Activities for Teaching the Sacrament of Holy Orders

For background and more information about teaching the Sacrament of Holy Orders, visit our article archives at catechist.com. Search on key words 'Holy Orders' and author 'Kate Ristow.'

• Create a poster with pictures of community helpers for primary-age students: a fireman, a nurse, a teacher, a crossing guard, the president, and so forth. Leave space for a photograph of your parish priest or an illustration of a priest taken from another source.
  
  After the students identify how each person helps the community, ask them who helps your parish to learn how to follow Jesus. Keep giving hints until the children identify the term “priest” or name your parish priest. Then talk about the different ways priests serve the community.
  
  Show pictures of Pope Benedict XVI and your local bishop. Briefly explain their roles. Tell the children that each of these men has received a special Sacrament called Holy Orders in which they promised to serve the Church and the People of God.
  
  
  

• Invite students to make a “Thank You, Father!” poster for your parish priest. Decide on a few images they want to draw on the poster to illustrate the many things the priest does in your parish. Be sure to have all students sign the poster.

• If your parish has one or more permanent deacons, invite one of them to visit your class to talk about his ministry and formation. This will work best if you work with students the week before the deacon’s visit to create a list of interview question. Encourage the deacon to keep his responses brief.

• Have older students work in small groups to identify the rewards and sacrifices they feel an individual choosing ordination would experience. Have each group compare its responses with the responses of the other groups.

• If you have a seminary in the area, invite a seminarian to visit your class to talk about his decision to seek the priesthood and the preparation involved. As an alternative, you might ask the Director of Formation at the seminary to recommend a newly ordained priest who may be available to speak to your class. Encourage the newly ordained to bring a video of his ordination to class to show and explain selected segments to the class.

• Work with students to create prayer petitions or an original prayer that you can e-mail or send via post to seminarians preparing for the priesthood to let these men know that you are praying for them. Have students create a cover letter explaining why they are sending their prayers. This outreach may result in your students—or your program—becoming “pen pals” with a seminarian and allow them to experience, vicariously, the stages a seminarian goes through on the way to ordination.

• Have older students learn more about your local bishop by locating his biography on your diocesan website. In most cases, students are also likely to find the bishop’s coat of arms, his motto, and an explanation of both. Follow up on this activity by having students write the bishop, telling him about their research and asking him to write back with a description of a typical day in the life of a bishop. Kids really have no idea what our bishops do! The kids might also do the same with your pastor. They’ll be surprised at all that is involved in being shepherd of your parish.

• Conclude any lesson on Holy Orders by reminding students that the primary sign in this Sacrament is the laying on of hands. Call attention to the fact that when we are confirmed, the bishop also lays his hands on us and prays that the gift of the Holy Spirit will be strengthened in us. Call students forward, one at a time, and extend your hands over their heads or place them on the students’ shoulders and pray, “(Name), may the Holy Spirit help you love and serve in Jesus’ name always.”