CCD First Year

Theme: God the Father communicates his love to us in the gifts of creation, in the coming among us of Jesus, and in the descent of the Holy Spirit.

Doctrine.

• Verbalize the basic conception of God as a loving Father who made and cares for us.
• Recognize signs of God's love in created things and in the mission of his Son, Jesus.
• Recognize Mary as the Mother of Jesus.
• Recognize the life of Christ as a model of our own discipleship.
• Know that prayer is talking to God.
• Know that Jesus suffered, died, and rose from the dead.
• Recognize God's presence among his people.

Scripture.

• The Creation Story (Genesis 1-2:25).
• The Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38).
• The Nativity (Luke 2:1-20).
• Passages about Jesus fulfilling his Father's will; the manner in which he showed love for others; i.e. the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:41-52) and stories of cures.
• The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13).
• The Women at the Tomb (Mark 16:1-8).
• Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).
• Recognize the Bible as the Word of God.

Prayer.

• Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, and Blessing Before Meals.
• Experience brief spontaneous prayer.
• Be at ease with praying aloud together as a group or class.
• Recite and/or sing selected communal prayers and responses from the Mass: Reading Responses, Sanctus, and Great Amen.

Worship and Sacraments.

• Recognize the church as God's special dwelling where his family worships together.
• Participate to a limited degree in the prayers and hymns of Mass.
• Point out certain objects in the church such as the altar, the tabernacle, the holy water font, as well as other important Christian objects like the Bible and crucifix.
• Recognize Sunday as the Day of the Lord, when his family gathers together for worship.
• Describe something of the significance of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost through verbal and/or artistic forms of creative expression.
• Know that Advent precedes Christmas and that Lent precedes Easter.

Moral Development.

• Be aware that each of us is a unique person created by God.
• Name signs of God's love in the world around us.
• Demonstrate a basic awareness of God's command of love through our behavior with others, either peers or adults.
• Demonstrate a basic awareness of the need to forgive and to request forgiveness.