A Fertile Heart - Year 11 (S) by fertileheart.org.uk

Key Stage 4 Year 11

A Fertile Heart Receiving & Giving Creative Love

Love is creative. To have a fertile heart is to love, grow and make a positive difference.

A Fertile Heart Receiving & Giving Creative Love

Children have a natural desire to love. They have a longing to make a difference. They love growing. A Fertile Heart helps them understand that these desires are all connected. God’s first words to us were, “Be fertile!” And the whole of the Bible teaches us that we are fertile through healthy, loving relationships – with God and each other. Learning to authentically and appropriately receive and give love leads to us having fertile hearts. Using the concept ‘fertile’ helps the children see the similarity between plants growing through fertile soil, sun and water, and us growing through a caring environment, love and truth.

Key Stage 4: Year 11

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love Panda Press Publishing would like to thank the following contributors to A Fertile Heart: Kathryn Lycett, John Cook, Mary Dickenson, Maryanne Dowle, Bernadette Eakin, Christopher Hancox, Louise Kirk, Gavin McAleer and Rebecca Surman Thanks also to Dr Charlie O’Donnell, Joe Smiles, Michael H. Barton, Mary Flynn, Rev Dr Stephen Morgan and Fr Wayne Coughlin for their kind support. ISBN: 978-1-9164575-3-9 A Fertile Heart KS4 Scripture quotations taken from various authorised translations. Every effort has been made to locate copyright holders and to obtain permission to reproduce sources. For those sources where it has been difficult to trace the originator of the work, we would welcome further information. If any copyright holder would like us to make an amendment, please inform us and we will update our information during the next reprint. All images and illustrations used under licence. Design © 2021 Panda Press Publishing Limited Illustrations and Images: Shutterstock All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher who can be contacted at hello@fertileheart.org.uk British Library Catalogue Publication Data. A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Printed and bound in the UK and published under licence by Panda Press Publishing Ltd, 1 Newcastle Street, Stone, Staffordshire, ST15 8JU Company Number 11786188 Printed, bound and distributed in Australia by Createl Publishing, 98 Logistics Street, Keilor Park, Victoria 3042, t: 03 9336 0800, f: 03 9336 0900, www.createl.com.au Keep in touch Facebook @afertileheart Linkedin.com/company/a-fertile-heart Twitter @afertileheart visit A Fertile Heart at www.fertileheart.org.uk Version 7, September 2021

Imprimatur:

Nihil Obstat for KS2, 3 & 4: Reverend Jonathan Veasey. Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham, 30th November 2020.

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love

04/07/2018

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Coat_of_arms_of_George_Stack.svg

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Foreword His Grace George Stack, Archbishop of Cardiff Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel “The Glory of God is humanity fully alive”. Thus wrote St. Irenaeus in the 3rd century. His words remain true to this day. They mean that God is the creator of the gift of life. In that gift, each human person receives a share in His own creative love. His revelation in life and love, as well as through creation, is pure gift. This is the ‘grace’ of which we speak, in order that “we may have life and have it to the full” (Gospel of St. John 10:10). This truth lies at the heart of the Gospel. It is what it means to be truly human. The gift of life is bestowed by God in order that we may flourish and thrive. We do this in the first place simply by living with gratitude. We do it by responding to His love in a life of joyful communion with Him. We express it by actively engaging in the good of others so that mutual ‘flourishing’ may take place. The more we give, the more we receive. The ‘Gospel of Life’ outlined above is, indeed, ‘Good News’. It is revealed in every aspect of human nature and creation itself. This is the life-giving teaching we seek to hand on to our children who are “the messages we send to tomorrow”. The Rite of Baptism reminds us that parents are the first and best teachers of their children. The Catholic school exists primarily to educate children to receive and respond to God’s love for each one of them and for all. Our schools are designed to help parents fulfil their God given task of caring for their children in the school of love. The Catholic school is not just a place for professional education – existing for improvement in learning - important though that is. It is a place of formation, a place in which ‘lessons for life’ are imparted, received and shared. The whole school community teaches and learns these lessons in a truly Catholic environment. Human relationships are obviously at the heart of life and flourishing. We are made to relate to each other, body, mind and spirit. The physical, emotional and spiritual reality of our being are part and parcel of the ‘holy trinity’ of each one of us. Thus affective sexuality education is a crucial part of human formation. A Fertile Heart is the culmination of several years work of dedicated individuals [teachers, theologians, education advisers and parents] from within the dioceses of Birmingham, Cardiff, Clifton, Arundel and Brighton and Shrewsbury. They have worked tirelessly to create a resource which puts the human person and the flourishing of our pupils at the heart of the Catholic school. It is offered as an important aid to pupils, parents, teachers, governors and clergy to remind us all that “We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning God had meant us to live it” (Ephesians 2:10).

Introduction If you don’t know how a car works, you’re not likely to be able to fix it. If you don’t know something about how crops grow, you’re not likely to be a great farmer. If you don’t understand a mobile phone, you’re not likely to get the most out of it. Understanding what it is to be a human person will help us know how to think and act, and so be happy and fulfilled. This booklet is part of a curriculum that goes from Reception to Y11, comprising ten modules every KS4 year. A Fertile Heart offers you a vision of what it is to be human, helping you to understand yourself more deeply, and therefore make better, more informed choices. An important dimension to being human is the need for love and relationship. Another is the desire to grow and make a meaningful difference. It is important to see the connection between growing and love: love helps us grow, true growth helps us love more. We can only truly grow and make a meaningful difference if we understand our meaning and purpose, which itself comes from each of us understanding who I really am. So, we first need to understand ourselves in our given-ness - including what it is to be human - and in our uniqueness - our personhood, thinking and choices. That is quite hard to understand at first, but basically I didn’t decide to be human, or the make-up of who I start out as - so I have to understand my ‘starting point’. Then I need to understand the end to which I am called - what full human maturity is - to be as loving as God. Once I know where I’m coming from, and where I am going, I can also understand my amazing ability to cooperate in growing, in becoming that person - and in helping others to do the same! Key to gaining correct self-understanding is the ability to think correctly. If we don’t get that process right we won’t understand ourselves correctly: we’ll be fooled by pressures that tempt us to sell ourselves short. It is truth, and our ability to reason, that protect us from this. Reason and faith are friends. We are often told that they are not, but if any faith belief is irrational, it is clearly wrong. Instead, authentic faith strengthens reason and opens it up to deeper realities. Please don’t be fooled into a false choice between faith and reason - we need them both to grow. The modules agree with the Catholic faith, but are founded on reason - and are therefore able to be received by all students - of all faiths, and none. They reflect logically on human experience, and encourage you to gradually learn to do the same. Central to the understanding of being human is that we are called to be ‘fertile’ - to grow and make a difference. We love doing both. What is important to understand is that, at its deepest reality, all creativity, all ‘fertility’, comes, not simply from the things we do, but rather, from the communion of loving persons. This love is revealed in what we call ‘reciprocal complementarity’. Reciprocal complementarity is when, as well as the equality of each person, the God-given differences between persons shape the relationship between them in a bond of mutual love. If you think of a doubles tennis partnership - it develops from both persons developing their own ability, and deepening the understanding and team work of the partnership. All reciprocal complementarity works like this. Reciprocal complementarity is true within God himself, of the relationship of each of us with God, and our relationships with each other. Within this creativity is the fertility of procreation, but so are all dimensions of creativity and growth. This course seeks to help you understand your deeper fertility at the heart of your personhood, and your ability to cooperate with others for the good of all. This will allow you to gradually understand your biological fertility within this deeper, richer understanding of the communion of persons. From this we can understand marriage and therefore, sexuality, sex and parenthood in a richer, beautiful way. This curriculum is not dumbed down. Some of the concepts dealt with might challenge and stretch you, but the modules have been tried and tested and found to really engage and lead on young persons. Please persevere in them. And if you do, you will find the self-knowledge gained helps you in all your other subjects, too. Whatever family you come from, we are confident you will understand the examples we use to reflect on the importance of love. And with love there always comes joy, so we do ask you to enjoy these modules too, by entering into them and engaging with your teacher and class. It would also really help if parents or others at home could join in, too. Every week your teacher may give you one of the activities to go back home with for discussion. That way, we all join in the journey, and hopefully all grow and enjoy it.

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love

We move, in Y10, to thinking about how sex is meant to be a means of giving myself in love. For sex to be meaningful and the persons to be authentic, this genuine self-giving has to be given much more importance than simply learning about its physical and biological dimensions. Y10 starts, then, with understanding the importance of self-reflection: as Karl Jung said, “who looks outside dreams, who looks inside awakens”. By honestly looking inside, I can gradually learn to govern myself through better choices, and so possess myself more. This means I am able to give myself more, because I cannot give what I don’t possess. This is true of all my personhood, including my sexuality. Knowing this helps me in my relationships, because I focus on the things that really matter. To have confidence to make that journey within, you have to trust that you are loved and already beautiful within (10a). A difficult concept to understand is that there is an objective dimension to love and a subjective one: a given-ness and a choice (10b). The given-ness offers direction; the personal choice gives movement. It is the inner journey that most reveals the objective dimension. It is worth persevering with this difficult concept as it really does open up an understanding of true growth and freedom. Actually making the journey within requires stillness and a focus on being and on love; panic and over-busy-ness work against this (10c). Within personhood we discover masculinity or femininity, at the heart of which is the complementary dynamic of loving so as to be loved more, and being loved so as to love more (10d). Sex should express this dynamic within a communion of persons, and so complement every other aspect of the relationship (10e). For sexuality to fully be a vehicle of self-gift to the other, it first has to be offered to God in chastity (10f ). This gives it its right objective dimension. Otherwise, people get very hurt. Thus, understanding one’s fertility more allows for it to be offered more authentically, resulting in deeper joy (10g). The bonds of love connected with marital love - between spouses and between parent and child - are reflected and supported, chemically, by oxytocin and vasopressin (10h). We finally look at two different dimensions of fertility. Suffering, initially, seems the opposite of fertility - a decrease rather than an increase. However, when undergone in love, it becomes a decreasing for the other, which is taken up into the greatest fertility of all (10i). The workplace shows that work reflects marriage in a central way: it is in relationship, as a communion of persons, that we are most creative (10j). We have, obviously, covered most of the course already. Much of Y11 now focuses on virtue: how to think and act best, and in accord with our nature. We have, say, the virtue of patience, when we naturally are patient in every circumstance. That doesn’t come easily! The more we understand patience, the more we will want to be patient. Every time we chose to be patient, against what our emotions are telling us, we do become more patient in ourselves. So, if we keep choosing patience, we gradually find it easier and easier to be patient. Practice makes perfect! It becomes a virtue when there is no longer any battle going on within me: my intellect, will and emotions all ‘point the same way’. As we said, this isn’t easy, but it is worth the effort! We start this year with a summary of much of what has gone on before: The Fertile Person, uniquely expressed through our sexuality (11a). Then we look at the intellectual virtues: how we seek to discern truth, not decide it, through reflecting on our sense perception and emotions, and trying to understand them ever more deeply (11b). Then we move onto the four moral - often called ‘cardinal’ - virtues. Prudence is applying well the general understanding we have to specific situations. Modules 11c & d seek to do this for various situations relevant to your year group. Next we look at justice - something Y11s normally have a great passion for (11e)! Then we reflect on temperance (11f ) and fortitude (or courage, 11g) which are focused on the connected impulses of living and growing, and of not dying or suffering. The whole curriculum then finishes with a deepened revisit of the beauty and dignity of the ability to share in the creation of a new human person (11h); a reflection on our role as stewards in passing on, to the next generation, the gift of creation, enhanced by our efforts (11i); and lastly, the amazing fertility of forgiveness, which allows the other person to get up and try again - without which, all the theory in the world is useless because we all fail so often (11j). Enjoy the course - and, together, change the world through your fertile hearts and minds!

Glossary Person A rational being for whom relationship is central to their fulfilment and happiness. This is a richer understanding than ‘individual’, which can mean a thinking being whose fulfilment is found primarily in themselves. Fertility The capacity to cooperate in growth. We are not Creators, but we are not sterile either: we can cooperate in our own growth, the growth of the other and the relationship between us. We tend to think in terms of babies when we hear the word fertile, but you can have fertile crops or a fertile imagination or intellect, etc. Understanding fertility in this broader sense helps us understand that it is as a person that you are fertile, not primarily as a gender: every person is called to be fertile in this sense and every person can be. It is through communion with God and each other, in love, that we are most fertile. Freedom The ability to readily act in complete accord with my true nature - in harmony with who I truly am. True human freedom always seeks truth and love. The false understanding of freedom is to be able to do what I like. Tolerance Respect for the other’s true freedom. (So, if we misunderstand freedom, we will misunderstand tolerance as well.) Nature The given-ness of something, of who I am. Justice Acting in accord with the nature of things. Joy The deepest experience of being alive, growing, and being in life-giving relationship; of being and living in accord with who I truly am. Initiator The one who takes a lead in a relationship of love: not a controller or someone who dominates, but one who initiates out of love for the other. In turn, the initiator receives from the receiver & responder. Receiver & Responder The one who first receives from the initiator in a communion of love, and loves in return by accepting the love offered and responding to it. In the Bible, this receiving of love is often called obedience or submission, but in a respectful way that is in no way demeaning, and is fulfilled in the response - often an initiating in itself - being then received by the initiator, and responded to, etc. - resulting in a life-giving relationship of mutual submission and respect. Reciprocal Complementarity This is the relationship of love between initiator and receiver & responder, where both persons benefit from the other and their genuine differences enrich each other. It helps us see how right order in relationship does not mean domination, but rather can be mutually beneficial. It can be seen that the three above definitions are interconnected. This relationship is primarily between persons, but can also be between things - such as reason and emotions. Appropriate Vulnerability Relationship and intimacy require a certain vulnerability on behalf of both persons. Especially as we are growing, we can tend towards too little vulnerability or too much. Appropriate vulnerability is the ability to allow one’s relationships to grow steadily and with appropriate boundaries, that benefit both persons.

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love

Year 11 Modules a-j

Contents: Year 11 Much of Year 11 focuses on virtue - particularly on the seven virtues that Greek philosophy and Christian theology have called us to, for 2,500 years. We begin with a summary of what it means to be a fertile person personally sharing in God’s creativity. Then we look at the importance of discerning, not deciding, truth in our growth. This leads us to explore prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. We finish the whole curriculum with three important modules on: the unity of marriage, sex and family; the importance of being stewards of the planet for future generations; and the fertility of mercy - without which we are all diminished, because we all have done wrong. Module 11a: The Fertile Person and Sexuality To recap on what it means to be a fertile person, and to understand my ‘fertility’ and sexuality in the context of sharing in the creative power of God. Module 11b: The Intellectual Virtues To know how to think. To apply right-thinking skills so as to arrive at truth. Module 11c: Prudence Part 1 To know what is meant by ‘prudence’ as a virtue. To evaluate its usefulness in helping us to grow. To know what obstacles can prevent us from making prudent decisions. Module 11d: Prudence Part 2 To deepen our understanding of the virtue of prudence, by looking at real life situations and dilemmas. Module 11e: Justice To know what is meant by the virtue ‘justice’, and how to apply it responsibly in the context of relationships. Module 11f: Temperance To understand what the virtue of temperance is, and how it is linked to happiness and true growth. Module 11g: Courage or Fortitude To understand what the virtue of courage or fortitude is, and how it is important in standing up to adversity and to others seeking to make me into something I am not. Module 11h: The Gift of Human Life To understand more the integration of love, life and joy, particularly in reference to cooperating in the gift of human life. It is this integration that enables us to grow as persons, not simply as individuals. Module 11i: Stewards of Our Future To understand that to be a person includes thinking in terms of our future, to understand ourselves as stewards for those who follow us, to be a co-operator: this affects all our morality - how we treat ourselves, others and the planet. Module 11j: Forgiveness To understand more the centrality of forgiveness in any human relationship: the fertility of mercy.

11a

The Fertile Person and Sexuality

Learning Objectives To recap prior learning on what it means to be a fertile person. To evaluate my understanding of ‘fertility’ in the context of an authentic understanding of sexuality. Activity 1: Watch ‘The Kalam Cosmological Argument (4:12) https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=6CulBuMCLg0 and discuss…is it reasonable? Step 1

“Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Isaiah 64:8.

It is possible to know that you and I have been made by God. We have the ability to work this out for ourselves using reason alone. This means that we can each realise that we did not create ourselves and that the universe did not give itself order and purpose and beauty. I can struggle with why God allows suffering; I can wrestle with how God can offer a personal relationship with me; I can be aware that part of me would quite like there not to be a God, so that I can decide what is right and wrong, and do what I choose - but none of these affect the existence of God. It’s just a basic principle that nothing physical is the cause of itself. We may ask questions about who God is. How can I experience him in my everyday life? Why so many rules? But none of this affects the logic that there must be a God, because otherwise there would be nothing. Indeed, God must be a person, because only a person can create with order and purpose; only an uncreated person could create persons. My ability to reason and to create must be a reflection of God’s supreme ability to do all this and more. I am a reflection of Him.

Let God mould you.

So, I need to ask, “for what purpose am I created?”

Key Point One of the first things we discern about God is that he creates. He creates us in his image. It follows logically that we are also in some way, called to create. We call our ability to co-operate with God in his creativity, our fertility, which at its deepest level is spiritual. Co-creating! Step 2 Fertility is co-operating in God’s creativity - helping us and others to grow. All actions that are good unite us and are spiritually fertile - helping growth. All actions that are evil or wrong isolate us and are, ultimately, sterile and not lifegiving. Human persons were created to make a difference - to be fertile - and to belong in community and live in relationship with one another. Good actions achieve this and so, over time, make us happy. Step 3 Sexuality and fertility: it is our personhood that defines us, not our sexuality. However the communion of persons of husband and wife clearly reflects the Trinity’s life of love and creativity. You have an amazing capacity to share in the creation of a new human person. That simple truth needs stillness and awe to truly absorb. No earthly achievements match the dignity and beauty of that reality. It is one of the greatest gifts you have; it is one of the greatest gifts you can give. 32

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love

Suggested Activities 1. Think of as many different ways as possible in which you are creative. (The list should be quite long). 2. Think of three things you enjoy, which are made even more enjoyable when you share that activity with others. How true is it that we experience the greatest happiness when we share what we love with others?

This is what defines sex. We instinctively know that sex is special; that it is meant to be connected with love. We tend to call it ‘making love’ even when, on reflection, it can be more acted out in lust than love. Lust is about ‘me and my wants’ and so damages the true definition of giving and receiving love. Being guided by truth, and only acting with genuine, informed consent, protects us from hurting each other out of lust. Because this act of self-giving is linked to our biological capacity to be fertile, it is a matter of logic to see that the two are inseparable. In authentic sex, the husband enters his wife with his whole personhood - body and soul; the wife opens up her whole personhood, body and soul, to receive him. It is not just that the man and woman’s bodies unite; the two persons unite as one. It is a bond whose purpose is to be fertile. In authentic sex, the husband enters his wife with his whole personhood including his soul; the wife opens up her soul to receive him. Removing the biologically fertile dimension of sex removes its spiritual fertility too - its meaning and its purpose. It can reduce sex to a merely emotional need, like comfort eating or retail therapy, when it is so much more than that.

3. Consider the idea that your abilities (sporting, musical, culinary, comedic) only achieve their fulfilment when used with other people. E.g. is it possible to be an excellent footballer without ever having played in a team? 4. Consider some ways of using the following for good, helping give life, or of using wrongly, in a sterile (not fertile) way: a knife, a chair, a cricket bat, an Instagram account, a friend, a person I love. What outcomes would you expect? 5. Do you think the arguments in this module are reasonable? Which argument do you most agree / disagree with? Say why.

This means that when sex is fertile - between husband and wife in a lifelong committed relationship, with the possibility of creating a child - it takes on its full meaning.

Summary Reason tells us that God created us. He is the Creator and he invites us to share in his creativity, within a communion of persons. So, you and I are fertile persons, created for greatness. Our good acts give life and unite; when used wrongly they isolate and are sterile. The sexual relationship is an amazing gift in itself, and reveals the pattern of all true human fertility. This lesson is a summary of much of what we have reflected on in this course, and leads on to us exploring how growth in virtue helps us in our growth as happy, fulfilled fertile persons.

11b

The Intellectual Virtues

Learning Objectives To know how to think. To apply right-thinking skills to arrive at truth.

“The educated intellect is disposed toward attaining truth.”

Key Words

Aristotle.

Discernment – coming to an understanding of what is true. Individualism – making decisions based on what I think is right for me. Step 1 Imagine you see the most perfect pair of trainers/new phone while out shopping with your friends. How do you react? You are attracted to this potential purchase. However, it is very expensive and you don’t really need it. And you only have enough money to pay for half the cost of it. But, you do want them. It would mean blowing all your savings on them and asking for the rest of the money from family, but it would be so cool. It’s not fair to ask mum or dad for more money but, things have been a bit unfair on you recently. The more you think about it, the more you realise that maybe this purchase is within your reach after all…. Can you work out what has happened? How did you move from, ‘no, I can’t afford them’ to, ‘Yes I can’? What about this: A dog sees some meat. His impulse is to take it - unless he has been carefully and very strongly trained not to. Either way, he follows his instinct - to eat meat, or to obey the ‘head of the pack’. You will never see a dog pondering about whether to leave the meat till later. Step 2: Humans have choices

No. Yes.

When you were younger you might have reacted a bit like that dog when you saw chocolate, but there’s no freedom in following instincts. As you grow older, you learn about sharing, about diet and about self-control - your intellect helps you see factors that aren’t immediately visible, but are no less real. You gain greater freedom when you apply reason to your impulses. So, you won’t always buy and eat chocolate every time you feel a bit peckish. Your informed intellect tells you that this is not good for you. This is what makes humans unique on earth. When I apply reason to my impulses I am thinking. When I allow my impulses to come up with false arguments I am rationalising. Step 3 Head or heart? People often say “should I follow my head or my heart”. However, this question doesn’t actually make sense: we wouldn’t think of saying, “shall I be rational or irrational today?” The head gives direction; then the heart gives movement. Intellect is vital in helping us understand ourselves and the rest of reality. Without it we cannot possibly hope to relate well to God, to others or to creation. Intellect helps us understand truth - what is real. It allows you to truly become a person. We wouldn’t spend so long at school if intellect wasn’t so important! 34

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love

A false tension.

A truth about each of us is that we tend to want to believe that “I can decide what’s best for me”. The idea of having to apply reason to my impulses (this is also called discernment) is challenging. It is especially challenging having someone else telling me what’s best for me! Activity 1: Using the downloadable worksheet from 10b - on ‘subjective and objective love’ - apply this process to today’s scenarios. When a teacher tries to explain how glaciers or crystals are formed, if you don’t understand, then you automatically assume it’s you that isn’t getting it and that you need to listen again. But if a teacher explains how we are formed and how we should behave and we don’t get it, then it is so easy to decide they don’t know what they are talking about. Of course that teacher could be wrong, but it is important to be aware of something much deeper going on inside us - that we don’t want them to be right. This is at the heart of individualism – wanting to decide what is true, because of thinking that having my way makes me happy. Watch https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=LZVRl0D2DPU Individualism: Is it a good or bad thing? (2:31). Personalism sees our uniqueness, but also our fulfilment being in relationship not in self.

“Wisdom is brilliant, she never fades. By those who love her, she is readily seen, by those who seek her, she is readily found.” Wis. 6:12.

Suggested Activities 1. When it comes to making decisions about things, are you ruled by your heart or your head? Why? Give an example. 2. Think of a time when someone in authority made a decision for you about something. In retrospect, was the decision they made on your behalf, the right one for you? Would your choice have been better?

Step 4

Trust should be rational: it is rational to trust in God

Joy takes effort; pleasure often doesn’t. And so we are often tempted to ignore the truth that joy is better than pleasure. This is made harder for us by the idea that if we can’t see it, it doesn’t exist. We don’t actually believe that in most of life, but we are told to believe it regarding God and life. If we are just physical beings, simply random, colliding particles, how can anything our brain tells us be trusted? Activity 2: Discuss whether rationally discerning God’s existence is a weakness or a strength. Does it make me more rational or less? How will ‘deciding’ God’s existence by emotion affect a person’s rationality in general?

Summary Our ability to think is central to being a person. The process of thinking correctly is hugely important to truly growing as a person. In the way, is the strength of our emotions tempting us to rationalise. Central to right thinking is co-operation with God - we cannot truly gain wisdom without thinking about him and learning from him: but working against this, there is a deep desire in us for what I think or feel to be true instead. The virtues of Intelligence, Wisdom and Understanding grow when we seek his truth.

3. Why didn’t you check this morning that your bus driver had passed his test and had good eyesight before you got on his bus? Why won’t you check that the water from the kitchen tap is alright to drink? 4. Design a screen shot of a 100 word text message of a summary of today’s lesson for a friend who was absent. 5. ‘Our ability to reason is more important than our emotions.’ Evaluate this statement showing you have considered more than one point of view. Give your own concluding thoughts to sum up.

11c

Prudence Part 1

Learning Objectives To know what is meant by ‘prudence’ ” as a virtue. To evaluate its usefulness in helping us to grow. To know what obstacles can prevent us from making prudent decisions. Step 1

“The prudent person looks where they are going.” Proverbs 14:15.

How much sleep do I need? What do I do about lustful thoughts? What’s my attitude towards alcohol: can I see myself enjoying it without overdoing it? How do I learn to love me and how I look? How far is it loving to go with my boyfriend/girlfriend? These are some of the important decisions that may be coming up for you. If we are going to be happy, then they need answering in a rational and virtuous way. Then there are the everyday little decisions: Do I hold the door open for another person to walk through, or do I walk straight through? If a friend tells me something uncomfortable about another person, how do I react? If I receive a text that upsets me, how do I react? Some prudence is true for all of us. It is prudent to have a balance of work and recreation, of rest and exercise, of food and drink. We know that excess of these good things can make us unhappy. Some prudence is personal. As I get to know my own strengths and weaknesses, I can make good decisions to help me be happy. For example, it is never right to look at pornography on the internet: it degrades you and others and you are worth more than that. Therefore, it is prudent not to have internet in our bedrooms, because all of us need accountability to keep us honest. It is prudent not to use the internet late at night, because that’s when we can be tempted more.

If I receive a text that upsets me...

It is not wrong to have internet in your bedroom, or to use it late at night. Internet access is itself morally neutral. However, the prudent person, who genuinely wants to grow, will put sensible boundaries on themselves to help them become the person they want to become. Watch https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=8AR19NAqYU0 The Cardinal Virtues, Pt. 1: Prudence (2:30). This video shows that the great Greek philosophers and Christianity, both saw the importance of prudence: reason and faith tell us this, and so it is logical both to ask God for prudence (faith) and seek it through reason and dialogue - it is not either/or, but both/and. Step 2 In the light of that, let’s look again at the questions at the start of the lesson. If we apply prudence, how different are the answers?

A good process.

How much sleep do I need? The answer is about 8 hours on average, perhaps more when you’re a teenager. From experience, you might know that you need more, or can manage on 6 hours. A prudent answer is honest. So, if we are deciding that actually we can survive on six hours simply because we’d rather spend more time staying up late, then we are being unfair to ourselves. We are rationalising, not thinking. Healthy sleep is linked to a good routine so, no matter how much we wish it, 3am-11am is not the same as 11pm-7am! And then there’s knowing how to keep to the routine! Prudence requires discipline. What do I do about lustful thoughts? The more we understand the beauty of relationship, personhood and love, the less we are inclined to have lustful thoughts. But that doesn’t stop them entering our heads, especially as our culture is highly sexualised. Prudence rejects excess. 36

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Our reason tells us it is wrong, not good for us. Prudence tells us to be careful what we look at around us and listen to. We get clear advice on what to feed our bodies (5 a day, not too much salt or saturated fat etc.) but do we pay attention to what we ‘feed’ our intellect? For example, spending two hours watching back to back music videos can harm us. We can tell ourselves that it doesn’t matter what we watch or listen to, but prudence shows us that it does matter. Even scientific research shows that exposure to sexualised images over time actually changes parts of the brain that help us to make fine judgements and apply selfcontrol. This should make us think seriously about what we choose to watch and how we handle our thoughts. One of the best ways to manage lustful thoughts is to find something else to do or to or to think about (Phil. 4:8-9) - and to not get stressed about it all. Calmly choose the good.

Suggested Activities 1. Design a poster that explains to younger pupils why prudence is such an important virtue. 2. In pairs work out a practical 5 point action plan that someone who is addicted to pornography could use to help them quit. 3. Ordering. Look up the 7 ‘deadly’ sins and order them into which you think are the most serious and why. 4.”You don’t need prudence - just do whatever you want to do. Go for it!” Using real life examples write an evaluation of this statement that shows you have thought about more than one point of view. Write your own concluding viewpoint.

because

Key Point Remember ‘the Prodigal Son’? He rejected his father and made short-term decisions based on his own pleasure - that seemed right to him because he was already going in the wrong direction. It was only when things went so wrong that he couldn’t pretend any longer, that he ‘came to his senses’ (Lk. 15:17), realised he was in a ‘far country’ (Lk.15:13) and took the prudent decision to go back home.

Summary Prudence is the ability to think through practical questions wisely. It helps us to see where we are going and to make good choices. Prudence stems from thoughtfulness and leads to boundaries that protect and nurture life. “Prudence is right reason in action.” Thomas Aquinas.

11d

Prudence Part 2

Learning Objective To deepen our understanding of the virtue of prudence, by looking at real life situations and dilemmas. For this module it would be prudent for pupils to skim read the last module. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIR5vjq0QUg Tomkin Prudence (2:00).

“Prudence is the footprint of Wisdom.” Amos Bronson Alcott.

Step 1 Prudence in action. How do I appropriately enjoy alcohol as I get older? We have created a popular culture that gives us the message that the best way to have a good time is to drink to excess. It is seen as amusing to boast about how much you drank and how it ‘wrecked’ you. Prudence asks us to stop, to be aware of our senses and to question this popular belief. Our intellect tells us that getting very drunk causes us to: lose control of our will; even to forget what we did or said; to forget what was done to me, and to be physically unwell afterwards. Drinking to excess is what we might term a ‘dis-ordered inclination’ and so we have to apply reason and prudence to how we manage alcohol, which itself, enjoyed in moderation is a very good thing that usually promotes our social well-being. Of course, drinking alcohol itself lowers our ability to be discerning and prudent, which is why it is illegal to drink in public places before reaching adulthood. If we are honest, what makes us truly happy is when we connect positively with others. Alcohol can benefit this sometimes, but it is not itself the cause of the happiness. The relationship with others is the cause, not the alcohol. It takes a prudent mind-set in today’s culture to be aware of this.

All of us are loveable; all of us attractive.

Step 2

Applying prudence to alcohol consumption.

How do I learn to love myself and how I look? Just as with alcohol, our culture promotes a false idea of what beauty is. Activity 1: Watch ‘Beauty Pressure’ (1:20) and discuss https://www.youtube.com watch?v=Ei6JvK0W60I Beauty is about the whole person. Appearance may be what initially attracts someone towards us and vice-versa, but it is who we are that ultimately attracts. Beauty, fame and money can get in the way sometimes because then people less often see the real ‘you’. Intellect and wisdom can teach you that it is love, relationship and being a person that counts and that you are in relationship with God who loves you completely. When you realise this truth about yourself, 38

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it will free you and you will be surprised how attractive this is to others! The painful truth is that we don’t always feel beautiful or attractive as we are growing up. But remember that emotions and feelings are only one part of the bigger picture. Prudence teaches us to gradually, appropriately, let ourselves be loved for who we are, and to not panic about feeling unloved. This is what you and I were created for: to give and to receive love. If we start to believe the lie that we are unattractive and therefore unlovable, it starts a cycle of isolation that can take years to undo. Both sexes can slide into this ‘I am unattractive and unlovable’ mindset, though in differing ways. Sometimes the temptation is to spend money on clothes, cosmetics, games and friends to ‘fix’ it. Lack of prudence could tempt us to take actions based on, ‘I’ll show them’, and this might lead to drastic actions that lead to hurt and regret. It may sound surprising but you will actually find that being a modest, good-humoured and rational person who practices prudence in their relationships makes you very attractive to the people around you. Step 3 How far is it loving to go with my boyfriend/girlfriend? Prudence helps us understand what is life-giving in a relationship and what isn’t. We have to be aware of the strength of sexual impulses and hormones. Our sexuality is a very important part of our identity but it does not define us as persons. We also live in a culture that suggests to us that spontaneous passion is more loving than rational consent. It isn’t. To believe it is can lead us down a path that is dangerous and harmful to us. Being aware of how party atmosphere, alcohol, drugs and such can affect our decision in the moment may protect us from regrets. The UK Sexual Offences Act 2003 speaks of both persons having ‘the freedom and capacity’ to give sexual consent - which can definitely be inhibited by drugs or alcohol. Furthermore, it is prudent to realise that biologically, all sexual activity is directed towards genital intercourse. Thus, the further one goes down that path, the harder it is to not go all the way. To put it clearly: it is unrealistic to expect genitals to be sexually aroused and then simply stop. The normative advice must be to leave them alone until marriage. It is fair to say that lots of relationships have suffered, and been broken, by getting too sexual too early, instead of waiting. This is even truer, the younger you are.

Suggested Activities 1. Write a short poem/rap or song that shows you have understood what prudence is. 2. Produce a handout on the topic of prudence for someone who has been away from class for the last 2 weeks. 3. Is free will more about being able to choose what I want when I want, or about having the ability to make informed choices, and give informed consent? Discuss. 4. How could you try to act with prudence when in a group that is starting to behave unwisely at a party or in town? How could you convince them that prudence is the best way?

Step 4 Maintaining healthy relationships. Prudence also means building relationships on communication and friendship rather than sex. Meeting in groups, meeting different people, having a wide circle of friends and interests tends to be healthier than being intense and exclusive with one person. Remember, we are persons who have reason and intellect and the ability to exercise self-control but our emotions are strong. So, just like with alcohol or social media, don’t put yourself in temptation’s way if you know where it might lead. Be prudent. Practise saying “No, I don’t want to do that.” That is a positive act of love, not one of cowardice.

Shared friendship is healthier than over-intensity.

Summary The virtue of prudence directs all the moral virtues, for prudence is the ability to recognise what is right, in the here and now. After all, someone who wants to lead a good life, must, first, know what the ‘good’ is, recognise its worth, and be able to act in harmony with it.

11e

Justice

Learning Objectives To know what is meant by ‘justice’ as a virtue. To know how to apply justice responsibly in the context of relationships.

“This is what the Lord asks of you, only this: that you act justly, that you love tenderly, that you walk humbly with your God.” Micah 8:6.

Step 1 How often do we see and hear people in the media and elsewhere demanding justice? We all have a sense of what we mean by justice and fairness. Young people have a reputation for being passionate about fairness and equality. We would, surely, all agree that justice is essential to a society that we want to live in. But we need to be clear what we mean by these words. Justice is primarily about relationship, not about individuals. It is easy to lose sight of this and then ‘justice’ starts to mean different things such as ‘me and my rights’ with less focus on ‘me and my responsibility to act justly.’

How do we justly share food?

True justice means that as well as desiring justice for myself, I should also desire it for you. Justice is objective: the rule of justice applies at all times - to you, me and everyone. There can never be a time when it is okay to be unjust, because, for instance, I was unjustly treated about something else. Justice seeks to have God and all persons treated fairly. To give no time to God after he has created me would be unjust. To never thank those at home who cook our meals and wash our clothes would be unjust. To look down on another person as less important than me would be unjust. Step 2 Imagine you are in the kitchen, hungry, with a whole pizza, and no-one else is expected. The question of justice does not arise because there is only one person: you. There are no relationships to consider. There are no justice or fairness issues about how much of the pizza you should eat. It’s up to you - you might be greedy but you can’t be unjust. Then Max comes in and he’s hungry. How much of the pizza should you and he have? You might split it 50/50. However, there are factors to consider: who made or bought the pizza? Was the other person working while the pizza was being made or bought or heated, or just hanging around? Will you both help with the washing up? You can probably think of other factors that might affect this question of ‘Pizza Justice’. Discussing these is not going to lead to a mathematical formula that gives an exact answer, but it might incline you both to agree that one person should have a bit more than the other. In justice, both people should be seeking the just share.

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The right to life is greater than the right to choose.

Step 3 So, when it comes to what we call Distributive Justice - how we share things out - we aim for a just share that takes into account many factors, rather than just aiming for equality. This is true even in more important situations than sharing a pizza. The basic starting point is that all persons are of equal dignity, but because of unequal situations, or what they have done, or what their needs are, what is ‘just’ may lean towards one person more than another. There is also what we call Commutative Justice - balancing one person’s rights with another person’s. To help with this it is important to understand a hierarchy of rights. Some rights are more important than others. The right to life of the innocent person comes first. Everyone also has a right to freedom, all things being equal. However, if someone is found to act in a way that hurts other people - a crime - then the right of others to live safely is more important. So we might punish the criminal, depriving him of his right to freedom, which he loses for the sake of the greater right of everyone else to life and safety. Activity 1: Discuss: What is justice? Why is it important? Together come up with a hierarchy of rights for human persons. Include: food, a home, freedom of movement, life, freedom of religion, choice, safety, education. Other examples of the hierarchy of rights include the unborn baby’s right to life being greater than the mother’s right to choose, and similarly your right to life being greater than my right to do anything that damages your health (e.g. smoking in confined public areas). You have a right to freedom of speech, but my right to life and safety means you haven’t got a right to incite hatred against me. Hopefully, you can see that there is no such thing as an unqualified right to do and say as we please: all rights are safe-guarded by responsibilities towards others. So, true freedom is not ‘doing as I please’ but instead, the freedom to do what is right. Justice cannot be separated from truth and peace. An unjust action soon disrupts the peace in school, at home and in relationship. Step 4 We can agree that all persons should receive a fair wage for their work, but am I willing to buy fairly-traded goods to show that I mean what I believe? Activity 2. Watch the refugees who make our clothes (2:40). Discuss. https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=3tf6qc51Kbw I might disagree with bullying and unjust discrimination, but will I speak out against it, even if it means facing the bully myself? Do I really want to be made aware of the injustices in the world, or would I prefer to look the other way and avoid getting involved? After all, I didn’t start it.

Suggested Activities 1. Create your own mind map or word cloud on the theme of Justice. 2. Using examples explain what is meant by a ‘hierarchy of rights’. 3. Work with a partner and write out a hierarchy of rights for human beings. 4. Objective Justice means that someone’s right to life is always more important than other person’s right to choose. Debate this in class. Apply it to an unborn baby. 5. “Survival of the fittest is the law of the jungle so we don’t need justice”. Evaluate this statement using arguments from different viewpoints. 6. Research someone who worked for justice: Leonard Cheshire and Sue Ryder; Dorothy Day; Elizabeth Fry; Millicent Fawcett; Greta Thunberg; Carol and Paddy Henderson; Malala Yousafzai.

Summary We all have a passion for justice. We have to make sure it doesn’t die or become just a passion for my rights. Justice is seeking to give everyone what is their due: this takes discernment in concrete situations, and an understanding of the hierarchy of rights, and of what true freedom is. Justice is linked to truth, peace and mercy. Striving for justice costs - but it is very much worth it.

Either Activity 3a: Watch this excellent video explaining what justice really is (6:17). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A14THPoc4-4 Or Activity 3b: Watch this video explaining a significant problem in the developing world, and how one charity seeks to do something about it. Mary’s Meals (4:19). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8mgNM8U13M

11f

Temperance

Learning Objective To understand what the virtue of temperance is, and how it is linked to happiness and true growth.

Key Word Temperance: The virtue of moderation linked to our concupiscent impulses. It helps us live and grow in the right way.

“Moderation (temperance) is a virtue because immoderate behaviour proves to be a destructive force in all areas of life.” YouCat 304.

Step 1 How do we know when something we eat is good for us? There are many factors including what we are taught, and trial and error. Another factor, though, is your sensitive appetite - your emotional reaction to it. We have an immediate reaction to any foods, which is affected by all sorts of things, connected with how we are at the moment and our past experiences of eating it. However, to start with, this emotional reaction is often based more on any pleasant feeling I get from eating it, which may or may not be connected with whether it is nutritious. We all know this: vegetables and fruit are good for us... but perhaps we get more excited about chocolate, cake and biscuits! Sugary food and caffeine drinks might give us a blood-rush and overcome our tiredness, but not in a way that is sustainable.

Excess blinds us.

Keeping unhealthy food at bay. Step 2 As with everything else in our lives, we need to nurture the process of getting in touch with our emotions, but letting truth and reason shape them. I know that chocolate bars are enjoyable but calorific, so I will have some chocolate, but not too much. I know that water is good for me, so I will drink some during the day, even if I don’t have a desire for it. This means we listen to our desires, but not too much - and we learn to say no to them sometimes, and to form other desires in ourselves. All this actually helps form my personhood. Every time I say no to something that attracts me, but isn’t good for me at this moment, I strengthen my will and weaken the emotional impulse. Every time I say yes to something that is good for me I strengthen the impulse for it in me. We definitely have to do this regarding sin, but with temperance we must also practise it regarding things that aren’t wrong in themselves, but can be in the wrong quantity. 42

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‘Enough is as good as a feast.’ Thomas Malory.

Activity 1: Watch this video clip on temperance (2:48). It talks of the joy of having enough, and of sacrifice - not just giving something up, but doing it as a way of saying thank you to God for all the good things he has given us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2DKY1B-QNQ

Key Point

“The hardest victory is the victory over self.” Aristotle.

We are called to growth and relationship. ‘Things’ are only good for us when they help this: they are a means to an end. When things are used well, they give pleasure. When I focus on pleasure, I make things an end in themselves: I don’t grow or develop relationship and I don’t even enjoy the things so much. Step 3 Temperance actually frees us to be healthier, but also to be happier. We are not free if we cannot say no to something. Say you get addicted to chocolate, then you don’t actually enjoy it as much. The need for it seems to override the enjoyment of it. Temperance is about moderation then - through gaining self-control. This is especially true in the realm of nutrition and sexual impulses. Because our desire to stay alive and grow - as an individual and as a species - is very strong within us, then the desire for food, drink and sex can be very strong within us too. All of these drives are natural in their place, but need to be made good through truth, self-control and temperance. It is when they become dis-ordered that they cause destruction, make us unhappy and turn us into slaves. Activity 2: watch ‘Rab C. Nesbitt - Drink’ https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=anPSRo52vPc from the start to 3:50. Why do you think temperance is so difficult to master? What are some of the problems intemperance causes? Discuss. Step 4 The desires for food, drink and sex are at the heart of intemperance, but they are connected to any desire that leads to me feeling filled or alive: popularity, compliments, winning, friends on facebook, texts, looking good, getting grades and many more. All these can be good in themselves, but the desire for them also needs to be formed by truth, self-control and temperance. There are two simple tests to help you know if you are intemperate about anything: a) can you consistently say no to it? b) quantity or quality? Intemperance focuses on the external and on quantity - how much food? how many friends/texts? temperance frees us to focus on the internal and on quality and these are much more important. Which alternative does your life resemble more? Activity 3: Debate: Rules are boring. This module is boring. I don’t want to hurt anyone: I just want to have fun. Doing what you want, as much as you want, whenever you want, makes you happy.

Suggested Activities 1. Design a poster which aims to convince younger pupils at your school that ‘TEMPERANCE’ is good for them and something that will help them in their life and enable them to become happier. Use ideas from the lesson to help you. 2. If we feel good after eating 3 chocolates from a box why don’t we feel ten times as good if we eat the whole box of 30 chocolates? Discuss. 3. The ads tell us “If it feels good do it.” Why do you think it could sometimes be wrong to follow this advice? 4. How would it make you feel stronger and more free if you were able to say no to your impulses and instincts sometimes? Write down some examples to share with the class. 5. “Mastery over the moment is mastery over life”. Marie von Ebner. In around 100 words write a reflection on this quote giving your own viewpoint.

Summary We have lots of ‘concupiscent’ impulses for life that are potentially good. These need to be formed by truth and reason, and by good decisions over time. This is particularly true in regard to food, drink and sex. Temperance allows us to grow, and still enjoy the good things of life. Such temperance frees us to be happier, and to realise that I cannot find fulfilment in filling myself: I can only truly find it in God. 43

11g

Courage or Fortitude

Learning Objective To understand what the virtue of courage or fortitude is, and how it is important in standing up to adversity and others seeking to make me into something I am not.

Key Word Fortitude: The moral strength to stand up to pressures from culture and peers and to overcome our fears, especially the real fears of death and isolation.

“Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good.” CCC, n. 1808.

Step 1 “But if I don’t, I’ll be alone.” We might not actually put our fears into these exact words, but they lie behind so much angst we can feel when faced with so many decisions, that quickly become big dilemmas. We can feel pressured to do things we don’t want to do, or don’t feel ready for, yet. We can feel there are expectations out there that we ‘should’ meet. We can feel pressure to go against the inner voice of conscience.

Activity 1: Watch ‘Rosa Parks’ https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=FPvwKP8G4sA and discuss. Activity 2: Think/discuss - how we would react to certain pressures placed upon us from friends/peers/society: #1 pressures smoking, drinking, drugs, wearing shorter skirt, acting hard, swearing, going further sexually. #2 pressures from culture to make us think a certain way about abortion, euthanasia, cohabitation, possessions, greed. You may feel tempted to do some of these things yourself without any influence from anyone else. We thought through how to allow truth and reason to shape the desires we have, so that we can make good choices that lead us to be freer and not enslaved. This was part of the lessons on prudence and temperance. FORTITUDE/COURAGE comes into play when I haven’t so much got these desires as such, but feel external pressure to go along with things. Perhaps the biggest pressures we feel are peer pressure and pressure from our culture. We fear being isolated and not blending in with the crowd. Of being stared at or judged.

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“In the world you will have trouble, but be brave: I have conquered the world.” Jn. 16:33.

Step 2 Some fear is healthy. We fear a bull in a field or an escaped lion and fear is what we need then to keep us safe. If you have no fear of the unknown, or of travelling in the dark on your own, you might end up in real danger. Fear has its place, but again, we have to shape it by truth and reason. The trouble with fear is that if we are not careful it stays vague, and vague fear is almost always destructive.

“It always seems impossible until it is done.” Nelson Mandela.

Activity 3: What are some of your worst fears? Are they rational? Could you let go of them? Do they rule your life? We fear death, but perhaps on an even deeper level, we fear being alone. If we don’t deal with this fear it cripples us and leads us to doing all sorts of things we don’t want to do, and then you becoming a person you don’t want to become, because you are so scared of being rejected and alone. The fear of death is very rational, and a very important part of growing up and facing life is facing the truth that we all die. More than in the past we can go through so much of life not encountering death but it is not rational to simply decide I will not fear death. It is not rational to think I can stop it. It is rational to realise that, ultimately, I was not responsible for my existence, and so I am not ultimately responsible for my continued existence. I came from God, and only God can truly protect me from death. Of course, the most profound truth Jesus teaches us demands a lot of courage to believe: that we can’t avoid death, but rather conquer it by trusting God and loving others even through death - that is Resurrection. Step 3 Trusting God loves me uniquely and eternally means I never have to fear death, isolation or rejection. The only thing I’m left fearing is becoming a person who cannot receive God’s love, or anyone’s love. I don’t want to feel unlovable. And that takes us back to where we started: reason teaches me that it is who I am that makes me loveable by others, so although I might feel pressure to do things so that I am loved and accepted, actually if those things demean me as a person, they make it more likely that I will be alone, not less. FORTITUDE is a lot about being able to stand up to pressure to do what is wrong and, instead, to be who I truly am - to have integrity. Fortitude defeats panic, allowing reason to guide fear.

Summary We have deep fears, and like other emotions, we need to get in touch with them, but they are not good guides! Truth and reason help us to reflect on them and respond appropriately to them. Our biggest fears are of death, and of loneliness and rejection. Truth can help us respond to these, but the ultimate truth that God loves you completely and that his love is better than anything, is the surest foundation for being able to stand up to various pressures, and not be knocked off course by them or by adversity. “It’s the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live” (The Rose).

Suggested Activities 1. Make a summary of the 5 or 6 main points of the lesson. You can use a diagram/flow chart/pie chart/ bullet points or illustrations to do this. 2. Watch you tube “In Christ alone” https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=wNRFumI2ch0 Connect to the theme of today’s lesson. 3. “It always seems impossible until it is done”. Nelson Mandela. Think of a time in your life when this came true for you? Write a brief account and share with the class. 4. Work with a partner and come up with a top ten list of people who showed great fortitude in their lives. 5. Watch Eminem ‘Guilty Conscience’ https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Xbw_BxDwdjk up to 2.17 and mind map all the potential examples of fortitude that needed to be practised.

11h

The Gift of Human Life

Learning Objective To understand more the integration of love, life and joy, particularly in reference to cooperating in the gift of human life. It is this integration that enables us to grow as persons, not simply as individuals.

Key Words Unitive: joining together. In the sexual act this refers to the union of two persons becoming one body, rather than just the union of bodies. Procreative: The transmitting of human life, reproduction of the species, how babies are made! Contraception: ‘contra’ = against. Contraception seeks to stop human life resulting from the sexual act. Artificial Contraception includes the ‘hormonal Pill’, patch, condoms, etc. Natural Family Planning: Understanding and using a woman’s natural fertility cycle in the planning of the conception of children.

“The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. It has always been a source of great joy to them, even though it sometimes entails many difficulties and hardships.” Paul VI, Humanae Vitae n.1.

Step 1 Watch as an introduction: ‘Humanae Vitae’ (2:35) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnFo9t7YNUI On 25th July, 1968 Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical (letter) Humanae Vitae on the transmission of human life. It reaffirmed the Church’s unchanging teaching that the sexual act should be between spouses (husband and wife) and always be open to new life (the couple should not do anything to deliberately prevent conception). For many people, even in the Church, this seemed disastrous. Life was getting busier and busier. Since the invention of the “Pill”, contraception seemed easy and trouble free. Taking control of fertility seemed to empower people, especially women; to protect them from unwanted pregnancies; to protect their lives from being overwhelmed by large families; perhaps even from their life being affected by family size and expectations which they did not share with their husband. For men, too, the prospect of being able to separate sex from fatherhood looked like a positive thing. On the face of it, what was wrong with married couples sometimes using contraception? Step 2 Activity 2: Discuss: Does our culture see sex as needing to be given meaning by love? Perhaps that’s what it says, but are music videos interested in both? What about fashion? Pornography? Advertising? Is our culture guilty of saying one thing, and meaning another? “People who look for sex without love are lying, because the closeness of their bodies does not correspond to the closeness of their hearts.” YouCat 403 We now need to think through what we have dealt with in past modules: the objective and subjective. Every action has an objective and subjective dimension. If we forget the nutritional dimension of food (objective) and only 46

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love

Life-giving love.

focus on the tastes we enjoy (subjective) then we are likely to eat unhealthily. The atmosphere of a shared meal can be really special (subjective), but only if the food is edible (objective)! If I want to make you smile by giving you a box of chocolates (subjective), then firstly I need a box of chocolates (objective)! Step 3 The main thrust of the argument from Pope Paul VI was that it was wrong to separate the unitive (subjective) and procreative (objective) sexual dimensions of love. The spiritual gives meaning to the gift of one’s biological fertility - but only if the gift is made. Deliberately removing that gift removes the meaning of the act. This connects sex and procreation. We know we cannot justly separate procreating from the commitment to nurture the new person to maturity marriage - either. And, ultimately we only have two things to give: our time and our body. Marriage is a giving of our time to our spouse: we no longer live two separate lives, but a united one. Sex is a giving of our body to our spouse: we no longer live as two separate bodies, but as one. So marriage and sex are intimately connected too. So, reason helps us to see that marriage, sex and procreation form an organic whole. Paul VI also showed that the perceived benefits of contraception wouldn’t be borne out in reality. Instead, more than 50 years ago, in 1968, Paul VI talked about 4 main areas of disintegration: 1. There would be a general lowering of sexual standards in society, especially in the young who are more vulnerable. 2. There would be a general increase in the disregard for the physical and psychological well-being of women by men. 3. Governments would use family planning programmes for coercive purposes once contraception became widely available. 4. We would begin to treat our bodies as though they were objects or commodities. Activity 3: Watch Humanae Vitae, 50 years on… (4:40). The Church’s vision of marriage and sexuality is beautiful and inspiring, founded on a desire for all to be happy and fulfilled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GXTRqG01mo Step 4 At the age of 22, a woman’s natural fertility rate, per month, is around 25%, by 36 it is around 15%, and by 46 around 2%. This is one factor, among many, why couples sometimes find it hard to conceive naturally. When a couple fails to conceive, artificially replacing the sexual act with IVF can seem appealing and right to them. We are called, though, to be stewards of God’s creation, not to replace him. Instead, NaPro technology (natural procreative technology - it’s worth googling!) seeks to investigate, diagnose and heal the person’s, or couple’s, infertility - empowering them to be able to conceive naturally. These methods are more natural, less traumatic, much less expensive and more successful than IVF. This also keeps together the unitive and procreative dimensions of sex - procreation remains a personal act. IVF also raises real moral concerns with the discarding of unwanted or unused embryos. From the moment of conception all human life is sacred. It is not to be frozen, experimented on or destroyed. If you were conceived by IVF, it remains true that you were created by God out of love, and known by him from all eternity.

Suggested Activities 1. When we talk about desensitisation we sometimes refer to “The frog in the water effect”. What is this? 2. “Everything that makes a sexual encounter easy hastens at the same time its plunge into irrelevance.” Paul Ricoeur. Write an evaluation of this comment showing that you have considered more than one point of view. You should come to a conclusion. 3. Discuss whether contraception has truly liberated women, or actually made them more “available” and vulnerable to being used. 4. Research: The Pill can cause an abortion itself, without the woman knowing it. What percentage of known abortions are as a result of failed contraception? 5. A woman’s natural fertility reduces with age. What pressures are there on couples to delay having children. Why can this be more problematic for women?

Summary Our culture is so dominant, that the Church’s vision is rarely even allowed to be heard. Instead it is dismissed as negative, old fashioned and too difficult. However, the vision here is beautiful and life-giving, and depends only on reason. Faith may give deeper meaning to our fertility, but reason alone shows that marriage, sex and procreation are a unity. That unity is written on the human heart. The Church, like Paul VI, merely has the courage to stand up for that truth, even when it is hard and unpopular. No deep joy comes without hard work. If I don’t sell myself short or underestimate how precious I am, then I will realise how joyful goodness is, and what an amazing privilege we all have when God invites us to share in his infinite creativity. And God said, “Be fertile!” (Gen. 1:28) 47

11i

Stewards of Our Future

Learning Objective To understand that to be a person includes thinking in terms of our future, to understand yourself as a steward for those who follow us, to be a co-operator: this affects all our morality - how we treat ourselves, others and the planet.

Key Words Stewardship: the job of supervising or taking care of something that is not completely mine.

“What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?” Pope Francis, Laudato Si, n. 160.

Sustainable: causing little or no damage to the environment and therefore able to continue safely. Step 1 We have seen how to be a person includes understanding that I find my fulfilment in relationship, not in isolation; in gift of self, not merely in self. Ultimately this includes relationship with God, with every human person, and with all creation. History helps put us in touch with those who have gone before us, as does the understanding of the communion of saints. Social morality helps us to understand how we should live as community in society, here and now. However, we cannot think about the past and present without also thinking of the future: the future of our lives but also the lives of those who follow us. Pope Francis, in his recent encyclical Laudato Si, calls us to think about being stewards of the future. As 15/16 year olds you will hopefully have a long earthly future ahead - as well as an eternal future - but, even now, you are asked to think about those who come after you. This gives life a real sense of purpose and responsibility. Watch Cafod laudato si video from start to 3:17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Lz7dmn1eM Step 2 A key dimension of this is being stewards of the environment. We hear lots of discussion about global warming and climate change. What is not in dispute is that we are living in an unsustainable way. This is not primarily about any over-population of the earth, but the amount each of us is consuming. A European uses 10 times the resources of an African: we have to be challenged by that. The call to live more simply is a call to sustainability and good stewardship, as well as an invitation to live by what is truly important. Activity 1: What environmental issues are we facing? And what can we, here and now, do about them? Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrzbRZn5Ed4 Man v Earth Step 3 It is so easy to live my life as if it doesn’t affect others and the planet. It is so easy to live by what I want rather than what I need. It is so easy to remain oblivious to the effect this has on others. It is so hard to grasp that it damages us and others if we live like that. Activity 2. In groups, explore the above statements. Stewards or consumers? 48

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love

Step 4 This attitude helps us with more immediate moral decisions, that at first might not seem connected. Foetal screening is a good if it doesn’t endanger the baby and can lead to diagnosis of things that can now be safely treated in the womb. However, using it to find out if a baby is disabled, so that we can end their life, is not good stewardship. If we had a choice to conceive a completely healthy baby or a disabled one, then we would choose the former, but that is a million miles from thinking it is appropriate to abort this baby that exists, so as to conceive another one. That is about me and what I want. It is not about the baby. That doesn’t mean it is easy. It is about being willing to suffer for the good of another. Our lives are not all about us. One of the most fundamental spiritual mistakes we can make is to think that we own the world. We are tenants, entrusted with the responsibility of caring for it, but everything that we have and are is on loan. Our lives are not all about us. Bishop Robert Barron. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbbHaMTLrbg&feature=emb_logo Promised Land (3:23) then discuss. Frank raises concerns over the process of “fracking” and what it means for his community. What can we do as individuals in a corporate world? Where do multi-nationals get their power from? Activity 3: The Balloon debate: If all the culprits who destroy the environment were in a balloon with you, who would you kick out, and who would you allow to stay? Then discuss what we could do instead.

“Young people have a new ecological sensitivity and a generous spirit.” Pope Francis, Laudato Si, n. 209.

Suggested Activities 1. Design a poster for the school Parents and Teachers Association, showing the ecological damage being done to the earth, and the ways we can be good stewards of God’s creation for future generations. 2. Write an article for a newspaper about how you think living a simpler and less consumerist lifestyle might help the planet and also make people happier and less dissatisfied. 3. “The earth, our home, is beginning more and more to look like an immense pile of filth”. Pope Francis. Do you agree/disagree? Write a letter back to Pope Francis and explain your views and what you think the solution should be.

A recipe for sadness and loneliness.

Summary All good acts are good stewardship: they promote the person’s eternal, spiritual growth, the growth of others and the health of the environment. At the heart of them is the willingness to suffer so that others can be happy, rather than being willing for others to suffer so that I can be happy. Pope Francis’ call to be poor is actually a call to happiness, to freedom from unnecessary worries, and to create a better world for those who follow us.

11j

Forgiveness

Learning Objective To understand more the centrality of forgiveness in any human relationship: the fertility of mercy. Step 1 Activity 1 Watch this story of Maria Goretti (3:10). Discuss as a class, focusing on forgiveness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syBV_FR6LWI The story is still more incredible. One evening, in the pouring rain, Maria’s mother heard a knock at her door. It was Alessandro. Despite every fibre of her being screaming for revenge, she let him in when he asked. He asked her for forgiveness for killing her daughter, which happened two years after she had lost her husband too. Somehow she said yes; she forgave him. They attended Mass together the next day, receiving Holy Communion side by side. At the canonisation of Maria Goretti, when she was made a saint, in the front row at St Peter’s in Rome was her mother, her four living brothers and sisters, and Alessandro, Maria’s murderer.

“Bear with one another; forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same.” Col. 3:13.

Step 2 The more we have been forgiven, the more we are inclined to forgive. But it is important to be clear about what forgiveness is - and what it isn’t. Forgiveness is wanting the best for the other person. It is removing my hands from around their neck. In no way is it saying “it didn’t matter what you did”. The Cross of Jesus is the ultimate forgiveness. The Cross says two very powerful things: this is what you have done to me; and knowing this, I choose to forgive you. Seeing what sin does to God, to another and, yes, to myself spiritually, brings home the reality of it. This makes forgiveness all the more powerful. So when someone has hurt us deeply, one reason we find it hard to forgive is that we feel that by doing that I am saying it didn’t hurt; that it didn’t matter. This is not what forgiveness is. Often, to help forgiveness and healing for both sides, it is important for the one who has done wrong to see and understand something of the hurt they have caused. Activity 2: Read the story of the woman who was a sinner (Luke 7:36-50). What does this story teach us about forgiveness? Activity 3: Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieuU-vjzX0M (4:57). Activity 4: RESEARCH: What words of forgiveness does Jesus speak from the Cross … Read at https://www.biblegateway.com/ passage/?search=Luke+23&version=NIV read from v32-42 (Luke ch 23) • about his executioners? • the repentant thief? • about us today? Step 3 Forgiving others. So, it is important to acknowledge our guilt so that we can receive forgiveness, especially from God. If I spend all my time trying to convince God, myself and others that I should be found not guilty, then I will never be free. Having received forgiveness, I am in a much better position to forgive those who have hurt me.

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love

Forgiveness frees the spirit.

Forgiveness is a choice, not an emotion. If you wait until you feel like forgiving someone who has hurt you deeply, then you will probably be waiting a long, long time. We have spent a lot of time thinking how to shape our emotions through truth and reason, and forgiveness follows the same process. When we are hurt, we have to acknowledge that hurt within us, but then we are called to choose to forgive the other person. We cannot immediately control our emotions; we can control our choices. The first time I forgive someone, I can almost feel like a hypocrite, because I am saying the words ‘I forgive you’ when my feeling are saying exactly the opposite. That’s not being a hypocrite; that’s choosing to rise above your emotions. Forgiveness is a process too. When we are deeply hurt, we may genuinely forgive someone, but then sooner or later the hurt returns. We have to acknowledge that, when we have the time and space to do so, and then choose to forgive the person again. Slowly, step by step, the emotions lose their hold over us. An important truth: the first beneficiary of your forgiveness is you! Being unforgiving traps us and it actually gives the other person, or the bad that they have done, way too much power over us. Many people may love us but if we don’t forgive the person who has hurt us, it is the ‘video’ of them hurting us that plays back repeatedly in our minds; we rewind real or imagined conversations with them over and over. They dominate our thoughts much more than the people who love us. Why should I let that person have so much power over me? Similarly, regarding lesser hurts, I can forget the many good things a person has done and remember only the hurt they caused - until I forgive them. Forgiveness sets me free first of all. Step 4 Forgiveness doesn’t say ‘let’s forget it happened’: for big hurts, that is neither helpful nor possible; they have to be faced. If someone has really hurt you, they have severely damaged your relationship, and forgiveness means a willingness to start from where we are, not a pretending it never happened. Once we have reconciled, often the relationship can be deeper than before the hurt was caused: forgiveness can make things better than they were, but we still have to acknowledge where we are now. Trust has to be re-established. If someone has hurt us in the extreme, then forgiveness might mean wishing them well, but moving on from them. In the more ordinary hurts of everyday life, it is always good for the one forgiven to go out of their way to acknowledge the hurt they have done and seek restitution. All these things help us to understand what forgiveness really is, which makes it easier to forgive, but still not easy. We need God’s help in being able to do it. But when we do, it really does help us and others to grow.

Suggested Activities 1. In groups of 4 or 5 think of scenarios where forgiveness or lack of forgiveness can make a major difference to our lives. Share with the rest of the class or turn into role play. 2. Plan a text message to a pupil absent from today’s lesson and explain key points of the topic. 3. “To err is human, to forgive divine. All people commit sins and make mistakes. God forgives them, and people are acting in a godlike (divine) way when they forgive.” This saying is from “An Essay on Criticism,” by Alexander Pope. Do you agree/disagree with this quote? Write an evaluation in about 100 words showing you have considered more than one point of view. Finish with a conclusion.

“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive those in debt to us”. From a version of the Our Father.

Activity 5: Watch the video on Eva Kor (7:07), who forgave the people who tortured and experimented on her and killed her twin sister at Auschwitz. It is an amazing example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1vHQKc_JiM

Forgiveness often deepens our intimacy. 51

Conclusion: Forgiveness in Action This course has consistently encouraged appropriate sharing with parents, loved ones, teachers, priest, friends. It is too simple to think that every time you do that it will work well, but that doesn’t change the importance of wanting, and trying, to do that - even if we have to adapt accordingly. Sometimes the other person can respond so far from how they should that we have to back away. More usually, the other person can get it a bit wrong; maybe over-react, not truly listen, be too busy, give bad advice etc., but still I grow in learning how to share sensitively. Communication would still be hard if everyone else was perfect. It is made harder by the fact that they aren’t; but then neither are you. Coming to terms with the imperfections of those who should be there for us is difficult, but we can reach a peace about it, when we accept that each one of us is limited and dealing with our own struggles. And sometimes when we think someone is acting badly to us, it might be that they are not, but rather that we don’t like or don’t understand what they are doing. There is no replacement for key relationships in our lives. Sometimes we have to accept any one relationship isn’t happening, at least for now. But normally, we are called to persevere with those relationships and help to build them including through forgiveness and patience. And the biggest help to that, as with so much, is knowing how much God loves you, and is patient and forgiving with you. So the starting point of our response is always to want to be like God in love, and to accept his forgiveness for the times we have wanted to be like him in power - and so each of us enters into the communion of fertile persons. Finish by praying the Our Father, as a class - focusing especially on the commitment to forgiveness.

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love

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A Fertile Heart Receiving & Giving Creative Love Dear young person, If you don’t know how a car works, you’re not likely to be able to fix it. If you don’t know how crops grow, you’re not likely to be a great farmer. If you don’t understand a mobile phone, you’re not likely to get the most out of it. We have to understand what it is to be a human person, before we can really deal with how we should act. This booklet covers Y10 and 11, comprising ten modules each year. It gives a vision of what it is to be a human person, including our sexuality, which will help you to understand yourself more deeply, and therefore make better, more informed choices. At the heart of being a fertile person is the desire for relationship, the desire to grow, to give life and to help others to grow too. We call all these capacities within us our ‘spiritual fertility’. Family life and sexuality are a particularly amazing dimension of this fertility, and highlight the bond between relationship and growth. Y10 modules help us enter more deeply into the journey of self-discovery, by helping us trust that we are beautiful - in the true sense of the word - and loved. We then have to understand the truth of love which allows it to be truly personal. We also need to focus on being, and understand something of complementarity. All this allows us to understand our sexuality in relation to God and to others - helping us understand the beauty and joy of commitment, communication and family life. We then focus more, in Y11, on how we grow as persons in the seven key human virtues. Other modules deal with suffering, living in society, ecology and stewardship and finally, forgiveness. Enjoy the journey of self-discovery!

RRP £9.99 ISBN 978-1-7398407-9-2

9 781739 840792 Version 7 | September 2021