CONNIE STEWART
Connie Stewart’s students learn the names of the seven Sacraments with the help of this simple sentence: Bears Can Eat Red Apples or Marshmallows.
Connie writes the sentence on the board on the first day of class and every class thereafter. She points out that the first letter of each word in the sentence is also the first letter of one of the Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony.
The sentence also helps students to remember and sort the Sacraments into types. Bears Can Eat (Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist) = Sacraments of Initiation, Red Apples (Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick) = Sacraments of Healing, and Or Marshmallows (Holy Orders and Matrimony) = Sacraments of Service.
Oftentimes, Connie uses pictures to reinforce the words of the sentence. Her students never forget the names of the Sacraments … as long as they remember the sentence!
Connie Stewart is a catechist at St. Teresa of Avila parish in Pittsburgh, PA.
This article was originally published on the Catechist Community blog in July 2012 as the winning Idea of the Month.
Photo by Marina Shatskih on Unsplash
