As part of an ongoing summer Youth Group Series, which I will post about in entirety...sometime... here are some ideas for a different type of prayer experience for your middle or high schoolers.
The topic for the evening was marriage. We talked about what Marriage is, what the Church teaches about it, and the battles it is facing in our current society. That led into a discussion on Vocations and what we are called to be by God. We ended the evening with these Vocation Prayer stations, which had a tactile (hands-on) element to them.
While the kids moved between stations, I played some music including:
And also Hold Us Together by Matt Maher
And a mash up of Your Grace is Enough & Here I am Lord by Matt Maher
There are printables at the end of the post of the instructions and prayer cards that were at each station.
This station focused on forgiveness- we have to forgive if we are going to follow God's plan for our Vocation. After the kids read the instructions and Scripture, they were invited to think about people and/or situations that they needed to forgive and let go of. For each act of forgiveness, they could untie one of these knots and move to another box. This activity was set at the feet of our Mary statue, which I though was appropriate for her role as "Undoer of knots."
This station was about petitions. I had trays of "sand" (I actually threw this together and used sugar instead) that the kids used to write their petitions about vocations in. Write, shake, gone. Kind of cool.
And this station was an opportunity for silent prayer. There was one main candle, and the kids lit an individual candle representing their hopes and prayers for their own vocation.
Here are the printable for the instructions, Scripture, and take home prayer cards:
Your students are so blessed to have you as their teacher/mentor. You always have such good and fun ideas! Thanks for posting the Matt Maher song. The lyrics are really appropriate for me right now, and I definitely feel uplifted after listening!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jamie!
DeleteThanks, these look great. I am teaching 7th graders and we are exploring different types of prayer, I think this is unique with special appeal to youth.
ReplyDeleteKatie,
ReplyDeleteI loved these ideas so much and adapted them to the topic of "Sin and Forgiveness". I put a card tent by the sand box that said "Scratch Them Away: write your sins in sand, ask forgiveness and erase them." By the colored sticky notes the tent card said "Cross it Off: write a note of how you intend to cross sin out of your life and live better." By the box of knots the card read: "Loose the Knots: Think about people you need to forgive. Untie a knot and let yourself forgive each one." And by the candles my card read: "Light the Way: Pray for people in the world who are caught in a life of sin." It turned out great and my 8th grade Religious Ed students were thoughtful and prayerful as they went to each station. Thank you for your wonderful ideas!