God Jesus Christ

Church Scripture

Year Level Focus

God’s creation is intended for ‘fullness of life’ (Jn 10:10).

Knowing and Understanding: Students will understand that God is always creating us, calling us to fullness of life. Inquiry and Communication: Students will recognise that wisdom is a continuous process of growing. Discernment and Making Connections: Students will open their minds to the wonders of God’s presence in creation.

Enduring Understandings • Jesus, through the

Incarnation, invites us to Fullness of life and responds to the needs of the world.

• We are all part of God’s creation, human beings are connected with all creatures, the natural world, the whole universe.

• The dignity of the human person is revealed in Christ.

• Growth in Christ involves many experiences of conversion of hear t.

Essential Questions • What prevents us from

experiencing the fullness of life?

• What helps us to experience the fullness of life?

• How can we respond to the needs of the world?

• What does it mean to have a conversion of hear t?

Year Level Focus

The Incarnation is Jesus, present in the world,

truly man and truly God. This is understood and portrayed in many ways in the rich histor y

of the Christian Tradition. Knowing and Understanding: Students will begin to understand the meaning of the Incarnation and Resurrection of Jesus. Inquiry and Communication: Students will reflect on how central teachings about Jesus (Incarnation and Resurrection) reveal who we are becoming. Discernment and Making Connections: Students will discover that in Jesus we see who we really are and who God really is.

Enduring Understandings • Christian faith offers

an inherent message of hope.

• The resurrection of Jesus is the hear t of the Christian faith.

• God totally and absolutely loves creation and enters into it fully.

• Incarnation and Resurrection are parts of a whole.

Essential Questions • Why does the divinity

of Jesus challenge and transform human concepts of God?

• Is Jesus fully human and divine?

• How does the Spirit guide us to be like Jesus?

Year Level Focus

Over it’s two thousand year histor y, the Church has

developed structures to live out its role in society.

Knowing and Understanding: Students will understand that God desires a world that is in right relationship: the Reign of God. Inquiry and Communication: Students will explore issues of justice, compassion and beauty. Discernment and Making Connections: Learning about God and engaging in God deepens our encounter with all creation.

Enduring Understandings • The Church’s structure is

hierarchical. Its purpose is to promote the coming of the Reign of God.

• The Reign of God means this world in right relationship: a world of truth, goodness and beauty.

• Christ is the Reign of God in person. In him we see truth, goodness and beauty.

• The Church is called to become the Body of Christ in the world not as its own project but as something that God does and gives.

• In Mary we see the clearest model of a free and faithful co-operation with God’s gift.

Essential Questions • What is the role of the

Church in promoting the Reign of God?

• What does it mean to describe the Church as the body of Christ?

• How is Mary a model for our lives?

Year Level Focus

Each of the Gospels inspires and challenges Christians to live God’s Word with

compassion, love and ser vice.

Knowing and Understanding: Students will begin to critically engage with key biblical texts. Inquiry and Communication: Students will critically reflect on the process of Biblical interpretation. Discernment and Making Connections: Students’ learning about and engagement with Scripture will move them to an encounter with God and everything in God.

Enduring Understandings • The Old Testament

prophets called the people of Israel to return to their covenant with God.

• The writings of Paul and Peter give particular insight into the message of Jesus and the life of the early faith community.

Essential Questions • Why is it helpful to

identify different types of truth when studying scripture?

• Why is the reader’s own perspective significant when interpreting scripture?

• Who has the last word on the meaning of scripture and why?

Year Nine and Year Ten

Sacraments Christian Prayer

Christian Life Religion & Society

Year Level Focus

The Eucharist occupies a unique place as Sacrament of Sacraments: all the other Sacraments are ordered to it

as their end. (St Thomas Aquinas)

Knowing and Understanding: Students will begin to understand that all Sacraments are fulfilled in the Eucharist which nourishes them to engage in the Christian quest for meaning and purpose. Inquiry and Communication: Students will begin to discern the complexity and interconnectedness of Sacraments. Discernment and Making Connections: Through the Sacraments God draws us ever more deeply into celebrating God’s joy.

Enduring Understandings • Eucharist celebrates the

paradox of giving and receiving (sacrifice).

• Matrimony celebrates freedom and commitment.

• Holy Orders celebrates the paradox of service and leadership.

Essential Questions • Why does the Church

teach us that Eucharist celebrates giving and receiving?

• What in marriage celebrates freedom and commitment and in the Sacrament of Holy Orders celebrates service and leadership?

• How are the Sacraments interconnected and why do they draw us into living God’s joy?

Year Level Focus

Christian prayer and spirituality draws on the experiences

and teachings of the spiritual writers from the Tradition.

Knowing and Understanding: Students will understand how God draws us into prayer through rich resources such as Scripture and spiritual traditions. Inquiry and Communication: Students will explore the rich traditions of Meditation and Lectio Divina (sacred reading). Discernment and Making Connections: Prayer is our way of opening to God’s love working in and through us.

Enduring Understandings • Prayer is about listening

for God’s presence through Scripture and Tradition.

• The Holy Spirit, which is God’s love active in us, enables us to respond with the same love.

• Prayer is always personal and at the same time deeply communal.

• Scripture is a rich source of prayer. Prayerful reading of the Scriptures leads us to discover and know ourselves more deeply and to develop our relationship with God.

Essential Questions • Why do we pray? • What does it mean for

prayer to be personal and communal?

• What can the scriptures help me to discover?

• How does the Holy Spirit illuminate Scripture and Tradition?

Year Level Focus

Christian Life is guided by Church teaching and conscience and inspired by

people of faith.

Knowing and Understanding: Students will begin to learn that freedom is a paradox of rights and responsibilities. Inquiry and Communication: Students will explore how rights and responsibilities grow with us, and are lived out by us in our relationship to the rest of society and creation as a whole. Discernment and Making Connections: Engaging with all creation enables us to deepen our encounter with God.

Enduring Understandings • Jesus’ teaching on holding

together rights and responsibilities for all of us is deeply counter- cultural.

• Jesus, as God among us, accepted death in order to set us free from our broken human condition.

• The human person experiences a range of emotions.The un- distortion of distorted emotions sets us free.

Essential Questions • How am I more than my

emotions? • Is the human person

more than what they desire?

• How is Jesus’ teaching on love counter cultural?

Year Level Focus

The church at the same time celebrates diversity yet seeks

unity amongst all people.

Knowing and Understanding Students explore how all peoples seek God. Inquiry and Communication: Students pose questions and explore the idea that religion is a response to the personal and communal desire for God. Students explore moral questions and issues. Students identify and seek clarification about the search for meaning, happiness and the nature of God. Discernment and Making Connections: Students weigh up and assess how the Church invites political authorities to measure their judgments against the inspired truth about God and humanity. Students explore ways that the Mystery of God is revealed through the community of faith in the Church.

Enduring Understandings: • The nature and role of

religion reflects human desire for God

• Religion is a system of individual and community responses to the mystery of God.

• The Catholic faith is a revelation of God.

Essential Questions • What is spirituality? • Is God acting through

people in the world today?

• How can we experience God through Sacred text?

Year Nine and Year Ten