (A5-T1L7)
Pupil's Book.
All that is presented for this lesson is a story-poem concerning the legend of Oisin and St Patrick. It does contain some good information about the love of God, but as it is a piece of fiction it teaches nothing about the true story of the coming of Christianity to Ireland.
Information for Teachers in Teacher’s Book.
There is some brief information on the flourishing of Christianity, particularly in and through monasticism, along with a reference to the type of prayer that was common in the monasteries. This is reasonable.
The theme of this lesson as given in the Teacher's Book is to develop the children's knowledge of the historical origins of Christianity in Ireland, and to offer them a new experience of an old form of prayer, so that they grow in appreciation of their Celtic Christian heritage.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
There is much discussion material on the story-poem of Oisín and St Patrick. This is of little value, because the story is fanciful legend.
The prayer times are principally litanies in which there are good invocations and a good response. The response is, "Praise to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit". This is an excellent Trinitarian prayer. There is also another short prayer which reads, "Praise to you, O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, O Blessed Trinity, for ever and ever." This is also an excellent Trinitarian prayer. Unfortunately, the Trinitarian identity of ‘God the Father’ is partially undermined by another prayer, which reads, "God, you are our Father. You love us like a mother."
There is a good account about the establishment of monasteries in Ireland, how monasteries operated and the importance of prayer within the monastery. Unfortunately, there were some very important aspects of the monastic movement in Ireland which were omitted. The account states some of the monks were teachers who taught students to read and write; this diminishes the importance of the monasteries, because they did much more than that. The Irish monasteries became great centres of learning, and attracted students from Britain and the Continent. The Irish monasteries also became centres for quite extraordinary missionary achievement; monks went out from Irish monasteries to evangelise in Scotland, the north of Britain, and right across the European continent into Germany, Switzerland and Italy. They had a profound influence on European Christianity and on European culture and history. All these magnificent aspects of our culture and history are omitted by Alive-O.
There is one song accompanying this lesson, titled, "Bless the Lord". The song is based on Psalm 145 and is very good.
Video.
The video shows two different examples of life in monasteries in Ireland today. We see groups of young people visiting the Cistercian monks at Mount Melleray Abbey, and the Cistercian nuns at Glencairn Abbey. The visits are very well presented on the video, and should help pupils to get a better understanding of what monastic life is like today in Ireland.
Term 3, Lesson 8: Brendan the Navigator (A5-T3L8)
Pupil’s Book.
St Brendan was an Irish saint of the Sixth Century, who was Abbott of the monastery at Clonfert. Like most Saints of that period, very little is known with assurance about his life. Brendan is very popular because of a saga known as the Navigatio (sea-voyage), which tells of how Brendan and some of his companions made some truly remarkable sea voyages. However, the historicity of the Navigatio is uncertain, though it is considered probable that Brendan did undertake some sea voyages.
The Pupil’s Book has a story-poem titled, 'Brendan and the Whale', which is based on an incident taken from the Navigatio or Voyage of Saint Brendan. Whatever about the overall historicity of the voyages of St Brendan, this particular incident is blatantly fanciful and exotic fiction (which is not uncommon in hagiography relating to that period). Therefore, this legend will teach the pupils nothing of historical value about Brendan, or the Christian faith. Moreover, there is nothing in the Pupil's Book, worksheet, or the lesson material in the Teachers Book which will teach the pupils any thing about St Brendan that would be regarded as historical. All the pupils will get will be this piece of outlandish fiction.
There is a colourful picture, spread across 2 pages, illustrating the legend of St Brendan and the Whale.
The pupils themselves will know that this is story is far-fetched and unbelievable, so that, apart from teaching them nothing of value, there must also be a danger that the pupils may conclude that the rest of the material in the Alive-O religion programme (and all information coming from the Catholic Church?) is also fanciful fiction.
It is nothing less than tragic that so much time, effort and skill are wasted on this exotic legend, when it would be so easily possible to teach the children real stories about Irish saints which would be interesting, dramatic, inspiring and educational. One of the great adventure stories of the first millennium of Christianity is how Christianity came to Ireland with St Patrick just at the time of the barbarian invasions into the Roman Empire, which led to the extinguishing of the Christian faith throughout huge areas of Europe. After the faith had been planted and flourished in Ireland, Irish missionaries, like St Colmcille, St Columbanus, and many others, brought back the light of faith to Europe, preaching, teaching and establishing monasteries from Scotland right across to Italy. It is most sad that these true and dramatic adventure stories are withheld from the children, while time is wasted instead with an outlandish legend.
There is a question and answer in the Pupil's Book as follows, 'Why do we honour the Saints?', and the answer given is, 'We honour the Saints because they loved God and are united with him for ever in heaven. They help us by their prayers'. This answer is good as far as it goes, but is not backed up by a more comprehensive teaching on Saints in any lesson materials, which the children would need if they are to come to a real Catholic understanding of Saints; in particular they are taught nothing about the communion of saints.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has four pictures to be coloured in, with the sentence to be written for each picture, which are based on the exotic legend given in the Pupil's Book. This will add nothing to the pupils’ knowledge of the real Saint Brendan, or of Saints in general.
Information for teachers in Teacher’s Book.
The information for teachers gives a minimal amount of information about the real Saint Brendan, which is not reflected in any lesson material for the children.
There is an attempt to develop the psychology of storytelling and shared cultural heritage, which adds nothing to an understanding of St Brendan or Christianity. Alive-O says, 'Hopefully, the children will find, like St Brendan, that the experience of life can fuel their religious imagination and fire their faith in such a way as to impel them to respond with their lives in the years ahead'. The analysis above notes that learning about a wildly unrealistic fictional legend will contribute little to the children's understanding, while at the same time there are being deprived of truly inspiring real-life adventure stories of Irish saints of the period.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teachers Book is to introduce the children to St Brendan so that they may be enriched by his life, and by his faith and trust in God.
Lesson material in the Teacher's Book.
The discussion sessions and prayer times simply reinforce the exotic legend in the Pupil's Book, and so are of no value. There is an activity in which every child in the class is required to learn off by heart one verse and the last verse of the story-poem, which is then to be recited out loud by the class in groups. It is more than ironic that Alive-O does not require the children to learn off by heart the basic truths of the Catholic faith but does ask them to devote time and effort to learn off by heart this inconsequential legend which will teach them nothing of value.
There is an Alive-O written song titled, ‘Brendan’s Banana Boat’, which repeats the legend about Brendan and the Whale; it is of no more value than the story-poem.
3.6: The Liturgical Year
Term 1, Lesson 9: Mary Wonders – Who is the One who is Coming?
Term 1, Lesson 10: John the Baptist Wonders – Who is the One who is Coming?
Term 1, Lesson 11: Joseph Wonders – Who is the One who is Coming?
Term 2, Lesson 5: Lent – Endings and New Beginnings
Term 2, Lesson 10: Holy Week
Term 3, Lesson 1: We are an Easter People
Term 3, Lesson 6: Gifted with the Spirit
Summary:
These seven lessons cover various aspects of the liturgical year from Advent through to Pentecost. This is a very reasonable approach in the catechism, as it gives the opportunity to cover key aspects of the faith, and to link in with what is actually happening in the local church. It also provides an ideal opportunity to link the catechetical material with the structure of the salvation history, which is one of the principal structures recommended by the Church for catechesis.
While this set of lessons to cover a great many aspects of the various events that are commemorated during the Liturgical Year, they generally do not do it very well, with many inaccuracies and omissions. In particular, the dimension of salvation history is not brought out at all, which is consistent with Alive-O's nonrecognition of salvation. Instead Alive-O presents the great drama of the Liturgical Year in a context which is essentially theist, in line with its own spirituality.
The first lesson covers the Annunciation and Advent. There are many good aspects covered in the lessons, but also important omissions, which means that the full and authentic Christian significance of these great events in is not taught to the pupils.
The next lesson covers John the Baptist, and is largely a repeat of the material covered in an earlier lesson A5-T1L3 – ‘Where are we now?’. Like the earlier lesson it does cover some information about John the Baptist and Jesus, but also falls short in presenting a full Christian understanding of who John and Jesus are, and what is their mission. Very much the same could be said of lesson on Joseph, which also gives some reasonable information about Joseph and his role in the birth of Jesus, but this also falls short of presenting a clear Christian picture of Joseph and of Jesus.
Lesson on Lent is poor. It does not even mention that Lent is a preparation for Easter. The presentation on Lent is predominantly humanist, treating Lent as a time to be quiet, reflective and sort out one's life.
The lessons on Holy Week follow a similar pattern to the earlier lessons. There is quite a bit of good information about what happened, but there are key inaccuracies and omissions from the Scriptural accounts, such that these great events are not presented as the high-point of salvation history, but rather presented from a theist perspective. The Apostles' Creed is included, which is excellent in principle; however the way that the Creed is presented tends not to enhance, develop and explain the meaning of the Creed, but rather to undermine and diminish it.
The lesson on the Day of Pentecost regretfully follows a similar pattern, with key omissions and inaccuracies from the Scripture account, which change the perspective from being Christian to being essentially theist.
Term 1, Lesson 9: Mary Wonders – Who is the One who is Coming? (A5-T1L9)
Pupil’s Book.
Firstly, there is an account of the Annunciation to Mary by the Angel Gabriel. This is not unreasonable, but errs on the side of brevity and omits a number of important elements from the Scriptural account, Luke 1:26-38, not least Mary’s virginity.
Then there is a longer and fictional account of Mary's thoughts and actions after the Annunciation, which adds nothing of value and serves only to diminish Mary and the Annunciation. The space would have been better devoted to a more complete account of the Annunciation based on the Scripture original.
There are two illustrations of Mary after the Annunciation which depict Mary as a nice young girl, but are lacking in qualities which would elicit the children’s reverence and respect for the Mother of God.
Also, it is not clear from the illustration whether or not Mary is pregnant, because she is depicted sitting with a loose dress around her. This is the same with all Alive-O illustrations of the Annunciation; Mary could be already pregnant. The Alive-O illustration of the Visitation, which happened right after the Annunciation, shows Mary as most definitely in an advanced state of pregnancy (see A2-T1L13, Pupil’s Book 2, page 17), which is most unsatisfactory.
The question and answer are as follows: Q. Why do Christians honour Mary? A. Christians honour Mary because she is the mother of Jesus and our mother. This is reasonably satisfactory, but it would be better to specify that Mary is also Mother of God.
Worksheet.
In the worksheet there is an attractive picture of an Advent Wreath to be coloured in. There is also an interesting exercise to decode a sentence which when finished reads "PREPARE JESUS SON OF GOD IS COMING."
Information for Teachers in Teacher’s Book.
There is a good quotation from CCC 1095, which speaks of the importance of the Church's liturgy in leading to a spiritual understanding of the history of salvation. The Alive-O Programme is good in taking account of the liturgical year and its main seasons, but Alive-O is very poor on recognizing or teaching the history of salvation.
The information for teachers does stress the importance of understanding Advent and Christmas in the context of the liturgical year, which is good, but there also is an attempt to set this in the context of Alive-O’s secular theme of endings and beginnings, which is not helpful. It is encouraging to see a reference to the fact that Advent is a looking forward to the second coming of Christ as well as to his coming at Christmas. However the reference to Jesus ‘coming again in glory’ falls short of teaching the Second Coming; Alive-O generally is very weak on teaching about the Last Things.
The thought for the teacher is not particularly helpful. It seems to glorify questions and discourage expectation of answers. This is unhelpful for Christian religious education, which should teach that Jesus is the answer to all our questions.
The theme of this lesson as given in the Teacher's Book is to help the children in Advent to better understand the identity of Jesus and the Advent season.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
The activity for the children is the making of an Advent Wreath, which is well described and explained. It is also good that the Advent Wreath will then be used in all the prayer times for the rest of Advent.
There are two Alive-O written songs in this lesson. They are both reasonable. The second song entitled, " Ave Maria”, is accompanied by a dance which is shown on the video, which is discussed below.
In the first prayer time there is a reference to Jesus coming again, in these words, "we know that Jesus will come in glory"; "we look forward to his return in glory"; “Jesus will come again one day to change the world for ever”. This is a good, but falls short of a full expression of the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of time when he would judge the living and the dead at the General Judgment which will follow the General Resurrection.
In the discussion sessions and prayer times there is some development on the theme of the titles of Jesus. Titles that are referred to "Son of God", "Son of the Most High", "son of Mary", “Ruler of the House of Jacob”. It is good to are to these titles, but they are not really explained. A significant omission is any reference to Jesus being a son of David; Alive-O tends to consistently omit or diminish King David, which seems to go along with its lack of recognition of Jesus as King.
This is an excellent opportunity to explain fully that Jesus is God, the second divine person of the Blessed Trinity, but this is not done. Another obvious thing to do would be to explain that the name Jesus is more than a name, it is also a title, which means "God saves". The very name of Jesus expresses both his identity and his mission. However this is not done, which is not good.
In one of the prayer times the children are lead to pray the Hail Mary, which is good. However, it is not good that there is no explanation given of the meaning of the prayer. Alive-O gives a set of ritualised actions to accompany the prayer, which no help to understanding the meaning and could serve as a distraction from the prayer itself.
Video.
The video shows a prayer movement to accompany the song 'Ave Maria', which is written specially for Alive-O, the words of which are repetition of “Ave Maria, gratia plena”. The song is attractive, but not as good as many hymns and songs of Our Lady, which are part of the Church’s rich tradition of old and contemporary music, which would also have the benefit of linking the children with home and parish.
The children sit around in a circle with a candle in the middle. There is a very nice picture of Our Lady, but it is not the centre of attention. The dance consists of a set of precisely choreographed ritualistic movements, which are completely different to anything the children will experience in their church tradition. The dance looks very New Age rather than Christian. It is hard to see any Christian religious education value in the dance. It is also hard to see how the dance would be very practical; the video shows a trained dance teacher dealing with a small group of pupils, but it would be not at all practical for a teacher who has no special training in dance to organise this ritual with 30 children in the classroom.
Term 1, Lesson 10: John the Baptist Wonders – Who is the One who is Coming?
(A5-T1L10)
Pupil’s Book.
The Pupil's Book has a brief account of John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness and baptising people in the River Jordan. It adds very little to what is in the Pupil's Book for Term 1 Lesson 3, and is out of sequence – the Baptism of Jesus presented in A5-T1L3 comes after the events described in this lesson A5-T1L10. It is a pity that John is again described as 'shouting', whereas the major Bible translations render this as 'preaching' or 'proclaiming'. Describing John as shouting makes him sound like some kind of a wild or crazy man.
There is no explanation of what John is, the marvelous ways that God intervened at his birth, his role as the last and greatest of the prophets of the Old Testament who foretold the coming of the Messiah. Also missing is John's prediction of the coming of Jesus, who would baptise people with the Holy Spirit and fire. Therefore the content of the lesson is deficient in teaching children about John the Baptist and about Jesus.
There is a cartoon-type illustration of John the Baptist, which is not very helpful in understanding this great Prophet. He is depicted as a rather comical looking person with a locust sitting on his head.
There is a short Advent Hymn which is reasonable. What is not a satisfactory is that it omits that Jesus is God the Son, the Saviour of the world. The hymn does include a reference to Jesus as 'king of all kings', which is good, but which will have little effect in the absence of any substantive teaching on Jesus as King.
There is also a short prayer which is reasonable.
Worksheet.
The Worksheet has a crossword puzzle for the children to do, which should be interesting and instructive. However, it does not go beyond the rather limited presentation of the mission of John, as presented in their Pupil's Book.
Information for teachers in Teacher's Book.
The information for teachers opens with an excellent quotation from the CCC 523. This quote speaks of John as the Lord's immediate precursor; John is the last and greatest of the Prophets, he inaugurates the Gospel already from his mother's womb, and points the way to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John bears witness to Christ in his preaching, his baptism of conversion, and through his martyrdom. It would have been good to also include CCC522, which points out that God makes everything converge on Christ. Also to include CCC524, which speaks of the Church celebrating the liturgy of Advent each year in preparation for the Saviour's first coming, and ardent desire for his Second Coming.
While this quotation from the CCC is excellent, Alive-O omits a substantial amount of what it contains. Instead, the information for teachers goes on to introduce the concept of ‘identity’, expressed in the language of secular pop-psychology. It speaks of every person struggling to discover their own identity, and says that John the Baptist went out into the wilderness to explore his own identity, rather than, as the Gospel makes clear, he was responding to the call of God.
The information for teachers closes with saying that the teachers can help the children to explore the identity of Jesus; it would have been appropriate to say that teachers can teach the children clearly, in accordance with the teaching of the Church, about Jesus, his true identity and mission.
The thought for the teacher is entitled, 'O Antiphons', and is excellent.
The theme of this lesson as given in the Teacher's Book, it is to help the children to a better understanding of the coming of Jesus, who is the One who is to come, by means of dialogue with John the Baptist in the wilderness.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
The story about John the Baptist is the same as appears in the Pupil's Book, and has been commented on above. The set of discussion and questions which follows the story does not help to bring out the full meaning of John the Baptist’s identity and mission, or that of Jesus for whom he was preparing the way.
The song is entitled, 'Wilderness', and expresses a secular or New Age concept of wilderness, rather than a Christian one. The song expresses the idea that the wilderness is a place where there is space, peace and quiet, for introspective thinking. The Christian idea of wilderness is much more one of a place for contemplation on God, in a spirit of fasting and penance.
There is an Activity on the preparation of Jesus’ Family Tree. The idea is not bad, but the brief example given shows Jesus as a direct descendant of David, which is correct, but also shows David as a direct descendant of Moses, which of course is not correct.
The first prayer time has some useful prayers of repentance from sin, but unfortunately the focus of morality is in the wrong place. Alive-O asks the children to remember the times when they have not lived up to the goodness God sees in them. This means that the measure of whether or not we sin is our own internal goodness, rather than putting the focus on God, with sin being when we offend God or break God's law. If the measure of sin is our own goodness then there is no objective morality, but rather we become the arbiters of our own morality. The fact that we each have a conscience is a different matter, because our conscience is given to us by God to tell us how to live according to God's law; conscience is not an independent source of morality deriving from our own personal internal goodness.
The idea of the children themselves making up their own morality is reinforced by an Activity in which they are asked to make out of their own list of good things to do. Making up their own list is not wrong in itself, but it should be based on clear teaching on God's way, such as they would learn from the Ten Commandments. Alive-O is very tardy about teaching the children about the Decalogue; there is a brief and unsatisfactory introduction to two of the Ten Commandments later in Book 5, and when Alive-O finally introduces all Ten Commandments (in Book 7) they are not well taught.
The final prayer time is based on titles of Jesus, which are all reasonable, but what is significantly omitted is any title indicating that Jesus is clearly God incarnate, or that he is our Saviour from sin.
Term 1, Lesson 11: Joseph Wonders – Who is the One who is Coming?
(A5-T1L11)
Pupil’s Book.
The lesson in the Pupil's Book is subtitled, 'Joseph and the Angel: a Good Dream'. To describe this major and astonishing event in salvation history as simply 'a good dream’, is to diminish its importance, to trivialise it, and to ' damn it with faint praise'.
The first paragraph describes the Angel’s message to Joseph reasonably well, except that it says, 'He is the One who will save his people'. The gospel account says that Jesus is the one who will save his people from their sins. Alive-O’s serious omission of the words 'from their sins' is consistent with its nonrecognition of Original Sin and its almost total omission of Jesus’ mission of salvation.
The second paragraph includes the quotation from Isaiah, which is included in the gospel. However Alive-O diminishes the importance by saying simply that 'the Prophets had said long, long ago'. By contrast, the gospel says that the Lord God had spoken through the Prophets.
The rest of the story is fiction, and treats Joseph just like any dad who had heard that his wife was going to have a baby. This diminishes and trivialises the birth of Jesus. This fiction could have been better replaced by genuine teaching and explanation of the significance of Jesus' birth as the Messiah, God the Son made man, who would redeem the human race from sin.
There are two questions and answers. The first question deals with the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day, and is fine. The second question is, 'Who Is Jesus Christ?', and the answer is, 'Jesus Christ is the only son of God who became man to save us. He is truly God and truly man.' It is very good that the answer says that Jesus is truly God and truly man, and that he became man to save us. However, it omits to say to save us from sin. Also, the impact of this vital teaching is seriously diminished by the fact that nowhere else in the entire lesson is it given that Jesus is truly God and true man. Nor is the significance of this centrally important fact brought out.
There is a large colourful cartoon type illustration of Joseph and his dream. There is a beam of light but no angel. This is consistent with Alive-O's policy of diminishing the reality of Angels. Angels are mentioned in the Programme at points where it is not really possible to omit them, but Alive-O excludes illustrations of Angels, and there is no teaching or explanation as to what an Angel is.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has a very unflattering illustration of Joseph, to be coloured in.
There is also a prayer which reads as follows: 'Jesus came at Christmas long ago. Jesus is close to us every day as a friend. Jesus will come again to change our world for ever. Welcome, Lord Jesus, Immanuel! Amen.' This prayer would be fine in the context of full Christian teaching on salvation history and the meaning of the second coming of Jesus, but in the absence of such teaching it merely gives the impression that Jesus is a special man, and a great pal. The reference to Jesus coming again falls far short of a proper teaching on the nature of the Second Coming.
Information for Teachers in the Teacher’s Book.
The information begins with an excellent quotation from CCC525. The quote could well have been further developed with a quotation from CCC 526, as follows, 'Man's Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity'.
Unfortunately, the rest of the information does not follow through on the CCC quotation. The gospel account is treated merely as the personal experience of Joseph, which is to be compared with the personal experience of people through the ages, and finally our own personal experience of today, as a means of enlarging our understanding of the identity of Jesus. The word 'tradition' is used, but not 'Tradition'. The impression is given that there is no eternal Truth in Scripture and Tradition, but rather it is all a matter of growing understanding obtained through personal experience now. The information suggests that based on their own personal experience teachers and children can now go on to invent new titles for Jesus.
Alive-O's approach completely undermines the eternal truth of Scripture, and invites teachers and pupils to construct a Jesus of their own making, depending on their own personal experience.
The thought for the teacher is in the form of a poem, which is fine in the context of a full Christian understanding of Jesus, which unfortunately is lacking in Alive-O. However, the last verse is a quite odd, as follows: 'When our lives are full of sin, You are the One whom death does win'.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teacher's Book is to reinforce the children’s sense of Advent as a time of preparation for the One who is coming, and to develop their understanding of Jesus the baby and Jesus the adult, the One who was sent by God.
The wording and language used here by Alive-O tends to treat Jesus as a very special human being, rather than God the Son who became man in order to save us from our sins through his sacrificial death on the cross.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
There are two Alive-O songs, 'Mary's Lullaby', and, 'This Is the Moment'. The songs are nice enough, but certainly no improvement on many traditional Christmas songs. Alive-O’s specially written songs contribute to immersing the children in a complete Alive-O environment, which tends to separate them from home and parish. There is also the traditional Christmas Carol, 'Silent Night', which is excellent.
The same story from the Pupil's Book is repeated in the Teacher's Book. The story has been commented on above. There are discussion and activity sessions which largely further trivialise Joseph's dream. The children are instructed to sit around in small groups discussing their own dreams. The starter questions for the discussion sessions refer to Joseph’s dream as 'a happy dream'.
There is a reference to two titles of Jesus as follows: 'God the Son' and 'the Son of God'. It is very good that the term 'God the Son' is actually used, but its meaning as Jesus, the Second Divine Person of the Trinity is not developed, and even undermined by prefacing it with ‘God is with us’, which could mean any one of many different ways that God is with us; also, it is not given any great prominence or attention, and is pretty well lost in the middle of the optional discussion starter questions. As a teaching for the children that Jesus is truly God, its effect is likely to be minimal at best. In a following prayer time the children are given a response, which they repeat six times, referring to Jesus as 'Son of God and Son of Mary', but never 'God the Son'.
There are a number of prayer times and activities which do not develop any further the understanding of Joseph and Jesus which has already been given in the initial short story about the message of the Angel to Joseph. In a couple of places Joseph's role as father is greatly diminished and trivialised by simply describing it as helping Mary to look after the baby, which is very different to the role of a Jewish father of the period which Joseph would certainly have followed. Every Jewish father was expected to do four things for his son: to circumcise him, to teach Torah, to train him in a trade, and to find him a wife. Up to the age of seven a boy spent most of his time with his mother, but from seven on he was principally under the personal tutelage of his father, and it was from this time that his formal teaching of the Jewish Scriptures began, maybe given by the local Rabbi, but under his father’s responsibility.
In one of the prayer times the teacher is to say, ' One day Jesus will come again to change the world for ever'. This is the only reference to what the Church teaches is one of the two major themes of Advent, namely the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of time. This is just slight attention to the theme of the Second Coming, which is likely to have minimal educational value for the children, and is in any case a completely inadequate presentation of the nature and meaning of the Second Coming.
The final prayer time has a litany of titles of Jesus, which is excellent in principle. However, the titles given are largely 'horizontal', and omit the most important, that Jesus is God the Son, and is the Redeemer of the human race.
Term 2, Lesson 5: Lent – Endings and New Beginnings (A5-T2L5)
Pupil’s Book.
The title of the lesson features the theme of 'Endings and New Beginnings', which is the theme selected for Alive-O 5. The theme is secular and not Christian. The theme could also be considered as theist or pantheistic, where existence is essentially cyclical not linear. In the Christian vision God is unchanging and eternal, but all of creation has a beginning and an end. Salvation history has a beginning and an end, and every person's life has a beginning and an end.
There is a poem on the theme of Lent, which treats Lent like a spring cleaning. We have a look around in our lives to see what needs to be cleaned up, what needs to be kept and what needs to be thrown out, and that makes us new again. The theme of Lent as a spring cleaning is further reinforced by the illustration, which consists of a photograph of golden daffodils.
There is a sentence at the bottom of the page which states, 'Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel!' this is a good quotation which does reflect a Christian idea of Lent, but it stands in isolation from the rest of the material in the Pupil's Book, and in the Worksheet. It also is very poorly presented and followed through in the material in the Teacher's Book.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has a picture to be coloured in, which consists of a pile of junk material waiting to be collected by a bin lorry. The emphasis in the lesson is very much on a humanist idea of clearing out rubbish from our lives. The prayer asks God to call us to new beginnings and to bring bad things to an end. This does introduce a note of theism but is very far from the Christian or Catholic understanding of Lent. We are called to repent from sin and to prepare for the great feast of Easter, which is the feast of our salvation. Bringing bad things to an end could mean any kind of bad thing, and not necessarily anything to do with our own personal sin.
Information for Teachers in Teacher's Book.
The information for teachers is entirely theist and humanist in expression. It speaks about Lent as a time for self examination, for finding the kind of things in our lives that we need to leave behind and new things are that we need to begin. This is said in the context of God’s covenant love, which surrounds us at all times, which is essentially a theist interpretation of ‘covenant’. Nothing more is said about God's covenant love, in particular nothing is said about the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, which is the central celebration of the Christian faith in particular the celebration at Easter. The most important aspect of Lent is a preparation for Easter. However, Alive-O does not even mention Easter, so that its approach to Lent is hardly an authentically Christian approach.
There is no mention of Easter, Jesus, repentance, prayer, fasting and almsgiving; no mention of preparing for and looking forward to the great feast of Easter which is the most important feast of the Christian year. The information given here to teachers about Lent is essentially theist with a strong humanist flavour, and omits all that is authentically Christian.
The thought for the teacher for this lesson is a short poem, which is entirely humanist and has no connection with the Christian idea of Lent, and seems to have very little and meaning anyway.
There is mention that the colour purple is used during Lent, but there is no explanation that the meaning of purple as a liturgical colour is a sign of repentance and penance.
The theme of the lesson as given in the teacher's book is to help the children understand 'ending and beginning’, which is an expression of turning away from sin and be faithful to the gospel and of conversion.
The idea of conversion, turning away from sin and being faithful to the gospel, is good, but will not be enhanced or explained by concentrating on the theme of ‘endings and beginnings’.
Lesson Material in the Teacher's Book.
There is an Alive-O written song for this lesson titled, ' Beginnings and Endings'. The wording of the song is essentially theist, where everything is cyclical. There is nothing in the song which has a Christian theme, nothing to do with Lent, and no sense of salvation history. The discussion session after the song follows the theist and humanist theme that has already been set out for Lent, talking of how we can look into our lives decide what is good and what is to be left out.
The theist understanding of Lent as a stand-alone activity which has no connection with Easter but solely consists of looking into our lives and deciding what we want to keep and what we want to leave out is further enhanced in the Activity titled, 'Leave behind, Begin Again'. There are examples of what is good to do and what to avoid in the Lesson’s prayer times, which is good as far as it goes, but there are a number of problems associated with this. The examples given are very much ‘horizontal’, dealing with being nice to other people, but what is missing is how we can sin against God and against ourselves. The words ‘sin’ is omitted.
The Church has a tradition of examination of conscience, but Alive-O does not mention examination of conscience. Indeed, Alive-O does not mention conscience at all, the children are not taught what conscience is, or that they have a conscience. The Church also wisely provides helps for examination of conscience, and recommends that we examine our consciences in consideration of: the Ten Commandments, the Commandments of the Church, the virtues, the duties of our station in life, the seven deadly sins. Alive-O does not include any of these helps for the children in examination of their conscience so that they can come to an understanding of sin in their lives, then to repent of sin, and also to follow what's Jesus teaches as virtuous or good. The Church also teaches that we can sin through the thought, word, deed, or omission. The examples given by Alive-O only cover word or deed, while sins through thought or omission are not mentioned.
There is a story titled, 'Jesus Goes into the Wilderness'. The story departs radically from the account in the Gospels, which say that after his baptism by John the Baptist Jesus went into the desert led by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. Alive-O omits any reference to the Holy Spirit or temptation by the devil. Alive-O says that Jesus decided himself to go into the desert to prepare himself for the work that he was to do. Alive-O says that Jesus knew that he had to go and tell people that God loved them and to show them how to live and how to love one another, which is not in the Gospel accounts of Jesus time in the wilderness. It is true enough that Jesus did tell people about God's love and teach them about how to behave, but in Alive-O's approach this is the fulfilment and completion of what Jesus came to do. Alive-O does not mention the most important thing that Jesus came to do which was to bring about our salvation through his death on the cross. Alive-O’s story effectively changes the gospel account to promote the programme’s own view of Lent and of Jesus, which is essentially theist and humanitarian, but omits what is specifically Christian.
There is a prayer service for the, 'Distribution of Ashes'. There is a mention that the priest might be invited in to conduct the service. However this is quite contrary to the normal Catholic practice where people attend mass on Ash Wednesday and receive the Ashes during the mass. If Alive-O wanted to strengthen the bonds between school home and parish it would encourage the children to attend the parish mass with their families and receive the Ashes there. This would be the first preference. The second preference would be to encourage a school Mass or class Mass at which the Ashes could be distributed. Distribution of Ashes ceremony in the classroom would be the last option.
The prayer service does contain the essential distribution of Ashes with the prayer, 'Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel', which is good. However the rest of the ceremony is not so good. Again there is no mention of Easter, repentance from sin, examination of conscience, or going to the sacrament of confession.
The poem in the Pupil's Book is repeated in the Teacher's Book. As already has been noted above, this poem does not give an authentically Christian view of Lent but presents a view which is essentially humanist, a ‘spring-cleaning’.
Term 2, Lesson 10: Holy Week (A5-T2L10)
Pupil’s Book.
There is a good illustration of Jesus mounted on a donkey going towards Jerusalem, with people joyfully waving palm branches in the air. A limitation of the illustration is that it shows only a mere handful of people cheering Jesus, rather than the large crowds mentioned in the Gospels.
There is an account titled, 'Jesus Enters Jerusalem', which is based on Luke 19:28-39. The account is good, and follows the Gospels, except for the final sentence where it says the people shouted, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord'. What is omitted here is that the people called out that Jesus was the King. The proclaiming of Jesus as King is further emphasised in the Gospels of Matthew and John by the quotation of a messianic prophecy from Zechariah which speaks of the King coming riding on a donkey. Alive-O's omission is consistent with its general practice of not acknowledging Jesus as King.
There is also an account titled, 'The Last Supper', which is accompanied by a nice illustration. The account is based on the Gospel of Luke 22:7-20. The account is not faithful to the gospels, through addition of some extraneous material, along with key omissions. Alive-O states that the 'friends and followers of Jesus' were present at the meal, which is not faithful to Scripture. The Gospel of Luke speaks of 'disciples' being present, while the Gospels of Matthew and Mark say that only the Twelve were present with Jesus. It is not clear why Alive-O implies that a large number of people were present in addition to the apostles; however this idea has been put forward in support of the ordination of women, saying that in all probability there were women present at the Last Supper.
In describing the Passover meal Alive-O says that they shared the story about Moses leading the people out of Egypt, and in addition remembered God's covenant with Abraham and Sarah, God's covenant with Moses and the people, and shared memories of things that have happened to their people in times past. The practice of the Passover meal in the time of Jesus, was to focus on the Passover itself. In the first part of the meal there was an account of the Passover events, and after that there was the singing of the Hallel, which consisted of Psalms 113-118, which deal with the Passover. God's covenant with Moses at Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments were commemorated at the feast of Pentecost. The focus on the Passover itself is very significant from a Christian point of view, which sees the delivery of the people from slavery in Egypt as a prefiguring of the delivery of the entire human race from the slavery of sin through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The Church sees great significance between the original Passover, the Passover meal (the Last Supper) celebrated by Jesus with his apostles, instituting the priesthood and the Mass, which is a re-presentation of the sacrifice of Calvary, in which Jesus gave his life for the redemption of the human race from sin. Alive-O brings in the extraneous elements of God's covenant with Abraham and covenant with Moses, which distract attention from the connection between the Last Supper, Jesus redemptive sacrifice on the cross, and the delivery of the chosen people from slavery in Egypt at the first Passover. This is consistent with Alive-O's policy of not recognizing Jesus as saviour, not recognizing his death as redemptive from sin, not recognizing Jesus as divine, and not recognizing the existence of original sin from which we needed redemption.
In the gospel accounts of the Last Supper Jesus makes a number of predictions which indicated that he knew and accepted that on the following day he would endure suffering and death for the salvation of mankind, given in all the Synoptic Gospels and most extensively in the Gospel of John. He also predicted the betrayals by Judas and by Peter. There is no sign of these predictions in Alive-O's account of the Last Supper.
In the institution of the Eucharist Alive-O omits key phrases which explain the redemptive nature of what Jesus is doing. Alive-O states, 'This is my body; take and eat it', but omits the phrase in Luke’s gospel which follows 'body', 'which will be given up for you'. (Alive-O could have emphasized the redemptive nature of Jesus’ sacrifice even better by using the words from Matthew’s Gospel, which are also used in the Mass, ‘which is to be poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’). Alive-O includes the words, 'This is my blood, the blood of the new covenant', but then omits the gospel words, 'which will be poured out for you'. After omitting these words which give an explanation of the 'new covenant', Alive-O goes on to explain new covenant in the words of Jesus, 'Do this in memory of me'. In this way Alive-O diminishes the Scriptural message of the redemptive nature of the Eucharist, and the Cross.
The importance the Church sees in linking Easter (the Christian Passover when Jesus redeemed us from the slavery of sin), with the Jewish Passover (when God delivered the Chosen People from slavery in Egypt), is reflected in the rather complex way of setting the date of Easter. The Church seeks to follow the same way that the Jewish people set the date of their Passover.
Alive-O's account of the Last Supper concludes with saying that Jesus and his friends went off to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. No more is said about the Agony in the Garden, which is an impoverishment, because the gospel accounts of Jesus agony help to understand the meaning of his passion, death and resurrection.
The Pupil's Book next has an account titled, 'The Crucifixion'. It is a short account, and therefore cannot include everything that is in the Gospels, but nevertheless it cannot be regarded as a good account, because it has had several changes and key omissions of what is in the Gospels.
Alive-O’s account states that Roman soldiers came and grabbed Jesus and took him away from the Garden of Gethsemane. The gospels state that the people who arrested Jesus were sent by the chief priests, which is omitted by Alive-O. Alive-O then goes on to omit the chief priests completely from its account, which is very hard to understand, considering the key role that was played by the chief priests and the Sanhedrin in Jesus’ trial before his crucifixion. Omitting Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin also serves to omit Jesus claim to divinity, and his resulting condemnation by the Sanhedrin on a charge of blasphemy. This would be consistent with Alive-O's policy of non recognition, or at least obfuscation, of the divinity of Jesus.
Alive-O's account has Jesus is being brought directly after his arrest to the Governor Pilate, rather than, as in the Gospels, where he was brought first to the chief priests and the Sanhedrin, who then referred him to Pilate, because they wanted Jesus put to death and only the Roman authorities had the power of condemning someone to death at that time. Alive-O's account has Pilate asking Jesus what he had done wrong, and why people wanted to get rid of him, and has Jesus replying that he had done nothing wrong. This is contrary to the gospel account, where Pilate asks Jesus if he is a king, which Jesus affirms. When charges are brought against Jesus by the chief priests in Pilate’s presence, Jesus does not answer.
Alive-O's account has Pilate offering people a choice of the release of either Jesus or Barabbas in order not to upset the leaders of the Temple. The gospel accounts indicate that in proposing a choice between Jesus and Barabbas, Pilate was looking for a way to release Jesus because he knew he was innocent.
Alive-O's account has Jesus being led to the foot of the hill of Calvary, a crown of thorns being placed on his head, and people mocking him and calling him 'King of the Jews'. In the gospel account, Jesus was given a crown of thorns by the Roman soldiers in the Roman fort, before he was led out to walk through the city to the place of crucifixion outside the walls. The title of 'King of the Jews' was given to Jesus by Pilate, who ordered that a sign saying this would be nailed to the top of the cross.
Alive-O's account has Jesus asking God to forgive the two thieves crucified on each side of him for whatever wrong they had done, and has one criminal thanking Jesus for this. In the gospel account, one criminal abuses Jesus, but the other one says that Jesus had done no wrong, and asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom, in response to which Jesus made a promise that the good thief would be with Jesus in his kingdom that very day.
It would have been good to include the strange phenomena that occurred at the death of Jesus, and the recognition by the Centurion who was in charge of the crucifixion that indeed Jesus was ‘a son of God’, but these are omitted from Alive-O’s account.
There is an illustration accompanying the Crucifixion story, which shows Mary being led away in sorrow, accompanied by John and other women, with three bare crosses in the background. The illustration is fine in itself, but it would have been better to give an illustration of the crucifixion itself, especially since this is the fifth year of the Programme and Alive-O has never yet given the children an illustration of the crucifixion scene.
The Pupil's Book then has three questions and answers. The first question is, ‘What happened on Holy Thursday?’ The answer given is, 'On Holy Thursday Jesus shared the Last Supper with his apostles and friends. He told them about God's new covenant. He gave himself to them as the Bread of Life'. The answer given falls short for a number of reasons. Alive-O repeats the idea that many friends were present at the Last Supper in addition to the apostles, which has been commented on above. There is no explanation of the meaning of the new covenant. To say that Jesus gave himself as the Bread of Life is not a sufficient explanation of the institution of the Eucharist, and the Mass. There is no reference at all to the fact that at the Last Supper Jesus instituted the priesthood, and that he established the apostles as the first bishops of the Church.
The second question reads, 'What happened on Good Friday?', and the answer given is, 'On Good Friday Jesus died on the cross'. This answer is correct, as far as it goes, but falls short of a full explanation of what happened on Good Friday.
The third question reads, 'Why did Jesus die on the cross?', and the answer given is, 'Jesus died on the cross to show his love for God our Father and for us'. This answer is entirely unsatisfactory from a Christian point of view, but is expressive of Alive-O’s particular spirituality. In a Christian understanding Jesus certainly died for love of God and us, but he himself was also God, the second divine person of the blessed Trinity, who gave his life as a sacrifice to redeem the human race from sin. This essential Christian understanding is missing from Alive-O’s answer.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has five pictures and an exercise asking the children to associate a particular day with each picture and to write down briefly what happened on that day. This is a very good exercise. The illustrations associated with Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday are fine, but the illustrations for Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday could be improved. The illustration for Good Friday is simply a bare cross; it would have been more instructive for the children to give an illustration of the crucifixion scene. The illustration for Holy Saturday is a closed tomb, which is appropriate, but the illustration could be made to look much more like a real carved rock tomb of the First Century, whereas it looks simply like a natural rock cave with a boulder in front. The illustration for Easter Sunday is the same cave with the boulder moved aside, but an illustration of the Resurrection itself would be far more dramatic, educative and interesting for the children.
The prayer for the children tends to support Alive-O’s spirituality rather than an authentic Christian understanding of Easter. There is no recognition that in dying on the Cross Jesus redeemed us from sin and in rising he raised us to new life.
Information for teachers in the Teacher's Book.
The information here given reinforces Alive-O's spirituality in its interpretation of what happened in Holy Week. Alive-O omits the essential Christian understanding that Jesus is God the Son, the second divine person of the Blessed Trinity, who became man in order to give his life as a sacrifice to redeem the human race from the effects of the original sin of our first parents Adam and Eve, thereby opening heaven to us.
In Alive-O's spirituality Jesus is a special godly person, who was prepared to die rather than stop telling people that God loved them, and that our 'salvation' consists in accepting the love of God and loving one another in accordance with the example given by Jesus. Alive-O's spirituality could be described as theist-humanitarian, rather than authentically Christian.
The thought for the teacher for this lesson is a prayer in litany form, which has many good thoughts, but has the limitation of being entirely 'horizontal', without really containing a spiritual dimension.
The theme of the Lesson as given in the Teacher's Book is to familiarise children with the stories of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and the passion and death of Jesus, to help them celebrate Holy Week.
The Lesson does give quite a bit of information about the various events of Holy Week, but fails to present an authentic Christian understanding of these events. As a result, the children will not be able to celebrate fully what the Church has in mind for them.
Lesson material in Teacher's Book.
This lesson has a number of Alive-O written songs. The first is titled, 'The Passover Song'. It is a nice enough song, but has very little in it; there are other songs sung in Catholic churches which teach much more about the Passover, and would be more suitable from a catechetical point of view.
The second song is titled, 'Stabat Mater’, and is based on the traditional hymn ascribed to Jacapone da Tode, 1306. Alive-O's version does capture much of the sorrow of Mary, which is good, but unfortunately omits the salvific nature of Jesus’ death, which is expressed in the original version, as follows: 'My Saviour crucified, who for all my sins was slain, who for me in torments died'.
The third song is the ‘Sanctus’ from the Mass, which is good.
The introductory discussion session describes Holy Week as 'a special week', which falls well short of doing justice for the greatest Feast of the Church's year.
The Teacher's Book repeats the account entitled, 'Jesus Enters Jerusalem', which is the same as appears in the Pupil’s Book. There is a discussion session and a prayer time associated with the story, with many questions without answers, which fail to develop or bring out any further the meaning of the scriptural account.
The account titled, 'The Last Supper' from the Pupil's Book is repeated in the Teacher’s Book, with some minor variations, which do not improve the story. The additional final sentence in particular is no help in understanding the new covenant in Jesus. There is a discussion session and prayer time following the story, which do little to help develop an understanding of Holy Thursday and the Last Supper. No connection is made between the Last Supper and the cross, the mass, or the priesthood.
There is a story titled, 'The Crucifixion ', which is almost the same as the version in the Pupil's Book, with the exception of the addition of one paragraph. This paragraph serves to reinforce Alive-O's interpretation of the crucifixion, and to undermine the authentic Christian interpretation. Alive-O says that Jesus prayed to his Father to help him and give him strength and courage to live his life to the end, still showing the people of God's love. This completely omits the voluntary sacrifice of Jesus to give his life as a ransom for sin for the whole human race. This presents Alive-O's view that Jesus was just a very good person whose mission was to teach people that God loved them, and that he unfortunately ran foul of people who did not like this message, and were jealous of him to the point of bringing about his regrettable death.
The discussion sessions associated with the story reinforced Alive-O's interpretation of the crucifixion. There is a mention of sacrifice, but this is merely related to the normal daily sacrifices that people make, and no distinction is made with the unique salvific sacrifice that Jesus made for sin of the whole human race by dying on the cross. The next discussion session also raises the question of sin, but does not connect Jesus’ death with salvation from sin, undermining the Christian understanding of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross to redeem the world from sin.
The following prayer times reinforce again Alive-O's own spirituality in which there is no salvation from sin by Jesus death on the cross. This is summarised as follows: God loves everyone, including Jesus. Jesus loves God and loves us. Jesus’ mission was to give us the Good News that God loves us, which he continued to do right up to his death. The Holy Spirit helps us to live following the example of Jesus.
The final prayer time consists of the Stations of the Cross. The prayer faithfully follows the Fourteen traditional Stations of the Cross, and many good thoughts are expressed in the prayers. However, the reflections and petitions tend to be almost entirely 'horizontal'. It is good that the traditional response after each station is given: 'Because, by your holy cross, you have redeemed (saved) the world'. However the salvific nature of Jesus death is not brought out in any of the prayers at the stations, so that the meaning of the response is largely lost. In fact the prayers after the different stations serve only to reinforce Alive-O's interpretation of the crucifixion, which has been summarised above. This is especially so in the Twelfth Station, ‘Jesus dies on the Cross’; the accompanying prayers do not mention sin, forgiveness, sacrifice, salvation or redemption, but simply states that, ‘it cost him everything to show us God’s love’.
The Eighth Station, in which Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem, diverges from the scriptural account. Alive-O has Jesus asking the women not to cry for him but to think about themselves and their families. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the women to weep for themselves and their children, and then gives a chilling prophecy of terrible tribulations to come on Jerusalem; Jesus’ prophecy was later fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. In omitting Jesus’ prophecy, it appears that Alive-O does not wish to credit Jesus with prophetic powers from divine inspiration.
Term 3, Lesson 1: We are an Easter People (A5-T3L1)
Pupil’s Book.
There is an account, titled, 'The Empty Tomb'. It tells of the placing of a guard on Jesus’ tomb, the visits of Mary Magdalen and other women to the tomb early on Easter Sunday morning, the finding of the tomb empty, the message of the Angel, and the visit of Peter to the tomb. The account is good and faithful to Scripture.
There is an illustration of three women at the empty tomb, which is similar to three other illustrations in previous years of the Alive-O programme. The children still have not seen an illustration of the Resurrection itself. The depiction of the tomb is rather like a natural rock cave rather than a carved rock tomb from First Century Palestine.
There is a question and answer which reads as follows. Q. 'What happened on Easter Sunday?' A. 'On Easter Sunday God the Father raised Jesus from death to new life in a glorious body'. Jesus was raised from death by the power of the Trinity, so that one could say he raised himself from the dead. To say that he was raised from the dead entirely by the power of God the Father actually implies that he was not God, that he was only a human being, raised from the dead by a power outside of himself, as was the case with Lazarus and the daughter of Jairus.
The Pupil's Book also has the text of the Apostles’ Creed, which is good.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has a picture of a stained glass window, Paschal candle and a scroll. The exercise given for the pupils is to colour in the picture, write the year on the candle, and to write on the scroll the words, 'I believe in the Risen Jesus'. This exercise is interesting but will make little contribution to the pupils’ understanding of Easter.
Information for teachers in the Teacher's Book.
The information speaks of the need to understand Easter as a season stretching from Easter to Pentecost, rather than just a day or a few days. This is very good.
Alive-O then presents a paragraph of information which is intended to be introductory to the Apostles’ Creed. This introduction is very poor, and is indicative of a very deficient introduction to the Creed that follows in the lesson itself. Rather than emphasising that the Apostles’ Creed expresses the fundamental faith of the church as revealed by God, in which the Church believes with certainty because God can neither deceive nor be deceived, Alive-O gives vague statements which suggest that faith is something which comes from human beings: 'the children are helped to reflect on the original event that gave them reason for their faith. In this lesson the children are given the opportunity to reflect on their faith and to begin to learn a faith formula.' The great Apostles’ Creed summarises the unfathomable riches of the Deposit of Faith that has been given by Jesus through the Apostles to the Church, to be faithfully guarded by the Church and handed on in its full purity and integrity to succeeding generations. The Apostles’ Creed had its origin in the early Church in the profession of faith made by adult catechumens before their Baptism. Alive-O reduces the status of the Apostles’ Creed to just one 'faith formula'.
The thought for the teacher for this lesson is a brief poem titled, 'The Storyteller’s Creed', which is just secular pop-psychology and adds little or nothing to an understanding of Easter or the Apostles’ Creed.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teachers Book is to celebrate the Easter story of the empty tomb, to reflect on and articulate their faith, so that the children will have a deeper sense of belonging to the Church.
This is a very vague way of expressing what should be the bringing of the children to a vital and clear understanding of the greatest feast of the Christian year, and the significance of Easter, which is at the very heart of our faith, because it represents the redemption of the human race from sin and the opening up of heaven. This is the new and definitive covenant.
The Lesson in fact fails to convey an authentic Christian teaching on Easter, and is in line with Alive-O's own spirituality, which is essentially theist, rather than authentically Christian. In Alive-O's account nothing of real spiritual significance actually happens at Easter, there is nothing different after Easter that was not there before; God loves us just the same before and after Easter, and there has been no salvation from sin.
Lesson material in the Teacher's Book.
The song titled, 'The Apostles' Creed', covers the actual text of the Apostles’ Creed, and is very good. The song titled, 'Come Christians All Rejoice', is a traditional hymn which is very good; it is a pity that Alive-O was unable to obtain copyright permission to include this in the Pupil's Book.
During the Church season of Easter all the prayer times start and finish with an Easter acclamation. The teacher says, 'Alleluia! Christ is risen!’, and the pupils respond, 'He is risen indeed! Alleluia!' This is excellent.
In the first prayer time the teacher says, 'In the church on Holy Saturday night the Paschal candle lit as a symbol of Christ's resurrection from the dead. This candle will be a classroom Paschal candle'. This is excellent. However, there is no instruction for the teacher to make a candle any different from a normal candle; it would be better to make the candle different in some way so that the children will remember it is a special ‘Paschal candle’ as the Easter season moves on.
The story titled, 'The Empty Tomb', which appears in the Pupil's Book is also included here in the Teacher's Book. The discussion sessions associated with the story have questions, but as usual without answers, and do not help to a better understanding of the story. A number of questions describe Jesus as 'Son of God', but none of them suggest that he is ‘God the Son’, which is central to an understanding of the meaning of Easter; if Jesus is not divine, then he cannot be the Saviour of the human race, and Easter is pretty meaningless.
There are a strange set of questions relating to moving stones, which try to relate the stone that sealed the tomb with obstacles and difficulties in a person's life. The analogy is very strained, and could only serve to distract attention from the Resurrection. There follows an art section in which the children are instructed to select stones from the ground somewhere, to bring them into the classroom, and to paint their stones; the associated discussion session leads them to think about their stones as obstacles in their life. Other questions say God can help them with obstacles in their lives, which is true it itself but does not seem to connect with the Resurrection or serve to help the children to understand the meaning of the Resurrection.
There is an activity and a discussion session which serve as introduction to the Apostles’ Creed. The activity has the children writing down what they believe about themselves, and they are encouraged to make up a family creed, a classroom creed and a community creed. This encourages the children to think about ‘creed’ as something that they or anyone else believes about themselves. The discussion session then goes on to talk about things that we believe about God and about the church. It says that the Church has a special prayer that recalls things we believe and it is called the Creed. This preparation encourages the children to think about the Creed as something that people make up, which seriously diminishes and undermines the real meaning of the Apostles’ Creed. The Apostles Creed is a summary of the great Deposit of Faith which has been revealed to the Church by God through the Apostles, and which the Church has safeguarded through the ages and solemnly hands-on to succeeding generations. Alive-O's introduction to the Creed seriously fails to appreciate the Creed’s meaning, and to communicate this meaning to the pupils.
What follows is the text of the Apostles Creed which is given correctly and in its entirety, which is good. However there is no development of the meaning of the Creed, no explanation of the different parts of the Creed, which is not good.
There are further two prayer times which focus on the story of the empty tomb, with the principal focus on Mary Magdalen as one of the women who came to tomb early on Easter Sunday morning, and found the tomb empty. The actual information about the empty tomb is fine, but there is no meaning given of the death and resurrection of Christ. Therefore the prayer times fail completely to teach the children the meaning of Easter. The instructions for the prayer time call for the use of 'Easter Holy Water', without explaining what this water is or how it is obtained. (In an earlier Book of Alive-O, there was a call for the use of Holy Water, which was made ‘holy’ through blessing by the children themselves; there was no question of Holy Water being blessed by a priest). Asking the children to bring their painted stones into the prayer times and make them into a pile which is then sprinkled with ‘Easter Holy Water’ seems like a New Agey ritual, and serves only to distract attention from the real meaning of Easter.
Term 3, Lesson 6: Gifted with the Spirit (A5-T3L6)
Pupil’s Book.
The Pupil's Book has an account titled, 'The Day of Pentecost'. The account follows the outline of what is in Acts 2:1-13, but there are substantial changes so that Alive-O's story is by no means faithful to Scripture.
Alive-O's story says that Peter and the other disciples felt lost when Jesus went back to the Father at the Ascension, they thought they were on their own, they were afraid of what might happen to them without their leader, they locked the door of the room, they were afraid and hid away, and were terrified when they first heard the wind of the Spirit. All of the foregoing is incorrect. Some of it sounds like transposing from John 20:19, which described how the apostles were afraid after the Crucifixion and before they knew that Jesus had risen from the dead. Luke24:52-53 says that after Jesus ascended the apostles went back to Jerusalem full of joy and were continually in the Temple praising God. Acts 1:12-14 says that after the Ascension they went back to Jerusalem and joined together in continuous prayer in the upper room. They then proceeded with the selection of somebody to replace Judas, resulting in the election of Matthias, who was then listed as one of the twelve apostles. This indicated that the apostles and disciples were waiting in purposeful confidence, trusting that the promise of Jesus would be fulfilled and that they would receive the Holy Spirit.
The Alive-O account says that after the Holy Spirit came down on the disciples they unlocked the door of the room and went out into the streets, speaking loudly and confidently about Jesus whom they called 'Lord'. Acts 2:4-12, on the other hand, says that the disciples were all filled with their Holy Spirit, and began to speak in foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech; the people who heard them were amazed to hear Galileans preaching in their own languages about the marvels of God.
The Alive-O account has Peter say, 'People of Jerusalem, listen carefully. We are followers of Jesus Christ. We have received the Holy Spirit, as he promised. We were afraid. We hid away. But now that Holy Spirit gives us courage and strength. And we say to you, turn away from sin, leave the old way behind; come and be baptised'.
This is a poor adaptation of a great address that Peter gave to the crowd, which is the first Christian preaching, the first proclamation of the Keryma (Acts2:14-36). Peter first recalled that this great outpouring of the Holy Spirit had been predicted by the prophet Joel. He then spoke of the wonders and miracles that had been wrought by Jesus, and yet he had been cruelly put to death, after which he was raised to life again. Peter then recalled prophecies of David to argue that Jesus is both Lord and Christ, which means that he is truly God and the Messiah. Alive-O’s omissions are consistent with its non-recognition of the foretelling dimension of prophecy, and non-recognition of Jesus as divine and Messiah.
Peter did then call the people to repentance and baptism, as in the Alive-O account, but he also said, which Alive-O omits, that they would receive forgiveness of their sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Note that Alive-O says ‘turn away from sin and then be baptized’, whereas Acts says, ‘be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins’; this is consistent with Alive-O’s nonrecognition that sins are forgiven in Baptism (especially Original Sin, which Alive-O does not recognize).
The accompanying illustration is extremely poor, because it reflects the ways in which Alive-O’s story departs from what is recorded in the Book of Acts. The illustration shows 12 very scared, confused and depressed looking men, while in the background are two serene looking women. This certainly gives a very bad impression of the apostles in comparison with the women. Acts 1:14-15 says that there were about 120 people present, including Mary and several women. Many good illustrations of the Day of Pentecost give a more accurate and much more interesting and dramatic representation of what happened. These illustrations show a large group of people, with Mary very much in the heart of things, with tongues of fire on the heads of all the people assembled. Alive-O's illustration is neither attractive nor accurate as a representation of the Day of Pentecost.
There are four questions with answers. The first question asks, ‘What happened on Pentecost Sunday?' And the answer given is, 'On Pentecost Sunday God our Father sent his Holy Spirit to the apostles'. This is a less than satisfactory answer for a number of reasons. The Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus Christ, God the Son, as well as by God the Father. The Holy Spirit did not only fall on the apostles, but on all of the 120 people gathered in the room.
The second question is, 'Have we received Holy Spirit?’, and the answer is, 'Yes, we received the Holy Spirit when we were baptised'. This is an incomplete answer, because Baptism is essentially Trinitarian. Baptism gives the grace of new birth in God the Father, through his Son Jesus, in the Holy Spirit.
The third question is, 'How does the Holy Spirit help us?', and the answer given is, 'The Holy Spirit helps us to live like Jesus and to remember the words of Jesus'. This answer is not incorrect, as far as it goes, but it is very much in line with Alive-O's spirituality which sees Jesus as no more than a good teacher and example for us to follow. The help given by the Holy Spirit is very much wider, and is primarily the gift of faith in the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The fourth question is, 'Why does God our Father send us the Holy Spirit?', and the answer given is, 'God our Father sends us the Holy Spirit to help us to be like Jesus and to make us his witnesses in the world'. The comments on questions 1 and 3 above also apply to this question. The answer is very incomplete, but is very in tune with Alive-O's own spirituality. A good answer could be adapted from CCC 686: “The Holy Spirit is at work with the Father and the Son from the beginning to the completion of the plan for our salvation. But in these 'end times', ushered in by the Son’s redeeming Incarnation, the Spirit is revealed and given, recognized and welcomed as a person. Now can this divine plan, accomplished in Christ, the firstborn and head of the new creation, be embodied in mankind by the outpouring of the Spirit: as the Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting”.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has an exercise for the pupils to unscramble some words in order to complete three sentences. Information on the Holy Spirit is very limited, and is in tune with Alive-O's own spirituality.
Information for teachers in Teacher’s Book.
There is a quotation from the Book of Wisdom, in which wisdom is personified. The person of 'Wisdom' is sometimes associated with the Holy Spirit, and other times associated with the Word. In this passage the identification is more with the Word, Jesus Christ, rather than with the Holy Spirit.
The information about the Holy Spirit speaks of 'an energetic, life-renewing force for God's goodness in the world'. A Christian understanding of the Holy Spirit as the second divine person of the Trinity is omitted. Alive-O gives the impression that the Holy Spirit is some kind of presence of God, some kind of energy or force which indicates the action of God, which is a theist understanding, not a Christian one.
The thought for the teacher is a poem which is very nice, and could be given a Christian understanding, but is equally open to a theist understanding. Therefore it does not actually help to convey a truly Christian understanding of the Holy Spirit.
The theme of this lesson is given in the Teachers Book is to offer pupils an opportunity to explore the Church’s celebration of Pentecost, so that they may begin to recognize and follow through on the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
Lesson material in the Teacher's Book.
There is a poem entitled, 'Pentecost', which gives an extremely poor understanding of the day of Pentecost and does not even mention the Holy Spirit. It is mostly poetic fiction, and so is not helpful.
There is a story titled, 'Peter Remembers' which is all fiction. It does not contribute anything to an understanding of the Holy Spirit or of Pentecost. There are two discussion sessions and a prayer time which reinforce the fictional story and serve no useful purpose, apart from a general reference to the love of God.
There is a second story titled, 'The Day of Pentecost', which is the same as the story in the Pupil’s Book, which has been analysed above. The following discussion session reinforces the lesson’s unsatisfactory aspects of the story, but contributes little or nothing to a real understanding of the Holy Spirit or of Pentecost. Then follows an activity consisting of a mime which focuses on the fictional and unsatisfactory aspects of the story.
The next two prayer times focus on the Holy Spirit bringing the light of Christ, and the love of God. These are very good in themselves, but it needs the context of authentic Christian teaching on who the Holy Spirit is, something which is lacking from this lesson.
There is a discussion session which introduces the idea of being a member of the Church, but the theme is very much on being a member of some purely secular human group, from which one draws lesson as to the nature of the Church and being a member in the Church.
3.7: Sacraments
Term 1, Lesson 4: Beginning Again in Baptism
Term 2, Lesson 6: God’s Love Counts Us In
Term 2, Lesson 8: Reconciliation
Summary;
The first lesson in this group deals with the Sacrament of Baptism. It is quite poor, and treats baptism very much as a rite of initiation into a group of people who follow the teachings of Jesus. Alive-O omits that Baptism cleanses from original sin and all pre-baptismal sin, through the salvation won for us by Jesus was on the cross, and gives us new birth in Christ. This serious deficiency in the presentation on Baptism is consistent with Alive-O's non-recognition of original sin or of salvation.
There are two lessons on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The first lesson attempts to set the scene for the Sacrament through the Bible story of Zacheus. However the story is poorly presented, because Alive-O changes the focus from repentance, forgiveness and salvation, to one of social exclusion based on difference. The social exclusion theme is further reinforced by stories involving the objectionable 'little Beings'.
The next lesson treats of the Sacrament of Reconciliation itself. Some aspects are reasonably well covered but there are also significant weaknesses on: examination of conscience, contrition, firm purpose of amendment, the grace of the Sacrament, what must be confessed, the sacramental power of the priest, the seal of confession, and frequency of confession. A particular weakness in the lack of information in the Pupil’s Book which would give the children simple and understandable guidance on how to go about Confession. Pupils and parents desperately need this kind of information if the children are to go regularly and well to the Sacrament of Confession.
Term 1, Lesson 4: Beginning Again in Baptism (A5-T1L4)
Pupil’s Book.
There is one page devoted to this lesson in the Pupil's Book. The heading reads, "Can you name things in this picture that are used during Baptism?" The items in the photograph are: a white shawl, two candles, a tree trunk covered with ivy, what looks like a garden birdbath for little birds, and two small jugs, one of which appears to contain oil. There is no explanation of the meaning of these items in response to the question posed.
This picture will teach little about the nature and meaning of Baptism. No information is given. The picture takes the attention away from the water which constitutes the essential rite of Baptism, and instead focuses attention on other aspects of the celebration of Baptism which are helpful but not essential.
Underneath the picture there is a prayer which reads as follows, "I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. Amen."
This prayer is entirely satisfactory as a basic expression of faith in the Trinity.
The page also contains two questions with answers, dealing with Baptism. The answers are unsatisfactory, and seriously diminish the meaning of Baptism as taught by the Church. The answers to the questions are in line with the unsatisfactory presentation of Baptism in the Teacher’s Book.
The answers say that in the sacrament of Baptism we become followers of Jesus, members of the Church, and receive the Holy Spirit. What is omitted is that through Baptism we are freed from original sin and all sins committed prior to baptism, through the merits of Christ's redeeming death on the cross, and that we are reborn in Christ to become sons of God. The key omissions are consistent with Alive-O's nonrecognition of original sin and of Jesus as saviour.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has a word game and pictures to be coloured in. The words that feature in the word game cover many of the nonessentials of Baptism, but leave out the essentials: there is no mention of cleansing from sin, original sin, Jesus’ salvation, new life in Jesus.
At the bottom of the page in small print there is a short prayer which is good. The prayer includes the words, "you freed people from sin". This is very good, but it is not taught anywhere else in the lesson, and is almost lost or 'buried' in the middle of the prayer, and there is no explanation as to how Jesus freed people from sin.
Information for Teachers in Teacher’s Book
The opening quotation from CCC 1213 is good, stating, “Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments". While this quotation is good, it is significant that Alive-O omits the next part of the quotation, which reads as follows: "Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God". This final part of the quotation does not agree with Alive-O's non-authentic presentation of Baptism, and Alive-O’s general non-recognition of original sin and Christ as Redeemer.
The information correctly refers to the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist as part of the Christian initiation. This is good. However, the information then goes on to try and force-fit the sacraments into the secular theme of beginnings and endings, which is not helpful.
The thought for the teacher is reasonable, it expresses wise thoughts, but it is not specifically Christian and could be understood in a completely secular manner.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teacher's Book is to offer the children the opportunity to revisit the liturgy of Baptism, so that they can come to a deeper awareness of its significance in Christian living.
This theme would be satisfactory if the pupils had previously received teaching on the authentic meaning of the Baptism. However teaching on Baptism in the earlier Alive-O books was extremely unsatisfactory, so that there is a great need in Alive-O 5 to teach them the authentic meaning of Baptism.
Lesson Material in Teacher’s Book.
There is a considerable amount of information about Baptism in this lesson, but key omissions result in the lesson not being authentic Catholic or Christian teaching. Baptism is presented as basically an initiation rite into a group of people who are the followers of Jesus, a very good and godly man who through his teaching and example shows how to live a good life. As Alive-O does not recognize original sin or Jesus as divine and saviour, the presentation on Baptism is inevitably fundamentally flawed.
There are three songs associated with this lesson. All the songs come from Alive-O 4 and discussed more fully in the analysis of that particular book. A very brief comment must suffice here. The first song is 'My Shepherd Is the Lord', which is based on Psalm 23; it is a sweet song, but the words diminish the full meaning of the Psalm. Therefore it could not be considered a satisfactory song.
The second song is titled, 'Song of the Baptism'. It is not satisfactory because it omits the key nature of the sacrament of Baptism, in line with Alive-O's deficient understanding of the sacrament.
The final song is titled, 'The Twelve Tribes', and concerns the anointing of David as King of Israel. This song is not satisfactory for a number of reasons. The really important to anointing of David as King was when he was anointed by Samuel as God's choice for King, which was also a more dramatic and personal story, of much greater interest to children. By talking only of the anointing by the elders of Israel at Hebron, the song gives the impression that David was only appointed by human beings as King, not by God. Alive-O generally downplays David and his role in salvation history. In speaking of covenants, the covenant of God with David is omitted. Also David prefigures Jesus as King, and this is never mentioned by Alive-O. Indeed, Alive-O almost never recognizes Jesus as King. Also, the song is not very true to the account in Scripture: the wording of the song gives the impression that David succeeded Samuel as King, whereas Samuel was not a king, he was a prophet and the last of the Judges, and was succeeded by Saul, the first King. David succeeded Saul. The song also says that all twelve Tribes come together to anoint David at Hebron, whereas this anointing probably only involved the ten Northern Tribes, since David had already been anointed seven years earlier as King of Judah.
Again in this lesson the prayer times centre on a lighted candle, without any Christian symbol. This is not a Christian practice.
The choice of a baptismal name has great importance and significance for the Christian life. Unfortunately, the lesson does not give teaching on a baptismal name, but only some questions in the optional section for discussion, titled ' Chatting '.
The lesson does discuss the significance of water and the Sign of the Cross, but manages to omit the key significance of these symbols: the freeing of the soul from original sin and all sin, through the merits of Christ's death on the cross.
In a number of the prayer rituals the children are asked to make the sign of the cross and bless themselves and other children with holy water. (There is no explanation as to where and how the holy water is made holy; in previous Alive-O books the 'holy water' is blessed by the children themselves, no priest is involved.) This kind of ritual is not part of any of the Church's liturgy, and is likely to undermine the children's understanding of Baptism, particularly as an accompanying prayer asks that this classroom ritual will ‘cleanse us from sin’. The children are not taught that Baptism cleanses from sin.
The lesson includes two accounts of the Baptism of Jesus. The first account is very similar to the account in the previous Lesson A5-T1L3, with a few additional problems. The account says of Jesus, "He listened to what John said and he knew the time had come when he must begin his work of preaching and teaching and healing and showing people how much God loves them". This gives the impression that Jesus decided for himself after listening to John what his mission was, which makes Jesus appear as just a human being who did not know that he was divine and that he was the Messiah. This also omits the key nature of Jesus mission, which was to be the saviour of the human race from sin.
The second story of the Baptism of Jesus seriously trivialises and secularises Mary, Elizabeth, the birth of John and of Jesus, the Baptism of Jesus and his mission.
One of the prayer times includes renewal of Baptismal promises. It is satisfactory to the extent that it includes the threefold affirmation of faith in accordance with the Church's liturgy. However it is not satisfactory in that it excludes the threefold rejection of Satan and sin, which is always part of the Church's liturgy. The threefold rejection of Satan and sin parallels the threefold profession of faith, and recalls the three temptations that Jesus experienced in the desert after his Baptism. (The Temptations of Jesus in the desert do not appear anywhere in Alive-O).
Video
There are a number of different segments in the video dealing with Lesson 4 on Baptism.
The first segment gives a good picture of the baptism of an infant.
In the second segment a seven-year-old boy Ciaran recalls his Baptism with the help of questions from a priest. The priest asks the question, "That was quite an important part when I poured the water; why did I do that?" This was not a good question because pouring the water is not just quite important, but it is the essential part of baptism. Ciaran's reply shows a better understanding of Baptism than the priest, when he says, "To get baptised". However, when the priest asks what is the effect of Baptism, Ciaran's reply is not so good, and amounts to saying that we should be nice and be like Jesus, and omits the essential freeing from sin.
In a third segment three teenage girls talk of their adult baptism. One of them said that the pouring of the water meant a new life for her, which is good, but the replies still fell short of a full understanding of Baptism as taught by the Catholic Church.
Term 2, Lesson 6: God’s Love Counts Us In (A5-T2L6)
Pupil’s Book.
The Pupil's Book has the story of Zacheus, based on the Gospel of Luke 19:1-10. The story is reasonably faithful to the Gospel, except for the omission of the final verse 10, which is like the ‘punch-line’, of crucial importance in understanding why the story is in the gospel. The missing verse 10 reads, 'for the Son of Man has come to seek out and to save what was lost'.
The omission of this final verse is consistent with the way that the story is treated in the Teacher's Book. The gospel story has a theme of repentance and salvation from sin, while Alive-O turns this around completely to present a story of social exclusion and inclusion based on difference.
The cartoon type illustration shows a group of people around Jesus, and a small man on the outside of the crowd trying to push his way through. Those near the small man are looking down at him with annoyance and rejection, which is consistent with Alive-O’s teaching in this lesson, which takes the focus away from repentance from sin, forgiveness and salvation, towards one of simple social exclusion on the grounds of merely being different.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has a good picture to be coloured, which shows Zacheus in a tree with Jesus looking up and speaking to him. However the few sentences to be filled in, and the prayer at the bottom of the page, reinforce Alive-O’s theme of social exclusion based on difference, rather than the Gospel's theme of salvation and forgiveness from sin.
Information for teachers in Teacher's Book.
The first paragraph gives a very false understanding of the meaning of the sacrament of Penance. The understanding given is essentially secular and humanist. We have only good inside us, and God wants us to live up to that goodness in order to achieve our highest human potential. This is the language of secular pop psychology, not a Christian understanding of sin, repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Alive-O says, 'the sacrament of penance is the place where we celebrate the reconciliation that happens when we decide to rebuild our relationships with one another and with God'. In other words, we make a human decision to rebuild our relationships with one another and God, in order to fulfil our highest human potential, and then we go along to the sacrament of penance when we celebrate that this reconciliation has happened as a result of our own efforts. There is no mention of the grace of the sacrament, repentance from sin, forgiveness of God through the sacramental anointing of the priest, performing the penance given by the priest, and amendment of life. Alive-O's presentation of the Sacrament of Penance is as a human ritual, which is radically different to a Catholic understanding of the sacrament.
The information then goes on to talk about 'little Beings', which the children have experienced in Alive-O 3 and Alive-O 4. The question of the 'little Beings' is discussed in detail in the analysis of Alive-O 3 and 4, and so will not be expanded on here. Suffice it to say that having pupils make 'little Beings' is a New Agey type of exercise, which has nothing whatsoever to do with Catholic catechesis. The children’s ‘little Beings’ can be anything they care to imagine, known only to themselves, and could be anything at all – human, animal, vegetable, science-fiction, spiritual, occult, good or evil, or whatever. Particularly dangerous is the way that children are instructed to pray in front of their ‘little Beings’, and then to hold the Beings in their hands while meditating in a deep state of altered mental consciousness, praying with their ‘little Being’ and listening to what it says to them – this must surely open the children to the dangers of the occult. The simplistic stories about 'little Beings' in this lesson serve only to distract the children from the meaning of the gospel story about Zacheus, and focus instead Alive-O’s theme of social exclusion.
The information for teachers closes with a reinforcement of Alive-O's theist understanding of the concept of covenant, which is quite different to an authentic Christian understanding of convenant.
The thought for the teacher is a poem titled, 'One Family', which is good in itself, but does not address the theme of repentance and forgiveness as given in the Gospel story of Zacheus.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teacher's Book is to show that God's love excludes no one, and to explore the children's own experiences so that they will not exclude anyone. It is expected this will help the children better to celebrate reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance.
This makes clear how Alive-O changes the message in the Scripture passage about Zacheus from being all about repentance, forgiveness and salvation, and turns it round instead to a question of social exclusion based on simple differences. This will not help the children in understanding the sacrament of Penance, rather it will undermine the meaning of the sacrament of Penance and make it more difficult to teach the children about true repentance from sin, forgiveness by God, and salvation.
Lesson material in the Teacher's Book.
There are two songs given for this lesson. The first is an Alive-O written song titled, 'I'm Sorry, God'. This song is good as far as it goes, but unfortunately it follows the usual limitation of Alive-O, in that it is entirely 'horizontal', dealing with being sorry for things that one does to other human beings.
The second song is titled, 'Whatsoever You Do'. The song appears to be based on the parable of the Last Judgment from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 25. The song is very good, but it really belongs in a different context, and does not really help in teaching about the meaning of the story of Zacheus.
The Teacher’s Book contains a story of Zacheus, which is very similar to what is in the Pupil's Book, and again the ending is changed to make it fit with Alive-O with a theme of inclusion and exclusion, and to take away from the gospel theme of repentance, forgiveness and salvation. The story in the Teacher’s Book omits Jesus' final words, 'Today salvation has come to this house, ……. for the Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost'. It also has Jesus say something which is not in the Gospel, 'Zacheus belongs with us'.
The discussion session and prayer time after the Zacheus story emphasise Zacheus’ being excluded by the people, and minimise the aspects of Zacheus’ repentance, the forgiveness given by Jesus, the salvation that thereby comes to Zacheus and his household, and the fact that Jesus’ mission on earth is to bring salvation to those are lost through sin. It is quite true that the people would have not been favourably disposed towards Zacheus because he was a tax collector and also by his own admission, he had cheated people, though there is nothing in the gospel to support the Alive-O suggestion that the people were against Zacheus because he was short. Alive-O could have, but did not, add that people would have thought ill of Zacheus because Jewish tax-collectors collaborated with the foreign occupying power of Rome, and therefore were regarded by many as betraying their own people. Also by constantly mixing with the Roman Gentiles Zacheus would inevitably be breaking various Jewish ritual laws. However what the people thought of Zacheus is not the central Christian meaning of the story; his repentance, conversion, forgiveness and salvation are the central theme.
There is an Activity where the children are asked to make 'little Beings', and to recollect their earlier experiences of ‘little Beings’ from previous years. This activity is at best a waste of time and at worst an invitation to get involved in New Agey practices. Alive-O then has a three-part story about ‘little Beings’, which is rather simplistic with a lot of feelings involved, and is supposed to teach that people should not be socially excluded because they are different in some way, through no fault of their own.
There is certainly merit in teaching not to exclude others for no other reason than that they are different in some way. However, this is not the case in the Zacheus story, because Zacheus was a sinner. A different sort of teaching is needed on how we must forgive and accept sinners – love the sinner, while hating the sin – especially remembering that we all have sinned. Unfortunately, Alive-O does not make this distinction, and treats the Zacheus story as mainly a matter of social exclusion, and attempts in the discussion sessions and prayer times to force-fit the Zacheus story into the simplistic 'little Beings' story of social exclusion on the basis of simple difference.
Term 2, Lesson 8: Reconciliation (A5-T2L8)
Pupil’s Book.
The Pupil's Book has four prayers, and two questions with answers.
There is also a background illustration of a forest scene, which adds nothing to help the children understand the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
The first prayer is titled, 'Prayer for Forgiveness', and appears to be Alive-O’s substitute for the examination of conscience. The Church proposes examination of conscience as one of the acts of the penitent, which is essential for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The prayer is seriously inadequate in relation to examination of conscience in a number of ways. The omission of the term 'examination of conscience' is serious, because the pupils will not know that there is such a thing as 'examination of conscience'. Indeed, Alive-O does not teach the children about conscience at all, which of course would be the first step in teaching them about examination of their consciences.
The prayer states, 'help me to remember the times when I didn't live as Jesus asked me to'. This is less than satisfactory for a number of reasons. Remembering in itself is not sufficient, we are called to remember and then examine what we have done, said, thought, or failed to do in the light of the law of God. In this way examination of conscience goes beyond merely remembering. Word 'asked' is also insufficient; Jesus did not simply ask his followers to love one another as he loved them, he commanded them to do so. Again, the Church has always offered guidance to people for the examination of conscience; the Church has realised that people will find it difficult to examine their lives and behaviour against the simple statement of the Commandment: ‘love God and love neighbour’. The principal means offered by the Church include the Ten Commandments, the precepts of the church, duties of one's station in life, and the moral teaching in the word of God. If even adults need guidance for examination of conscience, then even more so do children need guidance. The most appropriate guidance for children in Third Class would be the Ten Commandments, but these are not recommended by Alive-O, nor have they been taught to children by this stage.
The final sentence of the prayer is 'Help me to be sorry and to try again'. This is less than satisfactory for a number of reasons. Being sorry is good, but it falls short of full ‘contrition’, which is discussed further below. 'Help me to try again' is good, but it falls short of what the Church requires, which is a firm resolution and determination not to sin again.
The second prayer is the 'Confiteor'. This prayer is good and relevant to the Sacrament of Reconciliation; however it is not good that Alive-O omits the final sentence of the prayer (which is always included when the Confiteor is said at Mass), which reads as follows, 'May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life'. This omission is consistent with Alive-O's tendency to avoid teaching about the mercy of God and the Last Things.
The next prayer is the, 'Act of Sorrow'. The Church uses the term, 'Act of Contrition'. This is not mere semantics, because contrition includes but goes beyond sorrow for sin. The Church teaches that contrition is sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again. Alive-O's Act of Sorrow is also less than satisfactory for other reasons. The Church teaches that sin is above all an offence against God, and this should be expressed in the Act of Contrition. Also, 'help me to not sin again' falls short of a firm resolution not to sin again, which should also be included in an Act of Contrition.
A satisfactory Act of Contrition is given in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This same prayer, or minor variations of it, appears in many Catholic catechisms for children. Alive-O should use this prayer, or some minor variation of it. The full prayer from the Compendium is given below:
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.
Alive-O’s fourth prayer is, 'Prayer after Forgiveness'. This is presented as a prayer to be said after receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The prayer expresses thanks to God for forgiveness, which is very good. However, the impression could be given that this prayer is an essential part of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is not the case. Also, we again have the less than satisfactory wording of Jesus asking rather than commanding.
The first question given is, 'When do we sin?' The answer given is, 'We sin when we refuse to love God our Father and to love others as Jesus taught'. This answer is less than satisfactory for several reasons. The word 'refuse' suggests a very deliberate and conscience rejection, which children may well feel that they never did; a much more appropriate word would be in this context 'fail'. The use of the term 'God our Father' suggests that God and God the Father at one and the same, which undermines the understanding of the Trinity. The use of the phrase 'Jesus taught' is an improvement on 'Jesus asked', but still weakens what is in Scripture, that 'Jesus commanded'.
The definition of sin given in this question and answer falls short of the Church's teaching about sin. The Church teaches that sin is above all an offence against God, a failure in obedience to God's law, through thought, word, deed or omission. This makes more explicit the command to love God and love neighbour.
The second question is, 'What does God our Father do for us in the sacrament of Penance?' the answer reads as follows, 'In the sacrament of the Penance, God our Father forgives us through the words and actions of the priest'. There is much that is correct in this answer, but it still insufficient in a few respects. Again, the term 'God our Father' tends to equate ‘God’ with ‘God the Father’, which undermines the understanding of the Trinity. The Church teaches, reflected in the words of absolution, that Jesus pronounces forgiveness in the name of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, through the priest who stands in the place of Jesus by virtue of his ordination; Alive-O’s answer does not make this clear.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has six pictures to be coloured in, and an exercise which appears to seek to explain the meaning of the Sacrament of Reconciliation to the children. There are major problems associated with this exercise, and the associated pictures.
The exercise consists of associating six different sentences with each of the six pictures. The six sentences are as follows:
Prayer for Forgiveness.
Telling our sins.
God forgives us through the words and actions of the priest.
Prayer after Forgiveness.
Changing our lives.
Hearing God's Word.
The Church teaches that there are four acts of the penitent and one act of the priest for proper celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The first act is examination of conscience, which is omitted by Alive-O; 'Prayer for Forgiveness' is not a satisfactory substitute. The second act of the penitent is contrition, which must be sincere and include a firm purpose to amend one's life and not to sin again. Alive-O omits an act of contrition. The third act of the penitent is confession of sins, which is included by Alive-O. Next comes the action of the priest in giving absolution, which is included by Alive-O. The fourth act of the penitent is reparation or restitution of the harm done to sins committed, which includes performing the penance is given by the priest. This is omitted by Alive-O.
So we see that out of the five essential acts for correct celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Alive-O omits three. Along with these omissions Alive-O then puts in four elements which are not essential for the Sacrament. 'Prayer for Forgiveness' has been discussed above. 'Prayer after Forgiveness' has been discussed above under Pupil's Book. 'Changing our lives' is not actually part of the sacrament, (though it should of course follow after the Sacrament), whereas a firm resolution not to sin again is part of the sacrament. 'Hearing God's Word' may be included during the preparation for the Sacrament which takes place during Rite 2; however, it is not an essential part of the Sacrament. (See below for further analysis of Alive-O's approach to Rite 1 and Rite 2 of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is unsatisfactory.)
At the bottom of the page Alive-O says, 'The children are helped to develop their understanding of God’s never-ending love for each of them in spite of any sins on their part'. This is most definitely not the case with Alive-O, which does not teach the greatest act of God's love, which is the Incarnation of the Only Son of God, Jesus Christ – Second Divine Person of the Blessed Trinity – to give his life for us in sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins.
The worksheet also gives Alive-O’s 'Act of Sorrow', which has been analysed above.
Information for teachers in the Teacher's Book.
There is reference in the first paragraph to earlier lessons which explored the concept of God's covenant love; this paragraph further reinforces Alive-O’s theist concept of covenant, which is radically different to the Christian concept of covenant.
The information then seeks to put the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the context of the secular theme of beginnings and endings which has been chosen for Alive-O 5, and also in Alive-O’s theist theme of covenant. Alive-O omits the Christian understanding as taught by the Catholic Church concerning covenant and Sacrament of Reconciliation.
The information states that children will be prepared in this lesson to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation according to Rite 1. A lot of play is made of the difficulty the children will find of celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation outside the context of the class; this is casting an unwarranted slur on home and parish. In fact, Alive-O does not prepare the children for the celebration of First Reconciliation according to Rite 1, so if the children are unable to go to confession outside of the classroom a great deal of the blame must lie on Alive-O, not on home or parish.
The information states that confession according to number and species is neither required nor desirable at this stage, and that the structure of confession can be adjusted to suit the children’s stage of development. This is contrary to the teaching of the Church. The Church teaches that children should not receive Confession until they have reached the age of discretion, but that at that point they have the full obligation to confess in the Sacrament of Reconciliation all mortal sins committed, and are strongly encouraged to confess venial sin is as well. No difference is made between the requirement for confessing sins in relation to age. Also the basic structure of the Sacrament of Reconciliation as taught by the Church is very simple and understandable by anyone of any age from the age of discretion upwards. Certainly discretion is required from the confessor when dealing with young people, but then great discretion is required of confessors in relation to penitents at all different stages, ages and states of spiritual, mental and emotional development.
The information states that this lesson provides outlines for the celebration of the sacrament according to Rite 1 and Rite 2, which is contained in the lesson material in the Teacher’s Book. Alive-O favours Rite 2, which creates practical problems. Rite 2 is only likely to happen infrequently, so if the children are only prepared for Rite 2 they will only go infrequently to Confession. Rite 1 is the norm in parishes, so if children are not well prepared for Rite 1, it will be difficult for them to make a good confession in the context of their parish, in fact they are discouraged thereby from going to confession. As Alive-O does not teach the desirability of frequent confession, this problem is exacerbated.
The thought for the teacher for this lesson is a short poem which is not specifically Christian though it could be interpreted from a Christian perspective. However it has nothing to do with the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
The theme of this lesson as given in the teacher's book is to develop the children’s understanding of the never-ending love of God for each one of them in spite of any wrongdoing on their part, and to celebrate new beginnings in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, so that they will be able to appreciate God love and forgiveness.
Wrongdoing is not a good choice of word in this situation, because wrongdoing is not necessarily sin; wrongdoing only becomes sin when one knows that one is doing something country to the law of God and one does it deliberately. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is concerned with sin, not wrongdoing.
It is good to teach the children of the never-ending love of God, but what is not expressed in this theme is the fact that the greatest sign of God's love for us was the Incarnation of Jesus and his sacrificial death on the cross to save us from our sins. This is a grave omission when it comes to talking about the love of God, sin, forgiveness and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Lesson material in the Teacher's Book.
There are two songs given for this lesson. The first song is titled, ' The Way to Be '. The words tell of a child who is good sometimes and not so good at other times, with the child expressing the desire to avoid what is bad and be good. The sentiments expressed in the song are reasonably good, however it is limited to the 'horizontal', and does not take account of ways in which children can sin against themselves or against God, so the song has limitations.
The next song is titled, 'A Íosa, Glan mo Chroíse’, and is good.
By way of story, the lesson material calls for retelling the stories of Zacheus from Lessons A5-T2L6 and A5-T2L7. These stories are poor, and are analysed in the relevant Lessons. In the prayer time following the stories there is further reinforcement of the wrong interpretation of Scripture by presenting Zacheus as somebody simply who was excluded socially because he was different. The following discussion session continues this theme of treating Zacheus as somebody who was simply socially excluded by everyone except Jesus.
The next prayertime does ask the children to recall how they may have done something wrong or offended other people, and calls them to be sorry for that, remembering how much God loves them. The prayer time ends with Alive-O’s 'Act of Sorrow'. All this is good as far as it goes, but falls short of a full understanding of sin, contrition, and love of Jesus, as has been analysed in greater detail above.
The next prayer time is in preparation for the Rite of Reconciliation. It is not described as examination of conscience, but it is in fact an Alive-O version of that. The teacher is called to read out for the children a number of ways in which they could have done wrong, which is good as far as it goes. However these ways are only 'horizontal' in nature, and amount to Alive-O's own selection of what is right and wrong. This should be called an ‘examination of conscience’, and the children should be given a solid, reliable and objective frame of reference against which to examine their consciences, in particular the Ten Commandments. Alive-O therefore does give the children some opportunity to reflect on their sins in preparation for celebration of the Rite of Reconciliation, however it is a very inadequate preparation and falls far short of what the Church teaches. In particular Alive-O's 'Act of Sorrow' is deficient in comparison with the 'Act of Contrition' that the Church teaches.
The lesson material then presents the script for a Rite of Reconciliation according to Rite 2. The script has some good aspects and some very poor ones. It opens with some general words of welcome and then repeats the Alive-O list of sins in a kind of examination of conscience, all of which are entirely 'horizontal'. There is no reference to an objective frame of morality with a Catholic context, such as the Ten Commandments or the precepts of the Church.
There is a liturgy of the Word which involves the reading from the Gospel of Luke giving the story of Zacheus. This is good, but unfortunately the good is undermined by then reading the inadequate story-poem from Lesson A5-T2L7.
Next there is a section with the heading, ‘Examination of Conscience’, which is excellent in principle, but the script never actually mentions the words 'examination of conscience'. The script contains Alive-O’s inadequate 'Prayer for Forgiveness'. Then the celebrant asks the children to consider ways in which they may have done wrong, which is very limited, and lacks any structure, such as could be given by the Ten Commandments, but at least it is not entirely 'horizontal', because they are asked if they have forgotten to pray to God or to thank him for his gifts. It is good to make some attempt to have examination of conscience, but it is weak.
Next follows the liturgy of Reconciliation, involving individual Confession and Absolution, which should follow the way the Sacrament of Reconciliation is celebrated in accordance with Rite 1. Alive-O’s inadequate 'Act of Sorrow' is again used instead of the Church’s 'Act of Contrition'. There are brief guidance notes for the priest celebrant, but no instructions for the children; this might have been adequate if the children had been given full teaching about how to make a good Confession in previous years, but this was not the case. This Lesson in Alive-O 5 is an opportunity to make good the earlier deficiency, but the opportunity is not taken.
Alive-O then presents a script titled, ' Rite for Reconciliation of Individual Penitents -- Rite 1', which is reasonable in itself, but is presented as a second option to Rite 2, rather than as the norm.
Overall, this Lesson falls short of a full and adequate teaching on the Sacrament of Reconciliation in accordance with the mind of the Catholic Church. There are significant omissions, which will leave the children inadequately prepared for Confession. Indeed, the pupils are given little reason why they should be bothered going to Confession at all, because they do not know there is such a thing as mortal sin, there are no eternal consequences of sin, they are in themselves all good and special, they have no internal weakness or tendency to as a result of Original Sin (which, according to Alive-O does not exist), and there is no such thing as temptation to sin from the devil (who according to Alive-O does not exist), and if by some chance they don’t live up to the full potential of their own goodness, God forgives them anyway whether they go to Confession or not, and there is no grace given in the Sacrament to avoid future sin.
3.8: The Mass
Term 3, Lesson 2: Celebrating the Risen Jesus at Mass (1)
Lesson 3: Celebrating the Risen Jesus at Mass (2)
Summary:
The first of these two lessons seeks to present the structure and meaning of the Mass. There is some good material here, but overall the lesson is poor and will do little to help the pupils understand the true meaning of the Mass as taught by the Church. The material that the pupils will see is both limited and poor: the Pupil's Book has some of the prayers of the Mass which the pupils will see anyway in the Sunday missalette, while the worksheet has a less than satisfactory presentation on the parts of the Mass.
The material in the Teacher’s Book is extensive and complex. There is much good material but it is mixed up with inadequate material, some of which is quite misleading because of key omissions, so that it is unlikely to be very helpful to the teachers in presenting a clear picture of the Mass to the pupils.
The second lesson covers the gospel account of the meeting of Jesus with the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the Resurrection. In principle this is an excellent Scripture passage to help explain the meaning of the Mass. However, Alive-O's account is poor because the Scripture is changed to fit in with Alive-O's own spirituality, which is theist rather than Christian.
Term 3, Lesson 2: Celebrating the Risen Jesus at Mass (1) (A5-T3L2)
Pupil’s Book.
The title of this Lesson does not help with an understanding of the real meaning of the Mass. By referring just to the 'Risen Jesus', it gives the impression that Mass is all about celebrating the Resurrection. This takes the attention away from the sacrifice of the cross, which is the heart of the meaning of the Mass. The Church teaches that the Eucharist is the very sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus which he instituted at the Last Supper to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until his return in glory.
The Pupil's Book gives a limited selection of prayers and responses from the Mass, which is fine as far as it goes, but teaches them nothing about the mass that they could not learn from looking at the missalette at Sunday Mass. The proclamation of faith that is chosen (Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again), is very popular but is one of the less suitable proclamations, because it does not express the redemptive nature of Christ's death and sacrifice or his coming again in glory to judge living and the dead at the Second Coming.
There are three questions with answers. The first question is, 'What do we listen to at Mass?' The answer given is, 'At Mass we listen to the words of Jesus'. This answer is true as far as it goes, but is inadequate in teaching the pupils about what is listened to at Mass. A very special listening takes place at the Liturgy of the Word, but what is proclaimed is not simply words of Jesus which would occur in the gospel, but the entire word of God from both Old and New Testaments. At mass we also listen to all the other prayers, which are very significant. We do indeed listen to the words of Jesus in the Consecration, which is the very heart of the Mass; this aspect of listening to the words of Jesus could be emphasised, but is not.
The second question is, 'What do we remember at Mass?' The answer given is, 'At Mass we remember Jesus' love for us'. Again, this statement is true, but actually teaches the pupils nothing about Mass. We should remember Jesus' love for us at all times and in all circumstances, so the pupils need to know what is different about the Mass that is worth remembering. The Church teaches that the Mass is a thanksgiving celebration of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for our salvation, and a banquet where we are nourished by the Word of God, and by Jesus in the Eucharist. These are the expressions of Jesus' love which we remember at Mass, which need to be taught to the pupils if they are to understand the real meaning of the Mass.
The third question is, 'Who comes to us in Holy Communion?' The answer given is, 'The Risen Jesus comes to us in Holy Communion, under the appearance of bread and wine'. The answer here is good as far as it goes, but could be more specific in saying that Jesus, God the Son, is really and truly present, body and blood, soul and divinity, under the outward appearance of bread and wine.
There is also no need, in this third question and frequently elsewhere, for Alive-O to use the term 'Risen Jesus', when simply 'Jesus' or 'Jesus Christ' would be more appropriate. There is a danger that the constant use of the term 'Risen Jesus' could give the impression that Jesus after the resurrection is somehow different person to the Jesus before the resurrection. This might give support for the idea that has been put forward that the Jesus after the resurrection was a 'Jesus of faith' and not the 'historical Jesus', whereas the Church is quite clear that there is only one Jesus.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has an exercise involving completing sentences and words associated with five pictures, which is intended to help the pupils revise what they know about the Mass. The exercise is unlikely to be helpful in leading pupils to a full and true understanding of the Mass, in accordance with the teaching of the Church.
The CCC teaches that there are two main parts to the Mass: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Liturgy of the Word involves listening to the Word of God in Scripture, followed by the homily given by the priest.
The Liturgy of the Eucharist starts with the presentation of the gifts or Offertory. Then we have the Eucharistic Prayer, with the prayers of thanksgiving and the words of consecration, which is the heart and summit of the celebration of Mass. Finally the faithful receive Holy Communion, the Body and Blood of Christ.
The worksheet has five pictures with place for filling in a sentence or words. The first picture shows people coming to the church; this is an important preliminary to the celebration of Mass which is a gathering of the Church community, but is not an essential distinguishing element of the Mass itself.
The second picture shows a priest and some people and the sentence to be completed is, 'Lord have mercy'. The Church considers this to be one of the introductory rites, but not a key distinguishing part of the Mass itself.
The next picture shows a chalice and a patten on which are several hosts, and the associated sentence is, ' The body of Christ'. This picture does correspond with what the Church teaches is one key part of the Mass, which is the receiving of Holy Communion by the faithful; however an illustration showing the people actually receiving Holy Communion would have been much more expressive.
The next picture shows a lady reading from a lectern to people in the church. This corresponds with an important part of the Mass, which is the Liturgy of the Word.
The final picture shows the priest raising his hand in front of people in the congregation, and the associated sentence reads when completed, 'We give thanks'. This may be intended to correspond with the Eucharistic Prayer, but if so it is a very poor representation.
The exercise will give the pupils are very poor understanding of the Mass, because the pictures do not bring out the key components of the mass, or their meaning. The exercise is more likely to confuse than to clarify. Two of the pictures present part of the mass which are not key (the gathering before mass and the penitential rite), the picture representing Communion is not a good representation of what happens at Mass, while the Eucharistic prayer is very poorly represented by the picture titled, 'We give thanks'. The central meaning of the Mass is undermined and obfuscated by the omission of any picture to represent the Consecration, which is the very heart of the Mass, on which the whole meaning of the celebration depends and round which it revolves, and should ideally show that the Mass is the same as the Sacrifice of the Cross. The only illustration which one could consider satisfactory is one depicting the reading of the Word of God.
Information for teachers in Teacher’s Book.
The information first refers to a revision of what the children have already learnt about the Eucharist from Alive-O 3 and 4. Six key points about the Eucharist are listed to recall what had been learnt from the earlier Books. The teaching about the Eucharist in the Alive-O Books 3 and 4 is extremely poor. The six key points are given below, with a brief analysis of each.
'The Eucharist is a celebration of the Christian community'. The teaching focuses on the human dimension of people coming together, and misses out on the central meaning of the Mass, which is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for the salvation of the human race from sin.
'At the Liturgy of the Word we listened to the Word of God'. The teaching does correctly say that the readings at Mass are taken from the Bible, which are the Word of God, but the meaning of the Bible is poorly developed.
'By reflecting on the children's experience of shared meals, we help them to begin to understand the real presence of the Risen Jesus under the appearances of the consecrated bread and wine'. This sentence really tells its own story, because it should be obvious that focusing on the children's experience of having a meal together will not lead to a proper understanding of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. The teaching in Alive-O 3 and 4 is ambiguous and ambivalent, and fails significantly to convey the Church's teaching on the Real Presence.
'In the Eucharist we give thanks for all the gifts God has given us and especially for Jesus'. The teaching in Alive-O 3 and 4 significantly fails to bring out that in the Mass we above all thank God for Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross which redeemed us from sin.
'In the Eucharist we celebrate God's forgiveness'. Alive-O 4 has some general material on God's forgiveness, which is confused with stories of 'little Beings'. There is nothing specific on the Penitential Rite at Mass in which we ask God for mercy. Neither is there anything about the forgiveness of venial sin and the giving of grace to avoid mortal sin which are brought about by the reception of Holy Communion.
'At the end of Mass we go forth to live lives of love and service of others'. The teaching does cover well the aspect of going out from Mass to live a life which put into practice what has been learnt and experienced in the Mass; however all the examples given of how we should live a good life entirely 'horizontal', which would make Christianity no different to good humanitarianism.
The thought for the teacher for this lesson is a poem which is attributed to an Old Irish text. The poem is fine in the context of sound Catholic teaching on the Eucharist, something which is lacking in Alive-O.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teachers Book is to help pupils revise what they already learnt about the Mass, come to a deeper understanding of what they do at Mass, and prepare for the celebration of a class Mass, so that they will better understand the Mass as the action of the community.
The theme as expressed here is fine, except that it is wrong emphasis to see Mass as the action of the community. The essential action of the mass is the very sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; the faithful can participate in the sacrifice through offering their lives, their praise, their suffering, their prayers, their work, in union with the sacrifice of Christ.
There are four pages of Notes for the teacher and Chaplain on getting ready for the Class Mass. These Notes are analysed below, using the headings that are in the Teacher’s Book.
Introductory Rite. There are some reasonable points about welcoming children to the ceremony. However what is not good is that the priest is encouraged to change the wording of the Introductory Rite, to omit some of the elements, and also to change the Prayer over the Gifts and the Prayer after Communion. This kind of unauthorised innovation is deplored by the Church. The Church's prayers are simple and straightforward, and part of the task of catechesis is to help the children understand them, not to change the prayers. Explaining the prayers helps to deepen the children's knowledge of the Faith, which is central to the role of catechesis, and also helps to bind the children closer to the Church.
Penitential Rite. This information gets off to a bad start by presenting Alive-O's usual incorrect definition of sin as not living up to the goodness within us. This centres on self as the source and foundation of morality, and not on God. The Church teaches that sin is essentially an offence against God and a violation of the law of God. The information then gets worse by encouraging the priest to change the very simple words that are in the Missal, and also to have them spoken by a child or an adult, instead of the priest, which the Church requires.
A further problem is created when Alive-O says, 'The rite is concluded by the priest's absolution'. One must assume that Alive-O is referring to the following prayer said by the priest, 'May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life'. It is wrong for Alive-O to describe this as 'absolution', because it confuses it with the actual prayer of absolution of sins which the priest proclaims in the Sacrament of Confession.
Liturgy of the Word. There are some very good suggestions here on how the importance of the liturgy of the word can be emphasised, such as a procession with the Lectionary. However the suggestions for the reading of the Gospel raise some problems. Alive-O notes that the children are already familiar with the adapted versions of the selected gospel readings from the stories in Alive-O. The adapted stories in Alive-O are very poor and tend to work against a proper understanding of what is actually in the gospel. There is also a suggestion that the reading of the gospel should be preceded with a telling or reading or mime of the adapted version of the story. This is not a good suggestion, mainly because the adapted versions given by Alive-O are so poor. Neither would it be a good suggestion if the adapted versions were good, because if the children had learnt what they should in class they would not need a repetition during the Mass itself.
When it comes to the homily it is excellent that information says that a short homily is central to the celebration. However, Alive-O’s information is contrary to the teaching of the Church when it suggests that the teacher might give the homily; the giving of the homily is the task of an ordained minister (deacon, priest, or bishop), not anyone else.
Prayer of the Faithful. The information given here is very good.
Liturgy of the Eucharist. The information given on preparation of the altar and presentation of the gifts is reasonable. However, preparation of the altar is normally done prior to Mass, and could be distracting if done at this point.
The information given on the Eucharistic Prayer is very brief and extremely poor. This is the very core of the Mass, the very heart which gives Mass its meaning, and around which the celebration revolves. All that Alive-O has to say is, 'The meaning of the prayer is that the whole congregation joins Christ in acknowledging the works of God and in offering the sacrifice'. Alive-O omits the priest, the words of Consecration, the sacrifice of the cross, the central meaning of Mass, and thereby undermines and negates the value of its entire presentation on the Mass.
The 'Great Amen' is described as a burst of praise to God. This is incorrect. The word 'amen' is a sign of assent, and could be translated 'so be it'. In the 'Great Amen' the congregation signify their assent with everything the priest has said and everything that has happened in the celebration of Mass up to that point.
Communion Rite. Alive-O suggests that the children should use the gestures they had learnt when saying or singing the Lord's Prayer, the Our Father. These gestures are very mechanical and ritualistic, and do not help significantly in understanding the prayer. It would be far better if Alive-O taught the children the meaning of the Our Father, but Alive-O does not do so.
At the ‘Sign of Peace’ Alive-O says the celebrant should invite the children to express their love for one another symbolically in the Sign of Peace. This is not the correct emphasis, because it focuses on self rather than on Jesus Christ. The immediately preceding prayers of the celebrant focus on the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in offering a sign of peace he says, 'The peace of the Lord be with you always'. What we are invited to exchange with one another is not our own peace, but the peace of Jesus. This is well expressed in some other Catholic countries where the greeting that people say on exchanging a sign of peace is, 'The peace of Christ'.
Alive-O correctly notes that the 'Breaking of Bread' is an important symbol, which signifies that all share in the one body of Christ. However, it would also be good to note that the breaking of the bread symbolises the breaking of the body of Christ in sacrifice for our salvation, which is indicated by the prayer in the Mass, 'May this mingling of the body and blood of our lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it'.
The information given after the heading, 'Reception of Holy Communion', only deals with the mechanics of how to actually receive a host. This is inadequate because it does not deal at all with the spiritual effects of receiving Holy Communion, which is the really important thing. The Church teaches that Holy Communion increases union with Christ and his Church, preserves and renews the life of grace received at Baptism and Confirmation, makes us grow in love our neighbour, strengthens us in charity, wipes away venial sin is and preserves us from mortal sin in the future.
The information suggests that after Holy Communion there should be a time of prayer, silence and quiet reflection. This is very good.
Concluding Rite. After the celebrant has concluded the Eucharist, the children are taught to genuflect in front of the Tabernacle as they vacate their seat, and to bless themselves with holy water before leaving the church. This is very good.
Lesson material in the Teacher's Book.
The Lesson material is presented in five Segments, one per day of the week. These Segments correspond with the five illustrations in the Pupil’s Worksheet, which has been analysed above. The five Segments partly correspond with, and partly diverge from, the principal parts of the Mass as taught by the Church. This will create confusion in the minds of the pupils and work against their achieving a true Catholic understanding of the Mass.
There are two Alive-O written songs for this lesson. The songs are to be repeated in each of the five Segments.
The first song is titled, ' Do This in Memory of Jesus'. This is an extremely poor song in terms of teaching the children on the real meaning of the Eucharist. There is no mention of receiving the body and blood of Jesus, but only of taking ' blessed bread and wine'.
The second song titled, 'Happy in the Presence', is no improvement. It teaches nothing of the key meaning of the Eucharist as taught by the Church.
There are five different sections in the Video material, to correspond with the five Segments in the Lesson material in the Teacher’s Book. The video material is therefore analysed below in association with each Segment, rather than under a separate heading of ‘Video’.
Segment 1: We gather to celebrate
The discussion session and prayer time focus on human celebrations where people get together to have fun and have a party. This can only take attention away from and undermine the real meaning of the Mass.
The video shows people arriving at the church for Mass. Some children bring a tree up to the altar where it is received by a couple at the altar steps.
Segment 2: We celebrate God's forgiveness.
The discussion session and prayer time focus on the Penitential Rite, but completely change the meaning of the Rite by saying, 'We celebrate God's forgiveness'. The essence of the Rite is to seek mercy and forgiveness. The prayer time is a kind of examination of conscience, but focuses only on Alive-O's own list of wrong things, rather than on an objective measure of morality which the Church recommends, such as the Ten Commandments. Alive-O confuses things further by bringing in the exchange of a 'Sign of Peace', which does not occur in the Mass at this point but only later just before the Communion.
The video shows the, 'Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy' prayer being led by children. This is incorrect, because this prayer should be led by the celebrant. The important prayer of the celebrant, 'May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life', is omitted, which is incorrect.
Segment 3: We listen to the Word of God.
The next discussion session and prayer time deal with the Word of God. There is no information for the pupils, just a lot of questions without answers, and then to conclude the importance of the word of God in the Bible is undermined by telling the pupils, 'But God is always speaking to us in our hearts'. No indication is given that there might be any difference between the Word of God in Sacred Scripture and what we think in our own minds is God speaking to us in the depths of our heart.
The video shows one of the children read the first reading from the First Letter of John, which is good. The Psalm is the singing of an Alive-O written song which is based on Psalm 23, the Lord is my Shepherd, but it is a poor song, which falls short of the meaning in the original Psalm. Next there is a procession with the lectionary before the reading of the gospel. The procession is good but it should have come before the first reading from Scripture, to indicate clearly that the word of God is in all of the Bible, not only in the Gospels. The priest reads the gospel reading, taken from the Gospel of Mark, which tells of Jesus raising the daughter of Jairus from the dead. Unfortunately, the reading is not faithful to the Scripture original, and omits the part of the Gospel that tells that the girl was dead. This gives the false impression that what was involved was no more than a healing, and not an extraordinary miracle of raising someone from the dead. This is bad. The gospel is mimed by the children, which is fine in itself, but unfortunately the mime also gives the impression that the girl was just unwell, and not dead.
After the Gospel the priest asks children two leading questions, which emphasise that the daughter of Jairus was only unwell and healed by Jesus, rather than dead and raised to life again by Jesus. The priest does not give a homily, which is not good.
Segment 4: We give thanks.
Unfortunately, like the introductory Notes analysed above, the discussion sessions and prayer time in this segment utterly fail to teach the central meaning of the Mass. Alive-O talks about human goodness for gifts received, and also thankfulness to God mostly for human things, and also for the ‘gift of Jesus who showed us how much God loves us'. There is no mention whatsoever of Jesus sacrificial death on the cross, which is re-presented in the Mass. There is no mention that the most important thing we have to thank Jesus for is our salvation/redemption from sin.
The video shows children preparing the altar with altar cloths, candles and sacred vessels. This should normally be done before Mass begins, and it is distracting for it to happen at this time. Then children bring up the gifts, which is very well done. We next see children coming up to speak out words of thanks for people who are connected with them, and for the earth; this is incorrect, it is not part of the Mass, and takes the focus away from the most important Thanksgiving in the Mass, which is to thank God for Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross which has redeemed us from sin.
This segment of the video concludes with the Consecration, which is well celebrated by the priest, except that no bells are rung which is the normal custom in the Catholic Church.
Segment 5: We receive Holy Communion.
There is a final discussion session in this segment, 'We receive Holy Communion'. There is nothing in this segment about the effects of receiving Holy Communion. However, what is given is the words of consecration of a Mass. This is good in itself but the consecration should have been given earlier in the context of the Eucharistic Prayer, and it’s great and central significance explained and emphasised. Alive-O does say that the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ at the Consecration, which is good. However the teaching on the Real Presence is not sufficiently developed, because it should make clear that Jesus is really and truly present, body and blood, soul and divinity. The term 'transubstantiation' is very important in a Catholic understanding of the Eucharist, and this term should be used and taught the children, and explained as fully as possible.
Notable omissions concerning the Eucharist include: need to be in state of grace; marks of respect towards the Eucharist, including fasting before receiving Holy Communion; frequency of reception of the Eucharist; only priest can consecrate the Eucharist through the sacramental powers received in the Sacrament of Holy Orders; Eucharistic adoration; visits to the Blessed Sacrament; Eucharistic miracles; story of St Tarcisius, martyred while protecting the Eucharist
The video shows the children singing the Our Father, with Alive-O written music; the children also use the rather mechanical ritual gestures that are taught in Alive-O, which are not really help in understanding the meaning of the prayer. There follows the distribution of Holy Communion, which is well presented.
All the songs on the video sung at the Mass, are Alive-O written. This helps immerse the children in a unique Alive-O environment, which serves to separate them from home and parish. Some of the Alive-O songs are reasonable but others are poor. Better songs are available from the Church’s treasury of sacred song, which would also serve to link the children with home and parish.
Term 3, Lesson 3: Celebrating the Risen Jesus at Mass (2) (A5-T3L3)
Pupil’s Book.
The Pupils Book has an account titled, 'On the Road to Emmaus', which tells the story from the Gospel of Luke of the meeting of Jesus with two disciples on the road to Emmaus just after Jesus Resurrection. Most of the story is faithful to the gospel, but there are several key alterations of the Scripture account which serve to change the meaning so that it fits in with Alive-O's own particular spirituality.
In the gospel when Jesus asks the disciples what has been happening they respond and say of Jesus that he 'proved he was a great prophet by the things he said and did in the sight of God and of the whole people'. Alive-O changes the gospel account to read that Jesus was 'the teacher who taught us about God's love'. This is consistent with Alive-O's normal approach which is to reduce Jesus mission to no more than telling people that God loves them (which is even less than an Old Testament prophet).
In the gospel the disciples tell Jesus that the women ‘had seen a vision of Angels who declared he was alive’. Alive-O changes this to, 'an Angel told them that God had raised Jesus, our friend, from the dead.' The Church teaches that Jesus was raised from the dead in the power of the Trinity, so that he raised himself from the dead. Alive-O changes this so that it was God who raised Jesus from the dead; this makes it seem that Jesus was only a human being, who was raised from the dead by an outside divine power, rather like Lazarus or the daughter of Jairus.
In the gospel Jesus responds to the disciples in these words, 'You foolish men! So slow to believe the full message of the prophets! Was it is not ordained that the Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory? Then, starting with Moses and going through all the Prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the Scriptures that were about himself'. Alive-O changes Jesus' response to the following: 'Why you should you be so surprised?' Jesus said. 'Don't you remember the great stories of God's love from the past?', and he went on to remind them about Abraham and Moses and many others’.
This alteration of Scripture by Alive-O is consistent with its nonrecognition of salvation history. Alive-O does not recognize that the Old Testament prophesied the coming of Jesus, nor that Jesus is the Messiah. Alive-O only recognizes the Old Testament as saying that God loves us, which is exactly the same as the message that Jesus brought, so there is nothing new that Jesus did or brought, it's just the same old message, and it is the same message is that we follow today.
Alive-O's account is in agreement with the gospel covering the arrival at Emmaus, sitting down together at supper, Jesus taking bread and sharing it with the disciples, their sudden recognition as to who Jesus was, and is disappearing from their sight. However, at this point the Gospels says: Then they said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?' Alive-O omits the sentence, which is consistent with its earlier omission of Jesus explaining the Scriptures to the disciples while walking on the road to Emmaus.
There are three illustrations of the Emmaus story, which are good.
There are then two questions with answers. The first question reads, 'Is the Risen Jesus present at Mass?', and the answer reads, 'Yes, the Risen Jesus is present at Mass. He is present in a special way after the Consecration, when the bread and wine are changed into his body and blood'. This answer is not unreasonable, but it is by no means adequate as a full teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Also, the use of the term 'Risen Jesus' is not appropriate because it could give the impression that it is not the real Jesus who is present in the Eucharist but only some 'Jesus of faith'.
The second question reads, 'Why does the Risen Jesus come to us in Holy Communion?', and the answer reads, 'The Risen Jesus comes to us in Holy Communion to help us to love God our Father and to help us love one another'. This answer is fine as far as it goes, but is extremely inadequate in conveying the full meaning as understood by the Church as too why Jesus comes to us in Holy Communion. There is also the same problem here of the use of the term 'Risen Jesus'.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has an exercise involving the completion of several sentences about the meeting of Jesus with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. It is a very simple exercise, but it still may help the pupils remember the story, but the problem still remains that there are serious flaws in the story as told by Alive-O.
Information for teachers in Teacher’s Book.
First there is a quotation from the Gospel of Luke 24:32, which tells of the hearts of the disciples on the road to Emmaus burning while Jesus opened the Scriptures. It is an excellent quotation, but most ironic that Alive-O omitted this same quote from its account in the Pupil’s Book.
Alive-O then has two excellent quotations from the CCC, and one from the second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. Alive-O says that this lesson will focus on the presence of Jesus in the Word and under the appearances of bread and wine. However, Alive-O then focuses on the meaning of ‘presence’ in a human and secular way, which is unlikely to give the children a good understanding of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teacher’s Book is to help the children explore their own experience of presence and to learn the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, so they will better understand the presence of the Risen Jesus at Mass, especially his presence under the appearances of bread and wine.
Lesson material in the Teacher's Book.
Alive-O presents three songs for use in this lesson. The first song is entitled, 'Blessed Be God', which would be perfectly reasonable in the context of good and comprehensive teaching on the Eucharist, which unfortunately is missing from Alive-O.
The second song is titled, 'Go Now in Peace', which is a sweet little song which does not contain very much, but would be fine in the context of good Catholic teaching on the Eucharist. The third song is a repeat of, 'The Apostles' Creed', which is good.
There is an Alive-O written story titled, 'Excuses, Excuses, Excuses'. It is a silly secular story, which could contribute nothing to an understanding of the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, but could only serve to distract attention from it. The following prayer time asks the children to think about various people who are present in their lives, which is fine in itself, but only serves to focus the idea of presence in a secular way, which can only distract from an understanding of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
The Teacher's Book then has the same story, 'On the Road to Emmaus', as appears in the Pupils Book. This is followed by discussion sessions and the prayer time which do nothing to help get a better understanding of the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, but focus instead on the secular idea of presence at a human level.
There is a very short discussion session on Day 3 of the week, which is the only place which seriously addresses of the stated aim of the lesson, which is to focus on Jesus’ presence in the Word and under the appearances of bread and wine. In relation to Jesus' presence in the Word it says no more than, 'When we read the Gospel the Risen Jesus speaks to us'. This is an inadequate teaching on the presence of Jesus in the Scriptures, because it says in a very limited way that Jesus is only present in the gospel, and not in any of the other Scriptures.
At the very end of the discussion session after many questions without answers, Alive-O does state that at the Consecration of the Mass the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, and that when we receive Holy Communion it is the Body of Christ that we receive. This is fine as far as it goes, but is extremely inadequate as the only attempt in a whole week’s lesson to teach about the Real Presence, with the information ‘buried’ in the middle of optional discussion starter questions.
3.9: Life in Christ / Morality
Term 2, Lesson 7: God’s Love Helps Us to Love the World
Term 3, Lesson 5: Love and Serve the Lord
Term 3, Lesson 7: The Early Christian Community
(A5-T2L3: ‘At Home with God’s Love’, includes the Fourth Commandment, but deals mainly with Mary, so it has been analysed above, p. 76)
Summary:
The first of these three lessons addresses how we should treat the material world that God has created for us. The Pupil’s Book has three good questions and answers which sum up this theme very well. However, the rest of the lesson material is poor. The story of Zacheus is repeated, with the addition of much fictional material, which re-cast the story in the mould of materialism versus environmentalism. Then there is a completely fictional pantheistic-type story of Zacheus and a talking sycamore tree. There is also a fictional story about 'little Beings', which is about materialism, but does not help teach how Christians should treat the earth.
The next lesson gives an account of the Ascension, in which the Scripture original is changed to omit the Great Commission and replace it with a call to Christians to live in a good humanitarian way.
The final lesson deals with the early Christian Community, but fails to convey the truth spiritual nature of the early Church, and replaces it instead with a kind of theist humanitarianism. A great opportunity is lost to teach about the beginnings of the Catholic Church.
Term 2, Lesson 7: God’s Love Helps Us to Love the World (A5-T2L7)
Pupil's Book.
The Pupil's Book has a story-poem about Zacheus. The story-poem has more material than the story given in the previous Lesson (A5-T2L6), but the additional material it is mostly fanciful fiction, which adds little to the value of the story. The story-poem is again based on the Gospel of Luke 19:1-10, but the last two verses are omitted. Verses 9 & 10 are in effect the ‘punch-lines’, which give the key meaning of the story, which is that Jesus came to search out and save those that are lost in sin, to bring salvation. This follows Alive-O’s normal tendency to avoid teaching that Jesus is our divine Saviour from sin, consistent with its non-recognition of Original Sin and its ambivalence, at best, about Jesus’ divinity.
The illustrations in this lesson show Zacheus up a tree, coming down from the tree, and walking away with Jesus.
There are three questions and answers about the world as a gift from God, and God’s desire that we should treat the world with respect and love. These are very good.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has a picture to be coloured in – a countryside scene, which includes a number of children engaged in various types of activities. There is an exercise for the pupils, which involves noting various activities in the picture as to whether or not they help the countryside. A few of the activities can be unambiguously identified as for or against the countryside, but the majority could not be so identified, because it would depend very much on the circumstances. The value of the exercise is therefore questionable, unless it were accompanied by guidance from the teacher.
There is also a prayer about the Spirit of God, which is repeated many times in Alive-O books. The Spirit of God is not clearly identified as the Holy Spirit, and the prayer is more in tune with a New Agey, rather than Christian, spirituality.
Information for teachers in the Teacher's Book.
The story of Zacheus is presented in terms of Zacheus being fond of material things, until he meets Jesus and then becomes no longer greedy for material things. This is linked with this Lesson’s story about 'little Beings' who wanted to exploit the world for their own ends. This indicates that Alive-O is reinterpreting the Zacheus story to fit into a theme of materialism versus environmentalism.
Alive-O comes back again to a theistic understanding of the covenant (as included earlier Lessons), which is expressed as God's unconditional love for people through the ages, and nothing more than that; this involves a contradiction in terms, because a covenant of its very nature implies conditions. In addition, life and the world are inextricably intertwined, which adds a pantheistic dimension to Alive-O's understanding of covenant.
Alive-O describes God's love and the love of Jesus as 'unconditional', which may sound good, but is potentially misleading. Neither the Bible nor the Catechism of the Catholic Church ever describe the love of God as ‘unconditional’. Both Old and New Testaments emphasise God's covenants with his people and often present the love of God in the context of 'covenant'. The very nature of covenant implies conditions. On God's side the conditions are fulfilled, because God’s infinite love is always faithful, always generous, always freely offered to all human beings without exception. But God’s love is so great that he respects the condition of human freedom: if we accept God and his commandments of love and turn away from sin, then we can expect blessings beyond our imagining, both here on earth (not without suffering) and hereafter in heaven. However, God's love gifts us the freedom to reject him, in which case Jesus warns us that the consequences could not be more unpleasant – eternal separation from God in hell. Describing God’s love as ‘unconditional’ risks overlooking the conditions that human freedom imposes if we are to accept, and not reject, God’s love.
The Thought for the Teacher is an extract from a story about a boy climbing into the hollow of a tree. At first sight it seems to have nothing to do with the lesson, but one can see later that it does relate to a very pantheistic story about Zacheus and the Sycamore tree.
The theme of the lesson as given in the Teacher's Book is the life-giving nature of the relationship between human beings and the earth. The language here is very much in tune with a pantheistic understanding of nature and human beings, rather than with a Christian understanding.
Lesson material in the Teacher's Book.
There is one Alive-O written song in this lesson, titled, 'Round the Earth'. It has just a single line which is repeated over again like a mantra. The song is reasonable but there is very little in it.
The story-poem from the Pupil's Book is repeated in the Teacher's Book. This is followed by two discussion sessions and a prayer time which are based on the story-poem. The discussion sessions and prayer time add little to the understanding of the Zacheus story, and spend quite a bit of attention on the fanciful fictional aspects of the story-poem.
The next item is a story titled, 'The Sycamore Tree'. This is pure fiction in which Zacheus goes back to the sycamore tree at a later date, climbs into the tree and spends some time talking to the tree, which talks back to him. The story is entirely pantheistic nonsense, which adds nothing whatsoever to the real meaning of the Zacheus story, and simply promotes a pantheistic idea of human beings and created things. The subsequent discussion session reinforces the pantheistic nature of the story.
Next there is a three-part story titled, 'Being Ecological'. The story involves ‘little Beings’ and the use of the things of the earth. It is a very silly story, and the approach is essentially theist/pantheistic. It fails completely to present a Christian understanding of creation, and things of the earth. In contrast to Alive-O, a Christian understanding would include an account of Creation, and the relationship of the entire created world with human beings, as expressed in Genesis in the story of the first human beings Adam and Eve. A Christian understanding would then present how God commanded Adam and Eve to take care of the earth and how all other created things of the earth were to be used for their benefit; after the Fall of our First Parents the whole of the earth was also subjected to bondage, but at the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of time all creation will be restored to a new radiant form of life, along with all human beings who are saved.
Term 3, Lesson 5: Love and Serve the Lord (A5-T3L5)
Pupil’s Book.
The Pupils Book has a story titled, 'The Ascension Story'. The same story appears in the Teachers Book, where it says that it is based on Luke 24:44-53 and on Acts 1:3-11. The story is very brief and seriously fails to convey what Scripture says about the Ascension.
The story opens with the words, 'After he had eaten', which is in line with the account in Luke's gospel, but in the book it reads as if it were connected with Jesus having eaten in the previous story on the opposite page, which is the account of Jesus' appearance on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. This would be confusing to the pupils, because the site of the Ascension is just outside Jerusalem, which is a long way from Galilee.
In Luke 24:44-47 Jesus explains to the apostles how the Scriptures foretold his coming and his mission, how he would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that in his name repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations. The Alive-O story changes this to the following, 'Jesus spent some time talking to his friends, helping them to understand what God the Father wanted them to do from now on. It would not always be easy to do what God wanted'. This changing of Scripture by Alive-O is similar to what happened in the story about Jesus meeting the disciples on the road to Emmaus, where similar material was removed from the gospel account by Alive-O to be substituted with material that was more in tune with Alive-O's own spirituality.
The Alive-O story says that Jesus told his friends that they would receive 'special help' from God for the work they had to do. This seriously diminishes what is in the Scriptures: Luke's Gospel says they will be 'clothed with the power from on high'; Acts says they 'will be baptised with the Holy Spirit " and 'will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you'; while Mark's gospel promises that they will receive power to cast out devils, have the gift of tongues, pick up snakes and drink deadly poison without being harmed, and lay their hands on the sick who would recover. Much could be made in a story for children of these exciting and dramatic promises of Jesus, but instead Alive-O diminishes them to 'special help'.
The instructions given by Jesus to the disciples just prior to his Ascension are so dramatic and important they have been referred to as the Great Commission. This is expressed in the Gospel of Mark, and again in Matthew 28:18-20, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time'. Acts 1:8 adds, 'you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth'. The Alive-O story omits any hint or suggestion of this is exciting and challenging commission given by Jesus, and merely refers to 'the work they had to do and the way they had to live their lives'.
In Acts 1:10-11, after Jesus has ascended, two angels appear and say to the apostles, 'Jesus who has been taken up from you in to heaven, the same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go there.' This dramatic and interesting event, which would have added enormously to the story for children to engage their interest and inspire their imaginations, is omitted by Alive-O. This omission is consistent with Alive-O's reluctance to teach about Angels, and also its lack of teaching on the Last Things, especially the Second Coming.
There is an illustration of 12 men looking upwards. If these are meant to represent the apostles, then there should be only 11, because Matthias was only selected to replace Judas after the Ascension. This is a poor representation of the Ascension, because the central character Jesus is missing. An illustration that would be more faithful to the gospel and also much more dramatic and interesting, would show the ascending Jesus and maybe also the Angels waiting to speak to the apostles.
Overall, one could say that Alive-O's version (story and illustration) of the Ascension diverges significantly from Scripture, and is as dull as ditch-water in comparison with the real thing.
There is a question and answer as follows: Does God wants us to develop our gifts and talents? The answer given is, 'Yes. God wants us to develop our gifts and talents and to use them as God would want'. There is truth in this answer, but it is a very poor substitute for the Great Commission. Also, it takes away the focus from what God wants most of all, which is that we should do his will, no matter what gifts and talents he has given us. Developing our gifts and talents is of course a good thing, but one must be careful not to approach this in the dominant secular thinking, in which developing one’s own human potential to the maximum becomes an end in itself.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has an exercise in which the pupils decipher a message, 'You are sent'. This would be fine in the context of really understanding the Great Commission, but in the context of what Alive-O teaches pupils could only interpreted in the context of developing their own human talent and going to be kind and nice to people, no different from good humanitarianism.
Information for teachers in Teacher’s Book.
The information for teachers suffers from the same problems that have been noted above in connection with Alive-O's version of the Ascension. Alive-O talks about mission and service, but completely omits what Jesus actually did say to his apostles just before the Ascension. The Great Commission is omitted, and instead Alive-O talks about Jesus orienting his disciples towards the time of service ahead.
Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit on the apostles, which would give them truly dramatic spiritual powers, but Alive-O reduces this again to 'special help'.
While failing to bring out the dramatic reality of the Ascension commission, Alive-O turns attention instead to the use of human talent, a dimension which is not in Scripture.
The thought for the teacher for this lesson is an excellent quotation from St Teresa of Avila.
The theme of this lesson as given in the Teacher’s Book is to nourish the pupils’ faith in the Risen Jesus, help them to celebrate the life of love and service of the Church community, and to discover their own talents and use those talents in the mission of the Church.
Lesson material in the Teacher's Book.
There is one Alive-O written song introduced for this lesson titled, 'Use What You're Given'. This is a simple secular song about treasuring and using gifts; it is nice enough in itself but contributes nothing to an understanding of the Great Commission given by Jesus to his apostles and through them to the whole Church just before his Ascension.
The same Ascension story from the Pupils Book is used again here in the Teachers Book, and has been analysed above. The discussion session following the story has a series of secular type questions, which contribute nothing to a real understanding of the Ascension.
Next, Alive-O has a story titled, 'The Mother's Gift'. It is a fanciful secular story of dubious educational value in any way, but certainly has nothing to do with teaching the pupils to better understand the Ascension and the Great Commission of Jesus. The discussion sessions following the story, along with an art exercise and prayer time focus attention on secular gifts and talents, which serves further to distract attention from the Ascension and the Great Commission of Jesus.
Attention is drawn further away from the Ascension and to focus more on human talents by the next story and its associated discussion sessions. The story is titled, 'The Parable of the Talents', based on the parable in Matthew 25:14-30. Naturally, the parable is valuable, because it is taken from Scripture which is the Word of God. However Alive-O uses the parable here with the Ascension, which is completely out of place, because Matthew chapters 24 and 25 are known as the Eschatological Discourse, dealing with the End Times. This is not a particularly relevant parable to use when trying to teach about Jesus’ Ascension and the Great Commission.
Alive-O's adapted version of the Parable of the Talents follows the Scriptural sequence of the story quite well, but is not actually faithful to Scripture because the focus is subtly, yet radically, changed. In the parable in Scripture the emphasis is on doing the will of the master and being faithful to the trust which the master has placed in the servant. Alive-O changes the emphasis to how well one uses the talents one has been given. The Alive-O version then goes on to summarise some elements from Matthew 25:31-46, which deals with the Second Coming of Jesus and the Last Judgment. This is where Jesus talks about feeding the hungry, giving water to those where thirsty and providing clothes for those who had nothing to wear. Again Alive-O subtly changes the emphasis in the gospel which is on doing what Jesus would want, to focus on using one's own talents. This amounts to a subversion of the integrity of what is in Scripture. Alive-O also excludes the Scriptural references to the Second Coming and to those who do not do the will of God being cast into outer darkness where there will be eternal suffering. This is consistent with Alive-O's general deficiency in teaching on the Last Things.
The discussion sessions associated with the story of the Parable of the Talents reinforce the focus on use of human talents in a way which is like good humanitarianism, rather than focus on doing the will of God, which is in Scripture.
The special activity for this lesson is a class project to gather information on people and groups who help children. This is excellent as far as it goes, but continues the Alive-O practice of equating Christian mission and activity with good humanitarianism.
It has been noted above that in the story of the Ascension Alive-O substituted the gift of the Holy Spirit with 'special help', thereby failing to teach the central importance of the gift and power of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life. This setting aside of the Holy Spirit in favour of human gifts and talents is further reinforced for the children in the final prayer time. During the week the children had been invited to write down gifts they would like God to give different people, and to put the pieces of paper in a box. In the final prayer time the teachers says, 'Jesus asked the Father to send a special help, a special gift, to let us open our eyes, open our minds, open our hearts, and see what God will send us'. At this point one would expect the attention to focus on the Holy Spirit, which is the great gift which Jesus promised to the apostles and to all Christians to enable us to live the Christian life and give us the gift of faith. However, there is no mention of the Holy Spirit, but instead the children are invited to go to the table and pick up the box containing the pieces of paper on which they had written down the little gifts they would like other people to get; so the focus is shifted from the Holy Spirit to human gifts and talents.
Term 3, Lesson 7: The Early Christian Community (A5-T3L7)
Pupil’s Book.
The Pupil’s Book has a story titled, 'The Early Christian Community'. This story falls short of an authentic teaching on the key nature of the early Christian community, and its identity with the Catholic Church.
The first sentence reads, 'The apostles and disciples went out into the city of Jerusalem to teach the people about the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ'. This falls short of the preaching of the apostles, which is well summed up in the final line of Peter's speech on the Day of Pentecost, 'For this reason the whole House of Israel can be certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ'. This was the key teaching about Jesus; he is Lord which means that he is divine, God himself; and he is the Christ, the Messiah, the one who has been promised by God through the prophecies of the Old Testament that would come and save the people from their sins. The other key point of the apostles preaching was Baptism, through which the people had all their sins forgiven, original sin and all other sins, and were reborn again in Christ, and received the powerful grace of the Holy Spirit. Alive-O's sentence above is consistent with its own spirituality, which sees Jesus as no more than a special godly man who taught people that God loves them and that they should love one another, which is theist-humanitarian rather than authentically Christian.
Alive-O's account then says, 'Many people were drawn to Jesus and followed the apostles'. The phrase 'drawn to Jesus' fails to express the reality of those who became Christians, which was first and foremost that they came to faith in Jesus as their God and Saviour. This is well expressed in Acts 4:32 which describes the early Christian community as 'believers'. To say that people were simply 'drawn to Jesus' could mean no more than people saw Jesus as an inspired leader who taught a good way of life, which they had decided to follow.
Acts 2:42 has been taken as an excellent summary of the life of the early Christian community, 'These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and prayers’.
'The teaching of the apostles' indicated that the apostles had the commission and the authority to pass on in full what they had learnt from Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit; Jesus had instituted them as priests and hierarchy in the Church which he had decided to establish, which is his own very Body. Alive-O's account says that, 'the Christian community followed Jesus' example and his teachings'; this fails to express the unique and special role that Jesus had prepared for the apostles in the early Christian church.
Alive-O's account says, 'They lived together and shared all their belongings and talents. They made sure that every member of their community had what they needed'. This is a reasonable expression of the early Christian community’s faithfulness 'to the brotherhood'.
When Acts 2: 42 refers to the 'breaking of bread' it is referring to the Eucharist, where Jesus becomes present body and blood, soul and divinity. Alive-O's account says, 'Once a week they came together to share bread, as Jesus had shown them when he said at the Last Supper, Do this in memory of me. They knew that Jesus was with them in a special way when they met to share bread and tell his stories.' This falls seriously short of the Eucharist, and conveys no more than that Christians came together for a shared meal, at which they remembered Jesus.
Act 2:42 finally says that the first Christian community was faithful to the prayers. Alive-O's story does not mention prayer, just that, 'these Christians were special people who lived their lives in a special way'.
A proper understanding of the life of the early Christian community, as summarised in Acts 2:42, lays a great foundation for understanding the Catholic Church. (It is interesting to note that the four items mentioned in Acts 2:42 are reflected in the four parts, the four pillars, of the Catechism of the Catholic Church). The account of the early Christian community as presented in Alive-O's story suggests a model of church which is a kind of house-church cum social club.
The accompanying illustration shows 12 men leaving a house in attitudes of great joy and celebration, with two pleased looking women in the background, which presumably represent the apostles going into the streets of Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. This illustration could have been appropriate to the previous lesson on the Day of Pentecost, but is not appropriate to this lesson on the early Christian community. (There would be room here for a good illustration about some story from the Book of Acts, which would dramatically teach the children about the early Christian community, unlike the unsatisfactory story that Alive-O actually uses in the Teachers Book. See below for further comment and analysis).
There are three questions and answers, which all foster the model of church favoured by Alive-O, which is a house-church model. This is greatly to be regretted, because it would have been easily possible to provide the story of the early Christian community, with associated questions and answers, which would be fully faithful to Scripture and lay the foundation for the children to understand the Catholic Church.
Worksheet.
The worksheet has a game involving following a maze, which relates to the unsatisfactory fictional story contained in the Teachers Book (see below for further comment on this story). The exercise will not teach the children anything about the early Christian community. Also this type of following a simple maze exercise is well below the intellectual capabilities of children in 3rd Class.
Information for teachers in Teacher’s Book.
Alive-O's instructions to the teachers makes explicit what is implicit in the story of the early Christian community in the Pupil's Book. There is initially some good references to faith and the importance of faith, but this is quickly replaced by 'experience of and interest in Jesus Christ'. Alive-O says that communities usually form around an activity or focus, and gives examples of the kind of shared interests involved, e.g. singing, storytelling, games, art or prayer. This is put forward as a model to understand the Christian community, which resulted from human beings deciding to come together as a group because of their shared interest in the example and teachings of Jesus. This could well be described as a humanitarian house-church model, which bears little relationship with the Catholic Church's understanding of Christian community.
The theme of this lesson as given in the Teachers Book is to lead the children in making community within the classroom, to relate that experience to the stories of the early Christian community, so they would better understand what it means to be a member of the Christian community today.
Lesson material in the Teacher's Book.
There is first an Alive-O written song titled, 'Community Song'. This song presents a purely secular idea of community, which contains nothing that is specifically Christian. The song will not contribute to the children's understanding of the Catholic Church's view of Christian community.
Next there is an activity for the children, which encourages them to get together in groups which will constitute community based on shared interest in mostly secular activities. This is preceded by a discussion session which emphasises the secular community. The following prayer time does little more than add a kind of Christian or theist veneer over the model of secular community.
There is an Alive-O written story titled, ' Paula and Mark', which is a fictional account of two young Christians in Rome who have to go to the catacombs for the Mass, because of the threat of persecution. It does teach something about the early Christian community in Rome, about the threat of persecution and about the catacombs. However it would have been much better to select a real story from the early Christian community, instead of this piece of fiction. Many of the early real stories that are told in the Book of Acts not only tell what the early Christian community was really like, but a vastly more interesting and dramatic, and would engage the pupil's attention and inspire their imaginations far more than this piece of fiction. Examples of such stories from the Book of Acts could include: healing of a cripple by Peter; the martyrdom of Stephen; the journeys of St Paul; etc
The discussion session and prayer time following the story reinforce the analogy between secular human communities and the early Christian community. This undermines a true understanding of the nature of the Christian Church.
There is a discussion session and prayer time focusing on the earlier activity of the children in forming in groups in the classroom based on some secular activity. The pupils are then led to try and connect this secular community experience with the Christian church, which would only serve to undermine the true understanding of the nature of the Christian Church, especially as expressed in the Catholic Church.
This entire lesson has no teaching whatsoever on the Catholic Church, which is not even mentioned at all in any way; this is a serious omission in an official Church programme for Catholic children.
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[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1999.
[2] Congregation for the Clergy, General Directory for Catechesis. Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1997.
[3] Ibid. 284
[4] Ibid. 10. ‘Not all parts of the Directory have the same importance. Those dealing with Divine Revelation, the nature of catechesis, the criteria governing the proclamation of the Gospel message are universally valid. Those, however, referring to present circumstances, to methodology and to the manner of adapting catechesis to diverse age groups and cultural contexts are to be understood rather as indications or guidelines’.
[5] Adv. haeres. 4,20,7
[6] See John Paul II. Catechesi Tradendae - On Catechesis in Our Time. Apostolic Exhortation, Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1979, 49. ‘In certain places, the desire to find the best forms of expression or to keep up with fashions in pedagogical methods has often enough resulted in certain catechetical works which bewilder the young and even adults … chiefly by a rather horizontalist overall view out of keeping with the teaching of the Church’s magisterium.’
[7] General Directory for Catechesis (GDC) 284.
[8] The Code of Canon Law. London: Collins Liturgical Publications, 1983. 775§2; General Directory for Catechesis, 285.
[9] Further, every Catholic household should be encouraged to have a copy of the CCC and/or the excellent summary: Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. !"78:GKLMZ[London: Catholic Truth Society, 2006. Highly recommended for young people is: Youcat – Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church. London: Catholic Truth Society, 2010.
[10] cf CCC 31-49.
[11] Second Vatican Council. Dei Verbum – Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. 1965.
[12] General Catechetical Directory (GCD), 1971. 37.
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