Catholic Review of: Jesus, The Way, The Truth, The Life Student Text

It's a workbook and a student text at the same time.  It has 22 units in 256 pages.  Unit topics are (God / There are Three Persons in one God / Creation / Human Dignity / Human Love / Two Personal Loving Communications / The Workplace / Human Sin / The Redeemer / Jesus Redeems Us / Who am I? /  How should I act? / Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth / In the Fullness of Time / Jesus the Prophet / Jesus the King / Jesus the Priest / The Church Carries on the Work of Jesus / A Call from God: Vocation / Death: A Meeting with Christ / The Commandments / Liturgical Articles)

 

Each unit has around 4 chapters while The Commandments unit has 11 chapters.  Each chapter starts with vocabulary defined for the student and bite sized portions of the chapters numbered making it easy to assign a day's worth of work at a time.  The student is directed to write in the text and answer questions, look up bible verses and reflect on the topic at hand.

 

My 7th grade daughter commented, "It explained topics I hadn't come across - for example why at baptism you're proclaimed as priest, prophet and king.  It made me open my bible to look up the stuff I was reading about.  Then I had to answer questions.  The questions made me think about it a little more than just reading the bible, but they weren't so in depth that  I to spend a lot of time thinking about the answers.  With most of the chapters, it had a little story of a saint or an example that pertained to the chapter.  I really liked that because it brought biblical concepts to real life and how they're used in every day circumstances.  It also had really cool stained glass pictures.  Since the chapters were a little longer than in Faith and Life, when the book covered a topic like Mary or Eucharist, it went in more depth to really explain it."

 

I had her highlight the most important parts and anything she had questions about in the text and we would discuss her highlights and her answers afterwards.  I did this in lieu of using the Teacher's Manual.  She found this exercise "really helpful to draw out the larger concepts" of the chapter.  It spurred some really excellent discussions for us and she found it helpful for her spiritual walk to reflect on her role in the family and the Church's vision of the dignity of the human person.

 

WARNING: There are discussions of topics like lust, pornography and masturbation.  I thought they were handled well, covered from a spiritual perspective and not overly dwelt upon.  I was happy to discuss these issues at my child's age in my own home.  Each parent will have to decide that for themselves, though and I thought some parents may be surprised by the inclusion of these topics.

 

 

You can purchase this item here.