"Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses." Pope Paul VI.
The 7th grade Faith Formation program has been adapted this year to orient the hearts of these middle schoolers to a lived relationship with God and the importance of a life of discipleship. Rather than a traditional model of faith formation or catechesis which follows a classroom model with a teacher and a group of students, this model is about discipleship. A mentor instead of a teacher has been assigned to each group of 7th graders (groups divided by girls and boys) and that mentor walks with them and tries to model to them the life of a disciple.
This model follows the Biblical model that Jesus Christ himself laid out for us. Jesus had his 12 apostles who are some of the greatest saints of all time who went on to live a life of a disciple and evangelizer even after their discipler(Jesus) wasn't physically with them (of course they had the Eucharist but this could also apply to other disciples and disciples like Paul and Timothy). There is no point in Catechesis and learning about the faith if it does not turn into a lived RELATIONSHIP with Christ.
JESUS CHRIST breaks chains. He brings FREEDOM. He brings ABUNDANT LIFE.
We want all our parishioners at Ascension to live in this abundance.
Discipleship isn't a "program" but a way of life. The mentors are using a sort of "curriculum" to guide their students, but it is flexible and up to the mentor to shape how each of their meetings will look. To compare it to something more familiar, it is like a book study or Bible study!
Below is the curriculum/program they will be using mainly, but nights when the 7th graders meet could look like going through one of these videos or studies, just talking, going to Adoration, playing a game to build community, reading the Bible, or doing a service project together.