Unit Overview

This unit introduces the Church’s liturgical year, relating the key seasons and symbols to the events of Jesus’ life, death, Resurrection and ascension. Important symbols of the Church are explored as signs of God’s love in the life of the Church. Scripture and the Eucharist are also explored to establish how God is with us as we share in the life of the Church. Students then identify how they can be Pentecost people, filled with the Holy Spirit, making God’s love known to others.

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Enduring Understanding

God is with us as we share in the life of the Church.

Objectives

A student will

value and appreciate and become aware of their religious identity and their spiritual heritage; appreciate the richness of the tradition and the need for community; be open to participation in the mission of the Church
develop an understanding of the nature and mission of the Church, both local and universal, and its history and teachings from its beginning to the present
analyse and communicate informed viewpoints on the nature and mission of the Church; review their experience in the light of its teachings; evaluate their participation in its undertakings

Outcomes

A student

appreciates how we are called to share in the life of the Church. (RECVB2)
identifies the symbols used in the life of the Church. (RECKB2)
identifies the importance of the seasons of the Church’s year. (RECSB2)

Essential Questions

How does the liturgical year help us to prepare, celebrate and remember Jesus in the life of the Church?
What are the important symbols used in the life of the Church that can be signs of God’s love?
How is God with us as we share in the life of the Church?

Learning Focus, Statements of Learning & Course Content

Students recognise the importance of the Church’s liturgical year by

- exploring the seasons of the calendar year.
- Explore The Seasons of the Year (Storytelling approach).
- Appreciate the uniqueness of each season of the calendar year.
- Recognise how our lives are ordered by the yearly cycle of the seasons.
- exploring how we prepare, celebrate and remember the events in the life of Jesus.
- Explore The Church’s Year (Storytelling approach).
- Appreciate the uniqueness of each liturgical season of the year.
- Explore how the liturgical seasons help us to prepare, celebrate and remember the events in the life of Jesus.
- Recognise how the Church is ordered by the Church’s liturgical year.

Students recognise the importance of symbols used in the life of the Church as a sign of God’s love by

- exploring how symbols can become a sign of God’s love.
- Explore Signs of God's Love (Storytelling approach).
- Define ‘symbol’ as something that is usually visible that reminds us of something else.
- Identify symbols of the Church that can become a sign of God’s love.
- exploring the symbol of water.
- Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 9 Water p98 and recognise how the Church uses water as a symbol
  ○ at Baptism.
  ○ when we bless ourselves with Holy Water as we enter and exit the Church.
  ○ the Rite of Blessing and Sprinkling of Holy Water.
- exploring the symbol of oil.
- Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 9 Signs of God's Love p96-97 and recognise how the Church uses oil as a symbol at the Sacraments of:
  ○ Baptism
  ○ Confirmation
  ○ Holy Orders
- exploring the symbol of light.
- Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 9 Light p100 and recognise how the Church uses light as a symbol at Baptism.
- Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 7 Jesus the Light of the World p80-83 and recognise the importance of light as a representation of Jesus, the Light of the World, particularly during the Easter Vigil.
- exploring the symbol of the white robe.
- Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 9 White Robe p99 and recognise how the Church uses the white robe as a symbol at Baptism.
- exploring the symbols of bread and wine.
- Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 9 Bread and Wine p101-102 and recognise how the Church uses bread and wine as a symbol in the Eucharist.
- Celebrate a prayer service using KWL Book 2 Chapter 9 Prayer p105, incorporating the symbols explored in the unit, to appreciate the signs of God's love for us in the life of the Church.

Students recognise that God is with us as we share in the life of the Church by

- exploring Scripture.
- Explore Exodus 12:1-15:2 God of Freedom (Storytelling approach).
- Read KWL Big Book God of Freedom and explore the greatness of God’s love and how God is present in the lives of the chosen people.
  ○ God hears the prayers of the people of Israel.
  ○ God gives Moses the courage to lead the people out of Egypt.
  ○ God helps his people pass through the Red Sea from slavery to freedom.
- Recognise what the Exodus event tells us about our loving and protecting God.
- exploring the Eucharist.
- Define ‘Eucharist’ as giving thanks.
- Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 11 Feeding the Hungry (Part 2) p126-129 and appreciate how Jesus is present with us during the Eucharistic celebration.
- exploring how, through the Holy Spirit, we can make God's love known to others.
- Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 12 Pentecost People p132-135 and recognise that God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- Explore ways that we can share the gifts of God’s Holy Spirit with one another.
- Celebrate a prayer service using Exodus 12:1-15:2 and KWL Book 2 Chapter 11 Prayer p137, thanking God for being with us as we share in the life of the Church.

Compulsory Scripture

Unit Content 3:
Exodus 12:1-15:2 God of Freedom

Storytelling

Unit Content 1
The Seasons of the Year
The Church’s Year

Unit Content 2
Signs of God’s Love

Unit Content 3
Exodus 12:1-15:2 God of Freedom

Church Documents

Catechism of the Catholic Church

1146 – Signs of the human world. In human life, signs and symbols occupy an important place. As a being at once body and spirit, man expresses and perceives spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols. As a social being, man needs signs and symbols to communicate with others, through language, gestures, and actions. The same holds true for his relationship with God.

1147 – God speaks to man through the visible creation. The material cosmos is so presented to man’s intelligence that he can read their traces of its Creator. Light and darkness, wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God and symbolize both his greatness and his nearness.

1148 – Inasmuch as they are creatures, these perceptible realities can become means of expressing the action of God … and the action of [people] who offer worship to God. The same is true of signs and symbols taken from the social life of [human beings]: washing and anointing, breaking bread and sharing the cup can express the sanctifying presence of God and [our] gratitude toward [our] Creator.

1149 – The great religions of mankind witness, often impressively, to this cosmic and symbolic meaning of religious rites. The liturgy of the Church presupposes, integrates and sanctifies elements from creation and human culture, conferring on them the dignity of signs of grace, of the new creation in Jesus Christ.

1171 – In the liturgical year the various aspects of the one Paschal mystery unfold. This is also the case with the cycle of feasts surrounding the mystery of the incarnation (Annunciation, Christmas, Epiphany). They commemorate the beginning of our salvation and communicate to us the first fruits of the Paschal mystery.

KWL

Unit Content 2
KWL Book 2 Chapter 9 Water p98
KWL Book 2 Chapter 9 Signs of God’s Love p96-97
KWL Book 2 Chapter 9 Light p100
KWL Book 2 Chapter 7 Jesus the Light of the World p80-83
KWL Book 2 Chapter 9 White Robe p99
KWL Book 2 Chapter 9 Bread and Wine p101-102
KWL Book 2 Chapter 9 Prayer p105

Unit Content 3
KWL Book 2 Chapter 11 Feeding the Hungry (Part 2) p126-129
KWL Book 2 Chapter 12 Pentecost People p132-135
KWL Book 2 Chapter 11 Prayer p137

Prayer

General Capabilities

Australian Curriculum
Cross Curriculum Priorities		The General Capabilities
	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures		Critical and creative thinking
	Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia		Ethical understanding
	Sustainability		Information and communication technology capability
Other important learning identified by the NSW Educational Standards Authority (NESA):			Intercultural understanding
	Civics and citizenship		Literacy
	Difference and diversity		Numeracy
	Work and enterprise		Personal and social capability

B2 – Sharing in the Life of The Church