Unit Overview

In this unit, students will explore prayer and action as a means of growing in faith. They will be introduced to experiences of prayer, drawn from the rich Catholic tradition. Students will explore how Jesus taught us to pray, the place and purpose of prayer and a variety of prayer styles. Students will come to understand that it is the Holy Spirit, alive and active in our lives, that gives us the courage to follow Jesus. The unit focuses on exploring examples of people who demonstrate their faith, inspired by the Holy Spirit, lived out in prayer and action.

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Enduring Understanding

Prayer is a living relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Guided by the Holy Spirit we are able to grow in faith through prayer and action.

Objectives

A student will

value and appreciate and become aware of the various expressions of God’s presence in the world; recognise the religious diversity of humanity; acknowledge the tension between good and evil; be open to the need to integrate religion with life
develop an understanding of the action of God in creation, the reality of good and evil and the human search for meaning in Christian and other traditions
reflect on the action of God in creation; reason with appropriate information and present coherent viewpoints; recognise the reality of good and evil; make informed responses in their search for meaning

Outcomes

A student

appreciates prayer as a way of building a relationship with God. (RECVC4)
describes how Jesus demonstrated faith through prayer and action. (RECKC4)
identifies different ways of praying. (RECSC4)

Essential Questions

How can we grow in faith through prayer?
How does Jesus teach us to pray?
Moved by the Holy Spirit, how is faith nurtured through prayer and action?

Learning Focus & Statements of Learning

Students recognise prayer as a way of growing in faith by

- exploring the concept of building a relationship through communication.
- Define ‘communication’ and ‘relationship,’ making connections between the two.
- Explore life experiences and recognise the importance of building relationships in our lives.
- recognising faith as an essential part of our relationship with God.
- Explore Hebrews 11:1 The Meaning of Faith and define ‘faith’.
- Reflect on situations where a belief is needed in what cannot be seen.
- identifying prayer as building a relationship with God.
- Identify ways to communicate with God.
- Read KWL Book 4 Chapter 16 Growing in Friendship with God p129-130 and define ‘prayer’.
- Explain the different prayer forms that express different feelings and attitudes: praise, blessing, thanksgiving, sorrow and petition.
- Examine the ‘Our Father’ and the ‘Glory Be’ and identify the different prayer forms in each.
- Compose and pray different forms of prayer that build our relationship with God.

Students develop an understanding of prayer by

- exploring how Jesus taught us to pray.
- Explore Matthew 6:5-6 Concerning prayer and describe Jesus’ teaching on prayer.
- Explore Matthew 18:19-20 Gathered in my name and recognise the presence of God in communal prayer.
- Explore Mark 1:35 Jesus prays alone and recognise the purpose of personal prayer.
- identifying the times when Jesus prayed.
- Explore the times when Jesus prayed in his life by using the following scriptures:
  ○ Luke 6:12-13 – Calling of the twelve disciples – Before making decisions
  ○ Luke 3:21 – Baptism of Jesus – In times of celebrations
  ○ Matthew 19:13 – Jesus blesses the children – Blessing for others
  ○ Matthew 15:36 – Jesus gives thanks – Prayer before meals
  ○ Matthew 26:36-38 – The Garden of Gethsemane – In times of need
  ○ Luke 23:34 – Jesus on the Cross – Forgiveness of others
- recognising different ways of praying within the Church’s tradition.
- Examine different prayer forms and styles including;
  ○ Traditional prayers in KWL Book 4 Our prayers p146-150
  ○ Prayers of the Mass, including the responsorial psalm and general intercessions
  ○ Contemplative prayers
  ○ Repetitive chants
  ○ Prayers through actions/service, music/song, art, journalling
- Define ‘Christian Meditation’ and lead students through this form of prayer.
- Explore Luke 10:38-42 Mary and Martha (storytelling).
- Recognise Mary’s contemplative prayer and Martha’s prayer through action and service.
- Reflect upon Luke 10:38-42 Mary and Martha using the Lectio Divina prayer form.
- Create a prayer service focusing on Jesus’ teachings of prayer and the prayers of our Tradition.

Students deepen their understanding of faith by

- reflecting on the work of the early Church and how they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
- Explore Acts 2:1-13 The Coming of the Holy Spirit and identify how the followers of Jesus changed after they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
- Define ‘the gift of courage’ and describe how the apostles received this gift at Pentecost.
- Explore Acts 4:1-22 Peter and John before the Council (storytelling).
- Identify challenges the apostles faced and the need for God’s Spirit to give them courage to be a witness to their faith.
- Read KWL Book 4 Chapter 8 God’s Spirit Alive in the Church p60-61 and examine how the apostles and the Church were moved by the Holy Spirit.
- Research the life of a saint and explore how they were moved by the Holy Spirit to be a witness to their faith through prayer and action.
- exploring how we can respond to the Holy Spirit within us.
- Recognise times when the Holy Spirit gives us courage to be a witness to our faith.
- Compose prayers, invoking the Holy Spirit to help us act with courage.
- Celebrate a prayer service using prayers and Scripture from the unit, and KWL Book 4 Chapter 8 Our Prayer p62, asking the Holy Spirit to help us to be witnesses to our faith.

Compulsory Scripture

Unit Content 1
Hebrews 11:1 The Meaning of Faith

Unit Content 2
Matthew 6:5-6 Concerning Prayer
Matthew 18:19-20 Gathered in my name
Mark 1:35 Jesus prays alone
Luke 6:12-13 Calling of the twelve disciples
Luke 3:21 Baptism of Jesus
Matthew 19:13 Jesus prays over the children
Matthew 15:36 Jesus gives thanks
Matthew 26:36-38 The Garden of Gethsemane
Luke 23:34 Jesus on the Cross
Luke 10:38-42 Mary and Martha

Unit Content 3
Acts 2:1-13 The Coming of the Holy Spirit
Acts 4:1-22 Peter and John before the Council

Storytelling

Unit Content 2
Luke 10:38-42 Mary and Martha

Unit Content 3
Acts 4:1-22 Peter and John before the Council

Church Documents

Catechism of the Catholic Church

153 – Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. “Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and ‘makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.’

154 – Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason.

155 – In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace: “Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace.”

2558 – “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, so that the life of the faithful may be conformed to Christ in the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father. 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.

2560 – “If you knew the gift of God!” The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.

2565 – In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. The grace of the Kingdom is “the union of the entire holy and royal Trinity . . . with the whole human spirit.” Thus, the life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with him. This communion of life is always possible because, through Baptism, we have already been united with Christ. Prayer is Christian insofar as it is communion with Christ and extends throughout the Church, which is his Body. Its dimensions are those of Christ’s love.

2631 – The first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness, like the tax collector in the parable: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”¹⁰⁵

2632 – Christian petition is centered on the desire and search for the Kingdom to come, in keeping with the teaching of Christ.¹⁰⁷ There is a hierarchy in these petitions: we pray first for the Kingdom, then for what is necessary to welcome it and cooperate with its coming.

2633 – When we share in God’s saving love, we understand that every need can become the object of petition.

2638 – As in the prayer of petition, every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving.

2639 – Praise is the form of prayer which recognises most immediately that God is God. It lauds God for his own sake and gives him glory, quite beyond what he does, but simply because HE IS. By praise, the Spirit is joined to our spirits to bear witness that we are children of God. Praise embraces the other forms of prayer and carries them toward him who is its source and goal: the “one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist.”

2644 – The Holy Spirit who teaches the Church and recalls to her all that Jesus said also instructs her in the life of prayer, inspiring new expressions of the same basic forms of prayer: blessing, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise.

2645 – Because God blesses the human heart, it can in return bless him who is the source of every blessing.

2646 – Forgiveness, the quest for the Kingdom, and every true need are objects of the prayer of petition.

2647 – Prayer of intercession consists in asking on behalf of another. It knows no boundaries and extends to one’s enemies.

2648 – Every joy and suffering, every event and need can become the matter for thanksgiving which, sharing in that of Christ, should fill one’s whole life: “Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess 5:18).

2649 – Prayer of praise is entirely disinterested and rises to God, lauds him, and gives him glory for his own sake, quite beyond what he has done, but simply because HE IS.

2672 – The Holy Spirit, whose anointing permeates our whole being, is the interior Master of Christian prayer. He is the artisan of the living tradition of prayer.

2700 – Through his Word, God speaks to man. By words, mental or vocal, our prayer takes flesh. Yet it is most important that the heart should be present to him to whom we are speaking in prayer: “Whether or not our prayer is heard depends not on the number of words, but on the fervor of our souls.”

2705 – Meditation is above all a quest. The mind seeks to understand the why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking. The required attentiveness is difficult to sustain. We are usually helped by books, and Christians do not want for them: the Sacred Scriptures, particularly the Gospels, holy icons, liturgical texts of the day or season, writings of the spiritual fathers, works of spirituality, the great book of creation, and that of history – the page on which the “today” of God is written.

2709 – What is contemplative prayer? St. Teresa answers: “Contemplative prayer [oracion mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.” Contemplative prayer seeks him “whom my soul loves.” It is Jesus, and in him, the Father. We seek him, because to desire him is always the beginning of love, and we seek him in that pure faith which causes us to be born of him and to live in him. In this inner prayer we can still meditate, but our attention is fixed on the Lord himself.

KWL

Unit Content 1
KWL Book 4 Chapter 16 Growing in Friendship with God p129-130

Unit Content 2
KWL Book 4 Our prayers p146-150

Unit Content 3
KWL Book 4 Chapter 8 God’s Spirit Alive in the Church p60-61
KWL Book 4 Chapter 8 Our Prayer p62

Prayer

Prayers of Tradition
Prayers of praise, thanks, sorrow and petition
Our Father
Glory Be
Traditional prayers in KWL Book 4 Our prayers p146-150

Eucharist and Liturgical Rites

Prayers of the Mass, including the responsorial psalm and general intercessions

Praying with Scripture
Luke 10:38-42 Mary and Martha

Other Prayer Forms
Contemplative prayers
Repetitive chants
Prayers through actions/service, music/song, art, journaling

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

C4 – Faith, through Prayer and Action