Y D I F M : Matthew 25:31-40

Lyn Pajk
Oct 4, 2017
2 min read

I’m not sure what the kids told you about our first session of Middle School YM, but if they told you that they didn’t do ANYTHING then you might want to have another conversation about it. Here is a quick synopsis:

The kids went to class and did an icebreaker about how EVERY human being is made in the image of Christ
We all then gathered in the Parish Social Hall where we watched a Power Point presentation that went to Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” and included inspirational quotes from people who have fought for justice and equality of all people (Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., the Dali Lama, Pope Francis, Saint John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln…)
We did an interactive prayer that even included a short guided meditation and a reading from Genesis chapter 1.
We learned about our theme for the year, “Keys to the Kingdom” and what that means.
The kids did 8 interactive stations that taught them about the 7 Principles of Catholic Social Teaching and along the way learned what Jesus, Saint John XXIII, Saint John Paul II, the Apostles, Pope Benedict, the Old Testament, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Pope Paul VI and Pope Francis all have to say about the dignity of the human person and what it means to live in a just society.
As the kids finished each station, they collected up different colored beads that were then used to make a “justice band” during final prayer where they made a pledge to be a voice for justice.
Hopefully they all came home with permanent marker on the fingers of their one hand. They were supposed to write Y D I F M (“You did it for me”) after they read Matthew 25:31-40 together as a reminder that they are now the hands of Jesus in the world.
We had a snack of trail mix that had 7 different ingredients in it